Grounded and Growing—Bearing Fruit Week 1 Love

This is part of the worship series, 
"Grounded and Growing—Bearing Fruit”

Series Introduction | Ascension Sunday | Pentecost
Love | Joy | Peace | Patience | Generosity & Kindness | 
Faithfulness | Gentleness | Self-Control | Communion Liturgy

Also in this year-long Grounded and Growing series: 
Advent and Christmas | Epiphany | Lent and Easter

Key Theme: Love is a selfless, unconditional commitment to care deeply for others, reflecting God’s perfect love. 

Love is the first fruit of the Spirit Paul lists in the Galatians passage. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says that of faith, hope, and love, the greatest of these is love. In Colossians 3, Paul lays out a wardrobe of godly virtues—compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience—and then says, “and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Colossians 3: 14, NIV).

Love is the primary characteristic, the core virtue of those who follow Jesus. It’s the thing that makes everything else we do mean something. You can prophesy, and have faith, and give everything you have to the poor, says Paul, but if you don’t have love, those actions are empty and meaningless. Love is the substance and motivation of everything we do as children of God.

Whenever I baptize someone, usually an infant, I look them square in the eyes and tell them that we love because God first loved us. Before we’ve even taken a breath, God loves us with an unconditional, self-giving, unfathomably great love. It’s the kind of love that beholds something broken and sees only beauty. We cannot come close to loving one another as perfectly as God loves us, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ calls us to do exactly that. We are called to love one another as Jesus loves us—to care for one another unconditionally, without pride or selfishness, but with the humility of the King who washed the feet of his friends. 

Service Outline

Call to Worship

Opening Song

“Because of Your Love” ^Baloche

Greeting

To those who are called,
who are beloved in God the Father
and kept safe for Jesus Christ:
may mercy, peace, and love be yours
in abundance.
—Jude 1–2 ^NRSVUE

Song of Praise

“Forever” ^Tomlin

Call to Confession

God’s love endures forever;
our own love is frail and fleeting.
But out of God’s unending love,
we are offered grace and forgiveness.
Let us confess our lack of love,
bold in the certainty that God’s love is bigger than our sins.

Prayer of Confession

Loving God,
you have commanded us to love one another.
Through your Son, you have shown what this love looks like, 
as he knelt to wash the feet of his disciples,
as he laid down his own life out of love.
We confess that we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves.
We do not lay down our pride in service of the other;
but instead we treat people as objects who might be of service to us.

Yet, we expect unconditional love from our friends and family and partners.
When their love is imperfect, even as our love is imperfect,
we grow angry and bitter. 
Help us to forgive one another for our imperfect love,
even as you forgive us. 
Help us to love, and to love well,
for in loving this world you have created,
we live in love for you.
Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon & Response of Praise

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but may have eternal life.
Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world
to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him.
—John 3:16-17 ^NRSVUE

Thanks be to God,
whose perfect love saved the world
and freed us from our sins!

Song of Thanksgiving

“Not What My Hands Have Done” ^Bonar

Passing of the Peace

Prayer for Illumination

Scripture Reading

First Reading: Matthew 22:34–40
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 13

Sermon

“The Greatest of These”

Song of Response

“The Greatest Commandment” ^Zach

[This song consists of a chorus and verse that can be sung on top of each other - consider teaching both and then dividing the congregation in two so each part can be sung together, as prayer and commandment are woven together.]

Breath Prayer

[The leader invites the Spirit's presence to fill our lives (as we breathe in) so that our lives might bear good fruit (as we breathe out). This prayer can be repeated a few times.] 

Breathe In: “Holy Spirit, fill us with your presence”

Breathe Out: “that we might live in love.”

Prayers of the People

Offering, Offertory Prayer

Song of Dedication

“They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love” ^Scholtes

Benediction

May the love of God surround you,
the grace of Christ sustain you, 
and the power of the Holy Spirit embolden you.
Go forth to live in peace,
loving God, and loving your neighbor as yourself.
Amen. 

Doxology

“Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” ^Wesley