The Lost Fruit - Ricky Jenkins

What an amazing time of worship. That was so awesome. We wanna give a huge shout out to all of those that are watching in prison facilities with our partnership with God Behind Bars and the Pando app. Yes, we are so glad that you're here with us. Well, now is the perfect time to pull out your Central Church app. Download it if you haven't already and under our experience tab, you can follow along with our teaching notes. But let's welcome up Pastor Judd as he introduces our speaker for today. All right, Central family. Hey, I wanna say a huge welcome this weekend to our Central Summerlin location, Central Aliante, Central Sunrise Mountain and Central Kingman. Good to have you guys with us today. And today we have a special guest speaker, Pastor Ricky Jenkins, his first time speaking at Central, you guys. So you know the deal with speaking to a new audience, like as much as the speaker brings, the audience brings. So you guys show a lot of love, laugh at his jokes, put your hands together when he makes a good point. Let's pump him up, all right? Pastor Ricky Jenkins is the senior pastor

of Wells Spring Church in Indian Wells, California, the greater like Indio Palm Springs area out there, I think Coachella Valley, I think that's what they call it, something like that, out there in the desert. He's familiar with desert ministry, does doing an amazing work there at that church. He and his wife April have three incredible kids and not only that, he just completed his doctor of ministry. So we're gonna do it right. Let's show a lot of love to Dr. Ricky Jenkins. The doctor is in the house. Come on, brother. Oh my gosh. Central Church, how you doing? You guys doing? We're gonna figure out mic stuff. God bless you, Central Church. How y'all doing tonight? God bless you. I am so happy to be with what I consider to be one of God's great churches anywhere. I have so enjoyed just being among you and I've enjoyed this worship. I'm enjoying what God is doing. I enjoyed that introduction, Pastor Judd. The Venmo is on its way. It's just good to be with you, a church that we have admired for many years. Your pastors, Judd and Lori are friends of ours. Every now and then we find ourselves

at the same pastor retreats and there'll be all big time pastors like Lori and they will be out there and there's all these other big time churches and big time pastors and me and my wife April think we're there because somebody sent the wrong email and we got to come. And so we'll always kind of have fan boy and fan girl for Judd and Lori hoping that they'll sit with us and they sit with us every year. So give it up for your pastors, Judd and Lori. I just love them and thank God for their ministry and for this church, all your leaders. I got a lot of fish to fry and got but a few minutes to cook it. I have been given something called a 30 minute time limit and I am a black preacher. And so, and I'm from, I'm originally from Mississippi. It takes us 30 minutes just to read the passage. You know what I'm saying? But we're gonna do what we can with what we have. If you have your Bibles, we're gonna be in Galatians chapter five at verse 16. We're gonna put those words on screen as well. And I kind of want to bring to bear what I sense that the Holy Spirit wants to say to us and ultimately do in us just by show of hands, even those of you who are watching around our campuses, how many of you are willing to admit that right now I've got a relationship,

for some of you it's a dating relationship, marital relationship, it's a relationship with a kid, grandkid, a coworker relationship that is in the midst of conflict. Okay, show of hands. Okay, that's everybody, okay. The ones who didn't put up their hands are not listening and that's okay. But truth be told, we will always have these moments in our relationships. And have you ever been through the relationship where you're the one in the right? Some of y'all can't say amen because your conflict's sitting right next to you. And you're in the right, but it's still not moving the needle where it's supposed to. We'll often, believer, when we find ourself in that moment, what God is not looking for is rightness. What God is looking for is a oneness. And I wanna talk about how the Holy Spirit empowers you to humble yourself and show up in a way in that conflict of that relationship the way Jesus would. And so I wanna talk about that. I want to talk about the fruit of the Holy Spirit and a couple of those virtues listed here in Galatians 5 and how some of this may be something we need to bring to that conflict in our lives. Galatians chapter 5, pick me up at verse 16.

The scripture reads this way here, now the word of almighty God. Paul writes, but I say walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Watch at verse 17 central, for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law now, the works of the flesh are evident. Look at this list, central church, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, good Lord in the heavens. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Here's the good news, friends, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things. There is no law. Galatians chapter five, verses 16 through 23, central, I've read from the greatest book ever written. I bear witness to you this day, all of God's word, it's true, amen?

Amen. How do I present here what Paul is bragging on with the power of God's Spirit to help us show up in relationship conflict? Let's do it this way. How many of you all are willing to admit that you absolutely still love TV? Okay, the entire room, that's what I thought. We all love TV, but I wanna take us back to kinda celebrate some of the old shows. Can I get a 1980s witness up in here? Okay. Can I get a back before we had phones and was streaming Amazon Prime and Disney Plus and Paramount Plus and all the other stuff I'm paying for that I forgot that I'm paying for? Come on, somebody. I'm talking 1980s. Gen Z, I'll come back for you later, okay? But 1980s, can I get an 18 witness? Okay, four of you. Can I get a Hill Street Blues witness? Ladies, can I get a Knotts Landing witness up in here? I'm talking about real TV, but we didn't have cable, we had to watch PBS. Can I get a Sesame Street witness? Yeah, I'm gonna test you on this one. Can I get a Captain Kangaroo witness? Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Can I get a Electric Company witness?

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. You had to put that attitude on the 12. You know what I'm saying? There's a PBS show that I'm in love with to this day. It's kinda new. Have y'all ever heard of the Antiques Roadshow? Have you ever heard of this show? Antiques Roadshow is what would happen if a flea market had a budget. So what happens is people get junk out of their closets or their attics, their basements, and they take it to some appraiser who nine times out of 10 is a snobbish Brit to see if it's worth anything. And the best episode happened a few years ago. YouTube this later. It was in West Fargo, North Dakota, which is a beautiful town, beautiful town. I don't know, I ain't never been to West Fargo. But anyways, it's at this museum and there's a gentleman there who's an Air Force veteran who shows this Rolex watch that he had bought 50 years before, 1970. And he goes through this story to say, hey, I bought it in Thailand. I was on leave. And honestly, I forgot about it. This old thing's been in my attic 50 years. Now, the appraiser,

I'm gonna kinda drag this out a little bit. The appraiser just goes crazy. He's like, sir, this is an absolutely marvelous find. So I cannot believe this. In fact, this is the most inestimable moment of my entire career. It is an original Rolex. It was back in the original Swiss movement. I believe that the plant burned down, making it even more of a rare. All the original paperwork here and all the things are there. So you will be surprised to learn that at auction, this Rolex would go for a $700,000. Y'all, this dude was so shocked, he fell out. Look, look, he fell out. He fell out. And of course, maybe you know why, because in one fell swoop, his entire life. His entire life changed. But I hope y'all are picking up on the lesson because the question for this man was not whether or not he had a treasure. The question was, was he willing to allow it out of its box? When we come to Galatians five, Paul is saying to believers in your conflict, the question is not whether or not you have the power. The question is, will you let God's power out of its box? I wanna talk to you primarily about how the power of the Spirit

helps you in relationships to show up with kindness and gentleness. And in so doing, I wanna lift up this idea, table of contents. I wanna tag this text with this thought. Let's talk about what it means to find what I like to call the lost fruit. Let's pray. Thanks for this wonderful, beautiful church, this wonderful friend and dear brother, Pastor Judd, and the anointing that rests on his life. I pray, God, your favor and blessing upon him and his ministry for all his days. Now, God, we've come to hear what you have to say to us in our relationships. God, do in and through us what we can't do on our own, for we pray it in Jesus' name. And Lord, I pray especially that you would help us to do this within the meager 19 minutes that I have left. And I pray it all in Jesus' name, amen? And amen. Y'all ready to have a few minutes of church? We're talking here about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And notice how Paul reminds the church that fundamentally, you and I, in our natural state of affairs, meaning our sinful flesh, we are prone not to run with God, but rather we are prone to run against God's way of doing things.

It's what it means to be in this fallen world. You see in the passage how Paul says, for the flesh and the spirit are opposed to one another. There are often times in my relationships with my wife or with my children or with church members or with colleagues where I know the spirit is saying, you need to be kinder here and you need to be more gentler here. But can I get a road rage witness when you cut me off that my first reaction and my first thought is not to bless you in the name of Jesus, but to give you sign language in the name of Jesus. Come on here, somebody. And so Paul says that I think one of the most fundamental aspects of Galatians 5 that the believer has to orient himself to is this notion that when we're talking about the fruit, we're talking about the fruit of the spirit. Meaning, believer, the fruit is not your fruit. It's God's fruit. What's the implication? It means that it's not your brand of kindness. It's God's brand. It's not your brand and expression of gentleness. It's God's brand. And a lot of y'all heard me say, I'm gonna talk about kindness and gentleness and you just kept sending yourself, well, let me roll my eyes and start checking the scores

because I've been kind, I've been gentle. No, Paul says it's the fruit of the spirit, not your version, God's version. Can I get a witness that God's version always goes deeper than what you want to go? Sometimes that's the missing link between conflict and reconciliation, okay? Y'all can say amen. Okay, you're not gonna throw me off at all. I'm a black preacher, okay? But God says go deeper and the way I do that is through the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is why this is good news because some of you say, well, I don't know how to do that and I don't have the resources. I don't have the know-how. I don't have the strength. Well, that's why it's also good news as it's the fruit of the spirit. It means, friend, that God does not leave you to yourself. He gives you his power to do his will, which means there comes a moment in our conflicts where I have to say, time out on my way and say, Jesus, speak through me. Jesus, move through me. And God says, if you do that, I promise to show up each and every time. And the reason why I think it's so important for us to talk about kindness is because ours is a world that is no longer kind.

Can I get a TikTok witness? Like, we're just not, it is a dying art form. Road rage accidents or road rage shootings have shot up 449% in the last five years. Airport assaults since the pandemic have risen 3,000%. Cyberbullying has doubled in the last 10 years. What's the lesson? We're mean. You see, they gave us these phones and these algorithms and these social media marketers learned that warmth and fuzziness doesn't make near as much money as anger. And so the whole system is designed to make you ticked because it makes you ticked. If I can make you ticked, I can keep you clicked. And if you're not careful believer, that ethos starts to bleed into the church where now even Christians think it's okay to be mean and nasty and ugly. Let me kind of give you a quick version of 2000 years worth of church history. Christianity never won over culture because we were mean. Can I keep going? We never won over culture because we were right. The only reason we won people over is because we showed the kindness and the gentleness of Christ. So God says in your conflict or your relationship, sometimes the only way you're gonna win them over

is with the kindness and gentleness of Christ. So enter in, Paul says, verse 22 and 23, he says, the spirit will give you kindness. Everybody say kindness. Kindness. It's the Greek word krestotes, krestotes. C-H, krestotes, that's how you spell krestotes, okay? Classroom for a few minutes, I promise we're going to church. Krestotes speaks of sweetness, speaks of posture, speaks of not causing irritation if you absolutely don't have to. Specifically, krestotes means that I'm not going to bring you the punishment you deserve. What you deserve, I'm gonna hold back from you, okay? Here's the thing though, we already knew that, but what you need to know about krestotes in scripture, it is almost always used in the context of what Jesus has done for believers. And the good news about what Jesus has done for believers is that I deserve death, I deserved hell, I deserve the grave, but anybody glad that on a cross called Calvary, he held it back from me. So central, now Jesus says, do for them, do for them what I've done for you. Lord, what did you do for me? I held it back. And every now and then what a conflict needs is not for you to bring it to them,

but for you to hold it back. Krestotes, meaning this is around second base, on some level, the warning that I'm gonna have to you is that biblical kindness will look crazy. You're gonna look crazy, and you're gonna look crazy, and you're gonna look crazy. Because the world says what? Hand it to them, amen, around and find out, okay? Like, if you're not careful, you'll find yourself drifting in the current of culture and thinking you have a legitimacy, okay, to show up like the world does. No, God called you out to stick out like a sore thumb in this culture and show the gentleness and kindness of Christ. And so just know, an agreement to obey God with kindness is a willingness to look crazy to the world. I'm from Pearl, Mississippi. I know you've never heard of it, okay? I'm from Pearl, Mississippi, I'm from the country. And I remember when I was about seven years old or so, and it's a Saturday morning, and we're in the gravel driveway, and me and my brother, we're just picking up handfuls of rocks and just throwing rocks from one side of the yard to the other side of the yard, because in Pearl, Mississippi, that's all there is to do. You just throw a rock from one side of the yard to the other, we get bored. And something said, it'd be real cool

if I threw a handful of rocks on one of these cars driving by, seven years old. And all of a sudden, a figure, a mystical figure popped up on my left shoulder, and he was dressed in red spandex. And he had a tail and a pitchfork. And he said, yeah, Ricky, do it, do it. Just then, there was another angelic figure, glowing in white, had a halo over his head. He was wearing UGG boots, and a white Lululemon jacket. And he looked at me, he says, no, Ricky, don't do that. But I hadn't gotten saved yet. So I got rid of him, and I listened to the red guy. True story, I got a handful of rocks as something called a white 1983 Cadillac Broham was driving by. Y'all, it's driving by, and I threw the rocks high up in the air. And in midair, I thought to myself, wait a minute, this was a terrible idea. Y'all, a whole handful of rocks splatters on this lady's hood. She comes to a screeching halt in the street. Has your soul ever paused? And y'all, she didn't even pull over to the side. She gets out of the car, slams the car. African-American sister. Jackson, Mississippi, steam is rolling off her head. And true story, y'all, she looks at me just like this.

And she starts marching over to me like Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple. Only 10 of y'all got that? And I said it just for you 10, OK? And she's coming to us, and I'm just thinking, she's about to lay me out. True story, y'all, she did just like this. She come. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Y'all, she took a deep breath, turned around, got into her car, and drove off. I had never seen her again. And to this day, my first thought was this. That lady crazy. She crazy. But 40 years later, I've never forgotten, because that was unbelievably kind. God says, if you let me, and if you're willing to look a little crazy, you, too, will have the power of the Spirit in the midst of the most heated argument and the most despicable moment. Even when you are in justice, God will give you the Holy Ghost power to woo! Woo! Amen. I got to go to the next point.

I only have 10 minutes left. But I just want to encourage you with this. Kindness is still an option for you. I don't care what's on the other side of the relationship. You serve Jesus. You make Jesus look good. You are here to obey Him. And it's still an option for you, OK? All right, let's get out of here on this one. The next idea is this idea, the fruit of gentleness. Everybody say gentleness. Say it one more time. Get in your spirit, gentleness. Amen. Gentleness. I've got three kids, two boys and a girl, 12, 9, and 7. 12-year-old, precocious, curious, artistic, big heart, teaching himself to play guitar, smart, love him to death. Seven-year-old girl, love her. I don't play favorites, OK? But if the house catch on fire, I'm getting that girl out first, OK? Love her. And parents, then there's that middle child. Can I get a witness up in here? I don't know, something wrong with him. I don't know if he's mine. You understand what I'm saying? God just gave him extra testosterone. He on that stuff.

He is turned up all the time. He loves to wrestle with his daddy. And as soon as he gets home, he's like, daddy! And he jumps on me. And he says, say uncle, say uncle. And he just wrestles. And he terrorizes his brother. And he terrorizes his sister all day. And several times a day, me and his mom have to go up to him, and we rub his shoulders. His name is Grandy. And we say, Grandy, Grandy, gentle. That's Holy Spirit gentleness. Holy Spirit gentleness is when your flesh wants to turn up and when you want to act up and wrestle. But the Holy Spirit comes in. And he says, son, daughter, gentle. And the reason why there's so much divorce and the reason why there's so much estrangement and the reason why there's so much dysfunction is because when the Holy Spirit called that play, we did what I did to that angel and said, I'm going to do this my way. Who am I talking to now? What would it mean for me to do the unthinkable and show the gentleness of Christ? What is it? It's the Greek word prautes, prautes, P-R-A-U-T-E-S. That's how you spell that one right there. Expansive term in scripture,

essentially the Greeks use this to speak of a harness that you would encapsulate the head of a ferocious wild animal in that would keep the animal from biting or attacking someone. God says, when your flesh wants to bite. or attack the Holy Spirit, I have the power to harness your flesh and help you show up like Jesus. Now, this is why I have to explain this, because a lot of you tuned me out when I said gentleness, because when you heard gentleness, you thought weakness, because the culture says to show up with gentleness is weakness, whereas kindness means holding back the punishment someone deserves. Gentleness is bringing forth the goodness they don't deserve. That's gentleness. And so it's not an idea of weakness. Indeed, in the scripture, it's used this way. Look at 1 Corinthians 4. Well, Paul says, what do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness? That word there is prautes, okay? Paul says, which one do you want? Translation, Paul is saying, hey, church, I can come to you with ferocity. I can come with you with viciousness. He's saying, don't let these sandals fool you. I ain't no punk. But because of the power of the Spirit, I'm going to show up in the way God has called me to show up. Watch this now and bring you the good, the love, the grace you don't deserve. You know why you're here in this church is because it wasn't enough for God to take away your sins. He also had to bring you his righteousness.

God says, in your relationships, copy and paste what I've done for you into the lives of others. Let's go home on this central. I just want you to hear this because we got to go. But essentially, I want to encourage you this in that conflict relationship. There are some doors in your life, only gentleness will open, okay? There's some doors in your life, only gentleness. Some of y'all feel like your relationships are at a stalemate. It's a blockage. It's like, why can't I get to this person? Because some of you are like, it's my child. I'm right. I got more wisdom than them, and I'm paying for it. Parents were supposed to say amen right there, okay? But why can't she receive what I'm saying? Some of you are married and it's just like, man, they know this is the right way to go. We've been through this before. Why can't I get through this? You got a coworker. Why are we at this catch? Why are we at this corner in our relationship? It's because there are some doors in your life, only gentleness will open. I am a fourth generation pastor, okay? Fourth generation. So my great-grandfather was a pastor. My grandfather was a pastor. My dad was a pastor. I'm a pastor. All of the dogs and the cats are all pastors, okay? And the point is, I grew up deep south.

I grew up old school, okay? My mama and daddy did not play. You better ask somebody, okay? What I mean by that is when you got in trouble in my house, you didn't go to timeout. Anybody know what I'm talking about without me filling in the lines and don't y'all be sending Judd no emails, okay? But it's just how I grew up. You didn't go to a corner in my house. My daddy cut every corner out the house. It wasn't even possible to go in the corner, okay? You know what I'm trying to say? But here's the thing. We had a strict curfew, and I've been under these strict rules all my life, and I decided it's my senior year, and I'm going to live my life. It's prom, it's senior year, 1995, and I decided I'm going to break curfew because it's time for me to live my life, 12 midnight curfew, 18 years old. It's 1995 for the prom, okay? And I went to the tuxedo shop, and I got my black tuxedo. I had the peg leg pants with the satin stripe all the way to the sound with the patent leather shoes. I had my tails flapping up in the wind. They gave me a vest and cummerbund and bow tie. I said, that's not good enough for me. I went to a seamstress and had a black and white herringbone weave with gold sequins all up in the vest. They wanted to give me a little bow tie. I threw it in the garbage, and I got some black satin strips and put a gold metal brooch in the middle of it in the shape of a lion's head. I had Mufasa roaring around my neck. I went and had a black satin beret kicking over to the side with gold sequins all around

the bed. White gloves, top cane, came up in the prom wearing sunglasses because my future was so bright. I had to wear shades. You better ask somebody. I came up in there with my date, and y'all, I'm telling you, it was 1995. The Prophets, Bell, Biv, DeVoe was all the rage. It's driving me out of my mind. And that's why it's... Thank you. And we were dancing, doing our thing, having a good time up in that prom. True story, after the prom, there was a party. After the party, there was another party. After the party, there was another party. I ain't gonna tell you what happened till I do that, another sermon. And I walked into my fourth-generation pastor's home, 18 years of age, at 6 a.m. in the morning. And y'all, I'm walking to the front door of the house. And that's when a peace came over me, because I thought to myself, oh, so this is how I die. I came in the house. My mom was sitting right there. Y'all, true story, she looked at me just like this. And walked out. And I didn't know what to do with that behavior. So I tiptoed back to my room, went asleep, and woke up the next morning,

which, you know, was an hour later. And all I'm doing is waiting for the boom. Like, when are they coming? When they gonna come? Because I'm sitting here, my dad about to dropkick. Y'all, I'm just like, where's it going? I'm like Navy SEAL, ducking around. Nobody's coming out. Few hours later, my mama comes out, all dressed nice, okay? Got the makeup on, got the denim dress on, got the spray activator on the Jerry curl. She looking good. And she comes out and says, baby boy, mama gonna take you out. We're gonna do some school shopping. We're gonna have a day one-on-one, just me and you. I want you to brush your teeth. I want you to get your clothes on. I want you to look nice. We're gonna shop all day. Hurry up and get in the car. And I thought to myself, okay, that's how she gonna do it. She gonna drive us off a cliff. Because that's what she'll do for what she believe in. You know what I'm saying? And I'm just waiting all day. And that's when it happened. She pulls over. I-55 North Frontage Road,

right next to St. Dominic Hospital. And to my surprise, she burst into tears. And she kept crying profusely, so much so that it made me cry. And we're both crying. I'm like, mama, please stop crying. What's wrong? And she says, baby, I've been praying for you all night. And all mama wants to know is, baby, what was going on in your heart that made you act like that? Because, son, whatever it is, you and me and Jesus can figure this out. And whatever you need, I got you, son. And central is because of how she came at me that day versus how she normally would have came at me that opened my heart. I confess sin. And that chapter of my life never came back again. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Two years later, my mom died of breast cancer. So I've got this imagination in my mind that when I get to heaven, I'm going to run into the arms of Jesus. And Jesus is going to pick me up like I pick up my kids.

And he's going to be kissing me saying, Ricky, you made it. Then he's going to say, look, son, there's somebody who insisted they be the first one to greet you. And I'm going to run down and see my mama. And the first thing I'm going to say, Judd, to my mama is, I-55 North Frontage Road, right next to St. Dominic Hospital. Mama, you showed me gentleness and it changed my life forever. And so the gospel is this, 2,000 years ago, Jesus took you off a cross and he put himself on it. And that's why you're saved. And now he says, for that relationship, take them off that cross because Jesus has already died for it and show them the gentleness of the gospel in their lives. So Father, we thank you and we praise you. And God help us to show the kindness and gentleness so that Lord God, you might let that power out of its box. And we ask it in Jesus' name and every living heart say, amen. God bless you. Amen. All right. So we've laughed, we've cried. What a great message, so powerful.