Love is to be the ultimate defining mark of a follower of Jesus Christ!

John 13:34-35 NLT
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.

1 John 3:16-18 NIV
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

Love is to be the ultimate defining mark of a follower of Jesus Christ!

I Must Daily Experience God’s Love

Romans 5:5,8 NLT
For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love…God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

2 Thessalonians 3:5 NLT
May the Lord lead your hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God and the patient endurance that comes from Christ.

I Must Intentionally Express God’s Love

- show genuine care

Philippians 2:3-4 CEV
Don’t be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves. Care about them as much as you care about yourselves

- willingly serve

Matthew 20:28 NLT
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

- quickly forgive

1 Peter 4:8 NIV
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Fruit is developed from a seed in the ground. The seed is buried and then is transformed into a plant. Once the plant grows to maturity fruit is the natural byproduct. Fruit is never grown overnight. It comes to those who are patient.

In the same way the fruit of our lives is not developed overnight. It is cultivated and grown over a period of time. All of us cultivate fruit from the choices we make in life. The question is what kind of fruit are you producing?

If your life was like a piece of fruit and was peeled, would the fruit be sweet or sour?

Fruit is the natural outcome of the right environment. So, over the next several weeks we are going to talk about what we need to do in order to create the best possible environment within ourselves to experience the full fruit of the Holy Spirit.

It’s easy to point the finger at the ‘church’ and talk about how unloving it is, but at this point I need you to resist doing that. I’d like instead for you to ask yourself a series of questions:

Would other people categorize my actions, activities, and character as loving?
Do I love the people around me like Jesus loved the people around him?
Do people know I am a follower of Jesus by the way I love others?
Can I honestly say my highest priority in life is loving God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength; and to love others like I love me?

There is a difference between knowing/logically, thought out, argument won, that God loves you, and experiencing/feeling/enjoying God’s love each day.

Relish, revel, rejoice in God’s love. To be in awe that he would love you. To simply allow yourself to actually feel loved by the creator and embodiment of love itself!

By His Spirit, God offers us a continual supply of His limitless love. He continually fills our wells so that we have plenty to give to other thirsty people. God will keep His love flowing into us as long as it keeps flowing out from us. The more you give it away, the more you will have. And the more you love others, the more you will be loved.

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