SERMON MESSAGE FOR MONDAY MARCH 5, 2012.
“I DECREASE, SO LORD JESUS MIGHT INCREASE IN ME, THEREFORE I WALK IN LOVE”.
Heavenly Father in the Name of Jesus, I count it a privilege to once again minister to Your children. I do not take this opportunity for granted Lord and thank You so faithfully for Holy Spirit who impressed in my heart what I should write. May this teaching edify those who read it, allowing Holy Spirit to affect change in their lives. May we faithfully administer God's grace from this gift of Love that we’ve received to serve others. T pray in Jesus Name that You may get the glory, honor and praise, that You're so deserving of….Amen.
Brethren, the word of the Lord for the End Time church is “LOVE”, yes, He wants us to Love one another, as Christ Jesus has loved us. The Lord makes this admonition for the body of Christ because He knew as the time drew closer to His return, the love of many would wax cold. Therefore, we have to make a conscious effort to love one another as Christ so loved the church and gave Himself for her. In doing so, being careful not to allow offense to rise up in us due to pride ruling over us.
I have often heard brothers and sisters saying, “be careful what you pray for, you might just get it.” In praying to be able to walk in Love and to Love like Jesus loved, I came across the most difficult people and situations. The same goes for patience. In praying for these most profound gifts, the answer to my prayer came with testings.
Like it is stated in Job Job 13:15 (KJV) “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.”
What ought to sustain us in the midst of testing is our faith in God, knowing He is working all things out for our good and His own holy purpose.
This is referenced in Romans 8:28 (KJV) ”And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
I’ve been reading a book that was recently referred to me called "Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness by Andrew Murray”. It is what inspired me to write today’s Sermon on LOVE, for the fruit of the Spirit is LOVE. This book is an absolute recommended reading, a life-changing classic for both new and mature Christians! Next to the bible, this book has had a profound impact on my spiritual walk.
I have been challenged lately to humble myself before Almighty God, through Prayer and Fasting so He might purify my flesh and burn and remove all that is not of Him. In my humility, my life would be transformed to one who walks in the character of Jesus, for in Him flows nothing but pure love. In reading the book I mentioned above, I was challenged with the uncompromising truth, that God calls for nothing less than my total surrender to Him, yet it also comforted me in knowing that with the uncompromising truth, I am powerless to do so in my own strength. It is the Holy Spirit, the comforter who guides us in living a life totally submitted to Him. For it is in that absolute surrender, that we allow God, in His grace, to do for us, in us, all that He requires.
Jesus Christ is the Vine, the Holy Spirit is the Life of the Vine, we are the branches and the promise of the Kingdom is in the grapes. If there is any one thing that we must pray for, it is this: Lord, melt us so we might love, as You love. When God gives the Holy Spirit, His great object is the formation of a holy character. It is a gift of a holy mind and spiritual disposition, which enables us to walk in His Love and what we need above everything else, is to say: “I must have the Holy Spirit sanctifying my whole inner life if I am really to live for God’s glory.” I decrease so He might increase in me.
Life by the Spirit
Galatians 5:13-26 says, You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and 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.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
I wish to address the passage found in Galatians 5:22. “The fruit of the Spirit is Love.” We read that “Love is the fulfilling of the law,” Let us try ourselves by Gods word. The greatest gift of God's merciful love was laying down His life for us through Christ. Until we truly grasp the meaning of this sacrifice, we will continue to misunderstand God and one another in the process. You see, until you can truly appreciate that God loves your neighbor or the person making your life miserable, you will be unable to love them. Once you see their worth in God's eyes, the unlovable become lovable. Daily we should form a habit, to seek our being filled with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of love?
Has it been our experience that the more we have of the Holy Spirit the more loving we become? In claiming the Holy Spirit, we should make this the first object of our expectation. The Holy Spirit comes as a Spirit of love. Oh, if this were true in the Church of Christ, how different her state would be! May God help us to get hold of this simple, heavenly truth that the fruit of the Spirit is a love which appears in the life, and that just as the Holy Spirit gets real possession of the life, the heart will be filled with real, divine, universal love.
One of the great causes why God does not always bless His Church is the lack of love. Sin had robbed the world of love? When the body is divided, there cannot be strength. “Unity gives strength.” It is only when God’s people stand as one body, one before God in the fellowship of love, one toward another in deep affection, one before the world in a love that the world can see, it is only then that they will have power to secure the blessing which they ask of God. Remember that if a vessel that ought to be one whole is cracked into many pieces, it cannot be filled. You can take a potsherd, one part of a vessel, and dip out a little water into that, but if you want the vessel full, the vessel must be whole.
As redeemed children of God, He delights to pour His love into us. And why? Because, God keeps nothing for Himself. From eternity God had His only begotten Son, and the Father gave Him all things, and nothing that God had was kept back. “God is love.” Therefore as He is to us, so should we be to our fellow man. God is a revelation of divine love. He is the Father, the loving One, the Fountain of love; the Son, the beloved one, the Reservoir of love, in whom the love was poured out; and the Spirit, the living love that united both and then overflowed into this world. The Spirit of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of the Son is love. And when the Holy Spirit comes to us and to other men, will He be less a Spirit of love than He is in God? It cannot be; He cannot change His nature. The Spirit of God is love, and “the fruit of the Spirit is love.”
Mankind Needs Love, however selfishness triumphed and men sought to love self instead of God. Love to God had gone, and love to man was lost. Why is that so? That was the one great need of mankind, that was the thing which Christ’s redemption came to accomplish: to restore love to this world. One of the worst things sin did for man was to make him selfish, for selfishness cannot love. God’s Son came to show what love is, and He lived a life of love here upon earth in fellowship with His disciples, in compassion over the poor and miserable, in love even to His enemies, and He died the death of love. And when He went to Heaven, whom did He send down? The Spirit of love, to come and banish selfishness and envy and pride, and bring the love of God into the hearts of men. “The fruit of the Spirit is love.”
The Lord Jesus Christ came down from Heaven as the Son of God’s love. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Yes He loved us so much that He Gave, shouldn’t we likewise be willing to do the same for others. The Love of God should always be reflected in our walk, in our talk, everything we say and do including how we treat others. No man has seen God the creator, but as a consolation, the Spirit of God dwells within us, therefore if we walk in love as the Lord admonishes us to do, then they see God in us.
In conclusion, know without a shadow of a doubt that God is able to pour His love into our hearts so we in turn are able to love others. Live in the power of the Holy Spirit and not your own flesh! Be encouraged knowing that what we are not able to do, God can do!
In your prayer tonight, ask the Lord to baptize you with the spirit of love.
Ephesians 5:18. The knowledge and reality of the empowering Spirit enables us to reproduce the works of Jesus….Amen!
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