WHICH TREE…?

BIBLE PASSAGE: GALATIANS 5:16-25

• Picture taken from Google
• Lesson Prepared by: Krisha of Solomon’s Wisdom FB page
• Lesson ideas taken from: https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons

OCTOBER 09, 2022

 

MEMORY VERSE

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

GALATIANS 5:22-23

 

INTRODUCTION:

Last Sunday our lesson we talked about titled, “IS IT IN YOU?” Is God the Holy Spirit in us? We already knew that once we accept Jesus Christ in our hearts through faith, the Holy Spirit indwells in us. Now let me say this again, “IS THE HOLY SPIRIT IN US?” Could I hear AMEN!

 

Let me ask you, how’s our week? Did our old nature become leading in the past week? Are there some situations within the past week that test our temperance, gentleness and others? Before we proceed, I’ll give some situations that possibly were happened to us last week:

 

 

 

·         You get up in the morning and you eat breakfast and head off to work. And along the way someone cuts you off in traffic or they are driving too slowly which causes you to hit a red light, which is going to make you late for work. So you ask the Holy Spirit to help you follow Him. And He brings to mind some Scriptures about how to deal with your enemies and He reminds you that He is patient, kind and gentle. So instead of honking the horn and flipping the guy off, you remain calm and just thank God that He kept me safe.

·         You get to work only to find out that one of your fellow employees has gone behind your back and told your boss things about you that aren’t true. So again you ask the Holy Spirit what step you should take. And again He brings to remembrance some Scripture verses that guide you in dealing with that situation. Perhaps He even reminds you how Jesus was falsely accused and how He dealt with those accusations. So you use those thoughts to help you deal with that situation in a Biblical manner.

·         You go to lunch in a restaurant and the server completely messes up your order. So they have to remake your food and you end up getting back to work late after lunch. So you ask the Holy Spirit how He wants you to treat the server and how to deal with your boss when you get back to work late. And again, He brings to mind Scriptures that apply to the situation and reminds you of His character.

·         On the way home you stop at grocery store to pick up just a few items that your wife asked to pick up for dinner. And there’s lady who bumped you’re your cart with her cart. She acted she didn’t know and she didn’t whisper or say any word of apology. So I ask the Holy Spirit how He wants me to respond, not just outwardly, but also in my heart.

·         You finally get home and your exhausted and you just want some “me time.” But instead of acting based on your desires, you ask the Holy Spirit to lead you. And He reminds you that you are to love your wife like Christ loved the church and that she has been home with the kids all day and that she could use some down time, too. So you help her finish up dinner and then you watch the kids for a while so she can take a quiet bath, not because that’s what you feel like doing, but because you just want to take that next step as the Holy Spirit leads you.

Our lesson for today titled “WHICH TREE?” Let’s talk about trees. I love picking up or harvesting fruits and maybe some of us here love it too.  We can tell confidently that every tree and plant in an orchard produces fruit that is consistent with the kind of tree or plant it is. Every peach tree produces only peaches. Every apple tree produces only apples. Every tomato plant produces only tomatoes. So even if you don’t know anything else about those trees and plants, you can tell what kind they are by the fruit they produce.

Our lives are just like that. The fruit that is manifest in our lives will reveal what kind of tree we are. If we’re a “flesh tree” then our lives will show evidence of that as our lives produce “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these”.

But if we’re a “Holy Spirit tree” our lives will also show evident of that as our lives produce “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”.

So let me ask you a question this morning. But before I ask you to answer that question I want you to listen carefully to what I’m going to share with you this morning so that you understand the consequences of your answer before you respond.

Which tree do you want to be?

Do you want to be the “flesh tree” or do you want to be the “Holy Spirit tree”?

Let’s begin by describing…

LESSON OUTLINE:

1.  HOW TO BE A FLESH TREE?

 

a)   FOLLOW YOUR OWN DESIRES

Paul writes that those who are “flesh trees” fulfill the desires of the flesh. For as long as we live on this earth, every single Christ follower is going to struggle with fleshly desires because we still have that flesh nature. And occasionally, we are even going to give into those desires and carry them to completion. The “flesh tree”, by contrast, engages in a lifestyle where he or she consistently gratifies those fleshly desires. So the flesh tree focuses on his or her desire for physical pleasure and the result is sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality and others. He or she focuses on his or her rights and the result is enmity, strife, jealousness, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, and envy.

 

What are the simple situations we can say we follow our own desires?

 

b)   FOCUS ON WHAT YOU DO

Paul consistently connects living by the flesh to what a person does. The entire concept of gratifying the desires of the flesh implies taking some action to satisfy those desires. And in verse 19, when he writes about the “works of the flesh”, he is again emphasizing that a central component of living by the flesh is a focus on works – what we do.

If we don’t prioritize spiritual matters, can we say we live in the flesh? (Ask some reactions from the audience)

 

c)    LIVE A LIFE THAT SEEKS TO BE COMFORTABLE

This is the natural extension of living a life that is focused on satisfying one’s fleshly desires. The “flesh tree” doesn’t mind a little religion in his or her life as long as it doesn’t interfere with his or her comfort. So that person tends to compartmentalize life and relegate God to a small compartment that occupies only an hour or two on Sunday mornings. “Flesh trees” view their time and their resources as belonging to them, so they give a little bit of their time and money to God and then just live the rest of their lives the way they want. They want just enough of the Holy Spirit so they won’t feel guilty, but certainly not enough to make them uncomfortable. It’s actually pretty easy to be a “flesh tree”. All it requires is for me to pretty much just do as I please and to take the path of least resistance. And obviously there were some people in the church in Galatia who claimed to be followers of Jesus who lived like that. Unfortunately, the same is still true in the church today. But the good news is that there is a better way.

2.  HOW TO BE A HOLY SPIRIT TREE?

a)   FOLLOW THE HOLY SPIRIT’S DESIRES

Paul begins this passage with a command – “Walk in the Spirit…” And the remainder of the passage is our guide on how to do just that. There are three other places in this passage where Paul describes how we are to relate to the Holy Spirit: In verse 18, he writes that “Holy Spirit trees” are LED of the Spirit.  In verse 25, he writes that “Holy Spirit trees” LIVE in the Spirit. In that same verse, he writes that “Holy Spirit trees” WALK in the Spirit.

                  

“But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

                  

Overall the picture here is very clear. If I want to be a “Holy Spirit tree”, then it means that rather than following my own desires, I need to follow the desires of the Holy Spirit. I get to know Him – who He is and what He desires for my life - and then I follow in His footsteps.

Before we leave this first aspect of being a “Holy Spirit tree”, let me call your attention to a couple of other important details.

First, all of the verbs that describe how we are to relate to the Holy Spirit – walk, be led, live, and keep in step are all present tense verbs in Greek. And as I’m sure we all know by now, that means that they are describing continuous action. We are to keep on walking, keep on being led, keep on living and keep on keeping in step. In other words, this is a lifestyle, not just something we can do once and forget it.

Secondly, the verb “are led” in verse 18 is a passive verb. That means that we are the object of the action, not the ones doing the action. The emphasis is on what the Holy Spirit is doing here, not on what we are doing.

So, in contrast to what we saw with the “flesh tree”, the focus of the “Holy Spirit tree” is not on what I do, but rather on what the Holy Spirit is doing. My responsibility is to follow Him as He leads.

 

b)   FOCUS ON WHO GOD WANTS YOU TO BECOME

 

The first observation is that every one of the nine aspects of the fruit listed here is not an action, but rather a character trait. And I think I can confidently say that this list is not intended to be an exhaustive list of what the fruit of the Spirit should look like. The fact that Paul arranges these character traits in three sets of three leads me to believe that he is using these nine traits to picture the character of the triune God. Since the character of God obviously can’t be captured just by these nine traits, the fruit of His Holy Spirit is not limited to these nine either.

 

c)    LIVE A COMPLETE LIFE OF FAITH

Becoming a “Holy Spirit tree” requires a lot more than just carving a little place out of our life that we give to the Holy Spirit while we retain control over the rest of our lives. It means that we give control of every single area of our lives to Him. And when that happens our lives are going to look radically different than those of the people around us.

In just a moment, I’m going to suggest some ways that following the Holy Spirit as He leads us ought to radically impact the way we live our lives. So I’m not going to dwell too long on this point right now. But before we move on, let me just say that this kind of life is not only going to look radical to others, but it is also going to surprise us. Because when we begin to live like this, there are going to be times when we step back and think, “That sure wasn’t me. That’s not how I would normally act in this situation.” And then we realize that it was the Holy Spirit at work in our lives and all we did was to keep in step with Him.

So now let me ask you the question I asked earlier again:

Which tree do you want to be?

Do you want to be the “flesh tree” or do you want to be the “Holy Spirit tree”?

I’m still not going to ask you to answer that question yet, but at least now you can begin to see what the answer to your question is going to require you to do.

If you’re satisfied with being a “flesh tree” then you can probably just keep living life like you always have. You can just follow your own desires, focus on the externals of what you do, and live a life in which your comfort is the top priority.

 

CONCLUSION:

Which tree do you want to be?

Do you want to be the “flesh tree” or do you want to be the “Holy Spirit tree”?

God is calling every one of us to respond to His Word by answering that question. So I’m going to give all of us some time to pray and seek God’s leading here. Let me suggest a couple things that you might want to pray to God during this time:

1. Ask God to reveal what kind of tree you are right now and what kind of tree He wants you to become.

2. Ask God to help you follow the Holy Spirit one step at a time in every area of your life.

Pray: Forgive us for those times when we have lived according to the flesh rather than being led by You.

We thank You for the fruit that you develop in our lives as we follow You.

Help us to follow you step by step so that we might live radical lives of faith in which we become who you want us to become.