St. Michael s Church CHARLESTON, SC DISCIPLESHIP TOOL BOX. Psalm 1 Galatians 5: Mark 13:1-8 PREACHER: THE REV. AL ZADIG, JR.

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1 St. Michael s Church CHARLESTON, SC DISCIPLESHIP TOOL BOX Psalm 1 Galatians 5: Mark 13:1-8 PREACHER: THE REV. AL ZADIG, JR. HELP US LORD TO BE SO CONNECTED TO YOU THAT WE MIGHT BECOME THE SERVANTS OF OTHERS. TAKE OUR LIPS AND SPEAK THROUGH THEM, OUR MINDS AND THINK THROUGH THEM, AND TAKE OUR HEARTS, AND SET THEM ON FIRE I love the story of a man named Edward stopped in rush hour traffic with literally no place to go. Cars motionless for as long as the eye can see. All of a sudden a man behind him starts honking his horn, and won t stop. Edward s anger grows and grows, what on earth does he expect me to do? Sheer exasperation! But the driver continues honking Edward can t take it anymore. That s it Rushes out of his car Slams his door Goes back to the driver behind him And gives him a piece of his mind, complete with obscenities and does not hold back. The driver of the honking car just sits there stunned. BAD FRUIT 1

2 When the tirade is over, says to Edward, but sir: YOUR BUMPER STICKER SAYS HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS! Do you ever wonder what determines behavior. You re having a great day when all of a sudden you just lose it Yes, it might be the circumstance, or it might be a mood change you didn t see coming. Ancient Jewish doctrine teaches that we all have 2 impulses which are at war within us. The Rabbi s declared that God created Adam with 2 inclinations: One good, the other evil. Adam was free to follow his good impulse, but he chose the evil. Consequently every human since became the Adam of his own soul. Rabbi s taught that the remedy was to read and live the Torah-the law to wear down that old Adam This is actually why Paul writes the book of Galatians, to basically say Only the Holy Spirit of Jesus, not the law can cure our Old Adam sin within! In fact it s why the book of Galatians has been nicknamed: The Spiritual declaration of Independence! Paul s core message is this: The Holy Spirit is God s rescue and freedom plan for the old Adam inside each human. Yes, our declaration of Freedom! How? As we heard last week by David Booman, the Holy Spirit in Baptism gives gifts. Today Hannah and Catherine Blair in their baptism are given gifts that only God knows at this point, and it s the ministry of the parents and church to help these fine ladies discover them! Gifts such as: BAD FRUIT 2

3 The: Speaking gifts of: o tongues o interpretation of tongues o and prophecy The knowing gifts of: o Words of knowledge o wisdom o and discernment The power gifts of: o Faith o Healing o And miracles These gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to free us from sin, and produce fruit in us that we might transform the world! Those gifts are seeds with the job of producing fruit in our lives. Fruit mentioned later in Galatians 5 Love Joy Peace and all the rest. These fruits are critical for the disciple! As disciples of Jesus, remember a disciple is one who learns too: Live Look & love more like Jesus And actually, these fruits of the spirit are the only proof that we really are disciples! Remember, We don t need to produce fruit in order to be saved. Paul tells us that we are saved by grace and not by works. BUT, once we ARE saved we should produce fruit in keeping with repentance. In our Anglican catechism in fact, we read that: The fruit of the Holy Spirit BAD FRUIT 3

4 IS the very character of Jesus developing in us Okay, enough good news, more on that next week, time for the nitty-gritty-bad-news. Remember the old Adam? Just as the gifts of the Holy Spirit produce fruit, so does living for that old Adam. Something we call the flesh. In fact we might say that every human is producing either: The fruit of the Holy Spirit.. Or the Smelly bad fruit of the Flesh. Paul tells us these two, spirit and flesh are living in here, opposed to each other. The best definition of flesh comes from Oswald Chambers who writes: The Flesh is That old Adam, the traitor within us who is in co-hutes with the attackers outside us. He goes on, and this is fantastic, he says: The flesh provides the TINDER on which the devil's temptations can KINDLE. Anytime we act or speak without Jesus going before us, we are acting out of old Adam flesh. We know we are living for the flesh for instance when we say: That s just my nature It s just who I am: when speaking about o gossip o impatience o anger. No, the reality is that Jesus died to MAKE our nature NEW! More on that later. But remember this BAD FRUIT 4

5 The flesh itself is not sinful, but it is when we put IT in command. And just to make sure we understand what happens when we do, Paul gives 15 pieces of really stinky, fleshly bad fruit. And here they are Sexual immorality Impurity Sensuality Idolatry Sorcery Enmity Strife Jealousy Anger Rivalries Dissensions Divisions Envy Drunkeness And Orgies.. By the way, this list is not finalized. Paul ends the list by saying and others like these! Now I m going to take a page out of David s book from last week. Last week, David s task was to describe each of the gifts of the Spirit. He told us he would quickly define each one, But then would highlight one person in the congregation who was really embodying that gift. It seemed to work really well, I d like to do the same with the fruit of the flesh, I ll define each one, and then highlight one of us living that bad fruit. Here we go Just kidding!! No, Here is thumbnail of some of the bad fruit. BAD FRUIT 5

6 We know we are living for that old Adam, that traitor when we are having relations outside marriage. The Journal of Marriage and Family reports that couples who live together before marriage are less satisfied with their marriages and more likely to divorce. Be celibate outside marriage! Anything other than celibacy outside marriage results in hurt, pain and confusion Which leads to the bad fruit of sensuality, defined as one living with unrestrained pleasure no matter how much it hurts others. Sensuality can be summed up by the Sprite soda commercial.. OBEY YOUR THIRST Being a slave to our feelings, our carnal desires. As Melody Martini loves to say, why is it we can t enough of the wrong thing! Paul then lists Idolatry The Jews regarded this as the root of all sin. This is the piece of bad fruit that occurs when we worship human stuff, that have taken the place of God. How do we know we have idols? Unless it s Jesus: o An idol is whatever you think about first when you get up in the morning. o Bills? Appointments? Kids? o But, The fruit of the spirit wakes us up to Jesus. Idols are also anything that keep us from worship on a Sunday morning. I remember 2 years ago writing a soccer coach telling him how unhappy I was that practice was scheduled for Sunday Mornings! My children would not be there. I said Sunday is our one day set aside for Sabbath worship. Anything coming in the way of worship is idolatry, even children s activities. BAD FRUIT 6

7 Parents you need to say no! It will continue as long as you say yes Another fruit of the flesh, sorcery or witchcraft. Here s a surprise. Sorcery means doing drugs of any kind. Since ancient witches and sorcer ers used drugs, the phrase drug-use came to designate witchcraft. So today, using drugs that hurt the body is evidence that the old Adam is in control And Paul goes on to list: Anger. Anger is just one letter short of danger. It describes those flaring bits of rage. Akin to: leaping into a European sports car gunning the motor taking off at a high speed and then discovering You have no brakes Anger often leads to the bad fruit of hatred. As John Barr said yesterday in our Day of Healing Prayer Hatred doesn t even have the common decency to die when those we hate die! The parasite of anger just stays with us Then the bad fruits of Envy and Jealousy. There is a difference in these two fruits of the flesh. To envy is to want something which belongs to another.. BAD FRUIT 7

8 Craving that great car Craving that great beach house your friend just bought But jealousy is different. Jealousy is the Old Adam fear that something you have will be taken away. Fearing your spouse will be drawn away by the love of another. Your job taken by someone else All evidence that the old Adam is in control Finally, the fruit of the flesh of Drunkeness As they say, the only time liquor makes people go straight is when there is a curve in the road My friends, These bad fruits have one goal: To enslave us As they did to Irish playwright Oscar Wilde who writes:. I let myself be lured into long spells of sense-less and sens-ual ease... Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in search for new sensation. I grew careless of the lives of others. I took pleasure where it pleased me. I forgot that every little action of the common day- Makes or unmakes character, and that therefore: What one has done in the secret chamber, One has to some day- Cry aloud from the house-top. I ceased to be lord over myself. BAD FRUIT 8

9 I was no longer the captain of my soul--and did not know it. I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace. These bad fruits if gone unchecked enslave us now and eternally. Paul doesn t list these fruits to condemn, but to Declare a Independence from the enslavement! Independence from that Judas Adam! How? On the Cross, Jesus paid the price for that old Adam: Sin of our: past Present and future. Jesus provides the Holy Spirit to release us from the control of the flesh. It is the role of the Holy Spirit to free us from the fruit of the flesh! In the spirit of Galatians: JI Packer writes: The Holy Spirit crucifies the sinful fruit of the flesh at the motivational level. As Bill Hewitt loves to say: Net, net: The only way to defeat the flesh is to walk by the Spirit. Back to the beginning of Galatians 5.. I say to you, brothers and sisters, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. You see, the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of the flesh are not equal. The Holy Spirit is stronger every single time. BAD FRUIT 9

10 Finally, Author and Pastor John Piper describes what that looks like in our everyday life Picture your flesh that old ego with the craving for power, reputation and selfreliance. Picture it as a dragon living in some cave of your soul. Then you hear the gospel, and IN it: Jesus Christ comes to you and says: "I will make you mine and take possession of the cave to slay the dragon. Will you yield to my possession? It will mean a whole new way of thinking and feeling and acting." You say: "But that dragon is me. I will die." Jesus says: "Yes And you will rise to newness of life, I will make my: mind my will and my heart your own." You say, "What must I do?" Jesus answers, "Trust me and do as I say. As long as you trust me, we cannot lose." Overcome by the love, beauty and power of Christ you bow and swear eternal loyalty and trust. BAD FRUIT 10

11 And as you rise, Jesus puts a great sword in your hand and says, "Follow me." He leads you to the mouth of the cave and says, "Go in, slay the dragon." But you look at Jesus bewildered, "I cannot. Not without you." Jesus smiles: "Well said. You learn quickly my son. Never forget: My commands for you to do something are never commands to do it alone." Then you enter the cave together. A horrible battle follows and you feel Christ's hand on yours. At last the dragon lies limp. You ask, "Is it dead?" Jesus answers: "I have come to give you new life. This you received when you yielded to my possession and swore faith and loyalty to me. And now with my sword and my hand you have felled the dragon of the flesh. It is a mortal wound. It will die. That is certain. But It has not yet bled to death, And it may yet revive with violent convulsions and do much harm. So you must treat it as dead and seal the cave as a tomb. The Lord of darkness may cause earthquakes in your soul to shake the stones loose, but you build them up again. BAD FRUIT 11

12 And have this confidence: With my sword and hand on yours this dragon's doom is sure, He is finished, and your new life is secure My friends today, call on the Holy Spirit to help you slay the old Adam, and all his horrible looking fruit. To begin, Let us kneel in surrender as we confess that old fruit, Our sin against God and our neighbor. Let us pray. BAD FRUIT 12