“Fruits from the Spirit’s Garden”

Dr. Michael Browder, Pastor

Sunday, November 16, 2008

II Peter 1:5-8 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, kindness; and to kindness, love. For if these things are in you, and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Today’s scripture talks about the Fruit that your life produces when you are filled with God’s Holy Spirit. To help you understand these fruits better, for my sermon, I come to you as the Bible’s fruit-grocer. And in my fruit basket, I have each one of the fruits of the Spirit.

First, I have an apple. This apple reminds me of the first fruit of the Spirit: Love. In the Bible, apples are a symbol of love. Song of Solomon 2:5 says: “. . . Refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love!” The fruit of the Spirit, however, is the love we read about in I Corinthians 13:4-8 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrong but rejoices in the right. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. This love never ends.

These cherries remind me of joy. So sweet! So beautiful! Don’t forget, however, that before you can enjoy the cherry, you have to get rid of the pit. Nehemiah 8:10 says, “The joy of the Lord is your strength." (Go back and read the rest of this verse too. It says, “Eat delicious food, and share food with others who don’t have any. Because this is the Lord’s day, and . . .”

For peace we have olives. Technically, we would have to call the olive a fruit. The olive branch as a symbol of peace comes from the story of Noah, when the dove came back with the olive branch in its mouth. Notice that the fruits of the spirit in Galatians are what we give others, rather than what we receive. Matthew 5:9 says: “Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the very children of God.”

Here representing patience we have the strawberry. When you plant the strawberry, you do not have fruit the same year, but you have to be patient and wait for another year. I confess that I am not good at patience. My prayer is: “Lord, give me patience, and I want it right this minute!” (I suppose that’s why I have to buy my strawberries in the store.) We need patience to wait for God’s voice. We need patience to forgive others. Ephesians 4:1-3 says that we should “live a life worthy of Christ” and we should “maintain the unity of the Spirit”… (How?) “with patience, . . . bearing one another in love.”

We choose the pineapple to stand for kindness. The pineapple is the universal symbol for hospitality and thus kindness towards others. Ephesians 4:32 says: “Be kind to one another and tenderhearted.” Why? Because you remember all that Christ has done for you.

This pear stands for goodness. We put pear juice in with other fruits to make them sweeter. For Christians, goodness means to have the nature of Christ in all things. To be filled with his goodness, so that his nature shines through us. Matthew 12:35: “The good person, from the good which is inside him, does good.”

Here we see grapes, the Bible’s symbol for faithfulness. We find this symbol in the Passover and in the Lord’s Supper. We could rejoice forever in God’s faithfulness to us. But the fruit of the Spirit is our faithfulness to God. That’s why Hebrews 10:23says: “Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.”

In this banana, I see gentleness. The skin of the banana is easily bruised. And when the skin is bruised, the heart is easily bruised. Isn’t that a lot like us? In a world that says, “Success means tough,” Christ-like gentleness has a powerful witness. You men hear this: not tough, gentleness! I Corinthians 2:7 says: “We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother treats her children.” Isn’t that a powerful image?

Finally, we use the orange to represent self-control. Before you can eat the orange, you have to take time to peel it. Faith is about letting God be in charge. So easy to say, so hard to do. When the Lord is really in charge of your life, you are abiding in the vine, which is Christ, and the Spirit produces fruit in you. Jesus said, “If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, and pick up his cross and follow me.”

I want to leave you with some thoughts about our fruit from the garden of the Holy Spirit. First, to produce fruit, you have to sow the seeds and nurture the plant for a long time. There is no fruit without sowing and nurturing. Second, the fruit will only stay alive when it is attached to the vine. Christ is our vine. When we are joined to him, we live and bear fruit. Finally, the purpose of fruit is to produce seeds for others to grow. That’s something to think about.

Prayer: Lord, we attach ourselves to you. Let your Holy Spirit bear much fruit in us. Amen.

Here is a joke for the week: There was a young woman, named Gladys, Gladys Ober, who went to a church service. The church was so dull that everyone was half asleep. When the service was over, she woke the old gentleman next to her and said, “I’m Gladys Ober.” Being hard of hearing, he replied, “I’m sure glad it’s over too!”