Fruits of the Spirit - Love

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:24

So welcome. Welcome everyone. Maybe I might sound a little different to you right now because I'm in the uh calling this in and to the studio. But either way, I still want to do my best to be faithful. I'll be back in the studio next week, and we'll conduct even further more topics on the fruits of the spirit and what God will lead us. But today, I want you, as you're listening, I want this message to fill you, your mind. And the Lord has led to me today, again, the fruit of the Spirit, and the fruit, the Spirit that we're going to be talking about is love. Love. And I thank the Lord for that, preparing this meal for us, this small morsel, this bread that comes from Him, His life for us. Grateful for that. This day is a day that the Lord has made. He has conquered the grave. We shall be glad in it. We shall have rejoice in it. We are grateful. So I'm grateful and thankful again, as I keep saying it over and over again. But I know that the living water only he can provide, once you drink from this well and eat from his bread, you will no longer thirst or hunger anymore. You will be filled. You will be filled with more than what you can imagine. And his word for his glory. This explanation about love, biblical love. And we'll get into that in scripture. And when I know as well in life, especially as we talk about love, I know how that can be. And it takes growth, because growth does take time. As I've always said before in a few other podcasts, it takes time, it cannot be rushed. It's transformation. We have to let God go. We have to let go and let the Lord do that formation, that process for us. And it's how we treat people under pressure. That's what matters. And that's what that topic is about as we talk about love. If we do understand about love and what that means biblically, it says that God's love is unconditional. But God shows love for us that yet while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And that's Romans 5.8. The truth of this means is that love is not based on a condition or requirement. Love, true love, is freely given without any expectation of anything in return. That's very unique. We have different words of love that I'll break down with you guys from the Bible and in the Greek, and there's Euros and Storet, uh Philia or Philia, where we get Philadelphia from, brotherly love, agape. But we're gonna explore Phileo and we're gonna explore agape love. But different types of love that are characterized, like romantic love, family love, brotherly love, and God's divine love. And also love can be described as an intense emotion or affection, warmth, fondness, regard towards a person or thing. That's definitely something that can be described as that. But are we choosing love? Are we choosing love? Well, the most powerful witness we can offer in any circumstance is to love others the way God loved us. That's Matthew 5, 38 through 48. There's much about the kingdom of heaven that doesn't make sense to our earthly way of thinking. So, for example, today's passage says, Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him also the other. Now, as I ask this question to you, those listening, does anyone honestly want to do that? Right? Especially if you're trained or you know, like that's something you just don't tolerate. But while we know that God loves us, we're also aware that there's nothing we can do to earn or deserve his love. However, we are called to extend that love to other people. There's a lot of talk about rights these days, but instead of focusing on ourselves, why not follow the Lord's example? If you read that through Philippians 2, 6. And lay down your rights, which means die into yourself. And we can join him in a cause greater than our own interests. God is pleased when we show his love to those around us, including those who do us wrong. After all, like Jesus said, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same? Governments and things, right? That's in Matthew 5, 44, 46. Before assuming that Jesus' capacity for forgiveness and love is of outreach for human beings, remember that the Holy Spirit dwells in believers, it helps us to do what seems impossible. As a result, God's love works through us. It's a wonderful, a wonderful calling to show others the boundless care and compassion of the Lord. And in biblically, I'm gonna explain that when we read this to you, 1 Corinthians 13, and continue reading, and then we're gonna delve into meanings and reasons of love and behind that more so. But right now I want to read to you 1 Corinthians 13, a new international version. If I have love, or no, as you were, if I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and knowledge, and I have faith that can remove and move mountains back and forth, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship, that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Back and forth is like what I added to, but faith, think about all the power like you can have. But if you don't have love, you gain nothing. It goes on to say what love is here biblically. Love is patient and love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it's not proud, it does not dishonor others, it's not self-seeking, it's not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease. Where there is tongues speaking, right? Tongues I'm speaking, they're saying that they will be stilled. Where there is knowledge, it's gonna pass away. For we are in part and we prophecy apart, meaning we only know what we know, we don't know everything in this life, right? That's what it's saying. And when I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man, I put away these childish things, or I put away the ways of a childhood behind me. And it goes on to say, for now we see only reflection as it is in the mirror when we have a still face, you know, face to face. Now we know I know in part, but one day I shall now fully, even though I'm fully known. I'm gonna know more one day, right? One day everything will be revealed to me. Because right now, though, sometimes things are when it says I see only a reflection as in the mirror, then we shall see face to face. You know, when you see your reflection in the mirror, you really don't know what or remember what you look like exactly what you saw earlier, right? You sometimes got to go back and look yourself again, you know, to remember something, right? That's how kind of things seem to be in our lives, man, or our thoughts or things that go on. It's it's we're not gonna know everything right now until that time with him, those that believe. And it says, as it finishes on 13, it says, these three, these three things remain, these three three three things right here. These three things remain faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these, the greatest of these is love. The greatest of these is love. And honestly, God's love, as I go on to read more, to share with you those that are listening, God's love is truly our reason for hope. His love is unconditional, unlimited, and available to everyone. 1 John 4, 7 through 10 explains that. Without a sense of purpose, it can be easy to lose hope. But God created each person for a reason to love him and be loved by him. Okay, we're gonna look at the attributes of divine love. God's love is personal. Christianity stands out among world religions because God's desire, he desires a personal relationship with us. He loves each and every one of his children. We are the apple of his eye. God's love is unconditional, it's who he is because that's who he is. 1 John 4 8, like that's his character, and that is his who God is. Rather than simply something that he does, nothing about your character or behavior can make him love you less or more. I hope those that are listening hear that. I'll say that again. Nothing about your character or behavior can make him love you less or more. God's love is available to everyone, so it's inexhaustible. The Lord does not have favorites, but but hear me out, he does have intimates. He doesn't have favorites, but he has intimates. Like he didn't just say, I love you. He proved it by sending his son, Jesus, to rescue us from sin. That's Romans 5.8. Those who haven't trusted in the Savior can go through life oblivious to the blessings of his unconditional care. That's why we must live joyously and tell others that God's infinite, eternal love is offered to us all, that he loves us. It's his character. And I'm gonna take it another step here, and I'm gonna let you know what his character is not, what is not love. Because I know I struggle with this, and I have, and I have to really catch myself and my soul and conviction of my heart. Because who am I to ever uh get out of a character that the Lord has not designed for me in a sense? Like, yeah, we make mistakes, we slip, we you know, we're not perfect, I got it. But the the map the fact of the matter is like, do I repent and really catch it? Hear the Holy Spirit convicting me and saying, and you know it's funny about this, you're talking about this person or that person, but that's not love. That's not what love we describe love to be. Yeah, they have some character flaws and sins, but we all do. But how are you gonna be a critical how are you gonna be critical about them and gossip love? Look at you. So hear me out with the character of gossip. We really need to speak words that honor God and strengthen the people He placed in your path. Anything else or opposite is not love. Romans 1, 28 through 31 explains that God wants our speech to be pleasing to him, that leaves no room for idle talk or mean-spirited words, which are far from pleasant. We are to put aside such talk. Colossians 3 8 says that I forget that. I get so caught up with the hustle and bustle or the the issue at the workplace or wherever we're at, or family, envious family member or something, right? Like, and we end up just talking about their ways, man, or we start saying things that we shouldn't be saying, you know. Oh man, they need to work on this. They're like this, you know. And man, I can't stand how they can be. Man, they're not listening, are they entitled and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Sometimes they even get into the race card, even though I'm multi-right racial, my ethnic background, I'll still talk about people that are part of my background that I'm mixed with. Yeah, it's ridiculous. I understand that we're not perfect, I understand people aren't perfect, but I there is a point where I have to show grace and love, like the Lord is saying right here. And if I really am a Christian, as I call myself to be, then I have to really strive to work on these things. Like it has to be important to me as well. Think about that. In Romans 1, the apostle Paul is reminding believers that God has revealed himself to all mankind and called us to be saints. Today's passage, gossip is one of a number of actions we should turn away from. Take a moment right now, as I'm reading, to read Paul's list in its entirety, and I'm gonna go through some of that with you. Nothing there is appealing, of course, and every action named does great harm to us and our witness. Yet we're all guilty of committing them at times. We choose to envy what others have, to lie, to be unloving, or to spread gossip. My goodness, my goodness is so attempting inside my soul, right? Because I've been there, I've been doing that recently, and uh realizing it, or realizing that's an old man inside of me trying to come out. I don't like it. You know, like if I don't, like today I had an encounter and a business encounter. If I don't know something at that moment, I don't need to, I need to swallow my pride and humble myself and say it's okay, I didn't know that. Instead of assuming that it that it went down this way or assuming that's how it's supposed to be or that happened, and then come to find out it didn't or it couldn't. You know, and I'm sitting there like, man, what did I just say, you know what, I don't know. And uh please tell me out here in this thing, you know. I'm not gonna go into detail with that, but what I'm trying to get at is my first go-to needs to be humility. My first go-to needs to be, hey, if I really don't know something, just say it. Who cares? Stop making up stuff because you end up looking like a fool. Don't need to be that way. In Ephesians 4 29, the apostle Paul describes how we should speak. It says, Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word that is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Before you speak, as I'm talking to you all that listening, ask yourself, does God does does this world, does this glorify God? Does this uplift and encourage others? And pray, requesting that the Lord guide your tongue, so your words will point to others, it will point to others, and it'll point others to Him. Gossip achieves no good in anyone's life, which is why the Lord warns us against any. Instead, our words should build up and comfort and encourage others, and others are like, Well, how do I end that? How do I end having this gossip and way of being in my life because it just so seems so natural that's just part of me? Well, you can end up turning your gossip in your life, uh turn your criticism into intercession. Pray for those you're tempted to speak against. Ephesians 4 29, 32. Pray for those you are tempted to speak against. Again, spreading rumors about other people exposes little about the true nature of the person being whispered about, but it reveals quite a lot about the speaker's character. So, what should we do when we're tempted to gossip? Well, first we should confess and ask the Lord to help us to turn away from opportunities, talk about others. I really need to do that, maybe close my mouth and not you know, ignore on, not agree, not write it, not co-sign, uh, you know, like not go along with it. So I can pray Psalm 141 3 daily and say, Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth, keep watch over the doors of my lips. Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth, keep watch over the door of my lips. This will help us remain mindful of our words. Next, we must be on guard against temptation. Believers are having a responsibility to set themselves apart from gossip in order to keep their thoughts and words pleasing to God. Thoughts pleasing to God. Being the presence of one who spreads stories can tempt us to participate. But in a situation where rumors are being shared, the best course of action is to speak out against what's being done and refuse to participate. Finally, instead of talking about someone, it's wise to pray for him or her. Getting into this habit will help train the mind to replace sinful patterns with God-pleasing ones. The Bible teaches us to encourage and comfort each other. And prayer, prayer, truly to me, is a good way to obey that instruction. And you can read 1 Thessalonians 5. Read that whole chapter. That's uh man. A work. I truly am a work in progress. For anyone listening, I I truly am. I need to get it to a point where it just comes natural and it's it's genuine. Right? And that means, hey, there's strategies and and terms, conditions, so to speak, how that can take place. The obedient and and your prayer life and your dedication in that realm before anything else. And not worrying about business, money. All the things that, yeah, they matter here on earth, but not really in heaven, do they? So what matters is I need to balance it correctly and find balance in my life, whether I'm waking up earlier, whether I'm I'm more intentional and coherent, setting alarms on my phone, whatever that takes. But the Lord is calling us out. That's why we have all these tools. So we have no excuse. We need to get busy with him because I know when I do, and I put him first in my days, especially at work, the place I love working at. I'm gonna tell you, man, I put him first, my day is smooth, regardless of the distractions and negativity that tries to come around me. Because that negativity ends up convicting the others. The spirit of God comes through, and then they come back nice, they come back pleasant or changed, or try to put a smile on their face. That matters. And I want to do that naturally because that's my heart and that's what I want to be. I want to let the uh the bad get into me and and start being mean to others. That doesn't make sense. I'm explaining this history about love too, real quick to you people before we close as well. Things I want to read to you. So for thousands of years, every morning and evening, Jewish people have prayed these known words, these words of expressing their devotion to God. And what that's called, they call that the Shema. Oh Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. And as for you, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. So we're going to do is go look at the third key word in this prayer, how Israel is called to love their God. What does that mean? Well, love is a very common word in most languages, as it is in ancient Hebrew. It's pronounced ahava. It both basically refers to the kind of affection or care that the person or that one person shows another, and it sometimes describes physical affection. Like so, for example, the king of Persia's love for Queen Esther. And there's a other words or Hebrew words, Hebrew words that express more that refer to physical desire of sex. Ahaba is more broad. So Abraham had Ahaba for his son Isaac. That's a parental love. Jonathan showed Ahaba for his friend David, and that would be brotherly love. So, in fact, a whole group of people can have Ahaba for their leader. Like when the Israelites showed love for the King David. Hama can even describe loyalty between political allies like Hiram, the king of Tyree, who loved David. They had good relations, so Hiram wanted to help David's son Solomon build a temple. And these are all different. So the kinds of affections described with one word, Ahaba. Now all this is helpful for understanding God's Ahaba in the Old Testament. So in Deuteronomy, Moses told the Israelites, God showed affection for you. He chose you because of his ahava for you. So God doesn't love because the Israelites earned it or deserved it. It simply originates from God's own character. He loves because he's love. This is why Jeremiah could say that God's love is everlasting and has no end because it has no beginning. God's love just is an eternal fact. It's eternal. It's an eternal fact of the universe. God's love is not a duty, it's a genuine feeling and affection that God experiences. This is why the prophet, the mosaic, compares God's love for his people to a husband's ahaba for his wife, or to a parent showing ahaba for their child. It's one of the strongest things that God feels. But that doesn't mean God's love is just a feeling. God's love is also action. It's something God chooses to do. Like when Moses says, because of God's ahava for your ancestors, he brought you out of Egypt with great power. God's love isn't just a sentiment, it's something God does. And so in the Shema, Israel is called to respond to God's ahava by showing Ahava in return. And just like God's love, human love is to show itself through action, like in Deuteronomy 10. What does God, the Lord your God, ask? He asks of you to, and what does he accept? He uh he accepts of you to accept to fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to love him, to serve him, to keep his commands. And these actions are centered around love. If I'm not doing them, I don't actually love God. I just say it. Which leads to, and lastly, in the Old Testament, I show my love for God by how I treat the people around me. How I treat the people around me. In Deuteronomy, we read that God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow. And he chooses ahava for the immigrants among you, giving them food and clothing. And so you also show Ahava for the immigrant. So the people are to imitate God's love, ahava, right? By showing that love for others. This is the idea underneath the famous line. You shall love Ahava, your neighbor, as yourself. And so at the end of the day, all this is rooted in God's own eternal love. Like we read in the New Testament letter, 1 John, we love because God first loved us. That's a Hebrew word. Ahava. Ahava. The Shema. The Shema. Remember that as I say that. Oh Lord, the Lord's number one. As for you, you shall love the Lord your God. You shall love the Lord your God. We're also gonna look at the word, the Hebrew word, nefesh, nefesh. Nefesh, it's occurs about 700 times in the Old Testament. The common English translation of the word is soul. And here's why the English word soul comes from a lot of baggage from ancient Greek philosophy. It's the idea that the soul is a non-physical, immortal essence of a person that's contained or trapped in their body by the released at death. It's a ghost and the machine kind of idea. Well, this notion is totally foreign to the Bible, it's not all what nefesh means. In biblical Hebrew, the basic meaning of nafesh is throat. So nefesh, if I if you hear me, it's N-E-P-H-E-S-H. Nefesh. Like when the Israelites are wandering in the wilderness, they're hungry and thirsty, and they say to God, we missed the cucumbers and the melons we had in Egypt. Now our nafesh has dried up. Or when Joseph was hauled off into slavery in Egypt, his nefesh was to put on iron shackles. But nephesh does not only mean throat, since only life or whole life of the body depends on what comes in and out. Could also refer to a person like in Genesis 33, 33 in Jacob's family, that's like 33 people. In the Torah, a murderer is called a Nefesh slave. And a kidnapper is called a Nefesh thief. On the first page of the Bible, both humans and animals are called living nepesh. And if the life breath has left the human or animal, the Nefesh remains. It's just called a dead nephesh. That is a corpse. So in the Bible, people don't have the fesh. Rather, they are Nefesh, a living, breathing, physical being. I mean, I might surprise you because most people assume the Bible says a soul survives, survives apart from the body after death. And why the biblical authors do have a concept of people existing after death, waiting for the resurrection, they rarely talk about it. And when they do, they don't use the word the flesh. This is why biblical people can often use a word to refer to themselves as it gets translated, uh, like Psalm 119. Most translations read like this: like, let I may praise you. In Hebrew, the poet literally says, Let my nepesh live. It may praise you. By using the fesh, the poet emphasizes that the entire being, their life, and their body in the song of songs. The youngest of early refers to her, the refers to her lover as a waters of cords and the waters. Um it's experience, it's it's it's like the whole body. It helps you understand like Psalm 42. We're gonna read here, like the deer. I got like how a deer pants for water, so my soul or my nephesh pants after you. My soul thirsts for God. So on a physical level, your your throat can be thirsty like a deer, but then the physical thirst can become a metaphor, how your whole physical being longs, longs to know and be known by your creator. That brings us all the way back to Shema. To love God with all your nephesh, your soul, right? Means devote your whole physical existence into your creator, the one who granted us these amazing bodies in the first place. It's about offering your entire being with all of its capabilities and limitations in the effort to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. And that's a Hebrew word for soul. I know you heard of Jesus saying famous teachings calling the golden rule do to others as you want them done to you. This is actually a reinstatement of something else that Jesus said, the meaning of life to God. Means I need to love God and love my neighbor as yourself. It's really beautiful because it it's the word love, it's it's more than anything. It's because you know, like the English word, you can love your mom and you can love pizza. And if you and if the love means the same thing in both of these cases, your mom's gonna feel pretty bad. And shout outs to the mom, because when this message goes out, it's gonna be Mother's Day. So happy Mother's Day to those that are maybe listening, and those that do not have a mom. My heart goes for you, and those that know she believed she's in a beautiful place being celebrated because of what she's done to leave a legacy behind. So God bless them all. But as I get back to this, what Jesus means in this language, this love your neighbor phrase is a quotation, the word ahava. The language Jesus spoke and taught in the day, though, it was a cousin to the Hebrew, and that was Aramaic, in which the word for love is mama. But Jesus' father started spreading his teachings around the world and translated into Greek using the words agape. There's a fascinating thing about that. So the followers of Jesus wrote the books of the New Testament in Greek, they didn't learn the meaning of agape by looking it up in ancient dictionaries. Rather, they looked to the teachings of Jesus and the story of his life to redefine their very concept of love. So one time Jesus was asked about the most important command in the Jewish scriptures, and he first quoted from an ancient prayer, the Torah called the Shema. Love the Lord your God with all your heart for God, love, for God is the most important thing. But then Jesus quickly followed up by saying another command from the Torah, which is important to love your neighbor as yourself. So, which is the most important, loving God or loving your neighbor? Well, Jesus' answer is yes, to ask the question means this there are two sides of the same coin. Your love for God will be expressed by your love for your people, and vice versa. They're inseparable. So it makes it clear that for Jesus' agape, love is not primarily a feeling for someone else. It happens to you. Like the phrase, I fell in love. Love is love, an action. It's a choice that you make of a well-being, well-being of people. Jesus also went on to tell, like, genuine love. That means there's no self-seeking, no expecting anything in return, especially from people that may be like in a difficult situation who can't repay you, even if they wanted to. So, according to Jesus, this kind of generous love reflects it reflects the very heartbeat of God. And he takes it even further. Jesus says the ultimate standard, authentic love, is how you treat people that can't you can't stand or be around. So, in words, you shall love their neighbor and do good to them, or your enemy and do good to them, expect nothing in return. This kind of enemy embracing love imitates the very character of God Himself. This is how Jesus actually lived. This Jesus was constantly helping and serving the people around him in very particular and gentle ways. He consistently moved towards people and towards poor and hurting people who couldn't benefit him. In return, he showed love for the forgotten ones, the people who usually fall through the cracks. And we when Jesus eventually marched into Jerusalem, he made himself an enemy of the leaders of the people, accusing them of hypocrisy and corruption. That's what he did. But then instead of attacking his enemies to overthrow them, he allowed them to kill him. Jesus died for this selfishness and corruption of his enemies because he loved them. So then after resurrection or Easter morning, Jesus and his followers claimed that the power of God came and he was revealed, right? And he rose again. So Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. Paul puts it, God demonstrated his own agape, love for us. In this, while we were still sinners, the Messiah died for us. Or in the words of the Apostle John, God's own love, agape, was revealed when he sent his one and only Son into the world. Right? To finish on John 3.16, they say that. So that's how we have life through him for that reason. That's love. I know Christian faith, I know Christian love. It is supposed to love one another. It involves trusting, trusting that at the center of the universe is being overflowing with love for this world, which means that the purpose of human existence is to receive this love. And it's receive it, to receive it through Christ, and to give back to others. That's different translations explaining. One other particular one I was discussing is phileo love. And there's eight different, like uh there's eight different words in love that you can look up that it shows what it is in the Greek. But these two that we're talking about, like Agape and Phileo. And what phileo really means is a Greek word for brotherly love. It's love that you would see between close friends, it's deep personal. And that's exactly where the name Philadelphia came from, which literally means city of brotherly love. John 11, 36, referring to the brotherly love that Jesus says he has loved us, and he how we need to love him as well, but also others. It's an example, it's phileo and agape, is unconditional. Philail is relational, and Jesus showed himself that. He showed that to us to the way that he lived. So I know we struggle, we we deal with these emotions and situations in our life, cause us to it's hard for us to do those things that it's requesting or requiring, but we need to. We need to and be intentional about that. We also need to show ourselves, but remember these things and remember really what the terms and conditions of what the Lord wants. That's love. So pray for me, and as I pray for you, I pray that this really means a lot to the Lord, and we really need to work on this. That's one of the fruits that needs to grow stronger and stronger, more productive. Need to cultivate that more so in my life. And I pray that for the others that are listening, that they do the same day by day. It's progression. So as I close, if you pray or help, please reach out. Please reach out. I have my my website, but I mean, or actually our our email for now. And soon we'll be moving and grooving with our website and and our video and everything else. But right now, this podcast is just a wonderful thing that we can do, and those listening, but reach out. The email is the bread of life with JJ at gmail.com. The bread of life with jj at gmail.com. I've been more than happy to stand out of the gap, go to the battle with you. Send, you know, send some resources out or scriptures or whatever it is that you may find a struggle with, whatever questions you may have. I'll do my best to get there through the Holy Spirit. So until we meet again, everyone, God bless you. Know that Jesus loves you and He's for you. Let His face shine upon you. Let Him give you peace. God bless you.