Fruit of the Spirit Week 3: Love
This week we are continuing our study of the fruit of the spirit and our focus is Love
Love
Love is everywhere we look – in songs and movies, on graffiti, bumper stickers and emojis. People use the word love in lots of superficial ways like “I love your dress” or “I just love mint choc chip” as well as for their loved ones.
But what does it mean when we talk about love in relation to what the Bible says?
Well, some of the most profound and inspiring truths about love can be found in the Bible.
God is love.
God loves you and me.
God’s love is unconditional.
God’s love is revealed to us in Jesus.
God calls us to love all those in need and our enemies.
Today we are going to concentrate on those last two.
But first let’s worship!
Let’s worship
We’ve learned that if we stay close to God and spend time worshipping him that we can potentially enjoy more of the fruit of His Holy Spirit in our own lives.
This week we’ve got ‘Reckless Love’ by Cory Asbury. According to the lyrics of this song, God’s love keeps coming after us. And that is true. He never stops loving us, no matter what we do. We should follow his lead. Love everyone no matter what they do to us or who they are. This version has some actions so you can really worship with your whole body.
We’ve also included a brilliant new song by Nick & Becky Drake called ‘The Golden Rule is Love’ - you won’t be able to stop yourselves from singing this for the rest of the week. And then there’s ‘Alive’ by Hillsong which is just made for dancing and for you littlies there’s a simple little song called ‘Love One Another’ by Yancy. Enjoy!
Let’s dive into the Bible
Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)
In this passage, Jesus says, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.’ This is the first and most important command. And the second command is like the first: ‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself.’”
Hmmm, what does that mean exactly? Well like us, sometimes people found Jesus’ teaching a bit tricky to follow, so to help them understand, Jesus used parables (another word for stories) to explain things in a really clear way and to teach people important life lessons.
Luke 10:25-37 (NIV)
A crowd has gathered around Jesus to hear him speak. A man who was an expert in God’s Law asks Jesus a question, “Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?” Jesus knew the man was an expert and sensed he might be trying to test him. He responded by quizzing the man about what the Old Testament Law said that a person must do in order to live forever.
The man’s answer was, “Love the Lord your God. Love him with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.” Also, “You must love your neighbour as you love yourself.”
Jesus says that he was right and that that was indeed the greatest instruction from God, as well as the way to have eternal life. The man then asks Jesus what he meant by the word ‘neighbour’. Did he have to love all of his neighbours or just the ones that lived close by?
In response to this question, Jesus tells a parable called The Good Samaritan which Annabelle recounts in the video below.
Let’s Learn - The Message
Watch Dani explain what God is trying to teach us through the story of The Good Samaritan below.
In her video, Dani talks about Samaritans and Jews, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, Trolls and Bergens. She explains why Jesus tells us to love our neighbour and explores what that means. She finds out who the neighbours are (clue: not just those next door). She shares a clip with some kids facing a pocket money dilemma over ice cream and finally she asks all of you kids to get involved with helping our local neighbours in need this week. You won’t want to miss it… plus you get to see in her house!!
Let’s spread the love
Colouring Activity for Love Your Neighbour
Our church is involved in an amazing project called Love Your Neighbour. It provides boxes of emergency food and supplies to people in crisis in our local area.
We would love you to get involved.
All you have to do is download, print and colour in one of the pictures below, ask your grown ups to post it to The Vicarage at St Clement’s. We will put it in one of the food boxes that goes to a person or family in need.
Our hope is that we can gather 40 or more beautiful pictures from our Lovechurch Kids to spread some joy and let our neighbours know they are loved.
ADDRESS TO SEND YOUR PICTURES TO: FAO: Lovechurch Kids Team, St Clement’s Vicarage, St Clement’s Road, Boscombe, BH1 4DZ
Let’s learn more about love
Science experiment: how to deal with a bully Jesus-style
Here’s a cool yet super simple science experiment for you to try out to show how Jesus would want us to respond to our enemies... All you need is corn flour, water and a drop of food colouring [N.B. – corn starch is what Americans call ‘CORN FLOUR’].
In the book of Matthew, Jesus teaches us to, “...love [our] enemies. Pray for those who hurt [us].” (Matt 5:43-45 NIV).
Easy right? Errr… no…. I mean, it’s not always easy to love people, especially people that we don’t like or worse still who are mean to us. But Jesus tells us that we need to love everybody, including the people who we might call our enemies. So, when someone says unkind stuff to your face or behind your back and you find yourself reacting in anger or with a hard heart. Don’t beat yourself up about it - it’s a totally human reaction but stop… ask Jesus to give you strength through the Holy Spirit and ask Him to help you use a softer, gentler, kinder approach. Love them as Jesus would have done.
During lockdown, it’s pretty hard to show family and friends outside our households that we love them. Here’s a really sweet film full of imaginative ideas about how you can reach out, connect and share your love with them, whilst still observing social distancing rules.
Did you see Dani’s weird hand gesture at the end of her video above?? Well this video will reveal what it means! And you can give it a try!
Let’s pray
Father God,
Thank you that you love us.
We pray that You’ll help us to love everyone just like You do.
Please help us to treat everyone the same.
Help us to forgive people that are unkind to us and love them in return.
Forgive us for those times when we haven’t always treated people with love.
In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.
