The Biblical Fruit Bowl

[0:00] Well, would you turn with me this morning to the book of Galatians, the letter of Paul to the Galatians in chapter 5. That's page 1173, Galatians chapter 5.

[0:16] And we're just going to read two verses there. Galatians chapter 5, that's at verse 22. Galatians chapter 5 at verse 22.

[0:33] And it says there, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

[0:46] Against such things there is no law. So the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

[0:57] Well, boys and girls, earlier on I mentioned that I brought with me my biblical fruit bowl. And inside it are all the fruits which are mentioned in the Bible.

[1:10] And we've seen one fruit already this morning. We've seen the apple where God says to us that we are the apple of his eye. We are precious to him. So precious that God would send his only son into the world to die upon the cross to take away our sins.

[1:27] But the Bible also mentions lots of other fruits in the Bible. And they're inside this biblical fruit bowl. And I know that you have an orange, or some of you have an orange that you picked up on the way in.

[1:42] But we'll come to that in a wee while. We'll come to that in a wee while. Just hold on to it and don't eat it quite yet. And if you do start eating it, well, don't leave the peelings all over the floor. This bill will have to clean up.

[1:54] But anyway, I want to tell you first of all of some of the other fruits that are mentioned in the Bible. And there are lots of them. Lots and lots of fruits. But one fruit which is mentioned in the Bible is related to what we were talking about, or what we were reading about earlier on.

[2:10] Because we were reading in John's Gospel in chapter 15. And John 15, that's my favourite chapter. My favourite chapter in the Bible. In fact, it was when I was reading John 15 that I became a Christian.

[2:23] I started following Jesus through reading John chapter 15. Because in John 15, Jesus tells us that he is the true vine. And that we have to be joined to the vine.

[2:36] We have to be connected to the vine. And that's what Jesus is saying. He says we have to be connected to Jesus. By trusting in him, and following him, and bearing fruit.

[2:47] But do you know what made me realise how important it is to follow Jesus? It's what he said in verse 13. Jesus said, Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

[3:00] That you are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. And that's what Jesus is asking us today. He's asking us, will you be my friend? That's what Jesus asks us every week we hear the Bible.

[3:14] He's saying, will you be my friend? I want you to be my friend, and follow me. Because Jesus loves us. And he wants us to be his friend by trusting in him, and following him, and bearing fruit.

[3:28] Jesus wants us to trust him. Because he says that he is the true vine. And the fruit which comes from a vine tree, is of course, grapes.

[3:40] Grapes. And the vine tree produces lots and lots of grapes. And when Jesus lived in Israel over 2,000 years ago, there were lots and lots of vine trees.

[3:51] Lots and lots of trees that produced grapes. And they were everywhere. And these trees, they produced loads of grapes. And the Bible mentions grapes time and time again.

[4:02] All the way through. And even God's people. The Bible says that God's people in the Old Testament. They are described like grapes. Because they are described like a fruitful vine.

[4:14] Because they are connected. They are connected to the true vine, Jesus Christ. So that's what we have to be. We have to be grapes. We have to be connected to the true vine.

[4:25] But the Bible not only mentions grapes, it also mentions raisins. The Bible mentions lots and lots of raisins. And a raisin, of course, is a dried grape.

[4:38] And the Bible often speaks about people eating cakes of raisins. Cakes of raisins. And I'm sure you've had a cake before with raisins in it. These fruit cakes.

[4:49] They're really yummy, aren't they? Really, really yummy. And I love these cakes with raisins, just so you know. They're yummy. But the Bible not only talks about cakes of raisins.

[5:01] It also talks about cakes of figs. Cakes of figs. Now, I don't think I've ever even tried one of these before. I'm not sure if people put them in cakes.

[5:13] But a fig, it's another fruit mentioned in the Bible. And it's mentioned many, many times in the Bible. But both cakes of raisins and cakes of figs, they're mentioned together in the Bible.

[5:27] And they're mentioned together at times of celebrating. Where God's people celebrate that God has been good to them. And it's like, I suppose it's like what you do on your birthday.

[5:40] You have a cake. Somebody makes you a cake. Maybe somebody buys you a cake. And you've got candles. And all the candles, they're the same number as your age. So mine would be 21.

[5:53] And that's why cakes of raisins and cakes of figs, they're mentioned in the Bible. It's all to do with celebrating. Celebrating. Not like a birthday cake, but cakes of celebration. Where God's people, they celebrate and they thank God for all his goodness to them.

[6:09] And that's what we should always be doing. We should always be thanking God for all the good gifts which he gives to us. We should thank him for all our food.

[6:20] We should thank God when we sit down to eat our breakfast or we eat our lunch or we eat our dinner. We should stop and thank God. Say, thank you God for my food.

[6:30] We should stop and thank God for all that he's given to us. He's given to us so much. Our lovely homes. Our lovely families. And we should also thank God for his love towards us that he gave to us.

[6:44] the greatest gift of Jesus Christ. So, so far, we have apples. We have, which means that we're the apple of God's eye.

[6:56] We have grapes. We're meant to be connected to the true vine. We have raisins and figs, which means that we are to give thanks to God for all his good gifts to us.

[7:07] But the Bible also goes on to mention melons. Melons. Melons. Now, I love melon. It's really tasty. In fact, the longer I'm speaking here, the hungrier I'm getting.

[7:21] But melons, they're mentioned in the Bible and they're mentioned in the Bible along with cucumbers. I'm sure you've seen these before. Yeah? Cucumbers.

[7:32] And yes, a cucumber is a fruit. I looked it up. I googled it just to be on the safe side. And that's what I'm told. A cucumber is a fruit. But melons and cucumbers, they're mentioned together in the Bible as well.

[7:46] And they're mentioned when God's people are, they've left slavery in Egypt. So they've been in slavery in Egypt and they're travelling through the wilderness towards the promised land.

[8:01] And as God's people were walking and walking for days on end, they started to get really, really hungry. And their tummies were rumbling. And their tummies were making lots and lots of noise.

[8:12] And so God provided for them. God gave them manna. Manna to eat, which is like bread. But the children of Israel, they weren't happy with the manna. They weren't happy with what God gave to them.

[8:25] And they weren't thankful for their food. They weren't saying thank you to God. And they were moaning about it. And they were fed up, eating the same thing every day, eating this manna. And as they were walking and getting hungrier and hungrier, their tummies were rumbling more and more.

[8:41] And they were thinking about all the lovely food that they left behind in Egypt. And they said to each other, as they were walking, we remember the fish and we remember the cucumbers and we remember the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic.

[9:00] But now we're really, really hungry. And there's nothing at all to eat except this manna. They were getting fed up of it. But the children of Israel, they were forgetting what God had done for them.

[9:14] They were forgetting how they had been treated in Egypt. Because they had been treated like slaves in Egypt. They were being bossed about and told what to do.

[9:25] And God had rescued them. God had rescued them from slavery. He had taken them away from all their enemies. And you know, that's what God does with us. God rescues us.

[9:38] He delivers us. He saves us from our enemies. He saves us from our sin. Because Jesus, He came to release us from slavery, from bondage, by trusting in Him and following Him and bearing fruit.

[9:57] But in our biblical fruit bowl, we not only have apples and grapes and raisins and figs and melon and cucumber, we also have pomegranates.

[10:12] Pomegranates. I don't know if you've seen one of these before. It's quite a big fruit. It's hard on the outside and it's soft on the inside. And they're mentioned all over the Bible.

[10:24] But in particular, a pomegranate is mentioned with the high priest. And you've heard that word before. The high priest, he was like the highest ranking minister in Israel.

[10:36] It's the best way to describe it. And he would have to go, the high priest would have to go into God's most holy presence in order to make sure that God's people were forgiven. And he would go into God's holy presence on one day in the year, once a year, on a special day called the Day of Atonement.

[10:58] And on that day, the high priest would make sure that God's people were forgiven. But on the bottom of the high priest's coat, he would wear this massive coat, huge coat, and on the bottom there would be bells that go ding-a-ling-a-ling.

[11:15] I'm sure you've had one before. You've seen one. There would be bells and there would be pomegranates. There would be bells and pomegranates. And as the high priest walked about, as he walked about, they would hear ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling, all the bells going.

[11:30] And they would know that the high priest is around. But you know, the Bible calls Jesus our great high priest. He's our great high priest.

[11:42] Because Jesus, he's better than all the old high priests that were in the Old Testament. Because Jesus had no sin. He had no sin. He never did anything wrong.

[11:54] He was perfect. And when he died, he went into God's holy presence and he forgave all our sin. That's what he did on the cross. All our past sins, our present sins, and all our future sins.

[12:10] That's what he did. Jesus provided forgiveness. All our sins were forgiven. And that's what the Bible promises to us. If we confess our sin, God will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[12:26] Okay? And so in a biblical fruit bowl, it's emptying slowly, we have an apple, grapes, raisins, figs, melon, cucumber, pomegranates, and then we also have these things.

[12:42] I hope they don't fall out. These are olives. Little olives. Now, I don't like this fruit at all. I don't like them.

[12:52] Maybe you do, but I really can't go near them. I just, ugh, don't like them. Anyway, the Bible speaks about them quite a few times. It speaks about them quite a lot because the Bible speaks about a place called the Mount of Olives.

[13:06] The Mount of Olives, which was a mountain outside Jerusalem and it's mentioned in the Bible in relation to Jesus because Jesus, he prayed to his father on the Mount of Olives and Jesus was betrayed by Judas and the chief priests and he was arrested by them when he was on the Mount of Olives and Jesus, when he ascended to heaven, he was on the Mount of Olives.

[13:31] But the Bible also speaks about olives as a symbol of blessing. And that's what children are described as in the Bible because in Psalm 128, which we're going to sing in a wee while, Psalm 128, in that Psalm we're told that children are like olive plants.

[13:55] They're like olive plants. That's how the Bible describes you. it calls you a little olive plant. And what the Bible means by that is that you are a little blessing.

[14:09] You're a little blessing to those in your family and you're a blessing to those in your home. And that's what God thinks of you. You're a little blessing.

[14:20] You are precious. You're valuable. You're to be cherished. You're a blessing. So remember that. Remember that, boys and girls. You're a blessing.

[14:31] You're a blessing. So I'll put this one over here. So, in our Biblical fruit bowl, we've looked at apples with the apple of God's eye.

[14:45] There's grapes. We have to be connected to the true vine. There's raisins and figs, which means that we have to thank God for all that we have.

[14:55] and there's also melon and cucumber, which indicates that we need to be freed from slavery to sin. There's pomegranates.

[15:06] Jesus is our great high priest who forgives us all our sin. And then we have olives, that you're a little blessing to your family. But last of all, in our Biblical fruit bowl, which is now empty, we have oranges.

[15:22] We have oranges. And I hope you still all have your oranges with you. If you picked one up, you've got one, yeah? But I must tell you that even though all this fruit is mentioned in the Bible, the apple, the grapes, the figs, the raisins, the cucumber, the melon, the pomegranates, and the olives, oranges are not mentioned in the Bible.

[15:46] Okay? Oranges are not mentioned in the Bible. But a particular kind of fruit is. And that's why we have the orange. Because this fruit is called, as we were just reading, it's called the fruit of the Spirit.

[16:03] And that's what we're reading about in Galatians chapter 5. It says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

[16:18] But we must notice, it doesn't say fruits, it doesn't say fruits like all this fruit, it just says fruit. Just says fruit. Because all of these things, they have to make up one fruit.

[16:34] Just one fruit. And that's what the Bible is telling us that we need to be like. We need to be like an orange. Okay? So we all need to be like an orange. And we have to have all these little segments in our heart.

[16:50] They have to be part of us. Okay? So we have to have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

[17:03] And they have to be part of us. So let's take our orange. You don't have to do it just now. You don't have to start peeling it just now. But the first, I've peeled mine, just so you know.

[17:15] I didn't want to make a mess. So all the segments inside it. And you take the first one and we'll call it love. Love.

[17:26] First part of the fruit of the spirit is love. Which means that we have to be loving. We have to be loving. Because the Bible teaches us that we are to love one another.

[17:37] Aren't we? We're to love one another. I'm seeing some of you eating your fruit. We have to be, we have to love one another. We're not to hate people. We're not to be angry with people or hurt them. But we're to love them.

[17:49] But we're not only to love people. Love people in our family and friends and our neighbours. We have to love God. We have to love God. That's the greatest commandment.

[18:00] Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul and all your strength. And your neighbour as yourself. We're to love God because he loves us.

[18:12] And as you know, God loves us so much that he gave his son for us. So love. So don't make a mess. Then we have joy. Joy.

[18:25] We're to be joyful. We're to rejoice. Sometimes it's hard to be joyful because there are things which upset us. And it could be things at home that upset us or things in school or things amongst our friends that upset us.

[18:42] and they make us really sad. But the Bible says that it's okay to be upset. It's okay to be upset. There's a time to be upset and a time to be happy.

[18:55] But the joy which we're to have is a joy that is everlasting. A joy that never changes. We might get upset or sad but this joy it's forever because it's the joy of knowing and trusting in Jesus as our saviour.

[19:12] It's the joy of knowing that our sins are forgiven. It's true lasting joy. I hope that we all have that joy. That special joy.

[19:23] Not only when we're in church but every day. Every day to have this joy. The joy of knowing Jesus and loving Jesus and following Jesus. So joy.

[19:34] We have love, joy, then peace. Peace. We're to be peaceful. We're to be peaceful. We're not to argue or cause fights or cause trouble.

[19:49] We're to be peaceful. God wants us to be peaceful. And that means we're to be peaceful with our brothers or our sisters and we're to be peaceful with our friends and our teachers, even our teachers and our mums and dads.

[20:04] We're to be peaceful. Jesus says that we're not only to be peaceful but we're to be peacemakers too. Peacemakers.

[20:15] Which means that when we fall out with people, when we have an argument, we have a wee fight, we're to be peacemakers. We're to go and say sorry and make peace. And you know what Jesus says about that?

[20:28] He says that when we do that, when we say sorry, and it's hard for us to say sorry, isn't it? When we say sorry, Jesus says you're blessed. Blessed are the peacemakers he says, for they shall be called the children of God.

[20:43] And so, we have peace, love, joy, peace and then patience. Patience. We're to be patient. Not a patient, which is someone in the hospital, but we're to have patience.

[20:58] We're to wait for things. We're to be patient. We're not to come to our mummy and daddy and say all the time, I want, I want, I want, I want, I want. We have to be patient. We have to wait.

[21:08] We have to wait. And we have to ask God for things too. We have to ask God for help if we're struggling. We have to ask God for guidance if we need direction.

[21:20] We have to ask God for healing if we're sick. And we're to wait upon God. We have to be patient. We have to be patient. So, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness.

[21:33] Kindness. You all know what it is to be kind. I'm sure you do. To share things, to be polite, to say please, to say thank you.

[21:45] Because we're not to be grabbing things. And we're not to be keeping things to ourselves and be greedy. We're to be kind. Just like Jesus was kind. He was so kind, he was willing to give up his own life that we would have our sins forgiven.

[22:01] So, we ought to thank God for such a wonderful gift. The gift of eternal life. So, kindness. We have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness.

[22:15] Now, how many of you are told when you go out of the house, be good? How many of you are told that when you leave the house in the morning or whatever you're going, your mummy or daddy or even the teacher says, be good now?

[22:29] Well, I have lots of times. I was told that and I'm still being told that. And that's because I keep doing bad things. And I do the wrong thing. And I say the wrong thing.

[22:41] But God tells us that we ought to be good. We have to have goodness in our life. And so we have to listen to what we're being told by our mummy or our daddy or our teacher.

[22:52] But especially we have to listen to what God is saying. To listen to what God is saying. We have to obey God's word. We have to be good and listen to God. And that's very hard to do.

[23:03] It's not easy to listen. We want to do our own thing. But God promises that if we ask, he will help us. So goodness, we are to be good. So love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

[23:20] Faithfulness. We're to be faithful. When I was growing up, lots of people had a dog. And they all called their dog Jealous. That's what they called their dog.

[23:32] Which I think, if I'm wrong, I'm sure I'll be corrected. It means faithful. And they called their dog Jealous because the dog was obedient.

[23:43] It was a sheep dog and it was obedient to its owner, to its master. It was faithful. And that's what we have to be too. We have to be faithful.

[23:53] faithful. We're being asked in the Bible to be obedient and faithful to our parents, to honour them, and also to be obedient to God, to be faithful to God.

[24:04] So we aren't to do what we want to do. We have to be obedient. Okay? So faithful. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness.

[24:17] You have to be gentle. Not rough, not fighting with our brothers and sisters, but gentle. Just like Jesus is. Jesus describes himself as one who is gentle and humble in heart.

[24:34] And we're to be like Jesus. We're to be gentle. Really gentle. So love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness.

[24:46] And the last one, self-control. The last segment, self-control. And self-control means to be in control. To be in control.

[24:58] If a car is out of control, it goes off the road. So we have to be in control. We have to be in control of our temper. That's a hard one, isn't it? We have to be in control of our tongue.

[25:10] That's an even harder one, isn't it? And we have to be in control of our attitude, not stomping around the house. We have to be in control. Self-control. It's to do all of the above.

[25:24] To have self-control is to show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness. That's hard.

[25:35] That's really hard. But that's what the Bible means when it says that we are to bear fruit in our lives. We're to produce fruit, not fruit like all of this here.

[25:46] but we're to produce the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

[25:57] We're to produce it all. And so in our biblical fruit bowl, which is now empty, we've looked at apples. We're the apple of God's eye.

[26:09] Grapes, we are to be connected to the vine, connected to the true vine. we've looked at raisins and figs, which means that we are to give thanks to God for all his good gifts.

[26:21] We've got melons and cucumber, which means that we've been freed from slavery to sin. We've got pomegranates, Jesus is our high priest. We've got olives, which means that we are a blessing to our family.

[26:36] And we've also got our orange. We've got our orange. We're told to be like oranges, to bear the fruit of the Spirit. We're to have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

[26:56] It's a lot of fruit in the Bible, isn't it? There's a lot in there. But you know what Jesus said? Jesus said, I am the true vine, you are the branches.

[27:08] whoever abides in me, I will abide in him. Whoever is connected to me, I am connected to them. And he says that they will bear much fruit, lots of fruit, not like this, but the fruit of the Spirit.

[27:24] And he says, apart from me, you can do nothing. Without me, you can do nothing. And so, boys and girls, mummies and daddies, grannies and shenners, we need to be connected to Jesus.

[27:39] We need to be connected to Jesus by trusting in him and following him and bearing fruit. And when we do, we will bear fruit in our lives.

[27:50] When we are connected to Jesus, we will bear fruit in our lives to God's glory. So let's all make sure that we bear fruit in our lives to God's glory.

[28:03] So thank you for listening. You did very well. We'll just close in a word of prayer. Gracious God, we give thanks to thee for the reminder of thy word.

[28:13] Thy word that is so precious. It is so relevant to us. And help us, Lord, to trust in Jesus, to be connected to him for time and for eternity, to know that he is the true vine, and that he calls us to be his friends, that he says greater love has no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends, that you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you.

[28:39] Help us, Lord, to respond to the command to come, to come and to taste and see that the word good, to trust in thee and be blessed. Go before us, we pray.

[28:50] Bless us in the remainder of the service and do us good for Jesus' sake. Amen. Amen. So we're going to sing this time in Psalm 128.

[29:04] Psalm 128. That's in the Scottish Sauter. And after we sing this psalm, I'll pronounce a benediction, so remain standing, I'll pronounce a benediction, and then we'll do the prize giving.

[29:20] So when we do the prize giving, you can try and squeeze out and come to the front or I'll try and find you. Please put up your hand, because I'll never be able to see you.

[29:32] So Psalm 128, this is the psalm that talks about being like olives, where blessings, children are blessings to God. So Psalm 128, page 420, we must sing the whole psalm.

[29:49] Blessed is each one that fears the Lord, and walketh in his ways. For off thy labour thou shalt eat, and happy be always. Thy wife shall as a fruitful vine by thy house sides be found, thy children like to olive plants about thy table round.

[30:05] The whole psalm of Psalm 128, to God's praise. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[30:15] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[30:38] Amen. I believe always thy watcher have a good woman By thy heart's signs be found Thy children lie through all the past As thy table run Behold the man that fears the Lord That's blessed shall he be

[31:39] The Lord above the Zion give This blessing unto thee Thou shalt Jerusalem's good people As long as well Thou shalt thy children see And peace of Israel The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and forevermore. Amen.

[32:42] Amen. Thank you.