The Fruit of His Filling

Let the Holy Spirit speak to us and we're going to read out of Philippians chapter 3. During the scripture Paul is in prison facing trial and possibly execution for sharing the gospel and he says this, I once thought these things were valuable but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else counting it all as garbage so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law rather I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him sharing in his death so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead. Paul realizes that everything that he invested so much time and energy in his life is worthless compared to knowing Christ. I could share that same experience being in moments of challenges and difficulties you begin to realize as we get closer to Christ that everything else is worthless. Nothing compares to knowing him and living in his presence. So today this morning we will begin to worship. We can say Lord I surrender my life to you. Nothing else can satisfy in this world only you. So move in this place Lord. Move in my heart and as we cry out we just want you Lord and only you. I'm caught up in your presence and I just want to sit here at your feet. I'm caught up in this holy moment. I never want to leave. Oh I'm not here for blessings. Jesus you don't owe me anything more than anything that you can do and I just want you. And I'm sorry when I've just gone through the motions. I'm sorry when I just sang another song. Take me back to where we started and I open up my heart to you. And I'm sorry when I've come with my agenda. I'm sorry when I forgot that you're enough. Take me back to where we started and I open up my heart to you. I'm caught up in your presence. I'm caught up in your presence. I just want to sit here at your feet. I'm caught up in this holy moment.

I never want to leave. Oh I'm not here for blessings. Jesus you don't owe me anything more than anything that you can do. I just want you. I just want you. Nothing else. Nothing else. Nothing else will do. I just want you. Come on sing that out church. Nothing else. Nothing else. Nothing else will do, I just want you Nothing else, nothing else, nothing else can do I just want you Nothing else, nothing else, nothing else will do I just want you Nothing else can satisfy, nothing else can satisfy You, Jesus, only you Nothing else, nothing else, nothing else can satisfy You, Jesus, only you Nothing else, nothing else, nothing else can do I just want you Nothing else, nothing else, nothing else will do I just want you Nothing else can satisfy Church, don't miss this moment, God is in this room right now I want to invite the prayer partners forward If there's something heavy in your heart You desire prayer, you want to encounter God

He is here right now And he wants to encounter you And how I live for the moments When I'm still in your presence When all noise dies down Lord, speak to me now You have all my attention And I will linger and listen I can't miss a thing Lord, I know my heart wants more of you My heart wants something new So I surrender all And all I want is to live within your love Be undone by who you are My desire is to know you deeper Lord, I will open up again Throw my fears into the wind And I am desperate for a touch of heaven You're the fire in the morning You're the cool in the evening The breath in my soul You're the life in my bones There is no hesitation In your love and affection It's the sweetest of all Lord, I know my heart wants more of you My heart wants something new So I surrender all And all I want is to live within your love Be undone by who you are

My desire is to know you deeper Lord, I will open up again Throw my fears into the wind And I am desperate for a touch of heaven Come on church, cry it out Only you can satisfy Only you can satisfy Come on, open up your heart I open up my heart to you I open up my heart to you now So do what only you can Jesus have your way in me now I open up my heart to you We make room for you Lord There's nothing impossible for you Only you can do it Lord I need you Jesus have your way in me now I open up my heart to you I open up my heart to you So do what only you can Lord Come on church all across the room raise your hands and surrender Say Lord have your way in my life right now Come on church raise your voice and sing it out I open up my heart to you I open up my heart to you So do what only you can do Lord Jesus have your way in me now Say all I want is to live within your love Be undone by who you are My desire is to know you deeper Lord I will open up again Throw my fears into the wind I am desperate for your love Say all I want is to live within your love Be undone by who you are My desire is to know you deeper Lord I will open up again Throw my fears into the wind I am desperate for your love We're desperate. God we're desperate for more of you. It's your kingdom come your will be done on earth in our lives and our families and our hearts right now as it is in heaven.

We just spent some time worshiping God singing our songs asking him for more of who he is. And I know in moments like this we mean what we say. We're surrendering everything right now. But so often we can't find a practical place to place this surrender. When the service is over and we go back to our normal lives we can't find a place to place this surrender. The Bible shows us time and time again that one of the greatest areas that we can surrender ourselves is our giving. Not because God needs our money. He's God. It's because God knows the grip of greed in our lives. Matthew 6.21 says where your treasure is there your heart will be also. When I was a young person I used to read this like it was opposite day believing that where my heart was, that's where I would give. But that's not what Jesus said. He says where your treasure is there your heart will be also. He's saying that when we intentionally invest what matters most to us that direction, it has to be there. The tendency to pull our heart toward it. It's not just funding a church or giving to a ministry that we like. It's saying, Lord, you have all of me. I surrender all. Giving is part of your worship today. There's several ways that you can participate. Our service guides, they're going to be passing down some buckets. There's a giving kiosk out in the lobby, a box in the back. Many of you, you automate what's important to you. And the reason we take time in our services to pause and to give is because it's a reminder for us that that he holds everything in his hands. That everything belongs to him, including our lives. Father, we thank you so much that you're here with us. That you've heard our prayers and it's your presence to meet with us. Help us to be more aware that you're already here. That you live within us by your Spirit. That you've empowered us with gifts to do what you've called us to do. That everything we need is already in us in you, Christ Jesus. I pray that that will give us confidence today. Hope, peace, and joy. That your fruit would be

produced in us because of our time in your presence. Only you can do that, God. So we surrender. We open up our hearts to you right now. That you would do what only you can do. And we know, Lord, that that will produce overflow through our lives. Thank you, Lord. We surrender all in the name of Jesus. We thank you and pray. And all the people of God who love them said. You may have a seat. I'm Eric. I'm one of the pastors here. And what a privilege it is for me to teach this morning. If you're a guest, I'm so grateful. I'm grateful that you've taken time to to be here in your weekend. And you could not have chosen a better time to be here. This is Baptism Weekend. Once a month we celebrate life. New life. And new beginnings. And people taking steps of obedience toward the direction of Jesus. And I just want to say this on the onset. If you're here today and you've trusted Jesus. You've been following Jesus for some time. But you've never taken this step of obedience. Or it happened in a time of your life when you weren't aware of it. I want to encourage you today. Today as we celebrate baptism at the conclusion of our service. Today you can take that step of obedience. You can join with the the chorus of angels in our church family in celebration that a life has become new. And a life is wholly surrendered to Him. Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 and 23 is the passage we're going to be studying today. And it says this, 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. This is the Word of God. When I was young, still in elementary school, my dad and my stepmom, they would take us to Port St. Lucy to go visit her parents that we called Nana and Buzz. And this is a time where Port St. Lucy wasn't a desirable place to live. It was basically trees and owls. Now everyone's moving up there. It's developed. But back then it was just a very simple place. And I remember stepping into Nana and Buzz's house. And they always had this perfectly placed dish of fruit in the middle of their living room. And every time I'd go there I'd see and I'd like and I'd desire. And one day we went and I said, you know what? It's always here. No one seems to be eating it. I'm gonna partake. And I picked up a grape and it was green and it was perfect looking. No bruises. And I put it in my mouth. And I kept on chewing and chewing and chewing until I realized it was fake. Has anyone ever been deceived by a bowl of fake fruit in their life by show of hands? Yeah, I get it. Listen, I know I'm not the only one. It looks good. It looks perfect. Perfect shape. No bugs. No browning. Nothing whatsoever. It looks perfect. The problem with fake fruit is this. You can't eat it. Trust me. I know from experience. You can't eat fake fruit. On the outside it looks

real, but there's no life within it. And the reason I share that is because that's the danger with religion. Religion can teach you how to do all the right things on the outside. to impress the right people. You can be religious and learn all the right prayers and how to recite them and learn all the right movements and when to kneel and what symbols to do. You can do all of those things on the outside but still not be transformed on the inside. You can impress people with your exterior but never experience real life within. And that's exactly what Paul talks about in this passage we just read. Galatians 5.22 again, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. He says this is the fruit. It's not the performance of the Spirit. It's not the appearance of the Spirit. It is fruits because what the Spirit produces on the inside shows itself on the outside. The Holy Spirit doesn't change how you appear. He changes what is within you. He produces fruit within you so that it shows up on the exterior. Paul, he sets up this passage we just read a few verses earlier by contrasting the fruit of the Spirit with what he calls the works of the flesh. He says it's things like sexual morality and envy and deceitfulness and jealousy and all these things. He says these are the works of the flesh. This is what our flesh does. But he says this is the fruit of the Spirit. This is not what we do. This is what the Spirit produces in us and what the Spirit produces is fruit. Church Familia, Christian, listen. The Christian life is not about doing all the right things and saying all the right things so that you appear to be alive. Following Christ means we surrender ourselves to the Spirit that lives within us so that He can produce fruit inside. Real fruit that is alive that will bless and benefit everything on the outside. Three truths from the Word of God that I want us to get today. Write this first one down. The Spirit's fruit is greater evidence than gifts. The Spirit's fruit, the fruit of the Spirit is greater evidence than gifts. Last week we talked about the gifts that the Spirit of God gives. And we looked at some of these lists. And we defined that spiritual gifts, it's a supernatural way that the Holy Spirit works through us. Why? To help somebody else. That's a

definition we gave about what spiritual gifts are. And that wasn't my observation. Paul, he makes the same argument himself. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Right after teaching about these gifts that we talked about last week, Paul, he shares with this church in Corinth this. He says, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love. He says, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. I'm just making noise if I don't have love. If I have prophetic powers and then understand all mysteries and knowledge. And if I have faith just to remove mounds, but have not love. He says, I'm nothing. Doesn't matter how impressive I am, I'm nothing without love. And if I give away all that I have and deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love. If I sacrifice all of who I am, but I don't have love. He says, I gain nothing. In other words, it is worthless. Don't miss what Paul just did. Paul took these gifts that the church thought were important and impressive beyond all things. And then he says, you can have them all. And still miss out on what matters the most. And then he shares the first fruit. And what is it? What does he say is important over all these impressive gifts? He says it is love. That's not by accident. And Paul is an anti-gift. I know, I know what we just read says, these gifts don't matter. No, he's not anti-gifts. He just spent an entire chapter describing how to operate in these gifts. What Paul is doing now is putting gifts in their place. All throughout Scripture, we see that God is more concerned about who we are rather than what we do. What we do matters, right? But we are first human beings rather than human doings. We see consistently that he is more concerned about who we're becoming rather ... than how impressive we appear. Now here's why this matters. I said it last week. Let me say it again. You can operate in a spiritual gift and still be an absolute wreck of a human being. I've seen good Christians who are gifted

be known by their gifts, but still unknown to their family because they lack fruit. I've watched preachers wreck their family because they don't have fruit in their character. I've been with people, pastors even, who instead of drawing people near to Christ, push the server away because they messed up the order. They're rude. They're condescending. They're impatient. Doesn't matter how gifted they are. I said it last week. Let me say it again. Gifts are not the proof of spiritual maturity. They're not. I want to speak to anyone in a leadership position in this place or at home, including myself. Listen to this. Gifts can get you on platforms and give you opportunities that your fruit never earned. We know people like that. People who are fruitless, people who are so gifted that they just get all these incredible platforms and opportunities. But hear this. You will lose every one of those if you don't have fruit. So how do we produce this fruit? If this fruit is so important, how do we produce it? Turn to your neighbor right now. Look them in the eyes. Tell them, you can't. You can't.

This leads to our second big truth today. I want you to write this down. The Spirit produces the character of Christ in us. The Spirit produces the character of Christ in us. You can't produce it, but someone can. It's the Spirit of God. He produces the fruit of the Spirit. Notice, it's fruit, singular, not fruits, plural. This isn't a buffet where you pick and choose. It's nine different flavors from one tree. It's the fruit that comes from the Spirit within us, not fruits. It's not a la carte. You don't say, hey, I'd really love some joy. Give me some peace, but patience. No, I'm a business person, okay? I got things to do quickly. Take that away. We don't get to pick and choose. It's the fruit that the Spirit of God produces in us. Now, and the picture, I want you to understand, the picture is completely clear. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. You know what that sounds like? Jesus. What the Spirit is trying to produce within us is the character of Christ. This is why it's important to understand that we can't produce the character of Christ within us

without His Spirit. We can't experience the fruit of the Holy Spirit without the Holy Spirit. And to clarify, if you are a follower of Jesus, if you have trusted in Him for salvation and surrendered your life to Him, you have the Holy Spirit, amen? You have the Spirit. He lives within you, but this is where Christians get confused. Maybe you grew up hearing or learning from a church or denomination that there are some Christians who have the Spirit and some Christians who don't have the Spirit yet. Maybe you grew up learning, like I did, that after you surrender your life to Jesus, you still need to experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit so you can be empowered to be a Christ follower. If you've heard that, here's what I want everyone to do. I want you to look to your neighbor one more time and tell him, that's not in this. Every believer has the Holy Spirit. You're not waiting to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The moment you believed, you received His Spirit. And that's not my opinion, that's not denominations talking, that's the Word of God. Let me let the Word of God speak, Ephesians 1.13. In Him you also, when you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him,

you were sealed, say sealed. Sealed. Sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Sealed means it's certain. It is certified that the Spirit of the living God lives inside of you. And when were they sealed? When they believed. The moment they believed, the Holy Spirit filled them and they were sealed. Romans 8, 9, Paul says it a little bit more firmly. He says, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Which means, if you belong to him, you have the Spirit of the living God inside of you. We read this last week, 1 Corinthians 12, 13. Once again, for in one Spirit we were what? All baptized. Notice that word, you missed it. All baptized into one body. So if you belong to Jesus, you don't have to wonder, do I have the helper? You don't have to beg God, let me be baptized in your Spirit. Give me your Holy Spirit. You have the Holy Spirit. But this is what I want us to understand today. This is what's important for our understanding. There's a difference between receiving the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit. Some of you, you don't understand what that means.

Let me explain that. There's a difference between receiving the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Spirit. Consistently, throughout the New Testament, we see people who are already filled with the Holy Spirit, have received his Spirit, being filled again. Acts chapter four. Acts chapter one, verse eight. Jesus says, I want you to wait, I want you to pray. You're gonna receive my Holy Spirit. He's gonna empower you to be my witnesses, my disciples. They wait, they experience Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes down upon them. They share the gospel boldly. 3,000 people come to faith in Jesus. Acts chapter four. And when they prayed, and the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled. Again, they already had the Holy Spirit. They received the Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, and continued, continued to be witnesses, continued to speak the word of God with all boldness. They already had the Spirit, and they were filled again. This is why Paul could say to the church in Ephesus, who already have the Spirit, who are operating in the gifts of the Spirit, Ephesians 5, 18, he says, be filled with the Spirit. That word filled in the Greek is a verb in the present passive imperative.

And for people who aren't English majors, or English teachers, or language geeks, what that means is this. What Paul is saying is to continually, always be filled with the Spirit. It means it's ongoing all throughout your life. This isn't in your notes, but this is the simplest way that I can say it. There's one Spirit we receive, but there are multiple fillings we experience. Week one, we talk through John chapter 14. Jesus says, the Holy Spirit has been with you, and he will be in you. From the moment you were born, even before that, the Spirit of God has been with you, drawing you close to the Heavenly Father. In the moment that you surrendered your life to what he's done, now he lives inside of you. He's with you, and he's in you for the rest of your life. But we see through the New Testament, we see through our lives that there are moments where he's with us, he's in us, and he's also upon us. He's upon us, filling us again with supernatural strength and power that we can't achieve on our own. Do you understand that? That means the moment that you are arguing with someone, and you don't know how to get through that argument. You say, God, I need your peace. He comes upon you, the Spirit that lives within you, his power comes upon you, his power fills you

to give you peace and peacemaking in that moment. When you are filled with fear, and you don't know what to do, but you know what God's Word says, but you don't know how it's gonna be done, and you say, God, I need your Spirit, I need your presence, I need your boldness. The Holy Spirit that lives within you, he comes upon you with a power that is not your own, to take a step of faith forwards. Let me paint the picture this way. When a baby is delivered, the doctors, to make sure that the baby is alive, the baby has been alive and conceived inside his mother's womb, it's been delivered to the hospital, and taking its fluids and its energy from her. it's been delivered to the hospital, And so when it comes out, the doctors want to make sure it's been delivered to the hospital, that the baby is alive. And so what are they waiting for? They wait for breath. Now they know, okay, now we go to the next step. The baby's alive. But for that baby to keep on living, what needs to happen? For that baby to grow, what needs to happen? It needs to breathe. It needs to breathe every moment of every day. There's no coincidence that the Bible calls the Holy Spirit

the breath of God, the wind of God, Ruach and Numa. We need his power for every moment of our life. We are filled with him. We receive him. But now we need to keep on being filled with his breath, with his air, so we can live the life that he has for us. So his wind can blow in our sails to move forward in faith. And we all know this subconsciously. This is why we say things like, God, I need more of you. We have all of him, but we say we need more of him. Lord, I need more of your presence. We're saying, we need you right now in this moment. We need more of your faith. I need it right now for this moment because I don't have it on my own. You understand that? When I gave my life over to Jesus at the age of 13, I had no doubt that the spirit of the living God lived inside of me. The question was not, do I have all of God? The question is, does he have all of me? And the answer was unclear until I turned 15 years old. He did not have all of me. He lived within me. I had all of him, but he didn't have all of me. Does the Holy Spirit have all of you? Does he have your mouth? Does he have your money? Does he have your family? Does he have your attitude?

Does he have your work? Does he hold your future? You are the temple of the living God. The spirit of the living God dwells inside of you, but that doesn't mean you've given him access to every room, right? It wasn't until I was 15 that I said, okay, take control. I'm tired of going back and forth, one foot in the world and one foot in you. I surrender all. That's his invitation every day. Will you give me the keys? Will you stop withholding areas of your life from me? Holy Spirit, you have my Sunday, you have my church, you have the connect room, living room, like that's where you can stay, but when it comes to my money, I control that. When it comes to my children's future, all right, I got plans for them, God. So you stay there. Does he have all of you? That's what he wants. He wants us to surrender so that he can lead us and live in every area of our life to have the life that we need, to live the life that he's called us to, to grow to all that God's created us to be. And when we surrender all, that's when we experience overflow.

That's when the people around us are blessed. That's when the places we walk into are changed. That's when the spirit is so full of us that it pours over and spills out into every area of our life when we surrender ourselves to him. This is my confession for the week. And this one's a little bit difficult because first service, my family was sitting in the second row and I was like, all right, well, I'm gonna do this, God. Forgive me, church, for I have sinned. I am a very naturally patient person in public. In public, I'm very patient. You can catch me somewhere and talk my ear off for 45 minutes even though I have somewhere to go and I won't say, hey, I gotta go. Why, because they know who I am and I gotta be Jesus to them. If a server gets my order wrong, they're like, it's no big deal. That's fine, okay, I'll tip them more. Why, because they might know I'm Pastor Eric and I gotta represent Jesus. I'm a very patient person publicly, but privately, that's a different story. This past Thursday, for instance, I preached the same message for our first service of the week. Preaching on the fruit of the Spirit and the grace of God.

And fast forward to Saturday, yesterday morning. My kids are doing their chores before we allow them to do other things. Before they play. And I check to make sure their chores are done. And one of my kids, instead of putting the clothes in the drawer, threw it underneath their bed. And I found it. And I blew up. I raised my voice. Do you think I'm an idiot? Do you think I wouldn't check? Do you think you're going to get rewarded for not doing what we ask you to do? And my level went high. And my kids were like, oh, I'm so sorry. And I know I'm not the only one, right? Like my kids, I lose my patience with them when they say, Dad, can you help me with the homework? No, I can't. I don't know how to do your homework. Ask your teacher. This is why we pay for you to go to school. No. Right, am I the only one? No. No, am I? No, I don't think so. Okay, good, good, good. Someone else needs to preach then. And that gap between what I feel being used by God and when I go my own way, that gap used to guilt me into silence.

To feel like, man, the Holy Spirit, he's not active and working in my life. But then I realized, no, that's not true. That's a lie from the enemy. It doesn't mean the Holy Spirit's not active and working in my life. It means I'm still growing. Because by definition, something that is growing isn't done, right? And what I noticed was the frequency of me losing my patience became a larger gap. The level of my voice, the loudness in my annoyance got lower. The time from when I snapped to when I said, hey, dad was not a good example, and I apologize for that, increased. Why? Because I'm growing. We're growing. Turn to your neighbor right now. Look him in the eyes. Tell him, give yourself the grace that God gives you. Church, the goal is not perfection. We will never be perfect on this side of eternity. The goal is to be a tree that keeps on bearing fruit. In every season, you are rooted in Christ. And so if your patience feels thin, if the growth that you expect isn't where you'd hoped it to be for now, know that it's not the Holy Spirit's not working. Know that it's not the Holy Spirit's not living in you. Know that he's working on you. It's a sign that there's real fruit being produced, not plastic or polished fruit. Amen? Here's something else that's worth noting.

All nine of those characteristics, all nine of the fruit of the Spirit, they cannot be accomplished without relationship. You cannot see the fruit of the Spirit produced in you on a mountaintop all alone. It requires relationship. Here's the bad news. The people that are closest to you, your family, your friends, your coworkers, they're going to know whether that fruit is real or not, right? That's the bad news. The good news is God placed them in your life to help that fruit ripen, to help that fruit get right. Third truth is this. Write this down. The Spirit transforms my everyday life greater than anything else. There is no book you can read, no guru you can go to, no three months of learning in monks in Malaysia that can transform your life greater than the Spirit of the living God that lives inside of you. Paul, he chooses this interesting little phrase at the end. Galatians 5.22 and 23, one last time. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. It says, against such things there is no law. God gave us ten guiding commandments to guard our hearts, to grow us into the things of the Lord. And then the religious leaders of that time, over time, they turned those ten commandments into 631 laws. 631 do this and don't do that. 631 ways that we can connect with God and how we grow apart from God. And listen, I'm grateful that we live in a land of laws, amen. I'm grateful that there are laws here, but there's a limitation to the law. The law can tell you what to do, but the law can't change who you are.

The law can say you are impatient. You're getting a ticket because you were impatient to not stop at the stop sign. You couldn't wait three more seconds? But the law cannot make you a patient person, right? It can restrain your behavior, but a law cannot produce transformation inside of you. And Paul ends by essentially saying, you don't need a law telling you to stop loving people too much. There's no law to that. Nobody needs to restrain your joy in the Lord. Nobody can put a limit on your kindness. Nobody can tell you, hey man, I'm really concerned. You're being dangerously self-controlling. Like you're watching your attitude, you're keeping yourself in check and loving all of us. I'm concerned. No, there is no law to that. When fruit is genuinely growing inside of you, fruit produces what the law intended to produce in the first place, but couldn't. The law says do this. Don't do this. And our flesh as imperfect people says, I can't. I can't fulfill it all to completion. This is when we are filled with the spirit and he says, let me produce it in you. Let me give you the power that you don't have in this moment to achieve what I want to do in your life. This is baptism weekend. And baptism is a perfect picture of exactly this. Those of you getting into water today, you're not getting dunked

because hey, my life is perfect, I figured it out, look at me. No, you're going in there because you realize who you are in him. You realize that your old life is now buried in death with him. That old you, that old attitude and works of the flesh is now long gone. And when you pop back up, what that symbolizes, you are resurrecting to new life. Resurrection power is within you. Because the spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you. And from that point on, the spirit of the living God will work to produce the character of Christ in and through your life. But hear this, it takes time. Give yourself the same grace that God gives you. The gardener is not in a rush, okay. He's faithful. He wants to produce fruit. And fruit takes time. I remember when I was first baptized. Again I surrendered my life to Jesus at 13. It wasn't until I was 15 that I got serious about it. And before I went to summer camp to give my life back to Jesus and come back to the school year and carry my Bible on the cross again. I said, no, I'm not waiting until everything gets right. I'm surrendering everything now. And I took my next step of obedience and I was baptized. I said, I'm not waiting until everything is perfect. I'm not waiting until I see all the things I want to see in my life.

Lord, I belong to you and I will let everyone know. So I was baptized. That night after church, went to 7-Eleven with a group of my friends. One of my buddies ordered something dumb. So I started making fun of him. He said, hey, man, don't do that. I started doubling down. On my way home he calls me up. Hey, that was really hurtful. Why would you say that to me? And I tripled down. Because you are being stupid, man. Started making fun of him. And he said this, dude, you were just baptized today. Like, oh. You're right. Man, it didn't work, I guess. It's not that it didn't work. Lord, we're listening. Here's what I realized. Nobody expects an oak tree a week after you plant an acorn. Right. It takes time. It takes moment by moment. Surrender by surrender. Jesus, help me. Holy Spirit, strengthen me. It takes time for fruit to grow. John 15.5.

Jesus paints a picture of how this fruit actually grows. Okay. Listen to this. This is the key. He says, I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, whoever lives in me, whoever walks with me, it's him that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Can I tell you, that's the whole message in one passage right there. Fruit is a gift. something that you fake. Fruit is something that you bear. And the way that you bear fruit is not by working in your flesh. The way that you bear fruit is not being the little edge that could, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. The way you bear fruit is by abiding in Christ. By surrendering to His Spirit. By speaking with Him all throughout the day. I need your strength. I need your help. I need your hope. And when you do that, God will grow real fruit in you. Here's the last big idea. God isn't trying to make you look more like Jesus. This isn't religion. This is relationship. God isn't saying, Debbie, come on now. Have some more joy. You don't look like Jesus today. Be a little bit more patient. God is not trying to make you look more like Jesus. That's religion. The Holy Spirit is making you become more like Jesus. That's transformation. I can't do it, but He does it. That's transformation. That's overflow. So here's what I want you to walk out with today, okay? If your patience feels thin. If, if, if you get angry a little bit too easy. If your, your, your kindness feels forced. Don't panic, okay? Don't try to fake it. Stay rooted. Abide in Him. Hear His voice through His words. Hear His voice as you, as you pray and listen. And when the Holy Spirit convicts, walk in that. When you don't have the strength, say, I need your strength. I need your peace. I need your ... Abide in Him. Because apart from Him, you can do nothing. But in Him, you can do all things through Him who gives you strength. Amen?

Now stop faking it. Stop pretending to be patient with people in public, Eric. From a distance, fake fruit looks impressive, but it doesn't feed anybody. Real fruit feeds people. Real love makes your home different. Real patience changes how you respond to your children. Real gentleness changes how you have an argument. Real self-control changes what changes in your life when nobody else is looking. This surrender, and every moment, this, this, this being filled with Him in every moment of our lives, a surrender, this produces overflow. This affects the people around us, the places we walk into. So what does that mean for, for some of us today? One of the first things that we see in Scripture, that we can surrender, that people can take a step of obedience forward, is through water baptism. This doesn't save you. This doesn't fill you with the Spirit. You were saved the moment you surrendered your life to Jesus. The moment you surrendered your life to Jesus, His Spirit came and dwelt inside of you. He sealed you. It's guaranteed. Nothing can ever take that away. What baptism is, is these people saying who they're surrendered to. They're saying, my life is not my own. I belong to Him. I've been buried in death with Him. I've been raised a new life with Him, and the life I now live is by the Spirit of God that lives within me. They came prepared. They signed up for baptism. They got ready. They got their towels. They got their shirts, and we're gonna celebrate in just a few moments. But here's, here's what I know. I know some of you didn't come prepared to be baptized today. I know some of you, you, you've surrendered your life to Jesus, maybe recently, or maybe you've surrendered your life to Jesus for some time, and you've never publicly declared that you belong to Him. You've never taken the next step of obedience that He asks to be baptized. You may not have come prepared to be baptized today, but we're prepared. We're ready for you. We got towels. We got shirts. We got a familia full of people who are gonna cheer you on. Don't delay your obedience. Don't wait until everything is perfect. I want you to stand to your feet right now, every person in this room. We're not gonna go. We're gonna continue to worship God. How do we're gonna celebrate new life today in baptism? But if you're here today and you've been hearing that knocking, that conviction of the Holy Spirit, I wanna encourage you to get out right now. We have prayer partners in the back.

They'll have their hand up. That's you. If you've been delaying obedience, get out of your row. Go talk to one of them. We got everything you need right now, right now. It feels awkward. I know it feels awkward. Immediate obedience often feels awkward, but I'm telling you the best time to obey is when the Spirit leads. So get out of your aisle. Go to the back. Get ready for baptism. We'll give you time. I'm not done. What we're gonna do right now is as you begin to head out is we're gonna baptize these people. And when we do, when they come out of that water, church, there is no law against your celebration. Let this place erupt with joy, erupt with cheer. Let's join the chorus of angels celebrating that there's new life here today, amen. And for those of you who are about to get into these waters of baptism, get ready for overflow. Your surrender, your obedience brings overflow. Get ready, not just the overflow of water, but the overflow of the Spirit, the overflow of His grace, His love in and through your life.

Give it time, all right? He's growing you, He's pruning you, but there will be overflow, amen. Father, we're so grateful. We're grateful that you love us, that you are the God of second chances and Father, for some of us, for some time, we have locked the rooms of our life to your Spirit. But today we're handing you the key. We're saying, have reign, have all of us, all of our life, all of our time, all of our thinking, all of who we are, we offer it up to you as you are moving the hearts of people right now and convicting them to their next step of obedience, Lord. I pray that they would know that this is the perfect place for them to experience your presence, God, and as we lift up your name and as we sing songs in faith, I pray that you would just produce it in our feet, that we would be different today, knowing that your Spirit is working within us so we surrender all. In the name of Jesus, we thank you and pray and all the people of God who love Him said, come on, Church Familia, let's worship Him. ♪ Oh God, someone was sane on me ♪ ♪ She was running deep ♪ ♪ Love was spilled on Calvary, oh hallelujah ♪ ♪ God, how can it be, a man's undead redeemed ♪ ♪ Standing in your presence, oh God, how can it be ♪ ♪ Victory, oh hallelujah, I've been washed in the water ♪

♪ Washed in the blood, as good as new, oh hallelujah ♪ ♪ I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood ♪ ♪ Because of you, oh hallelujah, I'm clean, it's fine ♪ ♪ What I have done, what you've done for me ♪ ♪ You've laid it all upon that tree, oh hallelujah, I'm clean ♪ ♪ What I've overcome, you can see it's true ♪ ♪ You can see in your victory, oh hallelujah ♪ ♪ I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood, good as new ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood, good as new ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood, as good as new ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood, good as new ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah, cause you took away my shame, and you nailed it to the cross, you got me running out the grave ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, here I come, cause you took away my shame, and you nailed it to the cross, you got me running out the grave ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, here I come, cause you took away my shame, and you nailed it to the cross ♪ ♪ Oh, you call me right when I'm in pain ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, here I come ♪ ♪ When you see the way I stand ♪ ♪ And you hear me when I cry ♪ ♪ You call me right when I'm in pain ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, here I come ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, here I come ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, here I come ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, here I come ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, here I come ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Thank you for the love ♪ ♪ Thank you for your sacrifice ♪ ♪ Thank you for the price of the day ♪ ♪ Thank you for your love ♪

♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood ♪ ♪ I'm as good as new, oh hallelujah ♪ ♪ I've been washed in the water, washed in the blood ♪ ♪ Oh hallelujah ♪ ♪ I'm not trying to be great, I'm taking freedom in the name of God and praise ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ ♪ I'm shaking off the heavy load ♪ ♪ I'm dancing out of my regrets ♪ ♪ I'm throwing caution to the wind ♪ ♪ No, I am not ashamed to praise like this ♪ ♪ Some will say it's foolishness ♪ ♪ But I say it's worth the risk ♪ ♪ I can't forget what Jesus did ♪ ♪ No, I am not ashamed to praise like this ♪ ♪ Where are those saints that once held me? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ My sin is gone, how can it move? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ Look at what the Lord has done ♪ ♪ I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ I'll sing, I'll dance, cause I'm free ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, praise God, I'm free ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ I don't care that nothing wins ♪ ♪ No other love's as good as this ♪ ♪ And I don't care what anyone says ♪ ♪ I'll never be ashamed to praise like this ♪

♪ Where are those saints that once held me? ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ My sin is gone, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ Look at what the Lord has done ♪ ♪ I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ I'll sing, I'll dance, cause I'm free ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, praise God, I'm free ♪ ♪ You took the cross and you broke your body ♪ ♪ You shed your blood, now the sinner cares you ♪ ♪ My debt is paid and my record is new ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it so you did it for me ♪ ♪ You took the cross and you broke your body ♪ ♪ You shed your blood, now the sinner cares you ♪ ♪ My debt is paid and my record is new ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it so you did it for me ♪ ♪ You took the cross and you broke your body ♪ ♪ You shed your blood, now the sinner cares you ♪ ♪ My debt is paid and my record is new ♪ ♪ Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus ♪ ♪ Thank you Jesus, thank you, thank you, Jesus, thank you ♪ ♪ I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ My sin is gone, I've had it, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ I'm never going back to the way I was, I'll sink down and it's been a time, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free ♪ ♪ You take a part of me ♪ ♪ You take a part when you go so far ♪ ♪ You take a part of me, I can't explain it to you ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it ♪ ♪ You've got a part of me, I can't explain it to you ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it ♪ ♪ I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it, I couldn't do it ♪

♪ Oh, by your grace, oh, by your grace, oh, by your grace ♪ Come on, sing it out. ♪ Because the Lord has heard, I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ Because the Lord has heard, I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ Because the Lord has heard, I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ Because the Lord has heard, I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ Because the Lord has heard, I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ Let's sing it out. ♪ And look at what the Lord has done, I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has done, I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has done, I'm never going back to the way I was ♪ ♪ And look at what the Lord has done, I'm never going back to the way I was ♪