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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

The Fruit Of The Spirit

One Fruit Produced By God

Measure Your Walk By Fruit

Abide In Christ For Change

What Abiding Produces In You

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Welcome back to the Daily Blade. Day two. We are in Galatians 5, beginning in verse 22, a very, very popular verse. Maybe you've memorized it before. If you have not, I would highly encourage you to. The Bible says this but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. First of all, I want you to notice that even though Paul lists out all of these things love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, he calls it the singular fruit of the spirit, not fruits of the spirit. Because the idea here is that these things that are produced are produced not by you, they're produced by the Spirit. And this is key. What he is saying here, because he's talking about the law, he's talking about works, and he's talking about salvation. And so what he is not saying is that if you could just be more loving and be more joyful and be more peaceful, if you could manufacture those things from the outside in, then you would have the spirit of God in you. That's not how it works. It actually goes the exact opposite way. That the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And against such things, there is no law. In fact, you don't need commandments in your life if the fruit of the spirit is being produced in you. Because if you are loving and if you're joyful, and if you're peaceful, and if you're patient, and if you're kind, and if you're good and faithful and gentle and self-control, then you don't need somebody on the outside of you giving you rules about what you can and can't do. Now, here's what I want you to focus on. If you were to look at your life and look through the lens of the fruit of the Spirit, how is your Christian walk going? Because the idea here is that the more you know Jesus, the more loving you should be. The closer you get to Jesus, the more joyful you should be. The more you know Jesus, the more at peace you should be, the more patient you should be, the kinder you should be. And so you should evaluate your walk with Christ, evaluate your sanctification based on the fruit that is being produced from the inside out. And if you're honest and you look at these things and you say, Well, you know what? I really struggle with gentleness. I really struggle with self-control. I don't have a lot of patience and I can be very unkind. So what do I do? Now, this is the most counterintuitive thing that you'll ever see. But the idea here is not to simply try to manufacture this from the outside in. Like if you just try to be more patient, how do you think that's gonna go? Well, honestly, it just kind of depends on your personality type. Some of you are more wired towards that than others, but the Christian life is not just about behavioral modification from the outside because you're trying to align yourself with some sort of system of activities that has been prescribed to you. No, no, no, no, no. This thing is rooted in a relationship with Jesus. So in John chapter 15, Jesus says this is very relational terminology. He says, Draw near to me. He says, Abide in me and I will abide in you. He says, abide in my word and I will abide in you. For apart from me, you can do nothing. And then he's giving this garden analogy. He says that our relationship is like a garden. My father is the vine dresser. I am, I am the vine, and you are the branch. And so what you need to do is you need to do the things, we talk about this all the time. You need to do the things that stir your affection to Jesus. You need to abide, stay close to his word so that you stay attached to him and get ready because God the Father loves you so much that he will prune some things out of you that are not healthy to that relationship. That God is developing you by discipling you, by disciplining you. And if you pursue Jesus, if you lean into your intimacy with Jesus, as you draw near to him, he will draw near to you. And then what begins to happen as a result of you walking with Christ? What begins to happen as a result of you not only discovering the relationship with Jesus, but deepening that relationship with Jesus, then God begins to produce from the inside out, not manufacture from the outside in, the kind of life change that you're looking for. So it's one thing for you to just try to be more loving. It's quite another thing for you to abide in Christ, stay close to Christ. And then the spirit of Christ in you begins to produce in you the kind of sanctifying qualifications that you have been looking for. That the more you know Jesus, then the more love will be produced in you. The more you know Jesus, the more joy you will have. Instead of being jostled around by your circumstances, that your joy will be immovable because Jesus is living through you. The more you know the Prince of Peace, the more peace that you will have. The more you begin to understand Christ's patience towards you, the more patience you will have towards one another. The more you know the kindness of God when we actually deserve his wrath, the more kindness will begin to be produced in you. The more you know how good the Father is, then the more good you will be. The more you know the faithfulness of God, the more likely God is to produce faithfulness in you. When we understand how gentle he is with us when we deserve his punishment, then we become gentle. The more you turn yourself over to the Spirit, the more self-control is produced in you. And against such things, there is no law. So it's not enough just to take away the sin, but you also have to abide in Christ. And then through Christ, nothing is impossible.

Closing And Share The Show

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Amen. Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.