Date of Sermon Delivery: 13. 2. 2022

Place of sermon Delivery:  Delhi, India

Sunday Worship Service

Speaker: Jatin Bisht

Title – Fruit of the Spirit is LOVE

Bible – Galatians 5: 16-26

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 

17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[a] you want. 

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 

20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions. 

21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 

23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 

24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 

25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 

26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other

 

Jai Masih ki.

Dear brothers and sisters.

I welcome you to this beautiful Sunday service, and i hope that the Lord will fill us all with his living words.

I believe you must have spent the last week well in the Lord and you must have thanked the Lord because the number of corona diseases in our country has decreased. Always remember one thing: the Lord always listens to the words that come out of our mouths for prayer.

I thank all those brothers and sisters who, being prayer warriors, pray to the Lord every day. Well done. May God bless you.

 

Let’s pray

Merciful God, we thank you for the love of your cross. Thank you, Lord, for showing us this new day, and for giving us one more chance to see ourselves under your words, to correct us, and to grow. We submit this time in your hands, God; lead us in your way and speak to our hearts. We pray in the living name of Jesus Christ.

Amen

As in this morning, we read today’s scripture.

which was written by Paul especially to protect young believers in the church from the false teaching of Jewish teachers.

In Galatians 5:13–26, Paul divides people into two groups: those who live by the flesh and those who live by the spirit.

One who lives according to the flesh cannot reflect on their life in God.

And Jesus understood that our physical strength, thought, plan, and flesh cannot be used to win souls.

Therefore, in the last days of Jesus's ministry, he put more emphasis on the Holy Spirit.

John 14:26 But the counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

John 15:7b But if I go, I will send him (Holy Spirit) to you.

Therefore, Paul has given more lighting in the Holy Spirit in his Letters 

Inside of us, the Holy Spirit lives. But we many times forget that when we are living in relationship with God, with the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us, there is fruit that happens inside or there is a mark inside of us.

We should rejoice in it, and we should pray, and ask the Lord to increase it in us.

 

I am really happy. For the next 8 weeks, we will spend our time in the sermon series on fruit of the spirit, and I hope God will give us a beautiful shape(AAKAR) of Christ in us through the help of the Holy Spirit.

In Galatians chapter 5, Paul is saying we are set free, we do not need to follow any law. Christ has set us free, so we have been freed from the law.

However, just because we are free does not mean we can live our lives however we want.

We are free from the law. It does not mean that we sin.

Paul gives two options to the Galatians' churches, and right now we also have two options.

Either we, as believers in Christ, live ourselves according to the spirit of God and live according to the spirit, or we live ourselves according to our flesh, and sinful nature and live as we desire to live.

This is our battle every day, whether we live by spirit or by flesh, and still today, inside of us, a battle is going on and Paul is so very well aware of it.

Galatians 5:19-21

19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; 

20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions. 

21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Paul mentions here a list of acts that describe what is going to happen if we are living according to our flesh.

But if we surrender our lives to the spirit of God, here is the fruit. Here is the fruit that you are going to find inside of your heart.

We cannot obtain this fruit/mark through our own strength, but these are fruits that the Holy Spirit bring upon us.

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

In this passage, Paul discusses the fruit of the spirit, which is "karpos" in the Greek language, and karpos is singular.

So it is not fruits of the spirit but fruit of the spirit. It is not like characterised that some are growing and others need to work, but this is fruit that must grow together in our hearts.

 

Two months ago, when I was in our big room at CLF, one brother was reading this fruit of the spirit, and he said he did not have patience and self-control, but others he had.

For example, – I am a gentle person to my children, but I am not very kind, I am loving to my wife, so I have the fruit of love but when it comes to anger, I am going to hurt her. I do not have the fruit of self-control. If someone on the road side, I have the fruit of kindness, but when someone does not give me food, I lose my patience.

 

So many times we say, I have this fruit in my life very well, but I really need to work on other fruits."

But today, God is saying that this fruit must grow in our hearts as a group, and that this will happen when our lives are submitted to the spirit of God, and then we will be able to find this product in us.

 

I and you have zero capability of growing this fruit on our own. Maybe we are working on it. We will be trying to have more self-control, we will try to have more joy, we will try to produce love as God is calling you to produce. It is impossible. We are incapable of doing this all, because this is the only mark/fruit of the Holy Spirit.

 

As this is the first sermon of this series, that is LOVE.

There are four different Greek words for love, which can help us understand what love is.

EROS, PHILEO, STORGE, AGAPE These are four different words used for love.

The word ‘Eros’ is used to refers to beauty or goodness in the beloved.  The word ‘Phileo’, which refers brotherly love or friendship and the word ‘Storge’ is used to refer to family love. The word "Agape’’ which means self-sacrificing love/Godly love. 

Bible always speak only about agape love

Can you find agape love in the Bible? The entire bible is built on the foundation of agape love.

But in the present time, I and we all love with the emotion or object, or a person or thing that brings us great pleasure. That is why we can say, I love my children, I love my wife, I love my husband, I love my friends, I love chicken curry, I love poor people, but that is not agape love.

Agape love does not depend upon emotion or our feelings. If God love is emotion or feeling then God would be punish us.

Today my dad got a salary, so Daddy, do you know how much I love you? Today is my wife's birthday, so do you know I love you so much? Today you did very well, so I love you,

Agape love must be with loyalty, steadfastness. From the beginning of time, we can find God's steadfast love, unconditional love that is not based on his emotions for us, but on a covenant, loyalty, and obedience, and that unconditional love exists in God's heart.

1John  4:8 it says GOD IS LOVE. In Greek, God is AGAPE.

God does not love us with conditional love, as we frequently do; if something or object ceases to give us great pleasure, we can change. When we need something and someone helps us, we show our feelings for that certain period of time. Yes, that can be love.

But that is not agape love, because agape love is unconditional, Agape love is so hard. It does not come naturally from our hearts, but it is only fruit of the spirit of God inside of us.  

And in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says if I can pray in a tongue, but I do not have agape love, then I am just making a big noise. It is like shaking a key and making a noise when we are without agape love.

If I have the gift of prophecy, but do not have agape love, then I am nothing. If I have all knowledge, if i have great faith to move mountains, if i do a lot of charity, but if i do not have love, then we are nothing. This all will be useless. Agape love is so powerful that it will never go away. The gift of the Holy Spirit, prophecy, praying in tongues, having great faith is temporary, it will not be forever, but Agape love will be forever, Agape love will be a parament.

But Paul defines in verse 4-7 nature of Agape love.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 

5 It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 

Agape love is not like love in this world. Agape love will never be temporary; after a while, it will change. Agape love is always kind, Agape love does not get jealous that Jatin got a good job and I did not. Or all the praise Jatin is getting, but I am not.

Agape love does not envy, agape love doesn’t boast,

Agape love is not proud, it is not rude, and it is not self- seeking.

Many times, we want people to give us priority, but agape love does not seek self-seeking.

Agape love does not easily arouse anger; how easily do we arouse anger?

Agape love does not keep a record of wrongs, but how many of us have long lists, and are ready for the next fight to share the list of his or her wrongdoings?

Agape love does not keep any record of wrongs.

Agape love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. Agape love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, and agape love never fails.

 

This is so that we are called in Jesus that we may also give Agape love.

 It is self-sacrifice, therefore Jesus gave the second biggest commandment. Love your neighbours as you love yourself.

But sometimes We want to be loved, and we want everyone to love us , but many times we are unwilling to love others.

Sometimes we want people to do things for us, but we are unwilling to do things for others.

Sometimes we want kind things for ourselves, but we are unwilling to do kind things for others. That is not agape love.

Sometimes we want everything that we want and we are unwilling to love each other with limitations.

If you love someone with agape love, the bible says that it will never fail, which means this agape love will never finish.

Do you believe that God loves us as agape love?

Yes, I believe, therefore I am still in Jesus. If he did not love me as agape, perhaps I would not be here to share with you today's sermon.

If God has kept his patience over the last 13 years, then why do I not have patience toward others.

If God can extend mercy every day to me, then why do I not give mercy to others.

Many times, my actions demonstrate that I despise God, and many times, by my own thoughts, I tell God, "I don't need you, I don't need your help, I can do it by myself."

But God says that I will continue in agape love, even though you run away, I will keep my agape love for you. (parodical Son’s story)

 

Still, God loves us. Therefore, through his agape love, he is sewing our brokenness, wound, and responding to us by saying, "I love you."

Dear brothers and sisters,

If you have love for the world in your heart, then your love will be conditional, it will be selective, it will fail, it will not let you win another soul, and one day you will tired.

But this morning, I'd like to remind you that the divine spirit of God, known as the Holy Spirit, resides within each of us. Ask him if he would allow these fruit of the spirit to grow inside of me. Surely, then surely you will see the fruit of agape love inside of you, which never fails and never finishes.

I want to suggest that we all apply this agape love this week. I hope we will face someone this week that will help us extend our agape love. It would be hard. But we need to do two things: first surrender our lack of ability before God, and second, "pray" God in this movement. I surrender myself to you and I ask that the fruit of agape love grow out of me to this person or to this situation, so we will be able to act as agape love.

May God bless us with the living word of God.

Amen.