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The
Fruit of Love, Joy | |
| For a good
tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Luke 6:43 We’re either going to be a good tree or we’re
going to be an evil tree. Someone who has a fruit orchard and takes good care of their trees
will produce good fruit from them. If they
don’t care for them properly then the fruit those trees bring forth will be corrupt.
I remember an apple tree along the drive in the neighbor’s yard back
home in Luke 6:44,45 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of
the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which
is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. JESUS SPEAKS OF FRUIT–BEARING LIVES John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that
abideth in Me, and I in him,
I can remember studying history as a child, and learning how the
American Indians taught the Puritans to prepare the soil for planting corn by
using fish as fertilizer. We also studied
how the farmers would gather together at harvest time to help each other harvest
their crops – working together at one farm, and then going to the next farm to
harvest together. But people today are so busy. It’s hard to find anyone who will give you a
helping hand, unless you pay dearly. As
brothers and sisters in the Lord we ought to be able to do things for one another
without expecting anything in return. THE FRUIT
OF THE SPIRIT Galatians 5:22, 23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against
such there is no law. If our life is a good tree, then this is the fruit that will be found
evident in us. THE FRUIT OF LOVE LOVE ·
Having
a deep affection for or attachment to When we love God, we are attached to Him. We are devoted to Him because we love Him so
much. Matthew 22:37, 38 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is
the first and great commandment. People know whether or not you really love God by your actions, by
your character. You can’t fool sinners.
You might think you can fool them, but you can’t.
A good tree will have this love for God. It will shine forth from their life. Their light will be shining brightly before all,
not hid from sight. Matthew 5:14–16 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an
hill cannot be hid. Neither
do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and
it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that
they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. And, you know, as we have this love and devotion for God, it will
also cause us to have a love for others. Matthew 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
There are those who cannot love others. They look down on the poor and needy, look down
on the disabled. They laugh at them. They
mock and scoff them. Where is the love of God? God is love and
His love should be in us. It is the fruit
of the Spirit. It should be shining forth
through us. Our devotion and love for God
first – and then our love for others. I’m not ashamed of my love for God. I’m not ashamed to stand apart for Him. I don’t care who laughs at me. I don’t care who mocks me. It won’t be the first time, and it won’t be the
last. The opposite of love is hate – so, if we don’t have love, then what
do we have? The Lord has done so much for us. We want His love shining out from our soul. Jeremiah 31:3b Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. He loves us with an everlasting love. And how great our love should
be for Him, and for others. WITHOUT PARTIALITY We should love regardless of where someone is from, what their skin
color is, what they look like, how they act. We should have no partiality in our love. God hasn’t shown partiality to any of us. He loves everyone, and we are to love everyone.
I John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death unto
life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not
his brother abideth in death. We don’t only love the brethren, but we are to love everyone – even
our enemies. Matthew 5:44a But I say unto you, Love your enemies . . . Yes, we are to love our enemies – and treat them right. Just because they’re our enemy doesn’t mean we
should treat them spitefully. That is not
love. I’ll get even with them. No, that is not love. Matthew 5:44b . .
. bless them that curse
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you,
and persecute you Pray for your enemies. Love
them. No matter what they’ve done to you,
love them. You know what I do? As soon
as someone does something to hurt me, I nip it right in the bud. I pray, God, forgive them. And don’t let me hold anything in my heart towards
them. That’s the way to get victory. Don’t allow anything to get in your heart to
where you’re out to get even. Proverbs 26:27 Whoso diggeth a
pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth
a stone, it will return upon him. Watch out! That thing you
throw at someone else can come back on you. Listen, don’t play games with God. Now, He’s talking about a good tree bearing good fruit. The fruit of love is precious. We want to be in the place where our love for
God shines. Others will see that we really
love God, that we are really devoted to God. They’ll see that we are sincere, that we’re not
playing games. It’s no time to be playing games. These are serious times. These are times when we should be drawing closer
and closer to God. Every moment draw
what you can from the Word, from the sermons in church, from testimonies where
God has blessed someone else when they trusted Him. We’re going to need these things in days to come. God can bring us right back to the sermons, bringing
them back to mind when we need them. It is a wonderful thing to have a love for God, and a love for people.
I prayed and prayed for love to be in my heart and soul. I prayed, Lord, put love in my heart. I don’t know how many times I knocked on that
door. I knocked and I knocked and I knocked.
And then one day God told me not to pray
any more for love – that He had given me that love. I thank God for that love. I want that love. And I don’t want anything to take its place.
To have love in your heart, to love God with
your all is a precious commodity, a precious fruit. Oh, it’s such a beautiful thing! Where nothing else matters
but serving God in love. Love is a strong cord. True
love is precious. HUSBANDS Ephesians 5:25–28
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself
a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it
should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own
bodies. He that loveth
his wife loveth himself. You are to love your wife as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself
for it. If you don’t love your wife like
you should then you don’t love yourself – either that or you are being selfish
and only loving yourself. Sometimes after a few years of marriage the newness wears off and
the trials of life are overwhelming – especially in raising children. Children can become an issue between husband
and wife. Here’s where they make a mistake:
yes, a man is to bear rule in the home, that’s scriptural – but when the husband
and wife disagree over what the children should do and shouldn’t do it harms the
children. Children know when you disagree. They’re not ignorant. Many times their ears are perked up to hear more
than you think they hear. When someone lacks love they can’t stand people. This may be because of the way they were brought
up. Perhaps their parents didn’t show them
any love. Their parents might have given
them everything they wanted – but love. LOVING YOUR CHILDREN Many parents think that they are giving their children love by giving
them everything they want. But that is
just spoiling them. Love is what they really
need, not things. Parents who are good
trees will show forth true love to their children. And they’ll take time to tell them they love
them. Now don’t lie and tell them you love them if it’s not true! That’s not having the fruit of love. That’s lying. Loving your children is so important: having an ear to hear what they have to say,
having enough of God and godly wisdom to instruct them in the ways of the Lord,
showing them what’s right and what’s wrong. Don’t compromise. When you
compromise, that true love isn’t there. When a child grows up with love, they’ll show love. Someone who doesn’t grow up with love doesn’t
know how to show love – not even to their mate or to their own seed. They just don’t know how to show love. I’ve met those who couldn’t even show love towards
God because they had no love shown to them when they were young. Love is so important in the home. Tell one another that you love them – but, as
I said, don’t say it unless you really do. Do you ever take time to say, I love you?
I really appreciate you. Yes, I love you . . . and, I like you. That covers it. There are homes where one of the parents is unsaved, or backslidden.
The saved parent is trying to raise the children
in the ways of the Lord, doing all they can to teach them the scriptures and showing
them what God says is right and what is wrong – but the unsaved mate interferes.
When there’s a double standard in the home it is very difficult,
because one pulls this way and the other pulls that way. They’re at loggerheads. If a parent is not really serving God, how can a child who wants
to serve the Lord serve Him in the right fashion when their parent is going contrary?
Now, as a good tree, we should never let our children stay out of
church just because they don’t want to go, never let them stay away from that
which pertains to the truths of the Bible. If we do, we’ll be sorry. We shouldn’t compromise just because they want to be like all the
other children, want to go to the same places, want to do the same things. What happens? The parents
begin to feel sorry for them, feel they’re missing out. I don’t know what is wrong with parents today. The children rule. They fight to get what they want. They’ll sulk till they get their way: and, they
get it! Many of them want their own way.
They don’t want to go the right way. They
want the way of the world. And that’s the way they’ll go when there is a
lack of love in the home, a lack of love for one another, and a lack of love for
the Word of God. When we’re not settled ourselves on certain issues it’s very hard
to tell our children the truths of God’s Word. I cannot fathom in my little mind how someone can read God’s Word
and see things that are as plain as the nose on their face – yet there’s such
a big hassle over believing what God has said. John 14:15 If ye love Me, keep
My commandments. Yes, if we love the Lord, we will keep His commandments; we will
love His Word; and we’ll want our children to grow up loving Him, and loving His
Word, too. FRIENDS One thing about friends: don’t become possessive. When someone is possessive they don’t want anyone
else to be around their friend. They don’t want anyone else to talk to their
friend, or to share any time with them, whatsoever. They want that friend all to themselves. Listen, that’s not a good thing. It will only get you into trouble. As children of God, when that love is really burning in our hearts,
we will be friends with all of God’s people – not just one or two. A husband and wife should be very, very good friends. They should be friends and companions, filled
with love for one another. They should
be pulling together to raise their family in the ways of the Lord – without compromise.
When you can’t fully understand, take the Word as it is written.
Some have such a hard time to really comprehend
the simple things of the Gospel. He told us to preach it in simplicity. Why? So even the simple could understand, even the children could understand.
THE FRUIT OF JOY The next fruit we want to look at is the fruit of joy. This is a deep, rich spiritual experience. A great joy comes to one’s soul. There’s
happiness and gladness that fills the heart because we have a deep spiritual experience
with God. This gladness and this joy radiate out, shining forth from us. We have a happiness
about us. Even when trials come our way,
there’s a joy. Luke 6:22,23 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you,
and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and
cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy:
for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their
fathers unto the prophets. We ought to leap for joy when we’re going through something – yes,
literally leap for joy that we can be counted worthy to suffer for His sake. The opposite of joy is sadness, gloominess, having a bad temperament,
being solemn or morose. Don’t think for
one minute that people don’t see that. They not only see us – but they hear us. We should be reflecting joy. Sure, we have troubles – but it’s sad that we
have to reflect these things instead of reflecting joy. We don’t have to, but many do. Sure, we have trials. Sure,
things are going to happen to us. We might
even shed a few tears, or many tears. Didn’t Jesus weep? John 11:35 Jesus wept. Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus were Jesus’ friends. He stopped by their house many times to visit
and have a meal. And now Lazarus was
dead. Sure Mary and Martha were having
a trial. Their brother was dead! How many times have you been with someone who was crying, and you
had all you could do to keep from crying, too? If I am trying to encourage someone who is having a hard time, I
find it hard not to cry with them. There are many sad situations where you might be in the place where
you need to be strong enough to be able to encourage and strengthen someone who
is going through a hard time. How can you encourage and strengthen someone
else, if you can’t encourage and strengthen yourself in the Lord. David encouraged himself in the Lord (1Samuel 30:6). And you and I can encourage ourselves in the
Lord. Yes, we can get into the Scriptures
and encourage ourselves in the promises of God. Instead of being morose or solemn or in the place where one gets
provoked and becomes angry, this fruit of joy should be radiating in the life
of a good tree. THE FRUIT OF PEACE John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My
peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it
be afraid. Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus. We can have freedom from worry and fear. Jesus left His peace with us. He gave it unto us. We don’t have to be a Nervous Nellie or
a Nervous Ned. We can be quiet and
calm. People see when we’re fretting and worrying. Do you know what happens when we fret, when we
worry? We lose a lot of sleep. We get to the place where we don’t even care
for our person because we don’t feel like taking a shower, or putting on clean
clothes. Worry can send one off the deep end mentally. It can cause them to have ulcers. Yes, worry can make one sick. Did you ever notice how your stomach gets upset
when you begin to get a little worried and upset, worrying and
fretting about things? Why should you spend your time worrying, when you can spend it trusting
God, and believing His promises? As a good tree there is peace. People can see that we’re not fretting or worrying.
Thank God that we can be free from worry
and fear, for fear has torment. I John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love
casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is
not made perfect in love. A good tree is not the person who has no peace. They are not the person who is discouraged, one
who is worrying and fretting. That
is not being a good tree. A good tree bears
the fruits of love, joy, and peace. |