“Fresh fruit is good for you.”
Strawberries, peaches, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapes, apples, oranges, etc.
Three servings a day of fresh vegetables and fruit will make us feel better, live longer, body will function better. Fresh fruit is good for you.
This is not a nutritional series. This series is about the promise of God to develop spiritual nutrition in you. This is not about diet, it is not about “should” and “ought-to’s.” It is about how God wants to turn you into a fruit tree. God promises to produce fruit in your life. And please hear how I said that. I said that God wants to do it. You will enjoy the fruit. Others around you will enjoy the fruit that God grows in your life. But you cannot grow it on your own. This seems like a nice little principle, but really it goes to the heart of following Jesus Christ, because so many Christians try to make the walk with Christ into a diet, or a boot camp type experience, and they fail at their attempts and more serious than that – they miss God’s grace.
And this is nothing new. Jesus tried and tried to get his followers to understand that what they knew about a relationship with God was wrong. They had been influenced so much by the legalistic system of their day that they really could not hear how Jesus was trying to correct them.
They had been taught that if they went to temple, made the sacrifices, ate the right food, stayed away from bad people – that God would love them and God would bless their lives with health and prosperity.
Jesus said “No. You have it all wrong. God really doesn’t like your little rules. Your rules are things that you can do. You are paying attention to the rules and not to him. He wants you. Love him, worship him, and listen to him and you will do the right things. Put him first in your life.
One time he gave them this illustration of how they were to connect to God and how they would experience real prosperity and health in life.
John 15:1–5 (NLT)
1 “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. 5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
Now that is an agricultural illustration and it may not work today like it did in the first century, when literally everyone was familiar with grapes and vines. Today, I imagine that Jesus might say “I am the true server, and you are on my network. If you stay logged in, you will grow. My father will be the one who defrags you and cleans up your hidden files. If you are not connected to my network, you will not be able to do anything.”
It is about the source.
But as we begin this series, our #1 goal here is to get this correct about our source and our orientation, because people so often get this backwards. We are to be connected to God and God will do the producing. And I see Christians struggle and get defeated all because they are have logged off and they are trying to produce fruit – they are trying to grow in their inner lives – but they don’t get anywhere – and they can’t figure it out.
Jesus says I am the true vine and you are the branches. Jesus is the source. For us to grow in life, we must stay connected. We must orient our life to Christ. In other translations that is called “abiding.” Jesus says “abide in me and I will produce fruit in you.” It is not up to us. It is up to God. So first it is a matter of our connection and our source. If we are connected to the right source, God will produce fruit in our lives and remember that fruit is good for you.
It takes time.
We now have vineyards in Kentucky. They are mostly selling wines that they buy from other vineyards because it takes many years to get a grape vine producing. First you plant the vine shoot – nothing that year. The second year it grows – but no fruit. The third year it might produce grapes, but they don’t harvest them. Perhaps on the fourth year they might take some grapes, but then even if they make wine, it must sit and they must wait. It takes time. There is no way to speed up the process. In fact, in agriculture, anything that grows fast is usually a weed. And this applies to our inner lives – how fast God produces fruit in our lives. It usually takes years.
This week I turn sixty. That is a rather big number – but it comes with some advantages. I have a long-term perspective. I have seen people change through the years. Since we have lived in a few places, we have friends that we don’t see but perhaps every two or three years – or perhaps longer. How wonderful it is to talk to an old friend and find that he no longer brags so much. He had become humble through the years. It has taken forty years – but God has done something in his life. And of course you also run into people who have gone the other way. After a few minutes you are saying to yourself – I don’t remember him being so bitter or so insecure.
It takes time – this fruit production. So as we go through these fruit of the Spirit, remember that they don’t just pop up one day – fully developed. God’s production schedule has eternity in mind and that means that we might think he is rather slow about some things.
Now let’s begin today by looking at the first fruit of the Spirit – love. The Fruit of the Spirit are listed by Paul in his letter to the Galatians. And we will look at what was going on in Galatia in the weeks ahead, but today I just want to make the point that there were in the churches of Galatia some Jews who had become Christians who were insisting that you had to keep the Jewish laws to be a Christian, and Paul just said “No. That is not right. In fact, if you make people keep the dietary laws and the other things – you are abandoning the gospel of grace.” And Paul told them that if they did that, they would be orienting their lives around the flesh – our human nature – and then he listed the sins of the flesh so they could see where that kind of life would lead. Then he told them the opposite of what I would be like to live a life in the Holy Spirit – a life of freedom – of being connected to God – being a branch on God’s vine – and relying on the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:22–23 (NLT)
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Today we will consider love, and that is a huge topic, but one that is the primary attribute or virtue of God.
A group of children were once asked, "What does 'love' mean?" Here are some sample answers:
• Rebekah, 8, said, "When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time—even when his hands got arthritis, too. That's love."
• Billy, 4, said, "When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."
• Bobby, 7, says, "Love is what's in the room at Christmas, if you stop opening presents and listen."
• Nikka, 6, says, "If you want to learn to love better, you should start with someone you hate."
• Tommy, 6, says, "Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."
• Jessica, 8, says, "You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot."
Kids may know more about love than adults.
Love is the theme throughout the Bible. For God so loved the world . . . . Jesus, when asked what was important said “Love God and love people.” And so it is expected that the Holy Spirit is working in our lives that love will be produced.
1 John 4:7–8 (NLT)
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
In most instances, when love is used in relation to God as it is here in 1 John and also as a fruit of the Spirit, the word that is used is agape or agapao. In Christian circles we are used to hearing it, but it was an uncommon word in the ancient world. It is rarely found outside the New Testament. It seems that the biblical writers seized this unfamiliar word in order to infuse it with new meaning.
In Scripture agape describes a love that is unconditional. It is not contingent on the other person's performance or desirability. This love is also willful. It's not a matter of feeling or inclination, but rather a decision to act in another person's interest. Finally, it's sacrificial. It costs you something to love in this way; it's not just giving, but giving up for the sake of someone else. We could say that agape love is acting in someone else's interest unconditionally (no matter who they are), willfully (no matter how you feel), and sacrificially (no matter what it costs).
We are told that if we walk in the Spirit – if we are connected to Christ as our source, if our lives are oriented around him -- this love – this agape love – will be produced by God in our lives.
Agape love is acting in the interest of others, no matter who they are, how we feel, or what it costs. It is putting another person's well-being ahead of our own—not because they are loveable or likeable or because we feel like it at the moment or because it's convenient or comfortable or even reasonable, but because that's what love does.
Imagine what our church would be like if all of us became people who instinctively acted in the interests of others, naturally putting other's well-being ahead of our own. Imagine the transformative impact that kind of love would have on this world. You talk about nutritious fruit – that fruit would change the world – and that is exactly what the Spirit has in mind. God wants to grow love in our lives so that others will be blessed. It is a brilliant plan. One fruit tree at a time.
Instead of a new creed – love.
Instead of a new building – love.
Instead of government grants and new institutions -- love.
Think about it. Do you know someone who is grouchy, bitter, mean, and just a jerk? Don’t look around the room. Of course you do. What if someone loved them unconditionally? What if God could plant someone in their neighborhood, in their office, in their family who would smile when insulted, never argue back, give the person not what he or she deserved, but give them love? That is God’s plan – one person at a time – God is slipping fruit into their diet – and they will respond. Oh – and remember that God promises that if you are willing – you will be the fruit tree – the love producer. God will pour out His love in your life for them. Love is not the fruit of our efforts. We can't produce love on our own. The fruit comes only as we submit our lives and let the Spirit control us.
It happens every day - -it just doesn’t make the news
Originally from Rwanda, Regine came to Christ while reading her sister's Bible during the genocide that ravaged her country. When she fled to Canada for refuge, she met her husband, Gordon. They decided to return to Rwanda to show the love of Christ to the people who had once been her enemies. Regine told Mark Buchanan this story of agape love:
A woman's only son was killed. She was consumed with grief and hate and bitterness. "God," she prayed, "reveal my son's killer."
One night she dreamed she was going to heaven. But there was a complication: in order to get to heaven she had to pass through a certain house. She had to walk down the street, enter the house through the front door, go through its rooms, up the stairs, and exit through the back door.
She asked God whose house this was.
"It's the house," he told her, "of your son's killer."
The road to heaven passed through the house of her enemy.
Two nights later, there was a knock at her door. She opened it, and there stood a young man. He was about her son's age.
"Yes?"
He hesitated. Then he said, "I am the one who killed your son. Since that day, I have had no life. No peace. So here I am. I am placing my life in your hands. Kill me. I am dead already. Throw me in jail. I am in prison already. Torture me. I am in torment already. Do with me as you wish."
The woman had prayed for this day. Now it had arrived, and she didn't know what to do. She found, to her own surprise, that she did not want to kill him. Or throw him in jail. Or torture him. In that moment of reckoning, she found she only wanted one thing: a son.
"I ask this of you. Come into my home and live with me. Eat the food I would have prepared for my son. Wear the clothes I would have made for my son. Become the son I lost."
And so he did. Mark Buchanan, Hidden in Plain Sight (Thomas Nelson, 2007), pp. 187-189.
Agape lovers do what God himself has done, making sons and daughters out of bitter enemies, feeding and clothing them, blazing a trail to heaven straight through their houses.
1 John 4:19 (NLT)
19 We love each other because he loved us first.
E. V. (Ed) Hill, who pastored Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, tells the story of how "Mama's" love and prayers changed his life. During the height of the Depression, Hill's real mother, who had five children of her own, didn't have enough food to go around, so she sent four-year-old Ed to live with a friend in a small country town called Sweet Home. Ed just called her Mama. As he was growing up in Sweet Home, Mama displayed remarkable faith which led her to have big plans for young Ed. Against nearly insurmountable obstacles, Mama helped Ed graduate from high school (the only student to graduate that year from the country school) and even insisted that he go to college.
She took Ed to the bus station, handed him the ticket and five dollars and said, "Now, go off to Prairie View College, and Mama is going to be praying for you." Hill claims that he didn't know much about prayer, but he knew Mama did. When he arrived at the college with a dollar and ninety cents in his pocket, they told him he needed eighty dollars in cash in order to register. Here's how Hill describes what happened next:
I got in line …, and the devil said to get out of line …, but I heard my Mama saying in my ear, "I'll be praying for you." I stood in line on Mama's prayer. Soon there was [another new student ahead of me], and I began to get nervous, but I stayed in line …. Just about the time [the other student] got all of her stuff and turned away, Dr. Drew touched me on the shoulder, and he said, "Are you Ed Hill?" I said, "Yes." "Are you Ed Hill from Sweet Home?" "Yes." "Have you paid yet?" "Not quite."
"We've been looking for you all this morning," [he said].
I said, "Well, what do [you] want with me?"
"We have a four-year scholarship that will pay your room and board, your tuition, and give you thirty dollars a month to spend."
And I heard Mama say, "I will be praying for you!"
Martha Simmons & Frank A. Thomas, editors, Preaching with Sacred Fire (W. W. Norton & Company, 2010), pp. 707-708.
There is so much more that we could say of love – but the most important reality concerning love is that it comes from God. Seek God with all you are. Abide in Him. Connect to him. Orient your life to God and he will produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life.
Amen
