Fruit of the Holy Spirit

Pastor Randall Barkman

Holy Spirit • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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Sermon time short due to surprise special music guest. Short sermonette on walking in the Spirit producing fruit because Holy Spirit is in our life. This fruit helps us make good and godly decisions

Notes

Transcript

Choices; Actively Listening and Walking in the Spirit

Introduction

Many Christian people confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. Yet they neither live a crucified life nor follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 2:20-21 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”or Romans 6:1-4 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” So with sin, let’s put it to death as we are no longer slaves to sin. As Paul suggests lets put off sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and thing like these. These are showing you and the world you are not spiritual and what comes from you is death not spiritual life. Carnal and weapons of warfare not spiritual weapons that can actually change situations and things for the better. Those who are carnal use the fruit of the flesh to accomplish fixing problems in the flesh. It is like a furnace of trouble, adding more and more weapons of carnal worldly remedies instead of turning to God. No these people will not hear of it. For what ever reason they need to be seen as right and justified to fight tooth for tooth, instead of seeking Gods will and advice from Holy Spirit. if Warfare is necessary, then that weapons of our warfare are spiritual from and approved by God. Let us see a bit more info on how to be spiritual in the face of adversity and tragedy. By Gods Grace extended to us, who are washed in the Blood of the Lamb of God, By Holy Spirit help, we can live in mercy and love, making godly decisions that honor God. We can examine Galatians 5 determining that the fruit from our lives either is good spiritual fruit producing godly life and godly decisions or carnal fruit producing death and very bad decisions.

Galatians 5:19–26 (ESV)

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

As we do life and go about just putting one foot in front of the other at times, running with all our might at other times, everyday we are filled with the breath of God. We, His Children are full of His life that brings us alive in Jesus and open to Holy Spirit leading us in our life. We are equipped to walk in Christ Jesus to learn from Holy Spirit all we need to learn from scripture. These same scriptures are brought to life for us and speak into our spirit man as Holy Spirit creates a fertile learning environment for us. I am personally blown away by the way Holy Spirit creates sermons in my heart when it is time to write them. Holy Spirit gives the theme and topic, lets me research, then brings the words in a way that just flows from my spirit man. The whole process to me is a miracle each week. I don’t believe I am that creative, unless the Holy Spirit leads me in the process. I learn so much in the process. The key here is making right choices in investing in time with Jesus and Holy Spirit during the week and developing a heart sensitive to God and his ways. Spending intimate time with Holy Spirit hearing instructions from Jesus or prayers generated to pray to Father God. These times produce a spiritual mindset fertile with an ability to learn, contemplate and put into action Godly choices and Godly learning.

Choices

We are confronted in life and have to make decisions everyday that will have an affect on our now and future. Being prepared by our life in Jesus and tutored by Holy Spirit allows us to have a great chance at making Godly decisions, a.k.a. good choices. In life, spiritual growth is measured according to Gods Holy Word. As we have stated so many times, the Church has a Standard of Truth, The Holy Bible. We hold to the Biblical truth as our guideline in all things. If we use this as our measuring rule , we will not be intimidated by people or circumstances. We will proceed in faith as Gods Word and Holy Spirit directs us. Our compass is the truth of Gods Holy Word. So our course will be true. Holy Spirit will then show where we are in our growth by having a conversation with us in the Word of God. The process may go like this, One of the scripture passages is Galatians 5 and he will ask us to read the passage and think about it, read it again and meditate on it a bit longer than before. Perhaps asking are you exhibiting any fruit of the Spirit. usually we eagerly speak out" yes"and we name them. We really feel good doing it. We are growing in the Spirit with joy and glee! Then usually after the honey comes the medicine in a probing question, “do you exhibit anyp fruit of the flesh? Then Holy Spirit points it out with us arguing or agreeing. Spiritual ‘weeding’ correction is about take place. It is painful only in how much you love the error of your ways. Holy Spirit illuminates certain words to us and they ring in our spirit to be weeded out of our lifestyles and God Word takes root. We get to change our lifestyle, resulting in our lifestyle being worship that is being transformed into a pure action holding true to Gods Standard of Truth. “Presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to our God.” We want to make Godly choices and that are in line with the Gods Standard of Truth; The Holy Bible.

Romans 6, Romans7, Romans 8 are great after this grading time in Gods examination of your Spiritual progress. We agree with God. Grace is a marvelous gift from Our God.

This Standard of Truth sets in motion the verdict of sin and the remedy as to what happens next. Faith arises and we accept Gods verdict and His mercy by faith in Jesus His Son who paid the price for our sin and transgressions against God. Forgiveness, right standing and sonship by inheritance is given to us instead of what we were condemned to by our guilt. Jesus paid it all for us who believe in and on for our salvation and all the works of Jesus. So our only work required by scripture by the Father is found in John 6:28-29 “Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”” So by grace through faith we we are saved by Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen!

Conclusion

Growing spiritually is best measured by Gods Holy Word. Holy Spirit will speak to us and let us know a correction in thoughts, lifestyle and opinions that need to be put up for scrutiny agains Gods Standard of Truth, His Holy Word. So it is important for us to be pliable, teachable and obedient to make these corrections in light of His Holy Word. If we do, we will have a peace that Jesus promised and we will see more spiritual fruit being exhibited in our lives. Hallelujah!!

Pastoral Prayer

Jesus , we love you and desire to be transformed into your image. Help us to desire your examinations and your grading our decisions, lifestyles and opinions with Holy Spirit and your Holy Word ; The Standard of Gods Truth. Help us Jesus to make Godly decisions and follow through with these decisions. Help us to be ever growing in Spiritual fruit and dying to worldliness, selfishness, and all forms of ungodliness and unrighteousness. Speak life to us and help us live in this life all you have granted to us. Thank you Jesus!!

Pastoral Blessing

From Numbers6:22-27 “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.””

Reference Scripture: Romans 6

Romans 6 (ESV)

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 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? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 7 (ESV)

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 8 (ESV)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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