The Fruit of Love

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Happy Sunday.

Yeah, I look better this week, don't I?

Yeah.

Well, he's he's gonna join me in something just a moment, but I do want to just address before we get into the message this morning a prayer need.

And again, I know that you know this as a church, but we as a church, as a nation, we stand with Israel.

And we want your church to be in prayer right now.

And uh, yeah, we can clap for that.

It's God's chosen people.

And I'm thankful for a presidency who would stand behind protecting that long history.

So be in prayer, and I want to, as a church family, uh implore you to be that way, and uh we will always stand in that gap.

So, anyways, as we start this fruitful series, um I was going through this, and Weston one day we're just talking about the fruit of the spirit, and he went bam, rattled them off.

So I don't know if you guys, we may take the challenge outside in the lobby later, but I want to know if any one of you can beat Weston and a fruit of the spirit off.

So, Weston, if you would tell us what are the fruit of the spirit.

Love, joy.

Hang on, let's see.

He was so fast the mic went off on him.

We'll try again.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, currency, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Any takers?

That was good.

Not only that, but Weston uh Weston's Weston's very funny, okay?

In my house, he is the house comedian, and so Weston prepared a little something.

What do you call an apple that plays the trumpet?

Anybody?

I don't know what you call it.

A tootie fruity.

That's good.

That's good.

What else you got?

Why were the apple and the orange alone?

Anybody now?

Because the banana split.

That's good.

That's good.

These are high grade dad jokes.

Here we go.

I think you got another one.

What happens when you sit on a grape?

What do you got?

It gives a little wine.

That's not very baptistic of you to be bringing that up.

We'll move on from that.

What you got one more?

What is a vampire's favorite fruit?

I don't know.

Y'all?

What you got?

Nectarine.

Mmm.

Mmm.

You head this way.

Give this guy to Mr.

Mangs.

Over here, Weston.

Well, thank you, Weston.

Now you can see uh your brother and sister rolling their eyes at you instead of me this week.

And I appreciate that.

And they were.

Well, turn your Bibles this morning two places.

Galatians chapter 5, and then 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

Fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I asked the serve team this morning, is love a fruit of the Spirit or is it a gift?

It's kind of a trick question.

Because in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, it says, most of the headings in your Bible will say the greatest gift.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

As you look at gifts, they'll say hospitality or administration or teaching, preaching, and it's not mentioned in those lists, but in 1 Corinthians 13, it goes on, and we're going to explore that.

But in the fruit of the Spirit, we see it listed as the first fruit.

So, what I would say to that is this about your own Christianity.

The thermostat of Christianity is fruit.

The Bible says, by their fruit will you know them.

And so if anybody's ever doubting their salvation or having doubts, I ask them to do a fruit examination.

Do you examine fruit?

I can't look at you and judge the intent of your heart.

God judges the intent of your heart.

But it's a thermostat for Christianity, your fruit.

So we're going to be exploring for the next several weeks that fruit of the Spirit.

Would you join me this morning in prayer?

Father, we love you and are so thankful, God, to meet together this morning in your church.

Lord, this is your body, your people.

And God, we pray that you would help us to understand the mysteries of your word.

Help us to understand, God, how we can live the most fruitful Christian lives.

Lord, help us to be walking in the spirit and not in the flesh.

And just be full of you.

God, I believe this body of people will be joyful and peaceful and as happy as possible walking with you.

And so, God, I pray that you would teach us these next few weeks how to do that.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I want you to look there at Galatians chapter 5, and then we'll go back to 1 Corinthians.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

But Galatians 5, 16, it says, I say then, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

For the flesh lust against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.

And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

But if you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law.

And then it lists this list of all the works of the flesh.

Now the works of the flesh are evident.

They are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelies, and the like, of which I tell you before, just as I told you in time past, those who practice those things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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

And so we see the fruit of the spirit, and it says that the byproduct of my walking in the spirit is fruit.

Okay?

I want you to hold on to that.

The byproduct of walking in the flesh, where all of those lists of evil doings.

And so we're going to hold on to those things.

First point this morning I want you to see.

We're going back to 1 Corinthians, and it is 1 Corinthians chapter 13, the love chapter, the marriage chapter, is actually a gift rebuke chapter.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

But it is a chapter I think will uncover what love really means and how to have that fruit in our life.

So, first point this morning is gifts are substantial, but love is supreme.

Gifts are substantial, but love is supreme.

I want you to look at verses 1 through 3.

It says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mystery and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that my faith it can remove mountains, but have not love, I'm nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

I want you to know today that the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to us are a conduct, uh conduit of the Holy Spirit, and therefore a manifestation of Jesus Christ to the world.

They're important.

But hear this: the mark of a spiritual person is not a spiritual gift.

A spiritual baby is given a gift.

As soon as you come to know Christ and the Holy Spirit is within you, you have a gift of the Spirit.

It's not a marker of a spiritual person.

The marker of a spiritual person is fruitfulness.

It's how those gifts are used and what becomes of those gifts.

And the greatest marker, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, of any fruit is love.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

Letter A.

Love is fruitful, or gifts are futile.

I got Ben back here.

Ben's gonna help me as I share this next little section.

And so as you look at love as fruitful, or gifts are futile.

Loveless gifts are noise.

Are you back there, Ben?

You in the cabin?

He's gonna give us some noise.

You know, you can sing without love.

You can serve the children without love.

You can work with teenagers and lose your love, and it's just an always test.

You can just do it and exhaust things.

And if you divide your lowest and it's just the dollar, it's exhausting always tests.

Why?

Isn't it annoying?

Thank you, Ben.

Y'all give Ben a hand.

I like a I like a drummer that can play in the cabin.

By the way, doesn't the stage look great?

Man, we're ready for some vacation Bible school.

We'll give commercials about that later, but thank you, Chessa and Sarah and Heather.

There was a team of people here helping last night to make this look cool.

And I said about 10 o'clock I'm gonna remind Benji.

We'll see what happens when he gets here in the morning with the band.

Anyhow.

Loveless gifts or noise.

There's a book called The Flying Circus of Physics, and it explains squealing chalk on a chalkboard.

Everybody hates that, right?

And it says that it results from something called stick and slip.

When the writer improperly holds chalk, it suddenly slips and it produces that squeal that nobody can hardly stand.

Did you hear what it said?

An improperly held gift produces noise, a clanging symbol.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, and it says, love is more important than preaching.

What are you saying?

Love is more important than knowledge.

Love is more important than great faith.

Love is more important than giving.

He says love is more important than being a martyr.

Love.

Matthew 5 22, it's this scripture about getting right with somebody.

And it says, if you have aught with your neighbor, go therefore, get the thing right with the person and leave your gift.

It says, leave your gift.

Don't worry about your gift.

It says, Don't worship without love.

Don't serve without love.

Don't preach without love.

It says, leave your gift and go get things right because that is love.

Otherwise, it's noise without love.

Before you do any of those things, you must love.

You know, you can serve without love.

But you can't be fruitful without love.

I'm going to say that again.

You can come and serve today.

You can serve in church.

You can serve this week.

Summerama, vacation, Bible, school, all week long, and it be without love.

But you cannot be fruitful without love.

Letter B is this.

Love is demanded for gifts to make a difference.

Verse 2 and 3, again, it says, And though I have the gift of prophecy, knowledge, all mysteries, I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and though I bestow all my goods, body to be burned.

But have not love.

There is no profit.

In John 13, 34, we're given a love command.

I want you to go ahead and turn now.

Let's look at this love command.

John chapter 13.

John 13 · chapter mention

It says, A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also may love one another.

By this all will know that you're my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Love is a command, and so if something is a command, therefore for you and me, that makes it a decision.

Because it's commandable, it's not a feeling.

Biblical love is a decision to compassionately seek and agape a sacrifice for others.

And verse 35, it says, and by this all men will know that you're my disciples by your love.

Loving one another.

The effect of loving one another is you become the major advertisement for Jesus Christ to the world.

By loving each other.

When people come on this campus and they see this body working together, they see people and they come maybe for the first time, they walk through and they see everyone loving one another, you become the major advertisement piece for Jesus Christ to the world.

Y'all know about advertisement, right?

You know?

We have all but determined this thing never stops listening to us.

Everything you've clicked, everything you've viewed, everything that you say all of a sudden comes back to you, right?

And I'm down a rabbit hole looking at Red Sox hats because it heard me talking about the socks.

And all of a sudden I'm like inches away from clicking, and I'm like, oh yeah, my treasurer likes to save money.

I better not.

You know, my wife.

And so it listens to us.

But do you know that you, the walk that you walk, the walking in the spirit or lack thereof, is the greatest advertisement, the great summation of all the things that you love?

You're an advertisement with your mouth, with your speech, with your actions of all that you love.

Love is a decision.

Do you love Jesus?

Do you love your neighbor?

Do you love your church?

Not just your group in church, your church.

Do you love your spouse?

Do you love your children?

Do you love people who frustrate you?

Now, wait a minute, Pastor.

You're starting to frustrate me right now.

Do you love your enemy?

Hear me.

What is harder than that?

Think about it.

The things that you speak through the week.

What is harder than loving your enemy?

Well, it says if you walk in the spirit, that you can even love the person who you know is mean to you.

The person who is rude.

The person who does not seem to like you.

If I have not love, I'm fruitless.

If you're in your marriage without love, what is that?

There's no love, there's no intimacy.

What is your marriage?

You've got a roommate.

Christianity without love is mute.

We've muted the volume of how this speaks to the world.

The advertisement to the world is now on mute without love.

And so love demanded for gifts to make a difference.

Second point this morning is this gifts are for service, love is for sacrifice.

Look at verse 4 through 7.

It says, love suffers long and is kind.

Love does not envy, love does not parade itself, it's not puffed up.

Love does not behave rudely.

It does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth.

Hear this bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

Letter A, the call to love is a call to die.

It's a call to die.

To love people in this way, to love my enemy, to love, even though sometimes it may hurt me and frustrate me, is a call to die.

In order to do that, I have to let this person, this flesh, this thing that I deal with every day, be dissuaded.

It has to be to the side.

It has to, as Paul said, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, 31.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

He said, I die daily.

In Galatians 2, 20 said, For I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.

And so I have to die to that flesh in order to love like that.

And that's hard.

Did you hear what it said in verse 4?

It said, Love suffers long.

And that's not real encouraging, is it?

Love suffers long.

There's another scripture that says that we forbear one another in love.

I can deal with this word forbear.

Right?

Some people here, you forbear people because you love them.

Anybody here have children?

You understand forbearance.

Right?

You forbear one another in love.

Because love is commandable, you can forbear.

There was a youth pastor who invited me to something called the 28-hour famine.

Chris had invited me, and I had asked Chris to come to different things through the years, and he came and he brought his group.

Chris was Church of Christ, but that didn't matter to me.

I just thought Chris had invited me, and I had invited him, and I felt like, man, I gotta go.

But I'm gonna tell you, 28-hour famine was not a false advertisement.

I didn't pay attention to the name.

I just thought, okay, I'll get a group of kids together and we'll go to the 20 hour, eight-hour famine.

This sounds cool.

It really doesn't sound cool.

Think about it.

It literally was what he said it was, but he did what a Church of Christ guy knew what he had to do to get a Baptist guy over there.

He said, Hey Rick, you can preach.

I was like, I'm in.

I'll come preach.

28-hour famine, it's gonna be awesome.

I'm preaching.

Okay?

And I got these guys together and I go over to this thing, and it literally was what it said it was.

I came and I preached, and I was pumped, that was done, and then they're like, here's your quarters.

Like we had what amounts to a janitor's closet, and I had 11 of my teen boys with me, and I'm looking at it.

There's not a bed, and there's no plan, there was no real plan.

They could run out of this room, and all and they started to go berserk after like three hours, right?

And they're in and out of this room, they're going and messing with other kids, and there was nothing planned, no activity.

Have you ever been with teenagers with no planned activity?

That's anarchy, okay?

It's not smart.

And so they're in and out, and and we have metal chairs.

That's what I'm laying on.

I'm laying sideways on a metal chair.

We get done all of that evening.

We get up early in the morning, we go and wash cars, we go to people's houses and and and help with their yards, and it's 140 degrees out.

It's the hottest.

I promise it was so hot.

We finish all this.

And by the way, no food.

It was a 28-hour famine.

There was no food.

You were not to eat.

So, all these teen boys, right, they're ravenous, right?

I am ravenous, and we get done all these projects, we've sweated, and we get back, and they're gonna have a celebration at the end of the 28-hour famine, and we're gonna eat.

And here comes this Church of Christ 104-year-old man.

And he walks in and he's got these three pans of stoffer's lasagna.

That's exactly how I felt.

I was like, and I looked at him and I was like, ooh, those look terrible.

And then I ate four pieces.

I'm like, this is disgusting.

Give me another piece.

I've been eating for 28 hours, right?

And and I got thinking through that, and it's funny with teenagers.

Teenagers remember the worst of times way better than the best of times.

And so all of a sudden, every couple of months, a teenager would say to me, Hey, Pastor Rick, you remember 28-hour famine?

And I'm like, they loved it.

They loved that terrible time.

And they loved to talk to me.

You remember how bad it was?

I'm like, yes, I remember every minute of it.

I will never, ever sign up to go again.

But I got thinking about why it was to be a part of that.

I did that because I love them.

I did that because I loved Christ.

I did that because I love the Lord.

Love suffers long.

It's not something you feel, it's something that you do.

Walking in the spirit, hear me.

Walking in the spirit allows me or stops me.

It allows me to make choices many times that my flesh would absolutely not make.

Y'all hear me?

And it stops me lots of times from making a choice that my flesh wants to make, that my Mouth wants to make the things in my mind want to say.

Walking in the spirit says, Oh, not that one.

You know why?

Because that ain't love.

That ain't love right there.

Walking in the spirit.

And I'm able to forbear and do things that in myself just aren't there.

But I'm walking in the spirit and trying.

Look back there, 1 Corinthians 13, verse 5.

1 Corinthians 13:5

It says, love does not behave rudely, doesn't seek its own, it's not provoke, thinks no evil.

Does not seek its own and is not rude.

Another verse that says it does not assist, insist on its own way.

Man, how many days do I have to go back and think, was I rude?

Love, it says, does not behave rude.

And you know what's hard?

Married people, the longer you're married, the easier it gets to be rude.

It's like you don't even think about it.

Right?

It should be the opposite.

Like you get more fruitful, you become more loving, you become more protective.

But for some people, you take more for granted.

And you let your words slip because you just get comfortable.

Love does not behave rudely.

That ain't love.

I found this little story about Winston Churchill.

A couple of them.

Apparently, he was kind of a rude guy.

Lady Astor, the first woman to sit as Member of Parliament, on one occasion, said to Winston Churchill, Winston, you're drunk.

And Winston Churchill replied, Madam, you are ugly.

But in the morning I shall be sober.

Another lady, her name was Bessie Braddock, nicknamed Battling Bessie, she once said to Churchill, Mr.

Churchill, if you were my husband, I'd put poison in your tea.

And Winston Churchill said, Madam, if I were your husband, I'd drink it.

Rude.

You ever notice sometimes people who have been rude seem to brag about it?

You ever heard that?

Like I gave them a piece of my mind.

I will not accept that kind of service when I go out.

I told them, well, what you told them was you're kind of mean.

Right?

That's how I have to be to get things done.

I looked this up on the internet this week, so it must be true.

Markers of rude behavior.

If you cut others off constantly when they're talking, that's rude.

If you're dismissive or belittling to others' feelings, that's rude.

If you refuse to say the S word, sorry.

That's rude.

If you come into a place and you don't say hello or don't acknowledge people, right?

That's rude.

I know every one of you has been in a grocery store and you've seen somebody and took off.

I know you have.

I know you have.

Some of you it was me.

I wanted to say hi, that's all.

I wasn't gonna keep you.

That's all.

I'll tell you this.

If you've ever had a problem with somebody, they don't want to face you out in a public.

You know, something's there.

Showing up late.

Rude.

You know what love does?

Love says please.

Love says thank you.

It doesn't, it's not rude, it's not ungrateful.

Love opens doors.

Love lets someone go.

It says love does not seek its own.

Letter B.

The call to love is a call to deference.

Deference.

It says it does not behave rude, does not seek its own, is not provoke, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, rejoices in truth, bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things.

Deference, what does that mean, Pastor?

Deferring our appetite for our accolades.

You see, the flesh desires to sin and the flesh wants power.

But it says love contrives no evil against somebody else.

It suspects no evil.

It hopes for the best in somebody who maybe has done evil.

It continues to go back into its hope container and gathers more hope.

Don't you want somebody to wish the best?

Don't you wish everybody treated you like grandma did?

When you did wrong, grandma was ready to forgive it and move on and wipe you up and make it better.

Don't you wish everyone had that kind of mentality?

You see, but someone does us wrong and what do we do?

We mark that in the book.

Okay.

That's one.

They only get two.

Deferring our appetite for who we are, for what we need.

Deferring our flesh.

It says, love contrives no evil.

How often do you find yourself in a conversation about somebody talking about their wrong?

Bible has a biblical term for it.

It's called a gossip.

Alright?

A gossip.

A gossip seeks to make someone look bad.

They may cover it with soft, sweet, buttery words, but seeks at the heart of it to make someone look bad.

Hoping maybe to make themselves look good.

Oh, pray for them.

Okay.

It's like the lady gossip who said, My pastor said, don't say anything unless it's good.

And she said, Oh boy, this is too good.

I gotta say it.

You see, love hopes for better and assumes the best.

Have you ever been given a second chance?

A third chance?

If you're a child of God, you've been given so many chances, church.

When somebody wrongs you, do you hold it and never forgive?

That is not love.

That's not love.

We have to defer, though, because our feelings say, I'll not open myself back up to loving.

I've been hurt.

Something was said about me.

I don't really want to give mercy or grace because it did something to me.

I was the victim here, Pastor.

And you're telling me I'm supposed to love.

I'm telling you that's what the Bible says.

And you have to be walking in the Spirit to do it.

In my flesh, it's near impossible.

But walking in the Spirit.

Remember what Jesus said on the cross?

While being attacked?

Father, forgive them.

He was able to look past the fault and look at the person.

Deferring.

Deferring our craving for control.

You know what it says?

It says, bears and believes and hopes and endures.

Do you have that for people?

Do you believe past all belief when nobody else believes God can make a way?

Do you have hope like that for people in your life, in your circle?

It bears and believes and hopes.

You hear that hope?

Man, earlier I said you can love your enemy.

Can you imagine hope that God would turn your enemy?

Turn the person who hurts you and make good for them?

See, the flesh says, I don't want to like them.

Love believes, bears, hopes, and endures all things.

It means I've got to defer this.

That's tough.

Philippians 2, 3 through 4 says, Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.

Right?

Because of love, I'm fruitfully serving in such a way.

There's some biblical examples.

Moses deferred his comfort to lead the Israelites.

Moses didn't even have confidence that he could speak.

Moses had such a struggle going into that role, but you know what?

Moses said, okay.

He deferred who he thought he really was.

Abraham deferred his firstborn son.

He was willing to take Isaac to the altar so that he could please his God.

Mary deferred her plans, her conveniences, her reputation to carry Jesus Christ.

Deference.

Do you struggle to defer this?

First place is me.

First place is what I want.

First place kids is what I need.

First place church is what I want.

A call to deference shows love, the fruit of love.

John 15, 13, talk about an example of deference.

Bible says, Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of deference.

So I got a question for you to think about.

Is there something in your life that you need to defer to walk better in the spirit?

Is there something in your life that you need to give up so that you can give more time, more talent, more treasure?

Is there something some pleasure that you can walk back from, fade some away, defer in some way so that good can move forward?

Do you have a spiritual no that needs to happen in your life?

So that you can show love.

Look at verse 8 through 13.

It says, Love never fails.

But whether there are prophecies, they will fail.

Whether there are tongues, they will cease.

Whether there is knowledge, it'll vanish.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love.

These three.

But the greatest of these is love.

See, letter A.

The loving bride grows in the spirit of godliness.

We continue, as we walk with God, walking in the spirit, we continue to grow.

And that's what fruitful, where fruitfulness comes.

As we walk with God, it is an impossibility to be walking in the spirit with God and not have fruit grow.

We continue to grow.

It says, without love, though, all the gifts will cease.

One day you're going to be complete and grown.

And what will remain, it says, is faith, hope, and love.

But love is the greatest.

A little boy fell out of his bed in his sleep.

And his father picked him up and put him back in bed, and he asked him, son, what happened?

And the boy said, I fell asleep too close to where I got in.

Many Christians today, church, fell asleep too close to where they got in.

It's not saying that the gifts are childish.

Gifts are very appropriate.

Everyone is given spiritual gifts.

But you remember when you were a kid, you did baby things?

Right?

And when you started to crawl, everybody was smiling and laughing, taking pictures.

Look at them, look at them, look at them crawling.

But if my daughter Callie came in today and crawled down the aisle to her seat and then started sucking her thumb, y'all say, that's the pastor's kiss.

She's real weird.

You say, why is she so, right?

She's 18.

What's she doing?

Crawling spiritually is temporary.

That's where you got in.

You have not reached adulthood because you're a crawler.

Galatians 5, 16 said, I say, walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

The church at Corinth here, and 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and 1 Corinthians chapter 14, are arguing about the gifts.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention 1 Corinthians 14 · chapter mention

Alright?

They're having this argument about the gifts and the types of gifts as if they're some marker of spiritualness, and they were divided over them, and their focus became on their individual selves.

And meanwhile, they sang and it was fruitless.

And meanwhile they spoke and it was fruitless and they served and the fruit was rotting.

Y'all still got your 1111 going.

It's a little early, 11:04.

Real spiritual people in here praying seven minutes early.

Trying to one up all of us.

I appreciate though.

People were meant for walking and running spiritually, fruitfulness, and it should be growing in us.

But some people got it, they're still too close to where they got in.

Bible in another passage says they're on the milk of the word when they should be on the meat.

What's happened?

Now that can only happen one way.

It's like, you know, exercising at the gym.

I go once every three months.

You know?

I've got the endurance for eight minutes on the elliptical once every three months.

But if I go every day, you know, something just becomes a little more common as my endurance.

I grow.

If I will get in this book, if I will get close to God, if I'll find the means to worship him, I will grow.

The church at Corinth, their giftedness was causing rot.

I want you to look at Luke chapter 6.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

You can turn your Bibles there.

As you do, I gotta grab something over here.

And I got I got a maze to get through.

Y'all pray for me.

Luke 6 talks about the abundance of our heart.

This is where it starts.

It says Luke 6, 43.

For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree good fruit.

Every tree is known by its fruit.

Verse 45 A good man out of the good treasure in his heart brings forth good.

And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings evil.

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

But I want you to see that fruitfulness is connected to this heart.

What's in the heart?

Letter B says the loving bride grows closer to glorification.

Turn with me to 1 John chapter 4.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

This could have been the entirety of this passage.

We could have looked at just this text.

But as we read it, it's going to explain itself.

And then we'll come back.

But 1 John chapter 4, verse 7.

1 John 4:7

Hear these words.

Beloved, let us love one another.

How?

Where?

For love is of God.

And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

He who does not love, this is hard, does not know God.

For God is love.

In this, the love of God was manifested towards us that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his son to be propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Now one has seen God at any time.

If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love has been perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he has given us his spirit.

And we've seen and testified the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God abides in him, and he in God.

And we have known and believed that the love God has for us, God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God.

And we can go on and on about this love.

But it's saying, God loved you and me.

And because God loved you and me, he sent Jesus Christ.

And because he sent Jesus Christ first, the first fruit of all this love was Jesus Christ sent.

And if you received him, then the Spirit resides in you.

Then you can love.

And if you can love, he said, You must love one another.

And he says, if you don't love one another, then the love of God doesn't abide in you, meaning you don't abide in him.

What are you saying, Pastor?

All right.

One day faith will be necessary as it turns to sight.

Remember, it says three things are left faith, hope, and love.

Faith will be necessary as it turns to sight, and hope will turn into reality.

But love will go on forever.

You realize that?

For all of eternity, love will go on.

Faith will no longer be required of you in heaven, but love will go on.

It is the bond between earth and heaven, face to face.

He says, I see dimly now, but one day I'm going to see face to face and the glory of God.

I will then know love complete.

The love of the Savior, one day with no error, no sin, no incompleteness is coming.

How do we deal with that here?

John 15, 5 says, I am the vine, you are the branches.

He who abides in me bears much fruit.

Abiding in the Almighty creates an abundance of fruit.

1 Corinthians 15, 33 conversely says, bad company corrupts good character.

One rotting fruit affects all the others, right?

I brought some delicious fruit today.

Anyone want to come take a bite?

So I really don't want to touch it, but I think I touched the rotten part.

This was a perfectly good strawberry when I put it in next to these rotting avocados.

Or whatever they are now.

Okay.

One, all it took was one rotting fruit to be next to another rotting fruit, and guess what happened?

Fruit got rotting.

As I was studying this week, I came across a term that I.

There we go.

Now the regular people are back to praying.

That's good.

If you're visiting with us, 1111, we pray for a host of lost folks.

But this is what I found out.

It's just a matter of time if you put rot in a bowl with fruit, and all the bowl becomes compromised.

But, you might not know this because I didn't know this.

There is a gas called ethylene.

And in the right balance, ethylene, which is a fruit-produced gas, can actually help ripen other fruit.

And when ethylene comes off from one fruit to the other, all of a sudden, all of the fruit becomes a little bit sweeter.

What am I saying?

I don't want you to leave today saying, man, I need to get better at the fruit of love.

I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna write down a list of how I can get better at love.

I'm gonna be more loving.

I'm gonna love my wife.

I'm gonna love my children.

I am going to be a banner of love.

What I want you to leave with is this.

I don't want you to say, I'm gonna be less rude, I'm gonna forbear, I'm gonna do this list of things.

What I want you to go home and do is this.

I'm going to get close to Jesus.

Because if I will abide in him, if I'll get close to him, it's gonna make me sweeter.

If I'll get in this book, I have no hope but to get sweeter.

I got no other option but to get closer to him and get sweeter.

You can't be more with Jesus and be more selfish.

Not if you're really with him, if you're walking in the spirit with him.

You can make a decision today.

And that decision is I'm not gonna find ways to be more loving, but I'm gonna find ways to be more close to Jesus.

I'm gonna abide in him.

I'm gonna dwell with him.

I'm gonna remain with him.

I'm gonna meander a little longer with him.

I'm gonna spend more time with him.

I'm gonna linger with the Lord.

I'm gonna put myself in positions where I'm not so busy doing all the things that this flesh needs, and I'm gonna be just a little more uh productive in my time in that vine.

I'm gonna be with him because I want to be fresher, I want to be sweeter, I want to be more loving.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes this morning?

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