The Holy Spirit and the Fruit of the Spirit

Good morning friends. Welcome to Sabbath School Study Hour, coming to you from the Granite Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church near Sacramento, California. Very warm welcome to our online members and also our regular visitors across the country and around the world that tune in every week to study the lesson with us. Also, I'd like to welcome the members and the visitors here at the Granite Bay church, always good to see you week after week, as we study our lesson dealing with the Holy Spirit, today we find ourselves on lesson number seven entitled The Holy Spirit and the Fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit and the Fruit of the Spirit.

Now, for those who are joining us, if you don't have a copy of today's lesson, you can download lesson number seven, just go to the Amazing Facts website, amazingfacts.org download the lesson, and you can study along with us. We have a free offer that goes along with our lesson today. It is a DVD entitled Spiritual Warfare and this is part 2, part 1 we offered last week. If you'd like to receive this, call 866-788-3966. That number again is 866-788-3966 and you can ask for offer number 823, we'll be happy to send this to anybody who calls and asks. You can also watch this online. Just go to the Amazing Facts website, you can actually download Spiritual Warfare and you can watch the sermon right there. Well before we get to our lesson as we normally do, we like to begin by lifting our voices in song, I'd like to invite our song leaders to come forward and lead us in our praise this morning.

Debbie Thompson Kippel: Thank you Pastor Ross. Those of you at home, I know that you are ready for what we're going to do now, so pull out your hymnals and join with us. Our first one is a good rousing song, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, that is 469 in your hymnals, 469 and we're going to do all three stanzas. Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.

[Music]

Thank you so much for joining with us, and at this time Pastor Ross will have our opening prayer.

Pastor Ross: Dear father in heaven, what a privilege to be able to gather together and open up your word and study together about the great gifts of the Holy Spirit, that which you want to be manifest in the lives of all believers. So we ask the Holy Spirit once again to come and guard our hearts our minds, bless our time together in Jesus name, Amen. Our lesson this morning will be brought to us by Pastor Doug.

Pastor Doug: Good morning. I want to welcome everybody here at the Granite Bay Church, and to welcome again to those who are part of the extended study group, and also some of you are online members of Granite Bay. We welcome you, it's fun to get the correspondents and letters. Some of you are scattered at different parts of the globe, and ostensibly you're in a country where English is at least spoken as a second language, and maybe there is no local seventh-day Adventist Church you can go to. If you'd like to know what's involved in being part of the Granite Bay Church as an online member, just email us at granitebaysda.org. I think that's right. Sometimes I get the net, com, org all mixed up. But I want to welcome you. We're going to continue our study dealing with the Holy Spirit and spirituality, and today we're on lesson seven. That should be good, it's a biblical number, right? It's dealing with the fruits of the spirit.

Now, you got to hear this. Jesus said, unless you are born of water and the spirit, you cannot, not less likely, but unless you're born of water and the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. So how important is studying the spirit? This is about one of the most important things that we could be asking for, what it means to be a Christian. It doesn't matter if you're born in a church. It doesn't matter if your parents are in ministry, it doesn't matter if you live surrounded by Christians, unless the Holy Spirit is in you, because that's how Christ is in you. You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. You can't live a Christian life. If the Holy Spirit is in you, you will have the evidence of that which is the fruits of the spirit.

We have a memory verse that talks about that. That's Galatians 5:22-23, if you'd like to say this with me, by the way in your lesson you can read it right out of there, it's the new American Standard Version, which is a fairly good version. Are you ready? But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law. I was talking about previously things there are laws against, he said, but there's no law against having the fruits of the spirit in your life. Obviously if you get the fruits of the spirit, you'll be keeping the other laws. Now, you can find fruit, now fruit as a metaphor, you can find fruit all through the Bible. You find fruit in the first chapter of the Bible, you find fruit in the last chapter of the Bible. You find fruit from cover to cover about 208 times, the Bible talks about fruits.

I've got a friend up in the hills near us in Covelo. He had been a neighbor for years and he's quite a gardener. He has an apple tree that he has grafted multiple different varieties of apple on one tree. I think at one time he told me he had 12. It's kind of something when you see one apple tree and it's got yellow fruit, it's got red fruit, and it's got some sweet fruit. It's got some tart fruit. There's all these different fruits on one tree. I thought that was impressive, and I read about this guy, and let me read this to you straight. His name is Sam Van Aken. He has developed a tree ... he's actually an art professor, but the first time he heard about grafting two different kinds of fruit on one tree, he thought it was like Frankenstein.

But it fascinated him, and so the Syracuse University art professor, he wanted to know how far you can go. He ended up developing something called The Tree of 40 Fruit, and I think we had a picture of that. Maybe Cheryl could put that up on the screen for us. A couple different pictures of the tree of 40 fruits. You got one fruit tree, these are stone fruits. There you go. All on one tree. Apricots, nectarines, peaches, and all different kinds. You can get yellow plums, and red plums, and it's actually quite a beautiful tree to an artist, did a rendition of what it looks like when it's in full bloom. He had to learn ... you know some fruits bud at different times, so he evaluated what times did they different bud, and he grafts the buds in and most of them tape because it's ... he's learned the science of it.

Well we're going to talk about you being a tree with many fruits. They say California is the land of fruits and nuts, right? But we want Granite Bay to be a church of many fruits, and we don't mean fruitcakes we mean ... Christmas is over. We mean fruits of the spirit. Amen? That's really what our lesson is. We're going to be going through Galatians and looking at the different fruits of the spirit, but first thing we should probably understand is go to John 15, condition of fruitfulness. What's the conditions they have in the fruits of the spirit? John 15 verse 1. I'm going to read probably through verse 11. I'll maybe stop with some comment along the way. I am the vine ... now, do you find this in other books of the bible? Does Matthew, Mark, or Luke talk about this parable? Not exactly. It's only in John you find this.

Jesus said, "I am the true vine. My father is a vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away." All right. How important is it for us to have fruit? Every branch that bears fruit it good? It doesn't, bad. Takes it away. "Every branch that bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." Any of you have vines? I figured you did John. We got some grape vines up in Covelo. Years ago I planted some Thompson red seedless, and the grapes and they produced pretty well most years, but you've got a cut them. It almost looks like you're being mean. Once a year you got to go ... it's brutal. You just got to cut all the vines, wait and you burn all that stuff, and you get them back to the nubs again, and somehow they grow out and produce another crop. But you got to put them back.

For us to be fruitful, does God need to prune us? He does. Is that always pleasant? No. Why does he prune us? Because he wants us to be more fruitful. He said, as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. There's the key. In order for us to be fruitful what do we need to do? Abide in Christ. What does that mean? You know the Bible says, whoever abides in him sinneth not. Because abiding in Christ means you are rooted in Christ. Whoever abides in me bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. So what's the key? You had to abide in Christ. That means we'd walk with him to prayer, reading of his word, letting our light shine, being conscious of him, submitting to his will day by day. He's our King, he's our savior, he's our Lord.

By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit. So what does the Lord one from us? The father? Bearing much fruit. He says, "As the father loved me, I've also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my Commandments, you will abide in my love." Now you notice a connection between keeping the commandments and abiding? "Just as I have kept my father's Commandments and abide in his love. These things I've spoken to you that your joy ..." Is abiding in Christ and bearing fruit, is it painful? Does he say it's a joyful? It's a joyful experience. "These things I've spoken to you that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full." So, what is our effort as a Christian? Is it producing or abiding if we're going to be fruitful? It's to abide. If you abide in him, you will produce fruit.

You know in Hampton Court, London there is a great vine at a garden they have there. It is probably the oldest grape vine in the world. It's 250 years old, and the bottom of the grapevine is four feet across the stock. They prune it back every year, but it produces vines that are 150 feet, and it's amazing that the plant carries the sup all the way down 150 feet. That's further than from here to the wall, but somehow it sucks the moisture, and the nutrients and it sends it all the way down and produces grapes. In some years, it produces one vine, 800 pounds of grapes, if you can imagine that. It used to be for the palace and the Queen finally said, "We can't eat them all," so she donated them to the people.

But as soon as you snip one of those vines and it becomes detached, it doesn't produce anything. If it's severed. We need to remain connected if we're going to be fruitful. Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. All right. Someone's going to read for me in just a moment, Galatians 5:16 and 17. You'll have that Hafdis. You know I've gone into the tree planting business recently. You know we're moving. We've moved sort of. We're living in our new house but we still have to clean the old one, but our next door neighbor for years, the Henrys, they've got a pomelo tree and its fruit sometimes falls over on our site, which is fine with us. They found out that we liked them, and so they started bringing them over. I liked them so much. Y'all know what a pomelo is? They're like gigantic. I've told you about this grapefruit.

I went online and I found out how can you actually sprout the pomelo from the regular seed, and you can. You got to take the seeds and you wrap them in a paper towel, and then you put them in a plastic bag and you keep it moist and you wait. They sprouted and then you put them ... and I have been babying, Karen you can ask her, I just felt like ... I'd take them out every day, give them some sunshine, and bring them back in. Don't want them to get too cold. Then you water them and ... I've transplanted them a couple times, and because I want fruit, I'm spending all this energy on these little trees because I want fruit. Does the Lord do that for us? You know that parable that Jesus tells about a certain man. Luke 13, and then Hafdis is going to read hers. Luke 13:6.

A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and he found none. Then he said to the vine dresser, "Look, for three years I've come seeking fruit on this tree and I don't find any. Cut it down. Why does it use up the ground." He answered and he said to him, "Sir," he said, "I've been taking care of this tree, I've been babying this tree, please give it another ... give it some more time. Give it another year. I'll dig around it, and I'll fertilize it, and if it bears fruit well, if not, cut it down." So what's the fate of a trade is fruitless? It has been cut down. But you notice the tenderness of the gardener? He said, "Give it another chance. Don't cut it down. I want it to bear fruit."

How many of you know fruit trees don't bear every year? Some have good years. Some have bad years. We've got some pears in Covelo that ... they get ransacked by the bears whenever they do bear fruit, but some years there's no pears. Just whatever the blossoms got flows off, and some years it's just like barren. The Lord wants us to be fruitful, and He does everything He can. Gord read for us please Galatians 5:16.

Hafdis: I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Pastor Doug: All right. Now, our memory verse is from Galatians 5 talking about the fruits of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, so forth. What Hafdis just read was Galatians 5, just before that. Notice the connection he made between walking in the spirit and not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, to produce the fruits of the spirit. Because if you're living of the flesh, it is contrary to the fruits of the spirit. You can't really be growing both plants. One will ... remember what happened when the seed fell in the thorny ground in the parable of Jesus? Some of the seeds fell ... what happened to it? It sprouted, but the thorns choked it. If we're trying to live a spirit-filled life, and also fulfill the lusts of the flesh, our Christian life is going to be choked. It's constantly strangled. It's fighting for the nutrients in the sunshine, and the two don't flourish together.

Moving on. Matthew 7:16. Talking about fruit still. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You'll know them by their what? By their fruits. If a person says, "Lord, Lord," and they do not the things that Jesus says, are they his? How do you know if someone belongs to him? Jesus said look at the what? The fruit. If you want to know what kind of tree it is, look at the fruit. Now, some wolves put on sheep's clothing so they look on the outside like sheep, but they howl like wolves. I've never heard a wolf bleat like a sheep. Some trees can be deceptive too.

I did an amazing fact last week. Guinness Book of World Records calls this The Deadliest tree in the world. Any of you know what it is? Eucalyptus? No. Anyone know what the deadliest tree in the world is? The manchineel. They're found in the main groves around the Caribbean, Florida Gulf of Mexico. It's a tree that they call it ... the Columbus call them death apples. It almost sounds like Garden of Eden. They grow in paradise but you don't eat these trees. They produce a fruit that looks very much like a crab apple, and when you walk under the tree it actually smell sweet. A lot of tourist locations the government has labeled them, do not eat this tree it will kill you. But some tourists, this places where they're not labeled everywhere, and not too long ago a tourist and her friend, they saw these trees, "Hmm. Wonder what they taste like." They took a bite. Bad idea.

They bit into one of these apple like fruits, and at first it's sweet to the mouth, then it starts giving you a peppery feeling, and then your throat begins to tighten up and burn, and it's I understand excruciating. Then it begins to cause all kinds of gastronomical problems, and some people have died. Most people don't die, but it can scar you. You can't breathe, you just can't eat. Your throat swells up. I did a whole study and amazing fact on this last week. Talking about trees of life, and trees and death. But it looks good. It even smells good, and even the first bite. Isn't that what happened with Eve? First bite was invigorating, but then the toxins are released at that point, and it can kill.

Some people, they look like they got the fruits, but they're deceptive. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, I'm still in Matthew 7. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is what? Cut down, and it's thrown in the fire. Now, you know I don't want to be hard on you but I wanted to be faithful. Have you noticed that in the parable of the vine, Jesus said, the vine that doesn't bear fruit is thrown in the fire. Jesus in Matthew 7 said, "The bad tree that doesn't bear good fruit is thrown in the fire."

In the Parable of the Wheat in the Tares, the weeds that aren't producing wheat, they're gathered in bundles and burned. We got two choices friends, this is a really important study. We've got the fruits of the spirit, all are useless. God wants to live out his life in us. One of the keys to having the fruits of the spirit is look at what God does, because Jesus had the fruits of the spirit. If you're like Jesus, you'll have the fruits, and we're going to get more into what the specifics are in just a minute. The Bible talks about those that have a form of godliness on the outside, but they deny its power from such people turn away. There's only two things that died because of Jesus. One was a herd of pigs, I guess it's more than two things really, and the other was a fig tree. Why did the fig tree get cursed? Jesus went looking for fruit and he didn't find any. By the way that's in Matthew 21:19. He said, "Let no fruit grow on you again forever."

Now, do you and I have the opportunity ... suppose your life has been fruitless or not very much fruit, can you improve the fruit? Can the gardener graft better fruit, and can he nurture the soil and give it more sunshine? There's a lot of things you can do to make a tree be more fruitful, but you can reach a point where if your unfruitful of too long, that there's that curse. We want to make sure that we start bearing fruit. I think all of us agree, yeah we need the fruits of the spirit, so when are we going to start? That's the question. When are we going to start letting and reproduce his fruits in our lives? All right. We're going into the fruits now. Galatians 5:22 and 23. How many of you have memorized these verses? The fruits of spirit? Karen has. I knew she had. I see a couple hands. It's a good one to memorize.

The fruit of the Spirit what's the first one? Love. What is God like? Love. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law. Heard about a boy that getting himself dressed for preschool one day, and he told his mommy he wanted to wear these fruit of the loom underwear. He said, "I want to wear them because they got the fruits of the spirit in them." It says, "The fruit of the Spirit is an all goodness, righteousness and truth." All right. That first fruit is love. Someone's going to read for me in just a moment. John 13:35. Okay. Before we get to that, first Corinthians 13:13 says what? Now binds faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is what? Love.

If you could summarize the whole law ... well let me take that back. If you summarize God in one word, God is love. But you know the Bible also says you can summarize God in good. It says God is good also. God is love. His laws a reflection of his character, his law is love. Love is the fulfilling of the law. First four Commandments deal with love for God, last six Commandments love for your fellow man. If you love, you've got everything. You know I often pray it, I say, "Lord, if I love people better I'd be a better pastor. If I love people better, I'd be a better evangelist." If you really love people and you know that folks every day are facing a potential eternal life and death, you'd feel more urgency to let them know. I've boiled it down, my problem is a love problem. Most of my problem with people? Love problems. The whole plan of salvation is to teach us to love God and to love our neighbor, and most of the challenges we have, are challenges with love. Amen. Gord read that for me please.

Gord: John 13:35, by this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Pastor Doug: By this all will know you are my disciples. You sing on key. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, because you've got a beautiful building. By this will all people know that you are my disciples, because you have copyrighted the best possible name for a church. You know if I lived back in 1863, I probably wouldn't have picked Seventh-day Adventist as the name. I would have been wrong, but probably for marketing purposes, I wanted to find something more generic. I mean I like the name Church of God. Such a good name. Simple. Church of Christ. That's a good name. When those are used up, they did Assembly of God. All these denominations have been scrambling to try and find good names before they're all used up. I talked to one of our members this morning, he said he saw a church that's called eleven plus one. I said, "Boy, they're just running out of names the copyright at that point."

Speaker 6: It's right outside the door.

Pastor Doug: Yeah. I mean, that's not what makes you. How are people going to know his disciples? By the name? By the clothes you wear? Well, clothes can say something, but that's not how you know. The number one testimony that we are his disciples is the way we love each other, and then that love spills out into others, not just loving the membership. Romans 5:8, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us. Now, I have no problem loving those of you who are lovable. I've often said I wouldn't mind being a pastor if it wasn't for people, but it's really hard to reconcile the two. Some people are more lovable than others. Do you know that? I don't have a problem loving the lovable ones, but is that how you measure a Christian?

Jesus, what makes him so wonderful is he loves the unlovable, and he's calling us to love ... he says, "Love your enemies." That's hard. It's hard loving people who are just difficult. They may not even be enemies, they're just difficult. But to love your enemies? These are the people who are out to destroy you. They're praying for your downfall, and the Lord says to love them. This is what the kind of love when he says the fruit of the Spirit is love, is it just loves for the lovable, or is it even love for your enemies? I like when I tell people invite their friends to an evangelistic program I say, "Bring your friends and enemies."

I heard about a little girl who is praying one day. She said, "Lord, you've told me to love my enemies. I don't have any enemies. Please give me some, so I can love them." Just wait. 1 John 4:7. "Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who does not love, does not know God, for god is love." Then you have Romans 13:10, I already alluded to this. Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Some people have read that, and they think it means that when you say love is the fulfilling of the law, that if we just really love each other, we don't need to keep the Ten Commandments. That's crazy thinking, sorry. That's bad theology.

What Paul is saying here, that when you do love, you will fulfill the keeping of the Ten Commandments. So to say. "Oh no. I love my neighbor now, so it's okay. I can't kill them because I love them." Of course, you're going to keep that commandment if you love your neighbor. People say. "Well, if you love God, of course you're not going to worship other gods or use his name in a disrespectful at your resonant way. If you love God, you're going to want that sacred appointment with him called the Sabbath. See love is the reason for keeping every commandment, right? Okay.

Next section joy, peace and patience. Maybe we should do a definition here. Someone's going to read for me you in a moment Romans 5:1. What is joy? An intense, especially ecstatic or exultant happiness., the expression or manifestation of that feeling. How many Christians should have joy? On the good days? Can you have joy and be having a bad day? See this is the thing some people in the world can't comprehend. You ever go to a cashier, and they're just trying to make conversation, they try to interact with a customer and they say, "So how's your day going?" That happened to me yesterday. "How's your day going?" I said, "Great. How's your day." I always like to ask them too. "I'm doing great. How are you?" Thanks for asking." Some people will say, "I'm not having a good day," but you can still have joy. Even if you're having a bad day, happiness is a feeling, joy is an attitude about life.

Who was it that said ... F.B. Meyer. Joy is peace dancing, peace is joy and rest. We get to be ... pardon me. We'll get to the peace part in just a moment. Go ahead and read for us please Romans 5:1.

Speaker 7: Romans 5:1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Pastor Doug: Jesus said, John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you." Where do we get the peace? It's from him. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to yo. Now when the world thinks about peace, what do they envision? No stress for a little while. In a hammock with some alcohol drink, looking at a beautiful sunset, and say, "Aha, peace." Now, that is a peaceful environment but is that biblical peace? Biblical peace can be possessed by a person who has firewood stacked around them, and they're about to be burnt for their faith, and they can have peace. Isn't that right? There are martyrs that had great peace in the midst of a storm because they knew that God was with them. In the world, they think about peace as peaceful circumstances, but for the Christian, peace is something inside the devil can't take away. The Bible calls it a peace that passes understanding. Meaning the world can't understand it, how you could be at peace when you've got all kinds of trials and turmoil.

I know I've gone to the hospital to visit Saints before, and I knew they were struggling with all kinds of pain, and then I'd say something that ... you know I'm not really good sometimes at a hospital visit. They're obviously suffering I'll say, "How are you?" Then they'll turn, and they'll say, "The Lord has been so good to me. He's given me such peace." I thought, "Wow." I like that where you can just have peace even though you're suffering physically, even though you're going through trials, even though your tire just went flat or whatever the problem is, you got a peace that God's on the throne and that your life is in his hands. You don't have to worry. I want that. That's a fruit of the Spirit, but I liked what the Meyer said, joy is peace dancing. It's expressing. I mean it doesn't mean you go dance, it means it's dancing in your life, and peace is joy at rest, so they're connected.

Paul says Romans 17, for the kingdom of God it's not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace, and joy, in the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God is about peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 12:18. If it's possible as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Part of the peace that a Christian has, we can be at peace with ourselves, and we do all we can to be at peace literally with others. Blessed are the peacemakers, they're called the children of God. Then Philippians 4:9, the things that you have learned, and received, and heard, and saw, in me these do, and the God of peace will be with you. Now can you be, do you want to be. Do you want to be at peace if you're living in disobedience? That's kind of like a person who's floating placidly along in the river not knowing they don't hear the deadly waterfall up ahead. You don't want to be comfortable on your way to destruction, otherwise you're like Peter sleeping on death row there in Acts chapter 12, the angel had to wake them up to save him.

Are you like Jonah? You're asleep in the storm when everyone else is praying? There's a lot of people out there on their way to destruction of their laws and they're at peace. They get this ... they've been sedated by Satan, and you don't want that kind of peace. You want a peace that comes from surrender, and knowing your life in God's will. The Bible says, great peace have they ... who knows the rest of that verse? Great peace have they that love the law and nothing will offend them. Great peace have they, which love thy law and nothing will offend them. He said, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

All right. Let's go on to kindness and faithfulness. Did I leave out patience? I did leave out patience. Yeah. Here is the patience of the saints. Here are those that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. In patience possess ye your souls. Now what does it mean when you think about patience? How many here are impatient? Impatient? Anyone? Is all impatience bad? If there were no semi impatient people, I have a feeling not a lot will get done. The Lord wants us to have a little bit of a desire to keep things moving. When I'm going from point A to point B, and I know that I don't have a lot going on until I get to point B, I want to get there quick. I go as fast as I can safely go, and sometimes even as fast as I can legally go. Because I'm in a hurry to get there.

Anyone else like that? I know that I'm only alive for a little while, you've only got so much minutes in your life. If you just sit around here wasting your life, time is the stuff that life is made up, and so I'm conscious of that, and so I'm one of these people that wants to get things done. You like to have those people working with you, but you don't want people to be impatient, which means they become irritable, and they make mistakes.

I was listening to a sermon by David Jeremiah on the radio, and he said, more damage is caused by impatience than patience. You get reckless when you're in a hurry, sometimes you try and do too many things you don't do anything well, but you know, I always wonder how Jesus managed to stay focused and at peace. He'd have people clamoring all around him wanting healing, and he'd be on his way to raise a girl that are ... to try and save a girl that was dying, and he'd stop, and he'd help other people. Wouldn't you feel restless and say, "Look, I can't help you right now. I got to get going," but he was never troubled, but he seemed to get so much done, so I want to have that peace and that patience.

Patience in the Bible doesn't mean that you just wait, it means an endurance. With that in mind, when Jesus said, "He that endures to the end the same will be saved." Here is the patience of the Saints, really should translate, here is the endurance of the Saints. The Christian life is not a sprint, it's a marathon. You've got to keep on going. You need to endure, and don't give up. You need to hold on. All right, and thank you for reminding me I left out patience.

Next is kindness, goodness and faithfulness. All right. 1 Corinthians 13:4, "Love suffers long, it is kind." So one of the fruits of love is kindness. Love does not envy, it does not parade itself, it is not puffed out. But I want you to notice kindness. What is kindness? Kindness means of a friendly generous or warm-hearted nature, showing sympathy or understanding. Charitable. A kind word humane, considerate, as in being kind to animals, for bearing tolerant generous liberal kind words of praise. We all know what kind means. Do we know what unkind means? Sometimes we say things that are unkind, or might put a person down, or we're not considerate of their needs. That's the unkindness.

Ephesians 4:32. Be kind. I don't know if everyone else does this, but it made a big impression on me when I started reading the Bible that God said let there be light. Let there be, and the word be, jumps out at me. When the Bible says be kind to one another, I always see the word be as enabling for God. It means it's empowering. When God says, "Let there be light," or when God said be clean, and the man was twins from his leprosy, just by saying be, when God says that in his word. So when he says be kind, can we be kind? It's an empowering word. Be kind to one another, tender. Forgiving one another. How? Even as God in Christ forgave you. When we see how much he's done for us it ought to empower us to have that same kind of kindness and gentleness for others.

Then Exodus 33:9 Moses said, "Lord show me your glory," and now we're talking about goodness here. He said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I am gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion." So the Lord put Moses in that cleft of the rock, this is Exodus 34:6, and he passed before him, and he proclaimed the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness. The Lord is good, the Bible says, over and over. Lamentations. Now, we're talking about not only kindness and goodness, what was last one? Faithfulness, in this section. In the book of Lamentations, you all know this one, through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed because his compassion fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your what? Great is your faithfulness. That's probably one of my favorite songs. I told Karen that not too long ago I said, "Do that at my funeral."

Karen: I wrote it down.

Pastor Doug: Good. She made a note of that, and I'm supposed to do What a Friend We Have in Jesus for her. If we go together, we'll do a duet. God is faithful. Someone's going to read for me Matthew 25:23 in just a moment. Okay. I'm going to read one more, Revelation 2:10 he says, "There be faithful unto death and I will give you a crown of life." What does faithful mean? Be full of faith. To be consistent. To hang on. All right. Go ahead and read for us please. Matthew 25.

Speaker 9: His Lord said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord."

Pastor Doug: Thank you. Now when Jesus said that to the servant in the parable, what had the servant been doing? The master gave him some talents, or minus, there was two different parables, some money to invest, and he said, "Occupied till I come. I've given you resources, make the most of these resources and when I come back, we'll do an accounting." Because he was faithful to multiply the Kings resources, the King says, "Well done good and faithful servant." So what does faithful name? Doing whatever you can do with the resources God has given you to multiply them. That would be your natural abilities and talents. It may be money, it may be time, these are things we'll give an account to God for in the judgment, right? He wants us to multiply them. Improve your talents, make the most of your time for doing good. Do everything you can with your time, and your gifts and resources, to try to do as much good as you can. If we are faithful, to try to grow God's kingdom using those gifts. He declares to us, "You are faithful servant."

All right. Last section here. Gentleness and self-control. A girl was being asked to recite the fruits of the spirit and she said, "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and remote control." It just seems pretty common these days. Blessed are the meek. So we got one of them here is gentleness. The word gentleness is ... typically we use the word meek. We think of the word meek and we get meek, confused with word that has W in it, what's that? Weak. Does being meek mean being weak? Who is stronger? Jesus or Samson? Trick question, isn't it? Do you know the Bible says, that when the Spirit of the Lord left Samson, he was as other men. We always think of Samson, we think of a guy who's like Schwarzenegger on steroids, and just big, muscular. But the Bible says, when the Holy Spirit left him, he was like other men.

We're going to talk about David today, and the Holy Spirit came on David and he killed a lion. Same spirit that came on Samson. Was Jesus spirit filled? So, what makes a person strong is not muscular strength, meekness. Is talking about a kindness. It represents a ... gentleness is I guess the better word that we're looking for. Who's going to inherit the earth? Blessed are the meek, the gentle, for they will inherit the earth. You know the disciples they said, "Jesus you're too busy to bless the children," he was much displeased, and he gently took them up, placed his hands on them. Jesus was gentle with people. He sees Mary Magdalene is caught in adultery, assuming that was Mary, and instead of saying right, "You are a terrible, wicked sinner," he was gentle in the way that he dealt with her. He was gentle with the woman at the well. Christ was gentle with sinners, told them that their sin was fatal, but he was gentle in the way he approached them.

Isn't that nice to have a doctor and a nurse with a good bedside manner? I don't know if you've ever had a serious surgery, and the nurse had to come in and turn you and re-bind your wounds or whatever like that, and if they're rough ... Heard a story about someone that was in the hospital, and they had some major abdominal surgery, and another nurse needed to come in and move them around, and do stuff with the bandages and just really like a wrestler, really rough, and she's groaning. Next day another nurse came in, had to perform the same kind of cleaning and treatments, and checking the bandage, and moving the person around, and they were very gentle and say, "Is that okay? Here we go, slowly now," and they couldn't believe the difference. The lady that told me this that had the surgery said, "Nurse, yesterday was just like a polo player, body slamming," and she said, "You're so gentle." She said, "I'll let you in on a secret. I had the same surgery you had. I know how you feel."

It makes a person a lot more gentle when they know how you feel. Jesus knows even though he never sinned, he knows everything, and he knows how we feel. That's what it means to be gentle, to be tender with people. It tells us in Proverbs 16:32, he that is slow to anger, and part of this is now self-control. He that a slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Moses was called one of the meekest men in the world. Jesus said, "I am meek and lowly." At one time Moses lost his temper, well twice I can think of, he lost his temper. Once he murdered a fella at the beginning of the 40 years, and at the end of the 40 years he lost his temper and in a rage he beat the rock where he was supposed to speak to the rock. God had wanted him to demonstrate Christ's character for the people through that self-control, and he lost it, and that was not good.

While we're talking about the fruits of the spirit, I want to emphasize how much fruit do we have without Jesus? There's no fruit. Jesus said John 15:5, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, bears much fruit for without me you can do nothing." I thought it was interesting that, will there be fruit trees in heaven? How many kinds of fruit on the tree of life? 12 different kinds of fruit. I told you I got a friend that had a dozen, and this man supposedly put 40 different kinds of fruit on one tree. In heaven do you know? It tells about the tree of life 12 different kinds of fruit. Have you ever read the last chapter, because not only is fruit mentioned in the last part of the Bible in Revelation, it's drawing .... and what are the leaves in the tree for? Healing of the nations.

Do you know where John gets that? Or at least it's connected. Have you read the last chapter of Ezekiel. Let me read this. Ezekiel 47:12. Along the bank on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food. Their leaves will not wither, their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their waters flow from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be food, and their leaves for medicine. Isn't that interesting? Doesn't that sound an awful lot like what you find in Revelation? I want to take you one more place here. Go with me to the first Psalm, since we're talking about fruit. It's connected with what I just read there in Ezekiel. Psalm 1 is a blessing. The whole book of Psalms begins with a blessing. Blessed is a man, it's also true to the woman, who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of God. In his law he meditates day and night.

Now, we talked about the connection between the commandments and fruitfulness. When a person does that it says, "He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water to bring forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also will not wither, and whatever he does will prosper. Bible says that when we love the Lord and we love his law, we will be rooted like a tree by the river. This always stands out to me is, because living in the desert, if you're looking for water you know what you look for? Look for a tree. If you're out in Saudi Arabia and you're looking for an oasis, you better hope you see a tree, because the trees look for the water too. They don't seem to thrive without their water. Then I just read there, that in Ezekiel it says that those trees that grow by the river, the water flows from the sanctuary, and because it gets that living water from the sanctuary, they bear this miraculous fruit. The Tree of Life has the River of Life flowing by it. Isn't that what it says in Revelation?

We are to be called trees of righteousness, planting of the Lord. If we're drawing of the living water, which is Jesus, we will have the fruits of the spirit. Amen? What did Jesus die on? Cross? Do you know the Bible calls it also? A tree. In a sense you might say that Jesus said, "Except you eat my flesh, and drink my blood, you have no life in you." He's Jesus and what is the cross? A tree of life? Where does Jesus find Zacchaeus? In a tree. Do you know in the previous chapter God said, "It's so hard for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle."

Then also you'll find .... so there's this man who was very rich and Jesus found a fruit in a tree. You know what kind of tree it was? Sycamore. You know what a sycamore is? Sycamore is another name for a type of fruit tree, a fig tree rather, in Palestine. They have these much more carefully cultivated figs that the people would eat, but then they had the common, the figs for the poor people and the animals. Jesus went to one fig tree he cursed because there was no fruit, and then he comes to Jericho and he finds fruit in a fig tree called Zacchaeus. He comes to the Lord and he says, "Half my goods I give to the poor. If I've taken anything from anybody I've restored." He invites Jesus into his home, and he the fruits of the spirit. Maybe I'm making too much out of trees, but those stories I think are all very interesting.

Well, this has been a good lesson. I want to have the fruits of the spirit. Don't you friends? I want to remind those who are watching at home about ... we have a study on Spiritual Warfare, and so this is part 2, I think last week they offered part 1. Probably should have offered part 1 and part 2 together, but if you'd like a free copy of this, just ask for Spiritual Warfare, listen to it and share it with somebody. It'll tell you something about the spiritual battle, and the fruits of the spirit as well. It's number 823 when you call, and the number is 866- study more. That's 866-788-3966, and we'll send that to you. God bless you friend, and Lord willing we'll study his word together again next week.

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Pastor Doug: You probably heard the expression before, if you don't like the weather in Texas, just wait. It'll change. You've also heard everything is bigger in Texas. The ranches, the belt buckles, the cowboy hats, but the most famous slogan about Texas is remember the Alamo. Violent battles and bravery of iconic heroes have been the stuff of legends throughout which entire cultures often draw their identity and pride, even long after centuries have passed. In Texas, the story of the Alamo has been a rallying cry of Texas independence for 200 years. One reason that Texans love to brag that everything is bigger in Texas, is of course because Texas is the largest of the lower 48 US states. It's hard to believe that this massive state got its beginning in a very small Christian mission during the Battle of the Alamo.

Every year, this famous mission museum receives over two and a half million visitors from all parts of the planet, that are eager to get a good look at this legendary site. The Alamo played a critical role in the Texas Revolution. In December 1835, Texans in Tejano, volunteers battled Mexican troops quartered in the city forcing General Martin Perfecto they cost to surrender. The victorious volunteers then occupied the Alamo and strengthened its defenses. Famous Americans like Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and Colonel William Travis, named this location, this ancient mission The Beachhead. The last stand in an epic battle to win independence of Texas from Mexico.

On February 23rd, 1836 the arrival of general Antonio López Santa Anna nearly caught them by surprise. Undaunted, the Texans and Tejano prepared to defend the Alamo. For this small ragtag group of rebels, the youngest of who was about 16 and the old at 75, was against the well-trained and organized Mexican army of 6,000 plus soldiers. It was a fierce and lopsided battle, yet the small force of rebels was able to repel the troops for 13 days. Legend holds that with the possibility of additional help fading, Colonel Travis drew a line in the ground with a sword, and asked any man willing to stay and fight to step over the line. All except one crossed over. The final assault came before daybreak. On the morning of March 6, 1836, the 13th day of the siege, cannon and small arms fire from inside the Alamo beat back several Mexican attacks. Regrouping, Santa Anna's soldiers scaled the walls and rushed into the compound. The desperate struggle continued until the defenders were overwhelmed. By Sunrise, the battle had ended and the garrison were slain.

You know historians may debate some of the details regarding the Battle of the Alamo, but none of them questioned the incredible sacrifice that was made, and the courage that was displayed during that intense conflict. They made the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives, and this is why the story the Alamo is so inspiring and so encouraging. You know and that's why the Bible is so inspiring friends, because someone was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice and give his life, so that you can have freedom and eternal life. Don't you think you could trust your life to a friend like that, that would give everything? The story of the gospel is a story of courage and hope. It's a story of a God who will never leave you without defense and support. Jesus is the good news, and the gospel is a story worth remembering.