Practicing Genuine Love (Romans 12:9)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:05.280 If you'RE A if you're able to remain standing, please do and let's give 2 00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:16.070 our attention to Romans chapter twelve. Romans Chapter Twelve, I'm going to be 3 00:00:16.190 --> 00:00:23.260 preaching on just the first phrase of verse nine this morning and at this point 4 00:00:23.260 --> 00:00:34.380 I'm anticipating moving a little bit slowly through nine through twenty one, but I 5 00:00:34.420 --> 00:00:41.649 want to read nine through thirteen. We might have a few things put before 6 00:00:41.729 --> 00:00:46.570 our minds, a little bit of context and Instruction. So Romans Twelve, 7 00:00:47.130 --> 00:00:52.640 Romans chapter twelve, verse nine, here God's word. He says. Let 8 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:57.960 love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. 9 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:03.960 Love one another out of what love one another with brotherly affection, out 10 00:01:03.120 --> 00:01:08.069 do one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be 11 00:01:08.230 --> 00:01:14.909 fervent in spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient and 12 00:01:15.069 --> 00:01:19.819 tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints and 13 00:01:21.099 --> 00:01:48.400 seek to show hospitality. You may be seated. So, as we've considered 14 00:01:48.920 --> 00:01:53.319 in the last few weeks, Paul is beginning to give us lots and lots 15 00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:57.920 of specifics about how we ought to live the Christian life, and this is 16 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.790 a great thing because you remember, back in verse two, he told us 17 00:02:00.829 --> 00:02:05.310 that by testing we are called to discern what is the will of God. 18 00:02:06.230 --> 00:02:10.150 This is an important thing and in in our lives to know what God's will 19 00:02:10.189 --> 00:02:15.740 is. What is what is it that God who made you, who has 20 00:02:15.860 --> 00:02:20.539 saved you and is called you to live a particular kind of life? What 21 00:02:20.620 --> 00:02:23.539 does it he want you to do? That's an important thing to know. 22 00:02:24.259 --> 00:02:29.219 Paul says it himself that we are called to know it and learn it. 23 00:02:30.050 --> 00:02:32.490 Well, God doesn't leave us in the dark, he doesn't leave us guessing 24 00:02:32.689 --> 00:02:37.810 what his will is, but he gives us a lot of particular instructions, 25 00:02:37.930 --> 00:02:43.090 specific things that we can take home with us, that we can think about 26 00:02:43.169 --> 00:02:47.879 in consider in all these various aspects of our lives. How ought we to 27 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:58.830 live? And here he begins this killer section by saying of a genuine let 28 00:02:58.990 --> 00:03:02.789 love be genuine. This, of course, assumes that we ought to love 29 00:03:04.110 --> 00:03:07.069 in the first place. Love is, of course, the great commandment which 30 00:03:07.789 --> 00:03:13.219 holds in it all the commandments of God. And when Jesus was asked what 31 00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:16.180 does the greatest commandment, what did he say? Well, to love God 32 00:03:16.340 --> 00:03:21.620 with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor 33 00:03:21.740 --> 00:03:27.169 as yourself. If someone says I don't think God commands us to do anything, 34 00:03:27.250 --> 00:03:30.849 he just wants us to love, well then they obviously don't understand the 35 00:03:30.889 --> 00:03:37.210 very nature of love itself or the nature of God's Commandments. To love is 36 00:03:37.370 --> 00:03:42.360 to obey him, to love is to follow the things and do the things 37 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:47.599 he has called us to do. And in these few verses and several following 38 00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:53.719 God gives us some specific instructions about how we ought to love. So he 39 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:58.710 says, let love be genuine. He says, specifically in verse ten, 40 00:03:58.909 --> 00:04:03.189 Love One another with brotherly affection, outdo one another and showing honor, the 41 00:04:03.310 --> 00:04:10.620 sort of funny competitive race to be the greatest blessing to someone else, not 42 00:04:10.819 --> 00:04:15.340 out of a desire to prove yourself, but to help and serve someone else, 43 00:04:15.220 --> 00:04:18.660 contribute to this needs of the state, seek to show hospitality. All 44 00:04:18.740 --> 00:04:26.610 of these wonderful loving commands. But he begins with this first cult there, 45 00:04:26.689 --> 00:04:32.810 this first phrase, this first command, let love be genuine. Think about 46 00:04:32.850 --> 00:04:38.839 how important that is. One way you can consider it as by thinking how 47 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:44.360 what it is. When it's not that way, what disingenuous love is. 48 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:51.079 Well, when love is not genuine. You often find yourself if it's being 49 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:55.709 if it's happening to you. You find yourself in a position of being tricked, 50 00:04:56.990 --> 00:05:00.709 of being deceived. You, when someone loves you, you're often depending 51 00:05:00.790 --> 00:05:05.509 on them, you're trusting them for certain things, you're expecting things from them. 52 00:05:06.980 --> 00:05:13.060 How would you feel if one day you found your spouse had acted in 53 00:05:13.139 --> 00:05:16.100 a way, in one way, even though they were saying and thinking another? 54 00:05:17.459 --> 00:05:23.009 It would hurt if you were told that you were loved and then found 55 00:05:23.009 --> 00:05:30.410 out you were not, that it was disingenuous. It would be terrible for 56 00:05:30.569 --> 00:05:33.209 love not to be genuine. It might also be very dangerous and costly. 57 00:05:33.290 --> 00:05:41.240 Imagine a soldier who only pretended to love his country, or a judge who 58 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:48.800 only pretended to love justice. Disingenuous love is a terrible thing. It's a 59 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:55.870 terrible thing, and it's because love is so great. Love is so valuable. 60 00:05:57.589 --> 00:06:02.629 When we are truly loved by another, what happens inside? Well, 61 00:06:02.709 --> 00:06:10.660 we find that our hearts swell with gratitude. We have confidence and courage and 62 00:06:10.819 --> 00:06:15.259 things that we might not otherwise when we know that we're loved, especially by 63 00:06:15.339 --> 00:06:19.050 people that really matter to us, that we really do depend on and lean 64 00:06:19.250 --> 00:06:25.889 on. We feel safe, we feel protected, we feel provided for, 65 00:06:27.810 --> 00:06:32.319 and the greater the love is, the greater these things are true. That's 66 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:41.800 what makes disingenuous love so terrible and genuine love so important and wonderful. Think 67 00:06:41.839 --> 00:06:45.079 of a couple examples. Maybe you're already thinking of someone your own life. 68 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:53.269 Take a few biblical ones. Maybe Ruth's love for Naomi. Genuine love. 69 00:06:54.189 --> 00:07:00.110 You have this non Israelite and Mo abide US Ruth, who clings to her 70 00:07:00.230 --> 00:07:04.779 motherin law and says, I will go with wherever you go. Your God 71 00:07:04.860 --> 00:07:10.139 will be Your my God, your people will be my people. And that's 72 00:07:10.180 --> 00:07:15.699 exactly what she does. She clings to Naomi all the way back to Israel, 73 00:07:15.290 --> 00:07:19.569 where they she lives in our house, works under bow as, follows 74 00:07:19.649 --> 00:07:24.009 instructions. You know the story of Ruth. She does all these amazing things, 75 00:07:24.250 --> 00:07:30.360 ends up providing not only for Naomi's physical hair and welfare and all the 76 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:35.600 rest, but even for her own salvation, as Jesus would be born through 77 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:43.079 her and through Bo as. Imagine, as great as that love story is 78 00:07:43.399 --> 00:07:46.990 between Ruth and Naomi, this daughter in law for her mother in law. 79 00:07:48.029 --> 00:07:53.310 Imagine what would have happened. If the opposite had been true, what if 80 00:07:53.430 --> 00:08:01.220 Ruth's great speeches and crying had all been just a show for some terrible reason? 81 00:08:01.620 --> 00:08:05.459 You can guess and imagine various other ones that might have been true. 82 00:08:07.060 --> 00:08:11.660 Can you imagine Naomi, who had already lost her her sons and her husband, 83 00:08:11.100 --> 00:08:16.810 who had who's coming back into our land and said call me Mara for 84 00:08:16.129 --> 00:08:22.129 bitterness as mine, and then to have her daughter in law, who had 85 00:08:22.569 --> 00:08:28.279 professed this great love for her, deceive her? The book of Ruth would 86 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:33.639 be an entirely different story, with all entirely different, entirely different meaning. 87 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:41.710 Everything, the whole Bible Bull Story of redemption would be different. But of 88 00:08:41.789 --> 00:08:50.549 course that isn't what happened. Ruth's Love was genuine, it was sincere as 89 00:08:50.629 --> 00:08:58.580 beautiful. There's another example. Consider Jonathan's love for David. You remember John 90 00:08:58.659 --> 00:09:03.580 Anathan, this prince, this son of Saul, who had power and unlikely 91 00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:09.490 would have ascended to the throne or had some great responsibilit Olidy and Israel if 92 00:09:09.529 --> 00:09:15.649 it had not been for David. But David was the Lord's anointed and Jonathan 93 00:09:15.769 --> 00:09:20.210 saw that, even though his own father, his own king, didn't see 94 00:09:20.250 --> 00:09:24.879 it. Now or if he saw it, he fought and he just tried 95 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:30.600 to destroy and deceive David and again and again and again. But Jonathan, 96 00:09:30.759 --> 00:09:33.559 because of his love for the Lord, loved David even more than his own 97 00:09:33.639 --> 00:09:39.549 father, even more than his own possibilities serving as King and we reaven for 98 00:09:39.669 --> 00:09:46.029 Samuel Eighteen. One that he loved David is with his own soul. And 99 00:09:46.190 --> 00:09:52.059 how did that express itself? How did Jonathan's Love Express itself? That genuine 100 00:09:52.139 --> 00:09:58.019 love expressed it himself in protecting David and saving his life and covenanting with him, 101 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:01.860 even in bowing to him. In a sense, he gives him his 102 00:10:03.059 --> 00:10:07.169 clothes, his robe, his armor, he takes his authority and his position 103 00:10:07.210 --> 00:10:13.330 in his status and he gives it to this shepherd boy because he loved him, 104 00:10:15.129 --> 00:10:18.490 because he saw that God had put his anointing on David, that this 105 00:10:18.529 --> 00:10:26.000 is the was to be the true king. Can you imagine what would have 106 00:10:26.039 --> 00:10:31.600 happened if Jonathan had done what many political leaders do, if he had clung 107 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:35.429 to power, if he had clung to his rights, if these privileges, 108 00:10:37.149 --> 00:10:41.509 he would have ended up, like his father, like many other insuls household 109 00:10:43.830 --> 00:10:52.700 dead on the battlefield. Judged by the Lord. Of course, the greatest 110 00:10:52.740 --> 00:10:58.100 example of true love, of genuine love, is the love that God had 111 00:10:58.220 --> 00:11:01.419 for us when he sent his son into the world to die for our sins 112 00:11:03.340 --> 00:11:09.610 so that we might live and love forever. Now, if Naomi's love and 113 00:11:09.690 --> 00:11:13.409 Jonathan's love and other examples that you might think of, maybe in your own 114 00:11:13.450 --> 00:11:16.169 life, of people that have loved you, if those are outstanding, this 115 00:11:16.490 --> 00:11:24.000 one, what adjective could we put to it? It's worthy of contemplation for 116 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:28.879 your whole life. The love of God in Jesus Christ. Paul says in 117 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:37.149 Ephesians three, eighteen and nineteen that the love of Christ surpasses knowledge. That's 118 00:11:37.190 --> 00:11:43.669 an amazing thing to think about. You could study every day, reflect every 119 00:11:43.830 --> 00:11:50.659 hour, meditate on the theme of God's Love Your entire life and you will 120 00:11:50.700 --> 00:11:56.620 never know how great it is, how deep it goes, how far it 121 00:11:56.860 --> 00:12:03.450 goes, how high it goes. Christ's love for us is so great that 122 00:12:03.570 --> 00:12:07.850 he didn't just give up an earthly kingship like Jonathan dived, but he left 123 00:12:07.409 --> 00:12:15.169 heaven itself to come into the world, to take on flesh, to live 124 00:12:15.409 --> 00:12:20.879 and to die as one of the ones. He was going to save everything. 125 00:12:22.039 --> 00:12:28.240 Jesus did was motivated by love and it was always perfectly genuine. Wrap 126 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:35.509 your minds around that that there wasn't a single moment in Jesus is entire life 127 00:12:35.070 --> 00:12:43.789 where a nonloving motivation overtook him. There wasn't a single moment where Jesus found 128 00:12:43.789 --> 00:12:50.899 himself thinking a nonloving thought. I think it's easiest to understand that. We 129 00:12:52.100 --> 00:12:56.940 begin to understand it when we think about our own love. Even at our 130 00:12:56.139 --> 00:13:03.649 best, we find our love to always have some degree of impurity in it, 131 00:13:03.850 --> 00:13:09.409 a bit of selfishness, a spot of bitterness, a tinge of pride. 132 00:13:11.090 --> 00:13:15.320 I've often thought that if I was ever in one of these situations, 133 00:13:18.679 --> 00:13:20.159 can't think of the word all of a sudden, but these kind of these 134 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:24.720 stereotypical things that we imagine. Your sort of jumping in front of a bus 135 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:28.789 to save somebody's life. That's the one I think of that even as I 136 00:13:28.870 --> 00:13:31.909 was sort of looping from the sidewalk to genuinely save someone else, I'd be 137 00:13:33.029 --> 00:13:37.669 thinking, boy, I hope somebody notices this. If I survive this, 138 00:13:37.750 --> 00:13:41.940 I hope I might make the newspaper. You probably don't have much time to 139 00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:46.220 think about that, but I have. Somebody notices right. Don't you think 140 00:13:46.220 --> 00:13:50.139 that's true? Don't you think that when even at our best, even when 141 00:13:50.179 --> 00:13:56.450 we really are laying down our lives for someone else, whether it's our actual 142 00:13:56.649 --> 00:14:01.850 physical lives or whether it's a moment of service or hospitality or opening a door, 143 00:14:03.009 --> 00:14:09.490 whatever it is, that there's always those stains of sin? And sometimes 144 00:14:09.529 --> 00:14:15.240 they're not that subtle. Sometimes that's exactly why we do these socalled loving things. 145 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:22.519 They're not genuine at all. When we think about that, when we 146 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:26.549 think about how sin creeps into our lives, and we study our own hearts, 147 00:14:26.590 --> 00:14:31.149 if not also the hearts of others, and see however present sin is. 148 00:14:31.029 --> 00:14:37.029 And then we go back and we think about Jesus. Never once an 149 00:14:37.029 --> 00:14:43.779 unloving thought, never once a prideful motivation, a selfishness in him. You 150 00:14:43.860 --> 00:14:50.340 know what, forget them. This one's about me. That's an amazing thing. 151 00:14:52.820 --> 00:14:58.690 It's hard to comprehend, it's really hard to imagine, but that's what 152 00:14:58.850 --> 00:15:03.049 we know and that's what we see in his life. The word of God 153 00:15:03.330 --> 00:15:11.759 is unflinchingly honest. It never sort of sugar coats the details. We see 154 00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:16.960 that in Jesus's own followers. We see it as it expresses us, or 155 00:15:16.399 --> 00:15:22.509 Adam sin, or Noah's sin or David Sin all over the great heroes of 156 00:15:22.590 --> 00:15:26.389 the faith. There's never a sugar coating on it. And when it comes 157 00:15:26.429 --> 00:15:31.789 to Jesus, the same. The same is true, but it's sweet, 158 00:15:31.870 --> 00:15:39.860 not because it's coated with sugar, but because it's sweet from top to bottom, 159 00:15:39.980 --> 00:15:45.419 in and out. Jesus's love is true and one day, when we 160 00:15:45.580 --> 00:15:48.940 pass into heaven, these things will be different. The stains of sin, 161 00:15:50.210 --> 00:15:54.009 the infiltration of it that we feel in our hearts, it will be different. 162 00:15:56.009 --> 00:16:03.289 Will know love imperfection, but for Jesus it's always been different. Jesus 163 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:08.120 didn't have to wait to go to heaven to find out that or to learn 164 00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:11.879 what true and perfect love is. He was born from heaven, he was 165 00:16:12.039 --> 00:16:18.669 born from God. His human nature was fully human, but, unlike ours, 166 00:16:18.789 --> 00:16:23.269 he didn't have this UNCRU or this corrupted humanity. All that to say, 167 00:16:23.309 --> 00:16:30.509 Jesus is love for you was genuine and it was sincere, and not 168 00:16:30.669 --> 00:16:34.460 in approximate way or in a mostly way, but in an all the way 169 00:16:36.259 --> 00:16:45.179 kind of way. That's why, when Jesus loves US and when those loved 170 00:16:45.259 --> 00:16:52.409 ones start loving him, the angels of Heaven Rejoice and give praise to God 171 00:16:52.490 --> 00:16:57.129 when the sin starts being put down, when the hatefulness and the pride and 172 00:16:57.250 --> 00:17:03.200 the anger starts being put away by God's own spirit and people start turning instead 173 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:10.200 and love, oh it's wonderful. The angels rejoice and we rejoice when we 174 00:17:10.359 --> 00:17:14.599 experience it, when someone has us into their home and welcomes us into their 175 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:18.309 lives, when someone cares for us when we're sick or forgives us when we've 176 00:17:18.390 --> 00:17:22.430 sinned against them, and we know the love of Jesus and these things. 177 00:17:22.230 --> 00:17:30.500 Isn't it sweet? Isn't it wonderful? Jesus is Love was genuine, it 178 00:17:30.579 --> 00:17:33.059 was sincere, it was never false, it was never stained, and because 179 00:17:33.220 --> 00:17:37.779 of that, because of that love, he works in our hearts in a 180 00:17:37.819 --> 00:17:45.130 way that we can begin to love. He is our faithful husband who provides 181 00:17:45.210 --> 00:17:49.849 us in his love, safety and protection and provision. That's genuine love. 182 00:17:52.609 --> 00:17:56.730 We can't comprehend in a complete and final sense how far it goes, but 183 00:17:56.849 --> 00:18:02.920 you can't and understand what it is and you can experience it and know its 184 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:08.920 benefits in your life. God is telling us, though, in Romans twelve 185 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:15.630 nine, that's it's not enough to own to merely experience his love, or 186 00:18:15.829 --> 00:18:19.069 to hear of it, I might say, and then fail to love others 187 00:18:19.150 --> 00:18:23.430 in the same way. That's like in one ear and out the other. 188 00:18:25.470 --> 00:18:30.180 You remember that Jesus parable about forgiveness, about the servant that owed the king 189 00:18:30.259 --> 00:18:33.859 a great, vast amount of money and he goes before the king and the 190 00:18:33.900 --> 00:18:37.740 king says, you owe me money, and he says, I know, 191 00:18:37.180 --> 00:18:41.569 please have mercy on me, and instead of throwing him in jail, he 192 00:18:41.690 --> 00:18:45.890 forgives him. And then that servant goes out and on his way he meets 193 00:18:47.170 --> 00:18:51.089 another servant, a fellow servant, who owes him money, and instead of 194 00:18:51.170 --> 00:18:55.799 forgiving him, he shakes him down and he puts him in prison. Jesus 195 00:18:55.880 --> 00:18:59.799 tells the story to say, as you are forgiven, so you must forgive. 196 00:19:00.359 --> 00:19:07.279 You can't experience these things truly and then walk away from them unchanged and 197 00:19:07.480 --> 00:19:12.069 to live in another kind of way because of what Jesus has done. Paul 198 00:19:12.230 --> 00:19:18.069 says to each and every one of us, let love be genuine. It 199 00:19:18.269 --> 00:19:23.579 only is fair, it only makes sense, it's only right. As John 200 00:19:23.700 --> 00:19:29.420 says in First John, if God had so loved us, we ought to 201 00:19:29.619 --> 00:19:33.740 love one another. Isn't that true? Doesn't that make sense? If God 202 00:19:33.980 --> 00:19:38.609 the soul loved us that he would give us his only begotten son, whosoever 203 00:19:38.690 --> 00:19:44.329 would believe in him should not die but have everlasting life. If God loved 204 00:19:44.369 --> 00:19:49.289 us that much, should we not love one another? Of course we should. 205 00:19:51.609 --> 00:19:55.160 We might also add that those who have been truly born of God, 206 00:19:55.319 --> 00:20:00.000 it becomes a natural thing to love. It's it doesn't just make sense logically, 207 00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:03.480 but it makes sense spiritually. We have been born of the spirit. 208 00:20:03.559 --> 00:20:10.509 We have a nature in us that is born of love. To love the 209 00:20:10.589 --> 00:20:15.910 nature of love is that it breeds more love. Maybe you've had this happen 210 00:20:15.990 --> 00:20:19.309 in your household, where everyone's just having a bad day, ruin's cranky, 211 00:20:21.109 --> 00:20:26.019 being obnoxious and sort of unruly, and then one person decides I'm going to 212 00:20:26.220 --> 00:20:32.380 love. You're not necessarily sure why they decided it or how they decided it, 213 00:20:32.700 --> 00:20:37.369 but they start being really nice and really sweet. It's kind of hard 214 00:20:37.410 --> 00:20:41.609 to resist, isn't it? You feel kind of like a jerk if you 215 00:20:41.809 --> 00:20:47.049 resist it, if you start to cling to your bitterness and your anger and 216 00:20:47.170 --> 00:20:52.519 your crankiness. It's kind of infectious. And if that's true, and just 217 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:56.359 sort of a general human sense, in the workplace, in the FAM in 218 00:20:56.440 --> 00:21:02.279 family life. How much more true is that when the very spirit of love, 219 00:21:02.440 --> 00:21:07.390 when God himself comes into our lives, causes us to be reborn in 220 00:21:07.589 --> 00:21:12.549 his image and then fills us with his love and says go out and love 221 00:21:12.670 --> 00:21:18.420 one another? We see it, it's infectious. Love breathes more love. 222 00:21:18.619 --> 00:21:26.579 God changes US and calls us to it. It makes sense also from a 223 00:21:26.980 --> 00:21:33.009 sort of familial way, a family way. Some of you have met my 224 00:21:33.170 --> 00:21:38.970 father and usually when people do, they comment how similar we are. We 225 00:21:40.089 --> 00:21:45.490 look similar, we walk in similar ways, we think similarly, use the 226 00:21:45.529 --> 00:21:51.920 same kinds of expressions, probably the same for you. You Look and act 227 00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:56.960 and talk like your parents. And again, if we have been born of 228 00:21:56.119 --> 00:22:03.670 God, will not his children also love? The same is true for us, 229 00:22:03.710 --> 00:22:07.750 God says in John Thirteen fifty five. Jesus says you will know them, 230 00:22:08.109 --> 00:22:11.230 speaking of his disciples, you will know them, those who are my 231 00:22:11.390 --> 00:22:15.349 disciples, those who are my followers, those who have been born of God. 232 00:22:15.900 --> 00:22:22.539 You will know them by their love. Love for Jesus. If God 233 00:22:22.740 --> 00:22:26.660 were your father, you would love me. Jesus says in Johnny Forty two 234 00:22:27.339 --> 00:22:32.650 and love for other people. If we love each other, God lives in 235 00:22:32.769 --> 00:22:37.730 us. First John for twelve. The good news, as I've said, 236 00:22:37.809 --> 00:22:41.369 is that God sends his spirit of love into our hearts to bring this about 237 00:22:41.490 --> 00:22:45.599 in us. We don't have to wander off and find some source of love 238 00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:51.559 after we've sort of explored the empty well in our own hearts. We don't 239 00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:55.000 have to dig another one, because God just fills it on up with the 240 00:22:55.079 --> 00:22:59.789 living water of life. God gives us his own spirit that we might draw 241 00:22:59.829 --> 00:23:04.710 from his strength and his life. Unites us to himself like a vine to 242 00:23:04.869 --> 00:23:10.509 a branch, so that we can feed off of his source of life, 243 00:23:10.589 --> 00:23:14.380 off of his power, off of his love. The fruit of love, 244 00:23:14.500 --> 00:23:17.900 in other words, is born in our lives because of who we are in 245 00:23:18.059 --> 00:23:22.180 Christ. This is why God can say these sorts of things that I've been 246 00:23:22.220 --> 00:23:26.170 reading to you with great boldness. You will know them by their love. 247 00:23:26.890 --> 00:23:32.809 It's a pretty outstanding claim to make about human beings, isn't it? But 248 00:23:33.009 --> 00:23:36.930 God is the one who's making the claim. He is saying to the world 249 00:23:37.369 --> 00:23:42.720 you will know them, they will be recognizable by their love. How can 250 00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:48.359 God say that? Because he's the one who's doing the work. He has 251 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:51.640 confidence in himself, because he is, after all, God and the God 252 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:56.470 of love. This should give you great confidence, when you see your weakness 253 00:23:56.509 --> 00:24:00.910 and you see your sins, to know that it is God himself, the 254 00:24:00.069 --> 00:24:07.029 God of Love, who is working within you. That being said, we 255 00:24:07.069 --> 00:24:11.740 are then called by God to stir up the love in our own hearts and 256 00:24:11.900 --> 00:24:18.619 in others. When we fail at this, we repent and God forgives us, 257 00:24:19.660 --> 00:24:22.579 and when we succeed, we know that it is being done in his 258 00:24:22.740 --> 00:24:30.369 strength. This is the call to love and to let it be genuine. 259 00:24:32.609 --> 00:24:36.769 God doesn't want us to fake it. God doesn't want us to put on 260 00:24:36.890 --> 00:24:41.880 a show. God wants to us to love one another's one another e's been 261 00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:45.839 as Jesus have has loved us. He wants us to bear the fruit of 262 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:51.160 the spirit even as the spirit has been, has been worked in us. 263 00:24:52.680 --> 00:24:56.069 So, practically, how do we do that? How do we let love 264 00:24:56.390 --> 00:25:02.109 be genuine? Well, starts by believing God's word, by believing what he's 265 00:25:02.150 --> 00:25:04.950 done in Jesus, by trusting in him and trusting in his spirits work in 266 00:25:06.069 --> 00:25:10.579 us. It follows from that by being not just trusting that, but being 267 00:25:10.740 --> 00:25:15.980 committed to it. And being committed to him. If you hear the command 268 00:25:15.059 --> 00:25:19.500 to let love be genuine and you say maybe tomorrow, it's not going to 269 00:25:19.579 --> 00:25:23.930 happen, God calls us to be committed to his word and committed to him 270 00:25:23.970 --> 00:25:27.089 in faith, and to be committed to him in that way means to be 271 00:25:27.210 --> 00:25:30.970 committed on one another, to decide in our hearts, in our lives, 272 00:25:32.490 --> 00:25:37.920 my love will be genuine, my love will be sincere. I'm not going 273 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:41.640 to be about putting on false fronts. I'm not going to be about doing 274 00:25:41.880 --> 00:25:48.960 loving looking things in order to get nonloving things. I'm going to be about 275 00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:55.549 love pure and simple. As an expression of that commitment, maybe you can 276 00:25:55.589 --> 00:26:00.630 even think of a particular person, maybe someone that you need to love better 277 00:26:00.710 --> 00:26:07.859 or love more, and decide that with this person I will be genuine. 278 00:26:08.619 --> 00:26:11.779 Of course we should do it with all people and not just choose one, 279 00:26:12.539 --> 00:26:18.690 but you've got to start somewhere. Be Specific. If your love is genuine, 280 00:26:18.730 --> 00:26:25.170 it will be applied in specific ways, make decisions, be committed. 281 00:26:25.210 --> 00:26:32.170 Another thing we might add is letting love be genuine is greatly helped by learning 282 00:26:32.210 --> 00:26:36.359 the ways of love, and that's why I read some of these other verses 283 00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:40.440 do not be slothful and zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 284 00:26:40.759 --> 00:26:45.240 These are the ways of love. Contribute to the needs of sayings, 285 00:26:45.319 --> 00:26:49.069 seek to show hospitality. These are the ways of love. Or, if 286 00:26:49.109 --> 00:26:53.109 we read on in verse fourteen, bless those who persecute you. Bless and 287 00:26:53.190 --> 00:26:56.829 do not curse them. Rejoy, pace with those who rejoice, weep with 288 00:26:56.950 --> 00:27:00.349 those who weep, live in harmony with one another. It just goes on 289 00:27:00.539 --> 00:27:06.140 and on and on. These are the ways of love. Be a student 290 00:27:06.339 --> 00:27:12.299 of them, love them, be committed to them. Another thing you can 291 00:27:12.339 --> 00:27:17.450 do is look around you at the examples that are around you. If the 292 00:27:17.650 --> 00:27:21.369 love of Christ is evident in those who belong to him, surely you will 293 00:27:21.410 --> 00:27:26.130 find examples in other people where you say that is genuine love and that is 294 00:27:26.250 --> 00:27:30.440 genuine love and we can learn from them. All end by saying that, 295 00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:34.400 of course, the greatest example, in the greatest model is Jesus himself. 296 00:27:36.680 --> 00:27:41.240 We study his life, we learn his life, first so that we might 297 00:27:41.759 --> 00:27:45.509 have life in him, so that we might know salvation in him, but 298 00:27:45.630 --> 00:27:49.509 also so that we might follow after him, so that we might pick up 299 00:27:49.589 --> 00:27:56.630 his pick up our cross and follow him. It's not an accident. That, 300 00:27:56.750 --> 00:28:02.380 Jeez, that God says here in Verse Fourteen. Bless those who persecute 301 00:28:02.380 --> 00:28:07.900 you. That's what Jesus did. He blessed us, he saved us while 302 00:28:07.900 --> 00:28:14.690 we were at enemies. He came into the world out of love. So 303 00:28:14.890 --> 00:28:19.289 look to him, look to Jesus, and you will find both love and 304 00:28:21.569 --> 00:28:23.690 how we ought to love. Let's pray.