Fruit Of The Spirit (Part 3) Series

Probably the first epistle that Paul penned.

Written because the Christians of the region of Galatian were being taught some doctrine that Paul had to refute.

Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

We’ve been examining the fruit in the order Paul listed them.

We began with love:

It is appropriate that love is listed first, as the fruit of the Spirit.

Love encompasses the fruit of the Spirit.

Each of these characteristics listed after love, involve love.

Next Joy:

Greek transliteration in this context: calm delight

We examined several verses including:

Psalm 51:12 “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.”

It is this joy in our salvation that leads to peace that only comes from God.

Last week we looked at:

Patience, kindness and goodness

Patience:

We considered some the the quips about patience.

We live in an instant gratification world, with every problem solved in a 30 second commercial or 30 minute TV show.

Next we unboxed a few ways to cultivate patience in our lives, including:

Thanking God always

Remembering the many promises of God

Seeking His purpose in our lives

A willingness to wait upon The Lord and His will.

Kindness:

Greek transliteration of kindness is: chrestotes

(crAy-stO-tAs) moral excellence, in character or demeanor. The grace which pervades the whole nature of a person.

I asked you to consider that person you know who has a “sweet-spirit” about them.

Lastly, we looked at how powerful spontaneous kindness can be a blessing for us as well as for others.

Goodness:

We did a quick overview of the goodness of God.

the quality of being morally good or virtuous.

Moral goodness essentially means “conformity to God’s principles and character”.

Goodness is a standard. Not a standard of our neighbor, our co-workers, our spouse, or parents; but a standard we strive for in God alone.

As we wrap up this series today, I’d like to remind you of a couple of things:

This series is built around the premise or construct that:

Holy Spirit instructs, leads, guides and empowers us.

And, that nothing we do, in ourselves, produces fruit of the Spirit, but by allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us, we with produce fruit through Him.

Before, we get started:

Did you read something new in God’s word this past week, or

Did you read a familiar passage with new eyes?

---Let’s go to the Lord in prayer---

Today we are looking at:

Faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control

Faithfulness:

Depending on the translation, but the word faithfulness, or faithful, or faith; is found in the NT between 227-242 times.

It is found in every book of the NT except:

John, 2nd John, and 3rd John

Begin with a couple of familiar verses:

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Hebrews 12:1–3 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy(bliss, calm delight) that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.”

Church, if you don’t hear anything else today, hear this: Your faith is no accident.

For the rest of this week, if you need to chew on that, I encourage you to be deliberate is accepting and believing that fact, at this critical juncture in our walk. Give this thought so as to be strong and not be shaken in your faith.

Let’s look at a few facets of faithfulness:

1)Firm conviction:

Unshaken

Not easily deceived

Not blown around be every wind of doctrine

Rooted in Gods truth

2)Fully surrendered to God

3) Conduct becoming of a follower of Christ

A.Z. Tozer wrote:

Every man lives by faith, the nonbeliever as well as the saint, the one by faith in natural laws, and the other by faith in God.

We cultivate faithfulness by reading His word!

Gentleness:

Several translations read “meekness”.

The Expositors Greek Testament describes meekness as:

the outcome of true humility, the bearing towards others which results from a lowly estimate of ourselves.

When we allow Holy Spirit to led us in cultivating gentleness we:

Build others up

Show God’s grace

Do unto others

Last week we talked about God being our standard for measuring goodness.

Check this out.

Only two people in the entire bible are described as meek.