Today, I’m starting a preaching series on the fruit of the Spirit.  In the book of Galatians, Paul gives us this list describing the fruit of the Holy Spirit—that is, the attributes we who call ourselves Christians should demonstrate.  It’s a very challenging list.  I will admit, right from the beginning, that I have never been able to read this description of the fruit of the Spirit and say to myself, “Why yes, that just describes me perfectly!”  I wish I could.  And I imagine that you also wish you could.

          On the other hand, there’s another list that comes before it called “The acts of the sinful nature.”  Gratefully, I don’t find that list quite describes me either.  But I will confess right here that there are some aspects of a few of those sins that I struggle with from time to time.

          This is important stuff, and that’s why we are going to spend some time with this.  Let me read to you from Galatians 5:

¹⁶So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. ¹⁷For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

 ¹⁹The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

 ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. ²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

          Being a product of my times, I chose not to call this series, “The Acts of the Sinful Nature.” I could have chosen to spend my time preaching on the sins.  Instead, I’m choosing to focus on the positive traits we want to emulate.  But I will admit that it’s just possible we in our culture could use just a little bit more discussion concerning sin.  So don’t think you are completely off the hook—we might just have to talk about sin before we are finished.

          Paul gives us two lists:  the sins, in verses 19-21, and the fruits, in verses 22-23.  The sin list outnumbers the fruit list.  I’m not sure exactly what that means, except that we humans are pretty creative in our ways of sinning.  Perhaps we have more ways of being bad than we have of being good!

          Actually, I do not have the sense that either of these lists are meant to be comprehensive, end-all lists.  I can think of some qualities that could be added to each of these lists.  But I don’t think that’s the point.  The lists show us the difference between a person who is living under the influence of the Holy Spirit and a person who is living according to their sinful nature.

          So our purpose in reading those lists is to help us take a good look at ourselves and see how we are doing, and to ask ourselves whether or not our lives demonstrate the work of the Holy Spirit.

          At first glance, the list we are calling “The Acts of the Sinful Nature,” sounds pretty terrible.  Most of us look at that list and quickly assume it’s about someone else.  But if you look more closely, and if you are completely honest in your self-evaluation, you will likely have to admit that some of those qualities do describe your behavior, at least some of the time.

          Here’s the tough, embarrassing, awful question.  If I am a Christian—one who has trusted in Jesus as my Lord and Savior, then the Holy Spirit is in my life.  And if these qualities are the fruit of the Spirit, then why am I not automatically demonstrating these qualities in my life?

          When we accept Christ as Lord and Savior, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  And here, it sounds as if the Holy Spirit simply makes us over into people who are good!  When we accept Christ, we confess our sins, and we are forgiven.  The slate is wiped clean, and we have the opportunity to start all over.  The symbolism of our baptism is that we die to sin and rise out of the waters forgiven and cleansed from all sin—raised to new life in Christ.

          But even if you think you yourself are quite perfect and free from sin, just look around you at all these other so-called Christians!  Perhaps none of them are into debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, but how about hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy?  Oh, and by the way, if you think none of these ever fits you in any way, shape or form, maybe you should be concerned about one more sin, the sin of pride!

          My point here is not to make us all feel bad.  My point is that we have to be honest about the fact that none of us is perfect; none of us is quite the way we know we would like to be.  What is wrong with us Christians?  Why is the church not always a perfect place of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?

          I’m sure you have all heard what they say about the perfect church—If you should find the perfect church, don’t go there, because you will ruin it!

          So what is our problem?  I am going to suggest there are two issues, and we can’t solve this issue without both.  The fruit of the Spirit is, indeed, a gift that we receive.  That much is true.  And hopefully, all of us do experience these qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in our lives.  But there’s a second part.  We still have to work at becoming the people God is calling us to be.  We need to learn and to grow.

          If you will, imagine that you have received a wonderful gift.  The gift is a lovely little cottage with a flower garden.  Now, imagine you move into that lovely cottage and start living your life.  How wonderful it is that you have this gift.  So you cook some meals, you sleep in the bed, you lounge in the yard.  It’s just a great place to live.  Time passes, and somehow, your lovely little cottage is not quite what it used to be.  The dishes and dirty pots and pans have piled up in the sink and on the countertops.  Newspapers, garbage and mail litter the floor.  Your dirty laundry is heaped about.  The windows have gotten dirty.  In fact, everything you touch is covered with dust and grime.  There’s a hole in the roof, and the furniture is getting wet.  The bathroom is filthy.  Outside, weeds have cropped up and choked out the flowers.   Not only that, the tax collector is knocking at the door!  And since you never paid your bills, the water and electricity have been turned off.  What has happened to this lovely gift?  Your lovely cottage with the flower garden has become a nightmare!

          Well!  Apparently no one explained to you that every lovely little cottage and every flower garden needs to be maintained.  If you remember the story of the Garden of Eden in Genesis, you will recall that everything was perfect until sin came into the world, and Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden.  And after that, God said they would have to work hard to keep their gardens productive.

          Our spiritual lives are the same.  If we think that we can simply glide through life without taking care of our spiritual selves, we are quite wrong.  Everything in this life requires maintenance, and our souls are no exception.

          If you invited Jesus to come into your life and forgive your sins and you were baptized, that’s not the end!  Yes, God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us and to work out his purposes in his life.  But the Holy Spirit is not a dictator.  Your Christian walk is not a matter of automatic pilot.

          I have heard pastors talk about the fruit of the Spirit as is if it is something that just happens automatically.  They have said things like, “You don’t see an apple tree grunting and groaning over producing apples—the apples just come naturally because it is an apple tree.”

          Well let me tell you something.  I have spent enough time gardening to know that not all apple trees produce good apples.  Some fruit trees produce very little fruit.  Or wormy, blighted fruit.  Even on an apple tree, a good crop is not necessarily guaranteed.

          It is true that the Holy Spirit works in us to make us into the people God wants us to be.  But we can’t just sit back and wait for it to happen.  We are active participants, either for good or for evil in the way our lives will go.

          Jesus used a vine to describe our need to be fully connected to God in order to live fruitful lives.   In John 15:5, Jesus said, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”  This is where it starts.  When we receive Jesus as lord and savior, we are “In Christ.”  That’s where it starts. 

          We are to be connected to him because he is our source.  The reality is that this is not automatic.  We must spend our lives conforming our wills to his.  We need to seek his presence.  We need to remain in him.

          But it’s like that lovely little cottage we talked about.  You don’t simply go into the cottage and act like a guest who will be waited on hand and foot.  We are meant to be workers in God’s kingdom.  Part of our work is to do the soul work in our own lives that will allow the Holy Spirit to conform us into the image of God.  To remake us into the people we were created to be.

          Some of you hear the story of the cottage and think “Yes, that’s what my life is like.  Everything is a mess.”  For you, let me say first of all that the gospel message is that there is always grace for you.  If your life is out of control, there is help.  Through God’s grace and with some work, your life can be different.

          Others of you hear the story of the cottage and say to yourselves, “I would never allow that cottage to become such a mess.  I would take care of it.  It’s the way I live my life.”  To you I would say, count your blessings.  You probably were taught as a child how to take care of yourself and your surroundings.  You are blessed, and you can help the rest of us!

          Probably most of us see ourselves somewhere in between.  We do pretty well with most things, but we have a few places we know we need to work on.  There’s grace for us, too.

          The Bible teaches us that no matter where we are or where we have been, we can be forgiven.  We can have the chance to begin all over again.  And we can learn and grow.

          Often, we tend to separate our spiritual life from the rest of life.  That is not biblical.  Our spiritual life is our life.  God cares about every aspect of our lives.  He wants us to prosper in all of our ways. 

          In the coming weeks, we are going to look at the fruit of the Spirit and see what God wants to do in our lives.  We’ll also look at those acts of the sinful nature and talk about how God wants us to deal with them.

          None of us are too old to learn and to grow.  As long as we are alive, God wants to continue working in our lives, and he wants us to be working right along with him.

          Jesus came so that we might have eternal life, but he also came that we might have abundant life here on earth.  He cares about how we are living our lives here and now.  Let us commit to learning and growing and becoming as we live our lives according to the Spirit.

Prayer: 

Lord, you are the gift of life to us.  You gave your life so that we might have life—both eternal life and abundant life here on earth.  Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Thank you for leading us and guiding us throughout our lives.  Help us to remain in you; to abide in you, so that our lives might produce the fruit of the Spirit.  Because we confess that apart from you, we can do nothing.  Amen