Weekly Sermon

1-29-12

Fruits Of The Holy Spirit pt. 3

Last week we continued our series on the fruits of the Holy Spirit by talking about patience, kindness and goodness, while touching on the word gentleness to sum those fruits into one word. I want us, this week, to discuss three fruits, with one of them being one we touched on last week. The three fruits we will be discussing today are, meekness, gentleness and self control. I know this seems like we will have gone through all nine of the fruits, but gentleness was one last week that we briefly discussed that I wanted to dwell further on because it really goes with this part of the series so well.

I had honestly planned on talking about the last three fruits and this would be the end of this series, but being I am not in control I was led in another direction.

The first of the fruits, in this part of the series, that I want us to look at is meekness. What is the true definition of the word meekness? Meek, according to www.dictionary.com, means to be humble, submissive, patient or spiritless. I like the fact that it says we are to be humble, submissive, patient and spiritless. Why would that definition be one that we should really pay such close attention to? Let us look at a verse in the Bible that will show us something that we talk about almost every Sunday here at our church.

Grab your Bibles and turn with me to Matthew 11:28-30, "Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. (29)Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (30)For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."

Notice that this is Jesus talking in this particular passage of scripture. It is very important to notice this because of what is being said. Jesus said, and I am paraphrasing here, humble your selves and fully submit to me and I will carry those heavy burdens for you and fix your weary soul. Unite with me and I will teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart. If you unite with me the burden I give you will be light.' This is such a very hard thing for the human fleshly mind to wrap itself around. How can Jesus take my troubles away and give me rest? Jesus did not have to worry about a job, money, His marriage, a nagging wife, an unfit husband, friends wronging Him daily, or His health. You want to know something, you are right. He did not have to worry about those things. Why is that? He had so much faith in His Father to take care of those things for Him that He did not have to worry about those things. If you humble yourself and fully submit to Jesus and become spiritless, allowing the Holy Spirit room in your heart, then you too will not have to worry about any of those things. Can you see where this fruit is a major step in doing what Jesus did do? If we truly want to do what Jesus did, this is one of the first steps we MUST take.

If we are going to completely and humbly submit to being like Christ, or being called a true Christian, then we will fully understand the next fruit of gentleness. What does it mean to have gentleness? This literally means to have compassion and help for your brothers and sisters.

Let us see what Paul had to say in Galatians 6:1-3, "Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. (2)Share each others burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. (3)If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important." I truly hope this set of passages make sense. Paul says that we are to help our brethren and lead them back to the right path, while making sure we do not fall into that same temptation of sin. If we are to emulate Christ then we are to unite with them and carry their burden. Oh but pastor I have burdens of my own that I must bear and I could not possibly take on any more burdens. Do we have to refer back to the first fruit we discussed in the beginning of this message? If we unite with Christ and turn over our burdens to Him and He gives us a much lighter burden, then we have all the shoulders we need to support any burden that our brothers and sisters might have. We then turn those burdens over to Christ just as we did our own. Do we think that Christ has strong enough shoulders for all these burdens? Those shoulders supported Him on the cross when the normal man would have died from so much pain. They are strong shoulders.

Paul also says in Ephesians 4:2-6, "Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each others faults because of your love. (3)Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. (4)For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. (5)There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, (6)and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all." We are all one body and one spirit. If we are all one then we should work as one, always backing each other and supporting each other. If the body of Christ ever intends on being a well oiled machine then each part of this machine must work hand in hand. Once we figure out that we are all one body in Christ then we will be able to support each other when we are down. If we were to cut down a tree and toss it aside would the branches continue to live? Look at it this way, if you were to discontinue your walk with Christ and you had folks feeding off of your faith, you would be the trunk of this particular tree and they would be the branches. If you stopped helping these family and friends around you, they would surely fall away and die without Christ. We are all one tree with many branches that we help. Let us be like Christ and help, being gentle in our actions and humbling our selves just as Christ humbled Himself to die for a lost world.

To be able to be meek, humbled and gentle, then we have to display a sense of self control. What is it that I mean by having self control? If we are going to try to help someone clean up their lives and live for God, then we have to make sure that our own house is clean.

Turn with me to 2 Peter 1:3-8, "By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. (4)And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires. (5)In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, (6)and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, (7)and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. (8)The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Oh but pastor I do not have everything I need. Yes, yes you do, you just do not have everything you want. There is a huge difference between need and want. Do you know that if you settle for you need then God will supply your want? 2 Corinthians 8:15, "As the Scriptures say, "Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough." As we can see, if we rely on God, He will supply or need with enough, that means our want. Our biggest problem, as a society, is we escape to the world's corruption caused by human desires. We must be better than the Jones'. What a way to think. Let us refer back to one body in Christ. There are no Jones'. There is ONE body for ONE God. Do we not remember the feeding of the 5000 with a two piece fish dinner? That small dinner fed all those with baskets left over. That right there is need and want. I needed to eat and wanted more. Tad-ah, I ate and had more left over.

More importantly than our need or want being supplied, notice the rest of that passage. We are given promises. Promises of what? We are given promises of enough in our lives that we may not only have our need or want, but enough to help others around you. If we really want to be fed or have all the promises that God has to offer, then we supply our selves with faith, knowledge, self control, patient endurance, Godliness, affection, and love. If we grow in these things we will become, not only, more productive and useful in Christ, but also in our knowledge of Christ.

Meekness, gentleness and self-control are three major fruits of the Holy Spirit that will cause us to be more like Christ. When we fully submit and, just let go, then God will take over and supply our needs and wants and cause us to control our fleshly desires, while at the same time lifting up those around us and steering them to the right path of the righteousness of God.

Are you willing to start taking those first steps to a righteous path to Christ? Are you will to submit and let go of all and allow God to supply you with all of His promises? If you are will to start this simple walk, then all you have to do, to get started, is to say a simple prayer with me.

Say this simple prayer with me, Dear Lord, I want you to be the Lord over my life, forgive me of my sins, and give me the gift of everlasting life. Amen.

If you have said this simple prayer, then we believe that you have received salvation. We would love to rejoice with you, so please drop us a note, in our link, to let us know and confess Jesus before man, so that we may send you a few things that we hope will help you in your new Christian walk.

With Love in Christ,

Pastor Stone