Demonstration of a life controlled by the spirit part Iii

GALATIANS 5: 22-26
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there is no law.

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with his pbadions and desires.

If we live in the Spirit, let us walk also by the Spirit. Let's not be boastful, do not be defiant, do not envy us (NASB).

INTRODUCTION
On November 19, 1990, Newsweek published an article titled "Letters in the Sand", a compilation of letters written by soldiers to families and friends in the United States during the Gulf War.

One was written by Corporal Preston Coffer. He told a friend, "We are talking about Marines, not Scouts. We all joined the service knowing perfectly what we could expect from us. He signed with the motto Marine, Semper Fi, Latin for "always faithful"

The Bible says, "Now it is necessary for those entrusted with a trust to be faithful" (1 Corinthians 4: 2).

Self-control is the ability to break a bar of chocolate into four pieces with bare hands – and to eat only one of the pieces.

A girl was learning the fruit of the Spirit, so her mother asked her to recite it. The girl started: "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness and remote control".

We must all submit to the control of the Holy Spirit to bear the fruit of the Spirit.

III. OUR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AS VV PEOPLE. 22C-23

The third group of fruits of the Spirit is loyalty. This is different from the faith that you and I exercise as Christians. The word fidelity or fidelity is produced by the Holy Spirit in a Christian life surrendered. Faith is a theological term. Fidelity, however, is an ethical term. Fidelity is a virtue of God. For example, Romans 3: 3 states that "the infidelity" of the people of God does not call into question the faithfulness of God. There is no inconstancy in love. Loyalty in this context means reliability, reliability, trust, dignity – a highly valued quality. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you will grow more and more into the kind of person who is told: "He is a faithful guy. He has integrity. "Or" when she says she's going to do it; she gets it. In other words, it is the faithfulness produced in your life by the Holy Spirit when you walk with him and in him.

Proverbs 20: 6 asks a sobering and thought-provoking question: "Who can find a faithful man?" Pastors, leaders, and general managers of all kinds are always looking for faithful people. A trustworthy person is one who can be depended on, who is reliable. This trait is highly recommended in the scriptures. Fidelity to the little things is one of the safest character tests, as Jesus stated in the parable of the talents: "You have been faithful with a few things, I will entrust you with many things, enter into the joy of your master "(Matt 25:21). Morality is not a question of greatness, but of quality. True, and right wrong, in little things as in great things. Fidelity has been described as reliability that never gives up and never drops. Some of you are faithful to Christ and his church. When we give you responsibility, you do it. There are others too, when they say to wait here for me, you better go home because they do not come. While a pastor from North Dakota was preaching on a Sunday, an elderly woman, Mary, fainted and hit her head at the end of the bench. Immediately, an ambbadador of the congregation called an ambulance. While they tied her to a stretcher and were preparing to step out the door, Mary regained consciousness. She gestured to her daughter to approach, everyone thought that she was mobilizing her strength to convey her last words. The girl leaned over until her ear was in her mother's mouth. "My offering is in my purse," she murmured. This is a woman of loyalty.

The ancient Israelites could have ended their journey from Egypt to Canaan in a few months. Instead, the trip took forty years and a whole generation died because of their infidelity. Many Christians will one day regret the voluntary gap between when God first showed them his plan for them and when they acted. Lack of fidelity is actually a sign of spiritual immaturity. The refusal to accept responsibility is a sign of emotional immaturity. A young person may want the privileges of adulthood but refuse to accept responsibilities. The same is true spiritually. God has given us certain responsibilities as mature Christians. When we disobey and refuse to accept these responsibilities, we are unfaithful. Time and time again, the Word of God exhorts us to be faithful.

In Judgment Day, you and I will be judged not on the basis of our success in the eyes of the world, but on the fact that we were faithful to God's place. Sometimes the greatest test of our faithfulness is the time we spend reading the scriptures, praying and living according to the principles of justice when we are blessed with prosperity. This magnificent segment of the fruit cluster of the Spirit – faithfulness is faithfulness to our witness, faithfulness to our commitments and calling, and faithfulness to the commandments of Christ. And the ultimate reward for faithfulness is in Revelation 2:10, "Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." Are you faithful? Do you develop the quality of fidelity when you walk with the Spirit-controlled Lord?

The fruit of the Spirit is softness. In early versions, this word Praise has been translated as "sweetness". He derives his Christian meaning from his relationship with Christ. In Matthew 11: 25-30, it is one of two virtues used to describe the character of Jesus Christ. The word "sweetness" means "sweet; sweetness with others. When you and I hear the word "sweet," we tend to think of "weak." But sweetness or sweetness is not weak. He does not even come near. Meek is one of the most powerful words of the New Testament. Sweet means having a great power always under control. Imagine a champion racehorse subject to the bit. Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek and the sweet, for they will inherit the earth" (Matt 5: 5).

Nowhere in the Bible does this word entail the idea of ​​being spiritless and timid. In the biblical era, gentleness or sweetness meant much more than it does in our modern English. It carries the idea of ​​being tamed, like a wild horse mastered. Until tamed by the Holy Spirit, Peter was a hard and obnoxious character. He always expressed his opinion. Sometimes he spoke before thinking about what he was saying. But when the day of Pentecost came, the brutality of Peter's character gave way to gentleness. Moses was called the gentlest of men, but before the special call of God, he was a persevering and witty man who needed forty years in the wilderness before being fully under the control of God. A river under control can be used to generate electricity. A controlled fire can heat a house. The sweetness, it is the power, the strength, the spirit and the savagery under control. Gentleness or gentleness is the antithesis of badertiveness. The gentle man does not fight for his rights and prerogatives unless a point of principle is at stake or if the kingdom's interest is at stake.

In another sense, gentleness can be compared to modesty and on the contrary to a flamboyant and indulgent spirit. On the contrary, it displays a respectful respect for others and must never be insensitive to the rights of others. Gentleness has a quiet strength that confuses those who see it as a weakness. Jesus is the first example of a sweet person. Was Jesus weak? Go back and read as he cleansed the temple. Gentleness does not get angry with people with whom she should not be angry. A gentle or gentle person is the one who feels anger in the right way against the right person in the right way at the right time and for the right time. Jesus was sweet. He had the greatest strength possible under the greatest possible control. While on the cross, he could have called ten legions of angels to help him. But he stayed on that cross and kept his power under control out of love for you and me. It's sweetness. How do you apply sweetness or gentleness to yourself? First, we do not rise up defensively when our feelings are ruffled (Matt 26: 51-52). Second, you do not want to have preeminence. Instead, you want Jesus Christ to have the preeminence in all things (Col. 1:18). Third, you do not seek to be recognized and held in high esteem, nor to be considered the voice of authority, as Jannes and Jambres did (2 Tim 3: 8). These magicians of Egypt rejected God's authority by Moses and opposed him just before the exodus. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts allows the sweetness to become one of our virtues. Gentleness can be the most tangible sign of the greatness displayed in us. You and I can not be respected as the voice of authority; we can never win the applause of the world; we can never govern or swing the staff of power. But one day, the meek will inherit the earth, because no one can take away from us our fair share of God's divine and delicious bequest.

Self control is the third fruit of this cluster. It comes from a Greek word meaning "strong", able to control his thoughts and actions. It describes a person who has powerful pbadions but keeps them under control. A person who is not self-controlled does not deliberately choose the wrong but does not have the strength to resist the temptation. One of the fruits that the Holy Spirit produces in a believer is self-control. Self-control literally means "grab the hand", "take control of your life".

Once John Wesley's mother had written to him, while he was a student at Oxford University, "everything that increases the authority of the body on the mind is a perverse thing. " Dr. Billy Graham said that this definition helped him understand "self-control." "Intemperance or lack of self-control has led to the downfall of kings, pastors and tycoons. The story reveals this truth. Someone said, "There are men who can command armies but can not command themselves. There are men who, by their burning words, can influence multitudes who can not remain silent under provocation or wrongly. The highest mark of nobility is self-control. It's more royal than a royal crown and a purple dress. He also said, "Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and praises of the crowd, but in ourselves are triumph and defeat."

Past history and current public examples illustrate how the excesses of uncontrolled appetite and carnal indulgence wreak havoc on our hearts. The sin of intemperance, the lack of self-control stems from two causes: the physical appetite and, secondly, the mental habit. Who is your biggest enemy? It's you, is not it? Who is the biggest challenge of your life? That's you; it's me. The Spirit of God wants to gain more and more control over your life. It's not really self-control, but the control of the Spirit by myself.

Listen to Amy Carmichael who gave us many wonderful thoughts on our walk with the Lord. She writes, "May God harden me against myself. The coward with a pathetic voice, who longs for ease, rest and joy. Myself, my deepest friend, my deadliest enemy, my hoof, whatever I can do.

When I am self-controlled by the power of the Holy Spirit, I do not allow the things of the world to destroy my walk with God. The scriptures say, "Those who live according to their sinful nature have their minds fixed on what this nature desires; but those who live in accord with the Spirit have thought determined by what the Spirit desires "(Romans 8: 5). Moderation in our use of food is moderation. The scriptures say that "gluttony is a sin" (Pr 23:21). Temperance vis-à-vis alcohol is sober. Temperance in badual matters is abstinence for singles. Temperament in temperament is self-control. Temperance in clothing is an appropriate modesty. Temperance in defeat is optimistic. Temperance versus sinful pleasure is nothing less than complete abstinence. Solomon wrote: "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who reigns over his spirit, than he who takes a city" (Proverbs 16:32). The living Bible paraphrases the last part of this verse (32) in these terms: "It is better to have self-control than to control an army." Proverbs 25:28, LB reads; "A man without self-control is as helpless as a city with ruined walls." The Apostle Paul teaches us the importance of self-control in 1 Cor. 9:25, 27. When you and I control ourselves under the power of the Holy Spirit, we do not allow the things of the world to destroy our walk with the Lord. On the contrary, we spend time with God in His Word and in prayer on our knees. We do the things that we are committed to doing because the Spirit of God literally entered our lives and exercises control over us that the Bible calls temperance or self-control. Like the works of the flesh, the clusters of the fruit of the Spirit are representative and not exhaustive. A person rich in fruits of the Spirit fulfills the law much better than the one who observes the rituals but has little love in his life. To accept Christ as Savior and Lord, you must turn away from your sins and willingly adhere to your perverse natural desires at the cross of Christ.