
Indonesian: 
Selamat hari Minggu

English: 
Good Morning brothers and sisters in Christ.
Let us read together
a part of scripture from
Galatians 5:16-25; a part we are all familiar with:
Life by the Spirit or Flesh?
Galatians 5:16-25 (NIV)
I will read it for us all.
(16) So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
(17) For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit,
and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other,
so that you are not to do whatever you want.

English: 
(18) But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
(19) The acts of the flesh are obvious:
sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
(20) idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition dissensions, factions
(21) and envy;  drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I did before,
that those who live like this
will not inherit the kingdom of God.
(22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
(23) gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law.
(24) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
(25) Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Lets us pray together.

English: 
Heavenly Father, how often we study this section of the Bible.
Often we study about the fruits of the Spirit.
But you know how often we fail to bear the fruits accordingly to our repentance.
Today we will once again study this part of the Bible.
May the Holy Spirit touch our hearts.
So that we do not merely understand the things you want us to do,
but actually take action in our daily lives.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
I am going to start this sermon with a question.
After reading the 9 fruits of the Spirits, does anyone think this way:
""Seems we don't have enough fruits. Why are there only 9 fruits?"
I am sure some of you think this way.
We learn about the virtues of morals.

English: 
We learn about respect and social etiquette.
There are also honesty and courage.
How come these are not mentioned in the fruits of the Spirit?
A famous Greek philosopher, Aristotle,
came up with his own list of morals.
He has 4, less than the Bible's list of fruits.
They are: Prudence
Justice! Temperance!
and Fortitude!
Notice that none of these overlap with the fruits of the Spirit.
According to Aristotle, human beings have a an ending purpose in life.
The purpose is genuine humanity.
As a true human being,
one must strive to achieve genuine humanity.
To put it more simply, currently we have not achieve to be the best version of ourselves.

English: 
Now let us look back in our past.
Say 10-20 years back when we were still in grade school or middle school.
Now when we look back, there were many stupid moments.
Now we start thinking, how we were so foolish before.
We cringe at times when we recall our past.
But don't be mistaken because 20 years from now,
we will still think back and see the foolishness we do today.
So we are not yet the perfect version of ourselves.
Thus according to Aristotle,
genuine humanity is within each of us
in the form of potentials.
We need to actualize it.
We achieve this by striving to accomplish
the 4 moral characteristics Aristotle mentioned,
until one day we accomplish genuine humanity.
You become what you actually do.
We need to continue to learn and learn.

English: 
Why? Because by definition,
virtue is something that we need to consistently strive and learn.
Different to evilness
we do not need to learn.
New born human beings do not need to learn to be foolish.
But to obtain prudence or wisdom, one must make an effort.
Ok, that was an ethics perspective which is rather old and rather traditional.
Now there are others more modern.
What does the modern one say?
The old perspectives that are full of rules makes us become like slaves and treats us like children.
Telling us to do this and that.
In today's world, people no longer want to obey moral authorities.
This type of philosophy is called, Existentialism.
According to this philosophy, genuine humanity is already within us.

English: 
And does not need to be actualized.
One only needs to express it.
Expressing it by being an authentic human being.
Being yourself.
If you are familiar with the word 'authentic',
it originates from this philosophy of existentialism.
There is a strong tendency towards spontaneity.
So just be spontaneous.
The slogan is: 'Be Yourself"
Create your own morals.
Create your own values and meanings.
Create yourself and be yourself. No need to depend on other people.
We now see the 2 different moral perspectives.
The question is:
Which one is Christianity?
Which one portrays good Christian characteristics?
I will read Galatian 5:24-25 (NIV)
(24) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

English: 
(25) Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
"keep in step with the Spirit'.
It seems to be more consistent with the perspective of spontaneity.
It seems to resemble 'going along with the flow'.
Going along with wherever the Holy Spirit wants to lead us.
There is a Hillsong worship that says, "Spirit lead me where my trust is without border".
Just submit and follow.
So when we repent, we automatically have the Holy Spirit;
when we have the Holy Spirit, we will automatically bear the fruits of the Spirit;
automatically we will be a good person and automatically be perfect.
Salvation is given through grace right?!
If salvation is by grace, then why make effort because everything is led by the Holy Spirit. Right?
I do not know if you have experienced this.
Sometimes a servant of God may say this:
"If we love God, automatically we will love to read the Bible"
"Automatically we will love to pray".
Why?

English: 
"Cause reading the Bible is like reading a love letter from our girl/boy friend".
"And prayer is like speaking with our boy/girl friend".
"It is an enjoyment. So if we love our God we would enjoy these activities".
Is there a problem with this statement?
The problem;
The truth of the matter is that we are often lazy to read the Bible;
lazy to pray and often miss our meditation time with God.
Is there anyone among us that have dated over 5 years?
Or even married?
Or simply ask our parents.
Do you read/write love letters?  Or talk intimately?
Often we just speak with frustration between one and another.
Most of the conversations are simply:
Have you sent the kids to school? Have you paid the electricity bill?
Just that.
Whilst intimate or romantic conversations, or reading love letters
must be achieved and is a struggle from the heart.
So it is with our life with God.
Our struggle together with God.

English: 
When we first know God,
everything is beautiful and romantic.
Everything is rosy and seems like a rainbow.
We thirst to read the Bible.
In a day we may even finish a book in the Bible.
We can suddenly change from being annoying to pleasant.
But this is only the beginning.
But as time goes by,
suddenly we lose the automatic initiatives.
At the end everything becomes a struggle,
lazy but struggling to achieve.
Nothing comes automatically through our entire life.
It is not always comfortable through our entire life.
The process of sanctification is not so simple..
Does not come automatically.
If it is so automatically, everyone is a Christian already; everyone witness the good deeds.
Everyone would have know Jesus, but the reality is not.
The reality is that many Christians are also bad people.
So how?

English: 
So is it possible that Christianity is like Aristotle's philosophy, whereby people need to struggle and make an effort.
Now before we answer the question of "what is a Christian's characteristics",
We have to pay attention to one thing.
Even if Aristotle's ethics, the traditional one;
seems to contradict with the modern perspectives of existentialism;
they have one thing in common.
What is the common factor;
ultimately;
the common factor is that human beings are proud.
Naturally proud.
Proud of themselves.
Even if one emphasizes that true humanity
is about potentials and self actualization,
the other one says just to be authentic and express oneself.
But the both are actually the same.
The ultimate goal of genuine humanity is within ourselves.

English: 
Since the goal is within ourselves, the ending obviously will be pride.
Remember, pride and arrogance is different.
Arrogance is boasting, the lowest manifestation of pride.
But what is more dangerous than pride is the aspect of focusing upon ourselves.
When we fail to become a good person,
we despair and lose hope.
But when we succeed,
we are similar to teachers of the law and pharisees, and become proud of ourselves and judgmental towards others.
both will make us focus on ourselves
why? because the genuine human, the final destination is within ourselves
how about christianity
whats our final destination? is our genuine humanity is within ourselves?

English: 
it is not possible for genuine humanity is in ourselves..why?
lets try to look in the mirror
which one is the real you? which one is the genuine you?
your version when you face your parents, 
your version when you face your teacher, your boss, your subordinate, lecturer, relatives, friends
or when you are alone, is always different
it is all different person. which one is the genuine one?
when we compare the version 10 years ago, 10 years later, 20 years later
whic one is the genuine one? the real one
which one is the genuine humanity? None..
when we look in the mirror, there are 1001 version of ourselves
and we don't know which one is the real self
then.. genuine humanity is not within ourselves
but where?
apostle Paul tell us the answer

English: 
Romans 8: 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.
so where is genuine humanity?
in Christ. that is the genuine humanity we must achieve
this is the reason why the fruit of the spirit is different than other ethics that we learn
because this is not something from ourselves
this is not something that we can made up or found
but this is something that is owned by God
and we earn it through the holy spirit and we strive to earn it
at this time maybe the red light in our head switch on
why do we need to strive to earn it? where is the grace? isn't it said that the holy spirit will lead?
we must ask what does "led by holy spirit means"
it means to become a genuine human

English: 
to become a genuine human in christ
but remember, the holy spirit make us genuine human not by making us a robot and control it
we are becoming a genuine human, not genuine robot
if the perfect destination is for us to become robot, then why would God make us human?
i dont know about you
but when i read the bible
it seems that there is an impression that when Jesus Christ do what God wants, it's like automatic
looks like Jesus is a robot and can do things by itself
if you look in the movies about Jesus, the older movies, it seems that Jesus is not humanly

English: 
it seems that He does things automatically
but if we read carefully on the gospel
in the book of Matthew, Luke, when Jesus struggle in Gethsemane
Jesus really-really struggle. it is said that His sweat became like blood
it is not robot. there is real struggle there.
the problem is, we always think if the holy spirit is with us, everything will be automatic
or if not all automatic, if it's from God, we will have peace
Amen. if we follow God we will have peace
the problem is, we like to identify peace as "feel good"
the feeling of happiness
when Jesus struggle
does He feel good? i don't feel so

English: 
on the contrary, there is one bible figure, where he does not obey God, but runaway from God
in His runaway, He feels good
He stays calm, embark on the boat, then there were storm, then fell soundly asleep
who is it?
Jonah. He didn't follow God, but He feels good
so, it is not from good feeling that holy spirit make us genuine human
What Paul said on verse 24
we are crucifying our body, because it doesn't feel good. it is a struggle
so once again, how the holy spirit make us genuine human like Christ?
not by making us a robot,
and not by giving us good feeling
how the holy spirit works? this is the important part..
Holy spirit give us conscience

English: 
give us consciousness, awareness
about what we need to do, about what we are doing every moment of our life.
that is the importance of being a human. a creature that has consciousness, capable of thinking
creature that reflect on whatever they did
every creation praise God..Amen?
the birds praise God, the trees praise God
The sun, the moon and stars praise the Lord
but friends, read from Revelation 4, it is said when the living creature give glory to God
but there is only one creature, Human
when they praise the lord, they say
for you created all things,
    and by your will they were created
    and have their being.”
"by your will" is the important words

English: 
because human have mind, able to think what they are doing
that is how the holy spirit make us more human
through thinking
a philosopher and mathematician named Blaise Pascal said
he said humans are thinking reed
humans are reed that thinks
even though the universe can destroy this thinking reed
it is still more precious than other creation
because human can think that even though the universe destroy them
the universe can't think
we are human, we think
the holy spirit make us aware
make us think, in this situation how to be more loving human being
i become a happy person, a peaceful person
more patience, more kind, more loyal
more self control and gentle

English: 
if we are not guided by the holy spirit to have that conscience, 
we are not going to think. we will be lewd, 
we will do dirty things, lust, jealous, all those sinful act of the flesh without any conscience.
we don't need to think,
that nature of the sin in our life
children who never be taught about sex can be trapped in pornography
have you ever gossip or envy others?
or did something sinful?
and then
ding!
what the hell am i doing?
what am i doing?
that is how the holy spirit give us consciousness
to make us think and realise. that is grace.
we became more human when we realise what we are doing

English: 
but we also have our own responsibility, not just given by the holy spirit.
in that conscience, we make decision based on what God wants
that glorify God, that manifest the fruit of the spirit
we make decision on how to show love to people around us
we make decision where we self control in the middle of trial
we make decision to be patience in suffering
so that at the end
after we make thousands, millions of decision in our life, then there automatically
we will be able to show a character that Godly
because it has became our second nature
our struggle, when we obey to God
it will be our habit
at the end
it will be our second nature
remember, spontaneity is the reward

English: 
not the process. we hope being nice is automatic, its not.
no. it is later
after we done all that
fruit of the spirit
have you ever think why is it fruit of the spirit?
fruit grows from a tree. is there a fruit that grow when you neglect the tree?
fruit grows if you take good care of the tree
it grows if you water and fertilise the tree
so it's not possible if we neglect
we have to work
that's the ideal. the ideal is if make good decision and we have good character like Jesus
but in reality, do we make more good decision or sinful decision?
of course we make more wrong decision
we more likely to fell into sin
but when we realise that we make a wrong decision..

English: 
when we realise that we are imperfect
that is the way to perfection
because the sign that we have holy spirit is when we realise we are imperfect
if we don't have holy spirit
we won't realise that we are imperfect
in Jesus's language
Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
John 9 : 41
if we realise that we are imperfect
and when we say when we are wrong
this is myself
like it or leave it
whether you like it or not, this is my authentic self
that is the sign that in our life we don't have holy spirit that warn us
in the contrary, if we have the holy spirit that make us think, warn us, that tell us, we can say when we suffer:

English: 
"For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."
Once again, the realization doesn't come from us, but from the Holy Spirit, and this is Grace
But remember on one side there is grace, and on the other is "working out your salvation"
Like Paul Said in Phillippians 2:12 "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling"
In one side is true that we are led by the Holy Spirit, but on another side we are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling,
So, until here, so what does this mean? 
Is Christianity Aristotlelian or Existentialism?
The Answer is not both of them
because both of them is only going to bring us to pride and judgmental attitude if we succeed
or if we fail, it will bring us to despair
but 
to in Christ, we acknowledge that all of that is grace, everything belong to Christ that was given to us through the Holy Spirit

English: 
And we are not the final purpose, the Final Purpose is Christ himself
the Fruit of the Spirit is not our nature, but is God's nature
Let me give you an example
Generosity, what is Generosity?
Generosity is not just being charitable, or being a philanthropist, That's not it
That's not the generosity defined in the Fruit of the Spirit
The Generosity that was referred to was God's character that gave himself away for the people he loves
So What's Generosity?
Taking Care of others in expense of our self
The Doctor's Profession has been there long before the term "Christianity" came out. 
But when does the attitude of sacrificing oneself for the sake of others appear?  
It appear when the early church, some of them were living in Rome, 

English: 
And During that time Rome had an outbreak of a disease.
What did the people do during that time?
They will throw out the sick and infected people 
They will not treat them and let the sick and infected people die
What did the Christian did was that they took the sick and treat them, even in the expense that many of them who are treating got sick and died
Why? because of that Generosity
They are expressing one of the fruit of the Spirit, which was Generosity that was in exemplified in God who gave himself away for many 
taking care of others in expense of ourself
That's why, Christianity back then spreads so quickly
Remember we still need to work out our salvation, but our efforts will not lead us to pride
We will not think of ourself because everything leads to Christ

English: 
We will not be aware how great we are or how incapable we are, but we acknowledge that God is good. 
How God Loves us
How God is overflowing with Grace
When Paul wrote: "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."
But see how he close Romans Chapter 7
He closes the chapter by saying: v.24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 
v.25  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Everything was given back for God's glory, Soli Deo Gloria
So once again, we need to remember this is not automatic or something that is spontaneous 
Spontaneity is the reward, not the process
The Fruit of the Spirit will become our destiny
The Fruit of the Spirit will be something that we do later in the Kingdom of Heaven
The Fruit of the Spirit will be a language that we use later in the Kingdom of Heaven
What we need to do now, is that we need to learn this language

English: 
For Example, when we are planning to study overseas we start learning the language before we are at our destination
So what we need to do now is learn to do the Fruit of the Spirit even though we have a sinful nature and will never reach perfection 
What are the things we can do, or the steps we can take in order for us to produce the fruit of the Spirit
I will give you 3 steps
The First
Ask!
This is most important
This is the first step
Ask, kneel down, Ask from God, Ask from the Holy Spirit to give us that awareness
We Ask because like Jesus said: "apart from me you can do nothing."
If among us, there are unbelievers
Or if among us, there are those who often grive the Spirit until we are not aware His voice
We ask, Kneel Down and Ask God

English: 
And that is the first step
The 2nd step: Be Conscious
Consciousness
We need to watch ourself
we need to be aware of sin, or the acts of the flesh moment by moment 
In any moment, Satan can attack us
Paul wrote: "the devil prowls around like a roaring lion"
Do not let us lose sight and follow our sinful nature, and be trapped in the acts of the flesh
We are trapped in lust, jealousy, hatred, and other acts of the flesh
So remember for the 2nd step: Be Conscious
For the third step: Think! Think out every decision carefully
Learn to take decision that is in accordance to God's will
Learn to take decision that will manifest the fruit of the Spirit
Until it becomes a habit

English: 
Please Note that when I say Decision, I am not talking about big decisions like which university should I take? where should I work? or who should be my wive/husband? 
It's not so much about those decisions
But is when we wake up, we might be disappointed by our parents, our  spouse, or our family members
and that becomes your decision, whether we want to start the day with joy or with contempt and anger
or when we see our boss treat us unfairly by giving us workloads that are over our capacity 
that also becomes our decision, how will we respond to the situation
Are we going to accept it or we will be grumpy and that becomes our decision too
Make a decision that will reflect Christ's Character
And these are the 3 things that we need to do in order for us to work out our salvation
God have the first step, but we also need to take care of the tree and work out our salvation 
Of course this is not easy, It's easier to say than to put it into action
We might fall over and over again

English: 
But the principle remains the same
Ask God, because we cannot arise by our own strength 
We are aware of our sinful nature and the temptation of the flesh, and we think for every decision we make
These 3 things: Ask, Conscious, and Think
The Acronym of the 3 words becomes: ACT
Faith is something that is active, not Passive or just waiting for something, like a robot waiting for instructions
But we are the ones who need to take action
And if we have done all of these, and achieve all of these, what then becomes the final purpose?
The Last Part is Second Nature
Second Nature as Paul put into words: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." (Galatians 2:20)
We will automatically make this into our second nature

English: 
Like a Boxer, when he is about to get hit, he can automatically, with his reflects, defend himself. Unlike us normal people will just get hit
But remember how the Boxer can achieve that state 
because he has been in a lot of fights, and train himself until he attain the reflects, the spontaneity, the automation
And one day we will also be get used to producing the fruit of the Spirit
Of course, while in this world, we will not reach perfection
but later in the Kingdom of Heave we will be able to do it 
If we are still imperfect in this world, that's fine, because we are sinful people, but one day we will be able to reach that perfection
So Remember ACT and also Second Nature, and Combined it becomes ACTS
ACTS is the 5th Book in the New Testament

English: 
And Let us also become like the characters found in the Book of Acts, Jesus's Disciples
When they are fruitful, do God's Will, and obey 
Do they become people who are arrogant, judgemental, or proud of themselves?
Of course Not! Clearly, they become people who glorified God
Glorifying Christ who is in them 
Let us Pray together
God forgive us
forgive us if all this time we have receive your grace
we have receive your holy spirit
But we still fall into the same sin over and over again
Or maybe we assume that our life will automatically be holy and perfect
we automatically be someone different
But now we realize that we can't automatically love you

English: 
We can't automatically become like Christ
Let us know what we need to do, God
Let our hearts be aware to the Holy's Spirit voice
help us be aware of our sinful nature and the temptation of the flesh so that we don't fall into the same sin over and over again
Give us wisdom and understanding so that we can make decisions that will glorify God
decisions that will help us express the fruif of the Spirit in our life
and through all of this, when we become more and more like Christ may you be Glorified and not us 
Thank you God! in the name of our lord Jesus Christ. We Pray! Amen 
