The Fruit of the Spirit is SELF-CONTROL.
Over the past 8 weeks we have been taking a look at the Fruit of the Spirit. Throughout the course of our study, our background images have contrasted light vs darkness. Jesus told us in John 8:12 – “ … I am the LIGHT of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the LIGHT of life.”
If we are followers of Jesus, He gives us His LIGHT. “You are the LIGHT of the world … let your LIGHT shine before men …” (Matthew 5:14, 16) Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, and it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that the LIGHT of Jesus shines through our lives.
What does the LIGHT of Jesus look like on a day-to-day basis?
- It looks like LOVE … in action!
- It looks like JOY … regardless of the circumstances.
- It looks like PEACE … a heart at PEACE in a world full of turmoil and chaos.
- It looks like PATIENCE … responding with PATIENCE in the face of conflict, hate, and rage.
- It looks like KINDNESS … acts and responses of KINDNESS regardless of benefit or outcome.
- It looks like GOODNESS … doing what is GOOD, RIGHT, and TRUE, even if it is counter cultural.
- It looks like FAITHFULNESS … consistently Loving, consistently Kind, consistently Patient, consistently doing what is Right & True.
- It looks like GENTLENESS … having a calm and gentle spirit in a world full of turmoil.
These are the Fruit of the Spirit … brilliantly shining the LIGHT of Jesus in our very dark world. The Fruit of the Spirit shines the LIGHT of Jesus in order to draw people to God.
Today we turn our attention to SELF-CONTROL. Our guiding passage for our look at SELF-CONTROL is James 3:5-6: “The tongue is a small part of the body … Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”
Our background image today is Glacier National Park, just days after a devastating forest fire ravaged through! A gorgeous natural area with unrivaled beauty … absolutely decimated by fire! This picture sums up what our lives look like, what the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives looks like, if we do not have SELF-CONTROL.
It is not by our own power that we try to have SELF-CONTROL. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us SELF-CONTROL!
Just as the power of the Holy Spirit allows the very LOVE of God to flow in and through our lives;
and just as the power of the Holy Spirit covers and protects our hearts with the very PEACE of God;
and just as the power of the Holy Spirit surrounds and protects our lives with the GOODNESS of God;
so also, the Holy Spirit will cover us and give us His power to maintain SELF-CONTROL when we are hurt, when we are angry, when we are treated unfairly, when we are lied about, taken advantage of, etc, etc, etc…
The Fruit of the Spirit is SELF-CONTROL.
