The Fruit of the Spirit

#1 Introduction

Q) What is your favorite kind of fruit?

Q) How many of you grew up on a farm?
Q) It is spring time anyone plant a garden this year?
We are going to start by looking at some common agricultural
practices today. It may help the Fruit of the Spirit make sense. The
people of both the Old and the New Testaments were much closer
to agriculture than many of us today. There are many references
to farming in the Bible, and they maybe meant something more
to people throughout most of history than they do to us in maybe
the last 50-100 years. We have become somewhat distant from
the practice of growing food.
In biblical times, both Old and New Testament periods, grapes
and figs were two of the most important crops. Lets look at some
of the more common agricultural practices associated with these
two staples.
1) Grafting anyone know what grafting is? Anyone every done
it? Grafting is attaching a branch or stem of one type of plant to
the rootstock of another. Why would you want to do that? A)
hardier tree, b) repair, c) precocity trees can produce fruit
quicker.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me

and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do
nothing. John 15:5

Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree
bears bad fruit.
Matthew 7:17

How is our relationship with Christ like grafting? What is the

branches source of nourishment? How does being grafted onto
Christ help us?

2) Fertilizing what does fertilizing do for a plant? Why does it

need fertilization?

Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in
his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find
any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For
three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig
tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up
the soil?
'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and
I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine!
If not, then cut it down.'
Luke 13:6-9
How does God feed us? Why does God feed us? Are we to
fertilize others? How?

3) Pruning what is pruning? (cutting away old growth to help

with new growth). Pruning is not necessarily cutting away dead
growth or unwanted growth. It is also done to wanted branches.
So in that sense, what does pruning do to a plant why would one
do it? (revitalizes and stimulates the plant to create new growth).

I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts of

every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that
does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
John 15:1-2

How does pruning hurt the plant? How does it help? How does
God prune us? How does pruning actually help us become more
fruitful?

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought

best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in
his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but
painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of
righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:6-11

4) Weeding why do you weed around plants?

Matthew 13:2-9, 22
Then he told them many things in parables, saying: A farmer
went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some
fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell
on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up
quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came
up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they
had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and
choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it
produced a cropa hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
9
Whoever has ears, let them hear.
3

The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears
the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of
wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
22

This parable is about people hearing the word of God. Keep this
last verse in mind; were going to talk about it in a minute.
5) What purpose does fruit serve in our world? (good to eat,
pleasing to look at, healthy, seeds are in it)

This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit,

showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:8

What does it mean to be fruitful? What is fruit? How does this

help us? How does this help others?

The main thrust of our lessons is going to be examining how our

culture, today, chokes out the fruit just like the thorns choked out
the Word of God. To understand how this can happen, imagine
that you have just met someone you are on an airplane and the
person sitting next to you is chatty. What would you tell them
about yourself? Why do we not mention Christ? Because our
society has said that talking about religion in public is impolite.
This is the kind of thing that our lesson is going to focus on how
can we grow the fruit in our culture.

Q) Imagine that you were to go into a public spot and sit and
watch people. How would you identify Christians? How are we
diferent from non-Christians?
In Galatians 5 Paul shows how we are diferent.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not
use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another
humbly in love.
13

Paul has been talking about how we have freedom in Christ. We

have freedom from the law specifically. Then in the latter part of
chapter 5, he is either addressing a problem that the Galatians
have, or the Spirit is guiding him to head of a potential problem.
Verse 13 says But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh.
Q) Why would freedom give this particular problem in our lives?
( our sins are forgiven so cant we pretty much do what we
want?)
Paul tells them in vs 16 what they should be doing instead. So I
say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the
flesh.
So what happens when we walk by the Spirit?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.
Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ
Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
26
Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each
other.
22

Q) Is this fruit something that the Spirit grows in us, or that we

have to grow in ourselves using the Spirit?
There has been a lot of discussion on this on this, and many
people miss the point about what Paul is saying. He is telling the
Galatians to purposefully walk by the Spirit; live in the way of the
Spirit; graft themselves into the Spirit. So yes, it is something that

we purposefully have to do. In a sense we are trying to do these

things listed as fruit.
Q) What happens to us when we are grafted into the Spirit;
grafted into God, because we want to live like him. What does the
Spirit do for us when we try to live the way God intended?
God fertilizes us, prunes us, cares for us, and produces a harvest
through us.
The following lessons are going to look at how we can become
grafted into the Spirit, and cultivate, through the Spirit, this fruit
in our own lives even though we live in a culture that opposes the
Spirit.