Music in general, think about it as well. It speaks to our hearts and our souls. It tells stories and it asks questions. And we can listen to a song and we can feel called to action. And we can hear a truth in that song. And we can go, wow, you know, that's so true. And like scripture, we can be inspired by music. And it can do that. It can bring these deep emotions. It's like each part of our life has a soundtrack, it seems like, the older we get. [00:41:06] (33 seconds)






The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. So, because you, you follow Christ, and have faith in God, the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit does something. He produces something in you. It's not because you've acted like a Christian, or you have just professed your faith. It's more than that. And in the Holy Spirit, because you have been humble enough, we talked about that last week, because you are worshiping Him, because you have a sense of His peace and His love, and you have a spirit inside of you, and you allow Him to control your life, and you do the things that He has called you to do, like in obedience, the Holy Spirit will produce something, okay? And those things are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. [00:52:23] (59 seconds)






There is no law against these things. If you have your Scripture, your Scripture might say there is no limit against these things. There's no extreme against these things. What, what does that mean? That last part is very important to me, I think. You can do whatever, you can have as much love, as much patience, as much gentleness, and you will never do anything wrong if you go to the extreme of those things. [00:53:22] (28 seconds)






And of course, the first is love, and that was John 13, 35, where He references that. But the truth is, and I want to challenge us as we start the new year, many Christians do not bear spiritual fruit. They don't. They profess to be Christian with their words, not with their actions. They haven't tried to figure any of that out. And, and it's, it's like Jesus talks about this more than once in His ministry, but there's leaves on the vine, but there's no fruit. [00:54:08] (35 seconds)






And it's a huge spiritual problem that God's people fail to produce this sort of thing. And it's a huge problem that God's people fail to produce this sort of thing. The spiritual fruit, because the world needs it all the time. That's what your neighbors need, your family needs, the world needs. And a lot of times, when we don't produce those things, here's that really big accountability. It's probably because we're choosing to disconnect from God. We don't think we've disconnected, but we have. [00:55:24] (28 seconds)










And there's a purpose for them. It's not just transformation on the outside, it's inner transformation. I mean, that's what he, he really wants us to reflect the life of Christ, a Christ-like character. A Christ-like character inside, because that flows outside. And so the focus of the spiritual fruits is spiritual growth, spiritual maturity. And they develop, though, within us, and are cultivated over time. [00:57:17] (31 seconds)






It's not just like a spiritual gift, where you like, you might have a spiritual gift because you are a follower of Christ, and he has gifted you to teach. He has put that within you, within your life, and you can develop that thing. Well, these are things that develop and are cultivated over time. And they are not something that just happens. You need to remain connected to Jesus, the vine, and abide in him, and allow the Holy Spirit to work, and these things begin to bubble up. [00:57:48] (37 seconds)






That's what John 15, verses four through five, as Jesus is speaking, to his disciples. It's sort of our key verse here at John Wesley, where we believe we are connecting people to Jesus. This is the verse that it's grounded in. It says, remain in me, and I will remain in you, or connect to me, and I will connect to you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine, you are the branches, those who remain in me, and I in them. Will produce much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing. [00:58:25] (41 seconds)






I thought that was a great challenge, especially on Christmas Eve. The greatest witness to the world is a Christian's public joy. Do we have joy in our life? Do we have joy that's linked to, if you remember the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 and 6, Jesus said, blessed are things. Blessed are, that's a God-like joy, joy built not on circumstances, but God's circumstances. [01:06:30] (28 seconds)






His peace will guard your peace. Your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. The fruit of peace is really evidence in, and it's evident in a Christian's life through this love and this joy, this sort of harmony of soul and spirit that surpasses all understanding. There's this calmness in the face of life challenges and God's sovereignty. You know that he is sovereign. His purposes will prevail out of the bad in your life. Even the good in your life. [01:09:54] (35 seconds)

Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen. Fantastic! Thank you all very much. Fantastic, awesome, cool stuff. Hopefully, you were singing along with that. It's supposed to be a little fun.

Again, welcome to the Soul of Music 2025 Soul of Music series. It is a series that developed over 15 years ago. And it really talks about how music is the scripture of the culture. And whether you believe that's true or not, the truth is out there in the world. Christians believe that really the ultimate truth can be found in God's written word, the Bible. And we also believe that it can be found in the living word, Jesus Christ.

But all truth, if you think about it, originates from God. And if it's true, it's originated from God. And God's truth is found in unexpected places all the time, especially in the music that we love. It's found in the places, the music that we hear and we sing along to on the beach, or in our backyard, or in our car, or we hear played in church, or if we go out somewhere to a concert.

Music, in general, think about it, speaks to our hearts and our souls. It tells stories and it asks questions. We can listen to a song and feel called to action. We can hear a truth in that song and go, "Wow, you know, that's so true." Like scripture, we can be inspired by music. It can bring these deep emotions. It's like each part of our life has a soundtrack, it seems like, the older we get.

Music can soothe our soul of pain, and at the same time, it can challenge us to want to change. So over the next three weeks, what we're going to be doing is exploring some songs and some music that, whether I love it and hopefully you will love it, are somewhat popular songs across mixed genres of music. We look at those songs in a way that it's called the soul music test.

Let me just remind you, it's really a series of questions. What is the soul of a song? That's kind of the first major question that we're asking, of course. But how do you get there? What is the music? How does that make you feel? That's the big thing. So, "Oh, what did I feel when I heard that song?" And then, "What truths can be found in those lyrics?" And then, "How might God use that song to speak into a lost and broken world at times?"

I thought we'd practice that a little bit. We can listen to some things. We can think about some of the truths that might be in that song. If we know that song, we can look it up later on. So we're going to have a little fun, and we got a little playlist for us.

The first few songs that we're going to do are either the special that we're going to be doing or it's a support song for that actual week as well. The first one, of course, is "Peaceful Easy Feelin'" by the Eagles. But then we got, let's play the next one after "Peaceful Easy Feelin'."

Play that one. Anybody know what this song is? So we're going to be talking about kindness. That's Tim McGraw's "Humble and Kind." Do we have one before that on that list? There you go. What's this one? Pharrell Williams, "Happy." I almost preached on that one. Because the feeling we get is happiness; I don't know if it really talks about true happiness.

And then here's another one, a support song up in the 80s. You might recognize this one: "Patience" by Guns N' Roses. We're talking about patience. And here's another one of our feature songs. It's going to be great. It's going to be cool to hear Adrian Lewis through that one. That's going to be fun.

Here's another one, classic. What's this one? "Lean On Me," right? "Lean On Me." Jelly Roll. Let's play the next one. I think we used it last year. One, two, all right, Jelly Roll, that's still one of my favorites.

Here's a great one. If you're in the fall, you might know this one. Let's play this. Anybody know what this is? Kenny Chesney, "The Boys of Fall." So "The Boys of Fall," that's a great one. Here's a classic from my childhood: "Africa." Right? This is for Reverend Joe. I thought we'd play that one. The original artist is Toto, but if you are younger than I, you might think it's actually Weezer since they did a popular version.

Here's another great one. I think we've used this one before too. Always a great one, right? Denver. Man, that's good stuff right there. Here's another one you probably know. All generations might know this: "Life is a Highway."

Here's another one from my generation. Anybody know this song? "Take On Me," right? By who? Is that by anybody? Want to shout it out? Who comes up with the idea, "Say, hey, let's just name ourselves," you know? I mean, come on, marketing scheme right there.

All right, here's another great one I kind of grew up on. Since we're talking about love today, "Love Shack" by the B-52's. Here's another one that's been popular lately: "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins. Since my son's a pilot, Jamie uses that as her ringtone when he calls. He doesn't fly jet airplanes like that, but...

And then there's a good classic that kind of fits with our series. Let's end with this: "What do you think, God? What does our world need now?" It might just be me, but when I look at the world, I think it's not, but it's good, and there's bad. We see conflict, we see chaos, we see tragedy, we see terrorism. But at the same time, we see joy, and we see love, and we see all these advancements in the medical industry that, personally, I'm so thankful for.

I'm so grateful for them because they prolong the life of people I love. They've repaired people that I love, and you're just like, "Wow, there's some amazing things going on." So, it's like this mixed bag of goods that we, the world in which we live in. But what does the world need now? What does my world need now?

I want us to be asking that question. As we start out 2025, we need to take some personal responsibility. We don't need to be pointing to somebody else and going, "If they just get their act together," it's like, "Maybe we need to get our act together." Maybe we need to do something and contribute. God believes in us. God has gifted us with some things.

So, what can I do now? What can we do now? If you think about it, we don't control people. We don't control the weather. So, what do we control? Well, we can control ourselves, or we should try to. But what can God do with us, in us, through us? That's the answer. What does your world need now?

I think God answered the question 2,000 years ago in the life, in the ministry, the death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus set up 2,000 years ago a particular way of life to answer that question. And it's timeless. It's a timeless message that can be found in Scripture.

In Galatians chapter 5, that's where we're going to park ourselves for three weeks. So, if you have your Bible, you like your Bible, you want to write in your Bible, you have it on digital notes, whatever, Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 through 23. And we're going to be looking at that because that's the fruits of the Spirit.

The Apostle Paul, one of the gospel sharers in the world who has written most of our New Testament letters, was a follower of Christ, and he tried to live a particular way, and that's what he believed his world needed. He was writing to the Galatians, and he said, "Hey, this is important."

Let me read it to us. "The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives." So, because you follow Christ and have faith in God, the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit does something. He produces something in you. It's not because you've acted like a Christian or you have just professed your faith. It's more than that.

In the Holy Spirit, because you have been humble enough—we talked about that last week—because you are worshiping Him, because you have a sense of His peace and His love, and you have a spirit inside of you, and you allow Him to control your life, and you do the things that He has called you to do, like in obedience, the Holy Spirit will produce something, okay?

And those things are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things. If you have your Scripture, your Scripture might say there is no limit against these things. There's no extreme against these things.

What does that mean? That last part is very important to me, I think. You can do whatever; you can have as much love, as much patience, as much gentleness, and you will never do anything wrong if you go to the extreme of those things. There is no law against these things. There's no limit against these things.

So, they sound very important. Jesus said that the world would not be able to do anything wrong if you know His disciples by their fruit. He did say love, but He really was talking about this, to bear something. Of course, the first is love, and that was John 13:35, where He references that.

But the truth is, and I want to challenge us as we start the new year, many Christians do not bear spiritual fruit. They don't. They profess to be Christian with their words, not with their actions. They haven't tried to figure any of that out.

It's like Jesus talks about this more than once in His ministry, but there's leaves on the vine, but there's no fruit. There are leaves on the grapevine or the fig tree, but there's no fruit. And that's a problem because they believe the gospel, and they've sort of claimed that grace for themselves, but they don't follow the one who is the gospel.

And it sounds like, "Hey, you know, Marty, you're heaping duty upon us." But that's not it. It's like, if you're going all in with Christ, you need to go all in because He needs you to be productive, not just a believer. He needs you to be a productive, believing follower.

It's a huge spiritual problem that God's people fail to produce this sort of thing. The spiritual fruit, because the world needs it all the time. That's what your neighbors need, your family needs, the world needs.

A lot of times, when we don't produce those things, here's that really big accountability. It's probably because we're choosing to disconnect from God. We don't think we've disconnected, but we have. We've made other things a priority in our life. God ultimately does not disconnect from us.

He always is kind of trying to—we've sung about it, you know, He's coming to find you. He's coming to knock walls down. He's going over mountains for you. He's doing all that stuff.

So today is sort of this intro, and I wish I could spend a lot. We're going to hit the first three, and we hit love, joy, peace, and we could spend hours on all three of those things, and we just can't. So what we're going to do is this sort of an intro to the series, and then we're just going to park ourselves a little bit more in each one.

Next week, we're just... but love and joy and peace, I think we kind of get. We hear a lot of that, whether we're practicing it or not, but we hear it. We can probably go and read, and we can go, "I'm going to figure that out. I'm going to try to have God have those things produced in my life."

So what I mean by that is, what are ultimately the fruits of the Spirit? We talked about them, but what is the definition of them? What are they? They're character traits. Character traits, really, produced by the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit, in a Christian who's a believing follower, and he is trying to transform your life with them.

These are the fruits of that transformation. There's a purpose for them. It's not just transformation on the outside; it's inner transformation. I mean, that's what He really wants us to reflect—the life of Christ, a Christ-like character. A Christ-like character inside because that flows outside.

The focus of the spiritual fruits is spiritual growth, spiritual maturity. They develop, though, within us and are cultivated over time. It's not just like a spiritual gift, where you might have a spiritual gift because you are a follower of Christ, and He has gifted you to teach. He has put that within you, within your life, and you can develop that thing.

Well, these are things that develop and are cultivated over time. They are not something that just happens. You need to remain connected to Jesus, the vine, and abide in Him, and allow the Holy Spirit to work, and these things begin to bubble up.

That's what John 15, verses 4 through 5, as Jesus is speaking to His disciples. It's sort of our key verse here at John Wesley, where we believe we are connecting people to Jesus. This is the verse that it's grounded in. It says, "Remain in me, and I will remain in you," or "Connect to me, and I will connect to you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing."

You read that, and you understand that God's will for your life, for the Christian, is to be fruitful, to be abiding, to be connected, to remain connected to Christ. Not always to do some of the other stuff, but that right there, it starts with that.

So this week, as we look at the spiritual fruits—love, joy, peace—we got the three. The first three. We got the song "Peaceful Easy Feeling" by the Eagles, and it was a song written by Jack Tempchin. He wrote it, and the Eagles recorded it. He's not part of the band, but the Eagles recorded it, and they debuted it on their album in 1972, and it reached number 22 on the charts on their debut album.

Now, that chorus that we heard sung was what? "Because I got a peaceful, easy feeling, and I know you won't let me down because I'm already standing on the ground." That's like the chorus that makes you feel some sort of peace. There's this harmony there. There's a message there.

If you're the one that has to go through this of love, and I wish I had thought that through before. But we're going to start with love. If you look at the spiritual fruit of love, I don't know if this song talks much about it. It's hard to sort of... I was like, "Hmm, I don't know if that's the top theme here."

Think about marital love. Maybe this is a husband singing it to his wife, or maybe it's godly love, where you have the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, singing it to His bride, the church. I mean, you could stretch it, okay, if you want. But it has this line in there, "And I know you won't let me down because I'm already standing on the ground."

I think what the song gets right is this deep affection, love, trust. There's this trust that is like security that is found in love, godly love. There's this beautiful security that when we have an ongoing love relationship with God, we feel secure because God is love, as 1 John chapter 5 says.

God's love. He radiates; He is love. He is the very thing that you're sharing with someone, that love, and that's pretty awesome. Now, the spiritual fruit of love is the foundation from which all other fruits flow. You can't get away from that. That's why it's listed first, and it's very important.

One other comment I have about love is that love should undergird every conviction you have in your life. Let me repeat that: love should undergird every conviction you hold in your life. You can think about that. That's probably a whole other message and sermon.

When you talk about love, we always think about 1 Corinthians chapter 13, which is the love chapter. I'm going to read verses 4 and 7 as it speaks of love. The Apostle Paul says, "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable. It keeps no record of being wronged."

You know, you read that, and I get irritated with people I love. That doesn't mean that it's love, though. I'm not showing them love by being irritated. I'm showing them love by being angry with them, even though I love them. Again, these are your actions. This is the fruit of what's in your heart and your mind.

"Love does not rejoice over injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."

I don't know if you've read that book by David Ireland, but it's a book called "Letters to an Unborn Child." If you've read it, I'm sure it's a very powerful story. I've just heard one of his portions of that book where he was talking about, so here's David Ireland. He is an individual that was dying of a neurological disease, and his wife was carrying their first, their unborn child, and he wanted to write something to his child.

He didn't know if he'd be around really to teach his child, talk to his child, that type of thing. He talks about the difference of what it means as a husband to take a wife out for dinner. You know, if you are married, male and female, and the husband wants to take their wife out, take my wife out to dinner, okay?

You maybe get dressed up, you take your shower, you put on your cologne, whatever you do, and you know, maybe you like to drive, maybe you drive, you know, and you... You get in the car, and you open the door for her, and all that stuff. Well, for him, he has a different understanding of that.

For him to go out, she would have to dress him. She'd have to brush his teeth. She'd have to comb his hair. She'd have to help him into the wheelchair, and then she would have to go outside, and she'd have to open the garage door. I didn't have a garage door, but open the garage door. She'd have to open the door. She'd have to put him in the car. She'd have to help sort of get him situated and help buckle him into the car, shut the door, walk around the car, get in the car, start the car, back the car out of the garage, then get out of the car, and then shut the garage door, and then drive to the restaurant.

When they got to the restaurant, it all started over again in reverse, where she'd have to get him out of the car, take him into the restaurant, and she would help serve him in the restaurant, and then all the way home. That is a beautiful picture of sacrificial love.

I love that story because I think about the love that I show in my life to the people around me, and am I that? Do I do those sorts of things sacrificially, or is it just out of duty? Or do I act that way? I love that example.

Then we just sort of shift to the spiritual fruit of joy. Again, we could talk about love for hours, but the spiritual fruit of joy. This last week, we were in Waco for a pastor's conference, and one of my friends who works at my home church and the church I served for 11 years was talking about his Christmas Eve sermon. He was talking about how he was doing some studying, and this line was in a commentary, and he sort of tweaked the line, but it really felt like it was a truthful statement and an important statement for people as he was talking about Christmas.

He states this: "The greatest witness to the world is a Christian's public joy." I thought that was a great challenge, especially on Christmas Eve. The greatest witness to the world is a Christian's public joy. Do we have joy in our life? Do we have joy that's linked to, if you remember the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 and 6, Jesus said, "Blessed are..." That's a God-like joy, joy built not on circumstances, but God's circumstances.

This sort of gospel joy, that we're part of the greatest story that's ever been told, and we have a purpose in life, and this joy comes from loving others well. That's where it ties into love.

Philippians chapter 4, verse 4 says, "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice." I love the title of the song, of course, which gets us into peace. It's an embodiment of sort of the serenity and contentment and state of mind and tranquility.

So when we go from joy, the spiritual gift of joy, we should feel some peace in our life. It says, "Because I got this peaceful, easy feeling," right? Well, the spiritual fruit of peace is the shalom. I talked about that on Christmas Eve, and I can't get into all of that, but it's of this mind, this body, this soul, this spirit.

The spiritual gift of peace is the spiritual shalom that goes beyond, of course, our circumstances, much like joy, but it has nothing to do with the absence of conflict. Most likely, our lives, our relationships, our world is going to have all sorts of conflict, but it's harmony in our inner being.

We might always have conflict around us, but that doesn't mean we can't have the peace of God, the fruit of the Spirit. In Philippians chapter 4, verses 5 and 7, it says, "Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand, or it goes beyond our circumstances. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

The fruit of peace is really evident in a Christian's life through this love and this joy, this sort of harmony of soul and spirit that surpasses all understanding. There's this calmness in the face of life's challenges and God's sovereignty. You know that He is sovereign. His purposes will prevail out of the bad in your life, even the good in your life.

There's effects of God's fruit in our life. See, when we walk with Christ, it causes others to actually wonder, "Hmm, what have they got? What have they got?" I mean, what is that? You know, people are drawn to Christ. And that gives you this witness, this testimony. If you're just smiling, somebody says, "Why are you so happy?" Let me tell you about Jesus.

I mean, that sounds very, you know, like in your face, but that could be your answer. People are drawn to that joy. They're drawn to that love. They're drawn to that peace. And Christians must display those fruits.

Let me close with this. There was a story about an early missionary who was a missionary to Laos. Somebody asked him, he said, "You know, where was the dividing line? You had Vietnam and Laos, and you had like Vietnamese and Laotians, and they all lived in a similar location. How did you know, you know, which was what citizen?"

He said this: "It wasn't at this time, it wasn't about location. It wasn't about territory. It wasn't about anything on a map. Their citizenship was linked to their cultural values and what they inhibited and what they exhibited and what they embodied and how they decorated their homes inside and out. It was marked as Vietnamese or Laotian by their characteristics that they exhibited and embodied in their life."

So what does our world need now? I think our world needs us to display kingdom fruit. They should know Christians by their love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And that's challenging, but we don't do it by our own power. We do it by the Holy Spirit's power.

If you want to mature spiritually, well then tap in and connect to that. Maybe you've been trying to do it by yourself all the time, and you just need to walk away from trying to do it yourself and actually surrender to God, be obedient to Him in humility.

So as we continue through this Soul of Music, and I close today, I want you to ask yourself this question: Are you growing? Are you spiritually maturing? Or have you been sort of stuck? You've stayed the same. Are you displaying the fruits of the Spirit? Maybe ask your closest friend, your spouse. Do I display those? Your coworkers. Do people know your citizenship if you call yourself a follower of Christ?

Let's go to God in prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much again for the opportunity we have to come in and worship. Sometimes we get to have some fun and listen to some songs that are out there in the world, in our life that we know, that are very familiar to us. But we don't really know they speak any truth. Sometimes those songs don't speak healthy truth. Sometimes they're opposite of the very truth that you've come to establish.

But today I pray that we understand that you have always called us to love. And that's the foundation for all the other spiritual fruits, especially joy and peace.

So Lord, as you challenge us as we move forward today and every day, I just pray that we be open to you, open to your discipline in our life at times when we need to actually change our ways, when we need to try it differently, when we find out that maybe we aren't displaying the fruits of the Spirit. And why?

Lord, I pray again as we seek to spiritually grow as people here in this place, those as we move out into the world. What does our world need now? I think you've answered that for us.

In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen.

I want to just open the doors of the church. If you want to join this portion of the Body of Christ, we have a way of doing that called the membership pathway. If you want to make a commitment to Christ, follow Him, make a new commitment in your life to Him, we want to know about that. So grab me after the service. We'd love to talk to you and help guide you through that new decision of life.

So let's stand as we close in worship, and we just continue to worship the Lord together.

As you go from this place, may you have love, joy, and peace as you go out into the world. May you love God. May you embrace His beauty. May you praise Him. May you live to the fullest. May you go in peace. Amen and amen. Y'all have a great week.

Subject: Embodying the Fruits of the Spirit Through Music



Dear John Wesley Church - Houston,



I hope my email finds you reflecting on the fruits of the Spirit as we embark on this new year together.



Last Sunday, we kicked off our Soul of Music series by exploring how music can reveal God's truth in our lives. We discussed the importance of love, joy, and peace as foundational fruits of the Spirit, emphasizing that these traits are not just for our personal growth but are essential for how we engage with the world around us. As we listen to popular songs and examine their messages, we are reminded that our actions should reflect the character of Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit to produce these fruits in us as we remain connected to Him.



As we move forward, I challenge each of you to ask yourselves: Are you truly displaying the fruits of the Spirit in your daily life? Let’s take personal responsibility for our spiritual growth and seek to embody love, joy, and peace in our interactions with others. Remember, the world needs to see these fruits in action, and it starts with us being intentional about our connection to Christ.



Blessings,

John Wesley Church - Houston Team