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Sunday Class May 2020
The Fruits of the Holy Spirit
Prayer:
Spirit of wisdom and understanding, enlighten our minds to perceive the mysteries of the universe in relation to eternity. Spirit of right judgment and courage, guide us and make us firm in our baptismal decision to follow Jesus' way of love. Spirit of knowledge and reverence, help us to see the lasting value of justice and mercy in our everyday dealings with one another. May we respect life as we work to solve problems of family and nation, economy and ecology. Spirit of God, spark our faith, hope and love into new action each day. Fill our lives with wonder and awe in your presence which penetrates all creation. Amen.
At our last class, we learned about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit These Gifts are given to us directly from the Heart of God. It is God’s grace poured into us.
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, knowledge, understanding, courage, right judgement, reverence and wonder & awe. When we use these gifts that God has given us something happens. It is the “fruit of our labor.” We call these the Fruits of the Holy Spirit. The good results produced from using our God-given gifts.
Think of a time when you accomplished a difficult task that you were afraid of, or a time when someone you love told you your words were just what they needed. You may have sat back and wondered where did that inspiration come from? It comes from these Gifts, given to us in our Baptism and strengthened in us at Confirmation.
In life, we often react to others in the same way we are treated.
If your brother hits you, you hit him back. If your parents yell at you, you yell back.
In a game if the other player(s) get real competitive, everyone else will too.
This lesson explores how we can react differently to others and how we can break the cycle.
If someone is mean to us, we’re going to learn the secret to how we can react in love rather than hate.
Imagine this: During a period of boredom, you and a friend decide to get some snacks, then decide to make it a game. You are going to toss some marshmallows at each other and see who catch the most in their mouth. You toss a marshmallow and when it is your friends turn, they throw a pickle at your face. (are you glad we aren’t doing this in class right now!)
How will you react?
Believe it or not, if someone throws a smelly pickle at our faces, we can learn to throw a soft delicious marshmallow back at them!
What do I mean by that? I mean that it is possible for us to react in love rather than anger.
We can forgive rather than seek revenge. But, we can’t do it by ourselves.
Here is a verse in the Bible that helps explain this:
Read Galatians 5:22–23:
But the Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. There is no law that says these things are wrong.
What do you think these verses means?
A lot of times people misunderstand these verses.
They think God is saying to be full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. God is saying more than that. He is saying that those characteristics are formed in our lives when we stay connected to Jesus.
Here is another verse that will help us understand this concept.
Read John 15:5:
I am the vine, and you are the branches. If any remain in me and I remain in them, they produce much fruit. But without me they can do nothing.
Jesus is saying that a branch needs to stay connected to the vine in order for fruit to grow. Good fruit will naturally come out of a branch that is connected to the vine.
The branch doesn’t need to try and create the fruit in its own power. Its job is to stay connected to the vine.
When it does, good fruit will be produced.
Jesus is saying that we are like the branch. Our goal is to stay connected to Jesus.
If we stay close to him in our everyday lives, then good fruit will come out of us.
The good fruit is the characteristics we read about in Galatians 5:22–23 – love, patience, kindness, goodness, etc.
Like a branch can’t make the fruit, we can’t simply choose to be loving, patience, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and have self-control.
It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to create those characteristics in our lives. Our job is to stay connected to Jesus. When we do, good characteristics flow out of us.
We find ourselves naturally reacting to the bully at school with love and compassion. We are more likely to forgive our friends. We are more patient. Sure, it’s a choice we make. But ultimately, it’s God working through us to make us more like Him.
So, what happens when we don’t take the time and effort to stay connected to Jesus?
Well, bad stuff comes out of our lives. Much like if you were to break off a branch from the vine, the fruit goes bad.
Our lives begin to look like rotten fruit, yuck. The Bible actually talks about what this bad fruit looks like.
Read Galatians 5:20:
… hating, making trouble, being jealous, being angry, being selfish, making people angry with each other, causing divisions among people…
So, when we’re feeling jealous, angry, and selfish or causing drama around us, those things are the bad stuff coming out of our lives because we are not connected to Jesus. We’re unconnected to Him. We’re not spending time with God in prayer, worship or allowing God to speak to us from the Bible.
Here’s the bottom line of today’s lesson: Stay connected to Jesus and good stuff comes out of your life.
When we choose to surrender our lives to Jesus, the pollution of sin in our lives is cleaned up. We now have an opportunity for good stuff to come out of our lives. We have an opportunity to live the way God wants us to live. We won’t be perfect. We’ll mess up often. That’s just a part of being human. In order to have good stuff come out of our lives, we have to stay connected to Jesus.
When we do, the Holy Spirit will make us more loving, kind, patient, etc. We’ll be able to return a sour pickle with a soft marshmallow. We’ll be able to react differently than we were treated.
Answer these questions below:
What are the fruits others would say they see in you?
Which do you believe you are strong in?
Which of the fruits do you need Jesus to strengthen in you?
Name concrete ways you can work on these.
On May 31 we will celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter. Here is the story:
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
What do you think this story means?
Finish with this prayer:
Jesus, we are gathered here today, in a simple room.
Fill us with your spirit.
Empower us to be changed.
To be on fire for you.
Amen.
Sign your name