At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, He gives a lesson on a mountainside. There is a great crowd of people around Him, and they are all attentive to what this Messiah has to say. For the Jews, they believed that Jesus was here to free them from Roman occupation and rule, restoring them to political power and peace, and reigning over them victoriously whilst pouring out spiritual and material blessings over His chosen people the Jews. But in Matthew 5, the beginning of what has more popularly become known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus sets a very different tone than what the Jewish people assumed of a Messiah for generations. Instead, Jesus lays out more of a foundation to discipleship; what daily life looks like for someone who belongs to the Kingdom of Heaven, and how His followers should ethically live.

Hey Pops, It’s been weighing on my heart that I’m not necessarily the best “evangelist” of your gospel. Sure, I post devotions, I serve at church, and I try to live my life to glorify you, but I think I mostly fall short. Am I quick to share your Word with my friends? With my family? And not just the synopsis that the world already knows: That you were born, died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the grave to save us. I’m talking about something deeper, more mature. Do I encourage my friends and family to seek out the true Gospel?

For the past 8 weeks, we’ve been discussing the Fruits of the Spirit and why they are so fundamental to our Christian walks. Thus far, we’ve found the unique differences between kindness, goodness, and gentleness– turns out they’re not reiterations of each other– and unpacked the deep nuances of those tried and true Fruits like love, joy, and peace. Which brings us to the final Fruit to make the list: self-control, something that is both frustratingly essential and yet hard to refine within us simply because it is so contrary to sinful nature.

So what makes goodness different from kindness? Aren’t they the same thing? I used to feel the same way. The short answer is, they are similar but not the same. In Galatians, the Greek word for kindness is chrestotes, like we learned last week, but goodness is derived from the word, agathosune. Where kindness means serviceable or helpful in a tender, concerned way, goodness means “virtue equipped at any point,” or a more righteous integrity.

Patience. No one likes talking about patience. Love? Joy? Peace? Those are all Fruits of the Spirit that people love talking about, but patience? Pass. In truth, patience is a hard virtue to work on, because it’s one season of life’s seasons we’d all rather avoid; but at the same time, we can’t cultivate patience within ourselves if we are never challenged to wait.

Last week, love. This week, joy. I think this Fruit of the Spirit is a little taken for granted. I’m not sure many people would come out and say, “I have an issue with joy,” or “I find it hard to be joyful.” But I think that’s because we have a misunderstanding of what joy truly is.

This weekend, I ran across a video from Jackie Hill Perry, an author, poet, and awesome teacher of the Word. She posted a live video in her car talking about the dangers of how we, as Christians, crave the power of God. Now it’s important to preface this whole devotion with this: asking God for His power is not bad in the slightest– something Jackie made overly clear as she was speaking. There is nothing wrong in asking God for the power to confront something, to overcome something, or so that He can receive the glory and honor from it. I guarantee, that’s something we’ve all done.

The day of Pentecost… In summary, a group of people gathers in one place, with one goal. Suddenly, God’s Spirit comes down and confuses their language. From there, the people scatter into the world. Does this remind you of a different Bible story? For me, I immediately go back to Genesis 11: The Tower of Babel. Think about it; a group of people gathered together with one goal– to build a city with a tower that reaches into the heavens– and God comes down to confuse their language and they end up scattered over the face of the Earth.

Yes, here we are again– with the woman at the well. I’m telling you, I haven’t been able to get her out of my head for the last two weeks. Every time I go to pray or worship, I begin at the same place, “Jesus, I drink from you right now.” And it’s so beautiful because it’s really that easy. We don’t have to beat the ground with our fist. We don’t have to thrash and prove our worship worthy of living water.

When we enter into a relationship with God, we truly learn about ourselves. Being in union with our creator forces us to be self-aware and allows us to evolve into our true identity each and every day. In this process, we sometimes face a lot of hard truths about who we are and how we can act. We see the ugly that lies within us.

How often do we limit our capacity to worship Jesus? Let me be more specific: how often do we categorize worship neatly into a box for Sunday morning church service or a special playlist on our phones? In all reality, worship goes much farther than ambient music or beautiful lyrics. Worship is a lifestyle. It is something that should be fully integrated into Christian life.

Well, guys, we made it. This is the end, and I could think of no better way to wrap up this Armor of God series than to talk about the only weapon we’ve been given. It also turns out, it’s the only weapon we’ll ever need: the Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. First of all, sword imagery is found all over the Bible. From Genesis, when God placed an angel with a sword of fire at the gates of Eden after the fall, to Revelation, where it says a sharp sword will come from Jesus’ mouth to strike down nations– swords are used as a vehicle to explain things in the heavens and on earth.