The sermon emphasizes that love, as the ultimate fruit of the Spirit, is not merely an emotion but a willful decision and an active, sacrificial force that transforms individuals and the world around them.
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This is Bishop Dale Bronner. Thank you
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if you're in the metro Atlanta area on a
Sunday, check out one of our
exhilarating services at 8:30 a.m.,
11:00 a.m. or 6:00 p.m. Well, while
everybody is standing, let's uh
listen to the text for today, which is
Galatians chapter 5 verse 19- 23, the
modern English version of the
scriptures. You'll notice there these words.
words.
Now the works of the flesh are revealed
which are these adultery, sexual immorality,
immorality,
impurity, lwdness, idolatry, sorcery,
hatred, strife, jealousy, rage,
selfishness, dissensions, heresies,
envy, murders, drunkenness, carousing,
and the like.
I warn you as I previously warned you
that those who do such thing, the ones
who make a practice, a habit of
practicing those things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the spirit, this is a
contrast between the works of the flesh
and the fruit of the spirit. But the
fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, and self-control. Against such
there is no law. And today we're talking
from the subject of the ultimate fruit.
fruit of the spirit
because it is the the fruit out of which
all of the other fruit grow.
Where do you get your peace?
>> All of these are an outgrowth of love itself.
itself.
Love is the first fruit of the spirit.
Notice it's I'm so glad that he talked
about the first fruit of the spirit, the
preeminent, the ultimate fruit. It is
not power.
It is not fame.
It is not wealth.
The first fruit of the spirit is love.
And the ultimate fruit,
it is not something that you consume. It
is something that you become.
So when you talk about the fruit of love,
love,
it is not merely that we consume love.
We are to become the embodiment of love.
The Bible didn't say that God consumes
love. The Bible says God is love. 1 John
4:8, God is love. It this is about what
we are to become, not merely consumed.
Now they are connected because you are
what you eat.
So if I eat love, I become love. If you
eat carcinogenic things, you become cancer.
cancer.
You are what you eat. So the focus here
though is not merely on the consuming.
It is on the becoming.
I grew up watching Papa the Sailor Man
and remember when he would get on a
pickle, he would go and eat his spinach
and he would become strong. He was after
not the spinach, he was after the
strength, the stuff that the spinach
produced. There's a difference. So we
have to learn to consume the stuff that
helps us to become strong. We have to
consume what helps us to become more
loving. We have to consume what allows
us to become more joyous. So this is
about not merely what we consume but
what we become. What we become. You are
what you eat. And that's why you can't
have too strong of a mental diet of
things that you have seen online
because you'll be stressed out. And the
wars and the rumors of wars and the lack
of peace and all of the stuff that we
have in the world because of greed and
because of corruption in government and
world leaders.
We have an issue in our world now. And
I'm just telling you, it's time now for
the church to be in full prayer mode.
We are warriors. We are intercessors.
And we're in touch with the kingdom
above the kings of this world and the
presidents of this world. We have to
appeal to the king of kings and the lord
of lords because the heart of the king
is in the hand of God. AND HE CAN TURN
IT WHICHEVER WAY THAT HE so desires.
Our God is faithful. He's faithful. He
is faithful. And we do that because we
love people. It is our love that is the
motive behind all goodness that comes.
But you are what you eat. If you eat
pride, you become cold and callous and hard.
hard.
And if if you eat fear, you become
small. Fear will make you shut down.
It'll make you pass over opportunities
that could really bless your life and
enlarge you. But fear makes your world small.
small.
>> But if you consume Christ, you become alive.
alive.
>> Jesus said, "Except you eat my flesh and
drink my blood, you have no part of me."
And when we partake of Christ, WE
PARTAKE OF the Zoey life of God. We
become lifeed by him. So there's a
power. You are what you eat. Because if
you eat pride, you become hard and cold.
and and and when when you begin to eat
fear, your world gets smaller. But if
you partake of Christ, you come alive.
And then if you partake of love, your
world becomes expansive. Love opens the
whole world to you. You see things when
you get in love that you couldn't see
before. You don't even know what uh
living is until you fall in love. If you
don't know love, you don't know life.
You don't start living until you start loving.
loving.
You really don't. Love makes your life
come alive.
And when love is correctly cultivated,
the rest of all of the other fruit of
the spirit begin to ripen naturally.
When when love is correctly cultivated,
then the rest of the fruit of the spirit
begin to ripen naturally. And I want to
just show you all of the rest. The love,
the joy, the peace, the the patience,
the kindness, all of them. Joy is love rejoicing.
rejoicing.
>> So that's that's all joy is. It's love
rejoicing. Peace is love resting.
Patience is love waiting. Kindness is
love expressing itself. Goodness is love
that is serving. Faithfulness is love uh staying.
staying.
Gentleness is love handling uh ca
carefully. It's handling carefully
things. That's love. Handling carefully
when you're just in gentleness. And
self-control is love governing desire.
But love is the ultimate
gift. It's the ultimate gift. It is actually
actually ultimately
ultimately
God being reproduced on the inside of
us. That's what it is. Because remember,
God is love. First John 4:8, God is
love. So when you have love, love is
actually God being reproduced in us.
The essence of what we do here in
ministry, in church, is not about
rituals. It's about loving God, loving
yourself, and being able to love others.
It's all based on love. Jesus said,
"Listen, out of all of the other 630
laws, commandments that you have," Jesus
said, "I give you these two, and if you
can handle these two that all deal with
love, the ultimate gift,
>> if you just deal with those two, to love
the Lord your God with all your heart,
your mind, your soul, and your strength,
and then to love your neighbor as you
love your self." And there are too many
people that are wicked to their
neighbors. It is a reflection of their
own selfhatred.
So whenever you find people being nasty,
it has nothing to do with who you are.
It has everything to do with how they
see themselves.
>> Because when people have had a foul day
and when they've had bad and negative
experiences, it makes them negative. It
makes them critical. It makes them have
a bad attitude. So it's not a reflection
of you. They were like that when you met them.
them.
They were like that when you bumped into
them. And so we have to just keep on
allowing the beauty of God's love in us
to radiate out irrespective of how they
come across to us because they have
failed to allow the fruit of love to be cultivated.
cultivated.
Fruit grows.
So, nobody is just born perfected in
love and joy and peace and gentleness
and faithfulness and goodness and
meekness and temperance and all of that.
You grow in the fruit. They're not fully
developed. They're a seed. And as we
water them, as we nurture them, as we
cultivate them, as we are spiritually formed,
formed,
>> the fruit matures
>> and as it is exposed to the light, the
sunshine of God's the light of his word,
the light of his understanding, the more
that fruit begins to grow. But let me
clarify this. Love is not merely an
emotion or a feeling. Love is a decision.
decision.
Love is a decision. Love is a decision.
I'm just telling you, whenever you find
people that have been together a long
time, it's it's not that they were never
tempted to leave.
>> And I told you, I I I have someone who's
been together a long time and and and he
said to me, I I I asked him, I just
said, "Have you ever thought about
divorce?" He said, "No, I've never
thought about divorce, but I've thought
But love is a decision. It is a decision.
decision.
Biblical love is willful before it is
emotional. It is willful. It has a will.
It decides before it delights.
>> It commits before it celebrates. It
obeys before it makes sense.
>> It's a decision. Biblical love is
willful before it is emotional. So it
obeys even before it makes sense. When
you love people, you just when you love
God, you obey him before you fully
understand what is he's asking. Even
when you can't see it.
>> Jesus told us in St. John chapter 14 and
verse1 15 he said if you love me if you
love me you will keep my commandments.
If you love me you will keep my
commandments. If you love me you will
keep my commandments. You know why?
Because you see feelings may follow but
obedience comes first.
>> Obedience comes first. And one reason
that people are skeptical about our Christianity
Christianity
is simply because of the way that we
treat other people.
As you mature in love, you treat people
differently. Because here's the here's
the here's the principle. How you are
with people shows where you are with God.
God.
>> How you are with people shows where you
are with God. How you are with people
shows where you are with God. 1 John 4
and 20 says this that if a person says
that they love God whom they cannot see,
how can you say that you love God that
you cannot see and you can't even love
your brother, your sister that you can see.
see.
It says if anybody says that they love
God whom they can't see and can't love
the brother or sister that they can see,
it says that they are a liar.
>> The Bible says lie a liar, pants on fire.
fire.
It's amazing.
But how you are with people
>> shows where you are with God.
But you don't love people simply because
people are lovable. You know why?
Because some people are unlovable.
unlovable.
And we're commanded
to love them. Even the ones that are
hard to love. Some people are easy to
love. And there are other people that
you have to, you know, you have to say,
Lord, I need to feed them out of a long
because some people are so challenging,
so difficult to actually be able to love.
love.
But the issue is, it's not that
you don't love someone because they're
lovable. You love them because you give
to them. And I want you to just think
about how parents do parents fall in
love with their children more and more
every day because they are giving to
their children. They're feeding them.
They're changing their diaper. They're
bathing them. They're providing a roof
over their head. They are giving to them
constantly. The child has not done
anything. They're not working and
pulling their own weight, but the parent
still loves them because they're giving
to them. They're giving to them. They're
giving to them. They're giving to them.
The child is not entitled. They're entrusted.
entrusted.
>> There's a difference.
>> They're entrusted with your love. And so
before they can even contribute to the
family, before they can contribute to
the budget, we love them anyway. Because
love gives. Here's the thing that I want
you to see is that the Hebrew word for
love is actually the word ahava, which
means to give. Isn't that interesting?
The Hebrew word for love, ahava, means
to give. So when you love people, you
have to give something to them. Whether
you give a smile, whether you give
encouragement, whether you give a pat on
the back, whether whether you just uh
give something, it's it's your
attention. Whether you give empathy,
whether you give prayer, but you give
something to them. And when you give to
people, you somehow your love will grow
toward them as you give the ahaba.
>> The ahaba when you give to them. For God
so loved the world that he
>> gave. He didn't just say, "I love y'all,
>> but you're on your own."
No, no, no. He so loved the world that
he then
>> gave. That's a hava in manifestation
because love means to give. When you
love people, you give not because it's
obligated. You give because you love.
Love gives. It's the nature of love.
People with a loving heart. They're
giving people.
>> And they they may not have money, but
they can give you a smile. They can give
you encouragement. They can give you
some wisdom. They they give you counsel.
They give you prayer. I mean, they they
give you things that mean something.
They show up. They give you their attention.
attention.
>> When you walk in the room, the eyes
light up. And just the way that they
were excited to see YOU COME IN IS A GIFT.
GIFT.
>> It values the imo day, the image of God
on the inside of you. So every time that
we love people, we're actually giving
something to them. Ah hava it describes
an action not an emotion. It's an action
not an emotion not an emotion. So love
always gives.
Love is not merely a feeling. Love is a flow.
flow.
>> You flow in love. That's just how you
flow. My wife is a love person. She just
flows in love
>> in ways sometimes that just amaze me.
because she just flows in it. And it's a
genuine thing. It's not fabricated. She
doesn't wait until a camera is on.
>> She flows
in in in in a love. And she has a a
Godgiven ability to just allow that love
to flow through her. Love is not a
feeling, it's a flow. If nothing is
Love is a flow. Love is a flow. Love is
a flow. Whenever you come under
pressure, whatever is in you is coming out.
out.
>> Love is a flow. Love is a flow. And love
seeks the highest good of others. Love
seeks the highest good of others.
Because love is about giving at the
expense of self. Whereas lust seeks to
get at the expense of others.
>> But love is a giving thing. Love asks a
a better question than what do I want?
It doesn't just ask what do I want?
Here's what love asks. Love asks what
helps this person become who God
designed them to be?
>> How can I step in and help them to
become who God has designed them to be?
It says, what helps this person become
who God has designed them to be? And
love has a function. It's not just a
feeling. Love is a flow. Love is a
function. Love is a giving. So sometime
love comforts because you've been messed
up. You've gone through trauma. Sometime
love comforts. Sometime love confronts.
Like what what time is it? I see you
coming in here. It it's 2 o'clock in the
morning. What what time I tell you to be
here? And love will confront you.
They're not doing that because they hate
you. They're confronting you because
they love you. Sometime love confronts.
Sometime it carries. You can get sick.
You can get financially weak and
somebody has to carry you. I mean you
just need help. Sometime you can get
under addiction and somebody has to
carry you. Somebody has to carry you in
prayer. They got to be able to carry
you. Pleading the blood of Jesus over
you until you come to your senses.
Somebody has to carry you. When you fall
down, you get broken. You get hurt in
life. Sometime love carries you. And
sometime love corrects. Love comforts.
Love confronts. Love carries. And then
love corrects. Love won't just see a
person that's wrong and not then do
something to correct them. When you love
people, you correct them.
>> When you love people, you correct them.
If a parent loves their children, you
correct them when they're wrong. You
correct them if they say the wrong
thing. If they speak in the in the wrong
way. If they act or respond. If they're
bullying somebody. love ought to correct
them and said, "This is not how we do
this. This is not how we do this." You
see one child go over and slap one of
the other children and they cause harm
and injury to them. Stop them and have a
conversation with them. And it says,
"This is not the way that we express our
anger to inflict pain on another human
being and GIVE THEM AN UNDERSTANDING OF
WHAT THEY'RE DOING AND WHY this is
wrong." Love confronts. It brings a
clear framework so that if that child is
not taught while they are young how to
handle their anger, they will become a
grown man and a grown woman and wind up
behind bars and with some charge against
them because they were never taught THAT
WHEN I'M ANGRY. THIS IS NOT how we
express it. if I have to go out and go
for a walk, if I need to go to the gym
and work out, if I need to just go to
the backyard and scream to the top of my
lung. But we do not inflict our pain on
another human being because we are
angry. LOVE WILL TEACH YOU SOME SENSE SO
THAT YOU BECOME a respectable HUMAN
BEING AND YOU'RE not slapping and
pulling triggers and get pulling out a
switchblade when you get angry.
Love teaches. Love will correct you and
say, "No, no, no, no. This is not how we
handle anger. When we get angry, be
angry, but sin not. When I get angry,
this is what I do. I sit down and I say,
"Listen, I don't like this. The way that
you just made me feel make me very
angry. I'm upset." Teach them an
alternative way. Show them a better way.
Love corrects. Love corrects. Love is
not passive that said, "Oh, look at my
baby there." No, no, no. says, "This is
not how we do this as a family. You do
this again, I'm going to have to apply
the board of education to the seat of learning.
Love is not soft. Love is wise.
>> Love is not soft. Love is wise."
And love that is a fruit of the spirit
is not just transactional but it is sacrificial.
sacrificial.
>> You see people are the transactional
people are saying what do you bring to
the table? Love is sacrificial. The
sacrificial love says whatever whatever
you need baby in order for us to be able
to make it. I'm I'm I'm in it for you.
That's right.
>> I'm in it. I'm I'm in it to win it with
you. We we in this together. whatever
you need. It It's not that I I I put in
three apples and you put in three. No,
no, no. You might have to get a whole
bushel of apples and you might have to
be willing to stand out in front of the
this the fruit stand and sell the apples
and it may have to go longer than what
you expected because this may not have
been what you signed up for. But when
you have love, remember that a hava is a
giving love and it say we going to make
this thing work. It's sacrificial, not
transactional. It's like I bring this
and YOU BRING THAT. WHAT IF I GET INJURED?
INJURED?
>> What if I GET HURT? WHAT IF I'M LAID off
of my job?
>> Where's my Ahaba been?
>> It's like when I need a hand up, who's
going to give me the hand up when I'm in
a position where I cannot contribute in
the way that I have been contributing
before. I need a little a hover
>> so that I'm strengthened. That's
sacrificial. You see, love does not give
to get. Love gives because it reflects
God's heart.
>> And love serves without keeping score.
Remember that it keeps no record of
wrong. And love blesses without
bargaining. You know, you don't just if
if if I do this for you then, baby, what
you going to do for me?
>> That's transactional. Love blesses
without bargaining. And love pours
without demanding repayment.
>> It just pours.
And see we we are in our culture today
we have become so self-conscious and I
and I understand you know we we are
self-aware we got talk about self-esteem
and self-acceptance and self-love and
self-image and self-realization and and
self-preservation and all of all of this
stuff revolving around self. But how
does that pair up with what Jesus taught
us? That's right.
>> Jesus taught us to have sacrificial love
which denies self.
>> Luke chapter 9 23 and 24. Notice this.
Then he said to them all, "Whoever wants
to be my disciple," Jesus said, "You're
going to be a disciple coming after me.
You must deny yourself." Whoever wants
to be my disciple must deny themselves,
take up their cross how often? daily,
every day, every day. And then do what?
>> Follow me. If you want to be a disciple
of Jesus, deny yourself. Deny yourself.
Take up your cross daily and follow me.
For whoever
>> whoever wants to save their life
>> will lose it.
>> But whoever loses their life for me will
save it.
>> It's a paradox.
>> It's a paradox.
But you have to give up in order to go up.
up.
>> And love is not going to let you lose in
the end.
>> Love's reward is alignment with heaven,
not applause from people.
>> I want you to understand that when you
do it God's way, it is alignment with
heaven. As it is in heaven, so it is on
the earth. Love's reward is alignment
with heaven. It is not the applause of
people. And if people don't uh stand
there patting you on the back because
when you're sitting with a sick person
helping them to get back on their feet,
if somebody has gotten addicted and uh
and they're going through rehab trying
to get themselves if they've been
traumatized and they're going through
therapy and you may not be able to
contribute much during that time, but
during that time you need somebody who
can just love you and you don't get
applause when you have sat up with a
sick child all night long. Nobody is
going to give you an award at the end of
the year. You don't get something on
your job just because you know you were
sitting up nursing a sick uh spouse or a
sick parent or a sibling or or whoever.
Those are the types of things that you
don't get the applause of people, but
you will get heaven's attention. God
will take note of people that are
manifesting the love of God in the
earth. And here's what I want you to see
is that power impresses people but love
transforms them. Power impresses people
but love transforms.
I cannot tell you the number of lives
that I have seen transformed over the
years. So many men have told me
personally, man, if it if it wasn't for
my mama, my mama wouldn't ever stop
praying for me. My mama my mama she she
she laid me on the altar and she took me
before Jesus and and man I would have
been I would have been I would have lost
my mind. I would have been in jail. I I
would have lost everything that I had,
>> when they had somebody. And then other
other men have told me, man, my wife
wouldn't give up on me,
>> man. When I was out there cutting the
food and doing all kind of crazy stuff,
and she should have left me. And I don't
even understand why she didn't. But if
it hadn't been for that woman that stood
to the horns of the all of the altar and
had a tenacity before God, she wouldn't
let me go. She wouldn't give up on me.
Love won't let go. Love won't let go.
Love keeps on forgiving so it doesn't
get offended. Love keeps on forgiving so
that it doesn't get offended. Love keeps
on forgiving so that it doesn't get
offended. And love will persevere
through because they know that love has
transformational power. And you can see
people that out of their love, it gives
you the strength not to give up. And as
long as YOU'VE GOT STRENGTH NOT TO GIVE
UP, YOU WILL SEE THE POWER of love begin
to transform that person. It doesn't
happen overnight. It happens over time.
The transformational power of love
happens over time.
>> Real spiritual growth. See, you have to
grow in this thing. It is not measured
by age or by tenure. All right.
>> There are some people that can work for
your organization
uh for a long time and and never really
mature. I'll never forget I spoke at a
school a number of years ago
and uh I was talking about some of these
principles to the staff. I was just
talking to the staff of the school and
uh the principal told me afterwards they
said, "You know, you mentioned about
this that you pointed out a lady here
that's been here for 25 years
and that she had 25 years of experience."
experience."
He says, "She doesn't have 25 years of
experience. She's got one year of
experience that's been repeated 25 times."
And so you can't just assume that
because somebody is hanging around that
they're growing.
>> Some people can be there and still not grow.
grow.
>> So real spiritual growth is not made by
age. It's not measured by age or tenure.
>> They can be there for a long time
>> and still not grow. Still the same old person.
person.
>> Still doing the same old thing the same
old way. No innovation. No no no
growing. No, not not trying to see how I
can better myself.
>> It is not measured by your gifts
>> cuz you speak with tongues or prophesy
or lay hands and get healing. That
that's not that that won't save a marriage.
marriage.
>> Real spiritual growth is not measured by
gifts. Real spiritual growth is not
measured by knowledge. Just because you
can quote chapter and verse, that
doesn't mean you've grown in the Lord.
And real spiritual growth is not
measured by your eloquence because you
can put your words together
>> and wow people with the way that they
just you can just spit it. You like you
spit knowledge.
And some of the folks that do that are
just demons on the inside,
but they can spit it out. They can just
real spiritual growth is measured by
this. Real spiritual growth is measured
by how kind your attitude is when you
have to wait.
>> You don't know how how kind people are
until you put them in a position where
they have to wait for something. Until
you see how you they treat difficult
people. How do you treat difficult
people? Anytime you run a business, you
going to have difficult people that come
in. And I understand sometimes you have
And then it's measured by how you
respond under pressure. How do you
handle pressure?
Real spiritual growth is measured by how
you respond under pressure. And it's how
you behave when you are unseen,
>> when you've really grown. It's not
because you're doing the right thing
because cameras are on you,
>> because you're FaceTiming somebody
because you going live on something. No,
no, no. is how you behave when you're unseen.
unseen.
>> And I'm just telling you, we're called
to love people that's unlovable. But as
I said, you know, we got to give prayer
to them. We got to give counsel to them.
We've got to give encouragement to them.
Cuz you don't really know who a person
is until money is involved.
>> Lend people money. Oh my goodness.
You'll see another side of things.
>> But you only have as much integrity as
you have with money. Yes.
>> So, you don't really know a person until
money is involved. Until you deal with
them when they're angry.
>> There's some people that's as sweet as
pie. But you need to see the other side
of Dr. Jackekal,
Miss Jackekal.
>> I mean, you you you just you need to see
you need to understand that if they get
angry enough, and you need to see that
before you get in a long-term committed relationship,
