love Expressed...

Love is just one of 9 qualities… that makes up the Fruit of the Spirit… You cannot separate the Fruit — you can’t pick and choose which Fruit you want more of… You can’t say I want to be more joy than patience or self control…

Because it not fruits of the spirit (plural) but rather it is singular Fruit of the Spirit…

Just as factory can’t produce Fruit… we cannot produce Spirtual Fruit… because Spiritual Fruit is organic in nature..

Fruit comes through a life that is Abiding in Christ… John 15 tells us that if we abide in Jesus the True Vine —we will experience a harvest ofFruit, some Fruit and much Fruit…

Last week we look the context of Galatians 5 — where Paul is dealing with WALKING IN THE FREEDOM OF THE SPIRT…

Gal 5:1 Sums up quite well the kind of freedom that Paul desires of Christians.

Galatians 5:1 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Freedom is One of the Markers of the Christian life.. Because it represents our lives before and after Christ — BC we were under the domination of the Sinful nature --- we were yoke to slavery…

When come to Christ we experience New life (Regenerated life )where we are no longer obligated to the desires and passion of the Flesh.

We experience New found freedom..

Freedom is marks both the beginning and the Journey itself…Paul are to stand firm in the Freedom that we have received in Christ..

Freedom in Christ is lived out on a Daily basis… is through submitting ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ… every day.And instead of living for the passions and desires of the Flesh.. we are now come under— submit ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit...

Freedom is the Battleground… The enemy is always seeking to get a beachhead… always wanting the Flesh to be in control..

… Paul alludes to this internal battle in Romans 7 says

My new nature hungers for God, for godliness and for goodness. I want to be good and to do good.’ ----- ‘But’, he adds, ‘by myself, even with these new desires, I cannot do what I want to do. Why not? Because of sin that dwells within me.’...

Sounds like a familiar battle?

Paul Concludes that the only way to take care of the Flesh is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. It is through the spirit that we put to death the works of the Flesh.

Our call to Freedom is a Call to a Spiritfilled life.

Life in the Spirit is a life of slow and silent transformation. When God ripens apples he isn’t in a hurry, and he doesn’t make a lot of noise about it…

AS allow the Father the gardener — access into our lives to cut a way branches and vines in our lives that draining God’s power to reproduce Fruit…

David Benner says it like this..

Live in Liberty: The Spiritual Message of Galatians The Way of the Spirit

God invites us to abandon our neurotic displays of self-sufficiency. He invites us to surrender our stolen independence and exchange it for a willingly accepted dependence

Freedom is the opportunity for us to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.

One of my favorite authors and commentators is anglican priest and theologian John Stott— He passed away 2011.... His life still speaks.

Time magazine ranked Stott among the 100 most influential people in the world…

Those those who knew John Stott personally said that he was the most Christlike person they ever met…

…One of the secrets of Johns Stott’s life was that prayed the same prayer every day every day -

Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit: Growing in Christlikeness Watch a video from Chris about the fruit of the Spirit at ivpress.com/cultivating-intro.

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.

-- The FRUIT OF SPIRIT is really a beautiful picture/expression of Christ… Paul knew when we are filled Holy Spirit our lives would would be shaped from the inside out… and the more we are filled with God’s the more the Spirit ripens within us.. The more we look like Christ…

T/S When it comes to Expressing God’s love …There are a few principles we need to understand.. The First is

1. The Priority of Love

A student once asked Albert Einstein, "Dr. Einstein, how many feet are there in a mile?" To the utter astonishment of the student, Einstein replied, "I don't know."

The student was sure the great professor was joking. Surely Einstein would know a simple fact that every schoolchild is required to memorize. But Einstein wasn't joking. When the student pressed for an explanation for this hiatus in Einstein's knowledge, he declared, "I make it a rule not to clutter my mind with simple information that I can find in a book in five minutes."

Albert Einstein was not interested in trivial data. His passion was to explore the deep things of the universe. His passion for mathematical and physical truth made him a pivotal fixture in modern world history.... We can clutter our lives with things that Don’t really matter… There are many virtues listed in the NT… There are three virtues that will remain… The first Faith.. Hope.. the Third is LOVE. Paul tells us that the greatest of all the virtues is love...

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Galatians 5:23 Begins with Love....

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

LOVE IS THE FIRST ON THE LIST… Love is Central to the Christian “Faith.”

Love has been a difficult thing to define…

What is love? (kids love)

Francis Crick a nobel winning scientist wrote a book a number years ago called - The astonishing Hypothesis… and claimed that

‘our joys and sorrows, our memories and our ambitions, our sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.

What he is saying is love is a chemical thing that is happening in our brains.

Here is the problem with this thinking is that most us know intuitively that love is much more than that chemical responses..

But those who experience love know that it is more that tingling feeling… butterflies but there is this lasting attribute of love… love is something that really comes from somewhere else.. love comes from God.. love has this Forever attribute..

1 Cor 13 tells we can speak in tongues of men and angels… we can posses prophetic powers and understand ALL mysteries - ALL knowledge… we could have ALL faith to move mountains… but if we don’t have love — I AM NOTHING…

The reason is that everything around is finite and will come to an end.. Everything has a beginning and end… prophecies will come and go…knowledge.. will pass away..

BUT LOVE has an eternal attribute… 1 Cor 13:8 says that lOVE NEVER ENDS…

There are three Virtues that tower above the rest in the Bible.. They Faith, Hope and Love… Paul tell us that the greatest is Love….

Love is a Priority in Scripture…

John the Beloved or the apostle of love talk about the importance of God’s love within the Christian...

3 times in the Gospels of John He records Jesus commanding His disciples to love one another.. then in 1 John he reminds them about 5 times that we should love one another not just in words, but also with action and in truth.

John 13:34–35 ESV

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

LOVE IS BOTH A PRIORITY AND A COMMAND in the NT

The newness of Jesus’ command pertains to the new kind of love that Christians have for one another because they have each experienced the love of Christ.

Jesus commanded his followers to love one another “just as I have loved you.” This was revolutionary, for believers are called to love others based on Jesus’ sacrificial love for them. Jesus was a living example of God’s love, as we are to be living examples of Jesus’ love. This love would be the mark of distinction: “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Paul tells in Galatians that the Whole law.. is summarized in one word LOVE.. and when it comes to the Fruits love is Directed towards our neighbors… love and serving others...

Why is love commanded?

There’s a reason the bible instructs us to love – because it doesn’t just happen, it doesn’t just come naturally or easily...

There are three assumptions that we need to push on.

The first is that we can assume-

1.That love is easy -

We think that love just happens, naturally, automatically, easily.

We might think of falling in love… this moment where you are taken by someone… than might last for a minute.. But Lasting love takes a lot more effort...

Real love takes forethought, consideration, time, planning.

Love, the fruit of the spirit, is borne of purposeful, determined, effort through dependence upon the spirit of God.

The word that John uses For Christain love is the GR WORD Agapeo … John could have used another GR word Philo which speaks of friendship love --- mutual Love--- love that comes by chance …

But Agapao love..

Agape love is speaks of love that has intention… This is not love by chance but love by Choice..

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

God Chose to love…

Love cannot be compelled, coerced, or manipulated…

There is this old wedding Joke where a nervous bride is desperate to remember the order of events in her wedding – Her Father tries to Ease here nerves.. Just remember these these three things.. Aisle… Altar… then the Hymn.. So, at the wedding begins the bride mutter to herself. Asle…Altar Hymn: by the time she arrives at her groom’s side, all he hears is ‘I’ll alter him.’

That is how we often approach love… We love when people meet our expectations… Well that’s not Biblical love…

Christian love… is characterized by a willing forfeiture our personal rights or privileges on behalf of another person.

It means loving that sometimes we are going to have love someone that may be undeserving of love, and despite disappointment and rejection..

Love is a Command because it isn’t easy..

Second Assumption.. that we make about love...

2. That we are more loving than we actually are.

I don’t know about you! but I have never thought of myself as an unloving person… But if I look more closely --- I have often acted in unloving ways to others.. there is a reason for that…

We have these filters that see things from our own perspective.We all have self-serving interpretations interpretations of our actions.

Tim Keller tells us..

There is one person we naturally adore; there is one person we naturally obey; there is one person we naturally exalt; there is one person we naturally defend and honor; there is one person we naturally serve; there is one person to whom we naturally give the benefit of the doubt, and believe the best about, and work tirelessly to secure the good of that person:

And that person, is, ourselves.

You often find congregation believing that they are most loving church… but what they are saying is that we like the people we have surrounded ourselves with… People that we feel comfortable with… People that we don’t like… we tolerate…

Another assumption we have..

3. That Others peoples lack of love is a bigger problem than our our own.

It is easy to see other actions as unloving and not be concerned about our own attitudes towards others....

Three Principles of love..

1. The Priority of Love

2. The Person of Love..

J.I Packer in his book “knowing God” said.. is that What is amazing about God is not only the fact that he has made himself known…. But that we are know by God.. it is astounding to thing.

I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when his eye is off me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters.

What an incredible though… Love was Expressed by God.

1 John 4:7–8 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

John says the “Love IS from God” then “God IS love”— The word IS…is a Verb that mean “to be” or to possess certain characteristics……God is intrinsically love .. it is who He is.. God’s love is expressed through his nature or person..

If you 1 John 4 — You see that all of God’s actions are in love

God is love

God manifested His love

God Sent HisJesus in Love

God has given us His spirit

God has perfect His love in us

God First loved us.

God has commanded His love.

God didn’t love from a distance but rather God has declared his love towards us.

God Expresses His love!!!

1 John 4:9–11 ESV

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

God has been manifested through the sending Jesus into the world. The love of God was made manifest - The word gr word phaneroo manifest - means to make something known or to shed light upon something.. something that was obscure is made known…

God love has been made know through laying down his life upon a cross..

This kind of love is not ordinary type of love ... God's love acted.. and was demonstrated by Jesus coming to fix the damage done by our sin... becoming a sin himself... in order that we might be Free...

The love of the Father was not only in the sending of the Son, but also in what that sending accomplishes for us. It brings life to all who trust in Jesus and His work on their behalf, because He is the propitiation for our sins.

i. Propitiation has the idea of a sacrifice that turns away the wrath of God. God rightly regarded us, apart from Him, as worthy targets of His judgment. We were rebels and enemies of Him, even if we didn’t know it.

But on the cross, Jesus took the punishment our sin deserved—His sacrifice turned away the judgment we would have received. We easily think how this shows the love of Jesus, but John wants us to understand it also shows the love of God the Father: He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

ii. That we might live through Him: The greatness of God’s love is shown not only in saving us from the judgment we deserved, but also in wanting us to live through Him. Do we live through Him? This is a great way to define the Christian life, to live through Him.

If w ant to see God’s love Demonstrated we look at Christ and His Cross...

John Stott.Very wise words.: "Every time we look at the cross, Christ seems to be saying to us, "I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying."

Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. All of us have inflated views of ourselves, especially in self-righteousness, until we visit a place called Calvary. It is there, at the foot of the cross, that we shrink to our true size."

Three Principles of love..

1. The Priority of Love

2. The Person of Love..

3. The Proclaimation of Love

Last night a transformer fire knocked out power in midtown Manhattan… Some 60 000 people were without power… The city that never sleeps came to standstill… as subways went dark.. People started evacuating out of Theaters… You had civilians trying to direct traffic… This made think of how the Enemy loves to blow transformers… The enemy loves to keep the world in darkness… If he can know the Power out of the Church and keep us ineffective He will…

Part of our calling as the churches those who have been called to Freedom --- called to be people who are led by the Holy Spirit.. People who are filled with God… and bearing fruit...

We are called to Express the love of Christ and to Christ’s luminaries in the word…

1 Peter 2:9 ESV

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Church are those who Belong to God… his own possession with a unique calling and that to proclaim his Excellences of Christ… who has called out of darkness into His marvelous light..

The word Excellencies.... speak of the excellence (virtue) n. — the excellence of a person — or His moral attributes.

Paul Tells us that Faith needs to be Expressed in love...

Galatians 5:6 ESV

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Paul tells us that when we are In Christ.... It not about ceremonial laws…like cirucumcision… There is no advantage —because it is not the means that we get closer to Jesus… It’s not how we get close to Jesus… Rather we live in this Sphere called grace… we live in Grace by Faith… and the evidence of this relationship is… Faith Expressing itself in Love.,

Faith is expressed through love… Faith is a verb… it has to be expressed… Faith and deeds…

Richard Foster in leadership magazine said that…,One of the greatest expressions of love is simply to notice people and to pay attention to them...

James said that faith without deeds is dead. John would agree by saying that faith without love (love that is proved in good deeds) is also dead—nothing but an empty claim. In fact God is made Visible through love...

John tells

1 John 4:12–15 ESV

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

John relates a basic principle about God the Father—that no one, no one, has seen God at any time. Anyone claiming to have seen God the Father is speaking—at best—from their own imagination, because as John plainly states, no one has seen God at any time.

Some years ago, the atheist societies in the UK paid for an ad to be placed on the famous red London buses. It said, “There probably is no God, so stop worrying and enjoy life.” There are many Christians in London. So in theory, a non-Christian reading that ad should be able to say: “That just can’t be true (that there is no God), because I know Gary, I know Frank, Donna, Pam...

Jesus Christ, the Word who became flesh, has made God visible. God, in the person of Jesus Christ, was seen and heard and touched. In fact, John reminds the readers of his letter of this same point right at the start: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life” (1 Jn 1:1). So yes, God who is invisible in himself, was seen in the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth. As Jesus himself put it, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9).

Conclusion

Some people think the greatest evidence of God’s presence or work is power. Some people think the greatest evidence of God’s presence or work is popularity. Some people think the greatest evidence of God’s presence or work is passionate feelings. But the greatest evidence of God’s presence and work is love. Where God is present and working, there will be love.

ii. Sometimes Jesus seemed weak and lacking in power, but He was always full of love. Sometimes Jesus wasn’t popular at all, but He was always full of love. Sometimes Jesus didn’t inspire passionate feelings in people at all, but He was always full of love. Love was the constant, greatest evidence of the presence and work of God in Jesus Christ.

c. His love has been perfected in us: Perfected uses the Greek word teleioo, which doesn’t mean “perfect” as much as “mature” and “complete.” If we love one another, then the love of God is “mature” and “complete” in us.

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