THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT: LOVE

Memorial Drive 6/9/19 THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT: LOVE Various Texts Intro – … LOVE COMMANDED • Love Is to Be Expressed In A Variety of Directions The Fellowship of Believers … I Thessalonians 4:9 As to the love of the brethren, love one another Romans 12:10 Be devoted in brotherly love I Peter 1:22 As to love of the brethren, fervently love one another John 13:35 By this they’ll know you’re mine, if you love one another Marriage and Family Relationships … Ephesians 5:25-25 Husbands, love your wives Titus 2:3-4 Teach them to love their husbands and children Those Around Us, Including Non-Believers … Romans 13:8 If you love your neighbor, you’ve fulfilled the law James 2:8 The Royal Law: Love your neighbor as yourself Even Our Enemies … Luke 6:27 Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you Love of God … Matthew 22:37 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind • Our Love Is Not To Be An “In-Kind” Response But Rather An Act of Obedience Matthew 5:46 If you love those who love you, BIG DEAL! God’s call to love takes us from love as “in-kind-response” to love as an act of obedience and will rather than mere emotion! And God’s call to love takes us from love that we can “do in our flesh” to love that is supernatural-in-origin and Spirit-empowered! … LOVE DESCRIBED “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” … LOVE LIVED OUT • The Love That God Commands Is a Love That Is the Fruit of the Spirit The Colossians “love for all the saints” (1:4) was a “love IN THE SPIRIT” (Col. 1:8) • We Must Be Careful Not to Grieve the Spirit Ephesians 4:30 Do not GRIEVE the Spirit An unhindered, unbroken relationship of submission to God’s Spirit is critical if we are to be able to experience and live out God’s commanded “supernatural” love! • We Must Understand That Love Is An Inside Job Before It’s An Outward Lifestyle I Timothy 1:5 The GOAL of our INSTRUCTION is LOVE from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith • We Must Learn to Feed On the Word of God I Peter 2:1-3 Put aside … long for the Word … to grow in respect to salvation • We Must Get Serious About Christ’s Modeling of God-Commanded, Spirit-Empowered Love Ephesians 5:2 Walk in love, as Christ loved you, and GAVE HIMSELF UP for us Ephesians 5:25 Christ loved the church and GAVE HIMSELF UP for her • We Must Understand That Supernatural Love Is Enabled In Us Through God’s “Grace Connection” ◦ THE GRACE CONNECTION – James 4:1-6 ◦ Supernatural INPUT and EMPOWERMENT are an ABSOLUTE NECESSITY for the living out of supernatural love! THE NORM: NOTIFY of the failure/s, APPLY the mechanics of change, INSTITUTE a progressive penalty to force the change, SURRENDER to a quiet and hopeless desperation, RESOLVE to end the pain! ◦ Supernatural INPUT and EMPOWERMENT are AVAILABLE as God’s “greater grace”! Quarrels and conflicts, relationship wars, strongly want but do not have, murder, envy but can’t get, don’t ask or ask for wrong reasons, THE WAY OF THE WORLD but an enemy of God! “BUT God gives A GREATER GRACE! Therefore it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ◦ Supernatural INPUT and EMPOWERMENT are ACCESSED in humility! There is a “conduit of grace” that reaches from the heavens to our personal world where we are no longer dependent merely upon what WE can bring to the table but rather can live by the supernatural-in-origin, Spirit-empowered “fruit of the Spirit.” “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you!” (James 4:10) A Powerful Key: I Corinthians 4:7 What do you have that you didn’t receive?!!! THIS IS “LOVE, GOD’S WAY!”