SERMON: The Fruit of the Spirit: Peace and Self-Control

These past weeks we have talked about the fruits that are produced in our lives through the Holy Spirit. Now we come to final two on our list and they really fit together—those of peace and self-control.

It is a fact that as we grow older, as we create a bank full of life experiences, that we learn to be more self-controlled in areas of our lives and we learn to find ways to bring peace into our hearts and into our life experiences. In Philippians 4:4-7, “⁴ Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! ⁵ Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. ⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

Paul begins this section with the importance of keeping a level of joy and praise in your life. Joy and praise partner with prayer and the invitation to not allow the anxieties of life to overtake you. Through prayer you open the door to a peace that is beyond our own natural understanding.

This peace is an inner tranquility mediated by the Holy Spirit. It involves a firm conviction that Jesus is near and that God’s love will be active in our lives for good. When we lay our troubles before God in prayer, this peace will stand guard at the door of our hearts and minds, preventing the cares and heartaches of life from upsetting our lives and undermining our hope in Christ.

The Hebrew word for peace is shalom. It has a basic meaning of harmony, wholeness, well-being and success in life. It expresses completeness or tranquility of soul that is unaffected by outward circumstances or pressures.

When a person is dominated by peace, there is a calm, inner stability that results in the ability to conduct oneself peacefully, even in the midst of circumstances that would normally be very nerve-racking, traumatic, or upsetting.

Isaiah 26:3 says, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”

One prime example of this is found in Acts 27—The Apostle Paul was on a ship that was being dangerously tossed back and forth by the raging waves of the sea. In fact, the storm was so severe that Acts 27:14-15, “¹⁴ But the weather changed abruptly, and a wind of typhoon strength (called a “northeaster”) burst across the island and blew us out to sea. ¹⁵ The sailors couldn’t turn the ship into the wind, so they gave up and let it run before the gale.”

In the midst of all this hopelessness, Paul stood up and told the men on the ship to be of good cheer because God has spoken to him. Paul had heard from the Lord, which caused a supernatural peace to rise up on the inside of him. Paul, because of the peace in his heart, was able to be a rock in the middle of a very serious situation. His peace brought strength to everyone on that ship.

Just like love and joy, kindness and goodness, this kind of peace is produced by the Holy Spirit. When a person is dominated by this kind of peace, there is a sense of rule of order in the middle of chaos. There is a calm, inner stability that happens even though the circumstances are traumatic etc.

But how is this peace produced in our lives—by the Holy Spirit. It is by yielding ourselves to the work of the Spirit in our lives. It is spending time in God’s Word and letting it take root in your mind and in your heart. Like the words of Isaiah, it is keeping your mind set on God and His promises. The Apostle Paul said to LET the peace of Christ rule in  your hearts.

In Psalm 16 the Psalmist help us to have some insight into how our viewpoint should be in our day to day walk in Christ…

1.     verse 2—I said of the Lord, You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing. This is recognition of the Lordship of Christ in your life. Giving God the praise and glory in all things.

2.     Verse 7—I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. Jesus said that he would send a counselor, the Holy Spirit, who will teach you all things concerning Jesus.

3.     Verse 8-9—I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body will also rest secure. Recognizing God’s continual presence and that the Lord knows the way that you take is vital in establishing the fruits of the Spirit that we are talking about this morning.

4.     Verse 11—You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Developing this fruit in your life takes time. The seed is planted in you but it only grows as you allow the Spirit of God to work in your life. One must spend time in the God’s presence in order to gain that which the Spirit desires for each of us.

Ephesians tells us that Jesus is our Peace. He has won the battle and now His strength, His presence, His endurance enables us to go forward knowing that the peace of God is ours already—we only need to allow it to penetrate our hearts and minds and bring us to that place of rest in our hearts and minds.

Tagged onto the tail of peace is self-control! But self-control comes from a compounded Greek word which means in control, and denotes power over one’s self. It suggests the control or restraint of one’s passions, appetites, and desires.

Just as a gentle person can control their attitude, a person with self-control has power over their appetites, physical urges, passions, and desires. It is the Holy Spirit’s work in this area that produces the ability to prevent excesses in anything in our life. A person with self-control maintains a life of moderation and control.

If the flesh is allowed to have its way, it will over-worry, overwork, overeat, overindulge, overspend and literally run itself to death. But when a person is controlled by the Spirit, God’s Spirit produces in us a discipline over the physical realm that helps us maintain and live a life that is moderate and balanced.

It is easy to look at our lives and see what areas are in balance and what are not. We all have areas where we need to exercise greater self-control. We all have weaknesses.

Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I know longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

That is why it is so crucial for all of us to take these verses in Galatians 5 and to see what works of the flesh we are letting run rampant in our lives and what areas God’s fruit growing in us. This is a time for self-reflection and a time to cry out to God for help in those areas where we are weak and praise God for those areas where we are strong. We all need God’s strength and help in our lives to live lives that please the Lord.

Hebrews 12 tells us that God comes in His grace and mercy and disciplines us. The very reason for that is so that we can grow and be more like Him. No, it isn’t pleasant at times, but like the Scripture says, it eventually, as we yield to the work of the Spirit in us, produces peace and righteousness in our lives.

The journey of life is a lifelong test of faith. It is a journey that must be walked out with perseverance and patience. It is a race per se, that is run knowing that when we come against an obstacle, we must trust the Lord to provide for us the strength we need to say no to sin, to find strength in the times of testing and trial, and to find a place of peace and rest in Christ alone.

We do this by fixing our eyes on Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. He is our example. And it is the work of the Holy Spirit to work in our lives day by day, creating in us the character of Christ, so that Christ alone would be glorified in our lives. 

The fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—against such things there is no law…in other words, you and are I free to partake of all these “fruits”, and to have our fill to overflowing in our lives so that our lives show forth the love of Christ to one another and to those outside of these doors.

These past weeks we have been talking about common sense in a crazy world. How we are to be in this world and how the Holy Spirit helps us and develops in us the character of Christ. Paul tells us in the book of Corinthians that we are being changed from glory to glory into the image of Christ. God is always at work in us and we need to respond to Him and allow this work to happen in our lives.

As I was thinking this week on how to end this series, Micah 6:8 came to my mind and I think this scripture simply wraps all of this up: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Friends, let us walk in the Spirit on a daily basis, allowing the Lord to work in us daily—not only for His glory but for our benefit as well. Loving one another, caring for one another, and encouraging one another in the faith. If we do these things, we can fully sing our next hymn, truly my prayer is that each of you will experience this deep wonderful peace that only the Lord can bring into our hearts and minds.