Love Wins!

To watch the sermon The Fruit of the Holy Spirit: Love Wins!

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Good morning.

Am I on?

Hello?

There we are.

Try that again.

Good morning, everybody.

Good morning.

I wish you a wonderful and peaceful Sabbath today, and glad to see so many here.

Always great to see the children.

You know, right now in the other church I preach at on Sunday, we're actually in a series right now on the Lord's Prayer.

And so I want to remind all you parents out there, it's our job to teach them how to recite it.

It's your job to teach them how to pray it.

Make sure that at home you're taking time to follow up with the children so they don't just turn the Lord's Prayer, the Kingdom Prayer, into something that we do by rote, but something that draws us into a kingdom connection relationship.

Amen?

Well, as a high schooler, I was a football player at the great high school, Southeast High School.

I was a Southeast Spartan.

All right, thank you.

Represent, Southside.

Anyway, and I remember as a football player that I was required to take note of how my opponent played, and the way that we did that is that we would gather together in the room with all the team, and high schools would exchange films, and we would sit there and we would watch the films of how our opponent had played somebody else.

And my job was to focus in on looking at the person that I would be going up against that next week, and try to find any little ticks or little things that, you know, any tendencies that they might have so that I would know and be prepared on how to play against them.

I had the privilege in Indiana of being a 2A high school football coach for eight years.

Not the head coach.

I and the other coaches would also spend time in that environment, and we would do the same thing.

We would pour over the films of our upcoming opponents.

But over time, I came to realize that knowing the game plan of the enemy was not going to be the decisive element that helped us win that game.

It was helpful to know what the enemy was doing, to know how your opponent was going to play.

But what I discovered as a coach is after telling my kids how the opponent was going to play, if my kids didn't know their own plays, it didn't matter what the other team was doing.

The key to victory wasn't just knowing what the other team was going to do, it was being completely saturated, consumed, and embraced in what you knew your job was.

What you were to do.

And if we went out to play another team, and our kids didn't know the plays and didn't know the defensive strategies, that was on us as a coach.

If we had any chance of winning, it would be that we taught our players not what the other team does, but what we do.

There are a lot of people in this day and age, and this week has provided some events that spur on conspiracy and prophecy addicts.

Now I don't use the word prophecy addict to demean people, because I consider myself a prophecy teacher.

But there is a difference between studying Bible prophecy and becoming a conspiracy addict.

People who are addicts, who are addicted to conspiracy, spend all of their time focusing on what evil politicians, the secret cabals of the wealthy, the long play of their perverse vision for the world may be, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I know this because every time I used to go out and do a revelation seminar, for the next few weeks once I would get home, I would get emails and letters and cards, you know, "oh watch this, watch this," and every single, not a single time did anybody send me an article or a book reference or anything that taught me about what I was supposed to do as we occupy until he comes.

Every single thing that was sent to me was to tell me, "did you know they're doing this?"

Yeah, I read it in Revelation.

I kind of already knew that was happening.

And I used to have to beg them, "please don't do this."

And this is what I find frustrating, is that I find in the body of Christ that we spend so much time watching their game films, watching what evil is doing, and we're not prepared to do the things God has called us to do.

Evil is going to be evil.

That's not my problem.

My call is to do what the Holy Spirit wants to do.

Paul told us to run after the gifts of the Spirit in the same way the enemies of our faith passionately pursue us.

But since we had that gifts of the Spirit series, may I ask you an honest question?

Have you done that?

Has there been any tangible change in how you have taken time, set time aside, to prepare to seek the Lord, to understand how he's working in you?

Now, forgive all the football illustrations, but good intentions don't get you there.

I can remember being a teenager, oh every year, when two-a-days come along, I'm going to be ready.

I'm going to be in shape.

And two days before the first practice, I'd start jogging.

And I'm going to tell you right now, two days of jogging prior to a two-a-day football practice in 100-degree Oklahoma August heat isn't going to cut it.

If you're going to be prepared, you have to be intentional.

If you want to flow in the gifts of the Spirit, you have to pursue them.

And when we come to the study of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, we need to know this.

Because the fruit of the Holy Spirit, when we talk about it, there is a danger that we will have a passive expectation about how it manifests in my life.

Now last week I stressed and I, and I stand on what I said, that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is a manifestation of sanctification, His work in my life.

That does not mean it is a work that I have no part of.

It is not passivity.

While the fruit of the Spirit is an act of sanctification, it's also a passionate pursuit of what I know I can only find in Him.

I have to be engaged if I want to pursue it.

Now again, there's two problems with this.

One that we reduce it to behavior modification.

Well, I'm just going to go home and try and love more.

Well, that's not a bad idea.

But you're not going to will yourself into love.

You're going to find love in Christ, in the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.

The intentionality of our pursuit of the fruit of the Spirit has to begin with an intentional pursuit and awareness of the Holy Spirit's presence in my life.

And quite honestly, that sounds and preaches good and a lot of us sit there and let's be honest, that is yes, that.

What is that?

Explain it to me.

I get it.

I've preached it for years.

So how does it happen?

It happens when we understand and we begin to focus our prayer life on seeking first the kingdom of God, pressing into Him and just asking Him to teach us.

It happens when our prayer life becomes more focused on being with Him than what I need to get from Him.

When I start pursuing — when my season of worship in prayer is longer than my session of worry in prayer.

Y'all are getting a two for a day, I'm throwing tomorrow's sermon in here.

But just be honest, the vast majority of time when we sin is not because of an oops.

It's because it's something I want in that moment and I say it or I do it because it's what my flesh wants.

So the piercing question for us today is, am I passive or passionate about the fruit of the Holy Spirit's presence in my life?

Do I really want His controlling, His leading, His guiding presence to be what manifests in me the most?

Now you think that's an obvious yes, but let's be honest.

There's an opponent on our playing field.

It's my flesh and my flesh doesn't want none of that.

Do I spend more time in being passionate about what the other team is doing, my flesh, or focusing on what the Messiah can do in me if I start paying more attention to His Spirit than my sin?

Will you pray with me?

Well, Abba Father, you've heard that introduction and you know that my heart and prayer is to lead our thoughts today through Your Word and by Your Spirit, to become a people that truly have a passion to pursue the Holy Spirit not as a, as a means of trying to set ourselves above anybody, but because You have given His presence into our lives to give us righteousness straight from the throne, straight from Your heart.

So my prayer today, Father, is that You would help us to answer the tough questions, to be willing to ask the tough questions of where we're at in our journey with You.

Lord, have Your way in our hearts.

Speak to Your people today.

Speak to those who have ears to hear and eyes to see.

To the glory of Jesus I ask this, amen.

All right, so my sermon title today is not actually Love Wins.

Sometimes things get converted, you know, when you send it in.

It's actually Love Works.

But in truth, both are true.

Love wins when love works.

Galatians chapter 5 verse 16.

Now don't say that because it's going to go straight to someone's head that changed my sermon title and I'm not going to point at anybody that, who that might have been.

I'm not going to mention names.

Galatians 5, 16, but I say, "Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh."

You know, I was thinking about all this in terms of how many pre-game, as a coach, how many pre-game speeches I gave and how I tried to fire up the kids and, you know, "Do you want to win?

Are you willing to make the commitment?"

"Yeah, we're willing to do that."

So what does it take to do that?

How does it, how do we win over this flesh, this enemy?

Walk by the Spirit and you will not desire, you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

That's a great idea.

Are you ready to do it?

Yes.

Are you going to do it?

Let me get back with you on that.

I'm not casting stones.

I realize from the time we entered the gifts of the Spirit till now, I have not been as intentional as I wanted to be.

So I'm not up here saying, "You, you, you."

I understand the battle.

But at some point in time, we have to listen to what our coach is telling us and if we don't listen, we won't win.

You want to win the battle?

Then walk in the Spirit.

And if you don't know what that means, then press into the Spirit and just pester Him until He tells you.

Galatians 5, 17, Paul describes that battle.

"For the flesh sets its desires against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do what you please."

There's a contest, there's a struggle going on.

And it's not just a battle of wills, it's a battle of desire.

The Greek word here for desire is not just a casual want.

The Greek word here is about a passionate desire.

Something that you passionately want.

The fruit of the Spirit, oh this is bad.

OK, I'm going to tell you in advance, this is bad.

It's a passion fruit.

Come on.

A moan, a groan, a laugh, it's all the same thing to me, OK?

"So what do you desire?"

That's a pity clap, I don't need that.

Look at him, mommy, he's dying up there.

"So what do you desire, what is your passion?"

Verses 18 and 19, Galatians chapter 5.

Now if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

What is his point?

If you desire the fullest expression of God's righteousness, God's righteousness that He's looking for, you have to understand the playbook is not just the Torah.

The playbook is the presence of the Ruach HaKodesh, the Spirit of God in our life that fulfills us, that brings us to the ultimate definition of the righteousness that He wants.

Now that's tough because sometimes, you know, we've been playing it.

It was tough for Israel.

Israel played it one way for many, many generations and then Jesus comes along and says, "Listen, all those things you were taught, all those fundamentals that are true are still there but here's how we're gonna win the game.

There's a new reality, there's something that's gonna take you to a righteousness that God is wanting for you."

It's tough, no one likes change.

Verse 19, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are sexual immorality, impurity, immorality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these," parenthetically I put in, "Wow, these, that's not even an exhaustive list.

How sad is that?

Of which I forewarn you that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."

Is that a big enough price tag for you?

Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

There's two terms here I want to point out.

The first one is works, maybe your translation says deeds.

But this word for, for a first century Jewish person, for a first century rabbi, the minute you start talking about works, you're talking about acts of righteousness or unrighteousness.

And what Paul is saying is that the work of the flesh, flesh works, are obvious.

I mean, no matter how much we think we can hide our sin from people, wink, wink, nod, nod, we all know.

Okay?

You may, you may have some things that you keep in your closet, but we know you're a sinner because we know we're sinners.

We know how that works.

The second word I want to focus on is practice.

The word, the word there is those who do these things.

You know, when I see that word practice, I go back to my football analogy.

We had to practice in order to do, to become proficient doing the things we were supposed to be doing.

When it comes to sin, most of us have practiced a lot.

Most of us are really good at it.

I got one amen.

There's one person going to heaven who was honest enough to admit the truth.

The rest of you all are in big time trouble.

But in the Christian faith, there's always this weird mentality that I don't, that I don't really have to do anything because, by the way, once saved, always saved.

Well if that's the case, why is Paul stressing his prior warning to saved people that they will not inherit the Kingdom of God if they passionately pursue and live by the works of the flesh, by flesh works instead of works of the Holy Spirit?

Why do you tell the church, "Those people out there are sinning and they're not going to heaven."

Well, if that's the case, why didn't he send a letter to them?

He sent that letter to us.

And he say, and he says, I'm even repeating the point, people who practice, people who make this, people who live their life by flesh works are not entering the Kingdom of Heaven.

The fruit of the Spirit is a work of the sanctification in our lives.

It is not a passive work of sanctification whereby we do nothing.

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

But where do you find passive in that?

Seeking involves intentional doing.

Amen?

It's not passive.

Now I don't, I was going to say I don't know if you're like me, but I know you're like me so, because we're, you know, we're all in this together.

And if you're like me, I have had occasions in my life where I was really frustrated with the Lord that He wasn't doing something to me.

Fix me, Jesus.

Anybody ever prayed that prayer?

Fix me, Jesus.

Take that temptation away from me.

In fact, I was driving up in Michigan one time and I was compraying.

Share it with your neighbors, they'll figure it out.

I was explaining to the Lord how He was messing up by not fixing me.

Just take it out.

And the Holy Spirit decided to get involved in the conversation.

And He said, "Brent, you're always wanting me to do something to you when I've already done everything for you.

Walk in it."

Does He always have to be right?

Yes.

The work of the Spirit is a work of sanctification, but it's not passive.

So what is that work?

Verse 22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Now before we partake of the first fruit, I want to take you back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, where Paul is beginning to take three chapters to discuss the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

And I want you to remember how the gifts, how he started that section.

Chapter 12, verse 1 and 2.

We're not going to go just a couple verses.

It says, "Now concerning spiritual gifts, I do not want you to be unaware."

Well, good, because if you're unaware, it's like a football player that doesn't know what job he's supposed to do.

I was coaching one time and I had a kid that came off the field from playing offense.

And we were a real small school, so I only had ... it was easier to count the number of boys standing beside me than the number of boys on the field to know if I had the right number of boys on the field.

And so the minute he came off the field and was standing there getting some water, I just decided to wait to see how long it dawned on him that he was supposed to be out there.

And he came and I said, "Well, I will call him Todd."

I said, "How's it going, Todd?"

"Good, coach, good."

I said, "What are you doing?"

"Oh, just catching a blow, getting some water."

"Good.

Feeling good about things?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, Todd, what's going on out there?"

He said, "Well, it looks like we're on defense."

"Uh-huh."

"We're on defense!"

And I just stood there going, "I thought it might dawn on you after a while."

You know, sometimes I think that's what we do in the church.

We're supposed to be out there and we're just kind of sitting around going, "Yep, that's where it's happening."

And that's where you were designed to be because quite honestly, you were designed to be the light out there, not just here.

Verse 2, "You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols however you were led."

Paul emphasized the truth that even when we were pagans, something was leading them to idolatry.

What was leading them?

The lustful, selfish desire of their flesh.

Flesh works.

He doesn't say that an outside source made them do it.

He says that they were carried along to do those things.

They weren't forced to do those things.

They were carried along by what they desired.

Now this is, this is really going to be important because remember, Paul is juxtaposing how flesh works come about and how spirit works come about.

And the, the bridge between the two is that there is an issue of desire within us.

This is how Paul sets up the significance of our need for the gift of the Holy Spirit in our life to be the one who carries us along to the gifts of righteousness, which you may have noticed if you don't want them, you won't flow in them.

Come on.

If you don't want the gifts of the Spirit, if you make no effort to pursue them, you will not flow in them.

And friends, the same is true about the fruit of the Spirit.

You cannot stand on the sideline and passionately hope that the Holy Spirit produces something in you, you don't want.

Now that's not to say that he won't sometimes side swipe you like a train.

If you're just not getting it, he's good at that too.

But most of the time, we're not flowing in what we have because we're not pursuing what he's given.

It's just that simple.

Write that one down please.

I like that.

The role of the Holy Spirit isn't to force his gifts or his fruit upon you.

Our part is desire.

And it's not casual want.

It's the thing that becomes the driving force of my life.

Eve ate the fruit because she desired what she thought it would produce in her life.

And from that act of selfish desire, a selfish appetite was birthed in our flesh and we've been fighting with it ever since.

But now listen as I read Proverbs 11 verse 30.

Because it's going to set up a very helpful connection for us.

We're going to compare two things and it's going to help us understand the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Proverbs 11 verse 30.

For the fruit of righteousness, let me stop right there.

What is the fruit of the Holy Spirit?

Fruit of righteousness.

Every one of those things that he lists, that is a manifestation of righteousness happening in our lives.

For the fruit of righteousness is a tree of life and he who wins souls is wise.

And that's a cool verse.

By the way, it's very cool in Hebrew too.

Notice how the connection is made between the fruit of righteousness and another tree we're very familiar with, the tree of life.

Immediately after we sinned, that was the tree God banned us from.

Why?

Lest they reach out their hands and take from the tree and live.

Like wait a minute God, I thought you wanted me to live.

Yeah, but not as an eternally non-redeemable sinner.

It's amazing how we can take something that God meant for our good and flip it because of our selfishness and redefine it as something that was bad.

God loved us enough to keep us from the tree that would put us in a non-redeemable state.

Because if there is no death, there can be no judgment.

And if there can be no judgment, Jesus cannot pay the price for our sin.

In the same way he invited Adam and Eve to partake of all the other fruits as an expression of his love.

Our origin story begins with creation from love and preservation because of love.

That's the first fruit we experience from God in the creation narrative.

Genesis 1.1 says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

In the beginning, that word in Hebrew is reshit, you know this.

And it's one of the words we use to describe first fruits.

And God said, "Let there be light."

I always say that in the one who is the beginning was the beginning, but I think you can also say that in the one who is the first fruits, God opened his mouth and spoke his love into existence, which means the first manifestation of God's desire, God's will, God's passion, God's heart, God's mind was to open his mouth and speak forth something that brought forth life as a manifestation of his love, which means the first fruit was love.

Well, that's interesting because that's the first one Paul lists.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love.

Why am I stressing the origin story?

Because we not only see the source of our creation, but we begin to see one of the primary ways that love is going to manifest in our lives.

Love, I want the fruit of the Spirit, I want love.

Love is not running around going, "Love, love, I'm just sitting here filled with love.

What are you doing for somebody else?

Nothing, just love."

Love works.

When God opened his mouth, he was working.

And how did he work?

Love.

And it brought forth life.

He didn't just passively think to himself, "Hey, love, that'd be a great idea."

He opened his mouth and did something about it.

He gave them access to the trees, all other trees, because of love.

He forbade the one tree because of love.

He banned the tree of life because of love for us.

But when we took what was not ours to take, we birthed death where God intended life.

We birthed doubt where God had given love.

And now after all of that, after Jesus being sent into the world that God so loved, now we have access to a taste of the tree of life.

I know you think you have to wait till you get to heaven and we're going to get to that verse in Revelation, but how do I know that we have access to taste from the tree of life now?

Because the fruit of righteousness is a tree of life.

And you don't go to the tree of life and stare at it and get life.

You don't go to the store and walk through the fruit and vegetable aisle going, "Mm, that looks so tasty."

Until you take it, you don't have it.

I spent, Tanya and I were talking about this, I've spent my whole life very much looking at the fruit of the Spirit as kind of an orchard that God produced within me that I didn't do anything about.

I never really pursued it as a fruit that I wanted.

But I ask again, where did our origin story begin?

With what we passionately desired and took.

And now in the Spirit, we get to taste the fruit of righteousness.

Love.

So I've been trying to figure this out.

Is the fruit of the Spirit something the Holy Spirit does to me or in me, or is it something I desire to partake of in the Holy Spirit?

And the answer is yes.

There is a work of sanctification that has to go beyond what I can do because my flesh doesn't want me to do any of it.

And I need the supernatural manifestation of His presence within me.

But here's the crazy thing, we can have the Holy Spirit within us and do nothing to press in to the Holy Spirit.

That's kind of crazy, isn't it?

The Holy Spirit is given to dwell within us so that we can be in relationship with us, but the minute we are invited to partake of the tree from which we were formerly banned, no thank you.

I'm not saying this to shame you.

I'm saying it because that's part of how the enemy, the flesh, works in us.

It's part of the way that we know that which, who's really carrying us along.

Am I pressing in so that I can take and receive, or is somehow my flesh distracting me to something else?

Ooh, something shiny.

Something the world has.

This is why we accept the fruit of the Spirit as an act of sanctification within us while believing it requires — this is, this is the problem when we accept the fruit of the Spirit as a sanctification within us while believing it requires nothing from us.

Said no farmer ever.

Are you a farmer?

Yeah.

That's my field right there.

What'd you plant?

Nothing.

What'd you harvest?

The same.

The fruit of righteousness has been placed within us to be desired and passionately pursued.

Not in my flesh, not as behavior modification, but in the joint working of His Spirit with my desire.

Fruit is one of those words that you can use in the singular for the plural like the tree of life.

One tree with many fruits.

How do I know?

Matthew 22, 2.

"On either side of the river of life was the tree of life bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the trees, of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

The tree is singular.

The tree of life bearing 12 different kinds of fruit. 12 different kinds of fruit, but they're all the fruit of righteousness.

It's one tree, multiple fruit.

Does that sound familiar?

Paul repeats over and over in 1 Corinthians 12 through 14, one spirit, multiple gifts.

One tree, multiple fruit, but they're not, it's all the same fruit, but it's many types of fruit.

It begins with that first fruit we saw in the first sentence of the Bible, the one that comes forth from God's mouth as His first expression of love.

Paul said the whole Torah is fulfilled in one word, love.

Paul took an entire chapter to tell us in the midst of our pursuit of the gifts of the Spirit that without this first fruit of the Spirit, the gifts are worthless.

If I speak with the tongues of men and angels but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

Wow.

Maybe we did this in reverse.

Maybe we should have started with the fruit of the Spirit so that by the time we got to the gifts of the Spirit, we understood the gifts of the Spirit is never going to make you something if you don't have love.

In verse 4 of chapter, in verse 4 of that chapter, Paul adds this line, "Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth."

Why?

Verse 8, "Because love never fails."

Love wins every time.

Why does love win?

Because love works.

And I want you to understand, I'm not saying, "Okay, love works like, oh yeah, this will work."

No.

Love works.

Love works that come forth from my relationship with the Holy Spirit, meaning love works because of love works.

There are flesh works and there are spirit works and the first fruit, the first act of righteousness is love works.

And without that, Paul says, everything else is worthless.

Love is the first manifestation of God's Spirit and creation and it's the first and most essential and greatest of them all.

Why can I say that?

Because righteousness is other-centered and without love, you have no testimony within yourself that you have understood or connected with the righteousness of God.

If my life is still driven by selfishness, I am not loving.

Because love will transform me from being self-centered to being selfless and other-centered.

And if I don't know that, I can turn the pursuit of gifts into just another flesh work.

I can corrupt the gift of the Spirit to be used for my benefit.

Yet what's the other thing that Paul taught us over and over again?

It's for the sake of the body.

Why is it that the most Torah passionate people of the first century crucified the Son of God?

Most Torah observant generation in all of Israel's history, they did not have love.

Because they were in love with themselves.

Because they were in love with making sure everyone else knew and obeyed their halakha for the Torah.

They were consumed with self in every way.

They interpreted Scripture in the theatrical ways that they gave their offerings and offered their prayers.

They literally turned acts of righteousness into manifestations and evidence of unrighteousness.

They were in love with themselves.

But that was them, right?

I mean we would never do that.

I mean those of us who have found great blessing and understanding and education, we would never do that.

Everyone knew under the sun, huh?

So I need to say this.

When you fall in love with keeping commandments and not in love with the master, you end up falling deeper in love with yourself instead of others.

When your love interest is the commandment and not the heart of God, then you're going to head towards imbalance.

And don't say, "Well, you're just picking on."

No, I'm not picking on these people.

This is what happened in the first century.

This is what killed Jesus.

I'd kind of like for it not to kill us.

So you see, we see the price tag of love.

Now we know that the fruit of love cannot grow in us passively.

It is a fruit that we will find in the Holy Spirit when we press into Him and when we passionately desire and seek His love so that we can love as He loved.

And when that happens, love works.

It works because love works come forth from a place of love.

And church, I want you to hear me on this.

There's no other game plan.

This is it.

We are living in a nation and a culture that is self-imploding with hatred.

We are living in a world that is imploding with hatred.

So what are we going to do about it?

Look at how they hate.

Look at how they behave.

I figured out there, no, love.

That's the game plan.

Get in the game.

What's going on out there, coach?

What are you telling me?

Get in the game.

And you're going to have to start with having some very serious talks with the Lord about whether love is actually the driving force and fruit in your life.

I'm not going to read all of 1 Corinthians 13.

If you think you've got love mastered, go read 1 Corinthians 13.

It'll humble you like that.

So I want to take you back to the first action of love.

It's what you do with your mouth.

How do I know that?

It's what God first did with his.

Oh, I want the fruit of the Spirit.

I want love.

All right?

Check your mouth.

For out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks.

What's coming out of your mouth?

Is it the arrogant presumption that you've got everything figured out and people need to know that you've got everything figured out?

Is your mouth running so much that you're not listening to people around you?

You're not hearing what's going on in their heart because you're bloviating about what's on your mind?

Are you speaking life into people?

Are you speaking faith, hope, joy, love?

Or do people walk away crushed in spirit because you needed to win?

I wish we had an environment where this really applied to us because I'm sure husbands and wives it's not.

Husbands, get in the game.

Wives, get in the game.

Open your mouth and speak love.

That's where, if the fruit of the Spirit is functioning in your life, it starts here.

Because that's where it started with our Heavenly Father.

Worship team you can come back.

As they're coming back, when we speak in love, it's like inviting somebody to the tree of life.

Remember that passage I read, Proverbs 1130, that the fruit of righteousness is a tree of life and those who win, literally in Hebrew, those who take souls are wise.

What is being said there?

It's being, this comparison of us coming to the tree of life and receiving the fruit of life from it.

It's what happens when we speak love into somebody else's life.

It's like bringing them to a tree of life and that's how we win souls.

We win souls with the, I mean listen, there are acts of righteousness, there's work, but right now for today, love has to begin where it began, with the mouth.

And Paul said, "How will they believe if nobody tells them?"

One of the most exciting thing for me this summer, one of the most exciting things, was at the end of CYC, Camp Covenant Youth Camp, was seeing five young men step forward to commit their life to full-time Christian service.

I don't think we have ever in all the years of doing Messianic style camp, Christian camp, have we offered that.

How will they know if someone doesn't step up and say, "I'll do it.

I'll speak, I'll teach, I'll be the one."

But people don't need a preacher in the cubicle next to them where you work.

They need someone with love that knows how to speak.

Now listen to one more proverb, "A healing tongue is a tree of life.

A tongue that binds up and heals and speaks love is a tree of life."

Well I want to close today, not with my words, because I'm really not the coach.

I didn't create the game plan.

In John chapter 15, the one who did, has something to say to his disciples, and quite honestly it doesn't need me to explain it to you, but if we're going to be disciples, if we're going to be spirit-filled, spirit-led, spirit-gifted people, we need to hear the master.

I don't have any fire-em-up speech to send you out here that is better than what Jesus said.

And so I want you to listen to these words.

Yeshua said, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes so that it may bear more fruit.

You are already clean because you have had, you have the word which I have spoken to you.

Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides with the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, and you are the branches.

He who abides in me, and I in him, He bears much fruit.

But apart from me, disconnected from me, you can do nothing.

If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

But if you abide in me, my words abide in you.

Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

Just as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you.

Abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

Just as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, that your joy may be made full.

And this is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

Greater love has no one than this, that one would lay down his life for his friends.

And you are my friends.

If you do what I command you.

No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing.

But I have called you friends.

For all things I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you.

And appointed you, that you would go, that you would go and bear fruit.

And that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give to you.

This is my commandment.

Love one another. novel.