Joy, Self Control, Faithfulness John Wesley wrote in 1743 that he expected all those who followed him to show their desire for salvation in these three ways: 1. Doing no harm, avoiding evil. 2. Doing good of every possible sort. 3. attending upon all the ordinances of God, that is, to use every means to grow closer to God. In other words; To know God - be good, do good, in every way, all the time. The Fruits of the Spirit are the tools God has given us to try to reach the goal of our Christian faith, Christian perfection.  Being perfect does not mean never making mistakes, rather being perfect is living a life of love. These tools are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Some of the answers from last weeks question; What are the fruits of the spirit? I don't know. Holy apples and bananas Happiness Praying The way of showing our love for God. Doing Gods will and not sinning. The good in us. Gifts given to us from God. (They are)&ldots; What keeps the spirit alive. A way of being faithful to God and each other by showing characteristics of the fruits of the spirit in our every day lives Take a minute now to discuss how the answers from last week compare to the way you understand the fruits of the spirit now. Being a faithful disciple is a lifelong process.  We choose actions and we respond to happenings in our lives in ways that help us continue to grow in grace, in faith, and in love of God and neighbor.  God's grace is at work in us, helping us go on to perfection. JOY If we use the spirit of love, which is the FIRST fruit we talked about last week, we will have JOY. Joy means we are happy. When we love God - that makes us happy. When we love others - that makes us happy too. When we are HAPPY, experiencing joy, we can make other people feel joy too. Here are a few things that might make you experience joy. Sharing what you have with others can give you joy.  Saying please and thank you.  Saying your prayers.  Helping your mother and father.  Being kind to your brother, or sister, or a friend.  Learning more about God can be an experience of joy. What other fruits of the spirit could be required to realize some of the above joys? FAITHFULNESS  We have faith that when we drop something it will fall We have faith that the sun will rise and set every day. When we plant a seed we have faith that, if all the conditions are right, it will grow. God created physical laws that cause these things to happen. He is Faithful to keep these physical laws working for us. (Ps. 136: 6-9) God also made spiritual laws. We can't always see God's spiritual laws, just like we can't SEE what makes the sun rise and set. But just as we have faith that the sun will rise, we can have faith that God is real, and His laws, physical and spiritual, are real too. (Rom. 1:20) The Bible tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Heb 11:1) Share some of the things you hope for - some of the things you have FAITH in. We have faith that God hears our prayers. We have faith that God's Bible is His Word.  We have faith that God looks after us and that everything that happens to us will work out for the best. (Rom. 8:28; I Cor. 10:13) We have faith that God loves us so much that He sent his Son to the earth to live a perfect life and give Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. (John3:16) SELF CONTROL  Self control means that we have control over our bodies and our minds. Actions and thoughts do not control us, we control what we think, and what we do. When we know something is wrong, but we do it anyway, we don't use God's spirit of self-control. When we feel like doing something we know we shouldn't, we are being tempted. Everyone is tempted to do wrong things sometimes. Even Jesus was tempted. We all make mistakes and give into temptations now and again, but Jesus exercised God's spirit of self-control and never sinned. (Heb. 4:15)  We do have many temptations, just like Jesus did. Jesus knew what was written in God's Word, and He didn't fall for Satan's tricks. If we know God's Word we, too, will know right from wrong. Jesus is our example and our strength. Eating too many sweets can give us bad teeth and fill us up so we don't eat the foods that are good for us. Watching too much television can make us forget how to think for ourselves stifling our creativity. Playing video games for too long can take time away from our family and our friends and cut into our studies.  It's not always easy to say, 'That's enough'. That's why we need God's spirit of self-control. What are a few of the things that you need to practice self-control in? Having self-control doesn't mean we do without good things. Jesus enjoyed the good things God gave Him and some people, who didn't understand, called Him bad names. (Mt. 11:19) Jesus knew it was all right to enjoy certain things in moderation. He didn't let what other people said about Him upset Him. It's not always easy to practice self-control in dealing with others. Sometimes people say or do things that are mean. How do we deal with these people? God wants us to have a tough skin but a soft heart. He wants us to forgive those who hurt our feelings. He wants us to try and help heal the hurts of others. God wants us to turn the other cheek and be peacemakers. (Matthew 5:38-48) Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone says things they shouldn't. (Jas 3:8) God wants us to learn to control our speech. (I Pe 3:10)  He wants us to control our tempers too. (Prov. 16:32 Ecc. 7:9 Eph. 4:26) When someone is mean to us God doesn't want us to be mean back. (Rom. 12:17) He wants us to exercise the spirit of self-control. (Rom. 12:21) The fruit of the Spirit is in all parts of the Bible. Take a few minutes now to go back and review, read as a group some of the referenced verses.  Use Faith to remind yourself  these are Gods words.  For us to grow in perfection, to be what god created us to be, we need to be always looking within ourselves to see if we are growing.  One of the ways that we can do this is to be a part of groups that help us be accountable.  Early Methodists organized class meetings.  These small groups held each of the group members accountable for their spiritual growth using a covenant.  Having a small group or a spiritual friend with whom to talk honestly about discipleship, spirituality, and even faith struggles, can help you grow in your relationship to God. Review "perfection" as it is explained on page 1. Will it be easy to be a perfect Christian? We have a covenant discipleship group here tonight.  The Extreme Youth Zealots have agreed to meet regularly and hold one another accountable for their spiritual disciplines.  We agree to do certain things, such as read the Bible together, pray together, attend worship or serve someone in need.  Our covenant requires us to use the fruit of the Spirit to Offer one another respect and guard each others privacy. What fruit of the Spirit have you used here tonight in renewing our covenant with each other? love,  joy,  peace patience,  kindness,  generosity faithfulness,  gentleness,  self control Writing next to the list above, rate on a scale of 1-6 how you are doing in with the fruit of the Spirit.  For example; Patience means waiting, waiting to hear God speak, waiting to do something I want to do, waiting for my turn to talk.  I think I have a low patience level of 2. Pick out your lowest ratings and list one way in which you might become stronger in these areas. Prayer: You are invited to join hands and offer a few words of prayer if you want. Your leader starts the prayer, then squeezes the hand of the person to the left to indicate their turn, if you do not wish to speak just pass the squeeze and so on until the squeeze gets back to the first person. Conclusion: Have your group offer a Spiritual challenge for the large group. Gather back in the large group about 5 min. till. Offer your challenge!