This Month's Newsletter

Part 3: The Greatest need in the church today " The Holy Spirit"

Pastor Don Nicely's Newsletter for March 2009

The Fruit of the Spirit is “love.”
In the next few months we are going to study the need for God’s people to display the fruits of the Spirit to a lost world. It has been said that it is not the gifts of the Spirit that reveal maturity in an individual but instead it’s the fruits of the Spirit that a person displays in their everyday life that reveals the spiritual maturity of an individual. And the first of these fruits is love.

Galatians 5:22 (NKJV) ²²But of the fruit of the Spirit is love

Our love as a Christian must take on several dimensions in order for it to be considered a divine love given to us by God.

Matthew 22:37 (NKJV)³⁷Jesus said to him, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

First we must have a love that desires to worship God. We display this love in our attendance at church week after week. The person who says they love God and don’t love the church is making a foolish statement. And the love of God is not in them. Jesus said that He loved the church so much that He willingly gave His life for it. so we must attend church if we love God. Also we must spend time with Him in His word. What kind of relationship would you have with your spouse if you guys never talked to each other? Or if just one of you did all the talking in the relationship? When you fail to read God’s word you are telling God that you don’t care to speak to Him, because that is the main way that God talks to His people today, that is through the pages and phrases in His word. Also we must have a daily communion with Him through prayer and fellowship with His people.

This new love that we have must learn to wait on God for all our strength. Too many people try to bull their way through life and soon find that they are weary of serving God. You must learn to wait on His strength.

Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV)But those who wait (hope) on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Also when you have a true love from God it desires to work for God.

Mark 16:15 (NKJV)¹⁵And He said to them, “Go into all the preach the gospel toe very creature.

We are given an inner command on the inside with a desire to fulfill the Great Commission by leading others to Christ.

What is the love command that we have? Why it’s the Great Commandment which is to “love God and love others.”

Matthew 22:37-39 (NKJV)³⁷Jesus said to him, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” ³⁸This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

We are even told to love our enemies and all those who seem to have a mission in life to make our lives difficult.

Matthew 5:44 (NKJV) But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,

Now you may be wondering; “just how do I show God my love?” The book of John gives us the answer to that question as well as many others.

John 13:35 (NKJV)³⁵By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

That’s right our main way that we show God that we love Him is showing kindness to His people. We must love in deeds as well as words. Our love must be a dedicated love. We must display our love through our family in a respectful manner, which in turn will produce more love.

Ephesians 5:25-33 (NKJV) ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, ²⁶that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word, ²⁷that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. ²⁸So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. ³⁰For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones…³²This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. ³³Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Many people say that love is an emotion. Well friend I’m here to tell you today that it is not true. Love is a choice that we make everyday of our lives. Paul gave the Corinthian church the best description of true love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NKJV)⁴Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

It’s patient and kind and is never jealous. You may not be very patient right now but the closer you get to God the more of this fruit He will place in you. Love is the most important fruit that we can bear for “God is Love.”

Continued Next Month