Ecclesia Princeton
Ecclesia Princeton
Fountains: Life In The Spirit- Ian Graham: Fruit
Pastor Ian Graham looks at the fruit of the spirit and the invitation of God's goodness to grow good things in our lives.
Hello, welcome, good to see you. My name is Ian. I have the joy of working alongside some of the lovely folks you've seen up this way, and it's a joy to be together. I was really grateful that we didn't have to pivot with church today, so just been beautiful things happening as we gather and, obviously, as we scatter, and so it's a joy to be here. If you're new here, welcome. If somebody brought you here and dragged you here, we believe that God has ordained purposes for that. We're glad you're here, and if you're here all the time, it's always like those people get forgotten. It's such a joy to see you.
Speaker 1:David Brooks, in a famous New York Times article that became a precursor to a book on the subject, outlined the difference between resume virtues, which build a reputation and success for us, and eul. Resume virtues, which build a reputation and success for us, and eulogy virtues, which tell of the kind of person that we are. And the distinction that he's drawing is that resume virtues are the things we spend a lot of our energy and ambition on. We want to achieve these things and there's nothing wrong with those things, but eulogy virtues, if we're honest, are the things that we hope that people will say about us at our funeral the kind of character that we display, the kinds of people that we are, the things that we did for others, and this became the framing for a lot of bad commencement speeches. So my hope is that we don't go that direction today, but as a way of inviting us to explore how does God work in our lives to form virtue, his character, in us? We've been talking about the Holy Spirit, an extended series of teaching here at Ecclesia, and today we're going to focus on the virtues of the kingdom of God. What is God trying to imprint on our lives? And I think Brooks' invitation is one that invites us to see what God is doing.
Speaker 1:I'm going to read the extended quote from Brooks because it's beautiful writing. He says we all know that the eulogy virtues are more important than the resume ones, but our culture and our educational system spend more time teaching the skills and strategies you need for career success than the qualities you need to radiate that sort of inner light. Many of us are clearer on how to build an external career than on how to build inner character. He goes on. He says obviously hurting anybody and people seem to like you, you must be okay, but you live with an unconscious boredom, separated from the deepest meaning of life and the highest moral joys. Gradually, a humiliating gap opens between your actual self and your desired self, between you and those incandescent souls you sometimes meet.
Speaker 1:I turned 40 a couple of weeks ago, and so the idea of eulogy virtues became ever more pressing, ever so gently, and one of the questions I have been pondering in my life is what do I want to see grow? What has God been doing in me? I want to see grow what has God been doing in me? There's a recognition, first of all, of limits there. Right, the soil of my life and the scope of my life ever so slightly has narrowed. Right, the world is not my oyster anymore, as it is for many of you, you college students and you grad students and you high school students. We're so honored to have you in our midst, but for me, that scope is narrowing ever so slightly, and it brings with it a question of focus and what has God been doing in the past, and what is he wanting to do in the present? That then leads into the future?
Speaker 1:I've been asking myself this question what sort of eulogy virtues will God write within the story of my life and there's so many things as I entertain that question I think about what do I want to see grow that are so obvious. My life with my wife, our kids, we see them grow in Christ's likeness and serve him and follow him. This church, to see it become the embassy of the kingdom of God, that it should be a light shining on a hill. That is a joy for me and an expectation that God will continue to do these things. But I wonder, if you just were to borrow my question for a moment, what have you been pondering and sort of working towards? What do you want to see grow in your life?
Speaker 1:And for some of us that ambition is so on the surface, it's so obvious. We're just right there. We're like I know what this is, you know, I've been working for it every day, I am grinding every single moment to see this thing take root and to flourish. For the others of us, I wonder, we're just kind of aimlessly, meandering, living in such a way that's like, oh, maybe something will happen. What is our ambition for growth? My hope today, as we look at the virtues of the kingdom of God, we'll both see that this is an invitation to a grace that is beyond anything we can imagine, that God is going to produce in us a growth that is beyond anything we could achieve on our own. But I also hope that we will see that this won't happen without intention, that it won't happen without response on our part.
Speaker 1:And one of the fun games we play and I'm sure those of you who are parents you maybe have participated in this game at one time or another is you see your kids do things or you look at them and you start trying to pinpoint the origin of where that came from. So I've noticed recently my son Sullivan. He stands, like I do, just like slightly hunched over, not quite military grade, chest out, and he's been wrestling and he walks into these matches and he's just kind of standing there and I'm like Sully, sully, chest out, and it's a very funny thing to tell him to do something that you don't embody yourself. So I'm like I've been trying, like to myself what's up, man, how are we doing? But it's like it's so obvious how he stands is right for me. And you know, courtney and I will do this thing where at times our kids will be doing something, and most of the time this game is playful, but at other times it's accusatory, right? Those of you who are parents, you know what I mean. Your kid is doing something and they're looking and you're like I know where they got that from. Those Sullivan genes are strong, aren't they? Courtney's not here, so I'm going to really get in trouble.
Speaker 1:And it's an amazing thing to watch, and it makes sense right from a scientific DNA standpoint, the fact that our biological children look like us, and it even makes sense from a psychological standpoint the nurture, the context. They begin to act like us. But the thing that's so surprising is the subtleties that begin to present themselves in our kids where it's like that's not nurture, that's not nature, there's just something else going on here. And they start to act and present like us. And for most of us, we underestimate the way that God is wanting to display, within the confines of our life, his character, his virtue, who he is, through our lives, that he wants to imprint upon our lives in such a way, in the language of the scriptures, for us to be conformed to the image of Christ, in such a way that our lives would look like God's, that the eulogy virtues that are spoken over us would sound like the scriptures, and today, as we focus on the fruit of the Spirit, my hope is that we will see that God is wanting to bring these things to flourishing and to bear in our lives.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of talk in our culture about Christians having power and this has become a more pertinent political topic over the last several years Having influence and access and having their hands on the levers of authority. And so often the promises are like if you follow me, if you come with me, I'll give you access to the places of power. But if you notice, those promises never entail making us more Christ-like. They promise us the product, the end point of, maybe some of the kingdom promises. We could dispute that, but it's never. Hey, I'm going to make you more loving, more generous, more joyful, more peaceful, more patient, and for us as the people of God, we're going to talk about the power that comes with the Holy Spirit next week, but for this week, my hope is that this serves as a precursor, that the exhibition of God's power in our world is never removed from the deep well of God's character formation that he's doing in us.
Speaker 1:In other words, jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life. And so often we try to apprehend the Jesus truth and the Jesus life without the Jesus way. And God has called us to live as fully formed, flourishing human beings in his image in the midst of all three, and so we reject any calls to the Jesus truth or the Jesus life that don't look like the Jesus way. And God in Galatians, chapter 5, is inviting us to glimpse what the Jesus way looks like, and I invite you to turn over there. Galatians, chapter 5, will begin in verse 16. The words will also be on the screen for you. I'm going to read from the NRSV and let's read it together Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh, for what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to prevent you from doing what you want.
Speaker 1:But if you are led by the Spirit, you're not subject to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to prevent you from doing what you want, but if you are led by the Spirit, you're not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and things like these. I'm warning you, as I warned you before, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things, and those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
Speaker 1:I'm going to walk through that passage in a way that we don't always do here at Ecclesia, but we're going to do some exposition today, so we'll start here in verse 16. Paul tells us in verse 16, live by the Spirit. I prefer the NIV's translation here. I just read to you from a different translation, but I think what's going on here is much more reflective of what the NIV's translation here I just read to you from a different translation, but I think what's going on here is much more reflective of what the NIV captures Instead of the NRSVs do not gratify the desires of the flesh. That's an imperative right. That's commanding. The NIV features a result clause and it's basically Paul saying if you live by the Spirit, then or therefore you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And it's basically Paul saying God is loving, god is joyful.
Speaker 1:The vision of the Christian life is not simply that we would get insight into better regulations, better laws to live by, or that we would have a fuller, more rounded out story of the world, or that living in a certain way would guarantee us success in all of the earthly metrics. The promise of the Christian life is that our lives would be united to God's, that our very DNA would be formed by God's presence, his character. Theologians call this union with God, and Paul here is contrasting two different natures, two different ways. And there's a lot of talk in this passage about walking, and the rabbis throughout the scriptures would often reflect on what it meant to walk in the way of God. You've heard the commandment do not take the name of the Lord in vain. Well, that's actually not about swearing or saying God's name in the wrong part of a sentence. It's about carrying God's name in the wrong part of a sentence. It's about carrying God's name in vain. Again, the Jesus life, the Jesus truth, looks like the Jesus way. Do not do things in the name of God that don't look like God, and Paul here is talking about two different natures and contrasting them.
Speaker 1:Look in verse 17. He offers us the first of these natures, for what the flesh desires is opposed to the spirit, and what the spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to prevent you from doing what you want. Now, it's an important distinction, but it's one I like to make often. What Paul is not saying here and it's important he's not saying this is that all desire is bad. He's not saying to you that every desire that you have is bad. He's describing the flesh in the Greek, the sarx, and that doesn't mean like that which is embodied, that which is physical.
Speaker 1:The flesh, for Paul, is our heart, soul, mind and strength, that which the greatest commandment tells us should be devoted to God, offered in slave to sin. Romans 6, verse 16. He says Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? The desires of the flesh lead us to this old spiral, this treadmill of enslavement, all over again, because we are given that which is rightfully God's to things that are less than God, and those things in turn make us less than ourselves. But when we give those things to God in fullness, make us less than ourselves. But when we give those things to God in fullness, he brings us into the fullness of who he made us to be.
Speaker 1:We were made in the image of God, and one of the truest things about us and this is why all desires are not in and of themselves bad is that there is a deep and true part of us that longs for God. And this is true. And so many people try to pursue and to achieve that deep desire, that aching hunger, with all of these less than distorted measures. But the fact is that in all of these endeavors we are expressing that we want God, that we have been made by him. He is the creator of all the world, psalm 24,. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. God made every single one of us and he made us with this instinct, this desire, to long after him. And, as we see in the story, we take that desire and try to manipulate it and to control it and put it in all sorts of places that will not hold it, and this leads to what we see in places like Genesis 3 or what Paul is describing here in Romans 6.
Speaker 1:Slavery, brokenness, fall. The psalmist reminds us that the deep things of God call to the deepest fountains of our soul and we receive a life that is not given over to slavery, to the flesh, to the desires of the flesh. Because of what Jesus has done in his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his pouring out of his spirit, god has given us access to a freedom to break free from the cycles of addiction and enslavement and idolatry in order to encounter the living God. Paul says this in verse 18 of Galatians 5, if you are led by the spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now Paul is referencing a specific law here in Galatians, chapter 5. For Paul's present point, we've dropped into the middle of Galatians and really the end.
Speaker 1:Many well-meaning Jewish Christians in the context of the Galatian church, and it's always helpful for us to remember these letters were not written to esoteric floating bodies of eternal truths, and these were written to people like you and I, people that were gathered in a room, people with complex realities that they had just emerged from, with deep senses of shame, with stories that they carried in, with a wider political and contextual story, all of this stuff gathered into a room, and Paul writes letters to gatherings like this one, inspired by the Spirit of God, and so it's a different context, but it's not all that different. And for the people in Galatia, there were many well-meaning, I think, jewish Christians who had heard the good news of Jesus and they had submitted their lives to that truth. But for them, the most logical outcome of what Jesus had done was for them to call all the world to submit to Jesus as the Messiah and to become ethnically Jewish and to exhibit the markers of the people of God that were present in that first century culture, and there's two main ones that were predominant. First was the covenant of circumcision, that all males would be circumcised, signifying that they were a part of the covenant people of God. The second, and which is more viable for the day-to-day reality of the lives of the Christians here in Galatia, was who they would eat with and what they would eat. Kosher laws dictated that Jewish Christians good faithful Jews in this time, excuse me would not eat with certain people and would not eat certain foods, and so this would limit their table fellowship.
Speaker 1:We see this earlier in Galatians. Paul comes to the church, he sees that Peter one of Jesus's closest disciples and friends. When Peter sees Jewish Christian leaders coming from Jerusalem, peter would shrink back and revert to his old ways. Instead of eating and sharing fellowship around the table with Gentile Christians, as this new story that Jesus had lived out had invited him to do, he would revert back to eating where it was comfortable with Jewish Christians. And Paul says I oppose Peter to his face because he's undermining the very fabric of the gospel. Pose Peter to his face because he's undermining the very fabric of the gospel.
Speaker 1:And what we see here is that, at a collective level, is insight into what God is doing in us. At an individual level Is that Jesus's life, death, resurrection, has brought about a new humanity, a people from every tongue, tribe and nation. In the context of first century Galatia, jew and Gentile are coming together In the context of this church environment right now we have people from different cultural backgrounds and it's an incredible thing to witness what God's Spirit does in forming us into a people, a Mosaic people, representative of His eternal body. But, as we see in Galatians and as we see in our own life. It's actually hard to live together. It's hard for us with our cultural assumptions and expectations. It's hard for us with the woundedness that sometimes our ethnicities carry, and to see all of this put together in what God is doing in the world. It's a difficult thing, and the good news about the scriptures is they're completely honest about that. They never move past that in a hurry. They're like, hey, this is going to be hard, it will take God's spirit for you to be able to even glimpse it. And so we see this here in Galatians. And so the law that these people are not subject to is the Jewish law, specifically and specifically the badges of covenant membership, which would be circumcision, and the food laws.
Speaker 1:Paul says and what he does here with this list, this list that I sort of read off in like super fast fashion is he's trying to say, hey, it's not just pagan immorality that's present here, it's all the ways that we try to achieve a life for God on our own. Is he's trying to say, hey, it's not just pagan immorality that's present here, it's all the ways that we try to achieve a life for God on our own? So he goes on in Galatians 5, verse 19. He says now, the works of the flesh are obvious Sexual immorality, impurity. These would have been for the Jewish person in the first century. These would have been common critiques of pagan morality. Hey, they're sexually immoral, they're not serving God. We're the people of the one true God.
Speaker 1:He goes on. Debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and things like these. I'm warning you, as I warned you before, those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So Paul lists this wide array of works of the flesh. His list is long and varied. It's not exhaustive. He's not saying these are the only bad things that you could do right. And if you somehow avoided doing all of those things? Like, deep sigh of relief, anybody in here just feeling great about themselves right now, like he didn't mention that one thing that I do right? No, we're all implicated in some way.
Speaker 1:And Paul says there's judgment if we persist solely in the ways of the flesh. But here he's just trying to say, hey, all of us have been a part of that story, that previous story, that previous way of being human, in the default operating system of our flesh, in enslavement to sin. But now we have been invited into a new story. The works of the flesh are any attempt to secure a fullness of life on our own, are any attempt to secure a fullness of life on our own? They're using our heart, our soul, our mind and strength not for God, as they were intended, but for self, and using them thus only distorts the self, creating a shadow self or a false self. All the works of the flesh are about the way that we feel about ourselves, about God and about our neighbors, whether we try to define physical pleasure as the ultimate reality or we try to medicate ourselves against reality.
Speaker 1:Whether God can be trusted or we must manipulate him, and this is what sorcery is. I know most of you are like, hey, I haven't been cracking open any Harry Potter books and trying to make things fly. I'm probably clear on that one. But sorcery is about manipulating God. The prosperity gospel has a lot of these kind of intonations where it's like, if you just pray the right prayers, then God's going to do these things for you. It's like, oh, this is magic right, going to do these things for you. It's like, oh, this is magic right. And so for us? How do we begin to see the works of the flesh arrayed against the purposes and presence of God. Paul talks about jealousy, envy, factions, divisions, and again it's. Can God be trusted? Can I trust that the meek really inherit the earth, that I can live my life in such a way that I don't need to dehumanize others or objectify them and talk about them and present myself against them, and I can trust that God is working through my life?
Speaker 1:Robert Mulholland writes Our false self, having removed the roots of our identity, meaning, value and purpose from loving union with God, sinks those roots into multiple alternative soils where we seek to find our identity, meaning, value and purpose. Among such soils are our sexuality, our possessions, our status, our performances, our relationships, our well-roundedness, our resentments, our bitterness, our culture, our ethnicity, our place geographical, emotional, psychological that's go birds Our intellect, our education ad infinitum. Our false self has constructed a complex nexus of soils in which the roots of our very being are grounded, in which the roots of our very being are grounded, and I think what happens for so many of us when we encounter a list like the one we just read about, all these ways that we get it wrong, is it just kind of leaves us in our shame? You may say I don't want to participate in sexual immorality. In fact, I've tried. I've tried covenant eyes, I've tried being pure. The Greek word here is porneia, where we get our word for pornography. But really it entails a wide spectrum of sexual immorality, from fornication, sex outside of marriage to sex with temple prostitutes, which was a fairly common practice. You may be saying I don't want to be jealous, but I open an app and I see this person who's got this great life and I wonder like why won't God do that for me? Why isn't my life that easy? And like, secretly, you're hating them the whole time and you're hoping that their life falls apart.
Speaker 1:I think it's common for us to read this list and to feel hopeless, almost like it's just this commentary on this is what humanity looks like. That's not what's going on here. Paul's not saying you know, it is what it is, good luck. He's reminding us of what we've come from. If you read this list and you feel a sense of hopelessness, that's not the end point, that's not where you're supposed to land, but it is a feature. Like we are hopeless without a Savior, we are hopeless without God. But I've got good news for you, ecclesia it's that God himself has come to us, that God himself has come to save us, that God loves us more than we love ourselves, that God is not leaving us in our hopelessness, not leaving us in our backwards ways, in our distortions. God has come to us in fullness in Jesus of Nazareth and said here am I, put your burdens on me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Yes, we need a savior, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Yes, we need a Savior, and Jesus has come.
Speaker 1:Colossians 1. I love this passage. I've put together just two different sections of verses. He says in Colossians 1, he has rescued us, that being Jesus, from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. There's like a whole movement happening here. No longer are we over here in the kingdom of darkness. God has literally taken up our roots and planted them in new soil In whom, in Jesus, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Speaker 1:Yes, you may find yourself on that list of works of the flesh. Good news God has forgiven all of it and more. Verse 21,. And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, that being all of us doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him. If the flesh was the place of our rebellion against God, god has come to that place to redeem us from all sin. He has rescued us there in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth, given to us in the incarnation to see his joy and sharing fellowship around the table, and given for us on the cross. This is who God is, and so, yes, if you read that list of works of the flesh, you're like that's me. God has said, maybe, but I have done more on your behalf. There is more for you.
Speaker 1:By contrast, paul says in Galatians 5, the works of the flesh are not definitive for us because we are not left to our own devices. God has come to us. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things, and those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions.
Speaker 1:Have you ever met somebody that embodied this list? Have you ever encountered somebody like that? It's worth pondering. It is a wonder to encounter somebody that's so deeply at peace, so loving, so generous, and at first you're sort of taken aback by their presence. You're like, wow, that's almost too much. But then, as you persist, as you get to know a little bit of their story, their history, the wellspring of the power from which they draw, you're like that that is attractive beyond anything physical beauty has ever attained.
Speaker 1:There's something there that beckons to us and I know I see this list and I'm like for me, as I've been reflecting on this, I'm like come on, lord, do it in me, keep going For the sake of my family, for the sake of this place, this place that I have been designed to live, for the sake of this church, for the sake of this community, this city. Lord, do it in me, lord. And this is what God is doing. I know we're sitting there with all of our contradiction, with all of our self-awareness. We're like that's for other people. But God is making you into a saint. He's imprinting his virtue into your life. He is faithful Even when we are faithless. He will do this because that's who he is.
Speaker 1:And as I've been reflecting on these fruit of the Spirit these past several weeks, a couple of things have been sticking out to me. First, the agrarian. The gardening metaphor is so powerful in declaring to us what the process for these beautiful things to take root in us actually looks like. Okay, so just imagine with me you want to have a garden, and maybe we'll talk about it after church. Hey, pastor, I'd really like to grow a garden. Let me tell you what I'm not going to tell you to do Cool, cool, cool, great, excellent. Here's what you should do Just pray, just pray. Start praying now, you know, because we really want those fruit to grow, like in the summertime, when the harvest comes. And so just start praying about that garden, just pray that when August comes tomato season, maybe some strawberries in July you're just praying like Lord, come on, bring me that garden, god, make it happen. No, if you tell me today that you want to grow a garden, we can start with thanksgiving for the abundance of God's provision and the goodness of how he shows himself in the stuff of the world. But I'm going to tell you pastorally hey, start clearing some ground, start getting to work Like. Start building some fences, because the deer will really like what you grow. Start building some raised beds. Start doing some research. What grows in New Jersey? Don't plant mangoes.
Speaker 1:But the reality is, for many of us. Our expectation of God is not coupled with an expectation of ourselves. The world is grounded in goodness. It is an abundant goodness. The sun comes up every day and it often comes up in an array of colors and a palette that is beyond words, like God is just saying. The heavens are declaring the goodness of the glory of God. That's happening, but for many of us, god is also inviting us, within the confines of that goodness, to say here I am, lord, send me. And when we talk about the fruit of the Spirit, we're talking about God's presence, his imprint, his character, his virtues, poured out to those who say yes to Him. He will not force this upon us, and that's why the gardening metaphor is so powerful, because it calls us, as we were called in the beginning, to be co-cultivators of the world with God. And it just so turns out that the world we cultivate not only is the world externally to us, but the world that exists right here in the center of our chest. We have been called to respond when it comes to the fruit of the Spirit. In our union with God, we cultivate the soil of our lives for good things to grow.
Speaker 1:If you were just to take an assessment of your own habits. There's actually no condemnation wrapped up in this at all. How many of your habits, would you say, are cultivating the soil for good things? And here's the good news the life of Jesus of Nazareth shows you that a lot of habits that you would not think are holy actually are. You eat meals. Well, the incarnate son says blessed are you who eat and who welcome others to your table, who cook food. So you see what I'm getting at here, right, like we can be a little bit strict on our own selves about what's godly, what's holy and what's over.
Speaker 1:Here. The incarnation of Jesus shows us that every moment is holy, that every bush is burning with the glory and the presence of God that those who pay attention begin to see. But how many of us are cultivating that kind of attention? Nothing ever grows in God's kingdom without the presence of God's word. His word is the seed that falls to the earth to produce a harvest. His word will not return void. His word is the language of the spirit, the chords of the music of heaven that he arranges and modulates in our life. How are we cultivating good things? And the beautiful thing is the path to being a saint. There's so many ways to get there. God walks all of them with us. How are we cultivating goodness in our lives so that these fruit may grow? Second, any talk of fruit is talk of patience, which is talk of trust. Not a single one of us, not the most skilled gardener in here, could take a seed today and produce a fruit this evening. Fruit takes time and it takes trust.
Speaker 1:Now, if I told you today, if my pastoral application for you as you go out of these doors today was okay, we've seen that God's character is love, joy, peace, patience, all the other things. Now you go and be more loving, be more joyful, be more patient. For some of you, you have the strength of character, like the temperament, where you might be able to do this for like a week. You're like I'm going to be the most loving person here. I'm going to be insufferably loving, I'm going to be the most joyful person at the Super Bowl party.
Speaker 1:For most of us, us mere moral mortals, it lasts about like even I remember I was pulling up the David Brooks article that put into this and, like New York Times, the safari interaction was not happening well, it was taking a long time to load. I was like come on, what's it? This is like we got Wi-Fi, we got like high-speed internet and here I am trying to load this thing for like the 10th time, just you know, exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit in my own daily life with God. We read this list. You know all these fruit of the Spirit. We think these are the achievements of spiritual masters, these are the people that are beyond us. But that's not what's going on here. What Paul is trying to get us to see is that these are the exhibitions of God's character. God is loving, god is joyful, god is patient, god is peaceful. God is kind, god is generous, god is faithful, god is gentle. God is self-controlled and he's called us by the power of his spirit to be like him. And he will not fail to prune our lives, to grow good things in us, if we will put down our false selves and we will trust him.
Speaker 1:I'm going to invite the worship team forward here this morning. Paul tells us how do we begin to walk this path Verse 25 of Galatians, chapter 5. He says if we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. The image here is of getting in step with the Spirit of God and there's both a testimony, a promise there and an invitation. The testimony and the promise is that we can actually live by the Spirit, that God's Spirit doesn't live here or doesn't live in the other churches that are here in our midst. God's Spirit lives, as Matt said, within the confines of our hearts. That in and of itself is an incredible grace. That God has purified the temple of our lives and taken up residence and built his throne there. We can live by the Spirit and the image here is of getting in step with the Spirit, almost like rhythm, like cadence. Eugene Peterson talks about the rhythms of grace, translating the Psalms, that we can get in step with what God is doing. When the band fires up in just a minute, they will set a tempo for the melodies and harmonies to exist upon, and God, by His Spirit, by the story that he's invited us to live, has set a tempo and for us paying attention, leaning in and listening to the rhythms of grace and allowing God to bring us into his step and to trust.
Speaker 1:You know, again we talked about you couldn't take a seed today and be like, okay, by this evening you'll have something flourishing and beautiful and desirable. What's the distance between here, where we are right now, where you sit, with all of your contradiction, with all of your sense of self-awareness that you are not what you should be, that you're not what you want to be, and this vision of a life that is fully formed by the power and presence of God. What's the distance between that Daily life? Daily life, it's obedience, it's trust that you, by listening to God here in the micro, will see the macro of his eternal glory. Not only do you see it, behold it with your eyes, but it will be brought to life in you. That the distance between here and the glory of heaven is every single day, saying here I am, lord, make me the kind of soil on which good things grow. Purify my life. God prunes, he weeds, he made a world with weeds. He's not surprised that we have to get our hands dirty and to purify and to get rid of things. That's who God is. He's the master gardener. And Jesus says that when we abide with him, it is to his Father's glory and it is to our great joy that we would bear fruit. He is faithful, ecclesia, and I stand before you, not as a master from the other side saying look at what he's done, but as a fellow pilgrim saying Lord, do it in me, and it starts with a willing heart.
Speaker 1:We've been praying as we close each sermon, just welcoming, acknowledging the presence of the Holy Spirit. I want to do that here today. Holy Spirit, come, god, remind us that you've accomplished atonement for us by your suffering, by your death, and, lord, you are not one unaccustomed to our weakness, god. In fact, you bear witness through our weakness, you bear witness through our weakness and that, god, somehow in the midst of our trials, god of our failures, god, there is a beautiful exchange that is happening by our union with Christ and the power of the Spirit. In our weaknesses, we are displaying God's glory. God, remind us who we are here today, lord, there are those who hear my voice, god, who have never trusted you to be the soil of their lives, god, lord, they planted shallow roots and things that are not inherently bad, god are but are simply works of the flesh, trying to achieve that eternal hunger with the things of this world, trying to build a kingdom and a life for ourselves, god, when what's on offer to us is the deep rudeness of life with you, a life that will never end, a life that will never falter to plague or famine, god, a life that is held secure by your presence, by what you've done in Jesus. And so, god, for many of us to get in step with the Spirit today, the first step is to say yes to you, and in just a moment we're going to give people an opportunity to do that, to just say I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds me now and I want to give my life to him. We pray, welcome the Holy Spirit, god.
Speaker 1:For others of us in here, god, the distance between those two lists, the list of the works of the flesh and the good fruit of your spirit, god, the distance just feels like shame and shortcoming and false starts. God, or we've started with you and then we've stopped, or the sorts of soils that Jesus describes when he talks about how the word falls, and that often just leaves us in a place of disintegrity and shame. God, we think, oh, you won't even believe me this time, because I've started 10 other times, or I've said yes to you 15 other times and fallen short. God, I pray that you would give us a vision here, lord, of a flourishing garden. God, in the mind of our spirit here, right now, as our eyes are closed, jesus, god, that your spirit would work in the confines of our hearts to give us a vision of your end, god, your telos, god, that which you have given your life for to bring us to full fullness. God, flourishing Jesus, and that we could trust you to take another step now.
Speaker 1:So, god, there are many of those in here today that are mired in shame. God, lord, would you help us, god, to pick up life with you, lord. Lastly, god, there are those just trying to put down the works of the flesh, god, and even now, feeling that distance between our own experience of ourselves and what you ask of us, lord, and just need a word of forgiveness. Lord, the scriptures remind us that we confess our sins. You are faithful and just. Paul tells us in Galatians 5 that we have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Lord, you did that on Calvary, once and for all, and as we say yes to you, god, we are cleansed from all sin and unrighteousness, lord Jesus. So would you do a work of healing in this place, a work of pruning, god, so that we could be the kind of people that bear the fruit of your character and your kingdom. Jesus, we pray all these things in your name, in the beautiful name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We pray Ecclesia. I'm going to invite you to.