Love

INTRODUCTION

We are beginning our series on the fruit of the Spirit

There are 9 of them

Can anyone tell me what they are from memory?

Last week we talked about what is essential to produce these 9 things in our lives

Can anyone explain that to me?

(v 16) “walk in the Spirit”

“fruit” is a by-product; it takes time to grow and requires care and cultivation. The Spirit produces the fruit; our job is to get in tune with the Spirit.

How do we do that?

Live in obedience to Christ

And in order to obey, we must be willing to trust

And if we will do that, God will (through the Holy Spirit) produce love, joy, peace, patience kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

These are the fruit of the Spirit not the fruit(s) of the Spirit

We are not choose the fruit that we like best and then disregard the rest

The fruit is a whole, and every one of these should characterize our lives

This character transformation is not instantaneous

We do not receive Christ and immediately become loving, joyful, peaceful, self-controlled, etc

It begins when we come to Christ, and end when we draw our last breath

It is through the power of the Holy Spirit but requires our cooperation

John Stott was a champion of the faith, a pastor, a theologian, a godly man who died in the early 2000’s

This was his prayer that he prayed every single day:

Heavenly Father, I pray that this day I may live in your presence and please you more and more.

Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.

Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

What a great idea to pray about these areas that we struggle with the most

Perhaps I struggle with self-control

My prayer every morning should be for God to develop self-control in my life

Perhaps I struggle with love, my prayer should be that God would ripen the fruit of love in my life

DO THIS: What is one of these characteristics do you struggle with the most. Put it on your prayer list. Ask God to ripen this fruit in you.

Tonight we are going to discuss love

Love is the first on the list because love is the most important. And Christianity without love is not Christianity at all.

It should be the one most obvious evidences of our faith in our lives

Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

When the lawyer asked Jesus which OT command was most important, Jesus answered, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matt 22:37-39)

TRUTH: One who has been born again will be characterized by love. Some may love more than others, but all will love

Love comes in two general categories:

A love for God

And a love for people

Love for God

What does it mean to love God?

The love for God we often find in the world today is a half-hearted luke-warm kind of love

What is half-hearted love?

It’s a kind of devotion to God that is divided

I’ll follow as long as you do not interfere with my other priorities

Im ok with you, as long as I get do what I think makes me happy

And no wonder we think this is how we can love God

This is what we see in the world and even in the church

This is why the divorce rate is between 40-50%

The world’s love of God is conditional…you make me happy and I’ll love you, you make me not happy and I’ll leave you

But that is not real love

Paul told us in 1 Corinthians 13, "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” (NLT)

When we truly love God, He becomes our life ambition

He becomes the treasure of our lives.

He takes the place of all other priorities and becomes the primary object of our love.

And like the man who found the treasure in the field, we would be willing to part with everything except Him.

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.”

There is to be no higher recipient of our love than God

What will this look like?

It will manifest in our obedience to Him

John 14:15 ““If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

This is how we express our love to God

Some people use flowers

Other people use words

Others may do the dishes, or buy them a gift

But God says, love expressed to Him comes by obeying Him

Application

What we must be cautious of things that can steal our hearts away.

Things in each one of our lives that attract us to them.

Worldly things that bring pleasure

Things that make our flesh feel good, but are dangerous to us spiritually.

Things that sometimes are wrapped up in spiritual packages but are sent from the enemy

Principle: It’s easy to discern the good things from the bad things, it’s much harder to discern the good things from things that are right for us.

Love for man

We cannot truly love man until we love God first, because the love for man is dependent upon our love for God

Why is that?

1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

Because love itself comes from God. And to know God is to know love, and We can’t give other people what we do not possess.

The love that comes from the world and the love that comes from God are two kinds of love

I thought I really loved Ashley when we got married

I did really like her, as long as she met my secret list of things I wanted from her and who I wanted her to be

But when I was saved, and started our second marriage in Christ, my love is different

We do not keep records of right and wrong

We do not demand our own way

We do not lose faith, we do not give up!

Its not all about self, but about the other

Its far from perfect

But I love her much better, because I love Christ more

But who should we love?

Jesus said, all men will know you are my disciples if you have love one another (Christians)

Jesus also said, “love your neighbor as yourself” (the people of this world)

Who should we love?

lost people

saved people

neighbors

nice people

mean people

old people

young people

ugly people

black people

brown people

white people

our parents

our siblings

If they have human blood running through their veins then we are to love them

How do we love them?

1 John 3:17–18 “But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”

Meet their needs

If you see someone in need, and you have the ability to help them, then do it

It may just so be that God has blessed you so much so that you can help that person or persons out

Do good to them

Matthew 5:44–48 ““But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

When someone attacks you, repay them with good not evil

When someone mistreats you, love them in return

This is the characteristic of God’s love

Share truth to them

What the world needs most is to know the truth

You will never love this world more than when you tell them about Jesus and His saving grace

That’s what the world needs more than anything