Impactful Spiritual Fruit

So I got a question. Have you ever gotten caught up in a quick, get-rich-quick scheme?

There's a couple head nods. Thank you for the honesty. Anybody ever got caught up in something like that where you ended up losing money that you really didn't have to lose, but you're guaranteed it was going to make some money, right? I got caught up in one. The worst part of it is I did it to myself. So here's the story. It's a true story. My favorite team, Cincinnati Reds, were making the playoffs, and the team was permitted to begin selling playoffs tickets in advance of this playoff series, the first series in the postseason. And so you could put your name into a lottery. It could get your name drawn out. And if you got your name drawn out, you were able to buy tickets to the three home games that Cincinnati was going to play in Cincinnati.

So I'm thinking, great, I want to go to a playoff game. It's my favorite team. And you know what?

If they don't win that third game, then there'll be a fourth game and then potentially a fifth game, right? And so I can go to that third game, and then I can put the fourth and fifth game on Marketplace, on an online Marketplace, and make some money. Not only make some money, pay for the first games, right? And the food I went to and everything else. And then go ahead and make some money. And this is a profit. This is a good scheme. So I do what every good husband does, right?

I call home. I talk to my wife, and I said, you'll never guess it. Our name was drawn for the lottery for the tickets. We can buy three games. We can go to the first game. I've never been to a playoff game. Kelsey had never been to a Reds playoff game. This is going to be a wonderful night. And then we can sell. And the same thing I just told you. Make some money off this. There was a little bit of a pause on the phone. Like, the good wives are, right? Are you sure this is a smart idea? Because Zora was supportive of getting tickets for one of the games and going to one. But she goes, are you sure? I'm like, it's a no... We can't lose money here. This is playoffs. Everybody wants to go. Not everybody's going to have access to the tickets. We'll put them up on the Marketplace. It's practically foolproof, right? Except for this fool. And so she gave me the thumbs up. She said, you do what you want. I support you on it. So I went and thought this was a good idea. But you guys could see where this is going, right? So the battle month goes by. The playoffs start. We go to the first game. It was game three of the series. The Reds had won the first two out in, I believe it was San Francisco. So all they had to do was win one more game. It's the best out of five. And they continue on through the playoffs, right? So I'm thinking, well, we'll probably just get to see one game. And then the other two games, we'll just go in the trash and we'll get our money back. No big deal. Not going to make any money. But oh, well, it'll be fun. We get to go to one. So we have game three. It was a night game. Packed, sold out. We were standing, which I had hardly done at a baseball game almost the entire time. Baseball's a long game. There's a lot of downtime. Most people sit down. We were standing almost the whole time. It was a great game. It was, I think, one to nothing. Almost pitcher. It was a pitcher's duel. It was one to nothing. Red's lost. That was a downer. But we went to a playoff game. It was fun. That means game four is coming up. I didn't really want to go to game four, so I'd already placed the tickets on an online marketplace.

And what I didn't realize at the time was Major League Baseball made a decision to move game four and game five to day games. Anybody a baseball fan who knows what that means? They scheduled it right when everybody's supposed to be working. Right? And so I'm thinking, well, maybe people still take the day off. Maybe they'll still skip work, call in hooky, whatever, go down. This is the Reds. This is playoffs. Well, what I didn't also perceive or guess or realize was I wasn't the only one in Cincinnati thinking I could make money off of buying games and then putting them on the marketplace. Right? So when I put them out there, there's quite a few games and then, or quite a few tickets, and then as game four started, then the marketplace got flooded with all these tickets. And so what happens when a marketplace is flooded? Any economic majors?

Anybody? I see a few head nods. Yeah, price kind of takes a drop, doesn't it? And now I'm selling my tickets, not just at face value, but now at a loss. And that's not a very good feeling when, what did I tell my wife about a month before? This is foolproof! We're making money! We're going to pay our first game. We'll be good. This is going to be great. So I'm sweating a little bit, right?

We ended up selling game four at face value, so I didn't lose money. Reds lost that game, so now it's a two-to-two series. Game five is it. I'm like, game five, this is a tiebreaker, winner goes on. It's still a game, but I'm like, I got faith in my Reds fans. Don't have faith in Reds fans. That's my piece of advice for the day. You remember nothing else from the sermon, don't have faith in the Reds and Reds fans. Marketplace was still flooded. People were not buying tickets, and now I have to make the dreaded call home because it's like, wow, what I told my wife I'd be able to do is not going to happen. There's absolutely no way I'm going to even be able to sell these at face value now, so we're going to lose money, and we're going to lose quite a bit because they weren't the cheapest tickets in the world. Plus, we'd already gone to one game. It just wasn't good. So I'm sitting at work watching all this happen because I got to work, right? I can't just take the day off. And I'm dreading the phone call home because you know Laura. She's a great person. She's not vengeful. She's good. But still, I got a call home.

And I know that if I was in her shoes, right, I probably would be saying some things like, well, didn't we talk about this? Didn't I say that this was probably not a great idea?

That's Mike Phelps, right? I'm thankful I'm not married to Mike Phelps, trust me.

And but I'm still dreading the call, and I make the phone call. Laura and I are talking, and I'm like, here's the deal. It's not good. And what I'm bracing for on the other end of the phone call never came. What came, though, was someone who was calm, someone who was supportive, someone who was encouraging me, someone who was gentle, someone who was peaceful.

And what she said is, well, what options do we have? And I'm like, not very many good ones.

And so we talked it over, and she goes, well, some money is better than no money, because we're not going to go to the game. It's better to at least get something. And I said, you're right, that's better than nothing. So I kept watching the whole afternoon, or it was early morning, it was morning, because the game's like one o'clock, two o'clock, something like that.

And the prices, everybody's prices are just dropping, right? Because as you get close to the game, everybody starts trying to unload and dump their tickets. And I'm just through every 30 minutes or so dropping my price, and they're lower and lower. And I'm just like, this is horrible.

I'm like, man, Reds fans, you've let me down, even though I'm doing the same thing that everybody else is doing, right? You can tell, like, first time kind of playoff teams, because everybody has this idea, but it doesn't work out right, and everybody thinks they can do it. But it's not the money that we lost, it's not the tickets that, or this whole event that went south on me, that I remember, even though I can recount the story. What I remembered most is Laura's response, right? Because it wasn't the response I expected. Now, she's a great person, you guys know her, you love her. But I deserved a little bit of a lashing, right? A little bit. How many of you gentlemen out there would have, your wives would have said nothing to you? Like, what?

Okay, see, good job! You didn't raise your hands. I was talking to Laura yesterday, asking if it was okay if I share this, because it does, I don't want to, I don't want to talk too much about her, the situation, or anything. And what was, what was insightful is, is she says, and it's the truth, she goes, I'm not really that type of a person. Like, when somebody's in trouble, when somebody's messed up, I want to figure out what I can do to help them. And I said, I know, that's why I married you. And that's why you married me, because I need help. And then in her next breath, she goes, yeah, but I got my issues too, right? She might have handled that situation as God would want her to, and as her husband needed, but she's like, you know what, there's some other things you could have done that I probably wouldn't have handled as, as gently as I did there. And the reason, and that's true, and the reason that I can understand that is because there's times where I'm a pretty good husband too, right? Us husbands, we're pretty good people sometimes, right? Because we don't have that problem that other people may have in that area, but we've got ours, right? We've got our challenges, we've got our times where when the debt gets stacked against us, that's when something snaps.

Those are those hard moments, right? And we're thankful when somebody shows us grace, and when someone is gentle towards us, and they're being that support, they're being that confidant, they're being that team player, right? They're walking alongside us, lifting us up and being there for us. And we try to do that for others, but sometimes we fall short. But I'd like to take the time today in this afternoon, using this illustration, to talk about how the fruit of the Spirit can leave a powerful mark in our life. Not just our life, right? Because what Laura displayed in that moment wasn't just what God has done for her, but she then left a mark on my life, right? The fruit of God's Spirit is powerful. Now, the fruit of God's Spirit itself has no power in itself. We can't turn it on, can't turn it off. But there is a power within the fruit of the Spirit when it develops within our lives that can leave a powerful imprint and mark on other people's lives, especially, right? So there is power in it as we allow it to work in our life. As we exercise God's Spirit working on our life, and we say, God, help me grow in this area. And he says, hang onto your hat, because if you ask it, I'll do it. But it may be hard. It may be some. We're going to hone off some rough edges. But then in hindsight, when we look back, we're appreciative, because then we're able to impact someone else's life in a powerful way. So again, I want to look at how the fruit of the Spirit can leave a powerful mark, and then how we can bear fruit that can make an impact.

We all have those positive parts of our lives where it's easier to display the fruit of the God's Spirit in our lives. And again, there are those negative areas where we still have room to grow. And the truth of it all is, and as we've heard from the sermon ad and the sermon this morning, we're all very much still a work in progress, right? That's just the truth. Just as the Israelites were once in darkness in Egypt, and they had their negative influences of Egypt all around their lives, we were also once in the darkness of our sins and its influence over our lives. So let's look at a Ephesians 4 in verse 17. Sometimes it's important as we consider how God is working in our life, and we consider the topic of the Holy Spirit, to look backwards in time. Where did we start?

Right? What's our origin? Because sometimes we can get stuck right now looking at our life, and then be kind of down on ourselves because we feel like, man, I still got some issues that I thought I would be have it overcome by now, right? Been married 23 years. Shouldn't I be a really good husband by this point? Been baptized for quite a while. Shouldn't I have these sins put out of my life? And Satan says he likes to walk alongside and then say, yeah, shouldn't you have that all figured out by now? And he likes to then drive us down. So sometimes it's healthy to look back at our beginnings and to recognize our origins because then we can see more clearly what God has done in our life over these years that we've committed ourselves to Him more fully.

And Ephesians 4 is a very humble place to start, but it's the truth. Paul's writing here through church in Ephesus, Ephesians 4 and verse 17, he says, this I say therefore in testifying the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness. Paul's here for a moment. Those are some pretty strong words Paul's saying about those Gentiles that we shouldn't be like darkened, ignorance, blindness.

But I think those words could be said about us at times. I know they can be said about my life at times. I was doing things, making decisions, behaving in ways we shouldn't be doing. Sounds like a mess of a person that needs some help, doesn't it?

And this is one way that maybe our lives can be described before God started working with us from the ground level up as he started to show us a better way to walk. And Paul continues in verse 20 and telling them, but you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed what in the spirit of your mind so he's saying that in the mind that we have and the ability to reason in this human this this the the mind of a human human nature not human nature what am I trying it spirit of man think spirit of man that we have he's saying you can be renewed in your mind but not on our own he's going to say here in a moment and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness that is what we have been able to do through God's spirit working in our life one chapter further forward Ephesians 5 and verse 8 kind of brings us this this uh phrasing to a conclusion Ephesians 5 and verse 8 because Paul says for you were once darkness you guys have heard me share this before because it just rings right it's hard to sometimes think back to our life and the choices we've made but those choices when they have gone against God's word to in his eyes were darkness but he says but now you are light in the Lord walk as children of light for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness righteousness and truth and so he says again walk as children of light finding out in verse 10 what is acceptable to the Lord this is that journey you and I are on this is that journey we started a while back this is that journey we'll continue to progress on until this physical life comes to an end or five years when as Mr.

Elliott said Jesus Christ returns right I'm going to put that on Facebook tonight I'm going to quote Mr. Elliott this comes with being a president sorry but until our lives come to an end or until Jesus returns this is the walk you and I have this is the journey we're on ever since going into ministry we've tried to replace challenge and journey and things like that with the word adventure Laura and I have right where this is the adventure you and I are on it's the greatest adventure any of us could take right talking about changing from one mindset one past I this is amazing we think about these journeys that that the pilgrims took or explorers took they jump on a wooden boat saying goodbye to their home and they never returning they're going to set up a new place they're going to start a family and this is going to be their home they're going to die at this new location they called an adventure they called a journey this is what we're on we're walking away from our past not on our own strength but on God's strength working within us we were once darkness that old country that we're coming out of was that darkness and then God is showing us that beacon way out there on the other side of the ocean walk towards me and so we've got our vision set on the kingdom of God and his righteousness and this is what we're continuing to do today and we'll continue as we progress the holy spirit is the power of God that can work in our lives to change our hearts and when we submit to it lead us this is how God's spirit can have a tremendous mark on our own lives individually and how we can bear fruit that can make a lasting impact notice what Luke wrote about at the beginning of Acts I don't think we've gone here yet today acts one in verse four acts one in verse four it says in being assembled together with them this is after Jesus was resurrected and he spent a lot of days with the disciples teaching them further walking with them and being being with them says in being assembled together with them he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the father which he said you have heard for me for John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now and in one sense it kind of went over their head I think I'm not sure if they truly understood what what God what Jesus was really talking about they had probably some reminders yeah he did say something about this power but they hadn't yet received it and so they get back to their main focus which was their focus all along so when you come back to rule and when do we get to see this and when can we be with you they kind of ask him that question in verse seven or verse six and then he says it's not for me to share with you the father knows but notice what he says again in verse eight he brings them back but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come up on you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth he's saying he knew he was going to go away and he wasn't going to be returning in their lifetime he knew telling them the day that he would return wouldn't be the equipping that they would need to then continue this journey this adventure that he was about to send them all on so what did he tell them I'm going to give you my power I'm going to equip you with everything you need to continue to do these mighty works and he's saying don't worry about that that's going to come and work itself out according to the father's will and plan and timeline but for you look forward to this power the word for power in the scriptures in the Greek is pronounced dunamis it means force ability abundance might power strength or mighty or wonderful works the Greek word is also the origin of our English words dynamite dynamite and dynamic and so we've all watched the cartoons or we've seen shows where they light the fuse on the dynamite what happens boom right we've seen the rock queries where they're pulling rock out of the ground or blasting holes in between mountains to build a road or a railway and then they use dynamite the rock goes everywhere nothing i mean you're you're you're watching the video there's a rock face that is solid you can go up and pound it as hard as you want with your hand it's you're going to end up with a hurt hand and then when they light that fuse and it goes off the explosion is unbelievable the rock goes all sorts of direction and we know how strong rock is the holy spirit god's own spirit imparts to us the power of god it imparts to us the love of god and it imparts to us the mind of god i think the longer sometimes i sit here growing as a christian the more i sometimes forget just how powerful how priceless how precious these things are in my life it's kind of like when you have a good job and it's been a job for a while and then you sometimes lose appreciation for just how good of a job it is until you lose it right we have god's spirit we have his mind because we can understand the things that are of god not through our own strength again but through god's holy spirit working in our lives since the holy spirit inside us is a power to help us follow god's ways there is also a power in the fruit of the spirit as well again the fruit of the spirit does not contain some sort of supernatural power in and of itself like one that we can control or turn on or off however the fruit of the spirit remains dynamic and profoundly impacts our lives and the lives of others in powerful ways in gloations chapter 5 prior to verse 22 paul outlines what happens when we listen to our own human nature and the works that flow from our nature but then in verse 22 again this is gloations we can go ahead and turn there gloations 5 and verse 22 he goes on to outline the fruit of the spirit that is reflected in us when we submit to the guidance of the holy spirit gloations 5 and verse 22 but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long suffering kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control when someone makes a mistake someone's in a tough position someone's done something that we've warned them they shouldn't do and this will be the consequences right there's no such thing as a get-rich scheme right but when someone responds to them not against them but on their team showing this type of fruit you can you know what it feels like you know the power that rests with this fruit to impact another person's life in a powerful way i think we've all been on both sides of this one i think there's times where we felt inside this just isn't right i'm going to let this person have it but then we through god's spirit working in us god's saying mike you've done that how many times you know that's not going to fix a situation it's not going to bring you any peace why don't you try something different and then we do it and then the whole situation changes and goes into a much better way we've been on that side where we walk away from a conversation or an encounter where we did the right thing and we know how that feels because it's god working in our life and we can look back to scripture and say god i spend a lot of time on my knees asking for your mercy and your forgiveness this is one of them i don't need to do right now because you helped me ahead of time i didn't mess this one up we have our not that we're not going to go back and we have our own list right we have we know we're so have a hard day but in that moment we did what god wanted us to do that's growth that's moving in a positive direction that's yielding our spirit and our nature to his and when we do that it feels wonderful doesn't it and and and we know that god is happy we know that god is looking down and saying well done and then he says keep it up and that's when it gets hard right that's when it's challenging that's when it's like i've had those moments where i'm like okay i'm driving down the road and somebody cuts me off and i'm like okay that's okay no big deal it's probably a grandpa it's probably somebody like about to have a baby and they're trying to get to the hospital fast i'm thinking all these positive things right maybe it's my mom the next person does something similar i'm like it's okay i told you guys that you know i'm not gonna i've told this story before but then maybe the fourth or fifth person when now we're behind schedule we made a stop we had to go do something else and now we don't we're running out of time we're gonna be late for something in the same exact situation and then that time we're just what is going on with this person all right it's hard we're not perfect we never will be but here in goations five we have nine individual components that represent different attributes of the character of god sometimes when we're thinking about the character of god the concept can seem too large to fully wrap our mind around i mean he's god right the distance between the heavens and the earth and the distance between god's thoughts and our thoughts and so when we think about the character of god we're just like that's the pinnacle i mean i can't even see it from my location here on on this small little planet earth but paul through the inspiration of god gave us insight to the character of god he broke it down into these nine fruit that we can work at and we can begin to think about we can pray about if you feel like some of these areas you're not feeling really empowered that you're not able to make an imprint on another person's life in a positive way pray about that fruit pray about how you can become more like our savior more like our father because god allowed paul to capture this for our benefit and blessing we've tried things our way and again we know what fruit our nature creates in our lives and those times where our thoughts were not god's thoughts and then we realize that we're nowhere clear close to being where god wants us to be we know we are what we are capable of and we know how it makes us feel on the inside we know the conflict and the turmoil we put ourselves through we know the unsettledness and the uneasiness we feel when we are doing things our way apart from what god would have us do again this is god's fruit of his spirit working in your life to convict you that there's a better way to go by submitting to the holy spirit we draw near to god and reflect more on his kingdom and his character in our lives this allows fruit to develop and the fruit is beneficial for our lives and this fruit has a profound impact on our lives but i'd like to pivot again and in this time think about it from the standpoint of how the fruit of god's spirit affects others around us in that powerful way as well i'd like to ask you to think of someone you really enjoy being around this should keep you awake these are good this is a good thought this is this is somebody positive this is somebody that if you uh you could think down a list of saying i want to go seek this person out and i want to go hang out with them i'll give you a minute to think of someone you really enjoy being around what is it that you really enjoy about this person do they make you laugh do they offer you encouragement or support when you're having a rough day are they a good listener and maybe they offer you constructive and good feedback maybe they're someone you can trust with personal things in your life something you want to share with them that you know they won't share with anyone else maybe they're a fantastic card player and more times than not when you're on their team you guys always win the list could go on and on and on right because you each know someone that fits into these categories there's just something special about this person and when you're around them they just brighten up your day when we truly consider why we enjoy spending time with this person i really do think it's because we feel aspects of god's character traits being demonstrated in their lives this could be somebody that's not part of our midst not in not here today but yet they have good character right they're trying to be a good person they're trying to do things the right way and again this points back to god shows mankind there's a way to go with their life but these people they're letting these positive traits be demonstrated in their life and they're leaving a positive impact on our life we know from john first john 4 verse 12 that no man has seen god face to face however we can see the image of god's character when we see the fruit of his spirit being demonstrated in others maybe it's someone reaching out to place a gentle hand on our hand when we're going through a difficult time maybe it's a kind word that they share with us when all we've really heard lately were harsh words these are outward expressions of again god's spirit and they can impact others in a dynamic way let's look at first john chapter four but we'll start a little bit earlier in verse seven keep in mind this positive person that you just really enjoy being around the apostle john says here in first john 4 verse 7 beloved let us love one another for love is of god isn't it ultimately is is that one of those categories one of those big categories you can put this person in that bucket that you know they love you and you love them he says in everyone who loves is born of god and knows god he who does not love god does not know god for god is love in this the love of god was manifested towards us that god had sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him in this is love not that we loved god remember like at one point we were in darkness we were enemies of god another passage says so we weren't loving god first but that he loved us and sent his son to be the perpetuation for our sins beloved if god so loved us we also ought to love one another no one has seen god at any time if we love one another god abides in us and his love has been perfected in us by this we know we abide in him and he in us because he has given us his spirit that's why we know the things that we know that's why we can feel god's love that's why we can express god's love to others because he has given us his spirit this passage connects not being able to see god with being able to see him by experiencing his love abiding in ourselves and each other when we see his love flowing outward from ourselves or from another person towards us we see god through this love and how desperate does this world need god's love demonstrated in word and in action it only takes us about five minutes from leaving here or leaving our homes to realize how bad this world needs god's love what did paul say to the church in thessalonica first thessalonians 1 and verse 2 he says we give thanks to god always for you all making mention of you in our prayers remembering without ceasing what does he remember your work of faith note you know i love action words work of faith noticing your labor of love and patience of hope these are those things that he is commending the church for having being recognized for how awesome would it be to be recognized in the same way today your work of faith your labor of love your patience of hope in what our lord jesus christ in the sight of our god and father knowing beloved brethren your election from god for our gospel did not come to you in word only but also in power and in the holy spirit and in much assurance as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake and you became followers of us and of the lord having received the word in much affliction with joy of the holy spirit so that what you became examples let's pause and just let that sit in right paul is commending them because they came out from affliction they came out from hardships they came out from their past they're now letting god's spirit work in them they're not an example of his hope so that you became examples to all in macedonia and okea who believe for from you the word of the lord has sounded forth i love that too what a powerful god's way has sounded forth i believe we can say the same thing i believe as i look over this crowd and i had the the relationships that we all have together i see power sounding forth time and time again from you the word of the lord has sounded forth not only in macedonia macedonia and okea but also in every place your faith towards god has gone out so that we do not need to say anything right so you're like yeah stop saying we're kind of wanting to go home for put your bibles away let's go home so that we don't need to say anything he says for they themselves to declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you and how you turned to god from idols to serve the living and true god and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come you and i follow in the footsteps of many others who have gone before us setting a wonderful example of living a life of faith and demonstrating the power of god at work in the lives of humans we have the responsibility in our life to live as a disciple of jesus christ this is our calling and our responsibility to let god live and work within us and to produce fruit worthy of repentance that others can see and others can feel turn with me to john 15 and verse 15 this is our calling i'm maybe i'm a broken record we know what we're supposed to be doing but i hope this is encouraging because you think back to that opening illustration i deserved what i had coming to me because i made certain guarantees that i couldn't hold up but it was the response that changed everything for me and that response that i still remember and that is what you and i are doing in our lives more times than not that's what we're doing we're on a growth path a path of growth and we're moving in the right direction that's what's so awesome not about us but about god and the work that he's doing in us notice john 15 and verse 15 jesus says no longer do i call you servants for a servant does not know what his master is doing you know what your master is doing in your life you know he is transforming you from the inside out you know he wants the best for you and you know when your race finishes he says no longer do i call you servants for a servant does not know what his master is doing but i have called you friends for all things that i heard from my father i have made known to you you did not choose me but i chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain this is that powerful calling and responsibility to be a right to society around us to demonstrate and display the power and impact of god's spirit working in the lives of mankind again as we begin to wrap up we have already looked at today that on this day of pentecost in 31 ad god opened the floodgates and broadly allowed his spirit to go forth in the hearts and the minds of mankind he forever changed the way that many more people would be guided and helped in their lives this decision and act changed the world in a powerful way leaving a lasting impact of the fruit of his spirit on the lives of individuals and the lives of neighbors let's close in ephesians 4 in verse 1 ephesians 4 verse 1 let this be kind of our marching orders today as we go out as we consider the power of god's spirit leading up to this weekend yesterday today let this go forward remembering what we have together and this family that god has blessed us with with all the unique talents and gifts that some of them were on display today others are on display in our congregation next week and the week after let us continue to go forward recognizing that this power that god has equipped us with is for our benefit but also for the benefit of others that's what in god's view is more important love god and love our fellow man by showing love and demonstrating this fruit in our lives notice what paul says here in ephesians 4 and verse 1 in this unity that we have together i therefore the prisoner of the lord beseech you to walk worthy of the calling to with which you were called and this is that character that we continue to refine and hone and and ask god to change us from the inside out with all lowliness and humility all gentleness right with long suffering bearing with one another in love endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bonds of peace for there is one body and one spirit just as you were called in one hope of your calling one lord one faith one baptism one god and father of all who is in who is above all and through all and in you all as those who continue to follow the example of our lord and savior and as those who have who continue to have his spirit working within us again let us go forward and allow god to continue to leave a beautiful and powerful impact and the power of the holy spirit let us go out and bear fruit that remains so a powerful mark may be made on our own lives on the lives of those around us and on the entirety of the whole world