GALATIANS 5:22 | FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT : LOVE

Notes
Transcript

TEXT: GALATIANS 5:22 | THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT : LOVE

INTRO

ILLUSTRATION: For years I had gone to my friend Jeremiah’s house.
His family had an old farmhouse style home with ruff cut wood floors and exposed beams.
When you walked through the door of there house you were greeted with a small table and a bowl of fruit.
For years I walked by that table without giving a second thought, until one day we had been doing stuff outside and I had worked up an appetite.
As we walked into his house, I decided on that day I was going to have a red delicious apple.
So I picked on up from the bowl when I entered the house with every intention of sinking my teeth into it.
But when I picked it up, right away I realized there was a problem… the apple was a fake!
For years I had thought his mother was faithful to put a fresh bowl of fruit by that door, but it had been a lie!
EXPLANATION: Paul has wrapped up walking through those devastating works of the flesh.
Last time, we saw that Paul made the ultimate case that these works of the flesh he mentioned, were works that were the norm for those that didn’t know Christ.
He was emphasizing the reality that as a Christian, these works of the flesh shouldn’t have any place in your life!
And now as we come to v.22, Paul begins to give a list of contrasting parts of the Spirit-filled Christian life.
Galatians 5:22 KJV 1900
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
He describes them as the “Fruit of the Spirit”
And without saying it directly Paul is making the point clear… This is real fruit!
APPLICATION: Friend, the fruit of the Spirit is an outflow of a real Christian.
While the world at times, may exhibit some of these characteristics, each of these fruit of the Spirit is a natural, real part of the true follower of Christ.
If you are here today and you are just playing a game… You’re a fake, stop playing today!
People may pass you by and be deceived thinking you’re the real thing, but you know that while you may look good on the outside, it isn’t real on the inside.
The fruit of the Spirit will never be real in your life until you are real yourself!
EXPLANATION: Not only was this fruit real, but the fruit of the Spirit is a single fruit.
Paul doesn’t say that “Fruits” of the Spirit, he says “fruit” of the Spirit.
ILLUSTRATION: It’s like an orange.
If you were to peel the orange, inside you would find it broken into multiple unique slices.
Now, not all of the slices are the same size… some are more prominent than others.
But all of the slices together make the fruit.
EXPLANATION: And Paul is making clear to these Galatian believers, that if you are truly a child of God, all of these slices of the fruit of the Spirit will be present.
Galatians 5:22–23 KJV 1900
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Paul lists nine slices of the fruit of the Spirit
APPLICATION: Now some may naturally be more prominent in your life than others.
But that doesn’t mean we should throw up our hands and say “Oh well.”
Jesus Christ was the perfect fulfillment of all of these attributes.
We can see every slice of the fruit of the Spirit exemplified in Christ’s life.
And the purpose of our life is not “just to be who we are”
We are to be conformed into the image of Christ!
Romans 8:29 KJV 1900
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
As we walk piece by piece through these nine slices, let’s ask God to examine our life to determine what areas we need to see growth.
And if you are anything like me, I think we will be able to find places to grow in each slice of this fruit of the Spirit.
This morning, we are going to pull back the peel and look at the first slice of that fruit.
And truthfully, it is a slice that the rest of the pieces rely upon.
That first slice of the fruit of the Spirit is “LOVE”

I. LOVE DEFINED

ILLUSTRATION: We would understand that there are different types of “love”
There is “puppy love” or “young love”
At the Christian college we went to, there were a lot of couples who were in “love”
With the rules that were in place, guys couldn’t walk on the red paved walkway leading up to the girls dorm
So the couples would stand out in front of the walkway and breath on each other.
There was a 6” rule so they would stand 6” from each other and breath in each others faces and stare into each other’s eyes.
And before they would leave for the night, they would whisper those words to each other, “I love you”
And then two weeks later, they hadn’t broken up and they were standing out front breathing on someone else.
They were in “love”
But we would understand that love is different from the couple that’s been married for 50 years.
When that couple says they “love” each other, it carries with it some weight!
EXPLANATION: The Bible uses different Greek words for love.
The word “Eros” is used in some places and it’s translated “love”, but that love is more of a surface and “sensual love”
It’s an emotion driven feeling that can fluctuate based on circumstances.
There is also “Phileo” which is used for more of a brotherly love…
It’s the root for where we get the word “Philadelphia” or brotherly love.
But the word that Paul uses here is a different word from those first two.
It’s the word “agape”, which carries with it a “respectful devotion committed to self-sacrificing service”
The root word “agape” or “agapo” is one of the most used words in Paul’s vocabulary, found 109 times in his writings.
Paul mentions the importance of this “agape” love in the life of the believer in what many have deemed as the “love chapter”
The word found in the chapter “charity” is the same Greek word “agape” that is written here in Galatians 5:22
1 Corinthians 13:1–3 KJV 1900
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:13 KJV 1900
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Paul makes clear, you can serve without love, but it is an empty service that is ultimately unprofitable.
As we find throughout the Scriptures, God is more concerned with the heart behind the service than the service itself.
And we find this morning, that it is God Himself that showed us what this kind of love actually looks like

II. LOVE DEMONSTRATED

1 John 4:8 KJV 1900
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
EXPLANATION: It is impossible to understand this kind of love outside of the example of God.
APPLICATION: Our world demonstrates a conditional love.
“I will love you if…”
This thinking destroys churches
“I’ll serve you as long as you serve me”
“I’ll love you as long as you’re like me.”
Have you ever realized the Gospel light sometimes attracts strange bugs… and that’s alright… because you probably have your own quarks that you think are normal.
But we refuse to be the family of God unless someone can benefit us.
This thinking destroys marriages.
ILLUSTRATION: When I have had the privilege to do marriage counseling, somewhere along the way, I will ask the question what is the correct marriage equation to make a marriage work?
Some will say 50-50
Some will say 51-49, you have to be willing to give a little more than you get
Some will even say 100-100, it takes both giving all
But I will always challenge them that the most successful marriages require 100-0
Give everything and expect nothing in return
That is sacrificial love.
APPLICATION: You might be thinking, I don’t like the way that sounds.
And listen, I don’t either… but I’m sure thankful for it.
Because that is the love that God demonstrated to me.
Romans 5:5–8 KJV 1900
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
John 3:16 KJV 1900
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The love that God demonstrated to me ,and to you, and to everyone, was a love that could never be earned or deserved.
And it’s a love He gave that wasn’t conditioned on what I would do.
Friend, do you realize today that whether you accept God’s gift of love through the death of his Son or not, He still gave His Son for you?
If you choose to reject the death of His Son, it doesn’t mean He doesn’t still love you.
This is what is stunning… God does not cause you to accept His Son for salvation.
And even if you reject the death of His only begotten Son, He still sent Him to die for you, because He loves you.
And I hope this morning if you have rejected that love of God, I hope today you will see the depth of God’s love for you and choose to receive Him as your Savior!
Love Defined, Love Demonstrated

III. LOVE DEMANDED

EXPLANATION: Friend, if we are going to be the church desires for us to be, we must understand that the love of God that has been demonstrated in our lives, is to be demonstrated through our lives.
Galatians 2:20 KJV 1900
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
2 Corinthians 5:14 KJV 1900
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
APPLICATION: God’s love that He has shown to you and to me should so captivate your heart and mine that we cannot help be serve Him from a sacrificial agape love!
But the problem in our lives is the same as it was for the church at Ephesus.
ILLUSTRATION: 17 times throughout the book of Ephesians Paul challenged the believers at Ephesus to love God and love one another.
30 years later, John the beloved once again wrote a letter to the church at Ephesus… the book of 1 John
37 times in 5 short chapter, John wrote to those Ephesian believers about there love!
What’s stunning is when we come to the final book of the Bible, the Lord is addressing the churches in the various cities.
In Chapter 2 of Revelation the Lord comes to the church at Ephesus, and His challenge to them should be a warning to us today:
Revelation 2:4 KJV 1900
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
APPLICATION: Church, you can be here this morning and you can hear the verses:
Matthew 22:37–39 KJV 1900
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Deuteronomy 6:5 KJV 1900
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Joshua 23:11 KJV 1900
Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God.
1 John 3:11 KJV 1900
For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
1 John 4:11 KJV 1900
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
John 14:21 KJV 1900
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
John 14:15 KJV 1900
If ye love me, keep my commandments.
You can hear them all, but could it be that you are left unaffected, because the reality is in your own life, you have fallen out of love with the one that has shown you what love really is?
How can you know?
Well, how is your service for God?
How is your service toward others?
You see, while we can serve without loving… we cannot love without serving!

CONCLUSION

I’m afraid for too many Christians, when they say they love God, it is an “eros” love that is based on the emotions and circumstances of life.
ILLUSTRATION: You know why we know that couple thats been married for 50 years really means it when they say the love each other?
It isn’t just because of the number of years.
It’s because we know that over those 50 years they have faced some things.
There have been some trials
There has been some heartache
There has been some loss
And even through all of the stuff, they have still chosen to love one another.
APPLICATION: Church, is this slice of the fruit of the Spirit real in your life?
Or has your love for the Lord waned?
ILLUSTRATION: The first time we had the blessing of going to Hawaii
I was out on a board next to Tressa’s Dad and brother.
When we looked up all of our family was gone off the shore and someone else was there.
We were so confused where they had went, until we realized, the current had drifted hundreds of years down the shoreline without even noticing.
APPLICATION: Friend, sometimes our love for God drifts in the waves of life.
Over the years, the circumstances and situations God allows into our lives intended to strengthen our love and dependence on Him, instead cause our love to grow distant and cold.
The same heat that softens the butter will harden the clay.
And maybe you are here this morning and your heart for God has become cold and hard.
You may say you love God, but your heart has grown distant to Him.
Matthew 15:8 KJV 1900
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
Can I remind you this morning, though our heart may drift from the Lord… God’s heart doesn’t drift from you
Let’s get this first slice of the Fruit of the Spirit where it ought to be!
In what tangible way has your love for the Lord been demonstrated this past week?
It’s got to be more than just showing up to church.
In what tangible way will your love for the Lord be demonstrated this week?
How will you demonstrate the love of God in your family?
At Work?
At School
In your marriage
To your church family
How will you demonstrate your love for the Lord to the Lord?
Don’t let this piece of the fruit of the Spirit be dried out and stale.
Let’s make sure it is a sweet slice of fruit to our Savior!
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