Christ Integration Camp

Introduction to the Fruit of the Spirit

Read Bible Verse Galatians 5:22-23:

• But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Game:

• FRUIT BASKET:
  • Each team will have a basket of fruit that they will carry on their head to the finish line and then bring the basket back to next team member. Each team will run to run to the team table and put all the fruit into a basket and run back to the team where the team member will run to the table and empty the basket and run back for the next player to FILL the basket and continue to play until everyone has filled the basket with fruit.

Discuss

• When you think of the word fruit, you probably think of something like an apple or a banana, right? Well when Paul talks about the “fruit of the Spirit” he is not referring to piece of fruit that you might eat with your lunch. What Paul has in mind here is what comes out of a person who has been filled with the Holy Spirit. The word “fruit” refers to the product or result from something. It is what comes from a tree or plant, like an apple comes from an apple tree. in Paul’s case though it is what comes from a person. So when Paul talks about “the fruit of the Spirit” he is referring to fruit that comes from the Spirit of God.
• When we follow Jesus and believe in the power of what He did on the cross for us, God fills us with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God (just like God the Father and Jesus the Son), and He lives inside of us. When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, we produce the fruit of the Spirit. Before Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit, he talks about the fruit that comes from our sin. Our sin brings things like anger, greed, jealousy, and other not-so-nice things – the worst sorts of fruit! Without the Spirit of God, this is the type of fruit that the sin in our lives produces.
• But now when we follow Christ, we are given the Spirit. The fruit that comes from our lives then is much better. Paul writes, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Dalatians 5:22-23) This is the best sort of fruit.
• Note that “fruit” is the word used here, not “fruits.” Each characteristic is given to every Christian; God does not pick and chose which ones we get. It is not as though we may only produce peace and love but not joy and goodness. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control is given to us as a whole package. All of these are the fruit of a life lived for Jesus and guided by the Holy Spirit.

Questions

• Who can name the Fruit of the Spirit?
• How many fruit are there?
• Are they 9 individual fruit? Why?

Who wants us to not have the fruit? Who wants us to have the fruit?