Part 2 - Love Series

The Fruit of the Spirit

Part 2 – Love

Rev. Bruce A. Shields

First Baptist Church Tawas City Michigan

www.TawasBaptist.org

WELCOME

INTRODUCTION

We began our series last week on ‘The Fruit of the Spirit’.

We talked about how we receive the Spirit from Jesus when we receive Salvation, but that there is more to receiving the power of the Holy Spirit.

The promise of the Father, the power from on high.

We saw in the scriptures how Jesus breathed on the Disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit, thus making them a NEW creation because of their Salvation and the work of the Cross.

The same thing happened in Genesis when God breathed life into the first man, when we receive Christ we are made new.

Jesus then told the Disciples to go into Jerusalem and wait, He would then return to the Father in Heaven and send the promise of the Father, the power from on high, the Holy Spirit to clothe or cover them, which in turn, would enable them for the calling and great commission Jesus had just given to them.

This is where we receive our Spiritual Gifts, our Whole Armor of God, and when we are clothed in God’s Spirit, we spontaneously produce the fruits of God’s Spirit.

These fruits are not ours, or anything that we have done or can do, but the natural result of being in the presence of God’s Holy Spirit.

Remember, we are ambassadors for God and His kingdom.

So we put on our royal garb of the Holy Spirit, God’s Holy clothing.

The fruit bearing witness to the presence of God’s Holy Spirit within us.

We represent the coming age and our Lord and King, Jesus Christ.

We are the only Bible some people will ever experience in their lives.

So we need to be diligent in our daily witness.

We are heirs of a Kingdom where it is God’s will that ALL are received by Him who sent us.

The scriptures tell us plainly, that it is God’s will that ALL are saved and come to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus was loud and clear when He gave us, His body here on earth, the commission to go out into all the world making disciples, teaching them to obey everything He taught, and baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes I wonder if the Church is too preoccupied with programs, events, committees and the like, neglecting our Lords instruction.

These things can be good aids or tools, but not at the expense of our Lords instructions, to go and make disciples.

Our Holy garment, the covering given to us by God, His Holy Spirit, will naturally produce fruit in your life, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.

These things will be present in your life when you are covered with the Holy Spirit.

These are naturally occurring.

If they are not present in your life, there is one of two things happening because God’s Holy Spirit does not fail.

You either do not have the Holy Spirit, or you have quenched it’s fruit in your life by following your sinful flesh instead of, as the scriptures say, keeping in step with the Spirit.

We have to submit ourselves, surrendering our control daily to God.

In doing this, we crucify our flesh, and yield ourselves to God’s will in our lives.

When we do that, God’s will is done in our lives, we keep in step with the Holy Spirit, and fruit will be produced in abundance!

Today we will be looking at the first Fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-25, which is Love.

I would also like to remind you that the scriptures we read last week tell us that our flesh is in contradiction to our spirit, and our spirit in contradiction to our flesh.

So while we look at the differing fruits of the Spirit, we should also keep in mind its contrast, the fruit of our flesh, the contrast to Love being that of hate.

We all produce fruit in our lives, some from the Spirit, and some from the flesh.

SCRIPTURE READING

John 13:34 & 35 (Jesus Speaking to the Disciples)

34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT & UNDERSTANDING

I. A new command I give you: Love one another.

The word ‘love’ used here is agapao in the literal translation which comes from the word ‘agan’ which means much or a lot. Agapao means to love someone in a social or moral sense.