The Fruit Of The Spirit
The Fruit Of The Spirit – It was early October. The first frost had not yet come, but the mornings were cool and the evenings were hot. It was that unique time of the year when you shivered in the morning and sweated in the afternoon.
A 25 year-old man who grew up on a local farm got off work on Fridays at noon. He decided he would take his .22 rifle and roam the hollows of the family farm squirrel hunting. By 4 p.m. he had not seen one squirrel, so he headed for his truck. The afternoon was hot as the sunshine beamed down, and he began to sweat heavily.
About half way to the truck, he crossed an old watermelon patch. The good melons were taken to market over a month before. All that was left were the culls that came from the late blooms.
At the edge of the patch was a large white oak tree. On impulse, he decided to lean his gun against the tree, gather 3 or 4 cull watermelons, and quench his thirst by eating the hearts out of the small melons. And that is what he did.
As he sat under the tree, he took his hunting knife, split the melons, and began to eat the sweet center out of each melon. Just as he started eating, a white oak acorn fell on his head. He looked up among the branches of the tree at its acorns, and then he looked across the watermelon patch. He immediately had two thoughts. The first thought: “I sure am glad watermelons do not grow up in trees.” The second thought: “God sure knew what He was doing when He put acorns in trees and watermelons on vines.”
I want to ask you a question: how often do you say to yourself, “God sure knew what he was doing?”
Have you ever read the fruit of the Spirit and said to yourself, “God sure knew what He was doing!”
Listen: Galatians 5:22,23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
How often have you read these two verses and said, “God sure knew what He was doing!”

* I want you to note some things about the context.

* Paul made this statement in his letter to the Christians in Galatia because they were not treating each other right!

* Some of these Christian were using their freedom in Christ to hurt other Christians.
* These people caused problems in Christian-Christian relationships, and then cried out, “I have the right to Christian freedom!” to escape the responsibility or the consequences of their acts.
* Paul declared they had freedom, the freedom to love each other–in Christ Jews could love gentiles and gentiles could love Jews.
* While they had the freedom to love each other, they did not have the freedom to be selfish.
* So they were not to use their freedom in Christ as an excuse to do ungodlike things to other people.
* Pay special attention to a significant contrast.

* It was the contrast between the values and acts of idol worshippers and the values and acts of God worshippers.
* Paul classified the acts of idol worshippers as “deeds of the flesh.”
* He classified the acts of God worshippers as “fruit of the Spirit.”

* It is amazing to note how many of the “deeds of the flesh” focused on selfish indulgence.
* It is equally amazing to note that all of the expressions of the “fruit of the Spirit” focus on the unselfishness of godly relationships.

* Paul made it quite clear to those Christians that the person who converted to God through Christ by personal choice did not think or feel like people who do not belong to God.

* People who belong to God through Christ want a lifestyle led by the Spirit.
* The lifestyle of people who are led by God’s Spirit are at war in their lives with the ...