PAG PULPIT MANUSCRIPTS - The Fruit of The Spirit: From A Garbage Dump To A Garden

SERMON SERIES: The Fruit of the Spirit

SERMON TITLE: From A Garbage Dump To A Garden

SERMON TEXT: Galatians 5:16-26

DATE: 08-28-04 A.M.

A few weeks back I took time to visit a local Bible Museum that was displaying a collection of Russian Icons. The artwork was impressive, but the thing that really caught my eye was the garden. There, behind the museum, nestled in the back yard was a beautifully manicured lawn surrounded by trees, shrubs, and gorgeous fragrant flowers. Although it was a very hot humid Louisiana day, the temperature in the garden seemed cooler, even comfortable. It was refreshing; a little piece of heaven on earth.

Obviously, this oasis didn’t just happen or you and I would have one in our backyards. Gardens like that don’t grow on their own. No, they are the product of careful planning, planting, and cultivation.

In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul walks us through a garbage dump. The sign over this horrid place reads, “The Works of the Flesh.” It contains the results of carnal selfish indulgence and offers nothing that is beneficial or good. Those who venture into that dump find…

· Loveless, cheap sex that is void of heart relationship. It offers momentary pleasure that is followed by excruciating pain and debilitating loneliness.

· It contains a stinking accumulation of filthy thoughts and emotional garbage.

· It abounds in frustrated grabs for fleeting happiness and the dark depression that follows.

· There is the uncontrollable anger and outbursts of violence that bring harm to self and others.

· One finds the remains of trinket gods and bauble gods that failed those who served them.

· There are the remnants of magic-show religion.

· And paranoid loneliness.

· Everywhere one is aware of dog-eat-dog backstabbing cutthroat rivalry.

· There is an abundance of hearts that have been brought to poverty in their attempts to gratify wants that can never be satisfied with the trash in this garbage heap.

· Damaged broken hearts that cannot love or be loved abound.

· Souls that see no value in themselves walk as though they carry the weight of the world on their hearts.

· Broken homes and broken marriages are everywhere.

· Lives that are in bondage to uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions and desires are chained to their tormentors.

· The husks of human souls that have had the life sucked out of them, long for an end to their madness.

Among the ruins is a man clinging to a pot of moldy beans. The words coming from between his clinched teeth are…

“I gave up my birthright for this?
I gave up my inheritance for a meal?
I gave up the ultimate for the sake of immediate gratification.
Only a fool would do such a thing!”

Another man sits rocking back and forth on a bar of gold as he clutches a tattered Babylonian garment to his chest. The question he asks over and over is, “Why would a man exchange his soul for a bar of gold he could never spend and a garment he could never wear?”

A tall man stands holding a tarnished crown and cries, “But I saved the best of the sheep. I intended to offer them as a sacrifice. I was afraid I would lose the people.”

A young man keeps looking through his portfolio of stocks and bonds, but the frustration on his face indicates he is unable to find anything to comfort his anxious soul. “I had the chance to follow Him. Instead, I chose that which has no lasting value. Only a fool would make such a choice.”

The stench is nauseating and everywhere one looks there is destruction and ruin. There is nothing of value in this garbage dump, yet multitudes of men and women, blinded by their foolish desires and discontented with God’s immediate provisions, are exchanging their souls wellbeing for the bankrupting fool’s gold advertised by the keepers of this garbage heap.

The absence of provision tends to give added value to the thing we lack. Pure water has no flavor or odor, but there is nothing that can satisfy the thirst induced by hard labor and intense heat like a tall glass of cold fresh pure water.

Paul, as though he senses our need for relief, quickly moves us from the filthy confines of verses 19-21 to the oasis of verses 22-26. He takes us…

out of emptiness into fullness,
out of filthiness into purity
out of bondage into freedom
out of blinding darkness into brilliant light,
out of pain into peace
out of the absence of God’s presence into the fullness of God’s presence,
out of death into life.

In Galatians 5:22, Paul walks us out of the garbage dump into a beautiful garden. The sign over the archway reads, “The Fruit of the Spirit.” The aroma is reminiscent of Eden’s fragrance. There are flowers and fruit in various stages of development. Everything about this place gives evidence of purpose and design and care. It is beautiful and luscious and sweet-smelling and manicured and…and everything that the garbage dump was not. Here one finds…

Love that values others too much to use them for self-gratification.
There are no blank lifeless stares here. In everything and in every place there is enthusiasm and exuberance about life.
One is overwhelmed by a sense of being loved by One who is kind and gentle and pure and powerful and benevolent and wise and gracious.
The atmosphere is charged with a tranquil serenity that cannot be explained with words. To attempt to explain it would surely end in failure and could not even come close to the reality.
In this place there is the understanding and heart conviction that people are of great value to the Gardner.
Without being told, one knows that the flowers and fruit in this garden are the product of the Gardner’s efforts. The trees that now fill the air with a fragrance akin to the New Jerusalem were once a part of the mess found in the garbage dump, but the Gardener has done a wondrous thing…a wondrous thing indeed.
This is a place of loyal commitments.
It is a place where nothing is forced or contrived.
There is no sound of cracking whips or threats. It is the delight of those who dwell here to bring pleasure to the Gardener.
The inhabitants of this place are powerful, but they have submitted all their strength and abilities to the One they love and trust.
There is no need for a law that commands love. Love is the very air the inhabitants of this place breathe.

Among these fragrant fruit-bearing trees stands a man who radiates joy. “In life,” he says, “faith moved me to choose the reproaches of Christ over the riches of Egypt. God your way leads to life!”

To be aware of such a place can produce a joy that causes one to loose consciousness of one’s self. It will dispel fear and promote faith and hope and a radical new view of life and people and all that is in our world. A mere glimpse will cause a man to sell all he has to experience such a place.

Calm down, Louis! I think you’ve lost touch with reality. There is no such garden; at least, not in this life.

I beg to differ with you! The fruit of the Spirit is God’s will for His people here and now—this side of heaven.

Hear it!

Paul declared, “The fruit of the Spirit is…” (Gal. 5:22). He does not say, “The fruit of the Spirit will be.”

Just as sure as we have experienced the pain of life in the garbage dump, we can know the pleasure of life described as “The fruit of the Spirit.” It is that life produced by the Spirit in the lives of yielded believers.

To say it is impossible is to call God a liar!

Hear it!

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22, 23).

Can you imagine it? Can you envision your life as a Garden filled with the fragrance of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control? I’m not talking about something that dissipates or grows stale, but something that is as fresh and fragrant as the Spirit Himself. Take heart, your life can be a Garden planted, cared for and enjoyed by the Spirit of God.

Perhaps light has come to your dark world and for the first time in years or months or weeks or days, you have hope. There is no need to continue a horrid existence in the garbage dump, separated from the loving Gardner and all He has carefully planed for you. The Spirit of the Living God is here to help you put an end to your flesh dominated life, which is no life at all. And what must we do?

We need to realize that the Fruit of the Spirit grows from seeds planted by the Spirit. The fruit is His, but for it to grow we must receive or give place to the seed.

This requires us to renounce everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to the desires of our flesh.
We need to be done with self-centered living.
In the place of self, we must enthrone Him and yield control of our lives to His life giving Spirit.
In doing so, we must make sure that our response is more than mere sentiment. We need to take to heart all the implications of such a decision and work them out in the details of our lives.
We should begin now by humbly admitting that we are done with garbage heap living.
We must acknowledge that we cannot change ourselves, but that we will yield ourselves to the Gardner who will do an awesome thing in us!

We are not yet what we will be, but we will be all that the Gardener can make of a life yielded to the seed He has planted in us; no longer a Garbage Dump, but a luscious fragrant Garden that brings delight to God and blessing to all who experience it.