Love
Love
Richard Hardy / General
Fruit of the Spirit / Galatians 5:16–26
As Christians we are to be filled with the Spirit.  As such, we are filled we experience and emulate the fruit.  Today we talk about the first fruit listed in Galatians 5:22-23... LOVE.
 
Intro
When Jesus came to earth, he came to rescue us.
•	We were sinners
•	Our character was corrupt
Genesis 6:5 NIV
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
•	Simply stated - If you are a living breathing human being you were born into an undefeatable sinful state.
•	CONGRATULATIONS - YOUR ONLY HUMAN!
Explanation
Don’t worry.. God has and answer for that.
He told Nicodemus
John 3:3 ESV
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
and
John 3:5–6 ESV
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Which brings us to our text.  We must be born again… the old man has to die and the new one has to thrive.  But what does that look like?  
I’m about to start training people for ministry (by the way, I would love it if you all joined— details to follow at another date.)  That training must include character for obvious reasons. And we will start in Galatians 5:16-26.
We are gong to start a series on the Fruit of the Spirit.  Comparing it contrasting it from deeds of the flesh.
 Prepositional Phrase
Today we are going to focus on the first fruit - love.  The fruit from which all other fruit needs to flourish.
Before We Get Started.. About the Fruit.
•	Not like fruits that we can walk up to and pick off.
•	This is not a checklist in that you can say, “Today I will have love.” Instead the fruit is a result of being with Jesus.. and as such it is a test of sorts.  If we are not experiencing love inwardly or outwardly we should check on what we are doing about our relationship with Him.
•	The fruit is the result of living a Spirit Filled life. They are something we meditate on, we practice, and we allow the Spirit to do in and through us.
•	What He demands, He provides
Galatians 5:16–26 ESV
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
The Greatest Commandment
Matthew 22:37–40 ESV
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
1.	If Jesus takes the entire biblical record, all of its commandments and principals into 2 commands, it would make sense that we should develop this aspect of our lives.
1 Corinthians 13:1–3 ESV
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
2.	Without love everything is useless.  You might be able to do the coolest things in the world but if you don’t have love for others and noone loves you - or you feel no one loves you, you are in big trouble.
3.	Paul writes in this chapter 
1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Our Love for God.
Commanded
Deuteronomy 10:12 ESV
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
Deuteronomy 11:1 ESV
“You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always.
Joshua 22:5 ESV
Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Examples of Love to God
Psalm 18:1 ESV
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
Luke 7:47 ESV
Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”
Acts 21:13 ESV
Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Examples of Love to People
For eachother
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 13:35 ESV
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
1 Thessalonians 3:12 ESV
and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,
For the Lost
Deuteronomy 10:19 ESV
Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
For your enemies
Matthew 5:44 ESV
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
God’s love for us.
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.
Romans 5:8 ESV
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Love Description
1 Corinthians 13:4–8 ESV
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Conclusion
Now I gave you many verses.  But I want to go back to the first one.
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.
1.	I don’t want to simply say be more loving.  What I am saying is that we contemplate and exercise love to the best of our ability.   
2.	Here’s the trick - When we accept Jesus as our Lord, He dwells in us through the Holy Spirit.  So the to do list when we find ourselves falling short is to get close to Jesus.
Ephesians 5:18 ESV
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
3.	So while God give us a directive to emulate His love we must know that He is the one who gives us what we need to do so. He gives what He demands.
Philippians 4:13 ESV
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
4.	The tough questions:
•	If Jesus were to return tomorrow  to live through your life in order to demonstrate His love to our world, what would it look like?
•	What would have to change about our life?