"How you gone win if you ain't right within"

This "Road to Purpose' is filled with bumps, deep curves and detours and it is vital as we experience these things that we maintain a character that is not only pleasing to God but also exemplifies the God that we serve. So we are going to pull over and take brief stop at the rest stop to nourish and feed our inner (wo)man to learn how we can develop and possess Christian character. 

Romans 5:3-4, Paul tells us that “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,”. Endurance should develop character.

When I was preparing to share this message on Friday,  I kept hearing in my spirit, "How are you gone win when you aint right within". Yes, you read it right. That is a line from Lauryn Hills song, "Doo Wop (That Thing). So I looked up the lyrics and this verse really stood out to me:

Talking out your neck, saying you're a Christian
A Muslim, sleeping with the Gin
Now that was the sin that did Jezebel in
Who're you going to tell when the repercussions spin?

Basically this verse is stating, you are saying one thing, but you are living another kind of life and eventually all of it is going to do you in. What powerful lyrics.  We all have to ask ourselves are we demonstrating and producing what we say is inward?  Are we being the people Jesus Christ called us to be? Are we displaying his character and percepts in our trust, faith, and obedience and in application in our life?  If we are not, how is God working in you to develop your character? If he is not, you will not be able to build effective or effectual Christian Character.

What is character? Character is a spiritual fruit that is built from a real, godly relationship and commitment to Christ as Lord. It is the fiber of our moral center that stretches throughout our being, embracing and holding together our relationships when it is sealed as a choice and commitment, and not just a feeling or a personality. Character synergistically combines with the Fruit of the Spirit and the seventy or so other characters of our Lord to promote our ability to relate and grow in our relations, to better others as well as ourselves. In order to exhibit this character, the flow from the Fruit of the Holy Spirit must be accessed and developed. John 3:29-30 tells us that" He must increase and we must decrease".  If we refuse the call to allow God to increase in our lives to build character, endurance, faith, God just may allow those hardships to come our way, breaking us down so we will yield and grow as His child. Just as a good loving parent will discipline his child, we, too, will receive discipline. This is not a personal attack; rather it is a way to grow us so that we can be of better use to our Lord.

The type of character you have is dependent upon your choices. You may not have a choice regarding the situations you are confronted with, but you always have a choice concerning how you respond to those situations. When dealing with frustrating or disappointing circumstances, you can respond with anger or with patience or you could choose to bury your head in the sand and not deal with it. But whatever the choice is, it always yours to make, so your character is always a matter of choice, and thus it is your responsibility. So, are you willing to reduce yourself to the real you so God can work within?
 
The Biblical equivalent for character is righteousness.  We are to transform our character so it mimics the character of Christ. We actually have an obligation, a moral responsibility, to change our character so that it is aligned with what we confess to love and serve.  An example of someone in the Bible who had "character" was Ruth. In the Old Testament, Boaz, speaking about Ruth, the great-grandmother of King David, said she was a woman of “noble character” (Ruth 3:11). The word translated in this verse in Hebrew generally refers to strength and might. In this instance it applies to her inner strength of character. From the record about this wonderful woman we learn many character lessons from her interactions with her mother-in-law. Ruth shows herself to be faithful, kind, merciful, steadfast, industrious, and humble, all of which are wonderful and godly character traits. So you see Boaz a man that was a successful business man, that was well respected in his community, was attracted to a woman that possessed an inner strength and character that was exemplary.  Often you are asking God for your "Boaz" but you are not demonstrating characteristics that are of "noble character". You are praying and seeking out your Ruth, but you aren't demonstrating behavior that is consistent with a Boaz. It is time to get right within!

The life of Christ also teaches us great practical character lessons. In spite of difficult circumstances and times of severe difficulty, he always responded in a godly manner. He was the epitome of love, kindness, and gentleness. Yet, at the very same time, he was a man of great passion, strength, and fearlessness. And through his demonstration of Christian Character we know how we can and should, live.

Now it is time to feast!

Throughout the Bible, righteous men are likened to trees, and Paul in Galatians 5 explains what fruit a righteous tree bears.  Galatians 5:22-23 says,

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

These nine attributes are considered the Fruit of the Spirits and they are defined as follows:

· Love will enable us to appreciate our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and, of course, our family, and others around us. Love is taking the initiative to build up and meet the needs of others without expecting anything in return. (John 13:1; 15:13; 1 Corinthians 13:3)

·Joy will allow us to enjoy His creation, others, and our circumstances with an expression of delight and real, authentic happiness from and with harmony with God and others. (Proverbs 15:13; John 15:11; 17:13)

·Peace is surrendering and yielding to the Lord's control, for He is our ultimate peace! It is allowing tranquility to be our tone. This will be fueled by our harmonious relationship with God so we can hand over control of our heart, will, and mind to Him. Once we make real peace with God, we will be able to make and maintain peace with others. (Matthew 5:9; Colossians 3:15; Philippians 4:7)

·Longsuffering is showing tolerance and fortitude to others, and even accepting difficult situations from them and God without making demands and conditions. (Matthew 27:14; Romans 12:12; James 1:3,12)

·Kindness is practicing benevolence and a loving attitude towards others. (Ephesians 4:32)

·Goodness displays integrity, honesty, and compassion to others, and allows us to do the right thing. (Matthew 19:16)

·Faithfulness is the "gluing" fruit that will preserve our faith and the other characters of the Spirit as well as identify God's Will so we can be dependable and trusting to God and others. (Matthew 17:19; 25:21; 1 Cor. 12:9; Hebrews 11:1; 1 Thess. 5:24)

·Gentleness is the character that will show calmness, personal care, and tenderness in meeting the needs of others. (Isa. 40:11; Phil. 4: 5; 2 Timothy 2:24; 1 Thess. 2:7)

· Self-Control/Temperance will allow us to have discipline, and restraint with obedience to God and others. 


As stated, these nine attributes are labeled as the Fruit of the Spirit. The original Greek term translated as "Fruit" is singular, signifying that there is one Fruit, with nine parts. Accordingly, this fruit is grown by those who have truly repented, or are truly followers of Jesus. It is arguable that if one does not bear this fruit, one is not truly a Christian. Paul illustrates with these attributes the kind of love that marks a true Christian life. 

To fully appreciate just how precious these words are, we need to see them in the larger context. This is Paul's letter to the church in Galatia. As beautiful as these words are, they come to us in the harshest of Paul's New Testament letters. Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians in great anger and distress of heart, because the believers in Galatia were falling away from the simple message of the gospel. They were abandoning the message that a sinner is declared righteous before God as a free gift of His grace through faith in the cross of Jesus. Instead, they were falling for the lie that they could make themselves righteous before God through obedience to the Old Testament law.  Paul spends the first four chapters of his letter proving to them that "a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. He argues that the purpose of the Old Testament law was not to make us righteous, but to condemn us as sinners that needed to flee to Jesus for salvation by grace. False teachers had been misleading the Galatian believers into thinking that they could be made more righteous and acceptable before God on the basis of the law of Moses by following the Jewish rite of circumcision, observing Jewish dietary laws, and keeping the Jewish Sabbaths and festivals. It was as if they had been set free from bondage by Christ; but yet were now putting the yoke of bondage back on themselves and making themselves slaves again. Paul wrote to tell them not to be deceived any longer: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1). By the way, the impact that their misplaced devotion to the law was having on the Galatian church was very negative. Individual believers in Galatia began to measure their spirituality by their own performance; and they began to look down their noses at those who didn't perform as well as them. Soon, their legalistic approach made them jealous and accusatory toward one another. This was because "legalism" places the emphasis on us and on our performance. It turns our focus inward, rather than toward God's grace and toward each other's needs. But then, there's the question of what to do with the law of God. Do we simply ignore the need to be holy in the way we live? Do we reject God's law altogether? Do we forget about following the pattern of Jesus' own holiness? Are we now to just "go with the flow", and allow the lusts of the flesh to express themselves in us?

 No! The standard of holiness hasn't changed; but what has changed is the way in which it's to be achieved in us. We're now to cease trying to make ourselves holy on the basis of our own human efforts; and instead allow God's Holy Spirit to live in us so that the life of Jesus Christ is shown through us. 

Now immediately before he illustrates Christ-like "love-one-another" love, author Paul issues a stern warning in presenting a partial list of what he termed "acts of the flesh" which he labels as "obvious": Paul wrote; (Gal. 5:16-26).

"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like: of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

In one of the most serious statements attributed to Paul in the New Testament, he concludes the negative list with these explicit words: "I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."  

There is no mention of these behaviors and attitudes being unpardonable sins. However, the key words are "those who live like this" which imply a lifestyle. This isn't simply a message intended for the Galatian believers alone. It's a message intended for you and me. And it's a message of great encouragement and hope. 

All nine of these things are really one thing that you will have if the Holy Spirit indwells in you -- if you are a believer in Christ, that is.  You just need to develop them.  But you have to know that they can only be produced in a life that is rooted in the SPIRIT. They cannot be hung outwardly upon a life like ornaments on a Christmas tree. And when you examine yourself you might notice that some of the fruit are not all that well developed. You might be kind and good, but need to work on your patience.  You might have great joy and peace but need work on self-control and gentleness.   None of us are perfect, and we all have areas of improvement.  But, all Christians have the Spirit of God (the power within) and therefore, they have the fruit of the Spirit of God in them.  It is there, if only in developing form, but it is there.

Note that the list of nine virtues relative to the fruit of the Spirit in believers falls into three sets:
       
o   First group deal with the soul's well-being. Love, joy and peace—portrays a Christian's mind in its most general aspect with special emphasis on one's relationship with God.

O   Second group deal with the believer's relations with others. Longsuffering (patience), kindness and goodness—contains social virtues relating to our thoughts and actions toward fellow man.

O   Third group provide principles for the believer's proper conduct faithfulness (fidelity), gentleness and self-control—reveals how a Christian should be in himself with overtones of his spiritual and moral reliability.

So how do we achieve these fruit? If we have not yet achieved a mature godly life which blesses our own soul as well as enriches our conduct toward our fellow-believers and neighbors, we should not despair, the spiritual life is attained through a gradual molding process. There is a struggle between the old nature and the new nature which is the common experience of Christians everywhere. And this conflict is a war to the death. Obedience to God's Word is required to produce the Spirit's fruit, and the Christian is being pulled or led in two directions. One tries to make us satisfy the desires of our old nature, and the other leads us toward producing the fruit of the new. Paul expresses his experience and disappointed with his flesh in Romans 7:15-19:

I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.

We need not become discouraged over this conflict, though, because Paul also gives us a very hopeful solution. In Romans 7:24-25, he exclaims:

“Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.”

Remember, the Fruits of the Spirit are not something that you can scrounge up on your own, but gifts that God gives to you.  He uses them to set you free from human frailties like anger, fear and depression. The fruit of the Spirit is the result of the Holy Spirit's presence working in your life. The Holy Spirit is what Jesus left us to bear witness to his ministry. It is an eternal, omniscient, omnipresent presence.    When Jesus was baptized by John the Holy Spirit descended like a dove. (Matthew 3:16). Jesus tells his disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:4-8. After Jesus left the earth, the Holy Spirit lived in them and guided them while Jesus was in heaven. The Holy Spirit comes to everyone who asks for salvation through Jesus Christ. When we allow the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts it will guide us and our character will be filled with the “fruit of the spirit.”

So what is the Purpose of the Fruits of the Spirit? There are two very important things that the Fruits of the Spirit accomplish here on Earth.

1.      They give you the power to fulfill your destiny in Christ. 

2.      Without the Holy Spirit bearing spiritual fruit inside of you, you would be powerless.  

You wouldn't have the endurance and faithfulness to complete the calling that God has given you. You wouldn't even have the self-discipline to study your Bible or pray. Without the Fruits of the Spirit, the gifts that God has hidden inside of you would stay locked away forever. They are what God uses to draw people to Himself through you. Do you know anyone who, no matter the situation, always radiates a godly peace - they are unshakable.  People in this world are drawn to that kind of peace. With all of the chaos surrounding them every day, they search their entire lives for whatever peace and joy they can get their hands on.  They end up trying to fill the void with fleeting things like alcohol, drugs, material possessions and sex.  Things that merely numb their pain for a short while but leave them longing once again once the party is over. When they look at you in a time of crisis, and see God's unshakable peace and joy staring back at them through your eyes, they want to know what you know. Then, you can introduce them to WHO you know. We want to be able to bear fruit so people will know without us opening our mouths WHO we know.  Matthew 7:17-20 states:

Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. 

Jesus told His disciples in this passage, that you can tell if someone truly belongs to Him by the kind of spiritual fruit that they produce. And every tree that is not bearing good fruit is destroyed. So I asked, what fruit are we "producing"? Are we not "winning" on this road of life because we have a "diseased tree" that is not rooted and grounded in the truth therefore we are not bearing good fruit?  Is our tree not being fertilized and treated with the word of God and with a consistent prayer life so that it can bear the fruit of the spirit? Are we saying one thing and living another and people are confused as to "who" we represent? Are our choices in how we handle and respond to conflict in way that is contradictory to our Christian Character? Are we choosing to allow the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts to give us the power and the ability to lead our lives so that we can win?  It's  time to ask ourselves the hard questions and be honest with the response so that the Holy Spirit can develop our Fruit of the Spirit so that real changes can take place within us so we can finally "win because we are right within".















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