Unsensational Fruit Three pairs of people came to present themselves before the Lord on the Day of Judgment: Mr. Boastful and Mrs. Charming, Mr. No-Doubt and Mrs. Evangelical, and way behind them came Mr. Unsensational Works and Mrs. Unspectacular Fruitful. "Present your fruits," the Judge said to them from his Great Throne, "for by their fruits ye shall know them" (Mt. 7:22). Mr. Boastful presented himself with great boldness, and after he had trumpeted "Lord, Lord" in a very loud brassy voice, Mrs. Charming began speaking confidently in the following manner: "Lord, we had our own ministry. Thousands flocked to hear us proclaim your name, and we bore much fruit in the ministry." "Indeed," said the Lord, "so did Cain, and greedy Judas. My word brings forth fruit even when it comes from a donkey. You say you bore fruit in the ministry--but did you bear any in your heart?" "Fruit," cried Mr. Boastful, stung by the Lord's lack of enthusiasm, "look at the power we had--we cast out demons." "That you did," the Lord said, "but did you never wonder why the disciples never suspected Judas even to the end? They certainly would have, had he not had the gift of doing miracles and casting out demons. Miraculous power says nothing about the heart. You did not deal with the demons of lusts and desire in your heart. You loved a good show to prove you were religious. You had to have excitement and thrills, you had no time for the "still small voice of the Holy Spirit." You loved the power of the pulpit, because men gloried in you, thinking that you had that power in yourself. You drank the glory that is Christ's alone, you allowed yourself to be worshipped in the pulpit, when even the Holy Spirit does "not speak of Himself." You were a good and rejoicing Christian as long as you were in power and on stage, but what were you by yourself. "You have self-promoting works, that I grant you, but not the fruits of the Spirit. "By their fruits ye shall know them," and by your fruits I have known you all along, "I never, at any time, knew you"., "I never entered into a vital, personal relationship with you." (In the Bible "to know" means to experience.) What type of people do you know who are like Mr. Boastful and Mrs. Charming? Next came Mr. No-Doubt and Mrs. Evangelical.  Present your fruits, the Lord said unto them, for it is said, and he read from the volume of the Book, "By their fruits shall ye know them." Mr. No-Doubt began in his dull emotionless voice, a voice that tended to hardness: "Lord," he began, like the Boastful, although he being less showy dropped one--"Lord, I know that you are a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed. And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth.(Mt. 25:24, 25). "You poor man," the Lord said. "You did not engage in the productions and mayhem of the Boastful. You didn't try to find the hidden meaning in the Scripture. (Some people try to read between verses of Scripture in order to make God fair according to their idea of fairness.) You did not corrupt my word by trying to prove every detail--rather you were willing to accept the Bible as you read it--you were honest enough to accept the Bible as I wrote it--but, you didn't like what you read." You sir, you went a different route. I told you to do "after your ability" (Mt. 25:15), and you said, "Why should I, when you'll get yours whether I do or do not--you sow where you do not reap. What sense does that make. Why should I wear myself out, when you can just as well get what you want without me." Lord, you tell us "to believe" in one breath and in the next remind us that "faith is the gift of God", you tell us "to repent", and in the next we read "if God will give them repentance", you tell us you are "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance", when all along "no man cometh to the Son except the Father draw Him", you command us "to pray", when all along "you know what we have need of before we ask." "I have accepted Your gift, why not, I'm not stupid. And thanks, I guess.  I have stowed it away and now present it to you at heaven's gate--it will get me in-oh, and by the way, I don't much care about rewards, you're going to save people whether I prayed or spread your word. I've shown up in church, droped a few dollars in the plate, voted conservative, and sat on a few programs. In the meantime, I've got a life to live." Besides," Mrs. Evangelical said childishly, "we do have the gift that you gave us. And since Jesus did everything for us why did we need to do any thing else. We went forward in church, and prayed the Lord's prayer, and whenever we doubted we went forward again, just in case we missed something the first time, all we cared for was the assurance of salvation. So, "here is your gift, which I have kept laid up in a napkin". We made sure we didn't loose it, we went forward at the invitation of communion every so often to make sure we still had it." "You mean you wanted an insurance policy," came the voice from the throne. "You might say that." "You wanted the relationship, without the marriage." "But Jesus did everything, what more need was there for more fruit.  Did you ever read that a man is "saved by faith", but that he is "judged by his works." "The Pastor never told us that. We believed in faith alone, not of works." "So you thought that you could boil down the whole Bible into a, simple formula, repeat the formal and go your merry way certain that God has to accept you simply because you mouthed a few words. And whenever, you were convinced of your sin and shallowness, you would go back to your formula. You never saw anything in the Scripture except your empty formula. You thought "justification by faith" was meant to free you up to pursue the American Dream and indulge your earthly desires." You despised the thought that you could not figure out the ways of the Almighty, that "as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Is. 55:9). You wanted a God who thought like you, who was fair after your idea of fairness, a God whom you had all figured out, and whom you could carry around in a box. You should have marveled for joy that the God who "reaps where He does not sow" has shown you His grace and favor, and told yourself, if such a great God tells me to go sow, then I will gladly go, glad that He will have me to be a co-worker. Does it matter that you go to church every Sunday to show you are using the Fruit of the Spirit? Is there one way we can all be assured of heavenly acceptance?  Do you feel as if some people only go through the motions? The judge then turned to Mr. Nonsensational Works and Mrs. Unspectacular Fruits, who were standing hand in hand, meekly waiting an audience with the Judge. "Come, my beloved," the Judge said. They cast themselves at the Judge's feet and said, "We are unprofitable servants: we have done no more than that which was our duty to do" (Lu. 17:10). "Excellent," cried the Judge. "On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand," said Mr. Nonsensational Works. Excellent," cried the Judge. "I dare not trust a sweeter frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name," said Mrs. Unspectacular fruit. "Excellent," cried the Judge. "Moreover, you did the greater works." "We did," they cried in amazement. "Indeed for while these others confused the Holy Spirit with productions and formulas, you did gutter works--you ministered to those who could not repay you, you went to where your works could not be seen by men, you asked not for recognition, you cared for others above yourself and now enter into your eternal reward." "But we never thought we did great spiritual works, we only did what seemed perfectly natural to us. Often we thought we should be able to miracles, and said to ourselves, if only we could raise the dead, or empty whole hospitals, then we would know we have great faith." "You did well not to follow after that voice, for it is evil who tries to make faith into sight. Had you been able to do miracles and make God jump every time you wished, you would think you had no need for the fruit of the Holy Spirit." "But your works seemed natural to you because they were in keeping with your Christian nature." People usually don't say, "My how I have grown", because, growth is such a slow process. Likewise, the ordinary work of the Holy Spirit is not high drama or formulas; for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control are not the work of a day, but of a lifetime. How will you know when you hear the "still small voice of the Holy Spirit"? SUMMARY: To maintain the fruit of the Spirit, you have to overcome doubt. Do not feel you are nothing or that you can do nothing. Always see yourself as somebody who can love, undergo temptation, who has joy, peace, kindness, goodness...the Fruit of the Spirit.  Do not see anybody as doing good or bad but see God as doing good in people and other persons as being without God. The Fruit of the Spirit is a tool 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. Spirit-filled believers make their biggest impression during troubled times. Then it becomes most apparent that the source of their character is something that lies deep within them. When all the crutches and props are kicked away and they are still standing, no one can argue that their uniqueness was simply a byproduct of their environment. They have their down times. They don't win every battle. Doubt and temptation take them out of the race from time to time. But their recovery time is remarkably short. They don't stay down. And once they're back, it's as if they actually benefited from the experience. 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.