Dr. Roger Parrott - Belhaven University Chapel Series

I hope these chapels and the Essentials of Faith have helped you to grasp the significance of what.

C.S.

Lewis summarized.

Christianity, if it's false, is of no.

Importance, and if it's true, is of infinite importance.

The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

That's why I wanted to focus this semester on the essentials of faith.

Because I think too often in the Christian world we get caught up on the things that divide us, the non essentials of faith, those things that are part of our study of faith, but people look at them in different ways and that's where the focus becomes.

Or unfortunately, especially this time of year, faith gets all woven into politics.

And so our political position becomes more important than our faith.

And people are going through the Bible trying to prove text their candidate's position over the other one by this verse or that verse, and we lose the essentials of what faith is all about.

And that's why in this series I really wanted us to focus on the essential things that matter the most.

And so that's what we've been doing.

We talked first about the nature of God, his goodness, his holiness, his justice, his truth.

And then we looked at our relationship to God.

That we are sinners separated from God, and grace and forgiveness is given to us freely by Christ.

We don't do anything other than receive it.

And then we have the promise of heaven.

And then last week we talked about how God gives us his truth in his scripture.

And through the life of Christ, God come to earth to live among us, to see how the Christian life is lived.

And you look at all that and you come to this conclusion that I shared with you from Philip Yancey that I like so much, that there's nothing I can do to make God love.

Me more, and there's nothing I can do to make God love me less.

But that doesn't mean we do nothing.

The next four weeks I want us to talk about what we do in response to the nature of God and our relationship with God.

How do we respond to that, to worship him.

So I want to talk about character today and next week about love.

And the week after that about trust.

And then we'll talk about purpose for life.

And then we'll finish with the most important day in the history of the.

World, the resurrection of Christ.

So that's where we're headed.

And this is why these are building on each other in this kind of way.

So I want to talk today about character.

No place to hide.

The Christ who said come as you are, didn't say stay as you are.

The result of a genuine relationship with Christ is that we want to reflect his character.

We are children of God.

He puts his power and spirit in us and we want to reflect his character, how he relates to his people and the nature of who he is as we seek to become like him.

That's our goal.

In response to what he's done for us, we start to conform to the nature and the image of God.

In theological circles they talk about conforming, conforming to the nature of God and to live a life that reflects him.

And the scripture is pretty specific in what that looks like.

And best place to look is in Galatians chapter three, where it says the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,.

Gentleness and self control.

That's the measure of how we're doing in our relationship with God.

Does our life look like that?

So how are you doing?

Does it look a little like that?

Does it look like that some days?

Do you want it to look more like that or do you not want.

It to look like that at all?

You see, the Holy Spirit is among us.

Jesus said he had to go away so the Holy Spirit could come, which was another form of God which to come and live and be among us.

And in the Holy Spirit living with us, he produces this kind of fruit.

In our lives with these characteristics.

Well, this is fruit.

You gotta understand the fruit doesn't grow if it's not connected to something.

So the first thing we gotta understand is it's connected to a vine or it's connected to a tree.

You can't have an apple just grow by itself.

It's gotta be connected to to that tree.

And if you want these kinds of characteristics in your life, if you want to reflect God in this way, we've got to be connected to the vine or the tree.

And anytime that connection is broken, we will not develop these characteristics in our lives that are genuine character that reflect God.

We start to act out in other ways.

So the connection is first important.

The second is the fruit seeks light.

It's got to have light to grow.

You can't grow anything of significance unless there is light.

Truth.

That's what we talked about last week in the Scripture and the life of Christ.

And In John chapter 3, Jesus talks very specifically about this need for light and why some people don't want light.

In fact, this comes right after John 3:16, a verse you know very well.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.

And then he talks after that and says this.

God's light came into the world, but the people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.

All who do hate evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.

But those who do what is right,.

Come to the light.

Do you have a desire for the.

Light in your life or do you try to stay away from the light?

Do you have a desire for the truth of God that you want to find out more and study more in God's word and study the life of Christ, or do you want to stay away from it?

Yeah, it almost works in our spiritual life physically as well.

There are people who want to stay away from the light.

Of day.

It's a pretty good barometer.

Are there things you will do at night or in the darkness that you'd be really uncomfortable during the daytime or in the light?

Avoiding light, either physically if it's sin.

Driven, or in the truth of the light, can be deadly to your spirit.

So fruit has to have light in order to grow.

And then, you know, fruit has to have water in order to grow.

That's regular nourishment.

You know, you can't take an apple tree and just dump gallons, gallons, gallons of water on it and say, well, that's fine for a year.

We won't do that anymore.

No, it's got to have nourishment on a regular basis, and you and I need that as well.

If the fruit of God is going.

To grow in our lives, we have.

To have regular nourishment.

And then for a fruit tree to grow well, it has to be pruned.

People who tend the fruit trees go through and they cut off the parts that aren't growing well, the parts that are pulling energy from the parts that are growing well.

And that pruning has to go on in our life.

And in that process of these four steps of water and light and pruning and connected to the tree, that's how.

We grow in the fruits of the Spirit.

And that will be evidenced in the life of Christians now at different levels.

Nobody's perfect.

And some people do it really well and some people just get it once in a while.

But if there's a desire for it and you're a Christian, you will start to see that fruit, fruit.

People can sometimes say, well, so and so says they're Christian.

I don't know if they're not, but who am I to judge?

Well, you're not to judge.

But at the same time, if you say you're a Christian and there's no fruit, it's not working.

You're not connected to the tree, you're not watering, you're not getting the light,.

You're not doing the pruning.

Because if you do that, there is eventually.

Now, sometimes that can take time.

You know, if you plant an apple tree from a seed, it'll take six.

Years before you're going to eat an apple.

And the first apple you eat six years later isn't going to be the best apple.

That's probably going to take another 10 or 15 or 20 years before it really gets good.

That's the nature of fruit.

This is the lifelong commitment to building.

The fruits of the Spirit in our lives.

And then this scripture goes on and says, those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of.

Their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.

Galatians says, yes, we're forgiven.

And then we want to give up our passions and our desires, and you have to nail them to the cross.

You've got to give them to Jesus.

A lot of us want to give to Jesus the parts of life we got cleaned up a little bit.

No, he's saying, give the parts that.

Are dirty and need help, the parts that are overwhelming.

Give those to Christ and let him put those on the cross.

You got to acknowledge that there is sinfulness.

The sinfulness is strong.

It's a strong pull.

He uses the word here, passions and desires.

It isn't that I'm interested in something.

It isn't that I like to do something because it's nice diversion.

It isn't that, you know, I like to be involved in this or that.

No, it's a passion and desire.

That's where our sinful natures are rooted in things that pull us.

There's a lot of emotion in that.

And giving that up, committing that to Christ is when the fruit grows.

He said, you have to purposefully do that.

And then the change begins to come and your character begins to reflect God.

Well, then he goes on and says, since we're living by the Spirit, let.

Us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.

You see, the Holy Spirit is in all of our life, not just certain parts.

For some people, they just want to let God into their life in certain parts.

So, you know, I'll do it when it's convenient.

I wake up Sunday morning and feel good.

I'll go to church, because then I'll feel better and okay, I'll give God that part, but the rest of it, not so much.

Or I want to be that kind of person.

I want to be that Christian person when it helps my reputation or my goals.

But it doesn't really change character.

Some people, probably too many people, think,.

Well, there are parts of my life.

I don't want anybody to know about.

There are parts of our life nobody should see.

But you know what?

God already does.

God knows.

So why not ask him to help you change that and to create something new in you?

David.

King David, after he had gone through so many horrible sins of adultery and murder, and on and on and on it went, and destroyed his life, finally got to that point of repentance.

And he said, lord, create in me a clean heart and give me a willing spirit to follow you.

That's nailing your passions and desires to the cross.

God already knows it.

There is no place to hide.

So why not ask him to help you with.

With the things that are the very hardest in life to change in order to build the kind of character that honors God?

The psalmist talks about this, says, o Lord, you've examined my heart and know everything about me.

You know when I sit down or stand up.

You know my thoughts, even when I'm far away.

You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.

You know everything I do.

You know what, what I'm going to say before I say it.

Lord, you go before me and follow me.

You place your hand of blessing on my head.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,.

Too great for me to understand.

That is wonderful.

That's amazing that God knows us that well, that he knows everything about us.

Or you may look at that and.

Say, that is really scary that he knows everything about us.

And if that's your position, you've yet to understand that Christianity cannot be modestly important.

It's critical to our lives.

No place to hide.

When it comes to character, God knows it all.

God knows every bit of your life and every bit of my life.

So take the parts that are hard and give them to him.

Character, if it's genuine in you, is moving closer to reflecting God.

Every day, every week, every month, every.

Year, you get more in tune with.

Reflecting God, and these fruits of the Spirit come out.

Yes, there'll be missteps.

Yes, there'll be times you won't do it well.

Yes, there'll be times you really blew it all together.

That's okay.

You've got to continue to want to move Closer or you can resist that and you want then your character rooted in selfishness.

And that shows fruits in your life just as the opposite of the fruits of the spirit.

When that's true, you see it doesn't.

Matter what you really do as much as who you are.

Your character really matters.

I got this book a few years ago.

Title caught my attention.

Who you are when no one's looking.

Choosing consistency, Resisting compromise.

Character.

Really good book.

I read it, got a lot of good ideas from it.

This book was written by Bill Hybels, who established one of the biggest churches in America.

Church started from almost nothing in Chicago with just a handful of people and grew to 25,000 people.

He was the most influential pastor in America.

He spoke at all the big conferences, he held conferences, he developed the denomination of churches that were tied into who he was.

He'd written probably 30 different books.

This is one of them about character.

A few years ago, Bill Hybels was.

At one of those conferences and he got caught in a hotel room with.

A woman who's not his wife.

When that became public, a number of women started to come forward and talked about his sexual harassment and his sexual assault.

And within just a few days, he.

Was gone from that church and his books were canceled.

Who are you when no one's hiding?

It really doesn't matter what your accomplishments are.

If you don't have character, it really doesn't matter.

Character, there's no place to hide.

Character is not a set of your accomplishments.

Yes, I hope you will do great things for Christ.

Cl telling his story about his life.

He's doing wonderful things for Christ.

And you will, and many of you already are.

And there will be opportunities in your.

Life that to are going great things for Christ.

And I hope you will.

Character is not your reputation.

I hope you be a person who has a great reputation, a stellar reputation.

But reputation is what others think about you.

Character is what you think about you, what you really know about you, and how much you want to honor God by reflecting him.

Character is not a set of resolutions.

I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that.

And once I do that a to do list, then I'll be a person of character.

It doesn't work that way.

Character is not perfection.

You can beat yourself up by never being perfect because no, you're not going to be this side of heaven.

But when your life begins to grow,.

Those fruits of the Spirit, they begin.

To dominate your life.

So when you do not hit the mark all the way Character still stands up.

Holy Spirit produces these fruits in our life.

But how do we develop this character?

First, by understanding how important it is.

How important it is God made you.

God knows you'll have a better life if you follow and build his character into your life and reflect his character by your fruits.

The Holy Spirit is ready to empower you.

Remember we talked about the power being there, but you got to plug into it.

And it's the highest form of worship is to reflect the God who loves you most.

That's where character development begins.

You know what the greatest sin is?

Our sins are not really ranked in order.

They're all bad, separated from God.

But you know what the greatest sin is?

The greatest sin is not becoming the.

Person God created you to be.

That's the greatest sin.

God wants to build into you these characteristics because that's his character and he wants you and me to reflect it.

So we've got to start there.

And then Paul writes in Romans about the importance of character.

Because of what Christ has done for us.

He starts this foundation.

I'm going to show you how he gets to the building of character.

There are four steps, but first he kind of summarizes again this foundation that we've been forgiven, that we're in relationship with God and we don't deserve this.

But we're children of God.

So he wants us for.

So he kind of goes through that.

Since we've been made right by God's sight, by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ, our.

Lord, has done for us.

Because of our faith.

Christ has brought us into this place of underdeserved privilege, undeserved privilege, where we.

Now stand and look confidently and joyfully looking forward to sharing God's glory.

You see, he starts there.

He starts to remember.

That's why we did these in order to building these essentials.

Because if you don't have that understanding,.

You can't just start into the character issue.

You gotta have this understanding to forgive.

And we're in relationship with God.

We don't deserve this.

We're children of God.

And then the scripture goes on.

He says because of that, we can rejoice when these four steps happen in our life.

First, when we run into problems and trials, rejoice in that.

Why?

Because that's where character gets built.

That's where character gets tested.

You can't grow and I can't grow without pressing harder on whatever it is that you're trying to grow about.

Say you play a sport, you're in the arts you're in stem.

If you don't do tougher stuff every week, you're never going to get any better, are you?

You're just going to stay the same.

Or Christian faith is the same way.

You have to exercise it.

And so character is tested when we run into problems and trials.

And Paul doesn't say here, if you run into trials.

He said, no, when you'll run into.

Trials, because you will run into trials and problems.

And then he says in that.

For we know that those trials and problems will develop endurance in us.

Okay?

So the first step is the trials and problems.

Second step is they develop endurance in it.

The Christian life is not a sprint.

The Christian life is a marathon.

And a lot of Christians who miss the mark because they try for the sprint, you can't keep it up.

You've got to keep some level of balance in your life.

And when you leave that balance of.

Growing in Christ, then you crash and burn.

Christian life is a marathon.

You will fail when it comes to the fruits of the Spirit.

And the more you try, the more you will fail because you're taking more attempts at it.

The difference between success and failure is what are you going to do when you do fail?

We will learn endurance.

Paul says, now you got to understand, 1, 2, 3, 4 points up here are mine.

Those are not in the Scripture, but that's how the scripture breaks down.

So we're going to have trials.

The trials develop endurance in us.

And what does endurance do?

Endurance develops strength of character.

Character comes out when we endure.

It's kind of like the best fruit on that apple tree.

That first apple that comes six years after it's planted is not going to be the best one.

It's the one 10, 15, 20 years later that are going to be the really good ones.

It takes endurance.

It takes building those spiritual muscles in our life in order to develop the.

Fruits of the Spirit that really develop character.

And what's the outcome of all this if you have character?

The payoff for character is character strengthens our confident.

Hope in salvation.

Confidence in salvation.

How would your life be different if you knew without a question I the Bible was true?

How would your life be different if you knew without a question what Jesus teaches is the way to live?

How would it be different if you knew without a question?

Heaven's for real.

You see, when we go through trials and problems, they develop endurance, which develops strength of character, those fruits of the Spirit.

And that's what gives us confidence in.

Our faith in Christ.

So we have no doubt.

And you can live at a whole different level of joy and happiness and success.

When you have that confidence, it comes out of character, love and joy, peace,.

Patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.

See the beginning point of all that is love.

All the rest of them come from love.

They're all an outgrowth of love.

So you've got to have love at.

The cornerstone of these fruits of the spirit.

And that's what we're going to talk about next week.

We're going to talk about love and how it is the greatest of these.

We may think the greatest of these is our accomplishments or what we do, or our degrees or our job or.

Our money or whatever.

That's not even close.

First Corinthians 13 says, these three will remain.

Only three will endure faith, hope and love.

And the greatest is love.

And that's what we're going to focus on next week because it is the essential of faith.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we thank youk for your gift.

Of the Holy Spirit that allows us to develop the fruits of the Spirit in our life that reflect yout and in so we worship and we honor your and we have joy in life because we live as yous designed us.

Thank youk your name, we ask it.

Amen.

Thanks for listening.

Today.