http://granvillenychurchofchrist.org/?p=1473
What Do Other See When they Look at you?
What Do Others See
(Readings Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.“
and Galatians 5:19-23a “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.”
Opening Story: One day a little girl who was on her way home from Church, turned to her mother and said, “Mommy, the preacher’s sermon confused me.” Her mother said, “Oh! Why is that?” The girl replied, “Well he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?” Her mother replied, “Yes.” “Well,” she continued,, “if God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?”
In many ways this little girl was quite right. If I am a Christian and God the Spirit lives in me, it is only logical that He should somehow show through.
God should show through. If His Spirit lives in us it should be evident. Just like you can sometimes tell where a person is from by their accent or other physical features, in a similar manner people should recognize something God-like in us if He is indeed living in us.
In Galatians 5 Paul talks about how a person acts if they choose to live in a worldly manner (some translators refer it as a living according to the flesh). Everything about that kind of life stems from a self centered, self gratifying, selfish way of thinking, living and acting.
But the Apostle Paul tells us that as Christians we should not live that way. Rather we should walk or follow the lead of God’s Holy Spirit which is now living inside of us.
And then in verse 5:22-23, Paul makes an amazing statement. He says, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.”
I thought a lot about this verse this past week and prayed that God would open my eyes so that I could understand it better. And so I want to share with you what I believe He revealed to me.
When you and I think of God and His character traits and nature, what do we usually think of? In most cases His Awesomeness, His holiness, His power, His Love, His patience with us, His mercy and kindness, and the fact that He is peace loving, and good, and kind to us, and so much more like this.
Then I thought about what Paul wrote here in Gal. 5:22. For years when I considered this verse, I was under the assumption that if I wanted to become a better Christian I had to learn to love others more, and try to be good and kind, and gentle, and somehow learn to become more faithful and be more self controlled. And if I got to that point where I had faith, well, I would somehow please God, and be happier and find peace.
…As if having all these blessed traits depended on my effort to be a better Christian.
But this week, I believe with the Lord’s help, I realized that I have miss-understood this verse and what Paul was saying in this passage. When we consider what fruit is, we know that it is a natural by-product so something, (like fruit from a plant or fruit of the womb).
But I don’t think these attributes mentioned here are natural by-products of ‘the man of flesh’. People are just naturally selfish, and self seeking. Consider a child. They think they are the center of the world and everyone is going to drop everything when they cry out. Yes we do demonstrate these behaviors to some degree because we are created in God’s own image; but not to the extent of what Paul is portraying here.
As a matter of fact if you look carefully at this verse, it does not even say that these attributes are fruits of our nature, rather, they are fruits of the Spirit.Spirit with a big ‘S’. They are fruit of God Himself, of HIS SPIRIT, not ours.
And God’s Spirit, which is loving, and joy-filled, and peaceful and patient, and kind and good and gentle, now lives in us!
So what does that mean for you and me? The Christian does not have to do this, that, and the other thing to attain these attributes they are already in us.
Just like the God’s Spirit makes available, His wisdom, insight, instruction, and can convict certain areas of our life, the Spirit came into us to share these attributes and blessing with us.
We just need to recognize the fact that we already have them and then we need to learn how to access what we already have inside us.
But just like we can ignore the Holy Spirit’s advice, promptings, tugs on our life, and bury them under a thick layer of self centered indulgence, desire, and wants, we can just as easily bury that God-infused love, peace and mercy that He wants to surface in our life.
In my mind it’s like having this great talent, maybe the ability paint great portraits or master pieces, or sculpt, or write music or a bestselling novel, and you don’t even know that you have that talent hidden inside you. But it does not mean that it is not there buried somewhere inside you.
Or maybe you do realize you have a particular talent to do something but then never use that talent. You don’t draw, you don’t ever pick us a paint brush, or pen to write, or sing, or teach or let that ability come out for whatever reason.
In the same way that God has anointed us with certain talents and abilities, He has also given or anointed us with these wonderful fruits, His own attributes to use and develop in our own live (just like a talent).
But what do we do? Either we bury or hide them under our own selfish desires, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally.
If we are not allowing God’s blessed attributes to shine thru our life, either we don’t realize we have them or we are like that guy who lights a lamp and covers it over with a bowl called selfishness. (LAMP PROP ILLUS.) (Turn a small lamp on and slowly bury with sheets of paper with ‘no love’, ‘no forgiveness’, ‘no kindness or gentleness’, ‘no generosity’, ‘no self control, and ‘no faith’… until the light is very dim.)
And explain: Even though we have God’s love somewhere inside us and it should burst forth like a bright light, sometimes we don’t want to love someone because they hurt us. We don’t want to forgive them because we already forgave them once before. We don’t want to be kind or gentle because you simply don’t feel like it. You don’t want to be generous because you reason that you worked too hard for that money just to give it away.
Or you maybe could you care less about having self control in certain regarding certain things because if you want to eat or drink too much you feel that ‘that’s your right.’ And if you want to swear or curse like a sailor, or scream, or yell at people all the time, or even act like a pervert because you like to do it, not one has the right to tell you to stop. It’s a free country.
Or maybe being faithful in certain areas of your life isn’t your thing either. You show up when you fell like showing up, even if it’s a hour or two hours late. If you feel like shortchanging your employer, you friend, or even cheat on your spouse every once in a while, it’s no big deal because it makes you feel good.
We don’t like to admit that we do or say any of these things. They sound sooo selfish. And that’s what they are. And when we act like this those attributes which are meant to bless us and bless others remain hidden.
Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:3-4 “…God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”
God has given us everything we need to live a good and Godly life. It’s all right inside us because He is inside us. We just need to realize it and claim those blessings and make a choice to deny those foolish, even childish desires of the flesh and choose His way over our own.
When we feel those selfish stirrings we need to push that aside and claim God’s blessing. When we feel greedy or stingy we need to fight those impulses and push them aside and grab a-hold of God generous and giving nature for our self. (Remove the sheets of paper off the lamp one at a time)
When we feel hostile and angry, and mean, we need to realize those are acts of flesh and not deserving to inherit the Kingdom of God. We need to push them away and realize that we are heading in the direction that the devil wants us to go. And then you need to look down and inside yourself and pray that the Spirit will help you to find God’s love, and ability to forgive, and act in a way that seeks peace.
When you feel like you are getting out of control you need to remind yourself that you have God’s Spirit inside you to ready and willing help you get back on track. He is now going to force you, but you have to decide that you are not going to let that selfish, self centered, sinful nature get the best of you and remember that God wants to share these attribute with you.
Claim those blessings. Push away those ungodly negative urges knowing that you can act like God because He has given you everything you need to do it. It’s not something you have to earn. You already have the ability to show and feel God’s love, joy, and peace, and show patience. We can be kind, and good, and faithful, and gentle and have self-control like never before because He’s already given you those traits. They are in you and part of you. We just need believe it, claim it, and enjoy what He has given us. So don’t bury them. Let you light shine!