Fruit Intro Message
PPT 1 Message Title
The Fruit of the Spirit; are you Son ripened?
PPT 2 Text & Pic
Pr 27:23 Know well the condition of your flocks, [And] pay attention to your herds;
A smart apple farmer is not only concerned with the size of his harvest, but also the health of his trees.
So his two great concerns are the size and quality of his harvest, and the shape and condition of the tree.
In this new series we will be talking about the size and quality of our spiritual fruit, and the shape and condition of our spiritual tree.
Today I want to start with a short video I made, it is about the need to be sure that we have balance in our lives between the fruit of the Spirit and the Gifts of the Spirit.
PPT 3 Video
PPT 4 Pic
How are you doing in regards to the fruit of the Spirit?
2. The fruits of the Spirit should be most manifest in our most personal relationships.
Sometimes when I preach people will think about someone else who needs to hear this message, may I challenge you with the idea of listening to this message on how it applies to you personally.
With your spouse. How are you doing, not how is your spouse doing. Not does he/she need patience but do YOU need to show patience.
With your children. How are you doing, not how are your children doing. Not do they need to show you respect, but how YOU need to show them respect.
With your coworkers. How are you doing not how are they doing.
I read a story of a counselor who lived next door to a family that had a difficult child to raise. Often he would hear the dad yelling at the child, and when he would be near he would gently say you need to love your child, not punish him.
One day the counselor was having some repair work done on his concrete driveway. Just after it was completed the neighbors difficult child stepped in the freshly poured concrete. The child's dad happened to drive up at the very moment the counselor got to the youth, rolled down his window and said, "you need to love not punish." Often it is easier to preach to others, than to live it ourselves.
Bearing the fruit of the Spirit, is not always easy, but it is always right. Let's do a better job church.
Rather than just tell you that we should be bearing spiritual fruit, let me try to help you move more in that area.
Here is a good verse to help:
PPT 5 text
Joh 15:16 "You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.
God wants us to bear fruit, but He doesn't simply command us to do it, but boldly declares that He has appointed us to do it. The Greek word translated appointed (ordained - KJV) is tithaymee (phonetic) and means to fix it so that it will happen. So it is not simply that God is saying you must bear fruit, He is also saying that He will do His part to see to it that we bear fruit, that remains.
I want to just give a couple of basic ideas about fruit and then we will close:
There are different kinds of fruits, different kinds of the same fruit, and there are different ways of gathering fruits.
1, There are different kinds of fruits and we need them all
PPT 6 text
Ga 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Ga 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Jas 1:4 And let endurance have [its] perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
The word translated endurance is just the ongoing form of the word patience found in Galations 5:22. Do you see the word complete there in that verse? It means complete in all parts, fully assembled.
Vitamin C is good for you, but it is not the only vitamin you need. The rest of them usually taste nasty, so we tend to neglect them. Big ugly pills, and we burp and they are nasty twice on us.
Some fruits we like more than others, love we like but patience we tend to avoid. Strawberries or prunes exemplifies the difference in the natural. God wants us to be complete, and to have all the fruits in our life. We tend to pick our favorites, so God tends to put us in situations were we will have to bear fruits we don't normally like.
2. So we have seen there varieties of fruits, but there are also varieties of the same fruit.
For example there are 21 different kinds of apples grown here in Michigan. While there is some overlap in variety, there are also some very different purposes and ways in which these varieties are used.
Some for eating, some for drinks, some for cooking.
Look at the way we enjoy apples:
Eat them.
Apple juice.
Apple cider.
Apple sauce.
Apple pie.
That is the natural, now here is the spiritual application. Just as natural fruits come in varieties so do spiritual ones. Patience can come as complete calmness, or it can come as biting your lip and holding your tongue. Just because it doesn't look the same doesn't mean it isn't the fruit of the spirit.
This is especially true in worship and music. Some people are loud and exuberant. some are quiet and reserved. Never judge a person by the way they worship, just because it doesn't look they same doesn't mean it isn't as valid. Jumping or kneeling.
Some people pray, loud some quiet. Neither is better. Same fruit, different variety. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Let's never judge others in these areas.
3. Lastly there are different ways to gather fruit.
There are different ways of gathering spiritual fruit.
1. Spontaneous generation. Fruit can be gathered for which no effort is generated. .
PPT 7 text
Jud 14:6 And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily...
Mightily isn't that the way we like it? No effort on our part, and the Holy Spirit gives us peace in the midst of the storm. And yet, just as often, and perhaps more often the Spirit comes gently
2. Cooperative consumption. Fruit that handed to us but that we must still "take and eat". In other words we are facing a stressful situation and the Holy Spirit gently prompts us to calm down and not worry. This is not the same as the Spirit coming mightily upon us, but the Spirit working with us and it takes cooperative effort to bear this fruit.
PPT 8 text
1Ki 19:5 And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise [and] eat.
1Ki 19:6 And he looked, and, behold, [there was] a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.
You will notice the angel cooked, but didn't force feed Elijah. So it is with the gifts of the Spirit God makes them available but we have to do our part and calm ourselves down, or bite our tongue, or refuse to let anger get the better of us.
Illus: Ac 18:9 Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: Ac 18:10 For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city. Acts 18:9-11.
In that text Paul was struggling with fear and God told him to walk away from it, everything would be all right. At that point Paul could believe and act on what God had said, or continue to wallow in fear. Reject worry accept the fruit peace. Sometimes it is a collaborative effort. and not spontaneous generation.
3. Storehouse supply.
Fruit that we must pack away in good times and then go to the cupboard and get out.
PPT 9, 10 text
Ge 41:46 Now Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went through all the land of Egypt.
Ge 41:47 And during the seven years of plenty the land brought forth abundantly.
Ge 41:48 So he gathered all the food of [these] seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt, and placed the food in the cities; he placed in every city the food from its own surrounding fields.
Ge 41:49 Thus Joseph stored up grain in great abundance like the sand of the sea, until he stopped measuring [it,] for it was beyond measure.
Ge 41:56 When the famine was [spread] over all the face of the earth, then Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the Egyptians; and the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.
If we will sow to ourselves in righteousness, then we the enemy comes in like a flood we can expect to draw from the storehouse that is inside us. Reading your bible does pay dividends, fasting does pay spiritual dividends. Think of the 10 virgins Jesus spoke, 5 had oil ready for the time of need, 5 didn't. Likewise people who invest in themselves spiritually can expect to have light in a dark season.
4. Body Blessings.
Fruit that is provided by others. Good for out of season needs!
Abraham had famine, Isaac had a famine to deal with, Jacob had a famine to deal with, David had a famine to deal with, Elijah had a famine to deal with. Sometimes you go to the cupboard and the cupboard is bare, that is why God put us in a body/church, he never intended for spiritual lone rangers.
PPT 11 text
Genesis 9:22 "Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall.
Joseph in this passage exemplifies the person who is able to help others in their time of need. He has branches that have been feed and nourished and can reach over the wall to help others. Sometimes in your walk you will be dry and in need and that is why God puts us in a body called the church so that when your fruit tree is empty, you can be fed from the branches of someone else's tree.
Application: We all want to park at spontaneous generation, but if God is not there go find your fruit elsewhere!
Close: prayer for fruits in our lives. Pray especially that the fruit of the Spirit would be manifest in homes and family situations.
