Preached 6/9/19

Forest Hills UMC

It's the Real Difference

Psalm 1:1-3 (CEB)

As we grow us in families, all of us have memorable and fun things happen in our family life that we just never forget . . . sometimes to the embarrassment of our children or our siblings, or even our parents. And as the years go by, we use we just have to retell the story, sometimes to their embarrassment .

I have such a story with lawn mowing. When our daughter Jen was about 7, she thought watching me mow was a riot. When she saw how much fun I was having, she wanted to get into the act. Get this: she wanted to mow the lawn. (Can you imagine that? Wanted to!!)

Now that would have been fine, if our parsonage would have had a level lawn. But it didn't. That particular parsonage was built on a hill. Every swath you took, you had to contend with a hill. At that particular time in her life, she wasn't strong enough to push the lawn mower up hill, So I walked with her giving her help as she needed.

Jen liked going down the hill, but coming up and turning wasn't as much fun, so she let go. When we got to the south side of the house, she

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was pushing it down, and insisted on doing it herself, so let her. I was about two steps behind her, and not paying a lot of attention where she

was going. All of a sudden, I saw her run away. When she let go of the mower, it started to veer off headed down hill out of control.

The church's lawn mower at the time was the kind that had a safety devise on it. You had to hold down a bar with the handle, and if you didn't, the whole lawn mower would kill. When she let go of the mower, by gravity it went down hill, and eventually stopped. I yelled, "Jenni!" And she answered, "But daddy, I'm chasing a frog!"
For in that special little lady's mind, it was just fine. Only parents could think of the consequences. First, she had let go of a running lawn mower. Then, when it stopped, and had to be restarted. But worse, it was in essence, out of control. What if that frog had jumped under that running lawn mower, and Jen went after it?

Now it's fun, and child like and perfectly proper for a seven year old to chase frogs. But there comes a time in all of our lives when we have to stop chasing frogs, and tend to the responsibility at hand. Jen had to see the difference between frog chasing and getting down to business–mowing the

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lawn.

In the next weeks, we are going to be talking about the fruit

of the Spirit. We are as a jumping off place, often going to use Galatians 5, where Paul tells us those 9 fruit to help us in our spiritual lives. I want though, to point out a difference where we might get confused. As you read the New Testament, you are going to come across two lists that sound very similar. One is The Gifts of the Spirit found in at least three different places; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10; Ephesians 4:7-13; and Romans 12:3-8. A second list is the Fruit of the Spirit, Which Paul mentions in Galatians 5:16-
25.

Those two lists are similar but vastly different. They are similar in that they are all given to us by the Holy Spirit. We don't pick and choose. They are initiated and given to us by God, through His Spirit to us. We don't choose them, we don't work for them, we can never be good enough to receive them. They come from the Holy Spirit of God to give to us.

Here is the difference. The gifts of the Spirit are virtues given to us to work in, and help the church do it's mission and bless each other. I think most often, God uses our personality temperament to chose which gift He

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gives us. It is unusual too, for any one person to have more than one, possibly two gifts.

Fruit, which is singular by the way, is a natural product of a living

thing. Though not every believer possess every gift, every one of us who

know Jesus as our Savior has access, needs to possess all nine of the fruit. It is a product of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of the believer. As we grow in the Lord, we will show all of the these fruit.

That's where a picture that the Psalmist David painted for us in our Scripture just jumped out at me, because here's the difference. If fruit is to grow, it needs to be watered. Almost all of Israel was an agrarian economy. So, when King David talks to us about a tree producing fruit, everyone knew it needed nourishment from water to produce.

The interesting thing about this tree is that it's been transplanted. It's not by the streams of water by accident. That means its been purposely placed there. There is a deliberateness about this scene that David describes. Trees are planted and transplanted against their will. People though, are not transplanted against their will. It's our choice.

God wants to transplant you from your life of sin and frustration and

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disappointment to a life of fulfillment, having the joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness . . . all nine of the gifts residing in your life. But only you can decide if it will be done or not.

The interesting to me is found in the phrase, "by the streams

of water". It's imagery is not of a river, it is not of a stream, ocean or lake.
The imagery is it's watered by an irrigation ditch. Some translations say, "by the river of water" talking about the custom of irrigation in eastern countries. These streams are connected from a canal, or a river to different parts of the field, and then turned off at the wish of the farmer.

When I understood that, it explained a very interesting phrase that I read in Deuteronomy 11. The10th verse talks about "watering the land with the foot". By moving his foot, the farmer in Jesus day, could turn sod from one side to the other in order to make a little dam so the water was channeled in the right direction to the field that was dry.

Put all of that imagery together and compare it to our lives. Here is a tree, not a wild one, but one that has been purposely planted and cultivated. It's been transplanted by the grace of God. No good tree ever grows of itself or by itself. The choice may be ours, but the planting is of God. This image

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also means that the tree, and our lives, must stay close to the water. Without that, it will and we will die.

I think the watering means we need to stay close to God and His

Word. Watering the tree of our life means staying close to His Church and His people. Here is a huge difference. It also means staying close to your community. That's the place where we need to become bilingual. We need to be able to speak about our faith to God's people, and when we go outside those doors. It's here that we learn to talk to one another, study with one another, learn how to water the tree of our life in spiritual principles.

When I graduated from high school, I had only been in three states; Minnesota, a portion of South Dakota, where my dad was born and a smaller portion of Wisconsin. But going to college for me meant going to southern Iowa. For this Minnesotan, being in Iowa was a whole lot different that being home.

But then I did my seminary work in Kentucky. I found out that was a whole different world for me than what I'd ever experienced. I learned very quickly that was a huge change for me. But if I was going to be bilingual in God's kingdom, I had to learn to speak supported by God's people, and I

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had to speak it and live it in the every day world.

I came to understand that being bilingual also means I can take what I have learned here inside Forest Hills United Methodist Church, and speak well enough so the persons out there are attracted not to us, but to the God

we love. You see, the world needs to see the virtues listed as the fruit in Galatians 5 in us. They need to see it in us because it's the fruit of the Spirit that reflects for them the face of God.

We are billboards for the wonderful grace of God. That's when we stop chasing frogs, and do what is most important. It's when we become a translator of His Fruit in His Word to His World.