In Uptown have been talking about the fruits of the Spirit. We had one memory verse during this series, and that is Galatians 5:22-23. My goal for the children in this series is to know that piece of Scripture, “But the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” My secondary goal is for them to, at a young age, start to understand the being and purpose of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is a mysterious being. While the children are learning that the Holy Spirit is a Helper that God sends to give us certain fruits, I think there are a few deeper 
things that adult believers should know. I have come to love a few sections of verses about it.
Primarily, Acts 2 shows a dynamic outpouring of the Holy Spirit from heaven onto the disciples. In Acts 1 Jesus ascends into heaven, and in the very next chapter there appears tongues of fire blown in by violent winds. The Spirit even enabled them to speak to people from other nations and other languages, which the disciples put to good use by spreading the gospel further. Peter preached and converted thousands of people. A portion of what he offered them in his final appeal was “the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter had just experienced this, and now whenever we speak of the “gift of the Holy Spirit,” we have an amazing visual of the power that the Holy Spirit has.
The next starts in John 14:15, and reads in the NIV as follows:
“’If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.’
“Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, ‘But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?’
“Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’”
I will not try to expound on everything in this passage, in truth I include all ten verses only because I think it is important to have a rounded idea of the context. The most important parts for me today are about the role of the Holy Spirit. We see in the first few verses as well as the last few verses that when Jesus left the Earth He sent another Being in His stead. The being:
- Is a Counselor
- Will be with us forever
- Includes Truth as part of its very being
- Is rejected by the world, they neither see nor know Him
- Is Holy
- Is sent in the name of Jesus
- He lives with us and will be with us
- Will teach us all things
- Will remind us of the things Jesus taught
The last passage that I will leave you with today is Galatians 5. Again in the NIV, it reads like this:
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit t
he kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ have been crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not be conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
I recommend memorizing verse 22 and 23 along with the kids we are teaching, because we all have moments when we need to be reminded to choose to be holy. If you believe in Jesus as the Christ, you have the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit puts these good things in our lives to overcome our sinful nature. They cannot coexist. This is straight from the Scripture.
One thing we are teaching in Uptown is that its okay to ask God for help, because He can send us His Helper (that lives with us and in us) to help us choose, for example, patience rather than fits of rage. He can send His Helper to help us choose peace instead of discord; joy instead of envy; self-control instead of selfish ambition. We don’t have to rely on ourselves, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit. As 2 Peter 1:3 reads, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”
I believe that it is because of the gift of the Holy Spirit that we are reminded of what Jesus wants us to know, that we are made righteous, and that we are given certain qualities, or “fruits,” through our belief in and love for God. For some of you this might be an indication of some new places to study to get to know the gift that we have from the Father in the Holy Spirit, and for others I have hopefully provided a refreshment through remembering the Helper that you have.
