Today we’ll continue with some of your favorites (or the passages you have questions about). Email (andy@stm-umc.org) or message me with any passages you’d like added or that you have a question about!

Today we are looking at Galatians 5:22-23‬: 

22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 

Today’s passage is one of the passages that we’ve all known about that we’ve all heard about. We know this passage. This passage is one of the ones that we know about so much. You’ve heard the sermons; you know the fruit.  

I don’t want to delve into all that today. Here is what I want you to know today. This passage right here, this fruit, this is how you know who to listen to. This is how you know what is right. This is how we know what to do.  

Look for the fruit. Look for the fruit of the Spirit. Want to know who to listen to, who to follow, who to look to, look for the fruit of the Spirit? The people who are from God, the people who are truly trying to seek after God, to know God, to lead others to God, you know what they will have? 

They will have the fruit of the Spirit in their life. 

Don’t look for charisma. Don’t look for eloquence. Don’t look for leadership. Look for the fruit of the Spirit. Those other things can lead us astray. They can fool us. They can trick us. 

The devil has a lot of those things. Don’t look for them. Look for the fruit of the Spirit. This is the evidence that God is at work. That is the evidence that God is moving. That is the evidence that God is leading.  

You want to know what is right? You want to know who to follow? Look for the fruit. What does the Word tell us? By their fruit you will know them (Matthew 7:20). In all things, in all people, in all places, look for the fruit of the Spirit. That is how we know what is right.  

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