It's Possible to Have Peace in Life

your authentic self is in this moment.

There's kind of a challenge with that.

If you're anything like me, I've made some mistakes in my life.

How many of you can raise your hand and say I've made some mistakes in my life?

Some of y'all are raising two hands, some of y'all are elbowing the person next to you and you're raising their hand and I look back at decisions, man, things I'm just not proud of, and that moment felt like I was being my authentic self, like yeah, I was just doing me.

And now it's like face palm emoji, like what was I thinking?

Oh, gee, like what's he thinking?

And if our worldview and our framework for living is that the ultimate authority for our lives is our authentic selves, our current emotional state, what's happening is we're setting ourselves up to walk down a path of, at best, dissatisfaction and, at worst, complete destruction, because what we're doing is we're living in a framework that promises freedom but leads us to bondage, because we're in bondage to.

However, our current emotional state is in the moment, which often is short-sighted at best.

So that's a little commercial for next week and we're going to talk about it, okay, and it's going to be real and raw and helpful.

Because here's the thing, guys.

We all struggle with this and we all battle this.

All right, we got these works of the flesh, but the opposite of the works of the flesh is the fruit of the Spirit.

The fruit of the Spirit, and he describes what they are in verse 22.

He says the fruit of the Spirit is and he describes what they are in verse 22.

He says the fruit of the Spirit is.

What's that word is Is joy, is peace.

Yeah, yeah, hold on.

This is good, this is good.

Hold on, stop for one second, stop, hold on.

Y'all, get ahead of me.

You're gonna, you guys, okay, okay, let's all say it together, since you guys want to.

Okay, here we go.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Man, y'all just taught right there.

Let me tell you right now yeah, you should be proud of yourselves right Now if I were to say hey, let's just take a Paul unofficial church survey.

Who wants more peace in their life?

Everybody, who wants more joy in their life?

Two answers who wants more patience in your life?

Who wants the person next to you to have more patience in their life?

Don't raise your hand and you look at these words and sometimes you're like you know I understand what some of them mean, but some of them I'm not totally sure.

They're pretty simple.

Okay, this is love.

Love is just a sacrificial action towards others, that's all.

Love is Joy.

This is an internal gladness that's not based on circumstances.

Wouldn't that be awesome to have?

I mean, if there was a pill for that.

Sign me up.

Peace, peace.

This is confidence and rest in your heart in life, patience, being able to experience unwanted situations without flying off the handle.

You ever experience something unwanted and you fly off the handle Me either.

But I've heard of people that do okay, kindness, it's treating people with grace and consideration, even people that disagree with you, even people who vote differently than you.

It's election year.

Just want to toss that one out there.

It's kindness.

What's goodness?

Goodness is doing what's right and standing on truth, no matter the situation.

So goodness is saying I'm going to do the right thing, even if it's the hard thing, because, how many of you know, sometimes doing the right thing is the hard thing.

You know what I'm saying.

A lot of times doing the wrong thing is the easy thing.

It is the fruit of the Spirit.

Is goodness doing the right thing, standing on truth, even if it's the hard thing.

Faithfulness this is being faithful to the things that God says we should be faithful to.

It's not being wishy-washy, it's being reliable Gentleness this is humility.

Reliable Gentleness this is humility.

Considering other people above yourself, being gracious to people.

It's being more in tune with people around us and where they're at Self-control.

Man, we could all use a little more of that right Restraining one's emotions.

It's not being impulsive or being uncontrolled.

I mean not that I've ever experienced this or anything, but you know it's like when your favorite football team loses a football game, like maybe the last play of the Super Bowl, and my friend, our friend who we love dearly, edgar, is sitting on the couch while I'm on the floor, literally, and he's recording with his phone my response to this last play Get out of my house, bro.

Who invited you over here?

It's seeing Patrick Mahomes break your heart and not going crazy.

You know it's like self-control.

How about this one?

It's you're driving on the freeway, just kind of doing you you know what I'm saying minding your own business.

All of a sudden, some knucklehead just like cuts you off.

It's like bro, so just something in you that starts at the bottom of your toes, it just kind of wells up.

You know what I'm saying and you want to zoom around him.

Zoom around him and maybe practice a little sign language.

No, I'm just kidding.

No, it's self-control.

It's these things in our life that we'd love to have.

Sometimes we can look at these things like a checklist.

So it's like okay, the kindness one, I'm pretty good at that one, the goodness one, we're not going to talk about the doing right, even when it's hard.

We're not going to talk about the doing right, even when it's hard.

We're not talking about that.

Faithful gentle, yeah, I have humility, self-control.

Yeah, we go back.

We're like peace, joy.

We look at this as a checklist.

It's like I need to do all these things.

But that's actually the opposite of what Paul's trying to say in this text.

This actually is not a checklist of things to do.

In fact, as we were reading through the text, not one time did Paul command us to say be a kinder person, be a more faithful person, be more.

He didn't say that there's only one command, and I would actually say it's an invitation.

Just one, just one.

This is what it is.

Let's say it together.

Ready, it's walk by the Spirit.

That's it Depend on the Holy Spirit.

We could say it this way it's our job to rely on the Holy Spirit.

It's the Holy Spirit's job to produce fruit in our life.

Sometimes, what we think is I got to produce this fruit in me.

It's not your job.

Your job is to depend on the Holy Spirit.

Now, before we get any further in this message, let's just think about something.

Okay, let's just think about how fruit is produced in nature.

In fact, just for funsies, I brought a piece of fruit.

I brought a delicious apple.

How many of you like apples in the room?

Oh, okay, all right, how many of you don't like apples?

Get out of here.

I'm just kidding, right, I got apples, apples.

This is not just any kind of apple, it's organic.

We bougie around here.

Okay, actually, it is organic, but it's only because this is like the cheapest.

These are the cheapest apples.

At Costco, you can get a pack for like $4.49.

Yeah, that's right.

Some of you.

Yeah, so you know what they say about apples too.

They say an apple a day keeps the right.

I just that's what they say.

I don't know if it's true, but I tell myself that because it makes me feel better.

But anyways, talk about apples and fruit.

Somebody tell me how was this fruit produced Just real quick, on a tree, on a tree.

It's produced on a tree, right by seed, right Tree.

It was connected.

There was a branch that was connected to a tree.

Right, the tree had the roots.

It was connected.

There was a branch that was connected to a tree.

Right, the tree had the roots.

It was water Branch.

And then fruit was produced.

The branch was connected, it was connected to the tree.

Now, how many of you guys in this room, how many of you guys are gardeners Any gardeners?

Oh, okay, several gardeners.

Balcony, any gardeners?

Okay, we got some gardeners up there.

I can't see your face, but I know you're up there.

Okay, so I got some gardeners.

So I'm not really a gardener.

In fact, I have a spiritual gift in my life.

You may relate to this spiritual gift, the spiritual gift of being able to kill plants.

It's just a gift.

I plant them and they die.

But here's what I do know, and here's what all of us know about growing fruit Fruit growing 101.

This is what we know.

We know this Fruit takes time to grow, doesn't it?

Have you ever tried to plant something in the ground and then, like two days later, you like go back and you're like do I see anything growing?

All right, three days later, is anything growing?

Four days later, I see something.

Dude, that's a weed man.

That's not even.

Yeah, it's like oh, fruit, it takes time to grow.

We also know this about fruit is the type of fruit is based on the type of tree.

This is gonna shock all you guys.

It's gonna surprise everybody in the room.

This did not come from an orange tree.

I know you're like duh.

The type of fruit is based on the tree.

So what's about fruit?

We know Fruit can't be manufactured.

A machine can manufacture a product, but it can't manufacture fruits.

So I want you to know about fruit Fruit's a result of a biting in the vine.

Fruit's a result of abiding in the vine.

Fruit's a result of I use the word abiding.

That's like old English, king James English we don't use that word a lot anymore but it's a result of being connected to the vine.

That's how this is produced and what happens is fruit is a byproduct of being connected to a source of life.

Okay, being connected to a source of life.

So this fruit can't just be produced on a branch that's not connected.

It'd be like this okay, I'll put this little apple right here.

We might go back to it If we had a big branch all the way across the stage.

We'll say we had a branch from an apple tree, put it all the way across the stage.

It wasn't connected to the main tree, it was just sitting here.

You know, and I know that the likelihood of that branch producing fruit would be nothing.

We could like look at it and we could be like come on branch, you look like you can produce fruit.

We know you can.

You got it.

You know, when I was a kid we had these science experiments or whatever.

We had these science projects in school and they had you play certain type of music to make plants grow.

Any of you guys do that one, okay, no, okay, just me.

I was the weird kid that went to the little Christian school.

Anyways, you know, some people, they put a certain type of music to a plant.

The plant would grow a certain way and we could do whatever we want.

There's no way that that branch is going to produce fruit because it's not connected to the source of life that actually produces the fruit.

And what can happen sometimes is.

We can think that it's our job to produce fruit in our spiritual life.

We can think, man, I need to be more loving, I need to be more self-controlled, I need to be more gentle, I need to be more fill in the blank, I need to do these things.

That's my job.

No, it's not your job.

Your job is to be connected to Christ, abide in him and fruit will come from that.

And what happens is this is a massive difference in our life, because it changes the focus from everything I need to do for God to I just need to stay connected to him and abide in him and rely on the spirit and let him do in me what only he can do in me.

What could happen is we could be at a place in our life where we're feeling the results of our lack of patience.

We're seeing the results of our lack of self-control.

We're seeing the results of the way we're handling things.

We're like I need to fix that because the people around me, I'm getting them upset.

So we think I need to do this.

We're really.

What we need to do is we need to get back to the vine.

We need to get connected back to God and let God produce these things in us.

Now, this doesn't mean that there isn't effort, this doesn't mean that we don't try, but what this means is that we're not depending on ourselves and our willpower and our grit to produce something in us that only God can produce in us.

Now here's why this is really really important.

Okay, it's because abiding in Christ this is how we bear fruit.

Abiding in Christ, the word abide just means to rest in, to make your home in, to be connected.

In fact, in John 15, this is what Jesus says.

He uses the word remain.

This just means abide in the old King James English Remain in me and I in you.

Just as the branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.

Y'all see that right there we looking at this verse.

All right, how much fruit can you produce on your own?

Nothing, it's zero.

You can produce nothing, according to Jesus.

In verse five.

He says I'm the vine, you are the branches, the one who remains in me and I in him.

What do you do?

You produce?

What's those next two words?

You produce much fruit because you can do without me.

Nothing, man, nothing, nothing, nothing, man, nothing, nothing.

He says you can do nothing without me.

No, you don't understand.

I got self-discipline, I got grit, I can work, I, I, I, nothing.

We cannot produce fruit apart from Christ.

Maybe our personality type has a disposition towards having some of these in our lives.

Maybe we've been in situations where we've had to adjust how we see things and do things, maybe just for survival, and it looks like some of that fruit in our life and maybe we have that characteristic in our life.

But I'm talking about us literally changing from the inside out this natural, organic process where God changes us.

This only happens as we're connected to God, as we're abiding in him, as we're running to his word and letting his word feed our soul, as we're resting in our identity in him, as we rest in who he says that we are, as we're resting in his promises over our life, as we're resting in his purposes for our life.

That's the only way fruit can be produced.

And here's the thing about fruit it isn't always produced overnight.

It takes some time and as we're connected to God, fruit will come from that.

Now, sometimes what'll happen in your spiritual life is you're trying to follow Jesus, you're trying to stay in the word, but you're just in a dry season in your spiritual life.

Y'all ever been in a dry season before?

Oh, my goodness.

Yes, thank you, I'm not alone.

Right, there's like three of you that have experienced a dry season.

So it's just dry season in your life.

Feel it's the richest dry season in your life.

You feel like your prayers are hitting the ceiling.

You're reading the scripture and your mind's a million different places and it seems like God's doing stuff for other people, but God's forgotten you.

It's like God where's the fruit?

Remember, psalm 1 tells us that a tree bears its fruit in its season, and sometimes what happens is it is our job to say I'm just going to stay connected to God, I'm going to remain faithful to God, I'm going to rest in Him and I'm going to let Him do what he wants to do in me and through me in His time and when we stay connected to Him.

This is what's going to happen.

You're going to find yourself somehow thinking about other people's needs when typically you're thinking about your own needs.

You're going to find yourself exercising self-control when before you would have just flown off the handle and you would have gone crazy.

You're going to find yourself having patience about things where before you would have been a hot mess.

You're going to find yourself in circumstances where you're like I know it's like that, but I just have this peace about me.

How did that come?

It came because you were connected to God.

Now here's the challenge that you know and that I know is we live in a world that's constantly pulling us away from staying connected to Him.

Right man, you're busy, work is stressful, life is stressful.

I mean it's like you can't even get any time to yourself.

It feels like Some of you guys you know, you go to the bathroom and you got one of your kids like banging on your door.

It's like let's get some time.

It's like how do I abide in Christ when I got 50 million things pulling me all over the place?

What do we do when we look at our life and the fruit of the Spirit maybe isn't being produced in us, or maybe it feels like the works of the flesh are just taking over, like the works of the flesh are just taking over our life and it's more than just a dry season.

What do we do?

This is what we have to ask ourselves Am I abiding in Christ and am I relying on the Holy Spirit.

We got to ask ourselves that Like am I relying on Him?

Am I relying on the Spirit?

Am I abiding in Christ?

Now, for me and this is just descriptive of me, not prescriptive for any of y'all For me, I got to ask myself a couple questions.

When I'm at this place right now, my question I have to ask myself, just being honest, is how much time am I spending on social media?

That's what I got to ask myself.

Like, am I just spending time scrolling and just wasting my life away?

My other question I have to ask myself, that I just ask myself is what are my rhythms looking like in my life away?

My other question I have to ask myself, that I just ask myself is what are my rhythms looking like in my life?

Am I saying yes to things I should be saying no to?

Am I saying no to things I should be saying yes to?

Am I prioritizing my relationship with God?

Am I spending time in his word?

Here's another question I ask myself and this is just me, not you.

Here's another question I ask myself and this is just me, not you.

But what am I being distracted by right now?

Like what in my life, I'm just distracted.

I I can find myself being distracted by a million things.

I can even find myself being and I'm just talking, it's just us here I can find myself being distracted from my walk with God because of the work of God in the church.

Yeah, I can find myself being distracted by all these ministry things that need stuff and in this meeting and that meeting.

I look at my calendar for this week and I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, and I can find myself being distracted with that.

And there's nothing wrong with that, those all have a place.

But when the priority for me is on those things, over my connection with God, that's when bad things happen, because our work for God should be an overflow from our walk with God.

So I gotta ask myself the question am I relying on the Spirit?

What is resisting me from doing this?

And you got to ask yourself that right man, what's resisting you?

Is it a hobby?

Is it maybe a good thing in your life that's turned into an idol?

Maybe it's taken over your life, maybe it's a sin, maybe it's a friend, maybe it's something else.

I don't know, but this is what I do know is that when we live fruitful lives.

It's going to make a difference in people's life.

You're going to make a difference in other people's lives when you live a fruitful life.

One person said this we draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that's so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.

We could say it this way Fruitful people have compelling lives.

Fruitful people don't have perfect lives.

Fruitful people don't have everything together.

Fruitful people don't have everything together.

Fruitful people don't live a problem-free life.

But fruitful people aren't cynical.

Fruitful people learn to forgive.

Fruitful people are joyful.

Fruitful people love others.

Well, I end with the story about a person that has made a difference in my life because of the fruit in her life.

I have a friend and she is in her mid-80s.

She's just a young pup and she's one of those people.

I don't know if you know somebody like that we have different ones in our church here like this but they're just filled with joy and after you spend any amount of time with her, you just feel better than when you first had your interaction.

She's just somebody that she just exudes joy and peace in her life and I'm like I want to be like her when I grow up.

You know people like that.

I want to be like her when I grow up.

You know people like that.

I want to be like her.

So she goes to another really good church in the area and one day I was talking to her and I said what's your secret Like tell me, you have joy and you're just peaceful and you're always smiling and you're bubbly and you just have things happen in your life and you just kind, peaceful and you're always smiling and you're bubbly and you just you have things happen in your life and you just kind of work through them.

What do you do, tell me?

And she kind of chuckled and kind of laughed at me, almost in a way.

That's like I can't believe you're asking me this.

Like whatever, you know, like why are you asking me this?

And I was like no, I really want to know.

I wasn't letting her off the handle, I wouldn't let her off the hook.

I was leaning in, you know.

So she stopped and she kind of looked around and thought for a second.

She's like you know what she's like.

Honestly, she's like years ago, decades ago, I just decided that I was going to be in the Word, in the Scripture, every day.

I just decided that I was going to trust God, no matter what, no matter what was going on around me, no matter what other people were doing, no matter what I was experiencing.

I was going to trust God and I was just going to make him the center of my life and just obey him.

She's like and God's done more for me than I could ever imagine.

And I was like is that it?

There's not something more to this?

Come on, give me the secret, give me the seven tips to the blah, blah, blah.

And she was like that's it, that's all I've done.

And I sat there, I stood there, we were in an office space and this was like a few years ago now.

And I remember thinking man, life's really not that complicated.

Put God first and let God do his work in you.

And I gave her a hug and she said some kind words and I walked away.

And that conversation always stuck with me.

And here's why I tell you that story.

It's because some of you think the path to peace and joy and these different things is I gotta do this, I gotta do these different things is I gotta do this, I gotta do listen, this is all I gotta do.

Stay connected to God.

It's depend on the Holy Spirit and let him do the work in you.

Now, some of you, if you wanna go a little bit deeper with this and learn a little bit more about this, this is what I encourage some of you to do.

I'm starting a six-day devotional tomorrow with some friends, and if you want to be a part of this devotional, it's what you can do.

You can friend me on YouVersion.

You can download the YouVersion Bible app and friend me.

There's the information in my email address and we can kind of walk through this together a little bit.

So maybe you're like I just want to go a little deeper.

I encourage you to do that For all of us in this room.

This is what I'm going to ask all of us to do To have a moment of surrender and reliance on the Holy Spirit, just to have a holy moment on this Father's Day and say God, I surrender to you, I rely on you, and this is how we can do that.

I'm going to invite you to pray a little prayer, and the prayer is up on the screen.

It's very simple.

It's Lord, I can't do this Christian life on my own.

I'm depending on your spirit.

That's the prayer, lord.

I can't do this Christian life on my own.

I'm depending on your spirit.

And maybe you're in a place in your life where you have a struggle.

Maybe there's a tension, maybe there's a challenge, maybe there's something in you that just you're struggling with.

This is what I invite you to do to tell God about that I'm struggling with.

You know it goes in that blank and I'm relying on you to produce fruit in my life.

Prayer is a beautiful place to be honest and open with God.

So I'm going to give us a time to be honest and open with God.

So I'm going to give us a time prayer, a time for us to just simply pray this to God and say God.

Maybe you've done this many times before in your life.

Maybe you've relied on this prayer.

I'm going to invite you to do it once again, wherever you are in your life.

Right now, let's all have a moment of prayer.

Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes.