Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Spiritual Life - Spiritual Fruit Pt.9

Praise you, Father. Amen. Let's turn to Galatians. We're going to continue the study we've been doing on the living fruit of God's presence in our lives. Jesus said, "By their fruit, you shall know them." As we examine our own hearts and take stock of our lives, we judge ourselves by the habitual display of character in our lives. That is the fruit that reveals what we are, what it is that's working in us, whether it's still the self-life or that crucified life; to where we could say with the Apostle, "It's no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." Jesus said in John 13:35, "By this shall all men know that you're my disciples, when you have love one for another."

In our home groups yesterday, we were talking about the different ways our lives were affected by the love of God. The testimonies we've already begun to hear come back reveal that one thing: that a life is never touched with any greater magnitude then when it's touched by the reality of God's love.

Some people want to see miracles and say, "If I could see a miracle, then I would believe." Jesus said, "You're going to see a great miracle and yet not believe. After three days I'll be raised, but you won't believe." We want to see big signs and wonders of calling fire out of Heaven, walking on water, and it's spectacular, and it can motivate, but love will transform your life whenever you encounter it. The genuine love of God is irresistible. I don't mean by that, that everybody who experiences it will necessarily bow his knee to Jesus' lordship, but it's irresistible; it's something you cannot remain neutral toward. It will affect you when you encounter it. When you encounter it with thanksgiving, when you become a recipient and believe and receive it, it affects our lives like nothing else can. So we examine our hearts and say, "Is that love really working in me?"

No greater love has any man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends. We talked about that aspect of it. How can we say we love God whom we've not seen and not love our brothers who are here, whose needs we perceive; both John and James speak toward that. There's no way that we can have experienced God's love and been a recipient of it, believed that the love that he had for us ("while we were yet sinners, he loved us and died for us," Paul said in Romans)--there's no way we can have partaken of that kind of love and not freely give. By that kind of a love, he says, we ought then to love one another. How can we say, "Be warmed and filled," when the wherewithal is there in our midst to meet that need?

The reason most of us don't allow that love to flow through us is because of the cost of dying to self. "It's going to cost me time." To love one another is going to cost us time, and time is a very precious commodity to most of us. To really love the body of Christ is going to cost you your reputation because people will say that you're hanging out with emotional cripples, the weak and beggarly of the earth. "He's a friend of prostitutes and publicans," was what they said about Jesus because He loved unconditionally, because He loved with the love of God. "As Father has loved me, so have I loved you; continue abiding in and distributing my love. Freely you've received, freely give."

As we look at these principles a little bit in review, and we go back and we see that's who we are. We're ambassadors of love. The Scripture says we're ambassadors of Christ. We're ambassadors of love. God is love, we saw in 1 John. God is love.

The question was asked in men's breakfast yesterday concerning the fruit of the spirit. If you're there in Galatians you can look quickly at the 5th chapter of Galatians. As Paul's addressing the Spirit-filled life, the Spirit-led life, Chapter 5, verse 16: "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." So often people say, "How can I be free from the flesh? How can I be free from the flesh?" Well, walk in the spirit. "Yeah, that's easy to say. How do you walk in the spirit?" How is it that we walk in the spirit? By allowing the self-life to be crucified by choice. We choose each moment whom we're going to serve; amen? It's a choice.

When Paul's speaking here, he says, "Listen! You need to realize: walk in the spirit at all times. Seek the things that are above where Jesus is seated at Father's right hand." The reason so many of us can't get free from the flesh is because we're still so preoccupied with it. That's why with many people in the holiness movement over the years (and we believe in walking in holiness; we believe in the life that's separate) so much of the emphasis was on the flesh and what not to do instead of what we should do. Counting all that's temporal as dung, I press on toward the mark, the prize, the high calling of God that's in Christ Jesus, the eternal treasures, the ambition to be emptied of self. What an ambition that is! That's the one that should motivate every one of us. I just want to have "less of me and more of you," as we sing that chorus.

When Paul's speaking here, he says that if we're led of the Spirit, verse 18, we're not under the law. Then he gives the works of the flesh, and he said the works of the flesh are manifest; and they surely are because by our fruit we're known. We look at our lives, and we can judge ourselves by what is habitually expressing itself in our lives. This is what so naturally flows out of you.

I'm not talking about recognizing these things in your members because the fact is, though all of us would like to deny it, that every one of us has every one of these propensities in our members, but "...sin shall not have dominion over you," Paul says. Sin is not the power that governs your life. We reckon ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto Christ. The walk in the spirit is the recognition of the frailty and the potential propensity of sin in our members. "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing," the Apostle said.

We've said it many times; if you think you're any better now than you were when you got saved (five minutes ago, five years ago, 50 years ago) you don't understand redemption. Your flesh is no better; it's just under greater discipline. It's under the power of a renewed spirit. The new man, the new creature, is dominant, and that sin that used to lord itself over you is now subordinate to the lordship of Jesus as we're habitually walking in the spirit, choosing to deny the flesh. By faith and grace accepting the mercy and the grace and the power of God to do it, and taking no credit for it, and not thinking we're any better; but rejoicing more in the mercies of God and the grace of God, and glorying in His power, and realizing that the glory is of God and not of us.

As Paul's speaking here in this particular passage, and he lists the different aspects of the flesh, he goes on and says, "And those that do these things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." Whatever it is in your life in this area, if there's something there that is still dominating your life, then we need to concern ourselves because we will not inherit the Kingdom of God. We constantly pore over these and we say, "Is this me? Is this me?" Many times we can become preoccupied with that.

I believe we need to examine, we need to be aware of our flesh and its tendencies; but let me encourage you. In addition to looking to this list of the works of the flesh, spend a little more time examining your heart and saying, "Is the fruit of the spirit evident in my life?" That's the real truth. That's the real proof that God's Spirit is living in you because these things cannot be manifest without the abiding presence of the Spirit of God, without us abiding in the vine. His Word's abiding in us. Fruit, as it's being produced, will always (in John 15, Jesus said) be pruned, so that we could bring forth more fruit.

Look at your life on the positive and begin to say, "Is this manifesting itself in me? Is this who I am? Is this what's dominating my life?" Now, you are no more a sinner (and let's choose one of these) because variance or emulation or strife or sedition is in your life. At one point in your life or sometime in your life, you had a life that was dominated by variance; all that means is division. Have you been involved or you've been in a situation of division where you were divided from somebody? There was conflict between you and someone else, and it could have been because you had your feelings hurt, or you were upset or whatever it might be, and he says you're not going to inherit Heaven. How about emulations? That's just a word for jealousy. Have you ever been jealous of anybody? Have you been jealous once? You're not going to Heaven. If you've ever been jealous at any time in your life, you're not going to Heaven. How about strife? All strife is, is expressed hatred. You speak your hatred. You cause division, and you say something to get it off your chest and drive somebody away from you to feel better. You're not going to Heaven. Do any of you believe that? I don't. Because of the fact that you did that once does not mean that's who you are. How many of you go, "Whew! Praise God for that"? Amen. The point I'm trying to make is this: because you once accidentally produced one act of the fruit of the spirit doesn't mean you're walking in the spirit, either. Amen? "Oh, man!" You see, it's what we are in abundance. It's what our life is habitually; this who we are.

When Paul's speaking here, and he's showing us the need to live in the spirit and to walk in the spirit, and that these things must be habitual, they must be what's in abundance in our lives, we can begin to examine ourselves and say, "Is this who I am? Is this what habitually manifests itself?" This is how people find me: full of joy, at peace, patient, gentle, good, faithful, meek, temperate, life under control. "Against such," Paul says, "there is no law." Who are you? How do we find ourselves in this life in the spirit?

The question was asked yesterday. There are two different camps in looking at the fruit of the spirit. One says the fruit the spirit is love, and all of these other aspects are the byproduct of love, the expression of love. Some say, "No, no, no, that's not the case; they're all separate." There's distinct fruit, and that gentleness is separate from joy, and joy's separate from peace, etc. It doesn't really matter. Don't war over something like that. I happen to lean toward the first. I believe that each of these are distinct expressions of the Spirit of God dwelling in us, but let's remember that the Scripture says: God is what? All of this is the fruit of living in God. The source of all of this--if you want to make them distinct, separate, that's fine--so you'd have to say the source of love is love. Amen? The source of the fruit of the spirit of love is the person of love of God, the Source, God. It doesn't matter how you say it, then. The source, the cause of joy, is God. God is love. You don't hang up on that, but remember this: the greatest of these, 1 Corinthians 13, is love. Love never fails. Really, what we're looking at here as we're examining what Paul's saying here by the Spirit, the key to all of this is found in verse 24, "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh..." We're talking about selflessness. We're talking about dying to self. We're talking about letting God live through us; the spirit of John: I must decrease, and He must increase. This is what Father's calling us to, and love is something that is dynamic. It always has with it an action. "God so loved...that He gave...", that passage that we're all very familiar with.

As we study the Scriptures, as we see, then, that it never abides alone; it requires that you and I, have received, to give. We want to take just a couple of minutes and look at how we need to dig deep into that foundation of love. It becomes the source, the cause of everything that evidences itself in our lives. Love is not an emotion. Love is a person, and as it pertains to you and me, the expression of love is a choice to let God live through us.

We talked about it yesterday, and I shared in Men's Breakfast, the key is: loving you is not giving you more of myself. Loving you is removing self more and letting God minister to you through me. I have nothing to offer you without His presence, but He's chosen to make us conduits through which He could involve Himself in every one of our lives. You say, "Well, why doesn't He just deal with me directly?" He does. His visitation is there for each and every one of us, but God has chosen to bring about community edification through us loving one another. Let me show it to you over in Ephesians. Turn over there for just a moment, and let me show you how we love in the body of Christ.

Love is not isolating, getting a couple of special friends and pouring all of your time and energy out on them. You'll find that we will gravitate to certain people, but love is being available to minister to whomever God wants you to minister to when and how, for His glory, not your own gratification. This is seen as, the Apostle speaks in the fourth chapter of Ephesians when he says, verse 1, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. What is our vocation? What is our job? Here's our job. Love God, the first commandment, and what? The second is like unto it, love your ... as yourself. That's our vocation, love God, love your neighbor. He says walk worthy of that job, that calling. That's who you are. That's what your job is. You're not an electrician. You're not a computer programmer. You're not a government employee. You're an ambassador of God's love. That's first and foremost who we are.

He said, I want you to walk worthy of that call "...with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love." Now, Paul's getting ready; as he moves contextually here, he's getting ready to introduce us to the unity of the body of Christ, the Church. The tri-unity of God is going to be expressed here in just a moment. What he's basically saying is this: You don't live to yourself; you don't die to yourself. God's love is not for something to make us feel all warm and fuzzy and secure. God's love to us is to be received, and our vocation is to then readily transfer to those that are around us in need; and that's every one of us constantly needing to know and to believe that love God has to us.

He says, "I want you to minister this love in lowliness and meekness, patience, forbearance. That is the expression of my love." He's basically saying here, "I want you to empty yourself, and I want you to represent me." In the process then, there's to be an endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Flesh always wants to polarize, discriminate, isolate to those places to where we feel comfortable, and where we feel that we are accepted and where we feel we are prominent, and our worth is recognized, and people appreciate us. We like to be in the arena to where we can excel and be above and not beneath. We don't like to be dependent upon others. We don't like to be subordinate to others. We don't like to be a person in need. He said, "I'm calling you to come together in a spirit of lowliness and meekness. I'm calling you to love one another." "[For] There is one body and one Spirit . . . One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ."

Then he talks here about the gifts that were given, the ministry gifts placed in the body of Christ. He gave these gifts: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, for one purpose. So many have really missed what the Spirit of God has done. We've produced a professional clergy. We, somehow, in our society, in our mentality, have thought the clergy, this professional clergy, were hirelings. We pay them to do this; that's their job.

The Scripture speaks totally to the contrary. This job, if we want to give them a job description, is to perfect the saints to do the work of the ministry. Now, in doing this, they're going to have to assume the role that Jesus spoke of. The greatest among us is the what?--servant of all. These people are to be giving themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. These are a people who are willing to love enough to lay down their lives for their friends.

Any of you who are the head of your homes realize that this is not an easy job; there's a laying down of life. It's not easy to say, "No." It's not easy to be the administrator of God's love as you drive foolishness from your children, not sparing for their crying. It's not easy to love your wife more than you love yourself and be willing to die for her, honoring her as the weaker vessel, understanding the role that she's in, understanding that she is that part of you, that feminine aspect, that was removed, that is now inserted back through marriage and makes you whole and gives you the full perspective of God's purposes and His creation. It's not easy to pay the price to be the one to hear from God and set the course through the wilderness and have to answer why it appears as though at this time or that God's not meeting our needs or responding the way we thought He might.

The Scripture says that the purpose of these ministry gifts is to be jealous for the glory of God and to perfect each particular member to do the work of the ministry and to tear down all of the delusion of self, personal glory and grandeur, promotion of self, preference of self. The job of the ministry gift is to bring a community to selflessness, preferring brethren (look what it goes on to say) so that the body, verse 12, may edify itself. You're here not for what you can get, but what you can give.

That's one of the biggest problems in most of our churches today: people are coming for what they can get. What am I going to get out of this? Am I going to get blessed? Am I going to have my self-worth increased? The idol in this nation today of self-worth is to where we don't even hear teaching or preaching anymore against sin. People, we don't want them to feel bad about themselves. We want people to just feel good about themselves, and realize the potential within them. The fastest growing churches in our nation today are churches that focus upon self-worth, whether it has to do with emotional, psychological, or whether it's the ministries that are promoting wealth and health; and the focal point has become man and not God, and it's Humanistic.

We've approached the Gospel as though love is God saying, "You're worth more than I am," and the love of God has revealed that we are worthless without Him; and man's struggle with his total depravity causes him to reject the true Gospel and reject the true love. What we're looking at here is trying to remind ourselves that we don't look upon one another and say, "Now, what is it that within them is innately good? What good is there? You know, everybody has some good in them." That's not true unless you're going to compare it by yourselves. If we're going to say humanistically, "Well, everybody has some kind of good." If we're going to say that man is not totally as bad, every man is not as totally bad as he could possibly be, that's true; but that's not what total depravity speaks toward. It's a universal condition of man, and God's evaluation of man is, he's separate from Himself. Outside of God, there is no good.

What's this that Paul's saying to us in this passage in Ephesians? I want you to spend your time motivating one another to live for God's glory and not your own. That's basically what he's saying here. Build up the body of Christ so that no one member is seen, but Jesus is. The body of Christ; when they look upon us, no individual's seen, only Jesus. They see us as a body, not members in particular.

We look at people in the physical. We may admire some of their traits. "Oh, you have such beautiful eyes." "Oh, that's the longest nose I've ever seen," or whatever it is that we're admiring on somebody at the moment. But we are more than our eyes; we are more than our nose. That's what the Apostle's saying here, and he's saying, Listen, each one of us needs to become obsessed with being amalgamated, mixed in, not seen distinct, but working in harmony and unity, that Jesus could be all in all.

He says these ministry gifts are going to work in our midst and teach and exhort and lead until we can all come to the unity of the faith, verse 13, to the knowledge of the Son of God, unto mature men, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive" us, but that we would speak the truth in love, and grow up into Him. Grow up, and when you do, you'll find yourself in Him, the Head, whose command is that we be interwoven.

Verse 16: the whole body framed together, organized, structured, compacted. That word means to be actually united or knit or as a rope is intertwined, so that the powerful working of every part will make increase of the body to the building up of itself in love. Love is seeing every one of us interwoven, every person valuable enough that we would, in a moment, by the Spirit of God, move to their side and assist them and comfort them and lift up their hands and speak truth into their lives and encourage them and reprove them and rebuke them. Whatever love demands at that moment, we are empty enough of self that we're available to see that person move back into the place they need to be. Why? "Well, we don't want them to go to Hell." True. Why? "Because we're a family." Yes, true. The true motive is, the real motive is, that we might grow up into Christ, that we might each one allowing the Spirit to affect us sufficiently, so that we as a community can be looked upon and they say, Behold, how they love one another.

Now, there are imitations of this out there; the Mormons are doing it in the flesh. You have all the different little social clubs that are out there, and people are trying to be unified; and they take soup to one another, and they have drives, and they give clothing to children, all of these humanitarian. We are not talking about that. We're talking about bringing one another to the place of selflessness to where Jesus becomes all in all, helping one another die for the glory of God. I'll never forget the look on that nurse's face when Janet spoke those words. She said, "I don't know how to die." The nurse said, "Well, honey, the Lord . . ." She said, "No, no, no! I'm ready to die. I'm ready to meet the Lord." She said, "I don't know how to die." She said, "I'm not dying. How do you just--can't you just die? I need to die so that God's work can go on." She said, "I need to die because they have to go on. They've got ministries to conduct. There are things each one of them needs to be doing for the body of Christ. Jeff's busy. Kimberly's busy. My husband's busy. Star is busy working. They're working out there. They're working in the--they can't be spending time here on me; they need to be out working to build the body of Christ. I need to get out of here."

I can't think of a better illustration than that, that the body would be edified. How taken up are you with dying, getting out of the way, so that the body can be built up? Behold, how they love one another. "Greater love has no man than this, that he would lay down his soul for his friends;" or are we still preoccupied with our ambitions, our jobs, our promotions, our hobbies, whatever they are; and we're still so busy with self that we don't know what it means to take up a cross daily and die. The daily removing of ourselves from personal ambition and involvement, preoccupation, so that we could be used by the Spirit to bring community edification is what Jesus is saying. It's what Paul is speaking of, here. That's real love, beloved. That's the genuine love that Paul addresses.

As he goes down through these passages, he continues on, and he says, "What I need from you is to be," chapter 5, "followers of God, dear children." That word followers means imitators, and to walk in love as Christ has loved us and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God as a sweet smelling savor. He said our vocation is love. We are to be imitators of God as we walk in love even as Christ has loved us, verse 2. Seeking the mutual good, seeking to edify one another.

As you continue reading on in that fourth chapter, he says, "Put off (verse 22) concerning the former lifestyle that you had. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind that you could put on that new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." It would be nice if the moment we got saved, that new man that was brought to life would instantaneously dominate our lives, and we would be instantaneously sanctified; but that doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes it's a lengthy process, but it must be a process that's at work right now. You can't take off any time from it. It's a continual process. It's a continual growing. Sanctification is falsely taught by some denominations as an instantaneous once-for-all work. It is not; it's a process. The question we have to ask ourselves this morning is, "Where am I in the process? Is there less of me now than there used to be? Is there less self and more fruit of the spirit (kindness, joy, gentleness, meekness, temperance) than there used to be? Paul says you can tell by how you're relating to one another.

Verse 25: put away all lying, and speak every man truth. Lying is a very interesting thing, isn't it? Isn't it interesting that he would throw that right in the middle of all this? Satan's a liar, the father of lies. There's no truth in him. What makes him a liar? He always misrepresents God, speaking to our own benefit. I don't want to get off on this thing, but lying is a lot more than just words being spoken that are fabricated, that fabricate a situation. Lying has to do with our lives. Lying is evidenced in what would so innocently--well, it's not innocently, but probably what would be the best word, generally spoken, in womanly wiles. How about man's ego? Lying is hypocrisy. How about presenting ourselves as something that we're not spiritually, thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think?

Paul's basically saying here, "Look, walk in the light, man. Deal with who you are." When somebody puts their finger on you, and says, "You know, look, here's what you're doing, and here's what the Word of God says," and you need to just be able to say, "I'm the man; yeah." And that's not enough. Do something about it if you're going to walk in the spirit, if you're going to be jealous for the glory of God. Put away lying. Put away hypocrisy. Put away promotion of self, and speak every man truth to his neighbor because we are members one of another.

There is no greater sin to the body of Christ than to see a brother or sister in bondage and in sin and not say anything about it. As we love with the love of God, and when you see it, don't be angry; but be angry and sin not. In other words, we hate the sin. We hate the circumstances, but we speak the truth in love. Don't give place to the devil.

If you were a thief, don't steal anymore. Why do people steal? Because they're too lazy to work, because they're covetous, because they're proud, because they think they deserve something, that God is a failure and not able to get them what they deserve; so they go take it. He says, "Why don't you humble yourself and just work with your hands, and let God be the source?" Then, when you get it, be ready to distribute to those that are in need.

Don't let corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but only that which edifies. Do your words edify? Are you always seeking to build people up? What is corrupt communication? Well, you know, corrupt communication here would be anything in its context that would tear down. Do you always diminish things? Are you always the person that can't see any way for God to get glory out of this, or you can't see any good in anybody? Speak to edify, words that minister grace to the hearer, and by doing that, we don't grieve the Spirit of God.

"And be kind one to another, [and] tenderhearted [verse 32], forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Take that 32nd verse and make a cornerstone of how you relate to the body of Christ. Be kind one to another with a tender heart. With so much blatant sin in the world today and the lasciviousness of our society, we can become vexed like Lot. We need to remain tenderhearted for the Spirit to prick our hearts, and be sensitive toward one another.

He goes on and he says, "Forgiving..." We're going to talk about forgiveness as we continue this study because you can't talk about love and not talk about forgiveness. We might even talk about that tonight; I don't know for sure. As Paul's speaking here, he says, "This is the fruit of the spirit. This is how you relate to one another. This is how you know that, "...even as God..." is working in your life; "...even as God..." is what's to be working in our lives."

He said, "[Listen]! Fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, let it not once be named among you, as becometh saints." It's amazing to me how we Christians like to have our pet sins. We want to make some sins greater than others. Now, we all know what the greatest sins are; don't we? We all know what the sins are that are most offensive to God. It's the ones others commit, not the ones we do; right? God really hates that; but, you see, this thing that I'm warring with, this is just--God knows my heart. God knows that I really don't want to do these things. Those people love what they're doing. They ought to be doing something about that. It's amazing!

The Galatians passage; I don't want to get hung up on this, but if you'll look back at Galatians in Chapter 5, especially we who have come out of the background that, most of you have not; but some of the background that I've come out of, and the old time holiness movements where going to the movies was sin. I mean, at all, if you walked into a movie theatre, man, that is just--that's sin just to go in the place. If you went in and asked for directions to the church, it was sin; and smoking, and drinking, and I'm not saying that it is not. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit; we're to glorify God in our bodies; but we isolate on these things. You know, clothing, how the hemlines and whatever else, and how long your hair should be or how short it should be and all of those different things. We're not going to get into that right now, the disputable matters Paul speaks toward. What I want to address right now is that love doesn't think evil. It doesn't rejoice in iniquity. It doesn't in any way minimize sin in your own life and magnify it in somebody else's. If you are guilty of one you are guilty of all, the Scripture tells us.

You see, we don't believe that. How many of you believe that mass murder--now, just be as truthful as you can--how many of you believe that mass murder is a greater sin than gossip? Let me see your hands. Now, I didn't say doctrinally. How many of you just feel--bless God!--do you? How about when you read this list? How about adultery, fornication? We know those are sins that are against our own bodies. They're sins that involve other individuals, but most sin does. There are some other lists we're not going to take time to look at, but we talk about drunkenness and--I think of these lists. I think probably (and you can't do that) I would say, if we had to look at this and say which is the greatest sin, here, we'd all come from different perspectives; but I would think idolatry would come to my mind. Murder's not good (down in verse 21). We all know adultery and fornication are on the list, the top ten, but you know envy, reveling: you know, just a little party spirit, going out, "We're going to go out and hang out with the guys." There seems to be no longer a jealousy for sound doctrine, heresy, "You know, that's just what they believe." We have to guard ourselves against this if we're going to truly love one another.

Listen to what he says, (and I'm going to finish with this for this morning): "Fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints." We go, "Yeah! amen! Praise God! Yeah!" "Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, not jesting, but giving of thanks." We were just talking about speaking to edification, letting no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, only bringing strength to the individuals that are around us, being able to move in a spirit that seeks to edify and to glorify God.

It has been brought to my attention just last week concerning some of our young adults and some of the phrases that they use that are terms that, before I was saved, were cuss words. They still are, as far as I'm concerned. Yet, some of our young people need to use that phrase to express their displeasure or disgust of something, "...that I'm frustrated." Those are pretty good words: displeasure, disgust, frustration. Whom are we identifying with? Why are we saying what we're saying? Where's that coming from?

Now, it doesn't minimize all the rest of the fruit of the spirit. It doesn't minimize what this person is. We're not saying that's what makes that person. What I'm trying to express is this: our lives; if your life is prominent and dominant with fruit and good stuff, why add something else to it that's unlovely? Why detract from so much good when it's not necessary? Are we seeking to see how good we can get, how perfect we can become, how pure we can be, and not how much we can do and still be acceptable? You see, the process of walking in the spirit is this: when we produce fruit, we're pruned to produce more fruit, not choose and isolate little things that, for some reason, want to identify us with other than the body of Christ. I won't get into what is and what isn't acceptable. Let me just say this: how about rather giving of thanks, verse 4? Let no man deceive you. If you're going to live habitually, and, basically, he's not saying committing one of those acts, covetous, unclean, whoremonger, coarse speaker (just coarse speaking); he says if you do those things, you will not inherit the Kingdom of God, verse 5. It's not the individual act; it's the association with the kingdom from which they come, from where there is abundance, from those that accept those, from those who identify and say, "This is who we are. You will know us by our speech. You'll know us by our treasures. You'll know us by our fruit." And those who embrace and condone and seek and glorify that life will not inherit the Kingdom of God; so we want to flee from those things. Flee from the youthful lusts. That's what brings joy and peace. That's what brings the fruit of the spirit.

Father, we thank you for your Word this morning. We ask that as we fall in love with your holiness, when we're compelled to want to know you more, to be like you, to walk in the spirit, then we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. These other things will die because we abide in the vine. We find our comfort in the vine, our worth in the vine, our wisdom in the vine. I don't need men's approval when I'm abiding in you, and your words are abiding in me. I don't need the contemporary image because I'm finding my worth and my acceptance in the beloved. I don't have to join the gangs of East L.A. to feel a part because you never leave me nor forsake me. I'm not alone. I don't have to live the isolated life and fearful life of hypocrisy because you love me like I am. I've come to the light, and I know what I am and what You are making me. In myself, I'm no better on my best day than I am on my worst day because without you I'm filthy rags. Without the acceptance by faith of your redemptive blood, there is no value in me; so I seek less of me and more of you. For me to live is Christ, to daily die progress, gain. We ask, Father, that you would make it real in each of our lives. As we flow together it would not be "what can I get" or "what can I give," but we seek to edify in love, to speak the truth in love, to encourage those whose hands are hanging down to finish the course; and for that, we ask you to be glorified, Father, in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord.

As Gary plays, Steve and Dawn are going to be getting their little precious addition, Steven Garrett. What a blessing as we're able to look again at these little ones and, in their innocence, see how moldable they are. It never ceases to amaze me how these little ones who are loved and trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and many able to retain their innocence up through adolescence, the best way, and then some of those of us who were scarred and living in what would be the prototypical carnal lives, all have to come to the cross individually. Our parents' righteousness doesn't transfer to us. We seek to set the best environment for these little ones to be able to one day make that individual commitment to bow their knee and say, "I acknowledge my need of Jesus' lordship. I've never been worldly. I've never been out smoking or drinking or promiscuous in my behavior, but my righteousness is as filthy rags. I need your blood, Jesus. I need your lordship. I need your life to flow through me."

That's what we commit ourselves to as we pray for these families that they would train these children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, so that one day these children would say, "I, too, want to accept Jesus as my life, my Lord." We come from all different backgrounds, habits, traditions, and all of those are put aside; and we have one doctrine, the lordship of Jesus Christ, the truths of the Word of God. We all have different preferences. We all have the different areas of disputable matters; that's not the issue.

How holy can we become? How totally committed to the Kingdom, the goal of perfection, the pursuit, the emptying of ourselves to obtain the prize, the high calling of God, in Christ Jesus? As a community, that's what we're committing ourselves to each time we pray for these families and these little children. How will your life affect Garrett, should Jesus tarry? Will this young man look at you and say, "That's what a Christian is; that's what I want to be."

Steve and Dawn, come, and the brethren will come, we're going to pray and just thank God for the privilege, the high calling, of training up another generation, a godly seed. It's a very humbling thing to hold these innocent children in your arms and think, "Percentages are that they'll become what I am." Follow me as I follow Christ, the high calling. As we pray, just extend your hearts and your hands toward these, and let's pray. We're just going to believe God's peace to come upon the household. The Scripture says we can speak peace upon a house, and it will remain if it's believed. Let's believe it together. Hallelujah!

Father, we do thank you again for the privilege of offering our lives up to be used of you, to pour into Garrett; as members of your body, to allow our lives to evidence your love. Let him see your love, Father, in us, that you would be glorified. It is our heart's desire, Father, and we pray that peace upon this precious child, in Jesus name, that you would raise him up for your glory. Make him a mighty warrior, Father, in these last days; that your grace would be known. We continue to pray, Father, for Steve and for Dawn. We thank you for these vessels as they've blessed your body, Father. Let them continue to pour into these lives as they've unselfishly poured into those whom you've given them. We pray your peace on the house, Father, and that you would be all in all, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Praise God.

Come on up so they can see him. Glory! Hallelujah! Look at this little guy. Now, if that's not Steve's nose, I've never seen one, man. Praise God. I think Dawn's eyes. I'm horrible at--it looks just like, a kid. What a blessing! They're cuties, that's for sure. Are you checking me out? I'm checking you out, too. If we could only look at Father like that; if we could only rest like that, then men would see the fruit and glorify our Father. Thank you for loving us, Father. You know us and you love us, and we stand in awe of that. We can't explain it, but we do say thank You in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Love never fails." Praise God. Amen. Come on up and see this precious little guy.

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