REVIEW
So, we are coming close to concluding our study of the Fruit of the Spirit—which we have seen are the Lord’s divine characteristics and attributes that the Holy Spirit helps produce in our lives. In other words, the fruit of the Spirit is God’s character being produced in us, to where we exhibit His character. Again, we have learned that these are the fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life. Not only that, but they are also the evidence that one is truly spiritual. Therefore, if we desire to be spiritually mature, then these nine virtues will be a part of our lives. Of course, these nine fruit of the Spirit are listed in Galatians 5:22-23 as “… love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control …” (Galatians 5:22-23). Thus far, we have covered eight of these nine fruit, and we have studied some awesome things. So, if you have missed any of these, please either get a hold of the prior notes or go to our website and listen to the one’s you’ve missed. But let me say that the last two fruit we have covered are the first two in Paul’s list—the fruit of love and the fruit of joy. And we learned last time that like Jesus said concerning the great commandment, the second is like the first. Likewise, the second fruit (joy) is like the first (love). You see, like God is at the top of the food chain, love is certainly at the top of the fruit chain. And love is a choice and an action, not necessarily a feeling or an emotion. We saw that since it is a commandment, that doesn’t necessarily mean we have to feel like doing it to obey. Well, we learned last time that joy is no different. You see, if love is a choice and not an emotion, then why would joy be any different? I made the point last time that the vast majority of Christians believe that while love might be an act of obedience, joy is just going to happen automatically in our life. I believe, like love, goodness, kindness, etc., the fruits of joy and peace are a choice, not just fruit that fall on us. A good example of this that we will look at again in a moment is in Philippians 4:4 where the apostle Paul tells this church to “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, Rejoice.” Why would the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul tell us to always rejoice if joy was just automatic? I mean, if joy was just something that is manifested in and through us irrespective of our own conscious and deliberate decision, then why would we have to be told to exhibit it? No, I think it is clear that, like love, joy is not an emotion or a feeling; joy is also a spiritual fruit that is meant to be produced in the natural. That means that I don’t have to feel happy or to necessarily have joyful emotions to produce this fruit. All I have to do is decide whether I am going to let my feelings dictate what is true or if I am going to purpose to let my spiritual nature walk in the truth. Now last time, after we described both what and who joy is, we looked at how we can see the fruit of it in our lives. And I said that one thing that is clear to me about joy is that it is predominantly a product of one’s perspective: I used the example of how we can line up two people—one who is an elderly millionaire and the other a 12-year-old kid who doesn’t have two pennies to rub together—and then give both of them $100. Guess what is going to happen? The millionaire might show some gratitude but he certainly would not be bubbling over with joy, right? On the other hand, the kid would probably be ecstatic, filled with joy. Why? The $100 is worth the same, isn’t it? The difference is that it is worth less to the millionaire than it is to the child. In other words, it is how they view the money and the value system that creates the joy, not the money itself. Likewise, you and I can be filthy, stinking rich in the spirit, having the same spiritual blessings as all the other born-again Christians out there, but if one of us doesn’t either recognize, focus on or esteem those spiritual blessings, then we won’t have joy produced in our hearts like another Christian who does. Therefore, we can accurately say that joy is the fruit of focus. So, I gave an example of what possessing joy is like: It would be like someone coming up to you, and promising to give you a million dollars. In fact, they say that the money is yours. It’s as good as done. And they’ll mail you a check by the end of the week. Well, depending on who it is that promised you this, you will have varying feelings. For example, if it is someone who has a reputation of being a prankster, they don’t have any indications from their life that they have that kind of money, or you simply just don’t know this person that well, you might not have any joy at that moment because your confidence in that promise would understandably be weak. But what would happen if you went to mail box one day that week and there was an envelope in the mail from this person, and in it was a check for one million dollars. Well, you probably still will not let yourself get too ecstatic because the check might not be good, right? But then you decide to take it to the bank it’s drawn on and ask them to give you a certified check for it, and you see them get up and go make that check for you. What do you think you are going to be feeling on the inside right then? Even before the check hits your hand, and you know it’s as good as gold, your heart rate will be sky high at that moment! So, this is what joy feels like: It is like when you don’t have that million dollars in your hand, but you feel like you do. Glory! THE PATH TO PEACE Now before we move on to the final piece of fruit that we have left to cover, let me make one important point: I personally believe there is a reason Paul put the fruit of the Spirit in the order that he did in Galatians 5:22-23. Why? Because these are the appropriate order in how to start seeing these fruit in our lives. Let me explain: You see, everything starts with love. Love is the foundation of “quality Christianity.” So, check your love walk—because I can guarantee you that if you are not walking in love with people (being generous, benevolent, considering others more than you do yourselves) then you won’t be walking in joy, nor will you have peace. For example, if we are going to experience fullness of joy, we must learn to become givers—to give of our time, our service, and yes, of our resources too. Sure, it is important that we cooperate with these other spiritual laws of God’s kingdom in order to experience joy, but being a giver is what I consider to be the most important key to joy that we have. I remember early in my Christian walk being dissatisfied with the level of joy I was walking in. I was growing by leaps and bounds and learning more and more about the Lord, but I witnessed in others a joy that I did not see in my own life. This prompted me to ask the Lord, “Lord, why do these other individuals seem to have more joy than I do?” To which the Lord responded, “It is because you count your life dear to yourself.” Then He took me over to this passage of Scripture in the book of Acts where the Apostle Paul made a powerful and most revealing statement. In Acts chapter 20 Paul was summarizing his message to a group of pastors saying that he was aware of the chains and tribulations that awaited him in Jerusalem. Then he said, “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy…” (Acts 20:24) Through this simple, yet profound statement we see a major key to the joy that is our inheritance in Christ. The way the Lord unlocked this verse to me was that the reason Paul was able to finish his race with joy was because, number one, he did not let anything move him and, number two, because he did not count his life dear to himself. But He also showed me something more specific: Number one, I saw that because Paul did not let things move him, he was enabled to finish his race. In other words, simply persevering to the end and not quitting is based on our faith to not let circumstances and situations move us. And the same is true for all of us. If we do not let these things move us, we too will finish our race. It is only in allowing ourselves to be swayed by the tribulations of life that we will be hindered from finishing our race and completing our course. But the second truth we see in this verse is that finishing our race with joy is directly tied to not counting our own lives as dear to ourselves. You see, just because we are strong in faith does not mean that we will enjoy the journey to the degree that we can. Yes, it is only when we learn to not count our life dear to ourselves that we will finish our race with joy. In other words, while letting nothing move us through trusting and believing in God will enable us to finish our race; coming to the place where we become selfless and focused more on the needs of others is when we will possess joy in the midst of that race. Amen! We actually see this in the sequence of Philippians 4:2-7 when Paul begins to make an appeal to a couple of women in the church to walk in unity with one another and not to be contentious (see verses 2-3). Then, in verse 4, he exhorts them to rejoice in the Lord always. So, yes, love always precedes joy. But did you know that joy precedes peace too? Yes, after he talks to them about rejoicing, he gets into the things that govern the peace of God. So, there is evidently a way of peace in our lives, and along that way is love & joy. THE FRUIT OF PEACE So, now we come to the final fruit of the Spirit that we have left to cover—the fruit of peace. Let’s begin by defining it: This word for “peace” comes from the Greek word eirene which describes a state of rest, quietness and calmness. (On a side note, this is where some women have gotten their name “Irene” from) Now this peace that Paul speaks of here is like a two-sided coin. Of course, there is the side of peace that describes the tranquility, quietness, and rest in the soul. But there is also the side of peace that describes peace between two individuals. In fact, in the Blue Letter Bible application, peace is defined as that tranquil and blessed state of the soul, which is what we commonly think of when we refer to peace. But it also defines it as peace between individuals (i.e. harmony & concord), which is that peace that we speak of when we refer to the absence of wars and conflicts. So, we could say, there is a peace to be had on the inside—that is, peace within man—and a peace we can walk in on the outside—that is, peace towards men. So, I that to say that peace has different meaning depending on the context it is used in. Now let’s quickly look at that fruit of peace that we can possess on the inside of us: I would describe this peace as that same peace that enabled Daniel to get a good night’s rest in the den of lions. It is that peace that the Prince of Peace Himself walked in that enabled Him to lie down and rest peacefully on the boat when the storm was raging around Him. It is that supernatural peace that causes the winds and waves of life to not disturb us or cause us to change our course. This is the Lord’s peace, the peace that He left with us (see John 14:27)—the peace that surpasses all understanding that guards both our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (see Philippians 4:7). Now as we have brought up repeatedly throughout this series, just because we have these fruit of the Spirit dwelling within us as born-again, Spirit-filled Christians, does not mean that we will just automatically walk in them. There is a cooperation with these virtues that enables us to bear this fruit consistently in our lives. For example, like we talked about with the fruit of joy already, peace is also a fruit of our focus. In other words, it is walked in when we choose the proper perspective—for the Lord told us that He will keep us in perfect peace when our mind is stayed on Him (Isaiah 26:3). This is also what is implied in Philippians chapter 4 when Paul teaches us that the way to having the peace guard our hearts & minds is by us rejoicing, being thankful, turning to the Lord with the things which concern us, etc. (see Philippians 4:4-7). So, what we are beholding is again imperative to maintaining our peace. However, peace is also obtained by the presence of the God of peace in our lives (see Philippians 4:9). You see, this is the manifest presence of God in our lives—peace. Where there is true peace, there is God. Where there is confusion, turmoil, strife, division, etc., God is not manifest there. So, I say that to say that if we want peace manifest in our life, then we need God’s manifest presence surrounding us to keep us in that bubble of peace. Now this peace of the soul that surpasses all understanding is not what I feel led for us to emphasize this week. Mainly because I will be teaching much more thoroughly on that side of peace at the beginning of 2020 as we will be talking about stress and how to both deal with it and keep it out of our life. Stay tuned for that. What I want us to spend more time talking about this week is that part of peace among the body of Christ that is less emphasized. However, even though we like to hear more about possessing peace within ourselves, this peace towards one another is something extremely critical that the body of Christ needs to be established in. In fact, in my studies, I have found that most of the times when the term “peace” is used in the New Testament, it is referring to peace between individuals. So, let’s look at some of these verses that “stress” the importance of peace in the Body of Christ: PEACE TOWARDS MEN A good first example of this is how, around this time of year, we hear repeated what the angels declared to the shepherds on Christmas Eve— “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14). Now it is obvious that with the coming of Christ, that did not secure peace on the earth among men—for we have seen war after war over the past 2,000 years since His birth. In fact, Jesus even said in Matthew 10:34, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.” So no, the peace that the angels broadcasted was not going to be peace among men; the peace that He was ushering in would be made towards men by God. In other words, Jesus was the peace offering made by God to bring conditions of peace between Him and His creation. Therefore, as the apostle Paul said regarding Jesus in Ephesians 2:14, “He Himself is our peace…” Therefore, the primary form of peace that Jesus came to provide for us is the peace between us and God. In other words, He came to take the sin of the world in His body so that we do not have to be separated from Him anymore. You could say that God in Christ was the ultimate peacemaker. And because He brought us peace with Himself, now we are called to be peacemakers ourselves. Of course, that is referring to ushering others into the same salvation that we have received, but it is also referring to us giving people the same state of “right-standing” with us. In other words, we seek peace with others like Christ sought with us. It is only fitting that we as His children imitate our Heavenly Father—for we are His ministers of reconciliation (Compare w/ Second Corinthians 5:18-21). BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS We see this in the Beatitudes when Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9) Why will the peacemakers be the ones called sons of God? It is because their Father is the original & ultimate peacemaker, so they are just following in His footsteps. Amen. And again, this way of the peacemaker is a fruit of true spirituality. It is not natural, but is what a truly spiritual person does. We see this in James 3:13-18 when Pastor James began correcting this church in what a truly “wise person” does. He says, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” What this is essentially saying is that true spiritual wisdom is not found in our theology, but in our behavior—for if there are envies, jealousies, strife, self-seeking, etc. in our midst, then there is no peace. And if there is not the fruit of peace, then it is earthly, carnal, and demonic. I have heard it said and agree wholeheartedly: strife is the manifest presence of the devil and peace is the manifest presence of God. Where there is peace, there is the God of peace. You see, have you ever noticed how “natural” it is for us to be contentious, to slander others and to become disjoined? The reason it is so natural is because it is carnal. You see, any old sinner can get mad, find fault, and run from reconciliation. But it takes someone who intentionally decides to walk spiritually to be a peacemaker. Why? Because people don’t like us much when we don’t feed into their slander and gossiping about the person they are offended with. It is going against the stream. Let me give you an example: when someone offends us or does something that it hurtful, our natural response is not to go to that person and tell them how what they did made us feel and to seek reconciliation. No, the general response is to not go to that person but to go to others and tell them the hurtful thing that this person did to us. Why? Because when the flesh gets involved it wants to do what is easy, and that is not to confront; it is to vent to others. But what if we all did what Jesus taught us in Matthew chapter 18 when He taught us how to deal with a brother or sister who sins against us. What if we always—without any reservation—either dealt with it in our heart or went directly to the person ourselves and dealt with the situation one on one. But this is what the Lord expects from all of us, His children—to be His peacemakers. PURSUING PEACE And make no mistake about it, this fruit of peace is not going to just automatically appear on your branches. It is going to have to be pursued—because we live in this natural, carnal world, and everything in it (including our flesh) will just naturally go the opposite of the way of peace. So, let me give you several Scriptures that will establish this point that peace must be pursued:
CONCLUSION So, I hope you can see just how much of a premium the Lord obviously puts on pursuing peace with one another and with all people. It is a big part of Christianity in His eyes, and should be in ours as well. But one thing that needs to be said about being peacemakers is that it all begins on the inside. In other words, as we are certainly called to be a people who are “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (see Ephesians 4:3), this first takes place in our hearts. This is why the apostle Paul said in Colossians 3:15, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.” You see, while most people use this verse to describe how peace is to be our guide when making bigger decisions (and I certainly agree with that principle), what Paul was actually saying here is that we are to let that peace that we are to have with one another to call the shots in our hearts. In other words, we are not to allow our hearts to get filled with offenses, strife, conflicts, etc. since we are called in one body. We can see that the way of peace is found by letting that peace rule in our hearts first. So, as the apostle Paul said in Second Thessalonians 3:16, I say to you today: “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.
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REVIEW
So today, we are going to pick back up in our study of the Fruit of the Spirit—which we have seen are the Lord’s divine characteristics and attributes that the Holy Spirit helps produce in our lives. In other words, the fruit of the Spirit is God’s character being produced in us, to where we exhibit His character. How many of you know how important this is for us to produce God’s nature and attributes in & through our lives? It is vital—for the world needs to see God, and a major way in which He is seen and known is through our lives. In other words, the world will know that He is love when they see His love operating through the church. So, we have learned that these are the fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life and also are the evidence that one is truly spiritual. No, it is not our spiritual giftings that indicate that we are mature spiritually; our spiritual maturity is based on how much of these nine fruit we produce in our lives. Now these nine fruit of the Spirit are listed in Galatians 5:22-23 as “… love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control …” (Galatians 5:22-23). Thus far, we have covered seven of these nine fruit: We began by studying two of the fruit sandwiched in the middle of Paul’s list— the fruits kindness and goodness. Then, the following week, we looked at the fruits of longsuffering and faithfulness. And then, the week after that, we covered the last two fruits in Paul’s list—the fruits of gentleness (i.e. humility) and self-control. And we saw some awesome things in these 6 fruits of the Spirit. So, if you missed any of these teachings, I encourage you to go to our website and listen to them. There was some good stuff in them! Then last time, we moved on and began looking at the top third of Paul’s list—beginning with the first and greatest fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of love. I made the point last time that agape is the undisputed greatest fruit of the them all, and why? Not just because Paul listed it first, but because it is the core-nature and characteristic of God Himself. We are told in First John 4:8 that “God is love.” This is not just saying that God has love to give. No, God is love! And we know that God has the preeminence, right? Yes, He is the greatest, the most glorious, the highest. Yes, God is the top of the food-chain! So, we learned that if God is love, then guess what? Love is the top of the “fruit-chain” too! Love is the highest and He is the best! We also saw that love is the greatest fruit we can produce in our lives because even out of faith and hope, it is the main virtue that we begin to walk in now and will continue to walk in throughout eternity. In fact, we learned that it is the greatest of all the commandments and is what our Lord gave us as the new commandment to following—loving one another as He has loved us. Therefore, love is the most valuable “produce” we can produce in the Christian life. Now we learned that there is a big difference between the way God uses the word “love” and the way the world uses the word “love.” We saw that this word “love” comes from the Greek word agape, which describes the God kind of love, again different than a worldly kind of love. You see, in the world, we are quick to loosely throw around the term “love.” We say I love Jesus, I love my wife, and I love my children the same way we say, I love pizza, I love chocolate, and I love coffee. But that is a cheap, generic, artificial love—because it is generally based on the performance of the thing we say we love. For example, what if the pizza man doesn’t use the best ingredients, or the pizza is cold, etc.? Then you are not going to say you love that pizza. What about the coffee? If it’s cold, watered down, or isn’t sweetened properly, you probably won’t say that you “love” that cup of coffee, right? The point of this was that this is worldly love because it is based on the condition of the thing we are loving. No, the God kind of love we are talking about here is a love that is not based on the behavior of the one being loved; it is solely based on the character of the one doing the loving. Therefore, agape is unconditional, limitless, and self-sacrificing. So, back to that example of loving coffee. If I truly did love coffee the way agape loves, then even if the coffee is bitter, bland, or just doesn’t taste the best, I will still drink from that cup. Amen? And why? Because it is not based on how good the coffee is; it is based on how good I am at loving unconditionally. Now we saw that the King James Version translates this God kind of love as “charity,” which I believe is a good description of agape because when one gives to a charity, there is nothing expected in return. It is understood that when we give to a “charity” that there are no strings attached and there is no reciprocation. Not to mention, “charities” are not designed to receive well wishes or good intentions. They receive tangible goods and monetary gifts. Likewise, agape is not just saying “I love you”; it is giving love. And I said that I believe John 3:16 describes it best by saying, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” It did not say that God so loved the world that He said to it, “I love you so, so much.” Nor did it say, “…that He gave it big hug.” No, He so agape’d us that He gave something (rather, Someone) to us and for us! And He did not just give anything; He gave His very best. Amen! So, we need to understand that this fruit of love is not to be cheapened by comparing it to this world’s idea of love. No, agape is not a love that is determined by the person being loved; it is only determined by both the nature and actions of the one doing the loving. Amen. We spent a considerable amount of time looking at this truth that love is a commandment, not a suggestion. Therefore, since it is a commandment, that means it does not necessarily involve emotions or feelings because a command is something we do whether we feel like it or not. Now those of you who have served in the military would agree to this point—but more times than not, when you were given orders to do something, you didn’t feel like doing what they told you to do. Particularly, when you were in basic training and those drill sergeants gave you orders like “drop and give me twenty” or “go run 5 miles!”, nothing in your flesh or your soul wanted to do it. But guess what? You did it anyway! And why? Because you were given orders by your authorities. Again, agape is a spiritual thing! Therefore, it is eternal and unchanging! But so many have a hard time believing this because they feel that they do not have love because they don’t “feel” love. In other words, because they don’t have the emotions of love and there is selfishness, anger, etc. in there, they believe that they are void of love. But this is when we must believe what the Word says more than what our feelings and our heads are telling us. Amen! And, as it is with everything spiritual in nature such as love, we are not led by our feelings. Saints, what I am saying is—do not wait until you feel like operating in these spiritual things before you practice them. Know that they are fruits of the spirit and spiritual things are not based on feelings. Again, if we are going to be a “spiritual” man or woman, we are going to have to learn to live out of the part of us that is willing by faith (i.e. the spirit) and not yield to the part of us that is weak by feelings (i.e. the flesh). Yes, being spiritual is a decision! It's an action—an act of our will (for the spirit is willing). It is not carnal to have feelings and emotions; it is carnal to act on those feelings and emotions; to act on what we know is true and, by faith, will to do those things is spiritual. A good Scriptural example I gave of this is found in Titus 2:3-4, where the Apostle Paul told Pastor Titus that the older women were to, among other things, admonish the young women to love their husbands and to love their children. We saw that these older women were not to admonish the younger women to “feel” more like loving their husbands and their children? No! We do not admonish someone to have certain emotions and feelings. What these older women were being admonished to do was to teach the younger women how to love their husbands and children—which, of course, would be actions and deeds of love. Amen! You see, love is more of an action than it is an emotion. And if we can be taught how to love, then we should know that it is an act of our own volition. If it were an emotion, then it would be out of our control because we are always going to have ups and downs in our emotions. But since love is a commandment, we know that it is in our control because the Lord would not have told us to do something that it wasn’t in our control to do. Amen! Yes, church, spirituality is having command over our feelings and emotions and learning to do things simply because it is what we are told to do or it is simply the right thing to do. Church, we must have resolve and integrity—doing what is right simply because it is right and because it is a command. We should need no other reason to love one another than this! THE SECOND IS LIKE IT So now, let’s move on to the second fruit that we see mentioned in Galatians 5:22—the fruit of joy. And just like Jesus said regarding the first fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of love, the second commandment of loving our neighbor is like the first and greatest commandment of loving God. Likewise, the second fruit of the Spirit is like the first. What do I mean by this? I mean that if love is a choice and not an emotion, then why would joy be any different? You see, I think that the vast majority of Christians believe that while love might be an act of obedience, joy is just going happen automatically in our life. But is that true? I don’t believe so. I believe, like love, goodness, kindness, etc. the fruits of joy and peace are a choice, not just fruit that fall on us. Let me give you an example: In Philippians 4:4, the apostle Paul tells this church to “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, Rejoice.” Why would the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul tell us to always rejoice if joy was just automatic? I mean, if joy was just something that is manifested in and through us irrespective of our own conscious and deliberate decision, then why would we have to be told to exhibit it? No, I think it is clear that, like love, joy is not an emotion or a feeling; joy is also a spiritual fruit that is meant to be produced in the natural. That means that I don’t have to feel happy or to necessarily have joyful emotions to produce this fruit. All I have to do is decide whether I am going to let my feelings dictate what is true or if I am going to purpose to let my spiritual nature walk in the truth. You see, this is why I am a big proponent in acting on the joy that we have inside of us. We can do this by laughing at our circumstances and the devil by faith. It doesn’t have anything to do with the way we feel. But since joy too is a fruit of the Spirit, why do we just sit there and cater to our feelings saying, “Well, I don’t feel like laughing right now.” We wouldn’t say— “Well, I don’t feel like reading my Bible anymore” and then just cater to that, would we? No, we have enough sense to know that is wrong. Nor would we believe that because we don’t feel like praising God that we evidently do not need to press through those feelings and cater to our flesh. No, if we know we are to act on things like this whether we feel like it or not, why would walking in any of the fruit of the Spirit be done any differently? No, we rejoice by faith because joy is a fruit of the Spirit just as we love by faith! Amen? WHO IS JOY? Now I want to remind you that all of these nine fruit of the Spirit are the characteristics and nature of God Himself. So, this fruit of joy is also an attribute of the Lord. In other words, just as much as God is love, He is joy as well. You see, some of us don’t have a lot of joy in our life because it was never modeled to us. What I mean is that some of us weren’t raised in happy homes. Our parents were locked up in certain ways and never were examples of joy to us. So, guess what? Unless we learn joy from our peers, we are probably going to conform to what we learned from the home we were raised in. But I want you to understand today that it’s okay to be happy and have joy. We have a Heavenly Father, an elder brother, and a holy companion, who is the ultimate model of joy for us! Glory to God! Let me show you a few Scriptures that model the joy of the Lord to us: In John 15:11, Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” Notice that it is Jesus’ joy that remains in us. This is the fruit of the Spirit that is in us, Jesus’ joy! And Jesus said that because His joy remains in us, our joy can be full. In John 17:13, Jesus prayed to His Father and said the following: “But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” Notice again that Jesus possessed joy Himself and here He prayed that we would have His joy fulfilled in us. So, this is evidently the Lord’s will for us, right? The apostle Paul said in First Thessalonians 1:6, “And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit” And this exactly what I am attempting to get you to start doing today—being a follower of the joy you see in those over you, which certainly includes the Lord Himself. But notice here that it is called the joy of the Holy Spirit. Did you know the Holy Ghost has joy too? We’ve already seen Jesus possessed joy; now we are seeing the Holy Spirit has joy as well. But what about God the Father? Look at First Timothy 1:11 “according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.” This word “blessed” can be translated “happy.” Church, we need to see Him as the Happy God today! Another, more familiar Scripture is Nehemiah 8:10 that refers to the joy of the Lord being our strength. The joy of what? The joy of the Lord! You see, it is His joy! And this is the only reason we can have the fruit of joy in our life—because of the seed of joy that was sown in us by the Sower Himself. In other words, He can only give us this joy because He has it in Himself to give. Therefore, because the Godhead evidently possess joy themselves, they have joy to give to us. Amen? WHAT IS JOY? Now this word “joy” comes from the Greek word chara—which is akin to the word we know to be the word translated “grace,” charis. This is important to understand because of how our joy is connected to His grace. I’ll tell you, it’s awfully hard to have joy in our life without an understanding of what He has done for us by His grace. Far too many Christians have their focus on what they’ve done instead of what Christ has done. Church, I’ll tell you—if our eyes are predominately on who we are and what we’ve done, we have a good chance of being down & depressed. On the other hand, if you and I put our attention & focus on Jesus and the grace He’s provided for us, joy is the natural (or we could say, supernatural) byproduct. Amen? The word chara describes “gladness & cheerfulness.” The dictionary defines the verb form of joy—the word “rejoice”—as “to be joyful, to feel or express great happiness and to become cheerful.” Some synonyms used for “rejoicing” are words like “gladden, revel, exult, glory, delight, celebrate, and triumph.” However, as I have studied this word and the contexts that it is used in, I see how “joy & rejoicing” are easier to describe than they are to define. And the greatest description that I could find of what it means to “have joy and rejoice” is in the example of a dedicated and enthusiastic sports fan. Yes, the way that some of these “fanatics” act when their favorite team is victorious describes this word “rejoicing” to a tee. For example, notice that in the word “cheerful” is where we get the word “cheer” from. Who cheers? Fans! So, let’s consider some of the characteristics of a “fanatic”: What do many of these fans do when their team triumphs? They will clap their hands, pump their fists, and even throw their hands up in the air! Yes, they might jump up and down and even dance! Others will shout at the top of their lungs and will high-five and even hug complete strangers in those exciting moments! Saints, these joyful reactions by the “fanatic” describes the kind of rejoicing that the Bible speaks of. So, rejoicing is what one does at the height of their positive emotions. Simply stated—rejoicing is being excited! It is showing great enthusiasm and expressing it in some demonstrative way! So, no, rejoicing is not quiet and passive; it is loud and expressive! Now I do understand that people are wired differently and express their joy in different ways. For example, some of these very passionate fans are not demonstrative at all even though their devotion for their team runs just as deep. Therefore, rejoicing is not demonstrated the same way by everyone. However, the bottom line is that whatever way one of these devoted fans acts at the height of their excitement is a good description of how they rejoice. Now to some, that might just be getting a big smile across their face and lightly clapping their hands. To others (like myself), that might be absolutely losing themselves and screaming at the top of their lungs in excitement. To each their own. But, again, my point is—to rejoice is to celebrate in the most radical way that each person tends to. Church, our revelation of who God is and what He has done for us will naturally produce this genuine expression of joy. Yes, when we realize the magnitude of the grace and mercy we have obtained, it will touch our emotions too. Again, I am not advocating being emotion-led or emotion-ruled; but I am advocating letting our emotions serve the Lord through learning to rejoice in Him. So, the fruit of joy is not stoic and non-emotional. No, the joy of the Lord being produced in our lives will be a demonstrative cheerfulness & gladness that will mirror the height of our joy in this world. THE ROOT OF JOY Now that we have described both what and who joy is, how do we see fruit of it in our lives? Well, one thing that is clear to me about joy is that it is predominantly a product of one’s perspective: You see, we can line up two people—one who is an elderly millionaire and the other a 12-year-old kid who doesn’t have two pennies to rub together—and then give both of them $100. Guess what is going to happen? The millionaire might show some gratitude but he certainly would not be bubbling over with joy, right? On the other hand, the kid would probably be ecstatic, filled with joy. Why? The $100 is worth the same, isn’t it? The difference is that it is worth less to the millionaire than it is to the child. In other words, it is how they view the money and the value system that creates the joy, not the money itself. Likewise, you and I can be filthy, stinking rich in the spirit, having the same spiritual blessings as all the other born-again Christians out there, but if one of us doesn’t either recognize, focus on or esteem those spiritual blessings, then we won’t have joy produced in our hearts like another Christian who does. So, I believe we can accurately say that one’s joy oftentimes is based on what they see and what they hear. In other words, joy comes as a result of both looking at and listening to the right thing. Let me give you a couple of examples of this—naturally, from the Christmas story since “tis the season”: In the story of the wise men, we are told how after they left Herod’s presence, that they followed the star that they had seen in the East. And in Matthew 2:10, we are told that “when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.” Notice that they rejoiced with exceedingly great “joy” (the same Greek word, chara, used for the fruit of joy), when they saw something. Now I suppose some of us might have experienced something like this before. Perhaps it was when we saw a loved one whom we hadn’t seen for some time. Perhaps it is was when we found something we had lost and were unsure we would ever find again. And here is a good example: When we opened a Christmas gift and were surprised by something that was given to us that exceeded all expectations. I’ve seen some serious “joy” in watching children and even some adults when they’ve “seen” what lied beneath that wrapping paper. So, yes, “seeing” certain things has brought many of us great joy before! Amen? But over at (ironically enough), the same address in Luke’s Gospel, we see how sometimes our joy is based on what we hear: In Luke 2:10, after the angel appeared to the shepherds in the field and the glory of the Lord shown around them, He said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.” Notice the phrase “good tidings of great joy.” Now the phrase “good tiding” essentially describes information to share that someone will probably like. In other words, it describes “good news.” But the angel called it good news “of great joy.” In other words, the good news that he was about to tell them was to produce “great joy” in them (Again, the Greek word chara). I’m sure we’ve all experienced this one as well: Perhaps it was the news of a pregnancy or when someone told you that you had won a prize. Oftentimes, good news is a joy-producer in people, depending on how much they value the news being told to them. But my point is that the wise men’s joy was based on what they saw (i.e. the star) and the shepherd’s joy was based on what they heard (i.e. good tidings). Now this is the problem too: Just like people derive joy by the good things they see and hear, people’s lack of joy is based on the same thing—on the bad, alarming, and displeasing things that they are looking at and listening to. This is why Paul told us to rejoice in the Lord, not rejoice in our problems or in our circumstances, but in who He is and what He has done. In other words, we are looking at Him and His work as opposed to ourselves, our circumstances, etc. Church, this is the key to releasing the joy of the Lord in our lives—by not looking at the things which are seen that are temporal, but by keeping our focus and attention on the things that are spiritual and eternal. Now to some, this seems unrealistic. “How can someone not pay attention to the storms of life that are surrounding them?” they say. But what they miss is it is not us simply putting our head in the sand and covering our eyes; it is us choosing to look elsewhere while the storms surround us. We have the example of Peter walking on the water, right? There were storms all around him, and it was when he began to look at the wind & waves that he began to sink. However, when he put His focus on Jesus, He walked in the supernatural. Likewise, when you and I look away from everything else and look unto Jesus—the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)—we can experience water-walking joy. So, no, it is not just trying not to look at the problems; it is deliberately looking at the answer that produces consistent and unwavering joy in our hearts. Joy is the fruit of focus. I love another Scriptural example we have of this: It is found in Hebrews 10:34 where the writer(s) of Hebrews described how they had “joyfully accepted the plundering of their goods, knowing that they had a better and an enduring possession for themselves in heaven.” How could someone do this? For instance, it would be like you or I going home today and finding someone had broken into our house and stolen everything we own. This verse says that they “joyfully accepted the plundering of their goods.” And why? Because they knew they had a better and an enduring possession for themselves in heaven. Wow! Now do you and I have a better and more enduring inheritance waiting for us in heaven or was this just true for the Early, First-Century Church? No, it is just as true for us as it was for them! So, God-forbid, if we lost everything that we possessed in this world, would we lose our joy or would we likewise know that we have better and more enduring possessions waiting for us in heaven? My point is, it is all a matter of perspective. Jesus taught us similar things regarding our perspective: In the last beatitude (Matthew 5:11-12), He said, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Here, Jesus taught us that we ought to rejoice and be exceedingly glad (sounds like an extra measure of joy to me) when we are reviled and persecuted falsely for Jesus’ sake. Why? Because great is our reward in heaven! Amen! So, what I am rejoicing in when I am persecuted for Christ’s sake is not the persecution itself, but is the reward on the other side of the persecution—which makes it more than worth it. For example, I suppose anyone in here might endure some temporary setback for a period of time if it was in exchange for a giant bounty. Amen? And this is not monopoly money we are talking about here! This is real gold, silver and precious stones that we have in our account, saints! So, what we have to do is what James taught his readers—Count it all joy (see James 1:2)! I saw the example of when all hell is breaking loose around us, it’s like a guy sitting in the confines of his own home counting the Benjamins! Glory! In other words, he’s not worried about all the alarm going on around his home; he’s focused on the riches he’s got in his possession! Amen! FEELING LIKE A MILLION BUCKS! So, continuing along this analogy, let me conclude today by giving you an example of what possessing joy is like: It would be like someone coming up to you, and promising to give you a million dollars. In fact, they say that the money is yours. It’s as good as done. And they’ll mail you a check by the end of the week. Well, depending on who it is that promised you this, you will have varying feelings. For example, if it is someone who either has a reputation of being a prankster, they don’t have any indications from their life that they have that kind of money, or you simply just don’t know this person that well, you might not have any joy at that moment because your confidence in that promise would understandably be weak. But what would happen if you went to mail box one day that week and there was an envelope in the mail from this person, and in it was a check for one million dollars. Well, you probably still will not let yourself get too ecstatic because the check might not be good, right? But then you decide to take it to the bank it’s drawn on and ask them to give you a certified check for it, and you see them get up and go make that check for you. What do you think you are going to be feeling on the inside right then? Even before the check hits your hand, and you know it’s as good as gold, your heart rate will be sky high at that moment! So, this is what joy feels like: It is like when you don’t have that million dollars in your hand, but you feel like you do. Glory! But let me take this a step further: What if some prominent, wealthy person in the community, who also already has a good reputation for being generous, a man of his word, etc., made you that same promise? Do you reckon you might feel joy rise up in you simply because he told you that it was on the way? No, you won’t necessarily have to see the check in your hand to start feeling joy rise up in your heart, will you? No, joy will be produced in you before you see the money. Again, this is what joy feels like: It is like when you don’t have that million dollars in your hand, but you feel like you do. Glory! So, the question that begs to be asked is—Can one be a millionaire and not even know it? Sure, they can! You realize that there have been people living on this earth who had riches available to them that they didn’t even realize. In one case, it might be a person who was left an inheritance and for whatever reason they didn’t ever receive it. In another case, it might have been a person who had a treasure hidden on their property somewhere that they never discovered. You name it, there are people out there who died in poverty when riches were rightfully theirs. Likewise, there are Christians who die having lived sad, depressed lives when they had so much to be happy about because of the riches they possessed in Christ. Yes, the riches are buried within them, but they never realize it and, therefore, never experience the joy of what they possess. This is one of the reasons Jesus gave us the Parable of the Hidden Treasure. In this parable He said, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (see Matthew 13:44). Notice the “joy” that accompanied him knowing what he had buried in that field. That is the same fruit of joy that will spring forth in our field when we realize what we have buried in us. Amen? REVIEW
So today, we are continuing our study of the Fruit of the Spirit—which are the Lord’s divine characteristics and attributes that the Holy Spirit helps produce in our lives. Therefore, we learned that these are the fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life and also are the evidence that one is truly spiritual. No, it is not our spiritual giftings that indicate that we are mature spiritually; our spiritual maturity is based on how much of these nine fruit we produce. You know, fruit is called “produce,” right? That’s because fruit like apples, oranges, bananas, etc. are actual “produce” that we can now benefit from (i.e. eat). Likewise, if we are bearing the fruit of the Spirit, then we are “producing” something that others benefit from. And that is what the Lord intends—that we produce His godly characteristics so that the world can experience Him. Amen? Now these nine fruit of the Spirit are listed in Galatians 5:22-23 as “… love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control …” (Galatians 5:22-23). So, we began by studying two of the fruit sandwiched in the middle of Paul’s list— the fruits kindness and goodness. And we saw that these are sister fruits because they are so similar. However, we learned that what they have in common is that they are both to be produced in our lives. In other words, they are not just the good and kind intentions we have, but are good and kind manifestations. We learned that “kindness” describes someone who is useful, manageable, or employed by the Lord. We also saw that the fruit of goodness describes being “beneficial.” So, we learned that if we want to be both useful and beneficial in God’s kingdom, we need to be producing both of these fruit in our lives. But we learned that as it is with all of the fruit of the Spirit, these fruit do not come by accident. Like it is with growing specific fruit in our gardens, we have to plan to produce the fruits of kindness and goodness. Therefore, one must plan to be good. He or she must learn to think a certain way to be kind. In other words, as it is with all of these fruit of the Spirit, we must make room in our hearts to produce goodness and kindness to those we come in contact with. Then, the following week, we moved into another couple of fruit of the Spirit—the fruits of longsuffering and faithfulness: We learned that longsuffering is essentially “patience with people.” And as I made the point of, this fruit of the Spirit comes from the Greek word makrothumia which describes someone who takes a “long” time to get “mad” or “go off” on you like a stick of dynamite. Therefore, a person who possesses “longsuffering” is someone who is extremely forbearing and doesn’t easily “explode” on others. And we learned that this God-empowered ability to “forebear” with people is a virtue that must be put on—meaning, it requires a certain mentality to produce it in our lives. Then we looked at the fruit of faithfulness and saw that this particular fruit of the Spirit is describing someone who, through their faith, is reliable and loyal—that is, he or she is trustworthy, dependable, dedicated, consistent and unwavering in their dealings with others. In other words, people can believe in this person who exhibits faithfulness. I also made the point that since this Greek word used for “faithfulness” is the word for “faith” we really cannot separate our faithfulness in life from our faith in the Lord. Yes, God’s faithfulness is what our faith is rooted in, and our faithfulness is the fruit of the faith we have in Him. Then last week, we covered the last two fruit that the apostle Paul mentions, which are the only two listed in Galatians 5:23—gentleness & self-control. And we learned that these two fruit of the Spirit are probably at the bottom of just about every believer’s list as well. Therefore, while we might tend to focus more on the love, joy and peace side of the fruit of the Spirit, faithfulness, humility, and self-control are the other side of the fruit of the Spirit that will make us fully fruitful. Regarding this, I shared with you how I once had the Lord ask me— “Would you like to know what the muscles of your spirit man are?” Then He told me— “They are the fruit of the Spirit.” Essentially, what the Lord was telling me was that just as we recognize people from a distance by their physical physique, we recognize those who are both spiritual and unspiritual by their spiritual physique. In that case, it is by their fruit (their spiritual muscles or lack thereof) that we will know them. So, I said all of that to say, we don’t want to be like a lot of the gym rats out there that go to the gym to work out only their chest, shoulders, and arms and have these skinny little quads and calves. No, we need to develop the lower body just like we are (hopefully) looking to develop the upper body. And in this case, the lower body is the lower third of Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit (i.e. faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). Therefore, attention needs to be given to developing the lower third of our spiritual muscles just like we desire to be developed in the upper third fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, and peace. Once we do that, we will be a perfect man and “full of fruit.” Amen? So, we looked at the fruit of the gentleness and saw that it essentially describes someone who is gentle, meek or mild. Mild as opposed to sharp, right? Therefore, a person exhibiting this fruit of the Spirit is a person who is the opposite of being abrasive, severe, harsh, and arrogant. It is for this reason that I would describe it as “humility.” Now even though most translations use this word “gentleness,” many of us might better recognize the King James version’s translation of “meekness” here. And I believe that because of terms like this, many Christians do not esteem this particular virtue—because for some of us, we don’t see the terms “gentleness” and “meekness” as strengths. But what we need to understand is that “meekness” does not necessarily describe a weak person. No, meekness is not weakness. Rather, meekness is power under perfect control. You see, if I am mild & meek, it doesn’t mean I don’t have something to offer or don’t have an opinion; it just simply means that, in my love for you, I am willing to lay down my thoughts, opinion and viewpoint. Could I let you have it? Absolutely! But what does the selfless love of God do? It doesn’t do what it can do; it does what you are open to it doing for you. And we learned that this is exactly how our God is—He is meek and lowly in heart. He doesn’t force His will on any of us, but gives us a free choice. Therefore, this fruit of humility, meekness and gentleness is going to have to be chosen by us. No, as it is with all of the fruit of the Spirit, humility is not going to forced on us by God. We are taught that we must pursue and put on this virtue ourselves. Amen? We then looked at the last fruit of the Spirit Paul mentions—the fruit of self-control. We learned that the Greek word describes “inward ruling power.” In other words, like a democracy is literally “people ruling power,” a person exhibiting the fruit of self-control is a person who is “governing” themselves. So, “self-control” is the supernatural ability of the Holy Spirit to rule over our outward man by our inward man. But we learned that like you’ll hear said in the world regarding people shooting down the notion that the majority rules when it comes to certain decisions— “This is not a democracy!”—it is not with this particular fruit of the Spirit either! No, God the Father is not going to control you for you! Jesus is not going to make you produce His fruit either! And contrary to popular opinion, the Holy Spirit is also not going to make you bear this fruit of self-control! No, the only one that will control you is you! We went through several examples last week that prove that even the people who might say that they just cannot help doing this or doing that are mistaken. No, in almost every case, people do what they can get away with. In other words, they can control themselves because when it comes to consequences and rewards, they do it all the time for these things. No, the person who truly cannot control themselves is a demonized person. But for the majority of us who don’t have some other spirit controlling us, it is our own spirit that is in control. But again, this takes supernatural strength a lot of times. We need the Holy Spirit to help us control certain feelings, emotions, and flesh that rear their ugly heads. This is why we looked at Proverbs 16:32, which is a great verse describing the strength of a person who can control themselves: It says, “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” You see, like we said with “meekness,” people do not see self-restraint as a strength, but it truly is. A weak person lacks self-control—saying whatever comes up, venting all their feelings, and simply losing control. A strong person controls his or her words & actions—being even more mighty than someone who conquers an entire city. That shows us just how hard it is to “control self,” and why we need the power of the Holy Spirit to walk in this fruit. Perhaps this is the reason the apostle Paul listed “self-control” last—because it is the pinnacle of living a Spirit-controlled life. Church, you have probably heard me say before that we are walking in the fruit of the Spirit the most when we feel like smacking somebody and we don’t. That’s actually the fruit of self-control in operation. It is not an absence of “feelings” or a void of negative “emotions.” No, it is the supernatural assistance of the Holy Spirit within us to not feed those emotions and to not act on those feelings. This is self-control—the highest form of personal government one can possess. Amen? Now, this week, let’s move on and look at yet another fruit of the Spirit. In fact, this week, we will begin covering the first three fruit of the Spirit that Paul mentioned in Galatians 5:22, but I want us to cover these three individually—for we have much to say about the virtues of love, joy and peace. And the one that we will cover this week is not just any, old fruit of the Spirit. The one we will camp on today is the undisputable greatest fruit that we can produce in our lives—LOVE. DEFINING AGAPE Now first of all, we need to understand that there is a big difference between the way God uses the word “love” and the way the world uses the word “love.” This word “love” comes from the Greek word agape, which describes the God kind of love, again different than a worldly kind of love. You see, in the world, we are quick to loosely throw around the term “love.” We say I love Jesus, I love my wife, and I love my children the same way we say, I love pizza, I love chocolate, and I love coffee. But that is a cheap, generic, artificial love—because it is generally based on the performance of the thing we say we love. For example, what if the pizza man doesn’t use the best ingredients, or the pizza is cold, etc.? Then you are not going to say you love that pizza. What about the coffee? If it’s cold, watered down, or isn’t sweetened properly, you probably won’t say that you “love” that cup of coffee, right? My point is that this is worldly love because it is based on the condition of the thing we are loving. No, the God kind of love we are talking about here is a love that is not based on the behavior of the one being loved; it is solely based on the character of the one doing the loving. Therefore, agape is unconditional, limitless, and self-sacrificing. So, back to that example of loving coffee. If I truly did love coffee the way agape loves, then even if the coffee is bitter, bland, or just doesn’t taste the best, I will still drink from that cup. Amen? And why? Because it is not based on how good the coffee is; it is based on how good I am at loving unconditionally. Now the King James Version translates this God kind of love as “charity,” which I believe is a good description of agape because when one gives to a charity, there is nothing expected in return. It is understood that when we give to a “charity” that there are no strings attached and there is no reciprocation. Not to mention, “charities” are not designed to receive well wishes or good intentions. They receive tangible goods and monetary gifts. Likewise, agape is not just saying “I love you”; it is giving love. I believe John 3:16 describes it best by saying, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” It did not say that God so loved the world that He said to it, “I love you so, so much.” Nor did it say, “…that He gave it big hug.” No, He so agape’d us that He gave something (rather, Someone) to us and for us! And He did not just give anything; He gave His very best. Amen! So, we need to understand that this fruit of love is not to be cheapened by comparing it to this world’s idea of love. No, agape is not a love that is determined by the person being loved; it is only determined by both the nature and actions of the one doing the loving. Amen. WHY LOVE IS FIRST But again, I want you to notice that agape is listed first in Paul’s list of the Fruit of the Spirit. Now I believe there are several reasons that love is mentioned first in Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit: For one, I believe Paul put love first because it is the BEST! But why is it best? Well, for one, it is the core-nature and characteristic of God Himself. We are told in First John 4:8 that “God is love.” This is not saying that God has love to give. No, God is love! And we know that God has the preeminence, right? Yes, He is the greatest, the most glorious, the highest. Yes, God is the top of the food-chain! So, if God is love, then guess what? Love is the top of the “fruit-chain” too! Love is the highest and He is the best! Amen? I believe another reason love is listed first is because it is supposed to be one of those first fruits produced in a believer’s life. You know, we have Scriptures that indicate that our love for others is one of the ways that we know we have passed from death unto life (see First John 3:14). Therefore, love is what a born-again believer possesses—thus, love is not only the greatest; it is the first. Now does that phrase—"love is the greatest”—sound familiar? It should. It’s located in First Corinthians chapter 13: In First Corinthians 13:13, the Apostle Paul says that now abides faith, hope and love, these three. But the greatest of these is love. And why is love the greatest? As we’ve seen, it is because it is what God is, but it is also because love is the only one of these three remaining virtues that we begin to walk in now and will continue to walk in throughout eternity. We won’t need faith when we are looking at Him face to face. We won’t need hope when we are experiencing the fulfillment of His promises in that Great Day. But love will always be practiced—from now throughout all eternity! Amen. But, not only is love simply the greatest; Jesus told us that it is also the greatest of all the commandments. In Matthew 22:36-40, we read the story of how the Pharisees asked Jesus what the greatest commandment in the law was. And Jesus responded by saying, first, by loving the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, and mind (Mark & Luke’s account add the word “strength”). But Jesus went on to say that the second greatest commandment is “like it”—to love your neighbor as yourself. Why did Jesus say it is like that? Why did he say loving our neighbor as ourselves is “like” loving God? It is because loving others is actually “like” loving God. Jesus revealed to us how this is so when he said that whatever we do to the least of these, we have done it unto Him (see Matthew 25:40). So, we really cannot separate loving God from loving people—because God takes personally how we love others. But my point is, loving God and loving our neighbor is considered the greatest commandment in all of the law. The apostle Paul reveals to us that love is actually the fulfillment of all the law (see Romans 13:10). So, if I am truly loving God and loving others, then I am fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law. Therefore, love is the greatest thing you and I can produce in our lives. THE NEW COMMANDMENT But when Jesus came to show us God’s heart and His love for us, He introduced a new commandment to us. It is called the new commandment of love because the old commandment of love told us to love our neighbor as ourselves. This new commandment Jesus introduced is a little different. In John 13:34-35, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” So, can you see why it is so important for us to love one another? Jesus said here that this is how all will know that we are His disciples—by the love we have for one another. Now notice that Jesus said here that this was a new commandment that He was giving them. He didn’t say a new “suggestion” or a new “recommendation;” He said a new commandment— showing us that this is not just a good idea; it is a charge and an order. Now again, loving others was not new in the sense that they did not have this commandment under the Old Covenant. We just saw in Matthew 22:37-40 that loving our neighbor as ourselves was one of the greatest two commandments from the Old Testament along with loving God. On top of that, you see threaded throughout the prophets, God’s constant emphasis placed on loving people—executing righteousness and justice and showing mercy towards others. The apostle John amplifies this more in his first epistle when he said, “Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.” (First John 2:7) In other words, the love command was written in the beginning in the Old Covenant. So, this instruction to love one another was not new in the sense that they did not know its importance and significance. But as the Apostle John goes on to say in the next verse— “Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (verse 8). So, loving one another as Christ has loved us is the new and better commandment, even though loving our neighbor was written long before. It was a new standard of love, not necessarily a new idea. So, loving their neighbor was not new to them, but loving one another as He had loved them was certainly new and a much higher standard of love. Amen! BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US But in order for you and I to obey this new commandment of love, we have to first experience His love for us because Jesus said, “as I have loved you.” So, before we move any further into talking about the love we need to be producing in our lives, we need to know and believe the love that the Lord has for us. In First John 4:19 we are taught that we love (the word “Him” was not in all of the Greek texts. So, let’s leave it out and see what this verse means without it) because He first loved us. So, how are we going to be able to love God and love God’s people if He hasn’t first loved us? We won’t and we can’t. Sure, He loves us all already, but if we have tasted His goodness, experienced His love and seen His grace, we will have a major uphill battle to loving the brethren. Why? Because we cannot give away what we have not first received. So, when we see His love for us and receive it, then we have the standard by which we are to love others with. Amen? And that is the gist of what Jesus was saying here in John 13:34—that we are to specifically love one another “as I have loved you.” So how can we love one another as He has loved us if we have not experienced that love for us first? In other words, how can we fulfill this commandment if we haven’t experienced this love personally? We can’t. So, we can conclude that the best way to produce this fruit of love in our life is to first obviously have had the Holy Spirit place it in our spirit man, and secondly, to believe, know, and receive God’s love for us. LOVE IS SPIRITUAL But now, I want us to move further into this fruit of the Spirit of love by talking about how we produce it in our lives since we have already received it. So, let’s look back at John 13:34 and notice again what this Scripture says— “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Now you heard me say earlier that this is not the new suggestion or the new ideal. No, this is the new commandment of the New Covenant! So, I believe the fact that Jesus called this a “commandment” is a great place to start in discovering how we produce the fruit of love. Why? It is because a commandment does not necessarily involve emotions or feelings. In other words, a command is something we do whether we feel like it or not. You see, a “command” is most commonly defined as “to give someone an order.” A common usage of this is with a commanding officer, like in the military, giving orders to those under himself. Now those of you who have served in the military would agree to this point—but more times than not, when you were given orders to do something, you didn’t feel like doing what they told you to do. Particularly, when you were in basic training and those drill sergeants gave you orders like “drop and give me twenty” or “go run 5 miles!”, nothing in your flesh or your soul wanted to do it. But guess what? You did it anyway! And why? Because you were given orders by your authorities. One very important lesson I have learned in this regard is that when it comes to submitting to your authorities, you are not submitting when your authority figures tell you to do something that you like or agree with and then you do it. No, you only truly submit to your authorities when they tell you to do something, you don’t agree with it or you dislike what they are telling you to do, and you do it anyway. This is when true submission to authority occurs. So, when it comes to this new “commandment” of loving one another, it has nothing to do with what we feel, what we think or what we want; it all has to do with simply following orders. Love is the orders from headquarters! Again, as a general rule, the world believes that love is a feeling. They’ll use the terminology like “I just fell in love with them” or “I just fell out of love”—indicating that love is a feeling and not a decision. But this is wrong! What do they say when they “fall out of love?” “I just don’t feel for you the way I used to feel about you.” This, again, indicates that love is a feeling or an emotion. No! When someone says they have fallen out of love with someone, really what they are saying is that they have “fallen out of feelings.” It is actually impossible to “fall out of” true love. Why? Because love is an act of your will! It is not a feeling! No, real love never ENDS (First Corinthians 13:8)! It changes not! Church, agape is a spiritual thing! Therefore, it is eternal and unchanging! For aren’t we taught that God is Spirit (John 4:24)? And we are also taught that God is love, right (First John 4:8)? So, this means that Love is a spiritual thing! You know, we are a spirit too. We are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body, and it is vital that we understand what the Lord accomplished in us through the new birth. Again, Galatians 5:22-23 teaches us that the fruit of the Spirit begins with love and includes joy, peace etc. And we have also seen that either way you look at it, this fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life is already in us. So, whether or not you believe that these fruit are the fruit of our reborn spirit or the fruit of the Holy Spirit, either way, this means we already have this fruit within us. Amen? Yes, I already have love in my heart for in Romans 5:5, the Apostle Paul says that the love of God has already been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Amen! So, my point is that love is already in there! We are not trying to get more love from the outside in; we are simply working out our salvation to get more love from the inside out! Amen! But so many have a hard time believing this because they feel that they do not have love because they don’t “feel” love. In other words, because they don’t have the emotions of love and there is selfishness, anger, etc. in there, they believe that they are void of love. But this is when we must believe what the Word says more than what our feelings and our heads are telling us. Amen! And, as it is with everything spiritual in nature such as love, we are not led by our feelings: For example, this is why I am big proponent in acting on the joy that we have inside of us. We can do this by laughing at our circumstances and the devil by faith. It doesn’t have anything to do with the way we feel. But since joy too is a fruit of the Spirit, do we just sit there and cater to our feelings saying, “Well, I don’t feel like laughing right now.” We wouldn’t say that— “Well, I don’t feel like reading my Bible anymore” and then just cater to that, would we? No, we have enough sense to know that is wrong. Nor would we believe that because we don’t feel like praising God that we evidently do not need to press through those feelings and cater to our flesh. No, if we know we are to act on things like this whether we feel like it or not, why would walking in any of the fruit of the Spirit be done any differently? No, we laugh by faith because joy is a fruit of the Spirit. And we love by faith as well! Saints, what I am saying is—do not wait until you feel like operating in these spiritual things before you practice them. Know that they are fruits of the spirit and spiritual things are not based on feelings. Now the reason I bring this out is because I have been around long enough to see that most believers that even desire to grow in love are waiting for the feelings and emotions of this love for others to come all over them. In other words, they are waiting to feel like loving people before they actually act on this commandment. Saints, I’m here to tell you that if you are waiting for all of these “lovey dovey” emotions to come all over you and overtake you, you are going to be waiting a long time! As you have likely heard me say before, I believe you are walking in love the most when you feel like strangling somebody, but as an act of your will, you decide to bless them instead. In other words, love is being exercised the most when our feelings are completely contrary but we act on the decision to love. Amen! As I have already said, love is a fruit of the Spirit—meaning, it is spiritual in nature. It’s not something that is tied into our flesh or our soul. Therefore, it doesn’t involve our feelings (a product of the flesh) or our emotions (a product of the soul). Love is a spiritual thing—meaning, it is an action that comes as a result of our will. Saints, if we are going to be a “spiritual” man or woman, we are going to have to learn to live out of the part of us that is walking by faith (i.e. the spirit) and not yield to the part of us that is weak by feelings (i.e. the flesh). Yes, being spiritual is a decision! It's an action—an act of our will (for the spirit is willing). It is not carnal to have feelings and emotions; it is carnal to act on those feelings and emotions; to act on what we know is true and, by faith, will to do those things, is spiritual. Let me give you a good Scriptural example of this: In Titus 2:3-4, the Apostle Paul told Pastor Titus that the older women were to, among other things, admonish the young women to love their husbands and to love their children. So, were these older women to admonish the younger women to “feel” more like loving their husbands and their children? No! You do not admonish someone to have certain emotions and feelings. What these older women were being admonished to do was to teach the younger women how to love their husbands and children—which, of course, would be actions and deeds of love. Amen! You see, love is more of an action than it is an emotion. And if we can be taught how to love, then we should know that it is an act of our own volition. If it were an emotion, then it would be out of our control because we are always going to have ups and downs in our emotions. But since love is a commandment, we know that it is in our control because the Lord would not have told us to do something that it wasn’t in our control to do. Amen! Yes, church, spirituality is having command over our feelings and emotions and learning to do things simply because it is what we are told to do or it is simply the right thing to do. Church, we must have resolve and integrity—doing what is right simply because it is right and because it is a command. We should need no other reason to love one another than this! FREELY FORGIVE I believe a great example of what I am talking about is the subject of “forgiveness”: If you look up these words “forgiving and forgave,” you will notice something very significant about forgiveness: The word “forgive” comes from the Greek word charis which is commonly translated “grace.” Now the word “grace” means to give something freely, with no strings attached. If you are giving someone “grace,” you are giving them something they don’t necessarily deserve nor have they done anything to earn it. Therefore, a common definition for “forgiveness” when considering the word “grace” is to freely forgive. Now why do I make this point? It is because oftentimes the mentality that people have which causes them to have a harder time forgiving people is that the person that offended them doesn’t deserve to be forgiven—maybe they haven’t even been repentant and asked for forgiveness. Now I would venture to say that most of us, if the person that hurt us came to us and said something to the effect of— “You know, I was wrong. I am so sorry. Please forgive me” that we would forgive them. But what makes forgiveness a little more difficult is when the person who hurt us doesn’t show any signs of being repentant and no remorse for what they did—which is, unfortunately, what happens most of the time. But that is when this true meaning of forgiveness becomes so important—because now I know I am called to forgive freely whether I feel they deserve it or not. I am “for-giving”—that is, I am giving them grace in advance of them deserving it or asking for it--like God loved us when we were still ungodly sinners. But this goes in line with what we have been talking about this week—because how many of you know that like love, forgiveness is a commandment! It’s expected of us! It is our duty! Therefore, feelings are not expected to follow obeying commandments. Amen? In Luke 17:1-5, we have a Scripture that reiterates this point: In the beginning of Luke chapter 17, Jesus begins to talk to His disciples about offenses and how we must do whatever is in our power not to cause others to stumble (verses 1-2). Then He tells His disciples to take heed to themselves that they live a life of forgiveness no matter how many times someone sins against them (verses 3-4). Well, it is interesting to note the reaction that this call to forgiveness generated in His disciples: In verse 5 we are told— “And the apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’” What does “increasing our faith” have to do with forgiveness? In other words, why would they ask the Lord to increase their faith immediately after He tells them to keep forgiving that sinning brother who keeps sinning against them? Apparently, it is because we forgive by faith. In other words, if we are called to raise our standard of forgiving one another, then we also need an increase of faith to forgive them by. You see, saints, we don’t forgive because we feel like forgiving or even because we feel like we have forgiven; we forgive, not because we feel like forgiving, but because of our faith in God and through our faith in God. You know, I’ve dealt with people who think they have not forgiven because they have all of the feelings and emotions that scream on the inside of them telling them that they hate that person. But those thoughts and emotions are not necessarily proof that you haven’t forgiven them. You see, people just want to feel like they’ve forgiven, but that it is not what a spiritual person does. A person who has decided to walk in the spirit does not go by how they feel; they are only moved by their faith. And because they have made the choice to forgive by faith, that is all they need. As it is with receiving anything from God, they don’t need the feelings to confirm it. And this call to forgive by faith is reiterated by the Lord in verses 7-10: In this lesson, Jesus gives us the example of a servant who, when he comes in from his day’s work, is not afforded the opportunity to sit down and eat, but first must serve his master and then he can serve himself. Jesus then gives the point of this story that this servant is not rewarded nor even thanked for serving his master because he simply did what was his duty to do. The point that Jesus was making by giving this example in context is that we don’t forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ because we feel like it or because of any benefit that we get out of it. No, our primary motivation for forgiving (next to loving God and loving the person) is because it is simply our duty as Christians! We do it because it is the right thing to do! Amen! And this is what this fruit of love does—it gives by faith and it forgives by faith. Faith works by love, and I would add that love works by faith too (see Galatians 5:6). This is what a truly spiritual person does—produces this fruit of love not by necessarily having loving feelings, but by producing loving actions. Amen! Now the Holy Spirit is certainly there to help us produce this fruit of love. He will do this by inspiring the actions, by putting the compassion in your heart, but like Jesus, we must then be moved with that compassion. HUNTING LOVE So, what I want to encourage you with is that this love is not something that is going to one day just fall on us like an apple out of tree. It is something that, although it is already on the inside of us, it must be aggressively pursued to see its fruit in your life. In other words, it must become your goal and aim and then you endeavor to walk in it because it is a command from our Lord Jesus Christ. After Paul teaches us all about love in First Corinthians chapter 13—how doing things not motivated by love is profitless, what love looks like and how love is the greatest cardinal of Christianity—he says in First Corinthians 14:1that we are to “Pursue love!” The word “pursue” comes from the Greek word diakeo which describes to willfully, forcefully and aggressively pursue. It was actually a hunting term that illustrates how the love walk is something that must be pursued like a hunter pursues his or her prey. For example, these guys that just love to go deer hunting, what do they do? Well, as deer season is approaching, I’ve heard how they will sit out on their front porch and just be staring out into the distance. What they are doing is they are meditating and predetermining what they are going to do when deer season starts. Then on the days they go hunting, they will get up at the crack of dawn to go get set up and ready. In short, some spend countless hours preparing, premeditating and doing the actual hunting. That is how we should pursue love—like these avid deer hunters are hunting deer. I just love the Message Bible’s translation of First Corinthians 14:1: It says, “Go after a life of love as if your life depends on it—because it does!” Amen! Saints, if we want to experience the life of God to where joy, peace, power etc. are the fruits we see in our lives, it all depends on finding and fulfilling the love of God in our lives! Friends, this is where the life of God is; it is found in the love of God! Amen! So aggressively pursue it! Make it your aim! For when you catch it, it will catch you! Amen! Now let me end by saying that we obviously could spend months talking about this subject of love, as agape is such a vast subject being God’s core nature. But I do want to let you know that I did teach on this extensively back in 2016 here at HPC in a series entitled “How to Love One Another.” So, you can either go back in our archives on our website and listen to this 9-part series that I did June thru September of 2016 or you can order the CDs/DVDs. I also have my notes available if you would like them. What I simply want us all to do is pursue it with all of your heart. Studying the love walk and keeping it before us is such an important part of the Christian walk. Again, pursue it and it will fill your branches. Amen! |
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