Fruit of the Spirit - Faithfulness (New Hope Maui Message, 4.27.14)

I had the opportunity to share the message at New Hope.

We are going through a series on the Fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Here is my message on Faithfulness:

Fruit of the Spirit - Joy (New Hope Maui Message, 3.23.14)

I had the opportunity to share the message at New Hope.

We are going through a series on the Fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Here is my message on Joy:

Fruit of the Spirit - Introduction (New Hope Maui Message, 2.2.14)

I had the opportunity to give the message at New Hope Maui today, 2/2/14.

We are starting a series on the "Fruits of the Spirit".  My message was the introduction.

Series text:

Galatians 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Fig Tree Parable text:

Luke 13: 6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Twelve Spies story:  

Numbers 13: 21 So they went up and explored the land from the Desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. 22 They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, lived. (Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 When they reached the Valley of Eshkol,[a] they cut off a branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole between them, along with some pomegranates and figs. 24 That place was called the Valley of Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut off there. 25 At the end of forty days they returned from exploring the land.

Remain in Me text:

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

An Encounter With God

I salvaged some files from an old hard drive and found this story.  According to the file date it is from March, 25th, 1997.

An Encounter With God

by Paul Halverson

  

The secretary’s voice came over the intercom, “Mr. Smith, your appointment is here.”

Mr. Smith replied back, “Great.  Send Him on in.”

After a moment, there was a knock at the door.  “Come in!” Mr. Smith shouted.

God walked into the office.  “God! I’m glad I could squeeze you in, I've got a full schedule today.  Have a seat.  Make yourself comfortable.  I’ll be right with you.”

Five minutes passed with Mr. Smith working at the computer.  “John?” God asked.

“Almost done, God, give me a few more minutes.”

John continued working at the computer.  More minutes passed.  “John, we should talk,” God said.

“Right, one more second and I’ll be finished.”

A few more minutes passed and John finally finished.  “All right, I’m glad I got that out of the way.  Thank you for being patient, God.  OK, so what did you want to see me about?”

“How are things going?” God asked.

“Not too bad.  Busy though.”

The secretary’s voice came over the intercom, “Mr. Smith, your wife is on line 3.”

“Thank you,” he replied, then to God he said, “Can you hold on, I’ll only be a second.”

John picked up the phone.  “Hi.”  “No, it will probably be late tonight.”  “Can your mom do it?”  “How about mine?”  “Oh? I didn't know that.”  “Yeah, I could do that.”  “I love you.”  “Um, hold on a second.”  John looked at his appointment book.  “Yes, we could.”  “I love you, too”  “Bye.”

“Sorry about that God, thanks for your patience.  My wife needed me to pick up the kids tonight.”

“How is your wife?” God asked.

“Oh, she’s good.  Busy though.”

The secretary’s voice came over the intercom, “Mr. Smith, you have a call holding on line 1.”

“Thank you.” He replied, then to God he said, “I’ll make this one quick.”

John answered the call.  “Hello, this is John.”  “Hi Tim.”  “No, we can’t do that.”  “What about Frank?”  “He wouldn't, huh?”  “OK let me call him.”  “Yeah, he should.  I’ll talk to you later.”  He hung up the phone.

“One more second, God, sorry about this.”

John looked at his desk for a moment then picked up the phone again.  “Frank please.”  “Thank you.”  “Frank.  This is John.”  “You were, huh?”  “We can’t keep doing business like this, it is a waste of both mine and your time, and you know how precious that is.”  “Now listen, just work through it, and we’ll fix it in the future.”  “No.”  “No.”  “Frank, you are being difficult, I've got better things to do than to have you waste my time like this.”  “Thank you, Frank”  “You have a fine day.”  He slammed the phone down.

“Some people just don’t get the concept of time.”  He said frustrated.  “God, I need a few more minutes, this needs to be taken care of.”

John picked up the phone again.  “Doug please.”  “Doug we need to solve this problem, ASAP.  Let’s get-”  “Today.”  “Why not?”  “How about the day after?”  “Not until next week!”  “Doug this is ridiculous, it is important that we talk about this.”  “Give me a few minutes tomorrow morning?”  “Yeah that will work.”  “OK, I’ll see you tomorrow night then.”  “Right, talk to you later.”  He hung up the phone.

“Some people are just so hard to meet with.  You would think that because this is so important he would make more time for me.  Well, I’ll take what I can get I guess.  Thanks again for your patience God.  So what else did you want?”

“I was hoping we could start spending more time together.” God replied.

John chuckled, “I wish I had more to give, I mean, I hardly have time for myself.”

“It is important, John,” God said.

“It’s been pretty hectic around here as of late.”

“Look at me John.  It is important that we grow in our friendship.”

There was a quick knock at the door, and a man popped his head in, “John, if we are going to make our reservations we need to leave now.”

“OK,” John said, “On my way.”  He turned to God.  “I didn't realize how much time had passed.  I need to leave, maybe we can get together next week.”  He looked down at his appointment book.  “You know next week is booked, in fact this whole month doesn't have too many openings in it.  I’ll tell you what, how about when I get some free time,  I’ll give you a call.”

John grabbed his jacket and appointment book, and headed towards the door.  He stopped and turned back to God.  “Thank you for being so patient, I really appreciate it.  I’ll talk to you soon.”

After the door had closed God answered ... “I’ll be waiting.”

Putting our Faith in God, not man

I had the opportunity to give the message at New Hope Maui on 9.30.12 ... 



I shared about how the focus of our faith needs to be on God, not on man (or things, or ideas) ...

I spoke from 1 Corinthians, here are some excerpts ...

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 ... ¹⁸ For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

²⁰ Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. ²² Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

1 Corinthians 3:5-15 ... ⁵ What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶ I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. ⁹ For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

¹⁰ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. ¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³ their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. ¹⁴ If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.