Untitled Sermon (2)

Fruity love - what?

Galatians 5:19-21

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

Introduction

Raising kids, you have to do some damage control on the messages your kids here. Yes, ninjas are awesome... but you can't ninja your friends. Jedi are amazing, but no you can't learn to be one. Though, I always let Logan try that one, just in case... No, Dora is not cool, and telling me to do something then staring blankly at me blinking is not polite.

Some of these messages are sneaky. Some of the classic Disney movies have the worst messages about what love is, what it looks like.

Love according to Disney Movies

Don't be afraid to abandon your friends, family and entire way of life on the first date, at sixteen, even if future hubby's love is largely based on your singing voice.

The cold terrifying beast who holds your father prisoner is just the Prince you haven't met yet.

There is nothing weird about kissing girls while they're unconscious.

Don't get me started on lion king, too creepy.

What is love?

Damage control... that's not what real love looks like. We have to understand what love really is... it's kind of important.

We think we know what love is, we don't have to describe it or define it... we just know it when we see it. Maybe even to define it is to kill it, to try to pin it down and dissect it... you will never understand love that way.

True enough.

Yet on the flip side, our "intuition" (air quotes because it is not really intuition) our "intuition" about love has been polluted and altered to sell popsicles and car insurance.

It is a bizarre movie or tv show that doesn't have a "love" interest, and we are naive if we think that seeing billboard after commercial after movie after novel after tv show does not shape and inform our image of love. 9 times out of 10, the image of love presented is twisted and broken or shallow and trivial. Disney is not alone with stories of love that is sweet and beautiful because it has nice background music, but really bizarre beneath the surface.

So, this morning we ask the question, what is love?

In the Bible, in our church, we talk a lot about love for good reason. It is kind of the model we are trying to follow, the standard we are trying to reach.

Our mission here is to encourage and equip people to take the next bold steps toward Christian belief, maturity, and ministry. The question must arise, how do we know if we are becoming mature Christians? How do we measure that?

Scripture

Paul, in Galatians 5, addresses that very topic. He has been explaining, that how well someone keeps the law is not the answer. Some people had come in, told them you guys aren't really Christians unless you do this, this and oh yes, circumcise yourselves.

Christian maturity is more about being than about doing.

Paul, in Galatians 5, shares this list with the Corinthian church. If we are not supposed to look at how well someone keeps the law, how are we supposed to know if someone is with God or not, if they are a Christian or not, if they are on the right path? Good question. Paul's answer is to look at the fruit.

Galatians 5:19-21

Galatians 5: 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.

So we have kind of before and after picture. There are two natures, and each have visible outcomes. The works of one are nasty stuff: sexual immorality... jealousy... ambition... fits of rage!

By contrast, if someone is being changed and shaped by the Spirit, if someone is taking next steps into Christian belief, maturity, and ministry, they are going to start producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. This is what we are to look for to see growth and development in ourselves and others. I said earlier that Christianity was more about being than doing; and these are largely 'being' kinds of things. There is a fundamental difference, for example, between the works of the flesh, stuff the flesh does, and the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Somehow, this fruit is growing out of our lives, and it's not our fruit, but that of the Holy Spirit. Which raises the question, what are we supposed to do, if anything, to develop and grow this fruit? It seems something a little different than just go out and do these things... but that is what we are going to look at in two weeks. This morning, I just want to know what love is, the kind of love Paul is talking about here.

Love is the first of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, and many scholars see this love, agape, as the summation of all the others. The king fruit, the number one thing to look for. In fact, Paul uses the singular here for fruit, not fruits, implying perhaps that he is talking about LOVE, and then love as it takes these different forms.

How do I recognize it when I see it, because my mental concept of love is a bit twisted up with car commercials and mermaid princesses.

But we...

But we are the Next Step Christian Church, and we know what love is. Why? Because we love each other. We are family, sometimes literally. We are good at this, and I love that about our church. I love you guys. We hang out together, we fellowship, we party, we eat. We serve each other, we help each other out, we love each other in large and small ways and have been faithfully growing in that for all the years I have been here.

I love you... you love me...

But there's some more to it. Luke 6 gives us a bit of a kick in the pants. Jesus is speaking, and he says:

Level one love

Luke 6:32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

I love you, you love me, so where are we in Jesus' message here? Even sinners love those who love them Jesus isn't saying that's a bad thing, he is saying that's a fairly easy thing. It is easy to love those who love us, it is hard to love enemies.

I have this sweatshirt, our church softball team won these last years. We are Westminster League-D champions. Why am I holding this now?

We won, we were the best... in the easiest level of the league.

We are really good at the easiest level. Though, sometimes... it may not seem all that easy!

Do don't get me wrong. Is love of each other important, necessary, great and wonderful? Yes! We don't stop doing that, we don't stop fellowshipping together, we need that support. Are there next steps to greater fellowship and love right here among us? Absolutely. (Jono in particular!) But do we need that support just to exist, to go about our daily lives, to live safe and sheltered?

Next Step Love

No, we need that support, because when we walk out these doors we are to be out in the middle of things, loving the hard-to-love, loving our enemies, loving poor, hurting.

We are to take the next bold steps toward Christian belief, maturity and ministry.

Certainly exhibiting more fruit of the spirit, in particular love, is a next step toward Christian belief, maturity and ministry. In fact, we know that this kind of love that Paul is talking about is the radical kind of love-of-neighbor that Jesus was always going on about. Paul quotes Jesus (or Leviticus) just before he launches into the fruit of the Spirit, verse 14, that the "whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

So what does next step love look like? If we are doing really well at level 1, what is level 2?

Next step love is a step out of our comfort zone and into risky territory.

Next step love is riskier, more difficult, less personally rewarding perhaps, not as natural or instinctive. Next step love broadens our concept of neighbor, seeks out people we wouldn't normally seek out, listens and loves them.

Next step love is a step out of our comfort zone and into risky territory.

This morning, I asked, what is love? As it happens there is a passage we turn to often to help us understand what love is. We call it to the love chapter. It was read at my wedding, most weddings, probably, because it presents a beautiful picture of what love is.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 8 Love never fails. 

Isn't that beautiful? So many answers and aspects to what love is. I read this chapter asking, what does next step love look like? I have thought of this chapter as regards being a husband, mostly, being a father. "Love is patient..." I need to hear that often.

It is beautiful and wonderful, but is it the kind of next step love we are talking about? See, when I read this chapter, I picture loving the people already in my circle, inside my comfort zone, loving the people I already like. Paul, both in Galatians and Corinthians, is writing to people who are divided and arguing and fighting... people who do not like each other all that much just then.

So I took a deeper look at this passage, on each phrase, I asked myself, how is this next step love? Where does this love go that it needs to be patient and kind?

Love Is

Where is love?

4 Love is patient,

In annoying situations that last forever

love is kind.

With people we don't like

It does not envy

In places where they have more than us

it does not boast

In places where we have more than them

it is not proud

In places where we are given too much credit

It does not dishonor others

In places where others are given too much credit

it is not self-seeking

Where no one is looking out for you

it is not easily angered

In infuriating circumstances and people

it keeps no record of wrongs

Where people will wrong you

6Love does not delight in evil

Where evil is easy

but rejoices with the truth

Where lies are easier

It always protects

In dangerous places

always trusts

In risky situations

always hopes

In desperate times

always perseveres

In difficulty and despair

8 Love never fails

In Christ, the Victor

Do we see how love can go just a bit further? So when we are looking for Christian maturity, for the fruit of the Spirit, when we are looking to know are we growing? Are we taking next bold steps into Christian belief, maturity and ministry, we can look for this kind of love. Love that risks. I love these last few: love that protects in dangerous places, trusts in risky situations, hopes in desperate times and perseveres in difficulty and despair.

As it happens, we have a perfect model of perfect love.

God's definition of love

God, our God, says to his people, "I am love." God is steadfast loving-kindness.

What does God's love look like? John 3:16 "God so loved the world that... he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Jesus' love

Jesus was

Where is love?

Jesus was patient,

with annoying disciples

Jesus was kind.

with people who didn't like him

He did not envy

The richest

He did not boast

Among the poorest

He was not proud

When they wanted to crown him

He did not dishonor others

When they wanted to stone him

He was not self-seeking

When they wanted to kill him

He was not easily angered

At people who were there but never listened or saw

He kept no record of wrongs

But wiped our slates clean

Jesus did not delight in evil

Evil fled his presence

but rejoiced with the truth

For he was the Truth

He always protected

His followers to the end

always trusted

In His heavenly Father... and his fallible followers

always hoped

In His resurrection and the restoration of His sheep

always persevered

Unto death on a cross and an empty tomb

Jesus never failed

For he is Christ, the victor

Summary

Next step love is a step out of our comfort zone and into risky territory.

Are we showing more and more of this kind of love? Is our love overflowing, not only to those we like, but to those that are really hard to love, to our neighbors, to our enemies, to people we pass by and pass over? Again, in two weeks, we will look at how this fruit grows in and our of our lives, this week we ask the question.

Is God calling me to a greater, bolder, deeper, further reaching, more sacrificial love? Is God calling me towards a step out of my comfort zone and into risky territory?