Building Character: Fruits of the Spirit

Week 2 of a 3-week series. Starts with “All Things Under His Feet.”

As we heard last week from Mark Galli who wrote Jesus Mean and Wild: “This aspect of holiness has two dimensions: the shaping of our character to be set apart in godliness and the shaping of our calling so that our lives will be set apart for God’s purposes. In short, to be holy is to dedicate all that we are and all that we do to God.”

Today we’ll be talking about how God shapes our character, and we’ll be reading verses about the fruit of the spirit and harvesting eternal life and righteousness. Next week we’ll talk about following God’s purposes in our lives and daily decisions.

I like how Jesus so often used agricultural symbols to talk about growth in faith and Christian character. Let’s read Gal. 6:7-10. Do not deceive yourselves; no one makes a fool of God. You will reap exactly what you plant. If you plant in the field of your natural desires, from it you will gather the harvest of death; if you plant in the field of the Spirit, from the Spirit you will gather the harvest of eternal life. So let us not become tired of doing good; for if we do not give up, the time will come when we will reap the harvest. So then, as often as we have the chance, we should do good to everyone, and especially to those who belong to our family in the faith. (Gal. 6:7-10)

And John 15:1-8: “1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Jesus’ listeners understood this. Even city dwellers were perfectly in tune with the agricultural seasons. Crops took the time they needed to come up. You could help create the right conditions – planting the right crops at the right time, understanding when the rainy and dry seasons occurred, harvesting when the time is right. And you waited patiently, you had to. It was the same thing with character growth. It’s rewarding but it’s hard, and it takes time.

We don’t like that, do we? We joke that “I want patience and I want it NOW!” The United States is a commercial and media-driven culture. We want to buys things NOW. Have things NOW. Make changes NOW.

Except fast changes don’t work in sowing and reaping, and character building falls into this category. Now, as Christians we are not doing this alone. In fact, if try to build character on our own we’re not going to get very far. We need the action of the Holy Spirit. And we also need to start, because while reaping may take a while it’s NEVER going to happen if you don’t start sowing! So the question is – what are you sowing? Are you sowing in prayer and obedience? And what are you reaping?

#1. You reap what you sow

Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Gal. 6:8)

If you want to raise corn you don’t plant barley and then wonder what happened! If you sow the seeds of bitterness, pride, unforgiveness, apathy, anger, perfectionism, procrastination; then that is exactly what you will reap. Instead look to the fruits of the Spirit — if we want to reap the fruit of gentleness then we practice gentleness. Real gentleness, not just grinding our teeth together and giving someone a sickly smile. Releasing people from condemnation, asking God to help. If you want the fruit of self-control then prayerfully start changing small habits where you are out-of-control.

• Question: In what areas of your life are you sowing — or know you should be?
• Question: In what areas of your life are you reaping?

#2. We reap what we sow but God multiples the harvest

But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires. The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives. (Gal. 5:22-25)

Science can explain the physical reasons behind the plant growth and harvest. I still think it’s pretty miraculous that when you plant a little acorn, a mighty oak grows. And when you plant a field using a few little seeds, a whole field springs to life. This is from God. As farmers we prepare the soil, plant and water – and God just goes to town with rich harvests!

It’s the same in our interior lives. We try to practice gentleness, or faith, or self-control. Even if our efforts are small because it’s hard for us, God responds with a rich harvest – because we are not alone. We are making changes with the help of the Holy Spirit.

See that? God gives the fruits of the Spirit. They’re not “the fruits of Charlene” or the “fruits of Verena.” We have the responsibility to practice them as well as we can, but even if that’s not good at all God will still help us and bring the harvest. We must turn to Him, and then He acts miracles on our behalf. Why? Because He loves us and He loves abundant life.

#3. Sowing is this life, reaping is now and in the future – eternity

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ (Mt. 25:21)

All of our sowing take place in this life. We sow first by turning to Christ and accepting Him into our hearts. Then we grow by sowing obedience and trust in our hearts. All the while God responds with great harvests. And when we die, we meet Him – and enjoy the harvest forever! Don’t put off planting the crops that He asks us to plant. Are you eating the fruit of bitterness? Plant forgiveness. Are you eating the fruit of laziness? Plant self-control. Are you eating the fruit of pride? Plant humility. Our harvests will be amazing in this world and incredible in the next!

Questions

• Is an attitude of mine keeping me from reaping? Bitterness, entitlement, pride?
• Am I trusting God to grow the harvest or do I think I need to go it alone?
• Am I impatient for the end result and am not seeing the growth that is happening?
• Everyone think of one area at least where you are seeing growth. How have you changed – and how has God changed you — because you are sowing good seed?