Skip to content The Fruit Feb 12 · 28 min ...more
February 12, 2023 · 28 min · Pray TV
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666K followers
Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.
666K followers
0:00 He's called the anointing. Every Christian has the anointing. If you are saved, you have it, you possess it, you own0:12 it, it is there. The anointing is the indwelling presence of the holy spirit designed to do his work in your life.0:24 God has turned everything in history over to his son. It is only by your bringing glory to the son that the spirit kicks on.0:37 Jesus Christ privately and publicly must be able to be exalted in your life. Give the anointing a chance. Put it0:48 first. Take the written word. Put it in the face of the holy spirit. Do it on the front end, and let's see what programming God brings up into your life.1:01 Today I wanna talk about his fruit. The Holy Spirit and fruit. Because he says in chapter 5 verse 22, but the fruit of the1:12 spirit. Here, the spirit of God is viewed as a fruit bearing tree. And off of this tree grows love and1:24 joy and peace and patience, and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self control, against such there is no law. The Holy Spirit is a fruit1:36 bearing tree, and is set against the backdrop of this devouring 1 another. In fact, he ends this session and section in verse1:47 26. Let us not become boastful, challenging 1 another, envying 1 another. You see the words 1 another. He's concerned that the household of1:59 faith believers are in such discord that it is being destructive. They are being destructive. Rather than being a2:11 healing agent, they were a hurting agent. You've seen it in your church, we've seen it in our church, where destruction is taking place.2:24 And so if you want the fruit, what the tree of the spirit produces, which will address the problem of divisiveness in your life, my life, in2:36 our life as the family of God. If you want this tree to grow up in your heart, in your home, and in God's house, then we must be2:48 full of the spirit because we operate by the spirit, which he calls walking in the spirit. The crisis of division3:00 has a vaccine. The vaccine to the calamity of chaos among people, particularly among Christians, is the fruit3:11 of the spirit being made manifest because his people have learned to walk by the spirit and not by the flesh. Verse 16,3:24 but I say, coming off of the context of your division, walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the3:35 flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to 13:47 another so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. He3:58 says, you have within you, I have within me a civil war going on. It's a civil war between the flesh and the spirit.4:11 So let's get our terms straight. The flesh is that desire to please oneself independently of God. The4:22 spirit is the presence of Christ within us that seeks to please God even when it's at the expense of pleasing ourselves.4:34 He says the difference between these 2 is driven by desire. He says that this civil war has to do with a desire,4:47 a craving, a burning within to be satisfied. The spirit wants to satisfy God inside of us. The4:58 flesh wants to satisfy ourselves without reference to God. And that leads to a inner clash that5:10 every believer has to deal with. That's what temptation is. It is an appeal to the desire of5:21 sin which has been embedded in the flesh, which always leads to a desire to be satisfied independently of God, which is naturally going to create5:33 conflict. Because if I want to please me and you want to please you, and we're, wanna please each other differently than 1 another, then we're naturally gonna fight. As5:44 husbands, wives, parents, childrens, brothers and sisters in Christ. So this flesh has this desire, and what this desire does is seek5:56 to rule us. He says, Walk by the spirit, in Galatians 5 16, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. So6:08 remember, the flesh is driven by desire. Please don't misread this, because I want you to grab this. He does6:20 not say, Stop the desire of the flesh so you can walk in the spirit. That's backwards. He says, walk6:32 in the spirit and you won't carry out the desire of the flesh. So you don't beat the flesh by fixing the flesh.6:44 Guess why? The flesh is unfixable. You cannot keep your flesh from being fleshy. You're born in6:55 sin and shaped in iniquity. That's why you don't have to teach your children how to lie, how to steal, how to cheat, how to be bad, how to disobey. You don't have to instruct them, you gotta teach them not to do those7:06 things. Why? Because it's built in at birth. Okay? So the flesh can't stop being the flesh. So what people settle for7:18 is flesh management. Let me tell you something else that's a mistake. Because we're all trying to get to this tree called the fruit. Another thing7:30 that's a mistake is trying to turn the flesh into the the spirit. The flesh and the spirit are distinct.7:43 They're 2 distinct realities in the believer. You are born with the flesh, won't get rid of that till you die or raptured, but you receive the7:55 spirit when you accepted Christ. That's why these words in Galatians 3 are so critical. You foolish Galatians, he says in Galatians 3 1,8:06 Who has bewitched you? You remember the TV show Bewitched? She did a little nose, okay? Who has tricked you? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly8:18 portrayed as crucified. This is the only thing I want to find out from you. Did you receive the spirit by the8:30 works of the law or the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?8:42 He says in verse 16 of chapter 5, he says, walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.8:55 He does not say, watch this, that you won't have the desires of the flesh. Let me repeat that again. He does not say the9:06 flesh will stop wanting to be fleshy, that it will stop wanting to sin, That it will stop wanting to be selfish. That it will stop wanting to9:18 disobey. No. He says, what the spirit does is override it. In9:29 Romans, I'll refer to this a couple of times, Paul is struggling with his flesh. I want you to read Romans chapter 7, particularly beginning with verse 14,9:41 and he's battling. He's got a he's got desires he can't control. He doesn't tell us what his flesh issue is, which is good news, because now you can put your flesh issue in it. Alright?9:53 Whatever your flesh thing is that is independent of God, you can put it in those verses. In fact, he gets to the point of despair. He says, verse 24, wretched10:05 man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? Who gonna set me free? Because my body keeps wanting to do wrong. Then he comes to chapter 8.10:18 He says, therefore there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit of life in Christ, that's the fruit, Jesus has10:29 set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did sending his own son in the likeness10:41 of sinful flesh as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the10:53 flesh but walk according to the spirit. So you see Paul is saying the same thing. If you want to overcome the flesh, you do it by learning what it means to walk in the11:05 spirit, which doesn't stop the desire of the flesh. So stop feeling bad that your flesh wants to be fleshy. That's not the problem. The problem is11:17 yielding to it, not having it. Okay? Having the desire is 1 thing. Yielding to it is another thing. The flesh,11:29 he says, is overridden because there's another law. Okay? There is a law of gravity. It's the way reality is. It's11:41 a non negotiable law. What goes up must come down. Why if the law says, what goes up must come11:53 down, can an airplane take off and not come down until it wants to? Because there's another law, and it's the law of aerodynamics. When you12:04 move at a certain speed with a certain amount of thrust, you do not cancel the law of gravity, you override the law of gravity. Gravity is still there pulling stuff12:16 down, but the power and the thrust of the plane takes you up and doesn't allow gravity to make the final decision. And so, so it is12:28 with walking in the spirit. When you and I walk in the spirit, God now elevates us to override what the flesh is craving us to do,12:41 which leads not only to self centeredness within us, but which also leads to conflict with others. So you know the solution to our issues is learning to12:53 walk in the spirit because then the flesh, no matter how much it desires, won't have the last say so, so the work of the Holy Spirit's fruit,13:06 the tree of fruit, can be expanded and expressed in our lives. The 10 commandments want clean lives. Okay? The Holy Spirit13:17 wants clean lives, but they don't use the same method to get there. 1 is human effort, human struggle, human stressing.13:30 The other is Holy Spirit power and enablement. Okay, you say, well, I want that. How do I get that? Well, he says you gotta learn how to13:41 walk. Walk in the spirit. Let's get this straight. There's going to be a clash because the moment you13:53 decide to walk in the spirit, he says, it's going to you are going to be opposed. So let me give you the ingredients of walking so that you14:04 and I, we, speaking to me too, can start walking in the spirit and enjoy the victory of fruit because we're overriding the flesh. Because all the flesh14:16 produces, you'll see in a moment, are weeds. Doesn't produce food, produces weeds. First of all, when you walk, there is a14:28 destination in mind. Is it not? In other words, when you walk, you're going somewhere. You're walking to something or from something, but you're moving.14:39 So walking in the spirit is not passive. You're not sitting down and waiting for a jolt from heaven. You are doing the walking. But the realm in which you are doing it14:52 is the spirit's realm. Okay? A lot of Christians do a lot of activity, but they do it in the wrong environment. They think15:03 that simply by doing actions, they are moving spiritually. Not at all. You have to be in the realm of the spirit. The fish has to be in water. We15:15 have to be on land. And Christians have to be in the spirit walking. Okay? What is the destination that you are15:27 to be in if you're gonna be in the spirit? Here it is, the will of God. The will of God. That's why in Ephesians 5, it talks about15:39 moving in the will of God in chapter 5. He's concerned that you are concerned to move toward the will of God. To walk in the will of God, which is the realm of the15:50 spirit, you have made a conscious decision that this is God's will and I am going toward it. That16:02 means you have to know what God's will is based on God's word, and you have to make movements toward that will. Once you do that, you have flipped the switch, the Holy Ghost16:14 switch. You have invited the spirit into the activity of the atmosphere. Now, if you're saved, you have the spirit, but you just like you have electricity, but now you flip the16:26 switch on when you are now saying, this is the will of God. God, I need your power washing machine to get there. I'm going to move toward your will. Your will is16:38 my destination. So you gotta have the right destination. Secondly, walking is dependency. When you walk, what do you do? You put16:50 1 foot on top of another foot. That means you're putting all your weight on that leg to take that step. Right? In other words, you're17:01 depending on your leg to get you to the destination. So there is a destination, but there also is a dependency. I'm counting on17:13 my legs to get me there. Once you decide, this is what God says about this, this is what God wants, and this is the direction I am going to go, then you call on17:25 the Holy Spirit to enable and empower the movement. You don't lean on your flesh to move because your flesh doesn't wanna go. Your flesh17:37 wants to stay back and do the self centered desire. But once you say, I'm going to do the will of God, you then call on the Holy Spirit. I'm often asked, do you pray the Holy Spirit? Absolutely. You17:49 call on Him and depend on Him to empower the destination, which is the will of God. So you should be bringing the Holy18:01 Spirit instead of your just your will. Your will, you know, your New Year's resolution, that's your will. You're calling on your flesh to help your flesh to do what your flesh doesn't wanna give up. That's your will.18:13 Alright? No, no, no. This is calling on the Holy Spirit to govern your will and not the flesh. So there is a dependency. So there's a destination, there's a18:24 dependency, but then there's a third thing. There is a dedication. What do I mean? If you're going somewhere, you don't take 118:36 step. You take step after step after step after step after step after step. In other words, walking is step after step. It's not flying somewhere,18:48 it's taking 1 step after another. That's why the Bible calls it walking by faith. Not leaping by faith, jumping by faith, walking by19:00 faith. Why? Because you are now moving in the area of your decision. So you've decided on your destination, you've asked the Holy Spirit to empower that19:12 decision, and now you begin to take movements that demonstrate you're believing the Holy Spirit to do it. God wants to see your faith. Now here you talk faith. Now here you mumble19:23 faith. Now here you pontificate faith. You must now take steps that gives you validation of your faith. Faith is not a feeling. You can be full of19:35 faith and have no feeling. You can have plenty of feeling and have no faith because faith is demonstrated by the movements you take, not the mouthing you make. So when19:47 you now take steps because you're walking, you now have the right destination, you have the right dependency, you're making right movements, and the Holy Spirit takes over. Romans 8 puts it this19:59 way. He says, for those, verse 5, who are according to the flesh, that's how they operate, set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who are according to the20:10 spirit, the things of the spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, separation from God. But the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.20:22 Life and peace. He says, if you have a walking problem it's because you got a mind problem. You're not thinking right. You're not thinking spiritually. You're thinking fleshly,20:34 humanly. And what we have done is we have reversed the verse in chapter 5. What we have done is we've got the flesh blocking the spirit because we're not walking20:46 in the spirit which will override the flesh as a lifestyle. That is you you and the spirit are interacting all day long. Whenever you bump into something, whenever you're driven to something, whenever you're tempted by20:57 something, you're calling on the spirit all day because you're walking in Him. It is a relationship thing. It is not an event. It is a relationship. And the more you do it, the better you're gonna21:09 walk. Okay? Because you gotta practice walking. What will happen? He brings it home. He says, verse 16, if you're led21:21 by the spirit, you're not under the law. See, we've not developed such an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit, that's why we keep going to the law to hold people hostage. That's why we gotta come up with all kind21:32 of rules even outside of the Bible to hold people hostage because we haven't taught them how to walk in the spirit. Because when you walk in relationship, you're not held hostage by the leash of rules.21:44 Not because the rules are wrong, but because the rules are being obeyed out of relationship, not out of leash holding. He says the deeds of the flesh are always self centered. And21:56 he gives deeds that are sensual deeds, he gives deeds that are superstitious deeds, sorcery and enmity, gives deeds that are relational deeds, strife and jealousy,22:08 outburst of anger and disputes. He says drunkenness, you can't control your liquor. He goes over carousing and such things which I forewarn you that you won't inherit the kingdom of22:20 God. You will not get the benefits that God wants to accrue to you as a kingdom citizen if you don't learn to walk in the spirit. But what is the spirit? The spirit is full of fruit.22:32 That's where we started, that's where we end. Full of fruit, but the fruit of the spirit is. Let me tell you something about the fruit. Notice the word fruit is singular even though he's gonna list a22:44 whole list of fruit. Why? Because these are all unified, meaning they come from the 1 tree. The spirit called fruit, that is He bursts these characteristics, but you22:56 don't have to go looking for all these different things. Looking for love, looking for peace, looking for patience, looking for kindness, and so on and so forth. Uh-huh. All you gotta do is get the 1 tree in the garden23:08 because the tree is unified, the tree is recognizable, the tree is harmonious and is full of life. Why? Because all these fruit, all23:20 fruit is alive. And you know what fruit does? Make other people wanna take a bite out of your life. Apples don't eat apples, people eat apples. Oranges don't eat oranges, that's rotten fruit. People eat23:32 oranges. In other words, instead of being a curse to other folk, you're gonna be a blessing to other folk. Why? Because you're changing. They're gonna see. You're gonna find yourself changing. Why?23:43 Because there's a fruit tree growing in your soul. The spirit called fruit that is that is this tree that's uprooting this new walk, this new conduct, this new orientation23:55 because you're operating in a new environment. And that's what God offers every believer. Now to have that, you've gotta be willing24:07 to have the spirit. And you only have the spirit by accepting Christ. That's why the bible calls the holy spirit, the spirit of Christ. Because Christ comes into your life by24:19 means of the holy spirit when you accept Christ as your personal substitute. Your personal sin bearer. You must receive Him24:30 as your means of being accepted by a holy God. God cannot accept sin and so your flesh can't enter heaven. But what He will do24:42 is he will enter your life, forgive your sin, and give you eternal life when you accept his son as your personal savior. Would you go to Jesus Christ right now and24:54 acknowledge to him that you are a sinner and that you need a savior, and that you trust him as your substitute right now. You receive Jesus Christ into your life to forgive your sins and give you25:06 eternal life. As large as these rocks are, they have no life. They're full of death. But if you look carefully, you'll see25:18 coming out of them trees. You'll see life coming out of death. You'll see green coming out of emptiness. That's what the spirit of God25:29 does. He comes into our lives to bring life, to bring the fruit of the spirit which breathes out the character of God. You may have25:41 come out of a dead experience, but once you're born again, God has breathed life into your humanity and mind. So that no matter how much the flesh has25:53 brought death to you, how many sins and circumstances, how bad the past was to establish a rocky sense of emptiness in your existence. Look26:05 carefully because the seeds of life have been planted in your soul through the presence of the spirit to bring fruit from you, to grow out of26:17 you, so that no matter how strong it looks around you, you can see that God is doing a work in you. And guess what? He who has begun a good work26:29 is gonna let those trees, those those life giving forces grow and grow and grow so that it makes itself manifest even in the areas that26:41 you thought were hopeless. These rocks may look hopeless, but you'll see enough trees to let you know life can come out of death when the spirit produces fruit as we learn to26:53 walk with him.
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