All right, so the reason we read Ephesians 5 is because,
well, we've been going through, you may recall, the works of the flesh,
and we're going through the list of all the sins that were listed there.
And then afterwards, after it lists the works of the flesh in Galatians 5,
then we have the fruit of the Spirit that is mentioned.
And so I am going to continue this series somewhat,
but this time we're going to be hitting on the fruit of the Spirit.
And the reason we read Ephesians 5, because in verse number 8 it says,
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord, walk as children of light.
It's so important that you pick up on that, that we are in the light of the Lord,
you know, if you're saved again, you know, this idea between your position and your walk,
you know, our position is that we are light in the Lord,
but because we are light in the Lord, then the instruction is walk as children of light.
Because even though you are saved, you may make a decision
to walk in darkness, which 1 John is all about.
When we walk in darkness, when we commit sin, we break our fellowship with the Lord.
But the instruction that God wants to give us,
because we are in the light of the Lord Jesus,
is he wants us to walk as children of light.
And when we do walk as children of light, look at verse number 9, it says,
For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
And so as we walk in the light, we're going to be walking in goodness,
in righteousness and truth, and in that procedure,
we can have the fruit of the Spirit develop in our lives, right?
The fruit of the Spirit is where the Holy Spirit does our work in our lives
and develops certain characteristics that we are to live by.
So with that as the introduction, the title of the sermon is The Fruit of the Spirit.
But come back to Galatians 5, please.
Come with me to Galatians 5, Galatians 5.
And I have preached on the fruit of the Spirit in the past,
that was five years ago, all right, five years ago.
So I think it's a good idea that we hit upon it again.
But the fruit of the Spirit there in Galatians 5 and look at verse number 22,
Galatians 5, 22, it says,
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
And so we have these nine qualities that make up the fruit of the Spirit.
What I want you to notice that in all of these qualities,
it's, you notice that it's called the fruits of the Spirit,
not the fruits of the Spirit, okay?
It is one fruit that the Holy Spirit develops in you
and that one fruit has all of these characteristics.
So, you know, you can't really turn around and say,
well, the Holy Spirit's been working on me with love, joy, long-suffering,
but not yet in gentleness, goodness, you know,
that fruit has not yet been developed in my life.
No, no, no, no.
If it's the Holy Spirit doing a work in you,
all of these qualities are going to be developed at the same time,
you know, as you mature and you grow in the Lord.
Also notice in verse number 23, it says,
Against such there is no law.
Okay, because what is the law?
The law points us to what is righteous, what is good, what is wrong, right?
And when we sin against the Lord, the law testifies against our sin.
Well, when we act out of the fruit of the Spirit, there is no law.
When we cannot break the commandments,
we cannot break the laws of God
if we are living by the fruit of the Spirit
that God has laid out in his scriptures.
Then it says in verse number 24,
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh.
Remember the difference between our flesh and the Spirit as well, right?
Our flesh has been crucified with the affections and lusts.
And again, look at verse number 25.
If we live in the Spirit, okay, that's your position, okay?
We live in the Spirit.
We have the Holy Spirit living within each believer.
But because we live in the Spirit, let us also,
also something separate, let us also, what, what, what?
Walk in the Spirit, right?
So it was like before,
walk as children of light in Ephesians 5,
or in Galatians 5, also walk in the Spirit.
What this means is when you get saved,
it is not automatic that you're going to walk in the light.
It's not automatic that you're going to walk in the Spirit.
Otherwise, these commandments are null and void if it's automatic.
We've been given these instructions,
we're given these commandments,
just like you live in the Spirit, hey, you should also walk in the Spirit.
This is the next thing that we have to do.
Verse number 26,
Let us not be desirous of vainglory,
provoking one another, envying one another.
Verse number 26 is really important to compare
with the fruits that we saw there with the Spirit.
You see, all of these characteristics can be done in the flesh.
Did you know that?
You can love in the flesh.
You can have a pretend outlook.
Like people might look at your life and say,
wow, he's got a lot of goodness, a lot of faith,
a lot of meekness, a lot of temperance,
a lot of these things, someone might say that about you.
But you know what?
The flesh can mimic some of those fruits
that the Holy Spirit wants to develop in our lives.
And when you walk according to your flesh,
and you have this appearance of righteousness
that is not coming from the Holy Spirit of God,
what it's going to develop in your life instead
is what we see there in verse number 26,
desirous of vainglory.
You're going to be living righteously in the flesh
and instead of it coming from the Spirit,
because it's in the flesh,
it's going to develop in you vainglory.
Look how well I'm doing.
And you're going to be praising oneself, yourself.
You know, as you're living righteously,
you know, you're going to be looking down at other people.
Look how they're not performing as well as I am.
And that comparison, that competition
that can sometimes develop in churches
can sometimes develop between families,
between brothers and sisters of the Lord.
Look how well I'm doing.
Look how much I'm doing.
Why aren't they doing as much as I am?
Or I believe they should be doing more,
though they're in different places
in their spiritual walk.
But once that comparison starts to set in,
and you start,
why isn't that family doing as much?
Why aren't they attending as many church services?
Why aren't they doing so much soul winning?
Why aren't they doing so much Bible reading?
You know what, that's vainglory.
I'm doing great, you know,
and the standard is me.
That's a wrong attitude to have.
Not only is that going to happen,
it says provoking one another.
You're going to start, you know,
pushing people's buttons.
You know, you get frustrated.
They're not performing like you are.
And you make, you know,
you start to criticise them.
You start to, you know, mock them,
or you start to look down on them, right?
You want to get, you know,
in getting competition and cause strife and division.
And we're doing so much better
versus that, you know, that person.
Or this church is doing so much better
than that church.
You just want to, you know, provoke one another,
push each other's buttons
to cause us strife and frustration.
And then it says envying one another.
Envying, right?
Looking at others and going,
you know, man, they don't deserve
to be blessed by God.
They don't deserve to be looked down
favourably upon God.
It should be me or something like that.
That attitude, you know,
that attitude is in contrast
to the real fruit of the Spirit
that we need to have in our lives.
Look, I've been in church my whole life.
I've seen verse number 26
amongst people that are seemingly
on the outward.
Look how righteous, amazing they're performing.
Look how much higher they speak
of Jesus and God.
Praise the Lord.
Hallelujah.
But then behind the scenes,
what are they doing?
Criticizing, you know,
looking down at people.
Oh, they shouldn't be at church
or whatever it is.
Just, you know,
you know, just pointing their fingers.
Well, I know that righteousness
that they're portraying
is not coming from the Holy Spirit of God.
That righteousness is coming from their flesh.
And so our instruction is
if we live in the Spirit,
let us also walk in the Spirit.
And as we walk in the Spirit,
as we go about life in the new man,
in the new creature that God has given us,
then that's going to allow the Holy Spirit
to develop these qualities
that we read about.
Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
And so tonight we're going to go
through the first three.
Joy, peace, long-suffering.
Let's start with love.
Come with me to Matthew 22, please.
Come with me to Matthew 22, verse number 36.
Matthew 22, verse number 36.
Love, fruit of the Spirit.
Matthew 22, verse number 36.
The question gets asked to Jesus,
which is the great commandment in the law?
That's a good one.
Like Jesus, what is like
the most important commandment
that we should keep?
Like what's the principal one,
the greatest one?
Verse number 37.
Jesus said unto him,
Thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great
commandment.
By first, it's the principal.
It's the most important one
out of them all.
And it's a great commandment to have,
to love our God.
And look, if we want to love God properly,
then we need the Holy Spirit
to bring forth that fruit of love
so we can love God the way
that we should, right?
And then he continues in verse number 39.
And the second is like unto it,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
And on these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets.
Like what a powerful,
like how powerful is love?
If we could just love perfectly,
if we could love God perfectly,
and we can love our neighbors perfectly,
you know what's going to happen automatically?
You're going to keep all the commandments.
All of them.
All of the commandments
that God has laid out in the scriptures.
What does that mean in reverse?
When we offend our God,
we didn't love him perfectly.
When we offend our brothers
and sisters in the Lord,
we did not love them perfectly.
Okay?
When we're going about causing
strife and turmoil, provoking,
envying, whatever it is,
it's not perfect love.
It's not a righteousness
that comes from the Spirit.
It's a self-righteousness.
It's a selfish attitude
that we can have toward one another.
Can you come with me to Romans 13?
Romans 13, verse number 8.
Let me expand on this a little bit more
with Romans 13, verse number 8.
Boy, if we just love perfectly,
we'd be just keeping every single commandment.
Like that's what Jesus Christ is telling us, right?
If we could just love perfectly.
In Romans 13, verse number 8,
the Bible says,
Owe no man anything,
we should not owe each other anything,
but, so this is the exception,
but to love one another,
for he that loveth another
have fulfilled the law.
Wow.
You know, if we can love one another,
we're fulfilling God's law.
That's what he's saying there, right?
We're fulfilling it.
We're not breaking God's laws
if we can love one another.
But notice that we all
owe each other something.
What do we owe?
Love to one another.
Like, as I came to church tonight,
I owed all of you my love.
And we all owed one another our love,
one for another.
And if we can just do that in practice,
then we would be fulfilling the law of God.
And then verse number 9, for this,
thou shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt not kill,
thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not bear false witness,
thou shalt not covet.
And if there be any other commandment,
it is briefly comprehended in this saying,
namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
So notice that.
We don't really need all 600,
whatever it is, commandments in the Bible.
If we could just love each other
the way that we ought to,
love our neighbors the way that we ought to,
love our brethren the way that we ought to,
we don't even need all the other commandments.
You know, it'd all fall into place.
Like, if we loved each other,
we're not going to covet,
we're not going to,
what else was there,
commit adultery,
we're not going to kill,
we're not going to steal.
Love is the answer to all.
Like, instead of going,
I'll try not to covet.
The answer is, you know what,
I'm going to love with the Holy Spirit love
that he gives me as the fruit of the Spirit,
meaning that I'm going to walk in the Spirit,
and if I can love each other,
then I'm not going to steal, am I?
I'm not going to kill.
I'm not going to covet.
So instead of being like,
oh man, I've got to maintain all these 600 commandments
to please God,
no, no, just keep the love.
And that handles it.
That's the answer.
Look at verse number 10,
Romans 13, 10.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour.
Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
So if we're true to love,
we're not going to work ill.
We're not going to try to harm each other.
And when we do try to harm each other,
when we do go out of our way
to offend one another,
it's because there's no love.
It's the flesh.
It's not the Spirit.
It's a false righteousness.
It's not the righteousness that comes
by the Holy Spirit of God.
So that's loving our brethren,
loving our neighbours.
What about loving our Lord God?
We learnt that we're to love Him
with all our heart, soul and mind.
And then Jesus Christ also adds your might
or your strength.
Also in another passage in the New Testament.
Can you come with me to Colossians 3?
Come with me to Colossians 3, verse 22.
Colossians 3, 22.
Every now and again,
I stop and just think about
how much do I really love my Lord?
You know, Jesus Christ says,
if you love me, keep my commandments.
That's one way to measure your love.
How well are you keeping his commandments?
Again, I'm trying my best doing the 600.
Just the two.
Love the Lord God.
Love your neighbour.
You'll be alright if you can do that.
But you know, it's one way
that I often check just myself
over just different times.
I say, okay, if I'm supposed to love my Lord,
how well am I loving Him with my heart?
How well am I loving Him with my soul?
How well am I loving Him with my mind?
And how well am I loving Him with my strength?
Oh, my might.
In Colossians 3, 22.
Colossians 3, 22.
Now, look, we all have jobs.
We all have responsibilities.
Obviously, the man, the father,
the husband is supposed to go out there,
work a job, provide for the family,
all of that.
But even mothers,
you've got a job.
You've got to work within your household.
Children, you've got work as well.
You've got your chores.
You've got your home school
or your education,
whatever it is that you're doing.
We all have responsibilities
that God has given us.
So let's think how well
are we loving our Lord God with our heart?
It says in verse 22,
servants, obey in all things
your masters according to the flesh,
not with eye service as men pleasers.
Look at this.
But in singleness of heart,
fear in God,
singleness of heart,
our focus when we're going about
doing our business,
is to do it for God.
That's how you can love Him with your heart.
Everything I do is for God.
All the work that I do.
Therefore, I'm going to obey my masters.
When I go to work,
I'm going to obey my boss.
You know, kids,
if you go to school,
you've got to obey your teachers
or if you're homeschooled,
I'm going to obey my mum.
All right, you've got chores around the house.
I better obey my parents.
And if you don't,
it shows me how much you love God
with your heart.
Whether you do or not.
Look at verse 23.
And whatsoever ye do,
do it heartedly,
do it with all your heart
as to the Lord
and not unto men.
Boy, you know,
if you work for the Lord,
it's automatically going to bless men
because you're going to work harder for God
than you would for man.
You know, kids,
when you make your bed,
do it for Jesus.
Like do it as though Jesus asked you,
make your bed in the morning.
How well am I going to make my bed?
I'm going to do it with all my heart.
I'm going to make sure that Jesus is pleased
if he was to walk into my bedroom
and see my bed made.
I'm going to wash the dishes.
I'm going to clean the dishes.
I want to make sure that
if Jesus looked at the dishes,
he won't see any spots.
He won't see any issues with it.
You know, that's how we do it with our hearts.
Look at verse 24.
Knowing that of the Lord,
you shall receive the reward of the inheritance
for ye serve my boss,
for ye serve my parents,
no, no,
for ye serve the Lord Christ.
You're going to love the Lord with all your heart.
How well do you serve your masters?
We all have masters.
Say, nah, pastor,
I'm self-employed.
Okay, your master is Jesus.
How well are you doing in your workplace?
You know, what about your soul?
Come with me to Psalm 146.
Psalm 146 and verse number one.
You know what,
when you don't like your boss at work
and he gives you a hard time
and he blames you for things you didn't do
and you know it's his fault,
you just say,
you know what I'm going to do for Jesus.
My boss wants to blame me.
Well, Jesus took all my blame.
All of it.
All of my blame.
So I'll just take a little bit of blame.
You think the blame you're receiving
is going to be anywhere near
what Jesus Christ received?
Just do it for Jesus.
It doesn't matter how bad your boss is treating you.
Just get your head down.
You know what, I don't care.
Maybe Jesus gave me this boss,
you know, to test my patience,
to put me on the trial a little bit,
to develop some character.
I'm just going to serve Jesus.
What our soul?
Look at Psalm 146 verse number one.
Praise ye the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
Oh my soul.
While I live will I praise the Lord.
I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being.
One way we can praise the Lord with our soul,
love the Lord with our soul,
is to praise and sing praises,
to sing songs unto our Lord God.
Let me encourage you guys,
I mean, our singings every year,
I promise you this,
every year our singing as a church
gets better and better and better,
and it sounds better online too.
Sometimes Brother Matthew at the end of the service,
he only has me singing,
which sounds horrible.
But anyway, during the main singing,
you can hear the congregation,
sounds great online.
But that's one way to love them with our soul.
Okay.
And when we do sing praises,
let's just not,
oh, I'm at church, I've ticked the box,
what number are we up to?
Like, get into it.
You know, lift up your heart,
lift up your soul, praise the Lord.
Mean what you're doing.
What about our mind?
Can you come with me to Romans 12?
Two.
Romans 12, verse two.
Romans 12, verse number two.
Romans 12, verse two.
Romans 12, verse two says,
and be not conformed to this world.
Conformed.
Like, if you've been saved later in life,
like you've gone,
you know, you've been unsaved in your teenage years,
you've been unsaved.
I guess even when you're saved as a young person,
you know what?
You can still be conformed to the world though.
You can still be affected by the world,
and you just go,
ah, this is the way the world is.
I'll be the same.
You know, most people commit for an occasion.
I'll just do the same.
Most people don't go to church.
I'll just do the same.
You know, most people laugh at dirty jokes.
Like, I'll just laugh at them as well as anybody else.
It's very tempting to just be conformed to the world,
because you don't want to stand out.
You know, you don't want to be ridiculed or mocked.
Well, one way that we can love the Lord with our mind
is not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God.
So we can transform in our minds, you know,
so we can be thinking about what is,
you know, when we make a decision,
whatever decision that is,
you know, in our life,
we stop and say,
hold on, is this acceptable to God?
Is this good to God?
Is this perfect?
Is this His will?
And if you can check those boxes,
it's all of these things.
Then you go, you know what?
Then I'm going to do what the Lord wants.
I'm not going to do what the world wants.
I'm going to change my mind
and do the will of God in my life.
That's how you can love the Lord God with your mind.
Don't fill this mind with the world.
Fill this mind with the things of God.
Prove everything that you do.
Look, there are some things in the world
that would be acceptable to God,
that would be in God's will.
All right.
And okay, you say, well, that's fine.
I'm not sinning by doing this.
All right, great.
Like I'm not saying your life should just be everyday church,
everyday, you know, our soul winning,
everyday listening to more preaching online
or something like that.
And that's all I do.
Oh, there's a lot of things to be done in the world.
But why don't you just prove it first?
Just check your mind.
You know, am I just going with the world?
Am I checking if this is what God wants me to do?
Does this fit the will of God?
People often ask,
how do I know God's will in my life?
It's actually really easy.
You read this and you do it.
That's his will.
I mean, it's not some secret
that you've got to go on like a pilgrimage journey,
you know, to Jerusalem or something
and find his will or climb Mount Everest
and oh, discover God's will.
Then you just open God's word
and every time he gives you a commandment, do it.
Anytime you learn something new, do it.
You know, and that's God's will in your life.
Just following what God's word lays out for you
clearly in the scriptures.
What about our strength?
Come with me to 1 Corinthians 6.
1 Corinthians 6 and verse number 19.
1 Corinthians 6 verse number 19.
When we're loving God with our strength or our mights,
we're talking about our physical body, aren't we?
And we all have different levels of,
you know, those of you that hit the gym
and you're much healthier,
you've got to use that body a lot more.
And those of you with chronic issues and sicknesses
and whatever it is,
we understand that maybe your strength is limited.
But even in your limited strength,
love him with all your strength.
Love him with everything that you can do
in the limited struggles that you have in your body.
In 1 Corinthians 6.19,
What?
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost
which is in you?
Which ye have of God and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body
and in your spirit which are God's.
You see, your body belongs to the Lord.
Are you going to give this body over to sin?
To whatever sexual perversions are out there?
Or are you going to keep your body committed unto God?
You know, God's given us his body
as wicked and sinful as his body is sometimes.
As selfish as it is.
God still bought that body.
And you know what?
God could have saved you
and just take you to heaven the same day you got saved.
But he wants you to function in his body.
He wants you to get this body under subjection,
under the power of the new creature,
the new man, the spirit of God, you know?
And we're to walk in his ways
and use this body with the limitations.
And when we do find ourselves being weak in the body,
that's when you can depend solely
on the strength of our Lord God.
And you'll be able to accomplish so much more for God
than you ever imagined.
I never in my life thought I could pastor a church.
Let alone two churches.
It's not me.
It can't be me.
It's got to be the Lord.
And even though my body gets tired,
you know, I can stop and say,
you know what?
Lord, I get tired.
I get, you know, three hours, four hours of sleep
sometimes when I'm going back and forth from Sydney.
You know, I'm exhausted.
But you know what?
Lord, I'm loving you with my might.
I'm going to give you what I've got, Lord.
At least until my body gives up and says,
you can't do it anymore.
Some younger man can step up and take care of that one day.
Younger men.
That's that's what I do.
You know, sometimes I just stop.
Do I love you with my heart?
Soul, mind, strength.
Sometimes I might be doing okay in some of these categories
and then I might not be doing so good in some other categories.
And so I think it's good to sometimes stop and assess
how well am I loving my Lord God with all these parts that God has given me.
I'm not sure if I'm going to get to peace tonight.
But let's talk about joy.
The next fruit of the Spirit that we see there,
the next characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit, I should say.
Joy.
Come with me to Psalm 16.
Come with me to Psalm 16, verse number 11.
And Johnny, can you give me some water?
Psalm 16 and verse number 11.
Joy.
You know, I want to be happy.
If I'm going to live some 70, 80 years, Lord willing,
I want my life to be most of the time happy.
Joyful, right?
I really, why would I want to walk around depressed all the time?
Frustrated all the time?
You know, arguing and fighting all the time?
I don't want to be that way.
The Bible says in Psalm 16, 11,
that will show me the path of life.
So life, our life is, we're on a path, aren't we?
In thy presence is fullness of joy.
At thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.
How beautiful are these words?
Look, you can live a life of joy as you go about your pathway of life,
regardless of how old you are, you're a kid, you're a teenager.
You know, you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 60s, 80s,
whatever path you're on in life, you know, you can experience fullness of joy.
So how do I get a pastor?
In God's presence.
You know what?
Jesus Christ promises his presence in church.
This is one place that you can come and experience your fullness of joy.
You know, always walking with your Lord God.
And in your walk, when you mess up and you're in darkness
and you've sinned against the Lord or you've offended the Lord God,
you've committed sin.
Be quick to just humble yourself.
God, confess that sin.
Forgive me, bring me back in fellowship with you.
Immediately, why wait?
So I'll rack up all my sins during the day and then before I go to bed, I'll get right with God.
I mean, that's better than nothing.
But you get right with God before bed, then you go into bed.
How about get right with God straight away?
As soon as you mess up, God promises us his grace, his mercy, his long suffering.
You know, and I'll just like you, I get embarrassed too when I mess up before God.
And I might've done the same sin, the same struggle,
the same weakness in my flesh.
I'm like, God, help me.
And then there I am again, you know, half an hour later doing the same thing.
It's embarrassing.
At the same time, I know my God's gracious.
I know I can come boldly before his throne of grace.
I'm a child of God.
He's my father.
He's not some God that, you know, just like, oh, he's messed up again.
He knows we're going to mess up again.
And we shouldn't, we should walk in the Spirit.
All right.
But we should be quick to just matter.
Yeah, I did mess up, Lord.
Just quickly, just broken, contrite, humble before God.
God, you know my weaknesses.
You know what I'm made of, Lord.
Now just, Lord, forgive me and just help me, you know, just walk in your paths.
Help me to be in your presence.
I want fullness of joy.
Sometimes young people leave churches.
I've been in so many churches where teenagers just,
they get to a certain point, the certain age, and they're gone.
They're gone.
They're gone into the world, you know.
Why?
Because they think there's joy in the world.
They think there are pleasures and there are some pleasures.
They're very short-lived.
Those pleasures just cause you to fall into a trap.
You know, addictions and filthiness.
And it's like, oh man, it's so good.
You know, out there drinking alcohol or taking drugs or going clubbing or sleeping around
and, you know, just living filthy lives.
They think it's joy.
But truly, real joy is in the presence of the Lord.
Like for those of you that are adults and you've gone,
you've lived a wicked life, you've been there, you've done that,
you know that there is no pleasure there in the long run.
Just a brief moment.
Just a tease of the devil.
You know, it's like people that get addicted to drugs.
They take whatever drug it is.
They get some high, you know, that was so amazing.
Then they want it again and again and again.
But the effects of the drug wears off.
And before you know it, they're just addicted to some drug,
trying to find some high, trying to find some pleasure and they can't find it.
And they keep searching.
They take harder drugs, harder drugs, keep searching.
And before you know it, they've destroyed their lives.
They've destroyed their health.
No, real pleasure, real joy is in the presence of our Lord God.
You're in Psalms, come with me to Psalm 118.
Psalm 118, please.
Psalm 118.
Yeah, we're definitely not going to hit on peace tonight.
We'll just stay with love and joy and I'll save it for next week.
But joy, fullness of joy.
Can we be happy?
Can we be joyful every day, do you reckon?
Well, Psalm 118, verse number 24 says,
This is the day which the Lord hath made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Name me a day that God has not made.
Have you ever lived a day that God did not make?
Every day you've ever lived was the day that God made.
So what were you supposed to do?
Be glad and rejoice in it.
Say pastor, today's Halloween.
Who cares?
The Lord made today.
And obviously we're not going to dress up and knock doors and get our lollies and all that garbage.
Okay, but we're going to rejoice anyway.
And like we've done many times over the years, we've gone door to door soul winning
because people are expecting someone to knock their doors.
And so you're going to get more receptiveness when you're going door to door soul winning during Halloween.
That's why we call it hell or win.
You can win Christ or you can go to hell.
But Halloween, it's a great time to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It's a day that we can rejoice.
We've seen souls saved on Halloween.
Is there a more wicked day than Halloween out there?
I can't think of any.
That's probably the way and we've seen souls saved.
Praise God.
Because we're going to rejoice.
I don't care what the devil's doing.
I don't care what the wicked are doing on that day.
It's a day that God has made and we're going to rejoice and be glad in it.
Come with me.
You're in Psalm.
Come with me to Psalm 113.
Psalm 113.
So hey, we can rejoice every day.
Every day.
You say, but pastors have got problems.
They've got trials.
We'll talk about that in a moment.
But you're in Psalm 113, verse number nine.
He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children.
Praise ye the Lord.
Mothers, you are to find joy in your children.
In Proverbs 5 18, it says,
Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Husbands, you're told to rejoice with the wife of your youth.
Brethren, you know what?
Not only has God given us every day, God's given us our families.
We are to rejoice in our families.
And I know your wife is not perfect.
And I know wives that your husbands aren't perfect.
And parents, I know your kids aren't perfect.
Welcome to the real world, which is why God had to send his son to die for us,
because none of us are perfect.
But you know what?
God's given your family to rejoice in.
Rejoice.
Be thankful that God has given you people.
You know, it's your relative.
Your family.
Rejoice in your families.
Come with me to Psalm 122, please.
Psalm 122.
Psalm 122, verse number one.
I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the Lord.
I was glad.
Were you glad when you came before coming to church?
So I was tired, pastor.
Yeah, we get tired.
People get tired.
I know that.
But were you glad, though?
You can be tired and glad.
Oh, yeah, church.
Oh, man, again, church.
Listen to that crazy pastor go on and on and on.
Oh, you know what?
There's fine gladness because you're going to hear things preached here
that you're not going to hear anywhere else.
Like God, you think you're going to hear God's word at school?
Of course not.
You think you're going to hear God's word preached at your workplace?
Of course not.
Be glad you can come to a place where you can rejoice in the Lord.
You get away from the craziness of the world and come amongst normal people,
God's people, brothers and sisters in the Lord that you love
and just rejoice in God and praise God and learn something in the Bible
or be reminded of something that you've kind of forgotten.
You know, we ought to rejoice.
We ought to be glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the Lord.
Come with me to Psalm 30.
Turn with me to Psalm 30.
Psalm 30.
While you turn to Psalm 30, I'm going to read to you from James 1 verse 2.
It says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations
or trials, difficulties, tribulations.
God says, count it all joy.
So when we talked about being able to rejoice every day,
you say, but pastor, some days are super hard for me.
Yeah, I know.
Pastor, there are some days that I've got tears in my eyes and I just want to give up.
I know.
But when you go through those temptations, God says, count it all joy.
Can you do that?
Are you at that level?
You say, I'm not at that level, which is why you need to walk in the Spirit.
This is why you need the Holy Spirit to develop the fruit of the Spirit in your life.
As you mature in the Lord,
as you mature, you're going to start understanding when the trials come, it serves a purpose.
It might be the hand of chastisement of the Lord, it might be.
But you know, when God chastises us, it's for our profits.
It's to bring forth the peace, the fruit,
escape my mind the verse,
the peaceable fruit of righteousness in our lives.
You say, pastor, it's persecution, the devil's after me.
Look, the Lord's allowed it though.
The Lord believes you can fight off the devil, put on the whole armor of God,
depend on the arm of God's strength, and you'll have victory of the devil.
You'll have victory of the world.
And when you have victory, you're going to get stronger.
You're going to grow in maturity.
The fruit of the Spirit is going to develop more and more and more in your life.
That's why we can count it all joy.
And we can still find joy in every day of our life,
even when you're going through the most difficult period of your life.
Here in Psalm 30, verse number 4,
Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his,
and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness,
for his anger, this is why we ought to give thanks,
for his anger endureth but a moment,
in his favor is life, weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning.
You see, our tears are just for the nights,
a short period of time when we're going through difficulty.
His anger endureth but a moment,
God can get angry at us when we're not in fellowship with him,
when we're not walking the Spirit,
when we're walking the flesh,
when we're walking selfishness,
when we turn our backs away from the Lord,
when we stop picking up our Bibles,
when we stop going to church,
you know, all of these things, God gets angry,
but we ought to thank God,
because his anger endureth but a moment,
just a short period of time,
and when his chastisement come here,
you may weep for the night,
but look, this is what God wants.
He wants joy cometh in the morning.
He wants that chastisement to bring joy.
And again, this is one way to know how well
the fruit of the Spirit is developing your life.
When you're going through those hardships,
and you know what,
and you get through it on the other side,
I'm glad I went through that.
That's hard to say.
Or in the midst of it,
when you have tears,
I'm glad the Lord is chastising me.
It must prove that he loves me,
because I'm a son of God,
but I'm still going to cry until the joy comes.
We can find joy in the Lord,
like the joy, you know,
the Lord is so merciful to us,
I mean, he's already saved us from hell.
You don't think he's going to help you
in your time of trial?
Like, what's the greater challenge?
Saving you from hell,
or helping you with your current problem
that you're facing right now?
God's already done so much more for you.
He's already delivered you from so much worse.
So we ought to have joy in the Lord,
even when it's his chastisement upon us.
And the last verse, please,
come with me to Ecclesiastes 5,
Ecclesiastes 5, verse about 18.
Ecclesiastes 5, 18.
Now, why it turns to Ecclesiastes,
you know, this kind of,
sometimes the fruit of the Spirit,
you're going to find it just overlaps.
Things sometimes overlap.
And this is one area where
our love for our Lord God and our joy overlaps.
Okay, we're going back to our work, okay?
You know, men, your jobs and ladies,
your responsibilities with the household
and children, your education and your chores
and all that that you've got, okay?
Just bring it back to that.
And Ecclesiastes 5, 18.
It says,
Behold that which I have seen.
It is good and comely for one to eat and to drink
and to enjoy the good of all his labor,
that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life,
which God giveth him, for it is his portion.
Men, when you go and work a job
and you get your income and you pay your bills
and you buy the groceries and your wife cooks you a steak dinner,
whatever it is that you're eating,
God says, you know what?
This is good and comely.
For one to eat and drink, to enjoy the good of your labor.
Do we stop in Australia?
Man, Australians, sometimes Australia.
I love Australia, but we have a problem.
We're too wealthy.
We are.
Like how many of you are really doubting
if you're going to have dinner tonight?
Yet there are billions of people
that don't even know if they're going to eat tomorrow or tonight.
But you know what?
When that plate and young people,
when that plate lands on your table,
you ought to enjoy the good of the labor.
Okay.
Oh, mom, I don't want to eat this.
Onions, asparagus, peas, broccoli.
No, no, enjoy it.
You know, your family's labored hard.
You know, you've worked hard throughout the day.
You get hungry, enjoy the good of his labor
that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life.
Look at verse 19.
Every man also to whom God have given riches and wealth
and have given him power to eat thereof
and to take his portion, look at this,
and to rejoice in his labor.
This is the gift of God.
Your labor, your workplace, your, you know, your job,
your responsibility.
God says this is a gift of God.
Oh, I thought it was a burden, pastor.
You know, working nine to five, Monday to Friday.
Again, as Australians, we're spoilt
because in places of the world,
they're working six days, seven days,
not eight hours a day.
They're doing 12 hours, 14 hours a day
to make ends meet.
But you know what?
God says, rejoice in your labor.
Rejoice that he's given you a job.
Responsibilities.
To be productive.
You know, the most miserable people in the world
are those that are not productive.
The most miserable, depressed men in the world
are those that refuse to work.
They've got nothing else to do.
What, sleep in?
Play video games all day long, all night long?
It destroys your life.
It brings depression, mental issues.
You know, social issues.
Your job.
And the fruit, the labor, the product.
Whatever it is that you can, you know,
your possessions that you can come out of the,
what, you know, what God blesses you.
You know, God says to rejoice in these things.
And I know Wednesday nights are a little bit hard.
You know, you're tired from work.
And then, you know, man,
help pastor as I preach a long sermon
because I've got to get back to work
tomorrow morning, got to get up.
You know, man, got to get back to work.
Hey, hey, rejoice.
Rejoice in the Lord.
Rejoice that you're in the house of the Lord.
Number one, and then rejoice.
Oh, I got to get up tomorrow to work.
Yeah, yeah.
Rejoice in that as well.
God has given you something to do to be productive.
You know, to provide your needs
and your family needs.
Joy.
All right, brethren.
Title of the sermon was The Fruit of the Spirit.
And of course, we're going to have part two, part three
as the weeks develop.
But we looked at love and joy.
Okay, let's pray.