Bearing Fruit (2)
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Outward Evidence
Outward Evidence
Closing Worship:
14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
We Seek God’s face, his presence
More than anything we want
Intro:
Something to Ponder:
How have you grown spiritually in the last year?
Not that you achieved goals or made more money
Spiritually speaking what has changed?
13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
Jesus said, I only do what I see my Father do
Comforter, Advocate when he has come he will guide you in all truth
Finished up w/ guide us into Holiness
Holy Spirit will guide you in to Holiness:
Galatians 5 says “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh
Be lead by the spirit rather than Driven by emotions and sinful nature
We put on a new nature
The Holy Spirit if you listen will warn you or expose you to yourself lol
Argument with Sarah this week
better story I’ll share at the Marriage conference
Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
Essentially Holiness is spiritual maturity
Give you life to God through receiving salvation
Jesus says we must be born again
Born of the Spirit
The problem for some people is that is where they stop
They never fully mature into the man and women of God their supposed to Be
Have you ever seen the Movie Peter pan?
On the surface a cute tail about a kid that can fly and lives in Neverland
He has ferries for friends
He’s mischievous, carefree, and kind of oblivious to the world
He leads the lost boys around fighting off adults living by his own kind of ethos
HOOK! Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman
Deep down it’s kind of a sad story of someone staving off responsibilities, rejecting counsel from others and willfully choosing to disregard the impending doom of mortality
He’s immature, he’s whimsical, willfully ignorant to responsibilities
It seems pretty foretelling of our society in a sense:
We have more and more people living in their own fantasy lands, we have VR and people can escape reality
That can be a pretty normal thing for people to want
But now instead of escaping reality
We have people bringing their fantasy lands to the real world
And requiring that you participate
Rules and morality be darned
There’s a lot of contributing factors which I’m not going to break down today
The sad part is now it’s encouraged and there will be a price to pay for all of it
The sacrifice is inevitable, and we can choose to sacrifice now or be forced to sacrifice later
Peter pan and some people are grown infants, and that’s an ugly sight!
The apostle Paul dealt with the same problem in the church (maybe not to this severity):
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?
Spiritual People but as Carnal:
They’re still getting led and dominated by the flesh
They proclaim to be christians, they’re in church but they’re still acting like children
Still spiritually immature
I think Paul in Corinthians was a bit frustrated with the church
You’ve been here a while why are you still immature
You’ve been here a while why are you still getting caught up in dumb arguments
You’ve been here a while why do you still envy, why are the relationships your in full of strife
Why do you cause division everywhere you go
Why do you continue to carry offense with you all the time?
Why are you letting your flesh dominate you?
You should be a leader by now but you never grew up
Why are you content being spoon fed everything
Tad Thompson:
You refuse to step up and be the leader you should be
I didn’t want the accountability
There can be a lock of spiritual maturity due to ignorance or lack of self control
13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
There’s evidence to a worldly life, there’s product that is produced
When we get born again, invited Jesus to take control
It’s no longer I who live but Christ in me
So we look at the wrong things to and we try to avoid those things at all cost:
We struggle through it,
we put away our hatred, our lewdness,
we put away the big things like murder and sorcery, we do good at no partaking in the bad things
We can focus on keeping away from the bad things and do an ok job of it
We mature into making better decisions but our growth stops there
Maturity is only realized when there’s fruit that’s evident:
Do we love people(yeah I love my friends)
Do we have joy (I’m happy sometimes)
Are you longsuffering? (Well momentarily I am)
So what’s the solution we try and be better and focus on our inadequacies and try and make ourselves better:
The problem we focus on the fruit rather than the Spirit
The fruit is the product not the purpose
So many times we want to try and force ourselves into Holiness
force ourselves into maturity
Force ourselves into bearing fruit
That we put the focus on us and not Him
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Band:
Connected to the vine:
How do you stay connected with friends and family?
Here’s a hint, it’s not stalking them on facebook lol
There’s is only true change through him and being connected
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
What good is it to call yourself a Christian and there be no evidence in your life
What good are you to pray in tongues 5 hours in a day and you curse your wife with that same mouth
What good does it do me to prophecy and move mountains but I neglect my kids and do have patience with them
It’s easy to try and save the world when everything else in your life is drowning
If we truly want to take on the attributes of the spirit, it’s not about forcing things or self help!
Spiritual maturity starts out looking like it’s for you, but in the end it’s for everyone else around you
Toiletry bag on counter
14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Maturity is being connected to the vine
Three quick ways to stayed connected to the Vine:
Pray: Take ownership of your life
don’t wait around for life to happen to you
commune with God
Communication with God puts us on the offensive
read His Word
Get connected to the Body:
don’t miss a Sunday to be around fellow believers
we’re the body of Christ
We’re not perfect but we’re working on it together
Stay connected to what God is doing HERE!
My buddy thinking he’s going crazy
Stay accountable
The Holy spirit will guide you
you also need people in your life to keep you from getting off track
Give him everything
It starts with making him Savior
But it’s realized with making Him Lord
Give you an opportunity:
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
1. Believe in Him a step of faith
Take another step of faith Commit to Him and watch what happens in your life
2. Get out of your chair and meet me down here