Ep 70 Decoding Galatians 5:22-26: The Fruit of the Spirit - An Etymological Discussion (Guest: Brandon Pittman) - Real Bible Stories - A Bible Study Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Imran (00:05):
Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories.
Join us as we deep dive intothe historic, religious,
cultural, political andemotional context surrounding
the real lives of real people inthe Bible and the stories we've
all grown to love.
Hello and welcome back to thisepisode of Real Bible Stories.

(00:27):
I'm your host, Emron Ward.
We are joined by my wife,Selena Cruz.
Hello, Our teacher, Pastor RyanBrown.
Hello everyone and our friendlyneighborhood, Brandon Pittman.

Brandon (00:38):
Hello, glad to be here.

Imran (00:40):
Yeah, so Brandon's joining us from our church.
And before we even get intointroducing Brandon, I want to
apologize because it's beenprobably about four, maybe five
weeks now since we've got anepisode out.
Three weeks no, it's been morethan three weeks.

Ryan (00:54):
It was three.
I think it's now four.
I think it's now four.

Imran (00:57):
Yeah, so I, we came together to record an episode
and after all was said and donetwo hours later.
Two hours later, I go back toedit it and like we're finally
going to get this out, andsomething happened with the file
and it's corrupted.
So we are now going to gothrough this again.
But the fun part is that withlike two days after we recorded
it, I was like that was so good.

Selena (01:18):
I'm down to here to get ready for it.

Imran (01:20):
I'm ready to hear this.

Ryan (01:21):
And now we got Brandon with us to even I'm so excited.

Brandon (01:24):
Thank you guys.

Imran (01:25):
Yeah, and Ryan's on daddy duty right now too, so he's got
his two boys over in the otherroom jamming out in the in the
home theater.

Selena (01:32):
So we got a full house tonight.

Imran (01:33):
Yeah, selina made him popcorn and everything.
Hopefully they'll only disturbus every 15 minutes.

Ryan (01:38):
You know, not every five.
You may just hear himquarreling in the background.
Just ignore it.

Imran (01:41):
Yeah, if you're any fighting going on, I promise you
we're going to stay in thespirit here.

Ryan (01:45):
We're going to let them be of children, of the flesh out
there.
Yeah, I'm going to grow andmature and then we'll deal with
it later.

Imran (01:51):
All right, so before we get into it, brandon, what
brings you to 29 poms?

Brandon (01:57):
Well, I am with the Marine Corps.
I've been stationed here since2019.
I've been here off.
Wait a minute 2019.

Imran (02:06):
That's five years.

Brandon (02:08):
Yes.

Ryan (02:09):
Oh he thought they, he thought he was leaving like two
years ago.
I cannot stay away and weprayed and prayed, and prayed as
a, as a Deacon body andleadership team, that he keeps
him and his wife here.
For those who remember,brandon's wife was on the
podcast ones.

Imran (02:26):
Yeah, triss, triss.
Oh right, it was when I was inthe field.

Ryan (02:30):
Yeah, it was one of the parables we did.
But yeah, his wife has been onso we've been doing this for a
while.

Imran (02:37):
That that was like a year ago.
That's kind of kind of awesome.

Brandon (02:40):
So, yeah, I enjoyed my time here.
I love being part of the church, really really excited to get
involved and stuff like that.
So glad to be here.

Imran (02:52):
How long have you been listening to the podcast?

Brandon (02:54):
I have actually been listening to the podcast since,
since I was able to find you onStitcher.

Ryan (03:02):
Unfortunately, stitcher is no longer.

Brandon (03:04):
So I had a little gap in between.
But I found you on anotherpodcast service.
I'm not sure what it is, butthey found it.

Imran (03:12):
Oh, where'd it go?
So, we're, yeah, so we'reeverywhere.
So Spotify, apple podcasts,google podcasts, audible we're
on audible.
That's a cool thing.
So we're on iHeartRadio.
I don't even know how you pickepisodes on iHeartRadio, but
it's actually one of our biggerfollowings, so anywhere where
podcasts can be found.

Selena (03:31):
And I wanted to mention too that Brandon is a Deacon at
Pompoms.

Imran (03:34):
Baptist Church, absolutely.

Selena (03:36):
And you are with the widows.

Brandon (03:39):
Yes, for lack of a better term, widows.
Some people don't like it, butyes, widows ministry.

Imran (03:44):
Well, I don't know what's the other church, so the.

Ryan (03:47):
Deacon, the Deacon ministry at our church we have
different committees, orcommittees and or people who are
lead.
So Brandon came in after KirkCompton died and he took over
the widow and orphan committeefor the Deacons.
So every Deacon in our churchis assigned a widow or an orphan

(04:09):
, at least one.
Most of us have what Two, someof us have three, but Brandon
manages all that.
So we make sure that, hey, arethe widows being taken care of
the way they should?
What issues are there?
Can we just special pot ofgiving that the church has for
widows and orphans that we theyrun into a hard time.

Imran (04:28):
What's that like?

Brandon (04:29):
So it's a little involved.
It's just you're talking topeople, making sure that you
know you're getting updates andtaking care of their needs there
.
So it's not bad, because we,like I, love to give love, to
help people, so it's actuallyvery rewarding.

(04:49):
And I feel like most peoplewould agree with that, so yes,
and you help and leaveites right.

Ryan (04:56):
But I think the most important thing, and we just
can't skim over this, you know,fellow Deacon, brother and
taking care of widows andorphans and all that is, you
know, but Brandon is the back toback church, pot luck.

Imran (05:15):
I like that.
Yes, this is very true.
He's very proud.

Ryan (05:17):
He got the trophy again, andy.
I think he fasted for threedays preparing to take you on
and he put up a good fight.

Imran (05:27):
but he didn't make it yeah still outmatch, so yeah, I
was calling you out too duringthe day.

Selena (05:33):
He's like you're ready, You're ready.

Imran (05:35):
Underdog rivalry is like an anime.

Ryan (05:38):
watching the anime, I did it last year and I remember
about throwing up in my mouthprobably three times, halfway
through, looking down at my pie,realizing that it didn't even
look like I ate any of that.

Imran (05:51):
You're not that guy.
Look at that.
You're not that guy.

Ryan (05:53):
And I'm like this year.
I was like there's no way.
There's no way to put my bodythrough that, because I already
know.

Selena (05:58):
Wow.

Ryan (05:58):
Yeah, Brandon has it.

Imran (06:00):
That's good.
You looked at that pie and yourealized you're not that guy, so
you grew.

Ryan (06:04):
Anyways, I'm glad you're here though, Brandon.

Imran (06:06):
We've been trying to get you on for a while.

Brandon (06:07):
So I'm glad we were able to make it.

Imran (06:08):
Yeah, I'm glad you like, like Ryan hit us up like
yesterday.
It's like Brandon, come on,like come on over, then he hit
up.
I think it was yesterday too.
He's like I got to bring thekids, like send it.

Ryan (06:19):
We're all about it, we're all here, so yeah.

Imran (06:21):
And this.
So, like I said in thebeginning, um, this is our
second time going through it,but at the same time it's it was
so palatable that I'm superexcited to go through it again,
because this was actually theepisode that I've been waiting
for for months and I know youall have been waiting for months
as well with me.
And we had this three weekdelay where Ryan spent some time

(06:41):
in Quantico because he got anew job and transitioned to a
new position, so he had to kindof get settled with that.
And then we had youth Sundayand that was a huge thing at the
church as well, so had all theyouth kind of all think you had
over 30 youth participating inthat event by the time.

Ryan (06:55):
All the sudden done.
Actively participating.
Yeah, that's right, all right.
30.

Imran (06:59):
Yeah, about 30, 30 youth within our church, which is what
age group like, 12 to 18 typeof thing.

Ryan (07:04):
Yeah, so our youth group goes from junior high to high
school.

Imran (07:07):
So junior high to high school that we're all
participating in Um, they'rerunning lights, they're running
sound, they were performing onstage, they were handing out
cars, they were greeting people,they were seating people, they
were doing everything and thatwas super awesome.
So if you're looking foropportunities to get involved,
if you're looking foropportunities for your family to
get involved like palms isalive and well, if you're in the
29 palms area, come check outpalms.
But we're alive and well.

(07:27):
But let's dive in to thisweek's episode of real Bible
stories and where are we goingto be reading through reading
from this week?

Ryan (07:35):
So we're going to be in Galatians five and let's see you
start in verse 22 all the wayuntil the end of the chapter.
So, uh, as is customary, Briangets to lead us in our scripture
reading.
How's?

Imran (07:46):
this tradition.

Brandon (07:46):
Just just.

Ryan (07:47):
I have to say this last thing too about Brandon, because
I just want to prepareeverybody.
He has the best Bible readingvoice on the planet.
I mean you put him and MorganFreeman side by side.
You're often for Brandon, soI'm just you're all about to be
blessed, all right, thank you Um.

Imran (08:04):
I read from the King James so oh, and we get the good
oh boy.

Brandon (08:08):
All right, I'm joking here we go, start your poetry,
all right, but the fruit of thespirit is love, joy, peace, long
suffering, goodness, faith,meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law,and they that are Christ have
crucified the flesh withaffections and lust.

(08:30):
If you live in the spirit, letus also walk in the spirit.
Let us not, uh, let us not bedesires of vainglory, provoking
one another and envying oneanother.

Imran (08:47):
Go ahead and read like verse 22 for me again real quick
.
I just want to hear that onemore time.

Brandon (08:53):
But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long
suffering, goodness, goodness,faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law.

Imran (09:05):
All right, so we're going to bottle that up.
That's going to we're going tocut that right there.
That's going to be a ringtone.

Ryan (09:09):
We're going to go through.

Selena (09:10):
So, your text tones right there.
Oh my gosh, that was fantastic.

Ryan (09:14):
I told you goosebumps.

Imran (09:15):
Man.
All right, so I think thepodcast is actually done.
Thanks y'all for coming.

Ryan (09:19):
That's all you needed.

Imran (09:20):
We're good.
All right, ryan, now you got to.
You got to keep up with hisvoice.
I know I got to get focused now, okay, so so it's obviously
been a couple of weeks.

Ryan (09:28):
So, um, probably want to hurt, just to remind everybody
where we're coming from.
So we just came out of theepisode where we talked about
acts of the flesh.
Um, very straightforward, right, we was just like this big
Bible.

Imran (09:40):
It was like a great kind of word analytics, yeah, word
study, um the what, let me sayit right, the etymology,
etymology, etymology, yeah,awesome.

Ryan (09:50):
And we're going to do more of that tonight.
But um, it's important toremember, though, that he went
in and first describes that theacts of the flesh are obvious,
right, like he says, and hegives a list of about 19 things
and he says, and the like, right, so there, it's not a all
exhaustive list.
He says, and the like, it'sjust, yeah, giving you examples

(10:11):
of things that are obviouslyacts of the flesh, and the idea
is that if you're walking in thespirit, you're not walking in
the flesh, and here are acts ofthe flesh.
So this piece of text is nowrunning in contrast right To
acts of the flesh, but what'sinteresting is that he doesn't
like if I were to write this,right, I would say here are acts
of the flesh and now here areacts of the spirit, right?

Imran (10:34):
Your things you could do.
Right, I can't keep itcomparable right.

Ryan (10:37):
But he does this switch where you said.
He calls one thing an act, sothis is something you do, that's
in the flesh.
Then he switches here and saysbut here's the fruit of the
spirit.
So one is an act, the other henow replaces and says this is a
fruit.

Imran (10:51):
Yeah, it's like the results instead of the, instead
of the action itself is likeright.

Ryan (10:56):
So I think just like a just a few things with this
right One, because I think it'simportant to remember for people
who may start feeling convictedas we go through this list that
like hey, I don't feel like Ihave that right, I don't have
joy, I don't have peace, I don'thave you know, you know some of
the things described here asthe fruit, and it's important to

(11:19):
remember that this isindicative of walking in the
spirit right.
So it is not.
This does not mean that ifyou're like hey, I'm running
short on joy, so you wake uptomorrow morning and say I'm
going to try to be more joyfultoday, yeah, Right, I'm going to
bear the fruit of the spirit.

Imran (11:37):
I'm going to try to be joyful.
Are there so many self-helpbooks that say, like, just wake
up and tell yourself right Selfaffirmation I'm going to be
happy.

Ryan (11:44):
I'm going to be happy, I'm going to feel good.
Yes, and that is not Paul'spoint.
Paul does not want you.

Imran (11:48):
Look in the mirror and say you are worth it.
You are worth it, you are worthit.
It's like no God's worth it,right.

Ryan (11:56):
Right, well, and yeah, and that's kind of his point is
like Paul would not want you totake away from this and say, oh,
I'm not, I'm not in peace today.
So I'm going to try to bepeaceful today.
If you feel like you arestruggling with one of these
things, the answer isn't tryingto be more of that thing you're
struggling with.
I mean, that's kind of a givenright.
The answer is that you need togo back and walk in the flesh or

(12:18):
walk in the spirit.

Brandon (12:19):
Yes.

Ryan (12:20):
You need to be walking more personally, hand in hand
with the spirit, just as he kindof gives this negative like
well, what is it like not towalk in the spirit?
Well, here's acts of the flesh,and they're obvious right Now.
This is the fruit of walking inthe spirit and I think it's
important to remember too,because I think there's a lot of
people who will look at thatlist of the acts of the flesh

(12:40):
right and they may have that incheck, you know.
They may be like hey, I'm nothaving an affair or I'm not you
know drinking and I'm notgluttony and all that stuff.
Right, all those things that wedid with the.
You know I'm not all thosethings, but that doesn't
necessarily mean, though, thatyou're being patient with your,
your spouse, or gentle with yourchildren, or peaceful at work.

Imran (13:01):
You know what I'm saying Because I think we talked in the
past that, like there's plentyof people that give a lot of
money, there's plenty of peoplethat donate a lot, but they're
not doing it out of the, out ofthe results that we've been
talking about here, the fruitsof the spirit.
They're doing it out of theirown, like self gratification and
they're doing it for themselves.

Ryan (13:17):
Well, I would even say it's yeah.
I mean, yeah, there's certainlya element of that, but I think
there's also a right.
But there's also a piece wherethey they're repeating a good,
established habit from a timewhen they were walking in the
spirit.
Oh, interesting, right.
So they were walking in thespirit and they were able to
have these victories over someof those fleshly desires and

(13:40):
they got a good habit of notbeing dependent on it.
They didn't need it anymore.
But then they stopped walkingin the spirit, so they're not in
that sinful habit anymore,which is obviously good, but
they're not necessarily walkingin the spirit still, which means
that they're not demonstratingpositive fruit.

Brandon (13:56):
Right.

Ryan (13:56):
Does that make sense?

Brandon (13:58):
That makes sense.

Imran (13:59):
I appreciate.

Brandon (14:00):
I really appreciate the dichotomy when you talk about
not walking in the flesh butwalking in the spirit.
I think a lot of people don'tremember that we also have to
crucify their flesh daily, andso that allows us to then be
more sensitive to the spirit,walking in the spirit and

(14:23):
reaping those fruits.

Ryan (14:25):
That's a good point, because if you're not crucifying
the flesh every day, thenyou're kind of walking hand in
hand with both, and if I'mwalking a little bit with my
flesh still, and that's lessroom for the spirit to be there
with you.

Imran (14:38):
I want to ask you this, Brandon, we'll double down on
you.
What does it mean to crucifyyourself?
So crucifying the?

Brandon (14:47):
flesh is kind of taking a stand saying that today this
flesh is not going to dowhatever it wants.
I'm going to choose to put Godfirst, basically.
And so you're pushing down onthe flesh, You're saying no,
we're not going to do this today.

Imran (15:06):
Not today Denying yourself yeah not just in our
Dye to self and serve others.

Ryan (15:11):
I would also say it goes even deeper in the sense of
identity, where you say I amcrucifying my identity today so
I could live in the identitythat Christ has given me, that's
it Right.

Imran (15:21):
So you're saying and that's not easy?
Oh no, that is not easy at all.

Ryan (15:25):
That's why we've talked about it before, but that's why
forgiveness is the hardest thingyou'll ever do in the world,
because forgiveness is theultimate act of self-denial.
The reason you need to forgivesomebody is because somebody has
probably generally rightfullywronged you in some way and
you're offended.
You, you're right, justifiableoffense to a certain extent,
imran and the identity that youhold is offended and you say I

(15:47):
choose to forgive because I amcrucifying the identity of Imran
for the identity of ChristRight so so I like that.
I want to also kind of point out.
So in verse just starting offright, it says but the fruit of
the spirit.
So we'll just pause, right,because the reward's in.
I know, but notice how this islike one of those things where

(16:09):
you hear people say it's thebook of revelations.
You know, it's not revelations,it's revelation.
Also, if you didn't know that,it is revelation, it's a
singular revelation, with aseries of collection of about 60
visions that are given in lightof that revelation, one
revelation of Jesus Christ.
This is another one.

(16:29):
They call it fruits of thespirit, but it's not plural.
The Greek is very clear it is asingular form.
This is the fruit of the spirit.
One fruit, so he lists, I think, about nine things here around
there, but this is allcollectively the fruit right,
the singular fruit Meaning.

(16:49):
All these things areintertwined and complementary
with one another.
Right, so there's no such thingas being.
You can't be in peace withoutjoy.
Right, you cannot be joyful butbe mean, and without kindness.
Right, you can't be patient butnot gentle.

(17:12):
Right, like all these thingstogether collectively make the
singe that they're parts of asingular whole of a fruit right,
so sometimes Ithink we kind of like, oh, I'm
lacking joy, but it's like, yeah, you are lacking joy, but your
problem isn't necessarily joy.
It's because you're lackingpatience.
Because you're lacking patience, right, and that is not coming

(17:37):
to bearing light into your life,what ends up happening is that,
in the lack of patience, youend up getting in a fight with
your wife.
And then, because you're in afight with your wife, now
there's not peace in the home.
And because there's not peacein the home, there's not joy in
the home.
And it's just this whole right.
It's a cycle of pain.
That's why it's one singularfruit.
These things are interconnected.

Imran (17:56):
Yeah, I think that that's absolutely just kind of that
was a wake-up call for me whenwe were going through this
before of like no, it's not oneor the other, and if you have
two or three, you're still kindof you're still not bearing the
whole fruit.
Like you should be looking atyourself and as we go through
each of these lists becausewe're gonna do the same thing
kind of the etymology of each ofthe words.
What exactly do they mean?
What exactly is Paul gettingafter when he says each of the

(18:19):
parts that make up the wholefruit?
And if you're only gettingafter a part of it, then you're
missing the whole point.
So this is gonna be good.

Ryan (18:28):
Well, but again, though, right, it's not that you're
getting after a part of it.
What you're getting after isthe whole.

Imran (18:34):
Yeah, I'm saying if you're only getting after part
of it, you're missing the point.

Ryan (18:37):
Because the whole idea again, it's actually very simple
.
I think people get overwhelmed,like, okay, I got faith.
I feel like I have someself-control, but I'm not kind
enough or I'm not.
It's very, very simple, Likethe answer to all this is very
simple to Paul Just startwalking with the spirit, right,
the spiritual habits of arelationship.
What does that mean?
Right, Like well, how do youbuild a relationship with your

(18:59):
spouse or your children or yourcoworkers, or you know?

Imran (19:02):
you gotta talk with them, you gotta spend time with them.
Yeah, it's like oh, by the way,it's peace, love, patience,
kindness, like those are how youbuild relationships, which
we'll talk about here in asecond.

Ryan (19:11):
But before we get to that piece, I just wanted to kind of
talk through.
Just, he was very selective inusing the term fruit, right,
like Paul uses a lot ofdifferent analogies across his
texts.
He describes the church as onebody and they use different
analogies to pay in concept.
Right, he chooses fruit herefor a reason and I think if you

(19:36):
think about the differentcharacteristics of fruit, like,
what's the characteristic of afruit, you know what I mean.
It has seeds.
It has seeds and what do seedsdo, right?
So fruit comes out, I don't usethat word we tiller Right, but
it replicates itself.
It reproduces itself, right.

Imran (19:50):
Yes.

Ryan (19:51):
So fruit is reproducing of itself, meaning the more joy
you have, it can plant seeds andbe reproduced in the other
people's lives.
Right, there is a substantialdifference in the home, just
being married with kids, andwhen I'm working, life's working
, a lot of life going on.
Brandon, we were just talkingabout how your daughter is like

(20:11):
in about 80 different thingsextracurriculars right.
And when you get tired and whensomebody in that home, whether
it's one of the kids, one of theparents, right me or my wife,
if one of us is having a bad dayand we are not joyful or we are
not in the best of mood, rightthat radiates throughout the

(20:32):
home.

Imran (20:33):
Yeah.

Ryan (20:34):
But when one of you or somebody in there is just joyful
and just full of joy and it'sjust overflowing, that's
contagious to the rest of thehome, right.

Imran (20:43):
So fruit is reproducing.
It's really hard to get mad atsomeone who's just like I love
you, have a great day, andyou're like no, I want you to be
mad at me.
It's like no, but you know, Ilove you.
I love you too.

Ryan (20:52):
And I think that is kind of to me the inception of every
married fight.
If just one person in thatfight would be walking in the
spirit through that fight right,I think you probably wouldn't
fight the way you do fight.
I mean you still may have anargument but it's gonna be

(21:14):
conducted much different.
Right, but when it becomes afight, you know what I'm saying.
Like the nasty ones it's whenboth are walking in the flesh
and neither one's walking in thespirit.

Imran (21:23):
I would explain it this way that marriage is all about
negotiation, constantnegotiation.
You have to negotiateeverything.
Jordan Peterson actually talksabout this, where it's like
everything has to be negotiated.
Where does the couch go?
Where do the kids play?
Who do they play with?
You know what time are wewaking up?
How are we gonna sleep in thebed?
What are we gonna have on thebed?
What kind of bed are we gonnahave?
Every single thing has to benegotiated within the marriage,

(21:46):
and a fight is when thenegotiations break down, and now
you're no longer trying tofigure out what's the most
optimal action for the both ofus, and one person is now trying
to dominate the other and gettheir way.

Ryan (21:58):
So that is- I think that's Peterson's psychological
approach.
I think the biblical approachis submission.
So fights also happen whenbecause you're expected to
submit to one another right.
So when one stops submitting tothe other, that's when you have
these explosions, right?
And submission is walking inthe spirit right, like Dying to

(22:22):
self.
Exactly right so that and hedoesn't listen here as part of
the fruit right.
But that is what patience is.
That's what gentleness is,that's what kindness is, that's
what love is, that's what allthese things he lists go into
submission you know what I'msaying.

Brandon (22:37):
It all works together, right.

Ryan (22:38):
Yes, so yeah, we brought up so fruit reproduces, that's
by the way.
It doesn't even.
It's not even reproducing intoothers, but even within yourself
.
Right, like you get a littlebit of taste of joy in your life
and ministry or whatever Likeman, I like that and it just
starts exponentially increasingwithin you as you go right Like

(22:59):
it self-produces itself.
So the point of that thoughwhich would go into, I guess,
another point about fruit isthat fruit grows out of process.
It's not instantaneous, it'snot this big like you put the
seed in and then the very nextmorning like, oh, I got this big
apple tree right.

Imran (23:15):
Yeah, unless you play an apple tree, it's a process.

Ryan (23:17):
Yeah, it takes time.
So you gotta realize that.
You know if you're looking atlike your life, you're like man.
I'm just struggling with you.
Know some of these attributes,like start working at it right.
Like because to grow from aseed you have to water it, you
have to make sure it hassunlight you know you have to
care for it.
You know it is actually fragile.

(23:38):
That's another characteristicof fruit.
Right, it's fragile.
Exponentially more so if you'rein like an emotional desert or
in a because we're in a physicaldesert and I tell you it takes
deliberate dedicated effort, somy grass doesn't die you know,
and so think about like whereyou are as well.
The smallest bit of neglect orcomplacency will crush that
right and that's how it is outhere.

(24:00):
Like man, if I don't water thisfor three days, it just you
know it's done.

Imran (24:04):
You're like whoa, you know, but some people are in
that kind of space spirituallyand in that place emotionally.
So you have to be aware ofthose things because, like dying
to self is also self-reflectionis a part of that as well.
You know, in order to die toyourself, you have to actually
know what you're dying to.
So you have to be able toobserve yourself and see well,
what am I doing, what are myneeds, what are my desires, and

(24:25):
how do I actually die to them?
So that's its own process inand of itself.

Brandon (24:28):
Yes, yes indeed.

Ryan (24:30):
So it requires work, which means it also needs patience,
right.
But the other thing interestingthing about fruit, though, is
that it goes through seasons,right.
The trees don't produce fruitthroughout every single season.

Brandon (24:44):
Right.

Ryan (24:45):
There's a season for everything, and I think one
interesting thing is like whenyou look at the way Paul puts
forward the idea of spiritualgifts or talents.
Right, the idea isn't that weall possess those gifts and
talents.
The idea is that we can allpotentially be vessels of those
gifts or talents, but we alldon't possess them right.
And you see, that played outpractically in church, right?

(25:07):
Like Imran and Selena andBrandon and Ryan, we all have
our different gifts that webring the body to the mutual
benefit of one another, but thatdoesn't mean we all possess
those gifts, right?
So when you start talking aboutthe fruit of the spirit I don't
think it's always, I don'tthink it necessitates that
you're experiencing every bit ofthat element of fruit all at

(25:28):
the same time through you knowwhat I'm saying.
I think there's certain seasonsand Ecclesiastes even talks
about, you know, time and theplace for everything Right right
for everything.
So you may be in a season whereyou're like I just don't feel at
peace.
I was like, well, that may notbe your season, but the season
for peace in your life will come, right, it will.
But you still have to nourishthat fruit, right?

(25:50):
You can't just like, well, lifesucks, and you know, just throw
up the white flag and just kindof cope and just build this
lifestyle of coping and you juststay in this lifestyle of
coping, right, or or okay, eventranslate over into like
victimhood in a sense.
Right, like you know, there'speople who live there.

Imran (26:09):
Yeah, they're like the camp mentality, it's like I just
can't and it's like, well, ofcourse you can't, but you're
supposed to do it through Christ.

Ryan (26:14):
Right, just like do it through the spirit.

Imran (26:15):
There is a time because it's supposed to be able to on
your own, or you to mourn,trauma to mourn, you know, sad
things right.

Ryan (26:24):
But you're not meant to stay there.
That's a season.
But then, ultimately, there's aseason to which you should be
producing fruit from that trauma, right?
So you know, bad things happento you.
I think everybody in life andit's not a competition, but
whatever negative thing hasoccurred to you or happened to
you, there's a season to whereyou're like I got to mourn it, I
got to come to terms with it, Igot to figure out how to get

(26:46):
past this.
But then there's a season towhere it says now, because I'm
walking in the spirit, thattrauma is now going to produce
fruit, you know, fruit intosomebody else's life.
I want to also I know what it'slike to be a victim of sexual
assault.
I know what it's like to be avictim of rape, or I know what
it's like to Harassment or angeror To have a gross cheat on
them or to be the one whocheated on a spouse and trying

(27:09):
to live with the guilt and youknow, try to get past that.
You know what I mean.
People can go through those badseasons, but then there's a
time where you go into a seasonof producing the fruit of now.
This is to the benefit of God'sglory.

Imran (27:19):
I do also want to.
That's a testimony.
Go ahead.
I did want to also articulatethat the beautiful thing about
the body is that we're not allgoing through the same season at
the same time.
And so one of the things thatpeople tend to do when they're
really going through thattraumatic situation is they'll
retreat into themselves andthey'll become more recluse and
more isolated.
When that is when you should bepursuing the body, because it's

(27:43):
those people that are not goingthrough the same season as you,
but have gone through it or areaware of it.
Those are the ones that canpour into you and continue to
love and continue to guide you.
Those people are going to showup your house and give you food,
show up at your house and helpyou with what you need.
That's what should be happening.
That's part of why the body ishere.
That's why we are a part of thebride of Christ, and we should
be displaying these fruit, thefruit that we're talking about

(28:06):
here, so that when you're in aseason where you're not able to
produce like you want to, you'vegot those in the body that are
there to help you and supportyou through that process.

Ryan (28:17):
There's a time to feed and there's a time to be fed.
I would also say this is kindof the last piece of, just
because there's a lot ofcharacteristics of fruit.
I'm just you have peoplethinking this in this framework.
But one last thing I would alsosay is fruit is attractive and
desirable.
When you look at this listgentleness, self-control,

(28:41):
kindness, goodness, joy, peacenobody ever, like nobody in your
job right, will ever look atBrandon and say you know my
biggest problem with Brandon?
I just despise Brandon becausehe's just so kind.
You know what I mean, you knowwhat drives me crazy.

Imran (28:57):
He's just so caring.

Ryan (28:58):
Is that when the office erupts in chaos because you know
everybody's who in the hall arein about some decision that
higher, you know whatevereverybody's upset.
You see Brandon over there andhe's just full of joy and peace
and just seems to be content andmaintains just this.
You know character of just notbeing bothered by it, nobody
ever says that right.
I mean some people kind of get.

(29:19):
You know there is a real thingof some people just hating other
people's happiness.

Imran (29:25):
Yeah, the narcissist and such out there.

Ryan (29:27):
So I mean.
There's obviously exceptions,but most people right those
attributes.
That's described here isattractive.

Selena (29:33):
Yeah, most people are seeking this.

Ryan (29:36):
Exactly so.
If this is seeking, seeking it.
Oh, seeking it.

Imran (29:40):
Okay, I thought you said like Satanist and I was like I
don't think most people areSatanists, like there's books on
all of this.

Ryan (29:47):
I would say this though if you look at the modern church
at least you know, in the Westand particularly America and you
see all those outside of thechurch and a lot of their
impressions or opinions ofChristians.
Right, why are we not moreattractive to them?

Imran (30:04):
Yeah.

Ryan (30:05):
You know, it could be because A lot of Christians are
holding positions, because it'seasier to maintain a list of
things I gotta do and I gottabelieve than to walk in the
spirit.
Walking in the spirit takesdaily work.
Memorizing things is mucheasier right.
So that's lazy.
Christianity and because we'vebeen lazy, we're not doing the

(30:27):
work to actually walk in thespirit every single day and, as
Brian said earlier, recrucifyingthe flesh every single day,
we're not bearing as much fruitof the spirit as we should.
We're not as attractive topeople, right?
We all started, really justdeeply, intimately, walking in
the spirit every single day.
We would become far moreattractive to the world.
Yeah, I absolutely agree 100%.

Brandon (30:49):
You know people are looking like you were saying,
selena.
They're seeking the fruit ofthe spirit love but they don't
know what it looks like untilit's demonstrated sometimes, and
we just need to be ready to bethat person to demonstrate the
fruit of spirit for the peoplearound us Because the world is
looking for these things in thewrong places, like just the

(31:12):
first one.

Selena (31:12):
love, you know.

Ryan (31:14):
But holistically right.

Imran (31:15):
Interesting part too, before we even dive into.
That is like if we look inGalatians and actually so we
record a lot of episodes alreadywith Pastor David, where he's
gonna be doing another the nextseason with us.
One of the first ones we did ison the story of John Mark.
One of the points that hebrings up there is and it's not
an explicit point but somethingI realized is that we were
extremely attractive to peopleback then.

(31:38):
They would hear about JesusChrist and the spirit and people
, jews and Gentiles that had nobackground, or, as well, jews
had the background, but Gentileswith no background in the faith
were turning to Christianity,turning away from the desires of
the flesh, and this wassomething that they wanted.
I want to die to self.
I want to pursue.
It's like I don't really seethat.
Now I go out on the street andI start talking about Christ and

(31:59):
people don't have that.

Ryan (32:01):
You have to convince them why they want it.

Brandon (32:02):
Yeah believe me, you want this, but why do I really?

Ryan (32:05):
want this, yes, you really want this right and you have to
make this whole argument, butPaul, just go out and preach the
truth and people would listen.

Imran (32:12):
It's like okay, but it's like, what fruits was Paul
displaying when?
He or the whole church, theentire church, right At the time
that made it so attractive, andthat is something to think
about in your church.
What makes it attractive?

Ryan (32:27):
Yeah, and it should be.
These things, and again goingto the point that this is, these
are parts of a holistic wholeright.
It's a fruit of all thesethings, I think a lot of people
consciously you want to go lovepeople well, and a lot of times
they want to love them to thepoint of an effect right.
So I'm gonna love my child until, I'm just gonna love on them

(32:50):
until and just love them out ofthat drug addiction or love them
out of that toxic relationshipright, or love them to where
they just maybe their eyes areopen, they turn to Christ and
they're saved, right.
People will go lovedeliberately, love people well
with a desired effect.
But when that desired effectdoesn't happen within their

(33:12):
perceived what they would likethe appropriate amount of time
based off their own things startright.
They either stop loving themwell, or they take a different
tactic, right, and that goes tothe patient's piece, right.
That's why part of the fruit ofthe spirit is patience.
Right, you may have to lovesomebody for a decade before you
finally see that effect.
You know what I mean so, butthat's why it requires you daily

(33:33):
walking.

Imran (33:34):
I'd say my last point here, before we transition and
go to each of the pieces thatthe fruit of the spirit is
definitely not the pomp andcircumstance, the being well
dressed, the big show, thebright lights, the three songs
and a sermon right, that is notwhat makes the church the church
.
And if you thought that that'swhat makes the church the church
, you have to dress up to thenines and raise your hands in

(33:56):
worship and get a sermon andthen go about your day, and
that's what makes you the church.
That is not what makes you thechurch.

Ryan (34:01):
It is an interesting emphasis people have on fashion
and church, both positively andnegatively, and how rarely it's
actually ever mentioned inscripture in terms of worship.

Imran (34:11):
I don't even know what they wore during that time.
It's like rags.
That's a whole different thing.

Ryan (34:16):
We actually just talked about that at youth on Wednesday
, but I can't go down there holdon, we don't have time.

Imran (34:20):
All right, so that was my two cents.

Ryan (34:21):
But the fruit of the spirit is love.
Get a pause again.
Love.
Three more words.
One of the things that you'regonna see with every one of
these, if you just really thinkabout it.
Every bit of these all applyrelationally Right Like patients
, only apply as outside ofoneself.

Imran (34:41):
Yeah.

Ryan (34:42):
Right, love right.
Like obviously I can lovemyself and that's kind of.
We're actually very good atthat right, that's why Jesus?
Uses that as a metric, they sayno, the fruit of this is that
how you love others, right Peaceand kindness and goodness, all
that, it's everything here istowards others.
Relationships right.

(35:03):
And I find that very interesting, particularly because the first
one he lists here is love.
But all proper relationshipsare built off that right, it's
all built off love.
So in one sense you can almostjust say, hey, the fruit of the
spirit is love, and then therest of these are just kind of
descriptors of what love isright.

(35:24):
Well, I thought it was aboutwalking in the spirit.
Sure, who is God?
God is love, right?
So walking in the spirit meansyou're walking in love.
To be loving means you'rewalking in the spirit.
And well, what does love looklike?
Well, it looks like thesethings.
You see what I'm saying?
Yeah, how it all kind of flowstogether.

Imran (35:39):
It just kind of continues to express the character of God
and so, like, the fruit of thespirit is being God-like, and if
God is love, then it kind offollows Right, it follows.

Ryan (35:47):
So these are very relational terms, but the term
here for love is the word agape,and I think most well, not most
, but I know a lot At least somemature believers are familiar
with the four loves of Greek.
You know them, Brandon.

Brandon (36:03):
Yes, you got filet agape.
What's the other one, eros, andone more which?

Ryan (36:15):
one was that it's like adulta-wana.

Selena (36:18):
Oh yeah, what's he going to say?

Brandon (36:20):
Adulta-wana.

Ryan (36:21):
Storgae.

Selena (36:22):
Storgae.

Imran (36:22):
Yeah, yeah, storgae, that's a deacon of the church
right there, if everyone waslike name any of them, I'd be
like agape.
That's all you got.
All you'll get from me, I'msorry.
So I'm young in the faith.

Ryan (36:32):
Storgae is an affectionate love right.
So if I were to say I love mydog, I would say I storgae my
dog.
I am an affectionate love formy dog but, I, don't love my dog
the way I love my children.
I don't love my dog the way Ilove my wife.
So it's a storgae love.
Eros is a passionate love.
It's generally appliedromantically.

(36:52):
We're talking about theintimate passion between people,
right?
So when you look at Christ onthe cross, who demonstrated all
these loves, they call hiscrucifixion and that sequence
the passion, or in Greek, theEros.
This was the Eros of Christ.
Faleo is brotherly love.
We here in this room with theexception of you and Selena,

(37:14):
because you guys have themarriage- right.
But for the rest of us we areFaleo.
Right, we have a Faleo love forone another, brotherly,
sisterly love for one another.
But then agape, which is alwaysgenerally described as divine
love or godly love, and it getsthat term that's not the actual
etymology of the word it getsthat characteristic because that

(37:38):
is what the Bible says.
This is how God loved you,agape.
So it kind of adopted thatmeaning that term over time.
In terms of how it matured.
The original etymology and ideabehind agape was a love of
choice and I, just, I alwayslove the divine love.
Right, obviously, but how?

(38:00):
What does divine love mean?
And I think this provides somuch for me.

Imran (38:05):
It also removes the.
Well, I can never love Selenadivinely, but I have agape
Selena.
I do love her by choice and weeven talked about this before we
got married.
That like I love my mom, but Ilove my mom for all the reasons
that you love your mother, but Ichose to love you.

(38:25):
It's like I didn't grow up withyou.
You kind of disappeared in mylife one day in high school and
I.
That's the whole pretense ofmarriage.
Yeah, exactly I choose youExactly.

Ryan (38:36):
I agape you.
I'm choosing to love you andonly you.
Right, that is the power ofmarriage and that's agape For
some people their parents, theyhave to agape, right?
Because maybe yeah, but myfather was an alcoholic, he was
abusive, he was all these things.
You're telling me I have to golove him.
That's hard, right, you have togo agape, you have to choose,

(38:57):
constantly.
Choose to love them.
Agape assumes as a love bychoice, a non-natural love.

Imran (39:06):
So I, I mean, I don't want me to just finish this.

Ryan (39:08):
Because, you know, when Jesus says like you need to love
your enemies, right, he says ifyou only love those who love
you, even the tax collectors dothat.
That is not an agape love cause, that's a natural love.
It is natural for me to love mychildren.
It is natural for me to lovethose who are kind and loving to
me.
It is not natural for me to sayI choose to go, love ISIS,

(39:32):
right, I choose to love Russians, I choose to go.
You know what I'm saying?

Brandon (39:36):
Yeah, you have to make your conscious choice, and
you're a bad guy here, causeit's not easy.

Ryan (39:40):
It's not natural to do that based off of certain
behavior or experiences, or you?

Imran (39:44):
know what I mean, and and you don't even have to make it
that big you can say, like youmay be in a situation where your
boss is a tyrant and you're youhave a manager that just is
absolutely lording over you.
It's like, well, you need toagape them as well, because by
showing the fruit of the spiritas it'll go through it, you may
influence them over time.
That's right.
Cause in the face of that love,like how can they, just you

(40:04):
know, treat you poorly, right?

Ryan (40:07):
A love by choice, I think is very beautiful.
Right, it assumes actually notnatural, but it also tells us a
lot about the way God loved us.
If God loved us, agape, I meanhe chose to love us, meaning in
a sense it wasn't natural.
Well, why wasn't it natural?
Cause he's a holy God.
We were these dirty, nastysinners, yeah, but God says I'm

(40:29):
choosing to love them.
And this feeds into some ofthese other fruits.
Right, cause, really, if youjust look at Christ as a whole,
he's the one who demonstratedwhat it meant to walk in the
spirit.
Right, when we talk about thepistis, the faith and
faithfulness of Christ, right,that was him choosing to do so.
We didn't earn it.
right, we didn't earn any ofGod's love right we were nasty

(40:53):
people living in the garbage,but he says I'm going to choose
to love you, right, and that'swhat makes it powerful.
A lot of people, I think, feellike they have to do certain
things to earn his love.
It's like, no, he already lovesyou.
That's it.
Like he chose to love you.
Yeah, that's what a copy is andI'm sorry, Dupre.

Brandon (41:14):
No, you're right on.
We love him because he firstloved us and it was because he
had that love for us that we canshow that love to other people,
absolutely.

Imran (41:27):
Yeah, I think that that's absolutely great.
I didn't want to clarify very,very quickly, so we brought up
those different types of love.
But does the Greek?
The Greek reads as the agapelove, or where it says love in
verse 22,.
That's agape, it's agape, okay.

Ryan (41:42):
That's the word used there , as agape.
So, but the food of the spiritis love.
The next one is listed here isjoy, the Greek here is chara.
So joy is another one right.
Joy is kind of like a reallyabstract term sometimes, like
what do we mean by joy?
Happiness, it's like, well, no,not necessarily happiness, but

(42:03):
how do you define joy?

Imran (42:04):
right?
Yeah, because happiness isextremely short-sighted, it's
very fleeting.

Ryan (42:08):
It could be unless you make it synonymous with joy,
right, so I like that.
It kind of breaks it down alittle bit more here.
So the term chara for joy, theetymology of wink, is a
combination of the word char andcharo, which is really, it's, a
unique word biblically, or atleast in the Greek, because what

(42:30):
they would do then, like thisroot meant something and this
root meant something.
So if I have a new concept thatI okay, this is the concept I'm
talking about they would putthose two words together to make
the word to understand theconcept right Spanish does that?
sometimes Hebrew does that.
There's a lot of languages thatdo that, but Greek was very
defined that way and theetymology link of char and charo

(42:53):
is really joy because of or outof grace.
It is very specific.
It is a joy.
It's like saying it's a joy ofawareness and it's a joy derived
from a source with a little bitmore of a specific here of that

(43:14):
source being grace.
Joy because of grace it's theidea that you should be
constantly self-aware of thefact that what you have you
don't deserve Again the love ofGod you've received.
You do not deserve theblessings you have you do not
deserve and yet you have it LikeGod's grace and God's grace
alone, and you should be weepingfor joy for that because one.

(43:38):
There should be a sense ofgratitude.
But if I couldn't earn it thefirst time, there's nothing I
could do today to continueearning it.
So it's fully sustained, basedoff God's choice to love me.
Therefore I have this graceright.
That's a big deal, right.
So now there should be thisburden off you of like well, I

(43:59):
messed up today.
I cursed out a coworker, Iflipped off that guy in traffic.
Whatever, god's gonna be mad atme and he is going to punish me
and remove his grace from me.
No, because you didn't earn itto begin with.
Right, I was having when I wasin Quantico.
There was this lady who I'veworked professionally with her

(44:19):
for years.
Very bitter of women.
She's older and she was justgoing on her husband passed away
about two years ago and justvery angry.

Imran (44:33):
But you should become more angry after her husband
passed away.

Ryan (44:35):
Yes, very bitter and her bitterness was she kind of came
out in our conversation.
I'd never had this kind of talkwith her before, but it was
really pretty much her view.
But just to summarize, it isunfair that my husband passed
away when he did, but Bertha hasjust celebrated her 60th

(44:56):
wedding anniversary with hersand she's like at my age she's
like the only men who wannamarry anybody.
How does she say it?
They want a nurse, a purse orsomebody who's 20.
He's the way she put it so yougotta have money, you gotta be
willing to take care of him andbaby him, or you better be young
, right?
That was her view.
So I'm stuck alone for the restof my life, right, Cause I

(45:18):
don't have the purse.
I'm certainly her personality.
I'm not gonna be any of thesenerves and I'm not 20, right,
just very bitter.
why do they get it?
And it's like look the graceand the blessing and the joy
that you had in that marriagewith your husband did you
deserve it?
And if the answer is no, rightCause we don't deserve his

(45:41):
blessing on those things, sothat means every single day that
you had with him was throughGod's grace, by God's grace.

Imran (45:48):
It was a gift.

Ryan (45:48):
And a gift.
So stop complaining about that.
You don't get in continuum.
It's a very when you thinkabout it.
It is a very spoiled, bradishway, very selfish.
And of course she's probablystill grieving a bit the loss of
her husband and a couple.
They were married a while butand I've never gone through that
, I don't know what that's like.
But that whole self-awarenessright.

(46:09):
But if you were to maintain areminder that everything I have
is just through God's grace andthat's where my joy is anchored,
and if God's giving me hisgrace every single day, then I'm
gonna have joy every single dayI will have Chara.
That's why you walk in thespirit cause.
You're walking in grace, I'mwalking in grace and I'm aware

(46:31):
of that grace.
I'm walking in joy Does thatmake sense.
So sustained joy requires asustained awareness of grace,
and a sustained awareness ofgrace requires a sustained walk
in the spirit.
Okay, so the next one.
We have peace, and the Greekhere is the word Irene, and

(46:52):
Irene in terms of that talk.

Imran (46:55):
That's so awesome, Just such a good name.
It's like I did not know thatthat meant grace.
You know what I think of when Ihear that word.

Ryan (47:01):
What.

Brandon (47:02):
Black Hawk Down.
I'm thinking of Tobi Mack,really.

Ryan (47:06):
What's Tobi Mack?
I know who Tobi Mack is, butlike what.

Brandon (47:09):
He had a song about Irene after it.
Oh really.

Ryan (47:13):
So in Black Hawk Down, I'm just thinking of when their
Irene was the code word for go,launch and execute that Anyways.

Imran (47:19):
Oh nice, I love that.

Ryan (47:21):
I just always hear Elvis playing in the background of my
mind when you're readingscripture, just Elvis playing in
the background.
It's a what is it?
Suspicious minds is playinganyways.
So, irene, and it's for peace,that's for peace.
And it means completeness orfulfilled, or the etymology of
the word itself, really justmeans all essential parts are
joined together.

(47:41):
All essential parts are joinedtogether.
So, again, when we're talkingabout the fruit of the spirit
right, that which is a part of awhole, you receive peace when
all those parts are where theyshould be.
So when you look at, people who,in life, they're like.
You could find peace for a time.

(48:02):
Right, because you could gothrough these different seasons,
even as a non-believer, wherein some sense, essential parts
are joined together properly.
Right, where you know.
This is why you, you knownon-believers have to have very
strong, happy marriages.
In the beginning they just hada kid and man.
We're strong, right.
Everything is essential.

(48:23):
It's when things start to breakdown, right.

Imran (48:25):
Yeah, they don't have the foundation.

Ryan (48:26):
You start losing the peace and I think walking in the
spirit and peace is just so likein my own life.
I have found that I could havethese highs and lows, but the
way I remember a lot of thattime I like emotionally, it's

(48:48):
very much tied to what my walkwas at that time right.
So I had a very strong walk inmy last combat deployment I ever
had in Afghanistan and of allmy combat deployments across
Iraq going into Afghanistan, Ilooked at the Afghan.
I thought about the Afghandeployment.

(49:10):
I'm like you know that wasactually not a easy go.
That was not an easy deployment.
I probably experienced the most,not in terms of longevity, but
the most intense combat of mycareer on that deployment and I
look back at that time with justcomplete joy and fulfillment
and peace, like I look backjoyfully at that time and people

(49:33):
were getting hurt left andright, I mean like everybody was
getting shot at, felt like,like it was not like I said, it
was not easy, but I'm like, whydo I view it that way?
But then there's this oneparticular deployment in Iraq
which was somewhat similar.
But man, I don't even thinkabout that time, like when I
even started to have a littlememory of it.
I just completely suppressed,go to the back of my mind.

Imran (49:53):
I'm like, right, I was like, okay, can't pull that out,
put that back in the closet.

Ryan (49:57):
And that was like the peak of me and my flesh Absolutely
wild.
So the peace I experienced inboth of those I was like man,
like I mean, people were stillgetting hurt, people were dying,
we were in combat.
I'm away from family, I'm stillliving like a dog.
You know, I stink like a goat.
I even I'm saying like allthose things were pretty much
the same, same kind ofenvironment, but one I look at

(50:19):
was such, you know, peace andjoy.
The other one I don't.
It's like when my walk wasdifferent than you know what I
mean.
Like peace is so important, likepeace in the home, right, when
you look at like marriage, forexample because we were just
talking about, you know,fighting and stuff like that,
like if somebody was justwalking in the spirit, right, if
you know, I think a lot of menor I know that's not just men,

(50:42):
but I think just married peoplein general but you get home from
work and you kind of take abreath going into your home
because you're not sure whatmood your spouse is gonna be in
and, depending on what moodthey're in, like this is gonna
be a good night or a bad night.
I don't know.
You know what I mean, dependingon the day they have.

(51:02):
And you just kind of gamble.
You know, like, if it's gonnabe a rough night, I'm not sure I
could deal with a rough night.
Like in marriage, you'resupposed to be each other's
peace.
Right, you're supposed to beeach other's peace.
In a marriage, you're notsupposed to be the source of
friction or discord, right andlife or stress.
You should be each other'speace.
Well, that can only beaccomplished for each if both

(51:24):
are walking in the spirit.
That's why the most importantrelationship in a marriage is
your personal relationship with.

Imran (51:30):
Christ.
I think that it's alsosomething to think about.
Is that?
This is just kind of, I guess,an advice piece?
So one of my leaders brought upto me that, like you have to
every day, you have to wake uptwice.
You wake up to go to work andthen when you get home, you need
to wake up again and be therefor your spouse.
You can't just get home and belike I'm tired and I just like

(51:51):
go to sleep or I'm exhausted,I'm gonna go watch the game, I'm
exhausted, I'm just gonna go domy own thing.
Yes, you may interact withdozens of people throughout your
day.
Yes, you may be tired, but youhave to continue to build that
marriage.
When you come home, you have tocontinue to work on it.
When you come home, you have tomuster that or leave a little
bit in the tank so that you canwake up again and be the husband

(52:13):
or wife that you need to be.

Ryan (52:14):
So the way and that's like another way of it was kind of a
paradigm shift for me, but itwas the concept of second shift.
I don't think you were at thatmen's camp when we did it, but
when you, you're working all day, that's your first shift.
When you get home, you'reworking your second shift.
That is not like okay, it'sdone, shift over these are nine

(52:37):
to five and you're five to 12.
Nope, you're starting yoursecond shift.
Everybody's working two jobs,right?
When you get home particularly,I think, in our context was for
men like you need to go inthere and run your second shift
and be the spiritual leader ofyour home right.
You can't just drop the packand then just hand over to your

(52:58):
spouse and say you got it allbecause I just worked and I'm
tired, right, like nope, you'reon your second shift, but that's
still.
I mean, that's good advice,right?
I guess I'm saying in general.

Imran (53:09):
It's another way of saying.
It's the same kind of concept.

Ryan (53:11):
Irene, the concept of it is to no longer long, but to
rest in satisfaction.

Selena (53:16):
Yeah.

Ryan (53:17):
And to the point.
The previous point, right WithChara and Joy and Grace, is that
if I'm already receiving morethan I deserve, how can I not be
satisfied in getting more thanI deserve?
Absolutely, If I feel like Idid not get that If I'm already

(53:39):
satisfied in receiving more thanI deserve if you are already
aware of the fact that you werereceiving more than you deserve,
how can you not rest insatisfaction there?

Imran (53:47):
Okay, okay, you know what I mean.

Ryan (53:52):
If you're about to go into transitioning into the Marine
Corps or out of the Marine Corpsright Into CivDiv.

Imran (53:58):
Scarier than one might think.

Ryan (53:59):
You may go in and you're like, hey, you know what I feel
like with my talent, myexperience and where I'm willing
to work, and I feel like I'mworth $90,000 a year to start.
I'm like, okay, here's $110,000a year, Right.
And you're like, man, that'smore than I deserve.
I haven't even worked yet.
I don't even you know what Imean.

Imran (54:18):
I feel like I'm worthless here, I want to know you?

Ryan (54:20):
You know what I'm saying.
Are you gonna be not satisfiedwith that offer?

Selena (54:25):
Yeah.

Ryan (54:26):
You know what I'm saying and to say well, I feel like I
am worth this or I deserve this.
They're offering you more thanyou deserve.
Are you gonna complain at theoffer that they're giving you?
You see what I'm saying?

Imran (54:38):
Yeah, I'm not saying being in your flesh, though,
Like some people might be like.
Well, I guess I'm worth thisand it's like I'm better than I
thought I was.
I'm like buh-buh-buh, you knowyeah.

Ryan (54:48):
I'm just saying, but that's why it requires awareness
right, yeah, exactly that'sself-awareness.
Remember, at the very end ofthis, paul says let's walk in
humility, because you can't doany of this without humility.
Yeah Right, there's a lot ofthings that require this to
actually take root and bearfruit in your life so to no
longer long, but the rest andthat satisfaction of I'm resting

(55:10):
in this grace, like I don'tdeserve it, but I'm getting it
every day.
I'm joyful, but I'm at peacebecause he's already given me
more than I actually deserve andyou're able to rest there,
You're able to be content.
Yeah, I think that's probablythe best way to describe this
term.
Peace.
It's more contentness, in myview.
Like it's.
I'm not longing for more, butI'm completely content with what

(55:33):
God has given me and I'm ableto rest there.

Imran (55:36):
Yeah, I would say that, at least for me, that concept of
peace, that concept ofcontentment is the most squishy
one for me, and when I saysquishy I mean kind of like hard
to nail down.

Ryan (55:48):
Yeah, it's interesting projective.

Imran (55:49):
Yeah, Because it's kind of hard to nail down exactly how
I know that I'm in that zone,but at the same time, on the
other side of the coin, I thinkit's obvious when I am in it and
I'm just like, oh, you know,everything's chill.
I really appreciate my wife, nomatter what she may be doing or
not doing, I just appreciateher.

(56:10):
I really appreciate, you know,my vehicles, no matter if
they're up or down or which upand down the military means
broken or not broken.
You know, it's like I reallyappreciate, just like the life
I've been given the opportunityto live and it's like just like
a baseline, even though thingsmay not be where I want them to
be and things may not be okay.
I'm like content, but then whenI'm not in that zone, I can't

(56:34):
even, I don't even know how toget there.
It's like I wake up and I'm init sometimes and then sometimes
I'm just like nothing's right,nothing's fine, and I'm kind of
like that, and I think that'spart of the.

Ryan (56:45):
Again, walking in the spirit right Is setting the
second you wake up and you getup from your bed, you pray.
I'm right now walking in yourspirit right.
You're with me now.
You said it from the verybeginning, right?
I notice, even for mepersonally, because I'm really
cranky in the mornings, likeBecause you're chronically

(57:07):
addicted to coffee.
Yeah, if I don't have my twocups of coffee and I just I'm
cranky.
I don't know those cheerymorning people I find them to be
.

Selena (57:17):
Selena lives next to one if she hates it.

Imran (57:18):
We're the complete opposite, that's how it is in a
marriage.
My wife's the same way.

Ryan (57:22):
It's like as soon as I wake up, and she's like hey, so
I was thinking.

Imran (57:25):
So I was planning while sleeping.

Ryan (57:27):
I think we should maybe go camping over Thanksgiving.
And I was just saying there'sthis campsite, this campsite,
this campsite.
What do you do?
I'm like woman, let me get my.
I always bring me a coffeebefore you.

Imran (57:38):
The fun part is when I do that to Selena but we got up at
the same time.
She's like but how did youplant?
I guess while I was sleeping.

Selena (57:44):
I don't know how.
Are you already dressed?

Ryan (57:48):
So my point, though, is like.
I found, though, that in someof those mornings I tend I'm far
more less patient, I'm far moreless kind and gentle with
people in the morning if I don'tpray first.
But if I anchor myself and Iget into prayer before any of
those engagements, it'scompletely different, right

(58:10):
Cause I've already.
Instead of like getting up inmy flesh and just going, it's
slow down when you walk besideand get the spirit with me on
even in the morning.

Imran (58:17):
That's good Right, so I gotta integrate some of that.

Ryan (58:22):
I think, what we all do right.

Imran (58:24):
I know I do.

Ryan (58:24):
I certainly do All right.
Next, it depends on thetranslation.
What did you do?
You were doing King James right.
Yes, that's correct.
Did you say for barons orpatients?
I know the ESV the NIV uses forbarons patients.

Brandon (58:39):
It says temperance.
Is that what we're talkingabout?
Temperance?
Long suffering, long suffering.
There you go.
So Long suffering, longsuffering.

Ryan (58:47):
Add that one to the list.
So long suffering for barons,patients, but the Greek is Mac.
So we have all these differentEnglish words, right, but there
is just one Greek word used here.
But the Greek word isMacrothumia and it means
patients, but specifically notjust general patients.
It's patients as applied tojustice and vengeance.

(59:10):
So the idea of somebody haswronged you, somebody, there's
something you see, you're likethis is not right.
We need to correct this.
Right.
This is not right.
Being patient in how you executethat vengeance or justice, one,
because vengeance isn't yours,it belongs to God, so one that's

(59:33):
just handing overresponsibility for that
vengeance and justice to him,that's what judgment day is
right.
Because when you do that, whenyou have patients as applied to
those things in particular, younow approach that problem much
different.
If somebody has wronged you orthere's some wrong in the world,
they're like this just isn'tright.

(59:54):
You're like I'm gonna go fixthat wrong.
You're going to approach thatwith a different spirit.
You're going to approach thatwith a different strategy and
tactic, right, but if you removethat and say, no, I'm gonna be
patient because it doesn'tbelong to me, but that problem

(01:00:15):
still exists.
But if I'm not now, I'm notseeking vengeance or justice.
How do I approach that problemnow?
And now you're going toapproach that problem in line
with the spirit of grace, love,mercy.

Imran (01:00:29):
It's going to be completely different.

Ryan (01:00:31):
Our problem is that we want to be the ones to dish out
justice, and especially when thewrong is against us.
You know what I mean and Ithink the hardest part.
I mean I think it's true ofeverybody, but I just know of me
as a man the hardest thing, oneof the hardest things for me to
do is that when I'm offended orsomebody's wrong and I know I'm
in the right to not at leastmake it known.

Imran (01:00:54):
That you know you're in the right that I know.

Ryan (01:00:56):
I'm gonna make everybody else know that I'm in the right.
Yeah Right, because it justYou'll see, you'll see it drives
me crazy, right, and this is meand my flesh, but it drives me
crazy the idea of somebody elsethinking that you know what I'm
saying?

Imran (01:01:11):
That they got one over you, right, and that's pride,
right, that's pride.

Ryan (01:01:14):
But you know but I think many people deal with that.

Imran (01:01:19):
I feel that it worked a lot.
I was actually telling Selenathis maybe yesterday or today,
where it's like sometimes itfrustrates me, I'll bring stuff
up to my bosses and I'm like,hey, we need to do this this way
, something simple, like we dothese situation reports every
week.
This one's the one I wasactually thinking about today.
I let the office know.

(01:01:40):
It's like hey, we need tosomehow get this down to one
product.
We've been doing two differentproducts, blah, blah, blah.
This needs to go down to oneproduct.
And he made a big fuss about it.
It's like it's gotta be thisway.
It's always been this way, andthat was about two months ago.
Last week he was like all right, so this is really complicated,
we're gonna go down to oneproduct.
Nobody's gonna be like allright all right.

Ryan (01:01:59):
Sometimes I just put my I wanted to say I told you so.
Yeah, I didn't do that.
But that's what it's talkingabout, though.

Imran (01:02:06):
I feel that sometimes, though, like I work just like oh
man, you can make your opinionsknown without you know, lording
over someone.

Ryan (01:02:13):
and then the spirit will work itself out.
The spirit works itself outWe've been experiencing in my
job, and because my new job alsokind of crosses with my old job
, which makes some of theprofessional dealings a little
awkward.
But one of the things that'sgoing on is that there's a
reckoning occurring.
That's a strong word that we,well over a year and a half ago,

(01:02:38):
we're saying if you do not dothese three or four things,
doesn't matter what else you do.
This is going to fail.
And they just refused to listen.
They refused to listen.
We're pushing things out likehey coming down the pipe.
We really need to get on this.
And ahead of this, nobodywanted to listen.
Now it's all reactive and oh,we gotta find a solution for
this.
And now they're not makingsmart decisions, so bad

(01:03:00):
decisions have led to evenfurther consequences.
All the while, me and mycoworker the two who are the
voices for this, all you knowwe're like like part of this is
like we told you.
So we told you so we told youwhat I mean there's so much
about you in your pride and yourown identity that you want to
make it known and to bevindicated now that but what

(01:03:22):
they need is your.
I want to hear that dirtylittle mouth say it, you know,
and that's the pride in us, butwhat they need from you now is
your pride is actually yourpatience.

Imran (01:03:32):
Exactly Now they need you to mentor them through it,
because they've realized whatthey need.
This is what I told my coworker.
I said well, me and him werejust kind of oh, I know, dude,
I'm so irritated oh man it's soannoying.

Ryan (01:03:43):
I was like, well, if God does not mature us in grace, if
there's not situations for us toapply it to, yeah Right, and of
course he's a believer and he'sa believer in God and he, like
me, was like you're right, and Ididn't want to hear it.

Brandon (01:04:00):

Ryan (01:04:01):
Like neither, one of us wanted to take off the option of
grace.

Imran (01:04:06):
Let's go with good friends, but bad friends would
be like no go tell them Go hitthem again TP is how yeah
exactly, but so, anyways, let'smove on.

Ryan (01:04:15):
The next one is kindness, and the Greek here is Christades
, and this doesn't mean justbeing kind or polite or a nice
person.
This actually means serviceablekindness or useful kindness.

Imran (01:04:31):
That's Brandon in a nutshell, right there.

Ryan (01:04:32):
Yeah, I'm trying to be what did you say it was called?

Imran (01:04:36):
How'd you say it in the Greek?

Ryan (01:04:38):
Man, you're gonna make me keep saying another Greek.
I mean, you know, I'm bad atGreek, I know.

Imran (01:04:41):
And I love hearing your bad Greek.
Say it.
Say it, pastor, all right,Christades, christades, okay,
that's your new nickname.
So um Christades.

Ryan (01:04:49):
Christitis.
So Christitis, christitis, see,I got it good twice.
I don't know why I went for itthird time.
Kindness, but a serviceable oruseful kindness, so it is.
It's not a kindness as a stateof existence but is properly
used for service to somebody.
So when it says that the fruitof the spirit is the serviceable

(01:05:12):
kindness, it's not you justconstantly being polite and, you
know, always having a smile andusing good manners.
You should do that right.
But that's not what this istalking about.
What it's talking about is that, like as a good church example
right, I'm about to slap a lotof people in the face with this
one, because we've alleverybody's guilty of this in
church and then turn the othercheek.

(01:05:33):
Yeah, everybody's guilty of thisone in church.
But when someone presents asituation that they're like,
yeah, like the car broke downand or you know my AC stopped
working and or you know what Imean, they're presenting this a
situation and a big problem, andmaybe it's a live problem and
you say, oh man, that's horrible, I'm gonna pray for you Right

(01:05:54):
now.
You should pray for them, right?
I'm not discouraging prayer,but is that all you should do
for them?
Right?
Because you saying I'm gonnaall pray for you as you being
kind to them, hey, I'mempathizing with you, I
sympathize with your situationTo the point that I'm gonna take
time, I'm gonna pray for you,Thank you, but you know what
they really need.
They need your prayer, but whatthey need is your serviceable

(01:06:15):
kindness.
They need you to step in and bekind usefully to them and say,
okay, well, I actually knowsomething about ACs, Let me come
in and take a look at it, Right?
Or?
Or you, man, you broke your legand you can't go pull the weeds
in your yard here.
I got that for you, man, Right.
Meal trains at church, right?
That's serviceable kindness.

(01:06:35):
It's not just saying we're sadthat your husband died.
We're gonna pray for you as achurch.
It's also we're gonna pray foryou as a church, but we're also
gonna deliver you your meals fortwo weeks, so you don't have to
worry about that, as a host ofpeople are coming in and you
could just focus on grieving,getting you know all these
things in the funeralarrangements done.
That's useful kindness.

(01:06:55):
Right Be useful.
If it is not a useful kindness,that is not the fruit of the
spirit that this is talkingabout.

Imran (01:07:02):
I have an interesting thing that happened to me this
past week.
So so I've been working on mytruck since last Saturday.
It was supposed to be a two tofour hour job.
It turned into a four to fiveday job, as it always is, as it
does.
So last night I actually got theproject done.
We got the lift on and when itfinished up, I was getting
cleaned up, getting ready to go,and there was a Marine that was

(01:07:24):
in the back working on his carand he actually like threaded
the bolts wrong on his wheel sohis wheel wouldn't go back on
the vehicle correctly.
And I just kind of overheardall of that happen and I was
really feeling like you know,real excited because you know we
got this project done, we gotit done in time and all that
stuff.
But as I was listening to him,I was in line waiting to pay and
listening to him kind ofexplain what he did and that he

(01:07:45):
needed to buy this part and hecouldn't drive home Cause he had
or at least he had to leave hisvehicle overnight.
Once they finished up, I pulledhim aside and I I didn't know
why really but I just like, hey,you need to ride home.
I didn't plan or think about itbeforehand, it just kind of
came out of my face, I didn'teven know if I had gas on the
truck, but he did need to ridecause his vehicle was stuck and

(01:08:09):
I'd never met this room before,didn't know anything about him,
didn't know his rank or anythinglike that, didn't even know his
name till we were getting readyto leave.
But as we were driving home ordriving to his house, he was
just kind of talking to me aboutsome of the stuff he was going
through.
He was actually getting ready toget get separated from the
Marine Corps because of someissues that happened while he

(01:08:29):
was a platoon commander, foundout later on that he was a
lieutenant and he was just kindof going through a lot at his
unit and so I didn't know thathe needed this, I guess.
But I just kind of gave himsome information about cause.
I just went to TRS a few weeksago, just went through and I was

(01:08:51):
like, hey, have you talked tothis person?
Have you gone and gotten thiscounseling?
Have you gone and talked tothese individuals?
Here's some context for somepeople you can talk to to kind
of get some cause.
He gets out in like 15 days andhe didn't really have a plan
besides going back home to hismom, you know.
And so in that little 15 minutedrive I tried to give him as
many resources as I could, but Ididn't plan to do that, I

(01:09:14):
didn't plan to be there, buttrying to do something that that
Marine needed in the moment.
I guess, as you say, usefulkindness.
Actually, it's hopefully turnedinto a mentoring session that
maybe it may have been somethinghe needed, that he just got
from some guy he just met at theauto center and Brandon can
attest being a deacon right.

Ryan (01:09:36):
There's a big difference between being kind to somebody
and being useful.
He kind to somebody which iswhat widows and orphans and
general just being a deacon isright.

Brandon (01:09:45):
Yes, that's a everyday thing and you know it's knowing
that your actions speak louderthan words.
I think being able to recognizethe time where it is to take
action and help out when needed.

Ryan (01:10:02):
Kindness is putting prayer to action Absolutely Right.
Lord, I want you to help theirsituation and I am going to
actively participate in helpingthat situation right, Because
who does God send?
How does God resolve thesituations Right?
And I think one of the thingsthat you and I get a lot of
insight to is how much stuffcomes out.
You know, Comes out.

Imran (01:10:23):
Yeah, at the church, at your positions.

Ryan (01:10:25):
You realize that God uses people you know, and you need to
be usefully kind and to thepoint earlier, like you don't
deserve God's grace, right, yeah?
Or God's love, you know it's byHis grace.
I'm trying to.
Who was the quote by?
I want to say maybe it wasMartin Luther.
He says God doesn't need yourgood works, but your neighbor
does.
Oh nice, right.
So God doesn't need you to beusefully kind, but your neighbor

(01:10:49):
needs you to be usefully kind.
And God recognizes with us.
Imagine if God wasn't usefullykind to us.
What if we were in our sin andGod says man, guys, I want you
to know something.
I really love you, I love youguys so much, but you're sinners
, yeah, you get to go to helland all sins are like 30 racks.

Imran (01:11:09):
So Right, Bye-bye.

Ryan (01:11:11):
The whole context of the crucifixion is God being
usefully kind to us.
It wasn't just that he loved us, that he was polite to us when
you know we were dirty.
He says I'm going to beusefully kind to you, I'm going
to bear that cross for you,right, that's useful kindness,
All right.
Next we're going to be here allnight.

(01:11:31):
Next one is goodness.
I think yours said somethingdifferent, Brandon, but maybe
not.
Maybe the Greek is a goth usuneand it's for goodness.
For goodness, Okay, and this isa purely biblical word.

Imran (01:11:49):
What does yours say Goodness.
It doesn't say goodness, so itis biblically.

Ryan (01:11:53):
this is a very specific term only used in biblical Greek
, so the roots are obviouslyfound elsewhere.

Imran (01:11:59):
Absolutely.

Ryan (01:12:00):
Remember etymology is bringing, and particularly in
the Greek, is bringing thingstogether for a concept, right
Meaning, so I guess a better wayto say this word is only found
in biblical Greek, which wouldmean then that within the Greek
context, this concept onlyexisted within the church Does

(01:12:22):
that make sense yeah.

Imran (01:12:24):
So if it wasn't, or at least hearing that word.
Using that way, you would onlyhear in the church.

Ryan (01:12:28):
No, this word is only found in biblical Greek.
Okay, so the pairing of theroots together, the etymology of
it, is only found in biblicalGreek.
So this is a very specificconcept for the time and as a
Bible term.
What it really just means isthe condition of being made good

(01:12:48):
, right?

Imran (01:12:50):
In the condition of being made good A condition of being
made good so if you think about.

Ryan (01:12:54):
It's almost like how do you describe the condition of a
dirty dish in the dishwasherbeing made clean.

Imran (01:13:03):
It's going through a lot of violence in that dishwasher.

Ryan (01:13:06):
Well, I closed down the question is do you consider when
you run your dishwasher right,you hit start and it's been
going for 30 minutes or whatever?
Are the dishes in there cleanor are they dirty, Still dirty,
Still dirty?

Selena (01:13:21):
Or they're.

Imran (01:13:22):
They're in the process of being made clean.

Selena (01:13:23):
They're in the process of being made clean right yes,
they are.

Ryan (01:13:26):
That is goodness.
That is the idea.
Right Is that it is in theprocess of being made clean, or?

Imran (01:13:31):
being made good right.

Ryan (01:13:33):
Yeah.
So what it says is the fruit ofthe spirit is a process of
being made good, but that meansisn't necessarily that you, like
day to day, do everything right, make every right decision,
make.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, that you don't makemistakes.
The idea, though, is I'd almostsay it's more like spiritual

(01:13:54):
growth.
Yeah, you should be able tolook at yourself a year from now
and say, wow, I've grown.
Right, because I've beenwalking in the spirit, I have
grown.
If you look at yourself todaycompared to where you were a
year ago and you don't thinkyou've grown, then that's a
whole year that's a problem.
You probably haven't beenwalking in the spirit right.
You've been again to ourearlier point, just kind of

(01:14:15):
existing off the old spiritualhabit of a time that you were
walking in the spirit, butyou've stagnated right, yeah.
But walking in the spirit.
It should be some spiritualgrowth or being made good.

Imran (01:14:25):
Yep, the spirit's gonna convict you and it's definitely
that process.

Brandon (01:14:29):
Yes, being made good.
I think spiritually is justsomething that we need to put in
the forefront as Christians,just striving for spiritual
growth and reaching out to thosearound us that are able to help
us with that.
You can go into church readingyour Bible all things that can

(01:14:53):
help with spiritual growth andgoodness.

Ryan (01:14:57):
And to remember that if everybody's walking in the
spirit, everybody's, atdifferent places in life, right.
I think often we tend to putpeople in comparison to
ourselves of where we arespiritually right.
So somebody will act in a veryimmature way.
You know like they're abeliever.
They should not be acting thatway.
You're like you're right.

(01:15:17):
However, you acted that wayfive years ago.
You've just grown, Absolutely.
They're growing too Like, don'tlook at them where they are
compared to you.
Look at where they are comparedto where they were a year ago or
two years ago or where theycame from, right, think I've
told the story before of the guywho came really annoying guy
who came was at our church, who,like, asking for help moving.

(01:15:40):
He wouldn't move any of hisstuff, but, like, everybody from
the church is there helping himload his you know U-Haul, but
he's just there smoking acigarette.
And you're like gosh, thisguy's annoying, right, yeah,
like we're moving your house andhe's just there complaining the
whole time, and you know what Imean.
Yeah, I was like, oh man, thisguy's annoying, and anybody who
would look at that guy would belike that is, he's not bearing
fruit of the spirit, right, yeah.

(01:16:01):
However, it does matter, though, the fact that that guy came
from a place where he was aneo-Nazi, racist, right, and now
he's here with a whole churchhelping him move, even though
he's being obnoxious in it, butlike he's like hugging dudes,
you know he's hugging blackdudes, he's hugging.
You know Hispanic guys, likeyou know what I'm saying.

(01:16:25):
That's growth right, and he maynot be where you are, but from
where he came from he's comealong with.

Imran (01:16:33):
And then there's also people that are just getting
started.
There's this guy that just Irecently started seeing him at
our church and he's got a bit ofa potty mouth he's very rough
around the edges, but I wouldsay that he is my favorite
person that's at the church,because every time I talked to
him he is just happy to be lovedby our church you know, and he

(01:16:58):
wants to know more about thefaith because he is being loved
by our church.

Ryan (01:17:01):
To see somebody in their joy, because we take it for
granted, because we get used toit, but somebody who hasn't had
that grace or had that beingloved that way, right when it's
new to them like this, isamazing right.

Brandon (01:17:13):
I mean, we're all kind of like oh, it is kind of
amazing, isn't it this?

Imran (01:17:16):
isn't new this isn't outside.

Ryan (01:17:17):
This is your normal right, but to him they're like no,
this isn't.
That's why I love doingbelievers right, because they're
so.
Yes, they are rough around theedges because they don't know
all the cultural isms.
Hey hey, hey, Like you guys seeit, yeah on.
Tuesday night Bible study.
Sometimes you got guys who areasking a question.
They're cussing like man.
We're in the sanctuary atchurch, like hey, you're not

(01:17:39):
supposed to cuss at church.
Like you would think that'ssomething right, but they're at
a Bible study asking a question,meaning they're engaged in the
work.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, it's good, and you gottajust remember like, and they're
new to the faith, yeah, I loveit.
They're not on fire, but theylove it Like they just
absolutely love it and I'm likeyou know what?
I see more joy out of thatperson walking out of a Bible

(01:18:01):
study, even though they may havecussed when they ask their
question, right, cause that'sjust a habit of how they talk
compared to this other believerwho's been in the faith for 40
years and they walk out and justkind of you know, doesn't seem
to have any impact, right?
No smile, no joy, nothing.
And you're almost like man thatmust have bombed a night, right
.
But then you see this newbeliever over here, like this is

(01:18:22):
amazing, you know.

Imran (01:18:23):
It's like that's where I'm getting encouraged from you
know, I remember you wereteaching a Bible study or maybe
it was, it might've been PastorDavid during one of the
revelation studies someone askedthe question of like, like what
is the Holy Spirit?
Like just straight up, likekind of just ask that open-ended
question, and Pastor was kindof taking it back and she was
like I've never heard of thisconcept before.

Ryan (01:18:42):
I need you to explain it to me.
I know exactly yep.
He told me yep.

Imran (01:18:45):
Yeah, and I was like, oh man, I haven't even comprehended
being in that place wheresomeone just asked me like,
straight up from scratch, likewhat is something as simple as
the concept of the Holy Spirit,which is not simple in and of
itself, but at least like afoundational concept.

Ryan (01:19:00):
you know, it's like, and it's like, oh man, that's
awesome, but you know to be able, to ask that question is also
Also imagine your brand newbeliever, the first Bible study
you ever get into is way throughthe book of Revelation.
We were talking about dragonscoming out of the sea.
Very true.
If you don't understand contextand what is going on, it could
sound very, very odd right.

(01:19:21):
I'm like wait a minute.
What are you?
What?

Imran (01:19:23):
do you believe Right, but anyways she came back though
she did yep, all right.

Ryan (01:19:29):
Moving on, the next one is I think you're said
faithfulness, didn't it?
Or did you say faith?

Brandon (01:19:34):
Just as hold on faithfulness.

Ryan (01:19:36):
yes, Yep, so faithfulness, which is actually, I think,
probably the more accurate.
So this is the same word.
Pistis Is the same word that'sbeen used all throughout
Galatians in the study that youare justified by your pistis,
but who's pistis?
You're not justified by yourpistis, you're justified by
Christ's pistis.
Or, more probably, orappropriately, faithfulness.

(01:19:56):
It is a faith that leads tofaithfulness, right.
It is a concept of belief thatmanifests itself in faithfulness
to that belief, right.
So when it says that part ofthe fruit of the spirit is
faithfulness, right.
You can't say I belong to God,who is love and who is all these

(01:20:19):
things, and I'm his discipleand I'm surrendered over, and to
not be faithful to him.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
If you're saying I belong tohim but yet I'm faithful to the
world, then who do you reallybelong to?
Yeah absolutely.

(01:20:39):
And remember this is somethingthat is.
This is indicative of what itmeans to walk in the spirit.
So if you're like, well, I feellike I'm, I actually am walking
more in line with the world andthe spirit, then you're not
gonna be faithful to God, You'regonna be faithful to the world,
because it's much easier to befaithful to the world, right?

Imran (01:20:56):
I think that that's also a good tie into kind of the
concept of the whole fruit,because you mentioned in the
beginning it's like all of thesethings together make up the
fruit of the spirit.
So you may be in your sin rightnow, very comfortable, and
think that you have peace, joy,kindness and goodness in
something maybe not goodnesslike in something that is sinful

(01:21:18):
.
You know, it's like you may behappy to be watching porn or
happy to be kind of frivolouswith your relationships in the
moment, but there's nofaithfulness there.
That's not tying back tofaithfulness, that's not tying
back to point towards Christ.
So if you're talking about hey,he didn't say fruits, he said
fruit.
That means all of these thingsmake up the fruit of the spirit.
If you think that you have joybut you don't have faithfulness,

(01:21:41):
if you think that you havepeace but you don't have
faithfulness, then you're notactually exhibiting the fruit of
the spirit.

Ryan (01:21:46):
Well, and I think so, starting earlier in Galatians,
to Paul's point how are yousaved?
Well, I am saved because Ibelieve.
No, you are saved because ofChrist's faithfulness.

(01:22:07):
So if he being faithful to usthen means that we be faithful
to him, right, what is that?
So I think we talked about thislast time, but there was a
corpsman who had just left thechurch not too long ago, and
he's having a hard time, him andhis wife in particular, in
their marriage since he's left.
And he's like one of thosethings like how long do I have

(01:22:30):
to do this?
Like I feel like I'm the onlyone fighting for this marriage.
I don't think she cares,doesn't seem like she's making
any effort to change at all.
Right, so how long do I allowher to continue?
Just why does she just get tokeep on being the way she is and
I'm the one who has to changeand up in everything for this
marriage, right?
Like he was very frustrated andwe brought up this idea of

(01:22:53):
faithfulness and I said well,let me ask you, are you
struggling with being faithfulto her or being faithful to your
promise, which then kind ofinverse it when I started
thinking about it.
Was God faithful to us becauseof us, right?
No, he chose a love us, but hewas faithful to his promise to

(01:23:14):
us.
Because he was faithful to hispromise, therefore, he was
faithful to us.
Well, what's the difference?
One is anchored on the otherperson's character.
The second right to be faithfulto the promise is anchored on
your own right.
So in certain situations,particularly like in marriage,

(01:23:34):
when you're like man, it justshe doesn't seem to be trying,
or doesn't see my key cares, orhe's not trying right.
Well, at that point you'restruggling not to be faithful to
him or her.
You're struggling to befaithful to the promise you made
.
And when you've got weakcharacter, you have no promise
or problem breaking the promiseyou made.
But by breaking the promise youmade right or not being

(01:23:57):
faithful to the promise you made, you're really just aligning
yourself into the same characterof the person that you're
having a hard time beingfaithful to.
You see what I'm saying.

Imran (01:24:05):
Like it's rolling down to their level.
I guess Essentially, and you'relike well, so now it's not
taking the high road.
Leaving that's not taking thehigh road.
Taking the high road is abidingby the promise that you said.

Ryan (01:24:16):
And just as God was faithful to his promise, which
meant being faithful to us.
We then, in return, arefaithful to Christ, who
justified us through hisfaithfulness and his piste right
.
Amen.

Brandon (01:24:30):
So just a small correction.
And the King James, it does sayfaith.
I was reading from the Amplify,so I have the King James and
Amplify.

Imran (01:24:38):
Oh, you close.
Oh, that's all right.

Ryan (01:24:40):
That's all right.
I saw a few from there.
He's old school and new age atthe same time.

Imran (01:24:46):
Yeah, I had the iPad with the Amplify and the SV there.

Brandon (01:24:49):
Look at you, sorry, man .

Imran (01:24:52):
So you can see all the man.

Brandon (01:24:54):
I love that.

Imran (01:24:55):
That's great, and I love his Bible too.
His dog ear it's got notes allover it.
He's writing in it.
I love it Absolutely.

Ryan (01:25:02):
All right, so we've got two more here.
The next one my and I.
We says gentleness, so the wordhere is prautis and this is
literally the word for meekness.
So, like when it's usedelsewhere, it's the word from
being meek and meekness gets areally bad rap.

(01:25:24):
I think Meekness Not justbecause it rhymes with weak yeah
, Probably the biggest reasonMaybe but, I, think I think
particularly men have a hardtime with the idea of meekness
because it sounds like you'reweak.
But what's actually interestingabout this word and the
etymology of it is that itactually, if you are weak, you

(01:25:45):
cannot be weak.
Meekness actually assumesstrength.
So the actual etymology of theword pretty much is a sentence
that says it means toessentially know how to use the
sword but keep it sheathed.

Selena (01:26:02):
Yeah.

Ryan (01:26:03):
So you have to know how to use the sword.
And because I know how to usethe sword, I'm gonna be more apt
to want to use the sword,because I know I could probably,
you know, wield the swordbetter than it ran.
But then, knowing that, butthen choosing to keep it
sheathed, to say I'm not gonnago to the strength that I have.
Instead, I'm going to bepatient and gentle in this

(01:26:24):
situation.
Right, it's like strength undercontrol, strength under control
is the concept right, whereasweakness is the absence of
strength too, right so?
somebody who's going like oh, hechose not to do that because
he's just real meek.
Like no, he didn't do itbecause he's weak.
He had no choice but to not doit, right?

(01:26:45):
Yeah, this is talking to theguy who's like no, I knew I
could probably win that fistfight, but I chose not to.
Yeah, Right, like legitimately.
Like I chose not to because I'mwalking in the spirit.

Brandon (01:26:58):
The spirit doesn't want me to act that way.

Ryan (01:27:00):
So it's actually, I feel, likea very manly concept that we've
kind of I would say a mature, amature man concept.

Imran (01:27:08):
The boys concept would be to fight.

Ryan (01:27:10):
Sure.
I'm just saying, though, that,like I don't know, I always kind
of viewed the word weakness askind of feminine Like oh, I
gotta go be meek.
You know, go be meek is justlike I don't know.
It's just probably me and myown sin.

Imran (01:27:20):
I'm just saying I think a lot of men share that Maybe not
even in your own sin, I wouldsay just a lack of understanding
, because I just I don'tremember the.
There's like a nursery rhymewhere you say, like meek and
mild, like something like that.
Like there's something I heardgrowing up like a nursery rhyme
that put meek and mild next toeach other and it was surrounded
with the concept of weakness,and I just it was never

(01:27:41):
corrected for me.

Selena (01:27:42):
Marry me.
I'm a mouse, for some reason.

Imran (01:27:45):
You know, but that's no Maybe.

Brandon (01:27:49):
I love it.

Imran (01:27:51):
But at least, growing up, that word was not defined as
clearly as you just did, andthat's probably the biggest
reason why I associated withweakness because it rhymed,
because there were nurseryrhymes.
That kind of mis oversimplifiedthe concept, and so now we're
just correcting it.

Ryan (01:28:10):
Right, and I think this is a I don't know this one can be
can fix me a lot as a parent.
Just because you have groundsto and you can raise your voice
justly or ground them justly,you know what I mean Does not
mean that's what you should do.
Right, you recognize you havethat strength and you have that

(01:28:32):
power as a parent, but thatneeds to be under control.
You know, and you need to bewalking in the spirit and the
way you go about dealing withyour children and disciplining
your children.
You know, I mean, I think Imean you see this right, the
reason I, for example, likespanking right, and I know
everybody has their own viewsabout whether you should or

(01:28:53):
shouldn't spank right- I gotspanked growing up.

Imran (01:28:56):
Also that spanked growing up, you know, and it was fine.

Ryan (01:28:59):
But the reason people have a hard time with it is because
if you are spanking anddisciplining but it's not under
control, yeah.
Spanking out of anger, thatvery quickly Contourment Crosses
a line into abuse, right andagain, that's an example, right?
So okay, if you're gonna spank,but you better be under control

(01:29:21):
, you better not be doing itangry, you better.
But that requires you, though,to have meekness.
If you are not a meek parent.
You have no business doing that, because you can't control
yourself right.
The ones who get upset by youknow, those who are like well,
no, that's abuse.
Well, I feel like I'm undercontrol if I do it.

(01:29:43):
So that's either somebody who'sexperienced it or, in
themselves, have experiencedthemselves not being able to
control themselves.
So it's the un-meek telling themeek that you can't be meek.

Imran (01:29:53):
It's like Something that atleast that my family did growing
up is that there was always atime separation, so like if.
That's what I do Like ifsomething happened, my mom would
be like you know, just you knowit'll be when your dad gets
home.
It's like you know, go to yourroom and I would just have to
wait you know, and then you knowjust get in, which is awful.

Ryan (01:30:12):
That was the real process.
Yeah, exactly.

Imran (01:30:14):
He's like oh man, do I try and put the?

Ryan (01:30:16):
pillow.
Dad spanked me.
Do I try to put the?
Pillow in my pants or do Inotice the pillow?
Don't put a shirt.
Dad spanked me, but mom did thepsychological torture on me
Exactly.

Imran (01:30:24):
But there was always that time.
So my dad with no context oflike what I had done or anything
like that, my mom would justexplain the situation.
He was like oh well, like thisequals this many you know
Butt-Wop-Ins or this many hours,or you lose your video games or
whatever they had.
It was like a very, verycomplex math thing.
That was very logical.
But then there was a specificbelt he used that he never wore

(01:30:49):
or anything like that, and itwas just like go get the belt
and you knew what the belt waswhere it was Go choose your, Go
get it bring it and then it'slike all right.
And then you get hit with it andthen it's like now go put it
back, and then we have a talkand then we'll go about our day.
But it was a very deliberateand almost like to the point of

(01:31:09):
being routine process, so therewasn't any emotion attached to
it.
So that's probably why I don'thave any like significant, like
negative feelings about it.

Ryan (01:31:18):
Well, and the larger point , though, was right being meek
is the idea that, particularlyas a parent, that you have the
strength.
You have the strength yeah.
The strength of this when youtalk about, we hear about those
parents who are abusive thatthat is them being weak.
Because they have theirstrength, they have the sword,

(01:31:39):
they know they can wield thesword and they never keep
achieved so all right.
Lastly, to that same point,self control.
We were just talking aboutstrength under control, right?
So this is a ingradia, but theterm for self control here is
really more mastery, it's amastery of self, right.

(01:32:03):
So kind of to Brian's pointearlier about what does it mean
to crucify the flesh it's amastery of being able to say I
recognize within myself thatthere are things that my flesh
wants to do that I in the spiritdo not want to do, and I'm
making a conscious choice ofmastering my flesh by the spirit

(01:32:24):
.
And often our spirit is weakerthan our flesh and so we need to
be walking with the spirit tocome in to help master, because
it's not just a general mastery,it is a mastery proceeding out
from within oneself, but not ofoneself.
That's what the word means.
It means it's almost like, in away like marriage in a self.

(01:32:46):
In a sense is ingradia.
It is your spouse keeping you amaster of yourself,
accountability.
In a sense, it's saying that,not within yourself, but coming
out from oneself, is somethingthat is keeping you under

(01:33:07):
control or in mastery of yourown flesh, and that's, by and
large, with marriages.
It's because I mean honestly, ifI wasn't married, I didn't have
that accountability in my lifelike what I would say, what I
would do.
My behavior would probably becompletely different now than it
was.
If I'd never got married.

(01:33:27):
I could guarantee you I wouldstill probably be a little boy
in terms of maturity if itwasn't for my wife and getting
married and having certainaccountability factors from her
in my life.
And I would say the same goesprobably back to her.
She would probably be veryimmature, maybe not in that the
fleshly regard, but otherregards right.

(01:33:48):
She would probably be veryimmature in if it wasn't for me
coming in and giving someingradia to her right.

Imran (01:33:55):
So marriage operates that way often it talks about
brotherly accountability.
I think it's far morecomplicated to grow spiritually
when single like.

Ryan (01:34:05):
That's a much more difficult process because you've
got to make that deliberateeffort and muster that on your
own Maybe because the one thingI would say in the inverse of
that is that it's the same ideathat when walking in the spirit,
a fruit then of walking in thespirit is that the spirit
provides the strength behindyour weakness to get mastery
over things you're too weak toget mastery over right.

(01:34:25):
So you know, this is just aharsh reality.
You read this, and it was at 2Corinthians 12, I believe.
But when God tells Paul youknow, my grace is sufficient for
you, he says I've pleaded withyou three times.
You know, remove this from me.

(01:34:45):
And he's like my grace issufficient for you.
So, in other words, over andover what I think you see and
that you see it here even is,god doesn't if you're struggling
with something and you're justlike God.
I just wish you would removethis desire.
Like it's just that that wholeparadox of I'm doing the things

(01:35:06):
that my flesh wants to do, but Idon't want to do, but yet my
flesh is a part of me, so I dowant to do it, but the spirit
does not want me to do it right,like there's just this internal
turmoil.

Selena (01:35:19):
Yeah.

Ryan (01:35:20):
Intention within oneself of this stuff.
It's like being in a dishwasherthere you go All right.

Selena (01:35:26):
Yeah, it's like clean To clean.

Ryan (01:35:28):
We make it now.

Brandon (01:35:30):
Hey, sir, sir.

Selena (01:35:31):
Yeah, in the dishwasher.

Ryan (01:35:33):
But no.
But the idea, though, being isthat we always ask like okay,
I'm so tired of fighting thisfight and losing this fight,
just remove the desire from me.
Right, and what God doesn't dois ever remove the desire or
remove situation.
What he does is he provides hisstrength to get through it.

(01:35:56):
Yeah, so where you're weak, hebrings in his strength to get
mastery over it.
So that only happens if you'rewalking in the spirit.
Yeah, so I don't know you guyshave any?

Imran (01:36:13):
I will say that that tie in I think was was really really
good there that all this onlyhappens if you're walking in the
spirit.
All the fruit of the spirit canonly happen if you're walking
in the spirit.
So in order for you to actuallyget all of these things and to
be able to demonstrate all thesethings, you have to be, we have
to be walking in the spirit.
You're looking at me likeyou're something to say, selena.

Selena (01:36:35):
No, I'm just really glad we went.
We went over this again, eventhough we had to re-record, but
I was like God, this is so good.
Yeah, is it.

Ryan (01:36:42):
I'm happy we did this too.
When you first text me and saidhey, like I just got back that
night.
I was exhausted.

Imran (01:36:49):
I think that because we did that was we were exhausted.

Selena (01:36:51):
I think we were right after church we were just Wow, I
didn't think about it.

Brandon (01:36:56):
You think?

Imran (01:36:56):
of your text and your text and your back is like I'm
just not going to think about itand I like went to sleep and I
was okay with that because I waslike I am the thought of doing
this again exhausts me right now.

Ryan (01:37:07):
Yeah, but then you know, here I'm, I'm, I'm because we
got Brandon in.

Imran (01:37:10):
Yeah, this has been fun.
It's been really good.
How do you enjoy this?
This is amazing.

Brandon (01:37:16):
I appreciate y'all having me and just the process
of going through and being partof that.
That's just glad to be here.

Ryan (01:37:24):
Thank you.
Any closing thoughts on thefruit of the spirit?

Brandon (01:37:28):
I believe you've touched on it greatly Just with
the long suffering.
You know, I know people aredealing with certain things and
the issues, but along with thepatients, I think, and being led
by the spirit, we can all makeit through.

Ryan (01:37:49):
And I think it's important to remember fruit requires
pruning, removal, weeding right.
Sometimes things have to getcut off, sometimes things have
to get removed to produce goodfruit, you know, requires work
and requires patients.
You know it's worth itinternally and externally.

(01:38:11):
Absolutely.

Imran (01:38:12):
You may have to cut things off internally and how
you're living your life.
You may have to weed thingswithin yourself.
You may have to till the landthat is wet within yourself.
So it's not just you know, cutoff your friend.
You may need to cut off afriend, maybe, or at least, or
even for a time, to like reallybe able to start seeing the
fruit that you're looking for.
But that's applied internallyand externally.

Ryan (01:38:33):
So I just want to finish off with the rest of the set
here, though, because we can'tjust gloss over that.
So Paul says this is what.
Here's the acts of the flesh.
This is what that looks like,but they're obvious, right?
Don't fool yourself.
You know what the acts of theflesh are.
Here's what the fruit of thespirit look like.
And again, such things.
There is no law.

(01:38:54):
Why is there no law againstthese things?
No one's going to be upset withyou if you love them too much,
if you're too patient with them,if you're too kind to them,
right?
Yeah, there is no law againstthose things.
But verse 24, those who belongto Christ Jesus have crucified
the flesh right, every day, withits passions and its desires.
But since we live by the spirit, walking with the spirit, let

(01:39:18):
us keep in step with the spirit.
Let us not become conceited,provoking and envying each other
.
I just want to just make onequick, just a reminder,
everybody, this whole lettercame because of these teachers
coming in and undermining Paulright, and now, right before

(01:39:39):
this, the climax of Galatianswas take that teacher, kick him
out right, remove him fromwithin you right.
That was ultimately what Paulwas leading them to do.
So now he starts turning tothem, because I think one of his
concerns is like well, theremay be some who don't want them
to leave or may disagree withyou, right?
And I think one of the biggestthings that he's trying when

(01:40:01):
he's talking about what thefruit of the spirit is is kind
of wrapped up here what does notbecome conceited.
Don't become prideful in thissituation.
Don't provoke and don't stopenvying each other about.
Like.
There was probably some senseof like.
I told you not to getcircumcised and look at you.
Now You're the one waddle onaround and I'm here, you know,

(01:40:22):
playing soccer, right, like,don't provoke each other, stop
being jealous and envying eachother, but love each other,
right.
And the next set of this, whatwe're going to hit next week.
In chapter six, paul begins tomake the point of so if that's
the fruit of the spirit, how doyou deal with this, teacher, and
how do you remove them?

(01:40:43):
Hey, restore them gently, right.
Every situation, the fruit ofthe spirit manifests that even
comes into removal of peoplefrom your community.
It needs to be done so withpatience and gentleness and
kindness and etc.
Right, so we'll get into thatnext time.

Imran (01:41:00):
Yeah, Thank you so much.
Ryan, Thank you so much forcoming out and Brandon thank you
so much for joining us thisevening.
And I do want to leave the lastfew words before we go out to
you.
I would love for you to readverse 22 one more time as we
head off into this week.

Brandon (01:41:16):
But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long
suffering, goodness, gentleness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law.

Imran (01:41:31):
Amen.

Ryan (01:41:32):
That was not AI, that was real voice.

Imran (01:41:34):
Oh yeah, no AI generated around here, just good, old
fashioned.

Selena (01:41:38):
Man.

Ryan (01:41:39):
Yeah, all right, y'all enjoy the week.
Everybody walk in the spirit.

Imran (01:41:43):
Go bear fruit Good evening Go love someone, go
serve someone.

Selena (01:41:47):
Thank you for tuning in to Real Bible Stories.
If you enjoyed this podcast, besure to leave a review, share
and subscribe to be notifiedeach week when we upload new
episodes.
Real Bible Stories is producedin partnership with Palm Church
in 29 Palms, California.
If you would like moreinformation or want to check out
archive sermons and Biblestudies, please check out the

(01:42:10):
church website atpalmsbaptistchurchcom or check
them out on Facebook, Instagramor YouTube.
Real Bible Stories can be foundwherever podcasts are found.
Thank you again and we will seeyou next week.

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Ep 70 Decoding Galatians 5:22-26: The Fruit of the Spirit - An Etymological Discussion (Guest: Brandon Pittman)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep 70 Decoding Galatians 5:22-26: The Fruit of the Spirit - An Etymological Discussion (Guest: Brandon Pittman)