Post by Les Brewer on Sept 21, 2014 12:23:50 GMT
Preface
No this message is not about a video game with a Master Chief killing copious amounts of aliens. Nor is it a discussion on airborne operations in military freefall. What it is about is one of my favorite desserts here in the Philippines, “Halo, Halo.” Loosely translated it means “mixed up, mixed up or “crazy, crazy”. The dessert dish includes many native fruits and other things all mixed up with shaved ice, ube (Purple sweet potatoes) ice cream and sweet condensed milk. Each of us is like this, we are “Halo Halo,” all mixed up. The word of God, Jesus Christ came to straighten us out. He came to set our feet back on the straight and narrow path through His word and to save us from the sin and craziness of the world system, by His shed blood on the cross. He defeated the so called leader of this world. Jesus truly is the light that makes our path straight.
My question for each of us today: Do we think we can mix worldly attitudes ( Evil Fruit) with (Godly Fruit) and not become totally Halo, Halo? The apostle Paul’s teaching was just this when he wrote to the Church at Galatia. We do not have the liberty to just do whatever we want, there is a standard called the Word of God. Will we obey or compromise the Word of God? Will be faithful or fail?
Galatians Chapter 5 World English Bible
1 Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4 You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. 5 For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love. 7 You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little yeast grows through the whole lump. 10 I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.
11 But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off. 13 For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”✡ 15 But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another. 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, 21 envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,* 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.
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✡5:14: Leviticus 19:18
*5:22: or, faithfulness
Introduction
There are some of us that still live by the law. They may not seem to be at first, but if you observe them everything is legalistic. They are swift to jump on someone if they fail to walk a certain line, but they don’t hold to the standard themselves. Then there are those who are living as if there are no laws. As if grace is their license to do whatever they want they teach it and challenge others who want to walk a holy and humble walk. Personally I don’t believe in the liberal Christianity, just as much as the religious zealots who want to crucify people for what they wear or how the behave in Church. We are so unforced on our commission we have forgotten why we are here. As we learned the last couple weeks in the messages, The Witness Part I and II we are here to witness and build up the Church so we can advance the Kingdom of God. Advancing the Kingdom of God is done by witnessing or preaching and teaching. Everything points to Jesus and leading others to Him. We are not here to tear down others we are here to build up, encourage and comfort. We bring admonishment from the word and we do not condemn. Our purpose is to love, but without the fruit of the Spirit we are just empty zombies with no life. The fruit of the Spirit shows we are His.
When are mixed up and have blended into us, the fruit of the world system, we bring confusion of what we believe and more namely more about who we believe. The “Halo, Halo” faith is not proper and causes damage to the cause of the Gospel of Jesus. We must stand firm in our faith. Our unfaithfulness for example could be the leaven (sin) that will leaven the whole lump V9. We are warned that if we practice sin as believers eventually we will fall away and we affect the Body of Christ the Church. To be faithful, for example, it is the little things that test this. God is looking for faithful servants. Is it no surprise that the words Jesus will use on the day of judgment relates to faithfulness such as “Well done good and faithful servant”. The measure or metron of this judgment has nothing to do with how great you look in Church or even how nice the worship song sounded that you played or sang. The measure of our service does not even address our hours prayed or bible studies performed or number of people healed or raised from the dead. The true measure Jesus used was, “I was hungry and you fed me and I was thirsty and you gave me drink.” I was in prison and you visited me”. These are Jesus’ standards of service. He said “if you deny me before men, I will deny you too before the father.”
Today we will study the fruit of the Spirit. These are not gifts, they are the Holy Spirit in us. He will reveal this fruit as you grow or mature. Are you growing? But first in Part One and Two we will see the bad fruit and the set the stage as to what the real fruit is not. Then in Part Three we will see the real deal and the virtues that must be visible in the members of an apostolic team, a ministry team sent by Jesus.
Part One VV1-10 Are We Standing or falling?
We are called to stand firm, but the enemy is constantly working to move us away from serving Christ. Jesus has called you to a particular ministry, so even moving away from your calling can be considered unfaithful or compromising. An example would be requests to have you work in other ministry areas separate from your (measure), metron or better said jurisdiction. Each of you has a jurisdiction a place or region you are called to work. We come from a local Church and we are sent and go back to it, but we also have a limited area that we work in to flourish with our spiritual gifts. We will grow quicker there, because we were sent there by the Lord from the local church governing authority. The enemy will try to get you to be so busy that you will not focus on the ministry you are called to. Eventually you will burn out and fall away or only work inside theb four walls. The anointing you have is for one ministry not many. Multitasking is quite prideful. There are many workers who can do those other things, remember to train up and delegate to others. Where there is deviation there is usually a culprit who leads astray. Some leaders who try to get others to fail by over burdening them or becoming legalistic and not bring the love and grace of God. They are jealous of any success of those they lead and will circumvent their success, delay or even block it. These religious spirits will try to divide the local church and the apostolic teams in the outreach areas. If they can they will destroy and even kill.
Part Two VV11-21 Led By the Spirit
When we are led by the Spirit we do not serve the flesh. Those evil acts of the flesh will not be mentioned among us. Yet we see some of these things in our midst. Why is this? Web are not being led by the Spirit. Let me say that again, if you are seeing these things in the Church then we are not led or empowered by the Spirit. Our faith is not focused and sin is leavening up inside of us. We are not able then to advance the Kingdom or build each other up. We are more worried about ourselves, pride prevails not love.
Here is the bottom line if you practice these things or things like this or will not inherit the Kingdom of God. I will repeat you will not inherit the Kingdom of God:
V19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, 21 envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Those who practice such things are disinherited. You see the reason why we are always are encouraging you not to practice sin? It is not so we look good as a Church, but it is for you. You sin against God and yourself too. Yes our sin affects the other members of the Body of Christ, but eventually each of us will stand individually before Jesus and give account.
Part Three VV22-26 The Real Fruit
The fruit of the Holy Spirit is based on supernatural love. Without the power of the Holy Spirit we cat even begin to love like God does. This critical because the without the fruit of the Spirit then the virtues will not be seen in us. The fruit listed here in Galatians are progressive, each one a form of love in application, not just a word. Self-control is the ultimate in love because it is loving yourself with this unconditional love too. This is not selfish, but selfless. We love others as we love ourselves. We love because God loved us first and then we can love Him, ourselves and others.
Dr. Robert Seyda in his commentary on Galatians, Facebook, said these very important words:
“Paul makes no attempt to separate love from the virtues which follow as somehow being distinct from love as an essence; rather, too recognize that they are all genetically connected, with love being the common strain that proves their bonding relationship. This is the way love expresses itself as joy, peace, patience, and so on. As such, these virtues as manifestations of love provide proof that love exists within the believer. We might even say none of these manifestations are possible without love being a controlling and issuing element.
Nonetheless, these are examples of what love does, not necessarily how love modifies. When love becomes transformed by the Spirit as it passes through man's spiritual attitude and temperance, we can clearly see love in its finest forms as fruit.
1. Joy—Love that is excited.
2. Peace—Love that is secure.
3. Patience—Love that is tolerant.
4. Kindness—Love that is cultured.
5. Goodness—Love that is mature.
6. Faithfulness—Love that is consistent.
7. Gentleness—Love that is tender.
8. Self-Control—Love that is disciplined.
Finally, this concept not only allows for each virtue to be different in character but sustain the unity of essence in love. Furthermore, this love comes from one source, which is God, and brought into our lives at the new birth by the Holy Spirit. The result is eight selfless expressions of love communicated when the Holy Spirit and the believer's spirit integrate to provide the right atmosphere for ripening and dispensing. Without love none of it would be possible.”
Again Dr. Robert Seyda wrote of Galatians 5:
“Verses 22-23: Jesus exclamation that “you will know them by their fruit,” is very appropriate here. First check yourself before checking others to see who measures up. Notice, these are not just fruit, but fruit of the Spirit. That means, these virtues and Christ-like characteristics are those that the Holy Spirit brings by transforming our spirit into willful obedience to Christ our Lord and Master. And just like fruit in the natural world is meant to provide nurture and healthful benefits to the human flesh, so these fruit are meant to generate nurture and spiritually healthful benefits to those whom the Christian feeds with words and actions. Not only that, but fruit contain seeds which when planted can bring forth more trees to bear fruit. Unfortunately too many trees are barren of this fruit and therefore no new trees are being planted.”
The key here is as Dr. Bob says that “barren trees do not propagate.” When we are fruitless we will not reach our families or Cities with the gospel. We must have character and virtues that affect people. Here are some features that should be required for all evangelistic/apostolic church planting team members. We so easily allow members to go without checking for fruit.
The fruit of the Spirit will manifest in apostolic mighty warriors with these features, paraphrased from Jonas Clark’s book “Effective Ministries and Believers” Copyrighted 2008 Pages 177-190.
11 Features of Apostolic Team Members 1 Thessalonians Chapter 2
1. Honest and Transparent – “For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor of guile 1 Thess 2:3 We do not seduce people or control them when preach the word of God and our actions match. We do not lie, embellish or exaggerate. We teach the Truth, Jesus Christ!
2. Pure Motives – “For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.” 1 Thess 4:7. We do not use the ministry for personal gain in ministry or business. We don’t gain money, power, reputation through pure service. We should be glorifying Christ.
3. Upright, Ethical and Trustworthy - “No guile.” 1 Thess 2:3. We are not tricky and we don’t use money, goods or promises of gain in reaching the lost. We don’t charge for ministry efforts. We must be trustworthy, people of our word. We give and don’t take away. We bring love and not manipulation or control.
4. Pleasing God – “But as we were allowed to be put in trust of the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which tries our hearts.” 1 Thess 2:4. Are we here to please ourselves others or God? The commands of God word are clear we are to be doing God’s will. He knows our heart and our true motives. You can’t lie to God. Who’s penny or centavo are you flying on? Many leaders of ministry teams around the world are making assumption it is okay to spend God’s money on things that are not in God’s will. This is dangerous. God’s will in ministry is for us to preach the gospel. We can do that in tent, under an umbrella or even without. We only need to open our mouths and this is free. The best way to evaluate this is to look at our expense report and see how much was spent on trips, meals, expenses that were not even connected with furthering the gospel or evangelism and outreach. When we say we are pleasing God, we would then revaluate much of what we have spent and should have been given to outreach teams and not to in reach. No more wasted trips that serve only ourselves, building funds that did not save a soul. We must fear God and not people. The fear of man will cause us to compromise our faith to stay admired and popular. It can also create intimidation that will quiet your testimony or keep you from spiritual warfare. (Acts 5:27-29) Peter and the other apostles had to stand firm when they were attacked and so must we.
5. Sincere, Genuine and Unfeigned – “The neither anytime used we flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness; God is witness.” 1 Thess 2:5. We must not brandish words that mask greed. We give praise or honor as needed, but we don’t flatter people to gain access to them for money or other things. No words to control, deceive, control, or manipulate.
6. Free of Greed – “No cloak of covetousness” 1 Thess 2:3. No using words for selfish gain. This is about not using business and other money adventures where we take advantage of people for our gain. We are not to place people in bondage to us. This as we learned a few weeks ago which includes usury or loaning to the poor.
7. Free of Stardom, Fame, or Celebrity – “Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.” 1 Thess 2:6. “We don’t need no stinkin’ badges.” No awards or praise from men. We are driven by purpose. Our purpose is to reach the lost. We advance the Kingdom of god through advancing the gospel in the territory or jurisdiction. We seek honor from god only. John 5:44. No Pinoy or American idols on the ministry teams. We are servants of Christ. Galatians 1:10 “…For if I yet pleased men, I should not be a servant of Christ.”
8. Gentle, Compassionate and Agreeable “But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children: So being affectionately serious of you, we were willing to have imparted to you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear to us. 1 Thess 2:7-8. We are not pushy, Remember gentle is not weak. We set the example of Christ who was meek and not weak, Matthew 11:29-30 “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart and you will find rest to your souls”, We are admonished to be gentle to all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves… (2 Timothy 2:24-25)
9. Hard Workers – “For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail; for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God” 1 Thess 2:9. The word sluggard comes to mind. We are to be the opposite, fervent or full of energy, “energeo” in the Greek. Are we really ready to serve at God’s convenience? Are we serving by faith or not? Sometime we wonder why particular ministries fail. It usually has something to do with part time workers. Though we must prioritize our life, we serve 24/7. This means we are serving at home, in our business, job and even during recreation time. We have no off time since are serving in commission with the Holy Spirit. As Paul wrote Timothy, ”endure the hardship as good soldiers” (2 Timothy 2:3)
10. Holy and Just – “You are witnesses and God also, how holily and justly and blameless we behaved ourselves among you that believe.” 1 Thess 2:10. Righteousness. We don’t hear this word very often these days. But beside humility, holiness and righteousness are key qualifications to work in the Kingdom of God and on His teams. Jesus is looking for “a few good men” as the U.S. Marines said for years. We must be a cut above the rest by holy living. The Kingdom of our God does not advance by just words, there must be holy and righteous action. It is not just about appearance, but behavior or character. Paul boldly says, “But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be castaway.” (1 Cor. 9:27)
Here is the bottom line, social justice, we will not influence the world without it:
Romans 12:1-2 World English Bible
1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. 2 Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
11 Blameless, Faultless and Innocent – And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” Luke 1:6. We must be free of appearing evil. No inappropriate actions. No actions that would disqualify us from the team. We are not faultfinders, gossips or one who is always critiquing others. We supposed to be loving, end of Subject. We set the example.
For yourselves know how you ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; Neither did we eat any man’s bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail night and day that we might be chargeable to any of you: Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example to you to follow us. 2 Thess 3:7-9.
Conclusion
Is your word worth its weight in gold? How about your character. When we say something, do we do it? Are we faithful or hypocrites? There are people depending on us to be what we say. Our God and savior Jesus Christ is watching us:
2 Peter 1:3-9 World English Bible
To those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2 Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue; 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. 5 Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; 6 and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control patience; and in patience godliness; 7 and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.
Challenge
Are we really changing for the better or are we the same as we were before? We change by the word of God, prayer, fellowship and submission in serving. This is the pathway to change. We don’t change by wishful thinking or high hopes. The fruit of the Spirit must be seen in us. Not as halo, halo, but clearly defined and no confusion. The peace of God, Jesus Christ (Prince of Peace) should reign in us.
Will you submit TO HIM?
