How to Grow Spiritual Fruit

0:05 And that is where the fruit grows. That's what I'm hoping to convince somebody today listening to this. You're trying to see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in your life. I know you're trying to see that. And yet you're trying to muster it up on your own strength. It doesn't come that way. It comes by like deep diving, refusing to move away from anything except for righteousness by faith and faith alone. When you dwell there, fruit grows. Welcome back, Mayhem Makers. This is Cassandra Barbato, your host. And Amber Jenks, your co-host. We are on the topic of identity in Christ. We are breaking bondages. The first couple of episodes here, we talked about the new covenant. We have talked about how God remembers our sins no more. We have talked about how we've been made completely perfect forever in the spirit.

1:01 Our new birth, our new creation, it's been completely washed. And then last week we talked about how the gospel has a transformative power to it. So it's not just that we've been washed on the inside, we've been made perfect on the inside. No, there is a power of God onto salvation for the believer where we actually have a transformation in the way that we move through this life. And we focused a lot on the sitting aspect, right? We talked about how there's a sit, walk, stand. The sitting, the seated, is that understanding who we are in Christ. So if you're wanting to walk out the Christian life in a way that has power attached to it, miraculous power, the power of the gospel, you got to learn who you are first, right? And that seated position is understanding how right you are with Christ, with God, through the gospel, the bloodshed of Jesus Christ. But this week we're going a little bit into the walk part. So we've talked a lot about that seated, that foundation, and now we're going to be talking about being led by the Spirit.

2:10 And I think this is the area where we start to see people kind of, if they don't have the foundation and they're talking a lot about being led, talking a lot about their walk, they actually get into what we would call legalism, right? So legalism is just basically trying to be right with God through a means of works. We're going to be right with God by doing the good stuff and avoiding the bad stuff. And this produces all manner of problems in the believer's life if they're trying to be right with God by their efforts, by their actions. Let's touch really quick on the verse last week from the chapter one of Romans where he says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God on salvation for the Jew first and also for the Greek. And then it goes into the verse after that, which is a fantastic verse, which says, for in it, that's in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, but the righteous one will live by faith. faith. So we take that seated mindset of being right with God permanently because of what Jesus did and not because of what we do into our living. So into our life, this whole walk with God is by grace. It's unearned.

3:29 You get favor through faith. So there is a part of ours where we're going to believe in that. And this for the righteousness of God is revealed in that. It starts to be even revealed in us in how we walk, right? And it's from faith. It means it comes out from faith. Like you don't get the revelation, the revealing of God's righteousness in your day to day, except from it coming out from faith. And then it doesn't move into works. It moves into faith. It's just like an out from faith and an into faith and an out from faith and an into faith. There's a one degree of glory to the next for the believer that is rooted in what you believe. And this verse is really just pounding that in. So for in it, in the gospel message, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith. As you're believing in the gospel, that righteousness of God becomes revealed and it moves you into more faith and As it is written, the righteous one, that's you and me who've put our faith in Christ, we are the righteous one, will live by faith. And so taking that as kind of our foundation as we move into this conversation with being led by the Spirit, I want you to remember that all these things are rooted and founded in understanding who you are in Christ and but it produces something in your life. It produces fruit.

4:57 And the Spirit is the one who consistently teaches and trains us and tells us and comforts us and leads us and guides us in this reality of who we are. And then he brings it into the reality of our walk by showing us the right ways to go from a rooted, founded position of the gospel as we move through life. In chapter 5, verse 13 of Galatians, he says, So there is an opportunity for us to turn our freedom into something that the flesh wants to pursue. And there's uncomfortable things that come out of that experience. And like a good heavenly father, he would like to keep us from those things and have us walk in accordance with his good resources.

6:00 Just like our parents want us to live up to our potential. Yes. They don't want us to waste our natural gifts. They don't want us to squander school like somebody I heard of once did. They want us to meet everything that we were created to be. And that's the same way God is. He wants us to meet the potential that we have as this new creation because he gave us the gift of Christ. He's supplying through the whole thing. He's supplying everything. Life. He wants us to draw from him in those areas. But this is not a conversation about how you're going to be right with him. So you're called to freedom, but not called to turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but the fruit of the spirit. So here it is. Notice that there's a difference between the flesh and the spirit. One is called works, works of the flesh, works of the flesh. But the fruit is a different kind of way of presenting it, right? Like, what's the difference between works and fruit?

6:57 Fruit is positive. Work is lame. Work is lame. That's funny. Fruit is positive. Work is lame. One of them is an effort. Yes, one you physically have to do. The other one. It grows naturally. It's a byproduct. Because you have a tree, but then you have a tree with fruit, so it's even better. Thanks for the shade and the treats. Yes, and the treats. It's something that grows naturally, right? Christ talks about the vine and we're the fruit bearing part. We don't supply the life that grows the fruit. We don't prune the tree to bear the fruit. God's doing that.

7:37 We're the fruit bearing part because we are united with the one who has the life and the nourishment and the supply that can grow the fruit. It's something that's completely apart from our effort. Mm-hmm. And then we go in and we're like, okay, this is the list I got to do. We will turn the fruit of the spirit into something that we're going to try and attempt to muster up. But the fruit of the spirit is love. We're like, I got to be more loving. It's a fruit. It grows out from the spirit, right? Love, joy, man, I'm not joyful enough. I need to be more joyful. I'm going to today, today I choose joy. Okay, cool. And then somebody cuts you off on the freeway.

8:21 Yeah. And all of a sudden you chose something else. Joy is out that window. Peace. Right. Actually, I actually think the world is looking for these first three that this is what we're pursuing. Love, joy, peace. We are trying to be we want to be loved and we want to love. I mean, we put them on our walls from Hobby Lobby, right? Right. Joy. We're looking for some kind of like positive feelings. Peace. We want to be at peace where everything is functioning as it should. That's what peace is. It's where all the parts are moving and working together like a well-oiled machine. Right. Love, joy, peace. Those are the first three fruit of the spirit. And those are the things that we're trying to find and make happen out of our own efforts.

9:02 And then it says things that we don't really like as much, like patience. We're like, I'm not super fond of patience. I would rather not have to wait for things. But it is a fruit of the spirit. Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. That one I struggle with. Self-control. I'm like trying to figure out how do I get more gentle? Oh, yeah. Fruit of the spirit. Yes. Not my own effort. Self-control is the big one. That kind of wraps up a lot of things, doesn't it? Self-control. Fruit. We're trying to do it. We're trying to muster up self-control. It's a fruit. Thank goodness.

9:45 And so here's the thing. Okay. Well, that's cool and all. But if it's fruit. And I don't have any control over growing those things. That becomes frustrating to me because I want to make the love, the joy, the peace, the patience, the kindness, the goodness, the faithfulness, gentleness, self-control happen. And so what do I do? And so we go out and we're like, well, today I'm going to be more loving. Today I'm going to choose joy. Today I'm going to be peaceful. Today, I'm going to have patience and I'm going to be kind to people and I'm going to have goodness and faithful. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to do these things. Guarantee it's not going to work out. Sin rears its ugly head. So there's got to be another way.

10:27 But let's just finish out this next little thing. He says, now those who belong to Christ Jesus crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. Paul teaches in other places that you're to see that thing as crucified. Mm-hmm. It is a faith thing. Remember that from faith into faith thing, from faith into faith. And the righteous one lives by faith. You're going to, by faith, see that thing crucified because Jesus said he did. Because Jesus said he did. He said he took it. He bore it. That's the faith part. We've got to believe it. And then he says, if we live by the Spirit, let's follow the Spirit as well. That tells me there's two things.

11:16 That tells me that I can have life by the Spirit, but also make some choices to follow something other than the Spirit in my walk. Mm-hmm. Right? If I have life by the Spirit, let's follow the Spirit as well. We've talked about how we've been born of the Spirit because we put our faith in Christ, that in that new birth that we have, we've been made completely perfect forever. And Paul is trying to teach them that while you might have that life in you, Your walk may not always have that. So if you want to have the life that's in you coming into your walk on the outside, be led by the Spirit.

12:02 The Spirit teaches us something very important. We talked a lot about that last week in the transformative power of the gospel, that the gospel is the thing that transforms a believer. It's the thing that renews your mind to the truth. The more you know how right you are with God, the more you look more like God. That's what this spirit thing is doing. The Holy Spirit is teaching us about the things of Christ, his work that he accomplished and what that accomplishment means for me and you. And the more we know that and believe that and trust that, the more we bear fruit and and have the byproduct of the love, the joy, the peace, and all the other things from a natural fruit-growing process. It is not an effort thing.

12:49 It's really hard to explain to a non-believer or someone that isn't fully understanding how right you are with God that it's not an earned thing. It's not a reward. It's not something you can manifest on your own. It is something that grows. And if you think about it as a materialistic, Maturity thing. It is about maturity. It is as a tree or whatever gets older, it produces the fruit. Yes. So as you mature in your relationship, not you're checking off the list of right and wrongs. It's as you get to know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that maturity produces the fruit.

13:30 You actually start to trust the Lord more. The more you believe how right you are with him, the more you trust him. The more you believe that the God of all creation, the God that has the resources that never end and is literally the source of anything that is good, has favor for you and wants to pour out his favor and his strength and all of his resources. He wants to pour out those things in our life and on us so that one, we can represent his kingdom, but also because he loves us and he wants us to have that good stuff in our life. The more we start to trust him for that, the more we're willing to go, okay, dad, which direction do we go? Yeah, absolutely. And it's because he gave us free will.

14:13 If we want to allow the flesh to lead, he will, if we want to be that stubborn, but if we can take a beat and allow the Holy Spirit to lead, then that's when you see and other people will see the fruits. Because I know many times that I have been in control and not said the right thing and there are times when I have surrendered myself and then the appropriate thing comes out. Surrender yourself to the gospel the good news it produces even right speaking to the people around you seeing their sin crucified too is a good one because some of us are okay with seeing our own sin crucified but we're not super like your sin is also crucified your sin was also forgiven yes We're like, no, I'm going to hold you to your sin. I'm going to be mad about that. Let's go over to John chapter 16, because Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit and he talks about him coming and talks about what the Holy Spirit is going to be doing.

15:16 John chapter 16, starting in verse seven, Jesus is talking to the disciples and he's talking to them. Read it slow too, because my brain needs slowness. Okay. He is talking to them. Because they are sad because they know Jesus is going to leave them. They feel abandoned. They're also very confused. Verse 7 says, but I tell you the truth, and this is Jesus talking. It is for your benefit that I am going away. Unless I go away, the advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. So let's look at that word, the advocate. Okay, yeah.

15:57 Who is Jesus talking about? The parakeet. The parakeet. Okay. It's not actually the word, but the phonetic spelling, according to lexical summary is parakletos. Which means helper, counselor, advocate. It's the spirit can dwell inside every believer globally. I like helps word study. It says a legal advocate who makes the right judgment call because close enough to the situation. In this passage, Jesus is reframing the loss as an upgrade. Having the spirit inside of you is better than having Jesus beside you. And that's what he's trying to tell his disciples as he's preparing them for what's about to happen.

16:41 Then we look at verse eight and it says, and when he comes, he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. In regard to sin, because they do not believe in me. In regard to righteousness, because I am going to the father and you will no longer see me. This is a very important part of Scripture. Because we think the Holy Spirit came to convict the world regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment. And we take it into a whole weird place that is not what Jesus says. He says regarding sin... Because they do not believe in me. Literally, the Holy Spirit is coming to convict the world of the message of who Jesus is and to bring about faith in him. We think that the Holy Spirit is coming to talk about sins, as in bad behavior. But God already gave something to do that. He gave the law.

17:44 The law convicts people of sins. of all the wrongdoings, that's why he gave it, was to expose their sin. We're going to talk more about that next episode. But the Spirit was not given to dictate all of the wrong behaviors of people. That's not what he is coming to convict the world in regarding to sin about. He's coming to convict their lack of faith in Jesus. He's teaching them about Jesus. Mm-hmm. And that unbelief is the thing that keeps somebody out of the kingdom. So he is in a place of convincing that word paracletus or whatever, how you ever pronounce it is. It says this in the helps word study. It finishes out their little section.

18:33 They're saying someone giving evidence that stands up in court. He's presenting evidence to the world, not about their sins. about their sin of unbelief. He's presenting evidence to convince them that Jesus really is God in the flesh, that he really did pay for their sins on the cross. He really did rise from the dead. And that if you put your faith in him, you get all the inheritance that you can have as a child of God. Really good stuff. And then it talks about how He also is going to convince them of righteousness. And then Jesus explains regarding righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you're going to see me no longer, right? Well, why would that be about righteousness? The sacrifice is going into the presence of the Father to be fully accepted.

19:31 This stuff is represented in the Old Covenant. It was a type in shadow in the Old Covenant. We have the reality of it now in Christ. And that sacrifice is accepted. Righteousness is there. The payment for your sin is complete. And judgment, Jesus said. regarding judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. We're like, the Holy Spirit is coming to convict the world of judgment because the world's going to be judged. No, it says the ruler of this world has been judged. That's condemned. Satan's been judged. This isn't about the believer. This isn't even about people, although there are some that are going to have the same condemnation of the devil because they refuse to accept the sacrifice of Christ. I'm not an everybody-saved person. I don't believe that. But the ruler of this world has been judged. And that's the sin, the righteousness, and the judgment that the Holy Spirit is coming to convict the world regarding.

20:36 When the Spirit brings the conviction, it's to drive you straight to the cross and the grace of Jesus. Yeah. Yes. That is the purpose. And that is where the fruit grows. That's what I want. I'm hoping to convince somebody today listening to this. You're trying to see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in your life. I know you're trying to see that. And yet you're trying to muster it up on your own strength. It doesn't come that way. It comes by like deep diving, refusing to move away from anything except for righteousness by faith and faith alone. When you dwell there, fruit grows. When you stay fixed in that mindset, fruit grows. That's where it grows. Be led by the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit into the fact of how right you are with God, and then allow Him to utilize that perspective in your day-to-day walk and how you move through this life. It changes you.

21:33 You hear a lot of people say that they fell at the feet of Jesus. It's that they are fully surrendering everything that they were trying to control. Yeah. And in that moment, they just kind of gave it up. We finally came to the end of ourselves. Yes. Let's look at the next section of this passage. Verse 12 says, I still have much to tell you, but you can not yet bear to hear it. However, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears and he will declare to you what is to come. This next verse is important.

22:15 He will glorify me by taking from what is mine and disclosing it to you. He will glorify me, Jesus says. He's not going to glorify your flesh anymore. by lifting up your own effort, by constantly talking to you about what you did and what you didn't do. He's going to glorify Jesus Christ to you. He's going to glorify what Jesus did. He's going to glorify his work on the cross, his resurrection, and what that means to you. And in that glorification of Jesus, he is taking the things that are of Jesus, disclosing it to you. That is where power is released in your day to day. He lifts up Jesus to you.

23:01 He talks about Jesus to you. The Spirit shines the spotlight back on Jesus. Verse 15, the... last verse in this passage, everything that belongs to the father is mine. That is why I said that the spirit will take from what is mine and disclose it to you. And I think a lot of times teachings will take pieces of this passage and almost justify legalism. Yeah. They will use it as. They'll cherry pick it. They will. They will cherry pick it. They will use it in a way that makes it sound like, well, here are the rules. And then there are consequences to not following the rules. And then there are rewards for following the rules. But that's not what's being said at all.

23:45 The Holy Spirit's coming to teach you about Jesus. Here's the thing. We feel guilty when the Holy Spirit shows us the right way to go with something. And we've been going the wrong way for a long time. The one who likes to bring up your sin to you is Satan because he's the accuser of the saints. The Holy Spirit leads you in the way you should go. sometimes when we have a revelation that we were going the wrong direction because now we see the right way to go, we go through our own sense of shame and condemnation. Mm-hmm. The Holy Spirit shed light in a way that we finally see it correctly for the first time. And now we're walking a new life in that area. We're walking in the right way. The Holy Spirit showed you the way to go. You finally understood it. And your own sense of guilt and shame came rising up.

24:32 Satan loves to kick us in the rear with that. And we started going into this whole condemnation thing for ourselves. And the Holy Spirit is reminding us, Jesus paid for that. It was washed. Just come this way. I have favor for you. We're going to move in this direction now, and you're going to have new life in this area. Yes, there is a leading of the Spirit. It is for good things. God wants to show up His kingdom, His resources, His life in your life. He's going to do that by teaching you more about how right you are with Him through the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is going to lead and guide you. If you get into the Word, it will help. Because it's very difficult to lead somebody who's confused. As a leader, you and I experience that a lot. We feel like we gave really good instructions. And we come back and we're.

25:22 Like, what. Was that? And then they'll explain back to you what they heard. And you're like, nope, that was really real close. But you missed by a mile still. And the Holy Spirit is the same way with us. He's teaching us. We're trying to be led by the Spirit in behavior and good works and all these kinds of things without understanding who we are in Him first. It doesn't work that way. Get seated first. Let the Holy Spirit teach you about how right you are because your behavior is going to get messed up if you're trying to do it by a set of rules and regulations. You will feel real good about yourself and then you'll feel real bad about yourself. And you will do the same thing with the people around you. You will be judging them according to good works and bad works and not through the gospel. So even though the walk that we have, it's got to be saturated in that foundation first to really be understood as the Lord leads us. But as he leads us and teaches us more about his things and his ways, we will see the fruit of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. We will see all that fruit growing and it is something that grows naturally as we let the Holy Spirit teach us about Jesus.

26:43 And if you want to learn more about these things, be able to decipher between the flesh and the spirit, get into the word, read scripture. Don't look at it as a to-do list. Look at it as a revelation of what is a part of God's kingdom and what is a part of Satan's kingdom so that you can help decipher as you're moving through this life. All right, so next week we're going to get into why the law then. Like, why did the Lord give the law? Yeah, what's the point? Yeah. So we'll talk about that. There is a purpose to it. There is a need and a sense for it, but not in the way that maybe you've been taught. So that'll be kind of an exciting thing to kind of uncover in Scripture. All right, so I hope you enjoyed this episode, and we will see you next week.

27:29 Come back.