The Notes

This coming Wednesday night, October 28, 2026, we continue our message series on the topic - Fruit of the Spirit.  We are taking an in depth look at what it means for the nine fruits of the Spirit to be produced in our lives.  This week, we focus on the fruits: kindness, goodness, and faithfulness.  Join us at 6:00 p.m. for an uplifting message and some mid-week encouragement for the soul. 

If you can't join us in person, you can always participate through our Facebook page.  We go "live" at 6:00 p.m., and you will have a front row seat.  If you can't join us live, there are 3 ways to watch the message later - on Facebook, on YouTube, or here on our website. (the "Past & Future Messages" page).  Watch anytime!  

This week, October 21, 2026, we continued our new message series on the Fruits of the Spirit with an in depth dive into each of the 9 fruits listed in Galatians 5:22-23 - "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

This fruit grows inside us from the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence in our hearts. The Holy Spirit transforms us - which produces fruit from the nature of God - if we are willing to surrender to the Spirit's transformational process.  2 Corinthians 3:18 says: “And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”

So throughout this study, keep reminding yourself that it's the Spirit who brings out God’s attributes in us through our surrender.  It doesn't happen because we are trying harder.

The 2 fruit we covered this week were Peace and Patience. 

Peace comes from and Old Testament Hebrew word: Shalom, translated as "peace.”  The core meaning of Shalom is deeper and broader than what we may think of with "peace."  It means wholeness and completeness —like a stone wall with no missing bricks or a physical object with no cracks.  It’s a state of total well-being; harmony with God, right relationships, and no worry.

There are 3 kinds of peace:  (1) Spiritual Peace which is Peace with God.  We have that because we have been reconciled to God through Jesus.  (2) Peace with Others which is sometimes referred to as relational peace.  It's living in harmony and acting as peacemakers.  (Think of when Jesus said "blessed are the peacemakers").  (3) Peace Within, which is inner peace.  

2 Corinthians 5 explains all 3 of these in verses 18-21:

"And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.  For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.  So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”  For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ."

Because God is not holding onto our sins, we can have inner peace an not live with grief or remorse.  We are forgiven!!

Many people struggle with peace in our circumstances.  Sometimes this stems from relationship issues, but it may also come from as a problem that needs resolution; awaiting justice for a wrong; a catastrophic illness; a home or life that needs rebuilding; etc.  In all of these things, the spiritual fruit of peace is what is being grown in our lives.  The Holy Spirit will be working to produce in us peace – a peace so great that we (and others) can’t comprehend how we aren’t worried… fretting… preoccupied… stressed… concerned… bothered…it's a  peace that can’t be explained.  As said in Philippians 4:7 – “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

That kind of Peace comes from Shalom.  It's a peace built on wholeness - that all you need you already have in this moment.   You can be content right now, where you are, knowing that God provides for our needs, even before we are aware of the need.  Shalom is trusting that God will indeed provide; that God will avenge your injustice; that He will restore what was lost. 

Scripture gives us God's promise; look at Isaiah 26:3 – “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”

That verse gives us the tools for peace - trust.  Trust comes from knowing that nothing is too great for God; that we will overcome every challenge and problem.  That's what Jesus told us in John 16:33 - “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  In Jesus we find peace.  Not in our efforts.  Not in our on solutions.  In Jesus.

And He didn’t just say it once.  He told the disciples, and us, that He gives us peace; that we don't have to live in fear or stressed out.  Jesus said in John 14:27 - Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid."

In Jesus we have peace.  His peace.  Lasting peace.  In His time.  We have peace by trusting in His promises.  Listening to His voice. . . the voice of the Prince of Peace . . . by staying fixed on Him and tuning out the noise. 

So how does this fruit get produced?  How do we get more peace?

Colossians 3:15 gives us the answer – “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, for to this you were called as members of one body.”  “Let” peace rule.  "Let" is the key word.  Let means we have a choice.  "Let" tells us to give in to the Holy Spirit; listen to that voice.  When we do, it will be Okay.  We can have confidence of that because we know God is at work, even when we don’t see.  He’s not done.  He is making right come from wrong.  He is bringing good from bad.  So surrender to the Holy Spirit and believe in the truth of Psalm 29:11 – “The LORD will give strength unto his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace.”  That means peace is a blessing that God wants to give us.  God wants us to live in peace.

Just understand that producing peace takes practice.  You’ll be tested.  So be ready!

We are also tested when the Holy Spirit produces this next fruit in us - Patience. Patience is an attribute of God, our Father.

2 Peter 3:9 – “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

Patience comes from the Greek word makrothumia, meaning "long-suffering" or a "long temper."  As it says in Psalm 103:8 – “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.”  Slow to anger is how God described himself.  See Exodus 34:6 – “Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.”  And when God describes Himself as slow to answer, that means long-suffering, which means patient.  Patient, for us, means not just the ability to wait, but keeping a good attitude while waiting.  It means enduring difficult people without complaining.  

Keep in mind that patience is developed in us by the Holy Spirit, and it requires having people in our lives.  

Let me share the story of Pastor; these are his words: 

"Years ago, I was pastoring a small church and dealing with a particularly cantankerous board member. Every meeting felt like a battle. I prayed for patience constantly, but nothing seemed to change. Then one day, the Lord spoke to my heart: “I did not put him in your life to test you. I put him in your life to grow you.”

That shifted everything. I stopped seeing that man as an obstacle and started seeing him as the very soil where patience was being cultivated. Within months, our relationship transformed. Not because he changed first, but because the Spirit produced something in me that I could never have manufactured on my own.  That is how the Fruit of the Spirit works. It grows in the places you least expect, often through the people you find most challenging."

Some people may be in our lives to teach us patience, so that the Spirit can grow patience inside us.  Once we recognize the need for more of God in us, and more of patience in our lives, we can be open to the change and transformation that is possible.  The Holy Spirit will produce this fruit if we’re willing to surrender.  It's my prayer for each of us that we will become more Christlike and more like our heavenly Father.  This world needs it.