Okay, if you have your Bibles would you turn with me once again to the book of Galatians Galatians in chapter number five this morning as we continue our journey through the book of Galatians and We are in the section now where we are studying the fruits of the Spirit. I was thinking just this morning actually that prior to This season of life, I don't believe I've ever really preached, detailed, or taught even on the fruits of the Spirit. And so this is exciting to me. It's something that we often refer to, we think about. Bible schools have the theme of the fruit of the Spirit and all kinds of things. We use it, but I personally don't believe that I've ever actually preached on the text itself. It's with great joy that I can do so. I'm thankful also that we've made it through the challenging portion of the works of the flesh, and now we can get on to the fruit of the Spirit. But it's good and necessary that the contrast between the two of those things has been made for us, as we now see the difference that the gospel makes in the heart and the life of the believer. And so if you found Galatians chapter number five, let's stand in honor of reading God's word this morning. As we look specifically, we're gonna read the whole section, but we're gonna look specifically at verses 22 through 26. So let's begin reading then. In verse 16, the word of God says, but I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident. sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk, or I'm sorry, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Amen and amen. Thank you for standing. You may be seated. Probably, when we think of the fruit of the Spirit, most of us don't make a connection to any other portion of Scripture. But in fact, we find that the prophet Isaiah, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, spoke of such things as the fruit of the Spirit, not necessarily in those specific order of terms, but he did, in fact, write about the fruit of the Spirit. If you want to turn with me back quickly to Isaiah and chapter 32, I will point to the portion of Scripture specifically that I believe is alluding to exactly what the Apostle Paul has written for us, some 600, 700 years following the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah 32, in verse 9, we find it says, You women who are at ease, hear my voice. You complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women, for the great harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come. Tremble, you women who are at ease. Shudder, you complacent ones. Strip and make yourselves bare and tie sackcloth around your waist. Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine, for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briars. Yes, for all the joyous houses in the exultant city. For the palace is forsaken. the populous city deserted, the hill and the watchtower over will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks." Now, that is a speaking of a time in the past. And then we see a transition that Isaiah makes. He says, until, until what? Until the spirit is poured out or poured upon us, rather, from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field, and the effect of righteousness will be peace." Or in other words, the fruit, the effect of righteousness, will be peace. Verse 17, and the result of righteousness, quietness, and trust forever. My people will abide in peace, in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places, and that will hail when the forest falls down and the city will be utterly laid low. Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free. In other words, there is a pouring out of the spirit of God, which produces a fruitfulness of righteousness. Those things that we see here in Galatians and chapter number five, which Isaiah was prophesying have come to pass in that the spirit of God on the day of Pentecost, as Christ had ascended into heaven and the spirit of God had descended upon the apostles. There has been an outpouring of God's spirit and it continues to be to this very day. We are living in that already and not yet. The spirit is, is poured out and being poured out and, and the spirit of God is, is at work and producing this, this forest, this fruitful forest that was once a wilderness. In other words, when we look at the life of a Christian, it's patterned by the works of the flesh in the past. That would be the wilderness of our lives. But nevertheless, the Spirit of God comes and changes and transforms our hearts and our lives and places us into the kingdom of God. And there's suddenly fruit that is produced by the work of the Spirit of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in the lives of those who trust in Him. And so we have truly the fruit of the Spirit being prophesied in Isaiah, chapter 32. Back to Galatians 5, I want to just point out a couple observations here about our text specifically as we compare and contrast now the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit. It's interesting, but I'm not sure that it's all that important, or well, it's certainly important, but I'm not sure that it's something we should get hung up on. But Paul has given us 15 works of the flesh with a blanket statement following that that says, and things like these, right? In other words, it was not an exhaustive list, but it was a representative list. Well, Paul doesn't say, and things like these when he's speaking of the fruit of the Spirit. However, I believe also it is safe to say that it is not exhaustive, but it is representative. And one commentator pointed out there's somewhat of a triad, and we'll get to that in time here, but there's nine fruit of the Spirit that are listed. Another thing that is kind of debated among commentaries is this idea of fruit itself. The word fruit in the Greek is the word karpos, and it's in the singular form. Now, the interesting thing, though, when we speak about fruit, it is a singular word that can have a plural meaning. So if you were to walk into Jim and Karen's house this afternoon, and on the table there Karen had a basket and in that basket maybe you would find oranges and you would find apples and maybe some bananas. You would look at that bowl and you would say that's a beautiful bowl of Fruit, right? And you would assume that it was fruit plural, right? So I guess the thing that I want to emphasize here is that some people look at this and they say it's fruit singular as though every single one of them are categorized into one thing. And I don't think that that's actually so. I believe it's using that God has inspired the word fruit in a general meaning that it actually is plural, that there are many fruit, or we could say fruits, plural, that are of the Spirit. So yes, indeed, these are all things that should be present in the life of a believer. but they are sometimes lacking in the life of a believer. Or we could say they're there, but they're very immature and need to grow, right? Just like fruit matures. Fruit goes through a process of coming to its maturity. It's singular in construct, but it's plural in its use here. Another thing that I want to just say about fruit itself, it's interesting to me anyway, the way my mind thinks. When we think about the physiological aspect of fruit itself, the definition, botanically speaking, of fruit is a ripened ovary with the seed in itself. So it's a ripened ovary with the seed in itself. And that, I think, is extremely important. I think it's relevant. I think God purposefully used this idea of fruit for that reason. We go from the natural to the spiritual. There's a connection there. There's a there's there's principles that that that are overarching and and when I think about the idea of fruit itself in the life of a Christian that is to say that it has the seed inside of itself is that as you and I are Displaying and and working out what God is working in right the power that is in those things the fruit of the Spirit Truly has the power to give life to other people. Would you agree with that? I believe it's safe to say the opposite is true when we consider the works of the flesh. That when we are producing the works of the flesh, we're not helping anybody, but we're killing everyone. Amen? There is so much that we see from that. So the fruit of the Spirit has the seed of what? The seed of the gospel, the seed of the Holy Spirit of God at work in us and through us, displaying itself in these things. So let's get to the text specifically. We're not going to get very far. My goal is to look at the first three fruits of the spirit. But before we get there, we have some things to deal with. Notice, first of all, Paul begins this section or makes a transition here, verse 22. with the word, but, but the word, but this is a, uh, this is a purposeful contrast between what has been said and what is about to be said, right? There's a, there's a conjunction here, the word, but, and it is comparing it's contrasting specifically the works of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit. Or we could also say it's contrasting the natural self with the new man, that which has been created afresh and anew by the Spirit of God. Now, what's really, really important for us to recognize is that the works of the flesh, that which is natural, we could say in Adam, this is our life. In our natural born condition, we are in the flesh and we produce the works of the flesh. And, and just like a field that is full of, uh, of soil, it's also full of tiny seeds that you can't see. And you say, well, how do you know that? Because with seemingly little effort, there are weeds that spring forth all over the place, right? We know this. If you don't plan anything in soil, what's going to happen. weeds are going to grow. And it just blows my mind how, how little moisture a seed of wheat, a weed seed needs in order to germinate and to grow. But that same soil that, and you plant good seed there, it needs much nurture and care and fertility, right? All of those things to help it grow, because why, if you don't help it grow, the weeds will choke it out. Again, the natural and the spiritual have so much help to us to understand these things. The fruit of the Spirit must be cultivated into the hearts and lives of man, woman, boy, and girl. And the way that that happens is not through human effort per se, although human is part of that equation. In other words, as Paul says in Romans 10, how will they hear unless someone tells them? There is a very real responsibility in the life of Christians to proclaim and to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that is the way that we go about seeding the gospel into the world. Now, just as sure as we don't stick a seed in the ground and we pound it and we say grow and it does its thing. No. We spread the gospel and we pray and we trust God that as the gospel goes forth, the Spirit of God is working in the hearts and the lives of those who hear the gospel. And so there's this real aspect in which we have to be a part of. we're partnering with God in the spreading of the gospel, but at the end of the day, if somebody comes to faith in Christ, it's not because you were so persuasive, it's not because you were so good looking, or it's not because you said it so nicely, it's because the spirit of God was at work in the heart and the life of that person to bring about new life, right? To take the seed of the gospel and to regenerate that which was dead and lost in its sin and produce a new life. And so Paul, he gives us a switch here. We're going from the works of the flesh to those of the spirit of God. And the reality is that this is a work of God, which leads us to the second thing. But the, the, uh, it says again, but the fruit of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit is now when I say there's a switch taking place here, we see the sign next. The sign is that there is fruit. The fruit itself, though, is just the evidence that the switch has occurred. The fruit is the evidence that the Spirit of God has actually done a work in the heart and the life of a person who previously only produced the works of the flesh. Okay. So the, the, the sign is the fruit. Now, the way that we want to define, as we look at the fruits of the spirit is from two perspectives. And I believe in every single one of the fruits of the spirit, there's, there's these two components that are demonstrated. And that is to say that the sign of the fruit is patterned by actions and attitudes. Actions and attitudes. In other words, if you have what you want to classify as a fruit of the Spirit, It is void of one of those two things. I don't believe it's actually the work of the Spirit of God Okay action and attitude have to be working in conjunction with one another and to produce the fruit of the Spirit So let me use a let me use the opposite example first before we we talk about the the positive example. I So a negative example of this would be that there is also action and attitude involved in the work of the flesh. Let's, let's use jealousy as, as an example. Now, if you, if you are raising children or you have raised children or you've ever been around children, okay, that's all of us, right? You understand jealousy and specifically here's the, here is the action that jealousy can be seen in the life of a child. Jealousy will cause a child to go up to another child and rip a toy away from them Okay. Now that was the action that was involved in jealousy but you realize there's an attitude that accompanies that action of Ripping the toy away from from brother or sister or or stranger for that matter, right? It's not it's not seclusive to a household but rather these things cross those lines and What's the attitude that accompanies the stealing away of that toy? Well, it is you have what I do not and therefore I'm gonna take it right action coupled with attitude you have what I want therefore I take jealousy, so And so then the next thing is, we say, well, what's the source of that? Well, in that case, the source of that is coming from the works of the flesh, right? It's that natural, the weed of our hearts, right? Producing jealousy in us. Now, you know, the truth is that jealousy doesn't just exist in the hearts of children, right? You do know that. It happens in big kids too. Right? But here's the thing. The opposite, the opposite, the fruit of the spirit has an action and an attitude as well. And here's where we say the source, the source, whatever is working makes the difference between a work of the flesh or a fruit of the spirit, okay? And Paul says, but the fruit of the spirit defining for us the source of the sign itself being the Spirit. Now, if you study Greek, and I know most of you don't, but anyway, just bear with me, because I have to work through this myself in order to get it out well, or at least try to do it well. The word spirit here is not coupled with holy. I believe it's hagios is the word for holy, but here it's just de numa, okay? It's the spirit. Now, the translators have capitalized the word spirit. In the Greek, it's not capitalized, but the reason that it is capitalized is because when you put the word the in front of spirit, you are defining something, something very specific. So when we say the fruit of the Spirit, we're actually talking about specifically the Holy Spirit of God. Or we could say it this way, we're talking about God, the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Now that's extremely important because we could rightly say, although Paul doesn't do it this way, that this is the fruit of God. Okay, you follow me? that these are the fruit of God, specifically the fruit of God at work in us. And I love this stuff because this is actually pointing us to a transcending truth that our salvation is a work of the triune God. And here we're just looking at one aspect of that truth, okay? Specifically, I wanted to find for us, and I'm gonna have scripture here to coincide with these things. that we are seeing the last portion of the work of salvation when we're speaking of the fruit of the Spirit. But prior to that taking place, there is something that is being done by the Father, there's something that's being done by the Son, and now there's something being done by the Holy Spirit. And we would say it this way, that the Holy Spirit is applying the work of both Father and the sun. And so therefore we have a, a Trinitarian salvation. This is what scripture teaches us concerning this. One, we are chosen eternally by the father. That is to say our salvation is purposed by the father and that eternally. Ephesians chapter one in verse three says this, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. So there is a purpose of God the Father, and the purpose of God the Father is eternal. Before the foundation of the world, He has chosen us in Christ. But in time, in real time and space, Eternity exists outside of time and space, right? I know, it's hard to comprehend, but that's the reality. It's outside of our time and space. But in time and space, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, actually accomplished that salvation by purchasing our redemption. And we've already seen this in Galatians 3. It says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. So, salvation is purposed by the Father, it's accomplished by the Son, and it is applied by the Holy Spirit of God. And in this we are speaking specifically about the work of regeneration. Or another way we say that in more common terms or biblical terms is the work of being born again. And here we go to John chapter 3 verses 5 through 8 Jesus speaking Nicodemus says truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit He cannot enter the kingdom of God That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit Do not marvel that I say to you you must be born again The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is applying what the Father has purposed, what the Son has accomplished, and now we see that it's evidenced by the fruit of the Spirit. So let's again look at, or let's start to look at, the fruit themselves. Again, this is not an exhaustive list, but only representative. Is there an order to the fruit of the Spirit? I don't really think so, and the reason I don't think so is because I want to just point to another text that has a different order of things. Specifically, 2 Peter 3, verses 1-3. Listen to what Peter writes. His divine power, that is Christ, has granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, Peter writes, Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue. Peter's going to go through a cause-and-effect list. So make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins." Peter uses a list that's in reverse order. But I think the most essential truth, when we consider this list of fruits, I think there is a structure to it. I'm going to do my best to point that out. But I don't think it's in any order of importance. In other words, I think they're all equally important. Now some people say, well, love is the most important, and that's why Paul starts with that. But after love, they're all equally important. I don't think that's the case. I don't think that's the case, number one, because Peter has a different order. But I believe that the reason they think that love is the most important is because of what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13. He gets to the end of saying that there'll be prophecies, but they'll cease, that there'll be tongues, but they will cease, and all these things, right? They'll cease, but there's three that remain. Faith, love, and hope. And the greatest of these is what? He says love. Now, that's true, but the reason that Paul was emphasizing that to the Corinthian church was because they had a mess of things when it was concerning the spiritual gifts. And he was pointing out to them at the beginning of chapter 13 that you can talk with the voice and words of an angel, but if you don't have love, you're just noise. So that was the reason, there was a context to why Paul was emphasizing love over the others. Okay, you follow me? Give me a nod just so I keep moving. All right, super, super. Okay, so let's look at then the first fruit of the Spirit. That is love. The word is agapeo or agape as many commonly suggest. Love, love is very, very easy to say and challenging to describe. And, and I'm going to just steal a definition of love and I'm going to, I'm going to use it because I think it is solid and, uh, and I think that it's very helpful. So love, first of all, is an act of the will. That means it's a choice. Don't tell me that one day you fall out of love with your spouse, okay? Because let me just remind you that Jesus said, love your enemies. Hey, right? That encompasses pretty much everybody, okay? So if your wife has become your enemy, love her. Hopefully that's not the case though. Amen. Why do I do this to myself? So love is, first of all, a choice. It's a choice. And the reason we have to emphasize that is because the spirit of the age says, well, love is uncontrollable, right? The heart wants what the heart wants. And oh, I just, I fell in love. And then two days later, well, I don't love you anymore, right? That's not love. It's being in heat, okay? Comes and goes. It's not love. Love, I'm telling you, love is an act of the will. It's a choice. And it's accompanied by emotion, but it's not driven by it, right? Our emotions have the potential all the time to misguide us, right? Don't trust your emotions. Somebody shared with me last week of a person who was speaking in a church, and their speech was littered with this phrase, I feel like, I feel like, I feel like. I feel like God is doing this, or I feel like God is saying that. Listen, I don't care what you feel like, right? I don't care what you feel like, but there is a feeling, there's an emotion in love. And if love is genuine, that emotion is for the goodwill of another, right? So there's an act of the will, there's an emotion not led by nor devoid of. And it leads to something else, right? It leads to action on behalf of the object of your love. The object of your will, the object of your affection is producing something that is two things. One, for the good of that person. and for the glory of the God who made that person. All right. So love is an act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of another. Okay. That was Votibachum's definition of love. And I use it because it's so, so helpful and it defines, I think it hits all the points of what love is. So as we follow our pattern, right, go back to jealousy, there was an action and there was an attitude. And the source was the work of the flesh. So the fruit of the spirit has an action and it has an attitude and it also has a source. And that source is coming from the spirit of God. What's the attitude of love? The attitude of love is this. Love must be genuinely compassionate and genuinely caring. In other words, it cannot be cold. It cannot be indifferent. It cannot be wooden. Love must be genuinely caring about a person. Compassionate towards that person. I think it's safe to say that that Jesus is the best example because Jesus did everything in perfect love. Amen. There were times though when he called the Pharisees and the Sadducees whitewashed tombs, a brood of vipers. Now that doesn't sound all that loving, but it was absolutely true. Was it not? It was absolutely true. Was Jesus being unloving in that moment? No, he was not. Listen one of the things that we often overlook considering love is love does not rejoice in iniquity it rejoices in the truth So don't tell me that you're loving somebody when you're lying to them Amen goes right there We're dealing with this in our culture today and Right people are saying love is love and I say yes and amen, but you don't understand what it is Right, they don't know what love is They have a wrong in understanding. They have a wrong definition of love Love is that which love is is it tells the truth and it does so in a caring compassionate Way and it is caring and it is compassionate to tell somebody that unless they repent and believe the gospel They're going to hell That's an act of love. So love has an attitude, and the attitude is genuinely caring and compassionate. And let me just also say this. When it comes to love, there are times that we need to pray that God would put in our hearts this feeling, this attitude of being caring and compassionate, right? Because by nature, we're not. By nature, this is our attitude. Well, you dug your grave, buddy. Right? Don't blame anyone else. Again, that may be true. That may be true, but we can still have compassion and genuine care for somebody that dug their own grave, right? And not only dug their own grave, but I mean, they jumped in at head first. Right? We can have care and genuine compassion towards them, even though we may disagree. So that's the attitude. The action is, it does something. Love is going to do something. And I just have three general statements. Love, love gives what it has. Okay? Love gives what it has. Love goes where it is able. Love serves according to its ability, all right? So when we phrase love's action from those three categories, every single one of us fit into that, right? Personally, uniquely, because you know what? Every one of us are gifted differently, right? And here's another thing. Every one of us has something different than another. And that's perfectly fine. And it's all according to the providence of God. But what you have, what you give, what you can do and where you can go, there is something for you to do when it comes to love. And it must be coupled with, it must be married to a compassionate and caring heart. And all of this, again, is for the good of neighbor or others, and to the glory of God. I think you get it. Let's move on to joy. Joy. Joy is the word kara in the Greek, and it's kind of difficult to explain, but it's to rejoice, rejoicing. It's a gladness. So here's the definition of joy. Joy is the fruit of the Spirit which focuses on eternal realities rather than momentary situations. Now, if you're writing this down, I'm going to say it one more time for you. Joy is the fruit of the Spirit which focuses on eternal realities rather than momentary situations, okay? Now, let me explain. Yesterday, riding in the truck, there was an Amazon truck on the highway. And on the back of the Amazon truck, if you've seen this yet, they have a saying there, a quotation. It says, caution, contents may cause happiness. Okay? Now, some of you, some of you do get happy when Amazon Prime pulls in your driveway, because you're like, well, it's coming this time. And then you open it up and it's your husband's razors or something like that. And it proves the point. It proves the point, right? Does it not? You were happy when you seen him show up and you open it up and it's like, this really isn't what I was looking for. So, so then, so then we know that joy, joy is not happiness. Joy is not equal to happiness. All right. Let me explain and explain more happiness. is something that comes and goes based on circumstances, right? I was telling Tracy yesterday as I was thinking about an illustration for the difference between joy and happiness. I said, I think that the best way that I can think of to describe happiness is, say you have a three-year-old child And they asked for a specific kind of cake, right? If it was in my household, it might have a tractor on, or if it's a girl, it might have a horse on it or something like that. And you sit this birthday cake down in front of your three-year-old, it's got three little cute candles on top and and you sit it down and and the eyes are as big as frisbees right and they're smiling from ear to ear and they just can't wait for you to sing happy birthday to them and they can't wait to blow out their candles and make their wish right and and as you're singing that last phrase of happy birthday their seven-year-old sibling is standing over their shoulder and they go oh Whoo and blow out the candles before everybody's done singing That three-year-old child that was so happy and excited is now doing what? You better believe it they're throwing up fit because that bonehead just blew out my candles So in other words listen you're happy will come and go like the wind and You're happy will come and go like the wind but joy joy Says you may have blown out my birthday candles, but I still have Jesus amen, right Take it all away Take my house Take my family take my take my friends But I still have Jesus And there's joy. It doesn't change based on the circumstances of your life. It's rooted and founded in the eternal realities of God in Christ Jesus. You know what the opposite of joy is? It's depression. To be depressed is to lose your joy. To be depressed is standing absolutely positively opposite of being filled with joy. And you know, there's moments in our life we're there. And you know, from experience, from experience, the reason that we get to those places of being depressed is because we lose our vision of the truth in God. We lose our vision of what God is, who He is, what He has done, and what He is doing, right? That's how we lose our joy. That's how we become depressed. By taking our eyes off of God. By taking our eyes and our minds off of the truth that is found in Him. All right, number three, and we're done. Peace, peace. Peace is harmony. It's a state of tranquility. It's the opposite of war. And this is my definition of peace. Peace is that calm inner state that is in our inner being, in our heart, whereby we have rest and comfort, being completely reconciled to God through Christ. We have this inner state, our soul is, our heart is at rest and it's comforted by the peace that comes from knowing that you are reconciled to God, that you're no longer an enemy of the cross, that you're no longer under the wrath of God, but you have been reconciled by the blood of Jesus and he has made you whole. He has justified you by his grace through his perfect righteousness. forgiven your sins and adopted you into his family and has given you an eternal inheritance in Christ. That should bring rest and peace and comfort to our hearts. So what's the attitude of peace? The attitude of peace is we don't get upset. We don't get angry at the changing situations of our lives, right? The opposite of peace is fits of anger. That's what we seen was the work of the flesh. Now I'm telling you, we all, we all have dealt with these kinds of things. Something happens and there's this, there's this, this bomb goes off inside of our heart, right? And we get, we get angry. but our faith in Christ should do what? Listen, you're not gonna help that that happens, but you absolutely positively have to take hold of the situation moving forward because if you don't, if you don't start preaching to yourself rather than listening to yourself, you're gonna go on a crash course in the wrong direction, right? Peace, peace comes from truth. And so when something bad happens, we have to stop ourselves. We have to just listen. We're so good at just running full tail to head. A lot of times, listen, peace, peace says, I'm just gonna stop here. I'm gonna take a step back. I'm gonna take a deep breath. I'm gonna get my head on straight. that may include some tears, it may include some whatever, right? But you've got to stop because listen, if you don't, there's not going to be peace there. It's going to produce all kinds of things moving forward. So the attitude of peace is don't get angry at your situation, just rest, stop, be comforted by the truth that is in God. And the action is, so once you've stopped your mind from going in the wrong direction, then you need to rest. You need to rest specifically in the sovereignty of God. Now, I prayed it this morning in the pastoral prayer, Romans 8, 28, for we know that God works all things together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Now, I believe that is true in every single situation of the Christian life, period. Every single situation of the Christian life, Aaron described for us a terrible scene that happened in North Carolina, and those people are still living that, right this very moment. But I believe wholeheartedly, for those who love the Lord, that God is working good in their situation because they love Him, and because God loves them. In other words, listen, God does not permit anything to happen in the lives of His children that will not serve ultimately for their good and for His glory. It's a hard pill to swallow, but it's the truth. And we need to have peace and rest in the truth of God's Word, the sovereignty of who He is and what He is doing. You know, it's just like on the course of life, we constantly travel around those blind turns, right? You've all been on that windy road, and you look up ahead, and you see a tree line on this side, and you see a tree line on this side, and the road disappears somewhere into it. And you're like, I don't know what's around that corner. I have no idea what's around that bend, but I know this. It's the road, the path is taking me there and therefore I'm going to find out. And the truth is sometimes you get around that bend and there stands an eight point buck in the middle of the road, right? That'd be awesome. As long as you can stop in time. Maybe you find that there's this long three mile hill that you can just coast down. Boy, those times are great, aren't they? When you can just kick it in neutral, so to speak, and enjoy the ride. Sometimes you make that bend and it's an uphill climb, right? You know all about that. Seems like some days that's all there is, right? But all those things, all those things are serving to make you trust in God more. And as you trust in God, you're loving Him, loving others, having joy, having joy because we know that greater is He that is within me than he that is in the world, and peace in our hearts, knowing that whatever is ahead, God is with me, God is in me, and God is for me. Amen? Absolutely. Look at verse 24 and we'll be done. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Love, joy, peace are yours. You who belong to Christ Jesus, they are yours. Lay hold of them, crucify or kill the evil passions, the evil flesh and live trust. Listen, I, I'm going to preach on Proverbs three, five, and six this afternoon in the nursing home. It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. Listen, I can't think of a better way to describe what to live in the love and the joy and the peace of God, but to trust in Him. To trust in Him. You're here today and you've never trusted in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Today is the day of salvation. His plans are good for you. He will show you His love. He will put His joy in your heart, and He will give you peace. Amen? But I can tell you this, that if you turn away from Him, if you run from Him, you will never experience love, you will never have joy, and your life will be patterned by everything and anything but peace. The choice is clear. Amen? Let's pray. Father, We thank you for your word today, and Lord, how we need your spirit to work in us to produce these things. It is a daily battle, Lord. But we know that through studying your word, through praying, through exercising these fruits, Lord, that you continue to do a work in us and through us. So Lord, I pray that you would use us for your glory. Lord, for those that may be struggling to love, those who may be struggling to find their joy in Jesus, those who may be struggling to have peace in their hearts, Lord, I pray that the truth may be found in Christ, that their rest and hope and love may be found in Him, the One who loved us and gave Himself for us while we were still sinners. And the joy that was set before you to go to the cross to give us peace, to make peace between our sinful lives and the very God who created us. So, Lord, we thank You. We thank You for the fruit that comes by the work of Your Spirit. Produce it in abundance in our hearts and our lives. For our good and for your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.