Hope in the Fruit of the Spirit

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0:00 For the rest of us, we're still thinking about this phrase from Peter, who's led to the church. First Peter, led to the church. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago where we're pretty sure Peter wrote this towards the end of his life. He's in house resting in Rome, and he's writing to that first century church, the fathers and the way of Jesus,

0:37 who by all accounts are under pretty severe persecution. And the letter is writing them for a couple of reasons, but the reason that we're pulling out and sitting on for the last several weeks, is he tells them even when they're in the midst of suffering and persecution, to not abandon the hope that they have this inheritance, this living hope, this inheritance that's been set aside for them that is undefiled, unfainting, and undiminished,

1:08 an inheritance set aside for them that is their living hope, not a diminishing hope. The temptation when we go through a life that has aspects of suffering and hardship might be to draw hope from things that are perishing that are not living. So you've talked about this and maybe I'll leave the dead of ours, but we all have a perishing hope that we cling to. The shorthand for me is comfort, entertainment, and isolation.

1:38 Not that any of those things are bad when they become our hope in the midst of a life of suffering, we are grasping always. So we might grasp for a dollar or a new Netflix series or a comfier and comfier couch, a colder room, a bigger industry. Peter writes to people who are in the midst of suffering and hardship and says, don't forget that you have a living hope that will endure forever, that no granny or hardship can take away, a living hope undefiled and unparishing.

2:15 And then he says, he writes to those people and says, always be prepared to give a defense for the hope that you've had on Christ Jesus, and it's curious that if we have this inheritance that is undefiled and unfading and unparish and set aside for us waiting, why bother building a defense that's enough that we have that inheritance waiting for us that cannot be learned? But Peter says that we might be, we should ought to be prepared to give a defense for it, we decided it's for two reasons. One, as we go through a life where death always looms at the end, where dreams are unfulfilled and relationships are hard, where work is confounding and confusing,

2:58 where we are open to wounds and hurts. As we go through a life where suffering is real and death awaits, it can be very easy to forget that no matter what and through it all, there is an inheritance waiting. And so it will be helpful for us in the moments when we believe there is an inheritance to build up a defense for the hope in that inheritance that will carry us through the suffering. And so we've been spending the last several weeks looking at what might give us hope that there is, in fact, an inheritance undefiled, unfading, imperishable, set aside.

3:41 For us. And we've used touch on the fact that this inheritance and then the narrative that it fits inside gives our life deep significance. And for me, significance in life gives me hope that there is something we want. I can feel the significance in the work that I do as I own meaning the needs of the people we have.

4:11 But then we also talked about forgiveness. We talked about provision and protection. And lastly, we talked about the fact that we have a God, a good God, to serve as judge, to relieve us from the responsibility of separating good and evil in the world, of pointing out right and wrong. We looked at it. I don't know why it never occurred to me, but lastly we touched on that.

4:42 On the notion that Jesus, even Jesus, on the cross in this high moment of exaltation, pleads on behalf of his murderers, but doesn't take the judge and see them pronounce judgment. He leaves the judge and see forgotten fathers. His father forgives them for they don't know what they do, but he leaves the judge and see to God. And what a great rest and comfort it is to move through life, knowing that there is a just, good judge who will make decisions larger than I am capable of making.

5:19 It allows me to move through life, trusting the judge. I want to look at another reason that I have hope in the inheritance to come. And I draw little notes and my notepad was sitting here and Mike was commenting on my doodles because there are several little pieces of fruit here at my house, giving it to a little art. Don't worry, your job is safe, Mike, for us.

5:53 But I want to talk about the fruit of the spirit as I reason for the hope that I have in high Jesus this morning. So, to do that, let's look at Paul's letter to the relations. And I want to look at Paul's letter to Galatians to understand what I mean when I say the fruit of the spirit. If you want to look at what I mean, it's in the New Testament, so it's towards the back of the house, like the able of the Bible.

6:23 It goes to Acts 1 and verse 2, and it brings Galatians and Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. And I want to look at chapter 5 of Galatians. And Galatians is like a region, so there, I mean, the movement of Paul through Asia Minor in the first century is staggering if you try and watch it and see what happened to me. This is a reason for the hope. Just the prolific work and discipleship that happens in the wake of Paul walking around Asia Minor is, I mean, staggering.

7:00 And Galatians is not just one church, but it's a region of churches, it's a little section of Asia Minor. And he's writing them, the overarching reason for the letters, writing them to maintain a focus on the gospel, some of the law that they can't earn love, but love has given them freely. It's beautiful, a little exchange in the letter of relations, there are several other currents. But here, he's trying to give them a way, almost like a mechanism to know when they're living out of this new person that God has created.

7:36 In other places, he calls it the new creation in Christ. In Galatians, he'll call it life according to the Spirit. And he spins up these markers that will bear out your life. He calls them the fruit of the Spirit. There's a couple things to think about when we think of fruit, right? I don't know what the psychology of Orange Tree is. I don't know how conscious it is. I've not gotten inside of Orange Tree. But my notion is that when an Orange Tree produces an Orange, it's not having to work any harder than it is when it produces a leaf or than it is when it's just a lie.

8:17 My notion is that an Orange Tree just naturally produces an Orange. It's conspicuous to me that Paul's these things, the fruit of the Spirit, and it's worth remembering as we look at this list, that the way to the fruit of the Spirit is not to grit your teeth and to make determination and settle in on willpower to enact and become a person like this. What Paul is saying is these things are the outcome of living life according to the Spirit, that life according to the Spirit, these things just happen.

8:58 So the relation is chapter 5 for verse 22. But he says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentiness, self-control, I mean that really is lovely. I can remember in college I had this pastor who was talking about the fruits of the Spirit,

9:37 and the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. I mean that really is lovely. I can remember in college I had this pastor who was talking about the fruits of the Spirit, and I grew up in the church, I mentioned it before, but I really, I always liked going to church. I remember one time we took a family vacation and we missed a week of church, and we didn't usually do that.

10:15 I remember that Sunday I went to church twice, I went to both services. Not because I felt like I had to make it up, but just because I liked being around, and I've always liked being around church, but I remember up at these fruits of the Spirit, when I was in college something different happened. I didn't, I didn't memorized the fruits of the Spirit and knew that they existed, but they existed kind of like a, you might have a cross stitch hanging on a wall with a frame around it, like a pretty fruits of the Spirit that sound ignites together, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

10:50 goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. They might be a thing that hung on the wall, but not really a metric for understanding life. And I remember I had a pastor in college who started to say, think about them through the Spirit, almost like little red flags came in my life. That Peter is saying, when you are living life with the Spirit of God, meaning when you are living, recognizing that the God of creation in life, who got a Abraham Isaac and Jacob, the God of Christ in the Church, has secured for you an inheritance,

11:23 undefiled, unfading, and perishable. Set aside no matter what you go through or how far you go, that you can't. Gross God out or take God too long or disqualify yourself from the inheritance set aside. When you begin to live your life with the full knowledge and reality that the Creator God has set aside and inheritance for you at the end, it begins to change your experience of life. When you are believing that there is a God who has done that for you, you will see things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

11:59 gentleness, self-control, to the degree that you do not. This is where to the degree that you do not see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. The answer is not to try harder. This was the realization for me. I didn't think much about the first spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, because they seem pretty unattainable. And if I was going to try and make a many faster joy, or look for it, or work up love inside me,

12:36 my last thing is who is a comfort, entertainment, and isolation. I am going to have joy, and I mean, just do only things that bring me joy. And that is not a good way to get through this life. I am going to be a person that is loving the night, surround myself with only people who I find it easy to love because I have got to. I didn't think much about the spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, because I thought I can't really get there on my own.

13:07 So let's hang up and talk about a nice sounding words that I will never reach. The pastor of the Manhattan College, the answer is not to try harder. It is to ask yourself, what do you believe? Do you believe that the God of creation and my mis-esthet side of the inheritance for you or not? Do you believe that you cannot defile yourself away from inheritance? Do you believe that you cannot disqualify yourself away from inheritance? The degree to which you allow yourself to believe that God has done all over, given you this free gift and set aside about making unperishable.

13:44 Then you, the first of the spirit, begin to arise in your life. I think this was a new idea for all of us, quite a mindset like that. When you read the poems, the letter of relations, he's putting words on this metaphor that we get from the profiteer in violence, since there's coming a day where I'll take out my heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

14:16 Remember that Paul is the Hebrew Hebrews, right? That he's the Pharisee of Pharisees, that he understands most fully all of the rules, and that they build up a system that says that we hedge in all the right rules and keep all the right laws, that eventually will become right people, or at least will look like it. And he's been following a life worried about all the laws, trying to hand them in with outside the rules, the behavior that's coming out of his heart, and when he encounters Jesus on the road to the masses,

14:46 he spends three years on covering what it means that Jesus Christ is God, and then he gets the inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner

15:16 inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner

15:46 inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner inner

16:16 But it doesn't fix everything. Bar. Right? I was thinking about that. And then I thought of this story here. Go to the left a little bit. In John's account, the gospel. In the back of our group, John actuals were sacred in the end. John chapter 13. I mean, if there were a group of people in the midst of suffering, care drives by love, joy,

17:04 patience, kindness, goodness, faith, goodness, faith, goodness, self, control. That's compelling. If that's working, you can see how the way of Jesus spreads amidst persecution and across the growing empire. Right? If there are people who are grasping, even grasping, the idea of love toward these patients, kind of spinners, faithless, generally self-control, disassociated from the circumstances of the connect to the ultimate reality of the one who's in charge so that without the car

17:40 for their circumstances, whether they are in good or pain, whether they are in plenty or wrong, they glimpse love toward these patients, goodness, goodness, goodness, and self-control problem. That's compelling. Okay. John chapter 13. Now before the peace of Passover, okay, remember the Passover big moment in the history of our people and in a defining moment in the nation Israel, replay through ritual and behavior,

18:16 becomes family custom. Remember early in Jesus' life that they key together with Mary and Joseph and the whole God-rated families take the couple day walk up to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and they're having so much fun celebrating together in big family groups that Mary and Joseph know for a day is walk before they look around and realize Jesus is not off plane with the other kids. Like imagine the memories that Jesus has about Passover.

18:48 That's just one story of his Passover where he's then questioning the rabbis and stays overnight. But it's a whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole

19:22 whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole

19:55 whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole whole In love to the zone where getting old, he loved them to the end. I can only like scratch the surface of my imagination to consider whatever you like

20:33 right there in there, the moment where Jesus was feeling, so many emotions. He knows he's leaving, he's not excited about the manner that he's leaving. He's got his friends there who he loves, who he will separate from for a period of time. He's going through death. He knows what he's sending them into.

21:04 He has some sense that all of them, how their lives will end, to murder them all. He loves them now, he loves them to the end. You see how there's like beauty and sadness at the same time here, which is us. There is heartbreak and deep love, right in the same experience. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart, it was the scary, exciting son to betray him.

21:41 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God, when he was going back to God, grows from suffering. I wonder what their conversation was like. They had a whole meal together and his passover. And Jesus knows it will be his last. If we get to watch movies as a love or life, it's one of the movies I'm going to watch and I'm going to watch what I want to see with the conversation.

22:12 I want to know what it was like to hang out with Jesus. Like how relaxed he would be in that moment. What that felt like, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God, was going back to God, grows from suffering. He laid aside, has an other garments, taking a towel, and tied it around his waist. He got up from dinner, I realized there's this thing I got to do. He knew what was right, he knew what he wanted to do.

22:49 I wonder if he planned it at the time? He kind of had the stuff there, so maybe he knew he wanted to do it. But it seems like they got through supper and he got up and was like, let's do this thing together. He laid aside his other garments and taken a towel, tied it around his waist, and then he poured water to him in base and he began to wash his side of his feet. He began to wash his side of his feet and he wiped them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

23:21 And he came into something in Peter who said to him, where do you wash my feet? And Jesus said to him, what I am doing, you know how to stay now, but I have to really understand. Maybe you've heard this explained before, but washing someone's feet was like a... I don't know why, but it was a very manual job. I mean, Peter, dirty. I'm not a big feed fan. He's getting big feet.

23:53 He's 13, he'll be 14 a month or so. And we're sitting on the couch in this field, and we're like, I do not need your feet. I need your feet somewhere else. I don't need your 13-year-old boy feet. I don't know why he's a medium thing, but it is. This job of washing people's feet, you know, they didn't come out of shoes and it's like we have in socks. And they walk everywhere. It's in their feet or dust, they're dirty.

24:24 You would have servants, people that you paid and gave room and bored to, that you could tell and do anything. But if you were a Jewish person, you could not obligate even your Jewish servants to wash people's feet. It just wasn't the thing that you made someone do. It was too mean to you. And so when Jesus comes to wash the sightless feet, Peter, who talked about, who speaks for all the sightlesses, like, hey man, this is backwards.

24:54 Please, don't do this. He came to sign the Peter's letter, Lord, He washed my feet, Jesus answered, what am I doing? You do not understand how often do you understand it. And Peter said, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered, you might not wash your feet, you do not share your feet. And Simon Peterson, Lord, the nine of my feet with my hands in my head, and Jesus said, the one who was bathed, and I need to wash his feathers. And if you are clean, but not every one of you, that too is who betrayed him. And that's why he said, now, oh my gosh.

25:27 Even in that one experience, he has this switch with Peter where he loves Peter. He is like the way that Peter wrestles with him, and he gets Peter to understand Peter, let me serve you. And Peter says, cool, you can serve me at this moment. He has this exchange of love between him and Peter, and also in the same moment. He looks next to Judas and realizes that Judas will betray him and does not get it. He has love and suffering mixed.

26:03 And then we've said before, but the writer Peter reminds us that as Jesus leads the smeal, goes to the Stephanie, through the false trial, through the scourge, and up the hill of God, the foot to the cross. The thing that propels him through all the suffering, where the guilt of all time is loaded on shoulders, and the pain is driven through, is risen to speak. The thing that propels him is not duty or obligation. He says, but for the joy set before you did you do it across, squarling in its shame, I will not take shame.

26:36 I'll take joy instead in the midst of suffering. For me, I have seen it true, that the fruit of the spirit comes as a gift of faith to those who live with real confidence. The real confidence that there is a inheritance waiting for, that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, death, and self-control, can coexist with suffering, and hardship, and pain.

27:16 The fact that you and I can move through the world, fully experiencing all of its brokenness, and not being overwhelmed. But experience the fruit of the spirit is evidence that our inheritance is written. Do you know that Paul mentions that the fruit of the spirit is a foretaste of what's coming? That means if you have known joy today, your joy will only increase from now until forever.

27:46 If you have encountered love, it's a small sampling of the love that will well up and overwhelm your existence as you move into forever. If you have found yourself calm, it's the beginning of the kinds that will amplify and intensify into forever. The fruit of the spirit will be hoped to believe that the inheritance is real, even in the midst of my son.

28:16 I hope that we give you people who claim to the fruit of the spirit as evidence that the inheritance is waiting for us. Let me pray. And what makes us is the people who believe in your good promises, even more in your promise of an inheritance, honestly, undefined, imperishable, waiting for us, and more in us, there is safe with you.

28:52 In Jesus' name and fruit.