Sermon Snippets

Thanksgiving is most often associated with food. Ever since that first meal enjoyed by the Pilgrims and Native Americans, our country has paired giving thanks with sumptuous meals.

There's another pairing that involves food which we as Christians can remember this Thanksgiving week.
Galatians 5:22-23a says,

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

If we depend on the Spirit on a daily basis (Gal. 2:20, 5:5), He will produce spiritual fruit in our lives that taste good to our Lord.

It's easy to focus on each of those individual traits. It's also easy to focus on that list, then look in the mirror and become preoccupied with which ones that are our strengths and which are our weaknesses.That would be a mistake though.

We cannot naturally produce all of these in our lives on a consistent basis. The key to the fruit of the Spirit is THE SPIRIT. We must submit and surrender to the Spirit's control (Eph. 5:18), staying connected to the Vine. And when we do, those qualities will supernaturally grow out of our transformed hearts.

I decided not to preach a special 'Thanksgiving' message. Where we are at with Galatians 5:16-26 is a great fit. With food on everyone's minds, maybe it will be easier to remember the spiritual fruit that the Spirit desires to produce in our lives.