THE HOLY SPIRIT

 

“THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT: LOVE”

 

Galatians 5:22-23

 

On our recent trip to see our daughter, Gillian, and our grandson, Graysen, I learned that Graysen is pretty much a vegetarian, with the exception that he does love BACON & chicken nuggets, especially from McDonalds.  But Graysen loves fruits and vegetables.

 

What’s your favorite fruit?  APPLES? BANANAS? ORANGES? PINEAPPLE? PEARS?

BLUEBERRIES? CHERRYS?  STRAWBERRIES? GRAPES? OTHER?  CALL IT OUT.

HOW MANY OF YOU JUST LOVE ALL FRUITS?

 

Today we’re continuing our study of the Holy Spirit.  Any study of the Holy Spirit would be incomplete without a study on the fruit of the Spirit.  So, as we close out this series, over the next several weeks, we will look at each of the 9 fruit of the Spirit that Paul identifies for us in GALATIANS 5:22-23 (READ).

 

PUT APPLE ON DISPLAY: “LET’S JUST SIT AROUND AND ADMIRE THIS APPLE.  ISN’T IT SHINING?  THAT IS AN AWESOME LOOKING APPLE.  LET’S GIVE THIS APPLE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE.”

 

That’s silly and that’s right.  Fruit was not meant to be admired.  It was meant to be consumed.

 

Just think of all the different ways apples can be used: apple juice; apple cider; apple pie; apple crisp; southern fried apples; baked apples; apple butter. OR you can enjoy just eating an apple!

 

But if we just let an apple sit to be admired; pretty soon it would no longer be something to admire.  It would spoil.  It would rot.  An apple, or any other fruit for that matter, is not meant to be admired.  Fruit is meant to be consumed.

 

The same is true with the nine fruit of the Spirit.  The qualities of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control aren’t qualities just to be admired.  These are not characteristics just to be applauded.  The fruit of the Spirit aren’t subjects simply to be studied.

 

These nine fruit are to be developed within us and expressed through us for the glory of God, the good of others, and for our own benefit.

 

One minister titled his sermon series on the fruit of the Spirit: “FRUIT THAT DOES NOT SPOIL.”  When we allow the Holy Spirit to develop his fruit in us and we bear that fruit in our lives, then these fruit will not spoil.

 

It is important to note that these fruit are produced by the Spirit.  We don’t produce them on our own, through our own self-effort.  The Holy Spirit will produce the fruit in each of us as we submit our lives to His control.  The Holy Spirit produces the fruit.  All we are to do is to bear the fruit.

 

Fruit is the natural outgrowth of a healthy plant.  Likewise when we have a healthy relationship with Jesus, the fruit of the Spirit will be produced in our lives.  Jesus said- “I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in Me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit.”

 

As we study each fruit on God’s menu, it will be evident that there is always room for growth and improvement.  We can always be more loving, more patient, more kind and so forth.

 

Today we come to the first fruit of the Spirit- love.  Paul said that the greatest quality of all is love.  As we study the fruit of the Spirit, we will notice that the other 8 fruit are an outgrowth of this first fruit:  love.

 

A seminary student was in love with his girlfriend.  He desperately wanted to kiss her, but he wanted to make sure that God would approve.  So every night he searched His Bible in order to come with a Bible verse that would allow him to kiss her.

 

He was delighted when he found the verse in Romans that says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.”  But he wanted to make sure that he was mis-interpreting the verse.  So he went to one of his professors and asked him about it.  The professor explained that that verse referred to a church setting, not a dating situation.

 

Disappointed, yet true of his conscience, he walked his girl to the dormitory that night.  At the door to her dorm room, he looked at her longingly and put out his hand, as if to shake hands.

 

She grabbed him by the collar and planted a kiss on him that lasted 10 seconds.  He came up sputtering for air, saying, “Chapter and verse, chapter and verse!”  As she grabbed him to kiss him again, she quoted- “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!”

 

The Bible has a great deal to say about love.  That’s evident by my outline this morning, isn’t it?  When you look at my sermon outline this morning, I feel like going all Sesame Street on you and saying, “Today’s sermon is brought to you by the letter D and the number 8.   LET’S PRAY & THEN Let’s get started!

 

1. Christian love is expressed in 2 directions

 

Matthew 22:37-39

 

Christian love is expressed in 2 directions.  It is expressed upward to God and outward to people.

 

Jesus said that we are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, w/all our mind.  We are to love God with everything we are.  We are to love God w/every ounce of our fiber.

 

We are to love God w/every thought we entertain and w/every decision we make.  We are to love God w/every emotion that stirs in our souls and every attitude we embrace.

 

One of the ways that we express our love for God is by loving others.  In this regard, Jesus said, that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.

 

Do you want a simple way to figure out how to love other people?  Go by this one simple guideline that Jesus gives right here.  Ask yourself- how do I want to be treated?  Then treat others that way!

 

Do you want others to speak gently to you?  Then speak gently to them.  Do you want others to give you the benefit of the doubt?  Give it to them.  Do you want others to forgive you?  Forgive them.  If you don’t want others talking about you behind your back, don’t talk about them behind theirs.

 

The two greatest commands are simple- Love God and love people.  That’s what Christian love is all about.  Second……

 

2. Christian love can be defined

 

One teen magazine defined love this way- “Love is that feeling that you feel when you feel that feeling that you feel.” HUH?

 

How would you define love?  If I were to ask you to fill in the blank, love is……, how would you describe love?

 

Thankfully we don’t have to try to come up with a definition of love.  The Bible gives it to us.

 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a. 

 

That’s love right there.  You’ll know love when you see it because God has defined it for us.

 

God wants us to put love into practice by living out these attributes of love in our lives.  If you really want to apply 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 to your life, insert your own name where love is mentioned.

 

Dennis is…… lots of room for growth!

 

The third characteristic about Christian love is that……

 

3. Christian love is distinctive

 

How do other people know that you are a Christ-follower?  If you were to point to some things in your life that demonstrate that you are a follower of Jesus, what would you say?

 

Would you say things like:  church attendance….prayer…..read my Bible…..give an offering…..serve in a ministry of the church?  Those things are important, but…

 

Here is what Jesus said is the one way that other people will know that we belong to Him:

 

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:35

 

Our love for one another in the church is the acid test of being recognized as one who belongs to Jesus. 

 

The next thing about Christian love is this……

 

4. Christian love must be demonstrated

 

A little girl was asked by her teacher to spell “love”.  She ran to her teacher and threw her arms around her teacher’s neck and kissed her on the cheek.  The little girl said, “we spell love that way at our house.”

 

Love has to be shown.  It has to be expressed somehow, some way.  God demonstrated His love for us, as the Scripture says:

 

“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8

 

God proved His love for you and me by giving His only Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.  Likewise, if we love someone we need to demonstrate that love to them.  That’s what this verse advocates:

 

“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” – 1 John 3:17

 

John is asking a rhetorical question.  The answer is the love of God is not in the person who refuses to help his Christian brother in need, when he has the means to do so.

 

That verse illustrates the principle we are talking about.  If you love someone, you have to demonstrate it somehow, some way.

 

Husbands, when was the last time you reached over and simply held your wife’s hand?  Wives, when was the last time you told your husband that you admire and respect him?  Parents, when was the last time you told your child that you loved them or gave them a hug?  Teens & young adults, when was the last time you said, “thank you” to your parents?  When was the last time we helped someone in need?

 

Someone put it well when they said, “you can give w/o loving, but you can’t love w/o giving.”

 

Love is a verb.  It’s an action word.  It has to be demonstrated.  The 5^th thing about love that I want us to note is this:

 

5. Christian love is different

 

When Jesus said that others will recognize us as His disciples by our love for each other, He gave us the standard on how we are to love each other.  Here is what He said:

 

“A new command I give you:  Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” – John 13:34

 

This command to love one another is new in the sense that Jesus raised the bar on how we are to love each other.  The higher standard by which we are to love each other is to love each other as Jesus has loved us.

 

Jesus gave this command in the Upper Room where He met w/His disciples to observe the Passover and where He instituted the Lord’s Supper.  He spoke that night about His death.  This command also came on the heels of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet.

 

How did Jesus love?  Jesus loved by serving others.  Jesus loved w/a sacrificial love when He went to the cross.

 

That’s the higher standard by which we are to love others.  Look at Galatians 5:13:

 

"You, my brothers and sisters were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather serve one another in love.” -Galatians 5:13

 

Our love for others is not to be a selfish love where we love others because of what they do for us.  Our love for others is not to be a love where we do something for someone else because of what we will receive in return.

 

Christian love is different in that we don’t focus on ourselves.  We love unselfishly, sometimes even sacrificially, simply for the benefit of someone else.

 

Continuing on…..

 

6. Christian love is discerning

 

The world’s type of love has no moral backbone.  We are now told by the world that we are to tolerate everybody and everything.  But that’s not Christian love.  Look at Romans 12:9 w/me:

 

“Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” – Romans 12:9

 

When we truly love people, we have to hate the things that hurt people.  It is the loving thing to do to oppose evil.  It is the loving thing to do to warn people when they are involved in a sin that will bring ruin and heartache to themselves and others.   Christian love is discerning.  Next…..

 

7. Christian love does not discriminate

 

Matthew 5:46-48

 

If we only love those people who love us in return, we don’t get any merit points for that.  If we only love our friends, we don’t get any brownie points for that.  When we only love those we WANT to love, we’re no different than non-Christian people.  Jesus said that even a pagan, a non-believer, will love his/her friends.

 

If we want to be like God, we need to start loving some people we would normally not love.  We need to start loving those people that no one else wants to have anything to do with.  We need to love those that the world deems “unlovely”.

 

Jesus did.  He ate w/the tax collectors and sinners, even though the religious leaders criticized Him for it.  He healed the lepers.  Jesus did not discriminate w/His love.  He loved every one.  And so should we.

 

There is one other thing I want to point out about Christian love and it’s this:

 

8. Christian love is difficult to practice at times

 

Matthew 5:43-45

 

Christian love is difficult, at times, because we are called upon by God to love our enemies as well as our friends.  Christian love is difficult, at times, because we are to forgive those who hurt us when we feel like hurting them back. 

 

Corrie Ten Boom was a saintly lady who suffered horrors at the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck during World War II. Her sister, Betsie died there.  One evening, she was speaking at a church.  She was giving her Christian testimony and relating her experience in the concentration camp.

 

Afterwards, a man came forward.  He identified himself as one of the prison guards who had mistreated her.  He informed her that he had since become a Christian.  He asked Ms. Ten Boom to forgive him.

 

Corrie Ten Boom said that it was an extremely intense and difficult moment for her.  But she knew that forgiving that man was what God commanded her to do.  She thought to herself, “by the grace of God I can forgive you.”

 

Corrie Ten Boom slowly raised her hand and grasped his.  She said that she felt a tingling sensation go from her hand down her arm to her body as she told him, “I forgive you my brother.”

 

There has probably been someone who has hurt you along the way.  Perhaps they have hurt you deeply.  Perhaps you don’t think you can forgive them.  But the Holy Spirit will produce a love in you that will allow you to do the difficult, to forgive.

 

The fruit of the Spirit is love….therefore the fruit of the Spirit involves forgiveness.  In his definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul said that love keeps no record of wrongs suffered.

 

We love others like Jesus loved us.  We are to forgive as God in Christ has forgiven us.

 

THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE.  Someone said that there are only two types of churches, loving ones and unloving ones.  Which one are we?

 

The way to answer that question is: am I a loving Christian?  Do I truly love my neighbor as myself?  Will I serve others in love?

 

This morning, let’s individually dedicate ourselves to being a MORE loving Christian.  As a church family, let us dedicate our church to being a MORE loving church.

 

This morning, if you need to accept the love of God through Jesus, we invite you to come forward as we sing to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

 

If you are looking to belong to a church family that will love you and care for you, we invite you to come forward and become a member this morning.