Sermon Tone Analysis

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Good Morning, We are in a sermon Series entitled 9 Flavors 1 Fruit..

We are looking at the Fruit of Spirit listed in Galatians 5:23-24

We are going to be focusing Fruit of of Love…

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.

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..

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 -

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...

]

Galatians 5:23 Begins with Love....

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.

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..

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.’