We'll turn over to Matthew chapter 13.
Thank you, Jesus. Matthew, Chapter 13.
Verses 24 to 30, you know, I was, while we were worshiping
the Lord, the Lord showed me a game last night.
Actually, I jumped over and watched Florida play Duke in
basketball. And Pastor Darryl Huffman and
his son Joshua, you know, their whole family are Duke fans.
Recently, there's been a little bit of a challenge because
again, his daughter Anna, all of them are big Duke fans.
Well, his grandson and a son went to college and was not
accepted to Duke but was accepted to North Carolina and
he accepted it. Well, there's been a rift now.
And so his youngest sister or only sister, you know, she don't
want to want to have any conversation with him because
she's she's die hard. And anyway, so I had text Joshua
earlier in the day. I said go Gators tonight.
And then I thought I'd watch it. You know, you don't have to
watch basketball for the last two minutes anyway because
everything changes. And so obviously it was a nail
biter. Unfortunately, they got the last
three before we could. And so we lost by 1:00.
But when Florida went up by 1 or two, I think it was, man, they
showed a guy on the stands and he was like screaming.
And I told my wife, I said men know how to praise.
They know how to praise. But man, the Duke, because they
were at Duke, man, that whole stadium was like this.
Now there's like 30 something seconds.
That's the whole lifetime in basketball.
It's just amazing how much you can do in 30 seconds.
And so, you know, they're all stunned.
Well, when their team dropped that three and went up by 1, I
mean, the, the roof would have ripped off.
I mean, it's pandemonium. Now, if you've been to any
athletic events ever, whether you've played or you've been in
it, everyone believes that the home team has an advantage.
That's why Texas A&M calls it the 12th man.
And you get into certain places, man, that crowd to start going,
it will change the atmosphere. You know a lot of opposing teams
when they come into those stadiums.
I like what what I don't like. But again, it's.
Just a reference point. I was watching a interview with
our new head coach. The ESPN guy was like, you know,
I'm excited. You're at the cathedral.
The new cathedral. But well, what an interesting
reference. That he made.
For the Swamp anyway, they want you want to go into the opposing
teams home field and get the crowd out.
Why is it that something about the shout of the fans can
motivate the players to do something different?
But in those sports, right, obviously there's ups and downs.
It depends on whether you're winning or losing.
In the church, however, we are always victorious.
We are in, we can never be defeated.
We've we've our, our kings never lost the battle ever, period.
And it wouldn't matter if this if your life seemed like you
were 10 touchdowns behind, I mean, you walked into the
stadium full of victory. I mean, you, you cannot lose by
faith. Can't do it.
But we all know that an atmosphere is created with the
mouths of people in a stadium. So, you know, it behooves us to
find the, the, the songs that cause us to connect, right?
So one of the daunting task of, of us in praise is finding the
songs that resonate with us in the spirit because we're not
here just to sing a song. We're here to connect in the
spirit where the atmosphere changes because we're in it in
the spirit. And we're not just talking about
it from a soulish perspective, because there's plenty of
soulish worship out there. And they'll leave you on a high
in the in the service and then you leave and then it doesn't
help you in life. You got to be able to have
something that's going to connect in the spirit so that
when you get out somewhere else, it comes up in the spirit.
Now, I'm going to be honest with you.
You know, the praise that is out there is so soulish that, you
know, I found myself singing more Force frank stuff than I do
anything, which is crazy. But there's a purity about his
stuff that, you know, it makes me sing lemonade, right?
I mean, I can't tell you how many mornings I've come up from
my sleep not singing some popular worship song, but
lemonade, right? Because my God, to make some
lemonade, man, it's good stuff. And then there's this new one on
sunshine, and I'm all about the sunshine.
So, you know, I'm just saying it's time to work, right?
It's time to get to work, all right?
So my point is, is man know that our praise has an atmosphere and
and just like in the natural, a stadium is changed when the
crowd or the fan base is loud and they're enthusiastic.
How much more in the spirit when we are now it takes
intentionality. And again, why is it easier for
natural, carnal, even really lost people to yell to the top
of their lungs? Yet when we come in here, we
have a difficulty with the sacrifice of praise Hallelujah.
Well, why don't we just stand up and practice at one time?
Come on, let's just do a shout. Come on, stand up, give a shot
of praise Hallelujah. Glory to God.
Hey, Lord, we love you, Lord, Glory to your name.
Glory to your name.
Hallelujah. Woo.
Yeah. Glory, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
You worthy. Lord, you worthy.
You worthy. Woo.
He's never been defeated. Amen.
Now for the men. I just want to let you know, how
do you translate that? Just think of that one sports
moment with your child. Well that game and you jump and
then magnify that with Christ on the cross in the grave, out of
the grave, all your sin forgiven.
I mean that's monumental. You understand.
It's like that's it's last second stuff when all of a
sudden here comes Jesus out, the Holy Ghost comes and gets him.
There's a rumbling going on, man.
You know, that's pandemonium. And you know, when one person
that's lost comes into the Kingdom, it says the angels
throw a shout of praise that we've never even seen on this
planet yet. Yeah, Yeah.
Now. But again, it's intentionality,
right? We have to make it a habit.
Again. What's amazing is the church has
to be trained, but yet the world doesn't have to be trained
because you don't have to go into a football stadium and
train them to shout. But, yeah, we have to come and
say, well, you know, notice we have been shouting recently,
Right. Amen.
Well, let's say law. All right.
Have a seat. Matthew 13.
Thank you for participation. But didn't you sense an
atmosphere difference even then? Yeah.
Now, if you're like, well, but if there was a guest, you know,
they may think we're weird. No.
No, they won't because they'll actually get in an environment
they're like, I've never been in this.
They can, they'll go. Now, I've been to games before,
but this is different. I've been in stadiums where they
shout, but this shout has something else in it, right?
Because we're not of this world. And when we're connected to the
Spirit, it brings in a spiritual atmosphere that's way different.
It is not the same. All right.
And I'm going to prove that tonight.
Matthew 13 verses 24 to 30 says this.
Jesus presented another parable to them, saying The Kingdom of
heaven is like or maybe compared to a man who sowed good seed in
his field. What kind of seed did he sow?
Good? OK, verse 25 But while his men
were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the weed
and went away all right. But when the wheat sprouted and
bore grain, then the tares became evident.
Also. The slaves of the landowner came
and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?
How then does it have tares? And he said to them, An enemy
has done this. The slave said to him, Do you
want us to go and gather them up?
But he said, No, for while you are gathering up the tares you
may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together
until the harvest, and in the time of harvest, I will say to
the reapers first gather up the tares and bind them in bundles
to burn them up, but gather the wheat into my barns.
All right? Now we don't have to speculate
what he meant by this because he goes on in verse 36 to actually
communicate exactly what this parable is.
All right, so we're going to jump down there and look at it.
Then we'll expound just a tad in verse 36.
He said. Then he left the crowds, so he's
not talking to the crowds anymore.
All right, And he went to the house, and his disciples came to
him and said, explain to us the parable of the tares of the
field. And he said, the one who sows
the good seed is the son of man. All right, who's the son of man?
What's his name? OK.
And the field is the world. And As for the good seed, these
are the sons of the Kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the
evil. 1 The enemy who sowed them is the devil.
Who is he? He's the devil, and the harvest
is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
All right, then he goes on. He says.
So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with
fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.
The Son of Man will send forth his angels and they will gather
out of his Kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit
lawlessness, and we'll throw them into the furnace of fire.
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine forth as the Son in the Kingdom
of their father. He who has ears, let him hear.
All right, so let's go back and look at a few things.
We're going to jump from 24 all the way down through 43.
Let's go back to just the parable portion of it and some
of the Scriptures that are here. First and foremost, we know that
the Son of Man or Jesus sowed the good seed and that the devil
is the one who sows the bad seed, and the seed represents
people, OK? The good seed are those who are
sons of the Kingdom, or we would say those who are born of God.
All right, the bad seed, or is those that are not born of God
at this point. All right, now the seed is sown.
No one knows that there are two, two different seeds at this
point, and they do not even know there's two different seeds.
When they break out of the ground and begin to grow, at
first it's the same. They're so they look so much
alike that you cannot tell the difference.
But there becomes a qualifier, a qualifier, and the qualifier is
the fruit, the fruits, the qualifier.
The tares do not produce wheat. They don't produce that fruit.
So once fruit started to manifest, then those who were
taking care of the field realized this.
It's not all wheat. There's bad plants in here.
They identified them as tares at that point.
So there's a season that you don't tell the difference, and
you would never tell the difference if it wasn't for
fruit. So fruit is the indicator of
difference. Are you hearing me?
This is why we've said before Jesus say go into all the world
and make disciples. Disciples are to bear fruit.
It's a it's a product of discipleship.
This is why God never intended the church to make converts.
Only conversion is when you leave seed state and become a
plant because a seed. Jesus said unless a kernel of
seed falls into the ground and dies, it remains a seed alone.
But if it obviously breaks forth what's in it, it can produce
after its own kind. Now, again, farmers do not farm
for the sake of plants. They farm for fruit.
So you can have a field full of plants, but if it never produces
any fruit, you have a lost crop, right?
And so for farmers, it's more important to have fruit on their
crop, not just to have crop. As a believer, the only
difference between US and the world is not how we look.
It's not in our outward appearance.
Now that doesn't mean our outward appearance won't be
affected by our inward change. I'm not saying that.
What I am saying though is that when you're born again, your
skin suit doesn't technically does not change.
Now when I say technically, what I mean by that is if you had
sickness, it can't be healed, right?
And you can do some things to yourself to make yourself maybe
look better than what you did technically before you were born
again. However, your outward is not
what's making you difference. It's your fruit that's showing
this inward change. And so if conversion was all
that matters, then once the plant came out of the seed,
that's conversion. It's converted from seed state
to plant state. But the farmer doesn't want
plant, he wants fruit, and so does God.
So in US is the ability to make fruit right?
OK, now here's the thing God, because again the Kingdom of of
heaven is like the Lord. Then the owner of the field is
saying do not tear out the wheat with the tares while the wheat
is not mature. So a a lack of maturity, does it
make you intimidated by the tears that are around you if
you'll just continue to allow yourself to be what you are?
There's a process here that if you will just be what you are at
your born again experience. This is the natural progression.
It is not natural for a person who says they're born again to
not produce fruit of the Spirit, nor to move to maturity.
Now, if all of a sudden we start taking out tears while our fruit
is not mature, it can hinder us. So there's something about how
we handle tears that will affect the maturing of Saints.
I mean, there's a lot of religion out there that will
tear down the loss. The loss is already condemned by
themselves. Now, again, a good doctor would
never tell a patient if they discovered they had cancer, you
know, and they had high blood pressure and like, you know
what, I don't want them to feel bad, don't want to ruin their
day. So, you know, we're, you know,
we're going to just deal with their high blood pressure
because they have a high blood pressure.
You know, hey, you want to deal with your high blood pressure,
but we're not even going to talk about the cancer.
You know, how are you feeling trying to get them to discover,
but they don't know. See, we have to communicate what
God says is sin. That's not condemnation.
You're just communicating what is sin.
But there is a remedy. Unfortunately, the church has
gotten so far over in some places where we do not even want
to address sin because we just want to look all look alike.
So looking alike is not what God's looking for.
God's looking for the fruit. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
OK, so in essence, if we don't watch out, we can start tearing
down the lost, boycotting, doing certain things at such a level
that an immature person, basically we're trying to tear
them out or tear them up in such a way that it can hinder the
maturing of the wheat. OK, In the end, there will be
more and more lawlessness. OK, I'll say that we currently
have an atmosphere in the spirit to be calling things out.
We see this specifically in the realm of the government arena,
specifically to where we want to call out things.
And if we don't watch out, there's a righteous stand you
need to make. But there's a way you make a
righteous stand so that you're not tearing out the lost at the
expense of losing the young believer.
Does that make sense? Because there's something here.
And again, I cannot tell you exactly.
All I know is there's a way that if you're uprooting tears at a
time while a immature. Fruit bearing believer is there,
it can hinder them from coming to full maturity.
Hallelujah. Because we'll see that there are
fruits we get to bear. And the fruits that we get to
bear are pretty amazing fruits that help us #1 continue to
grow. But at the end of the day, the
tear is going to be dealt with by the Lord.
Because here's the thing, Your fruit alone testifies that
you're different. Let's say it that way.
I don't have to tear out a tear in order for me to be fruitful,
OK? I don't have to tear down the
lost in order for me to be better.
I am going to be fruitful because I am what I am by the
grace of God and I, if I continue to allow the water,
because both of us are receiving what God does.
He reigns on the and the just and the unjust.
So the tares are getting the provision of God to a degree,
but again, no fruit. The farmer is going to deal with
that ultimately, but we are receiving the washing of the
water with the word and it transforms us to where we are
producing the fruit to maturity that in essence, when we leave,
we've left a legacy. OK.
So this is important because as we get into these last days,
when there's so much turmoil, when you're having to say what
sin is, you have to say it in such a way that it's not tearing
out, but it's, I live this way because it's my fruit.
Well, why is that? Well, because this is what the
word says. Now you're identifying their
lifestyle or whatever they're going through, but you're not
there to tear it out because at the end, you can be different.
It's your choice at the end of the day.
I'm not judging you. I'm just telling you what the
word says. The only judging we do is fruit
judgment. I, I can judge that you're not
bearing the same fruit that I am.
All right. And they can bear.
They can judge and bear see that we're bearing a particular fruit
that they're not bearing. OK?
So we've got to be careful how we pull it out because again,
you need to understand this. Being in the world where the
lost is does not hinder you from maturing.
So what we don't want, This is why some places have gotten off
because they wanted to have their own communities.
They didn't want to be separate themselves from the world.
And Paul was like, that's not what I meant when I said
separate and come out from among them.
It's not what I meant when I you're going to be around
people, you're going to live in it, you're on the planet, you're
going to pass by people that are not a part of the same Kingdom,
but that's not going to hinder your maturity.
So the power of the world cannot hinder your maturity.
The only thing that can hinder A believer's maturity is if we
tear down the lost, tear them out, uproot them in the wrong
season. Let's put it that way, in the
wrong seat. Because again, you understand
God is going to take care of that aspect.
Anyone who sows to His flesh will reap of His flesh
destruction. I don't even have to be a part
of the process. It's going to be its own
process. And the Lord's going to be a
part of that process because God is not mocked.
Whatever man soweth that he will, He'll reap.
And you can grow in seasons of maturity where you bear fruit
and then you're coming into a next one of bearing fruit and
you can be around some of the same people.
But as you go through life, these people are falling off
Why? Because they are not in those
seasons of harvesting, they've been taught, thrown to the
wayside per SE, because they're not part of the Kingdom of God.
But you just continue to bear fruit.
So being in this world does not hinder you from coming to full
maturity, which tells us being in this world God expects the
church or believer to mature still.
So no matter how bad the environment gets, maturity is
important and God if he knew that you being around the world
could hinder your maturity, don't you think he'd pull them
out of the way? So this once again identifies
greater is he that is in us than he that's in the now if you're
not giving yourself to the watering of the word, obviously
you can dry your own root system out and have A and there'll be
an issue. But again, that'll be your
challenge. Not because it's God's fault.
God has given us a ample supply of watering.
We can go to the well anytime we want to.
We can run to the river. We have a well we can go to and
we have a river that can come up so we can be fully refreshed no
problem. And it doesn't matter how bad
the world's getting. It doesn't hinder your maturity
at all. If it was if, if they what they
did stopped you from being all that God wanted you to be, he
would deal with them. But we see even in a lack of
maturity, God says let them grow together because those who are
mine are going to mature. Are you going to mature?
Hallelujah. All right, so let's go on then.
So he goes on then and says this.
Let's look at verse 40, 41. It says he gathered, the angels
obviously gather and they gathering out of his Kingdom all
stumbling blocks of those who commit lawlessness.
Lawlessness is those who are not following God with all their
heart, all their soul, all their mind and all the strength, OK?
And so he removes that. God is the one that ultimately
knows the heavens and the earth are mine, right?
And he's going to have a new heavens and new earth and he
will extract that which is not a part of his Kingdom.
We don't have to be concerned about that.
God's going to do that. All we need to do is just grow,
grow, grow and produce fruit, the fruit that's been planted in
us because we are children of God.
Can I get an Amen? So with that being said, look
over Matthew chapter 12, verse 33.
Matthew 1233 says either make the tree good and its fruit
good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad.
For the tree is what known by its fruit.
All right? It's the tree is known by its
fruit. So again, how do I know you're a
believer? That's how I know I don't know
you're a believer because you attend church.
I do not know you're a believer because you're telling me you're
a Christian. I don't know that you're a
believer because you quote Scripture.
I don't know you're a believer because you can sing a praise
song. I know you're a believer by your
fruit. Hallelujah.
Fruit is something someone else can eat and taste.
Taste and see that the Lord is the reason why we can taste and
see that He's good because his fruit is good and only good
because he's only a good God. Now, good doesn't mean God can't
be angry and cannot respond. In rap.
Good people can be angry. Anger is not associated with
evil, all right. Anger is not a good or evil
issue. Evil people can be angry, that's
true, but good people can be angry.
Hallelujah. And we could go on further
there, but I won't because I'm not going to take that kind of
time. So they're known by its fruit.
How did the workers of the Owners field know that Bad Seed
had gotten in the ground? It was only until they saw the
fruit of the wheat and then they recognized not every plant is
bearing and they should be. Which means this actually isn't
a wheat, it's a tear. Now the thing about tears is
they look so much like wheat. It's only with the fruit that
you would distinguish them again.
That's why Jesus will say, many will say on that day, Lord, Lord
did not. And there's other passage of
scripture that says that they'll come in, you know, with all
their pomp and circumstance, but they are clouds without water.
And there's a lot of scriptures that talk about people that have
a form of godliness but deny the power thereof.
So again, there's something different about fruit that we
need to get grab hold of because even a tear can mask for quite
some time, something that looks very similar to the wheat plant.
This is why through the years I picked up this thought process,
which is different than what you know, most people have said or,
and I've said in my past, you get around people that I don't
really know and I'll say, man, they're but but what little bit
I've been around them, I say, man, they're really a good
person. But then I realized maybe
they're not a good person because I really don't know
them, but they are really nice. Because an evil person can be
nice, a manipulator can be nice, right?
I mean, you can be extremely nice.
In fact, selfish people with selfish ambitions are extremely
nice because niceness can get what they want and they'd be
extremely nice. Nice.
They can be helpful, they can serve, they can do all that but
still have bad fruit, can still have bad fruit.
However, a good person can be nice, can be nice.
Just like a bad person can be angry, a good person can be
angry. All right.
So there's something about the fruit we carry that has to be
different, that the world cannot mask.
That's really important for us to recognize that.
And again, it's so important for all of us because it seems to me
that the more you get around believers that if we don't watch
out, we become too departmentalized in our thinking
and we're losing the the holistic side of God.
We are a spirit, we have a soul, we live in a body, but we are
those three as well. See, we say God is spirit and
God is spirit, but you know, he has a body and when is he
separated from that? Now this is difficult because we
don't think of God because we've been taught for so many years
God is Spirit and you're going to worship him in spirit and in
truth. But he still has a spiritual
body. So he's a spirit with a body and
he's not separated from that. Because when when Moses said I
want to see your glory, what did he say?
He said, now you can't see my face, which tells me God our
Father has a face. He does not get in a suit.
But once again, because of teaching, we've separated these
elements and we act like we can be something without the rest
and we cannot be even us. We will not be without a body
all for all eternity. It would be called a glorified
body. Hallelujah.
I said, Hallelujah, Amen. But he puts him in the cleft of
the rock. He passes by and he said you can
see my back parts. Now what did that look like?
I'm going to assume it looked a lot like man because he was
created in his image. So I speculate that God looks
like us with a spiritual body that has a spiritual soul and is
a spirit, and they're not separated from each other,
although they're different. And because we are a spirit soul
and body, we had a spirit that was separated from God, still a
spirit nonetheless. When we're born again, we
receive a new spirit that's created in the likeness of
Christ, but yet we maintain the same soul that we had previously
and the same body we had previously.
And then we are to be responsible because now we've
been empowered with this new spirit that we are, that has the
Holy Spirit that's inside us, bearing witness with us and
communicating with us that now we can renew our minds.
And our physical bodies, although decaying in the sense
they're breaking down, can still walk in healing and be made
whole. Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
And I don't see myself separate from that.
But again, because we've said, well, we're really a spirit and
the rest doesn't matter, then This is why we disregard other
aspects. And This is why Paul said, now
look, the problem why some believers who are spiritually
alive to God sleep early, It's because they don't judge their
body correctly. And that judgment came because
they weren't judging their mind right, how they were thinking or
how they were even eating, and because they did not empower
themselves by faith in the finished work of Jesus so that
the other two areas could be all that God needs them to be.
In essence, as Paul wrote to the church in thesson Thessaloniki,
which is may your spirit, soul and body remain blameless until
the day of Christ because again, well, it doesn't matter about
this. I'm leaving anyway.
So we have all these health issues, but I'm a spirit, but
the Lord's like, but I've empowered your spirit so that it
can renew your mind and you can take control of your body and
your body can be as healthy as it needs to be to finish the
work. Glory to God, Amen.
So as a result of that, that's means that we should not
separate these aspects. Well, if we don't watch out, we
do it with maturing. We do it with how we interact
with the lost. This is why.
Well, it doesn't really matter. And I've heard people say that
all that matters is that you're born again.
Well, if that's all that mattered, then why did Paul
Wright have the stuff he wrote anyway?
That's not all that matters, right?
So it's not all that matters, God.
What matters is that God wants you to mature and expects
maturity. And it's a it is a natural, when
I say natural, supernatural byproduct of the believer who
will just be who God says they'll be.
And no matter what's going around them in the world does
not affect their maturing, they can still mature anyway.
Which tells us we can't be a victim in the Kingdom of God.
Can't happen, right? Can't happen.
We're not a victim. We're a victor.
Hallelujah. Matthew 3/8 through 10 says
this. Therefore bear fruit.
How? Therefore bear fruit?
How? In keeping with repentance.
Now John the Baptist is calling out religious people in this
particular passage. These are ones on the outside
are saying that they're good, but Jesus identified them.
He said you are full of dead man bones.
You're a white washed tombs. That's tough talk, but that's
love talking. That's honesty and that is
there. There's hope for you if you
would repent. So in essence, John says, well,
if if you're masquerading as something holy, then I should
see fruit. So if we say we've repented
Jesus is our Lord, then we are to bear fruit in keeping with
repentance. So in verse 9, I do not suppose
that you can say to yourself, we have Abraham for our Father.
For I say to you, from these rocks God is able to raise up
children to Abraham. He said the axe is already laid
at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does
not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
So again we are to bear fruit in keeping with repentance when we
confess Christ as Lord. We repented of our sins.
We've we received by faith the finished work of Jesus that only
he could do, He and the only and we could never do this.
He changed our spirit man to come be alive to God, of which
the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit.
We're children of God and now we are part of the process with the
Holy Ghost to make sure our fruit comes to maturity.
Amen. So we are to keep bear fruit in
keeping with repentance. So if I've repented, that means
there's there's fruit from the old source that I don't bear
anymore. That's dead to me.
I do not let it get to maturity. OK?
I have a whole new fruit system that I'm functioning in.
All right. Galatians 522 to 23 tells us the
fruit we have, but the fruit of the Spirit is OK.
Now, this is really important because again, fruit is not
emotional. It's not emotional.
And so this is something that can be a challenge to our minds
because, you know, in our soul realm where we're having to
renew our minds through the word of God, You know, there are
things we see people do every day that when you look at it,
you could conclude certain things, but they're really only
soulish, period, Because the fruit of the.
So that means then I'm not bearing fruit from my soul,
we're bearing fruit from the Spirit.
Now, the fruit of the Spirit, which is what Spirit?
Obviously the Holy Spirit. But again, the Holy Spirit is
like Jesus. Jesus said I'm going to send you
another comforter or a carbon copy of who I am.
So he's not different than me. Well, but we've been created in
the likeness of Christ, so we're not different from Christ.
Hallelujah, Amen. So our identity is in Christ,
and we are like Christ, and the Holy Spirit is like Christ.
And so if this is the Spirit's fruit, then it's going to be my
fruit. And that fruit comes from the
Spirit, not the soul. So love is not predicated on
feelings. Love is not a feeling.
Joy is not a feeling. Peace is not a feeling.
It's these are states of being. Patience is not a feeling.
Kindness is not a feeling, goodness is not a feeling,
faithfulness is not a feeling, gentleness is not a feeling,
self-control, it's not feelings. These are.
And when you're bearing these fruit, it's impossible for the
world to bear these fruits. So again, here's the thing, if
you know someone is lost and they say man, I'm at peace, how
can they be at peace? Because they don't have the same
spirit we have, which means they have a counterfeit to peace.
And it's really something in the soul realm that they're equating
it as peace, but they don't actually have peace.
And we have to become wise enough to know there's a
difference. And the reason I say that is
because this is what gives you confidence when you're growing
in the fields that God has placed you because the fields
that you're in are full of tears because you're in the world,
you're not up. And you have to know that when
you're around people that you know does not know God and say,
you know, man, that just set me a great piece.
Well, if it's something you've said, then you have to identify
well, this piece I give because it comes from the Spirit is what
you're experiencing now. Someone lost can eat the fruit
you have. That's true because it says
taste and see the Lord's good. But again, they themselves
cannot produce peace because it's it's from the Holy Spirit
of production. So again, joy.
All these are states of being. They're not emotional.
They're not emotions. And I think the church, if we
don't watch out when I say the church, you know, people who go
to church, if if they're not really renewing their mind and,
and, and and asking questions, OK, then what happens is, is
that you assume certain feelings are fruit.
You wake up one day and you're excited because you have good
news. Like, man, the joy of the Lord
is my the joy of the Lord is your strength when you're having
the worst day of your life. I mean, joy manifests in any
environment, and it's not laughing.
Laughing is not a byproduct of joy, although you can laugh,
don't get me wrong, but there is a strength that comes with joy.
All right? Peace, man.
Peace comes by the Spirit. You can be going through the
worst storm ever, yet be at perfect peace and the waves
continue to crash, but you're not moved.
Your situation's changed not but you are sleeping in up on the
top of the boat in your pillow, and you have no thought
concerning it, right? These are states of being.
And when you live those kinds of existence, then all of a sudden
everyone in your field is going to know they're, they have
something different. Now, that doesn't mean we're
emotionless. I just want to say that I think
sometimes, especially in the Word of Faith circles, is that
we, we crush our emotions to where we become emotionless,
right? Because, well, we're not moved
by what we see. We're moved by faith only by the
word, you know, And then we almost become robotic and that's
we shouldn't be that way. We emotions are fine.
Crying is fine. When when you grieve with your
brother, crying is an acceptable response.
No problem. If you hear news that is not
good news and you cried. I don't know.
I didn't mean to cry. I don't want to be.
It's a natural response. In essence.
It can console other people some.
Sometimes it's extremely like in the realm of gentleness or even
in the realm of kindness. Though tears could manifest
during traumatic times. And you're showing gentleness
towards someone else. Well, now it's going to be all
right. You know what the word says.
Let's get it together. Come on now, don't we cry?
I mean, you got to be led by the sphere.
Better than that, but my point is, is that we have a lot of a
lot of Word of Faith have shut off their emotions and you don't
want to do that. We have a soul, we have emotion.
You just want your emotions tied to your spirit because again,
Jesus was an emotional man. He just wasn't led by his
emotions. He was always led by the spirit
and his emotions followed his spirit.
That's why when he went into the House of the Lord, that was the
House of prayer. Something manifested with his
emotions because his fruit was intact, but his demonstration
was something. I mean, This is why he could
come in a moment and weep. And those around think he's
crying because Lazarus is in the grave, dead.
But really he's got tears for another purpose.
OK, so these are states of being which is really powerful, and
these can only come by the Spirit, and they're only
available to the believer. So when Jesus said the Kingdom
of heaven is like a man who sowed seed in his field, and yet
the enemy came and sowed some and now we have a good plant and
a bad plant and we know the difference because of their
fruit that that maturing of the good plant isn't stopped because
a bad plant is around or even if the plants root system
intertwines. Because again, you know,
believers get this fear that you know, well, it's going to get on
me. I mean, why don't you be
confident? I'm going to get on you.
You understand, because you were that plant.
You're not that plan anymore. You became a good plan and you
have more power now. And you're like, man, you're
going to want to rub with me. You're going to want to get
around me, right? You're going to want to get
around me because again, as long as you're watering yourself and
you're allowing what's already in you to come out by faith, you
just released, these are fruits that are there.
So again, when challenges come, you know what?
I've got something here called joy.
I need to get to that now. Again, as you grow and develop
and depending on what stage or situation you're going through,
all of us have to navigate this emotional realm to make sure
this is coming OK and get that thing to pop up and begin to
show up in this situation. We're like, wow, you know, when
you become proficient at functioning and fruits of the
spirit, people will begin to think you have no problems.
Most of the time they think there will be very few people in
your life that know you're going through something.
Now, your spouse is going to know if you're married, they're
going to know. Outside of that, very few may
know. Now, if you're a person who has
to tell somebody all the time, well, you need to examine that
because that could be like emotional attachments, right?
Because you're looking to help feed your emotion, which is not
fruit. That's not the fruit we bear.
We don't, we're not here to bear emotional fruit.
We're here to bear spiritual fruit.
That then changes our emotion, OK, because again, I you, I have
no problem and the Bible is very clear that we can share things
with one another. Now you got to be careful how
you share because the Bible even talks about that.
Sometimes you can't share certain things to some people
that haven't developed some layers of mature as another
believer because they can't handle that.
So you have to be wise enough to know those boundaries where
that's at. Jesus didn't tell everybody
everything. He took divided into 3 people
the most intimate things, right? So you have to understand that
that's part of the process. However, these things as you're
navigating them, ultimately the majority of people, if they ever
catch wind of what you've been going through, they would be
shocked because every time they were around you, they were
tasting this. And these, when I say seasonal
fruits, they are seasonal, but they are seasonal in both good
and bad times. Because obviously you should
walk in joy if there's nothing going on.
I mean, you know, well, how come I don't see any joy?
Well, everything's just great. I haven't had a trial or
calamity, you know, it's so easy right now.
Just so infuriated and nothing to strengthen me with.
I mean, now we laugh. But in the world, some people
live from chaos to chaos because they're they're codependent on
it. Because if it's everything's
going good, then they're like, I got to find chaos because that's
their comfort, right? You know, it reminds me of a
secular song. You know, you cut yourself to
bleed just to know you're alive. And that's the reality in some
people's lives. OK.
But again, we have different fruit here.
All right, Let's close with this verse here.
First, Psalms 92 one through 12 through 15 says this last
passage. The righteous man will.
What's he going to do? He's going to flourish like the
palm tree and he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Planted here. It is planted in the House of
the Lord. They will what?
Flourish in the courts of our God, Hallelujah.
They will still yield fruit in old age.
There's no such thing as a grumpy old man in the Kingdom of
God. There's no such thing as a
grumpy old woman in the Kingdom of God.
No such thing. No such thing.
We were at the county, and I won't say when because I want to
identify, but there was a particular older person.
They're grumpy, complaining about everything.
Well, they're not producing the fruit, right?
Fruit. Now.
They think they're bringing a good 'cause they've convinced
themselves, but you know, they're really not.
They're just bringing turmoil. They have to live in chaos.
But here the Bible tells in the Kingdom, they'll yield fruit.
And what fruit are we talking about?
The fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit, which
tells me this, the longer you've been in church, the more fruit
production you should produce. This is why Washington or school
or kindergarteners, you walk in their classroom, boom, they jump
up, you know, first or kindergarten, first, second,
third grade, really most of our lower grade.
I mean, they'll get in the line. They'll be quiet, super orderly,
absolutely compliant, doing everything that the teachers are
saying. But then we need to get into
that upper grade. All of a sudden, same order
doesn't seem to manifest. And what's odd about that is
that we've had them coming from the first second.
Why are you not producing more fruit now?
Why are you letting your hormones stop your fruit
production? Because hormones do not stop
spiritual fruit. That's why someone born of God
can be patient and wait for that woman to come.
We got teens growing up in church must be following God and
then act like they got to get married and find the first
person that's even kind of compatible.
It's like, man, be patient. You got that fruit, wait till
God brings the right one. And we I mean, you're going to
have trouble when you get married anyway.
So you make sure it's the right one.
I mean, Paul said you're going to have trouble period.
I mean, two free will moral agents is going to have some
challenges. It's going to be friction.
But get get the one that that God wants you to be with so that
you know, you have the greatest advantage going in.
Hallelujah. But you should bear fruit in
your old age. They shall be full of SAP and
Berry green. I mean, again, our older people,
we you shouldn't be getting aggravated with kids running
around. You should be the most patient.
Where are these parents at? Their kids running around like
they're crazy. I know.
Yeah, they are. And that's why we do parenting
workshops. We're trying to say, figure out
where your children are at, right?
I mean, we want them to be safe, too.
All right? But again, you are full of SAP.
You're very green to declare that the Lord is upright.
Why are you full of SAP? Why are you very green?
Why are you yielding fruit to declare that the Lord is
upright? He is my rock and there and
there is no unrighteousness in him.
Isn't that amazing? So what do we see here tonight?
Tonight we see that the Kingdom of God is like man, He sowed
good seed. And did Jesus sow good seed in
your heart when you became born again?
Now He's giving you the access to the fruits of the Spirit that
you're going to be able to yield season after season after
season, Good days, you're going to have them.
Bad days, you're going to have them.
You're going to have it, and you're going to always get
yourself in alignment. And anytime you get out, you're
not a bearer of a bad fruit just 'cause you do something wrong,
you can repent of that. Ask God to forgive you because
that's not your heart, that's not your being, that's not who
you are in Christ, but you'll recognize because the Spirit of
God say, wait a minute, now you're because again, emotional
responses are not fruit. Envy is not emotion.
Jealousy is not an emotion. It's not an emotion because God
is a jealous, but there is a evil jealousy.
So these are not emotions, but they create emotions.
So how you're acting emotionally is not the fruit.
There's something else that's showing up.
This is why I can be around the nicest people and walk out and
say, man, they're a manipulator. Oh, they're greasy.
Some ain't right there. Something is not right there.
But yet they were so nice. But you can say it's beyond your
niceness, this laugh that you have.
There's something there and now it's tangible.
This is not like subjective because you know, a lot of
believers want to get over into, well, I just sent something.
Well, brother, you're not the only one with the Holy Ghost.
And again, we can have all kind of people come up to determine
whether somebody's got fruit. Because again, if it's two or
three witnesses alone in the old covenant, there was that.
But you understand, Jesus had multiple witnesses come against
him and they were all a bunch of liars.
So don't think in your life people won't come against you
and they'll all be a liar to your fruit.
God will announce your fruit. So don't be afraid of that.
But yet you can know now, just when I know doesn't mean This is
why I'm kind and I'm good. I have goodness towards a lot of
lost people because when when my wife and I come into a
restaurant a week or somewhere when we leave a room, I want
them to know that fruits different and it's spiritual.
Now, it's not emotions, it's spiritual.
It's spiritual. Whether or not they accept Jesus
because of the fruit we're passing out.
I can't control that, can't control that, but I sure don't
want to give them rotten good fruit.
Amen. Let's be planted in the House of
the Lord, and let's grow and bear good fruit.
Amen.