James 5:7-8 “Be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.
See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the
earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the
coming of the Lord is at hand.”
Pastor Kyle continued his
Sermon series through the book of James stating that our spiritual lives are
compared by James to a diligent farmer working the land faithfully, day after
day, all year long to get to the harvest. We are sometimes tempted to glamorize
the life of faith to make it look like some flashy, shiny thing. The Bible
doesn’t do that, but simply depicts life as it is. All of us here today want to
see fruit in our lives and God’s purposes come about. There are four truths
about spiritual fruit: (1) Not all types of spiritual fruit can be quantified.
Physical numbers are helpful, but do not tell the whole story of what God is
doing in our life or the life of the church. Nobody goes to church to be a
number on some spreadsheet ledger, but to grow and improve in faith … you want
to count in God’s world, not be counted in man’s. How do you account for
decisions for Christ, to obey God in everything, and changed lives from sin to
producing fruitful living and spiritual fruit? We never stop growing and God
has something in you right now that He is working on. (2) Spiritual fruit
should come in seasons. God is going to bring the life-giving rain and we can
count on it in our faith. We are sure on the One we are waiting on, but
thinking that we’ll have year-round fruit is unreasonable. Spiritual fruit
should come in seasons.
1 Timothy 6:6-8 “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these
we will be content.”
The flesh desires more and
more. We should celebrate the fruit in our lives that comes in those seasons
and harvest that good fruit, but we need to also be content in the
“Off-Seasons”. Whatever season of our life that we are in, we need to trust God
in that day and moment. God is good; Life is good. And the Lord prepares us
supernaturally, with us, every step of the way. Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth
comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Sure
there will be times of drought, but we need to relinquish our perceived right
to question God, being patience and content. (3) Spiritual Fruit requires
active patience, not passive. Farmers work the soil, plowing to turn it over,
fertilizing and planting seed in preparing the land for the next year’s crop.
It’s a year-round business for a short time of harvest. They are actively and
diligently working, while patiently waiting to receive the fruit of their
labor. The spiritual fruit of our faith works in the same way. We didn't do
anything on the cross for our “salvation”; Jesus did that work. But there is
kingdom work for us to do.
I'll post my notes on the second half of Pastor Kyle's Sermon on Spiritual Fruit tomorrow.
In Christ, Brian
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