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The Great Invitation: More Than A Feeling
July 9, 2023 · 30 min
Watch A Significant Life every week in the PrayTV App or on YouTube.
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Series A Significant Life July 9, 2023 · 30 min · A Significant Life
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Jim Graff is a respected pastor, leader, and author who loves helping people fulfill their unique
potential while finding their significance in Jesus Christ.
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0:01 Today on a significant life.0:04 People come to church and you have condemnation hanging over you, and you know you're still trying to guess stuff right, and you think God's mad at you. I got good news. The fact that you even care if God is mad at0:16 you is the proof that he's working in you and is closer than you could ever imagine. He's not cutting you off. He's cutting you back. Why? Because you're bearing fruit, and he wants you to bear more fruit.0:27 And we need this assurance of God's love.0:49 More than a feeling. Everybody say more. More. Than a feeling. And if you got good music taste, there's a song going on in your head right now. I1:01 think feelings are incredible gauges, but they're horrible guides. See what I'm saying? Like for instance, you feel burdened. Okay. That's a good1:13 gauge. In fact, how could you cast your burdens on the Lord like we're called to if you just deny the feeling of being burdened? No. No. No. It is a great gauge. It's just a horrible guide1:25 to let being burdened dominate and dictate your next action. Feelings are great gauges, horrible guides. And we could do some pretty dumb things. And if somebody were to ask you, why did you do that?1:37 Sometimes the only explanation you could give is because I felt like it. Right? We can do some pretty crazy stuff because we feel like it. See, feelings are1:49 horrible guides, but they're good gauges. Where we get in trouble is when we start treating the Holy Spirit as something to be felt more than someone to be2:00 followed. Sometimes we'll say we feel the Holy Spirit, and then we'll do stuff that Jesus wouldn't even want us to do. Right? Well, I feel like God's calling me to stand for truth. But2:12 if we're honest, sometimes we're being a little overly critical, and I don't know Jesus would want us to do that. Or I feel like God's calling me to distance myself. Right? But have we even, you know, submitted to the2:24 process of reconciliation that God tells us to submit to? See, I know it's complicated, but we start to have a lot of danger in our life when we start treating the Holy Spirit as something to be2:36 felt rather than someone to be followed. It keeps us from walking as closely with him as we should. The Apostle Paul knew what it meant to walk closely with God. And because of that, he saw God do so2:48 many amazing things in his life. You know, recently, Eden's parents surprised us with some money to go on the trip of a lifetime. We got back about 6 days3:00 ago from Greece. And when we were in Greece, we got to travel around and see things the apostle Paul saw. And it was crazy, man. I would just visit the sites that the apostle Paul was in, and I would3:11 simultaneously kinda be reading the stories of what was going on. And man, I was shocked at how closely Paul would follow the Holy Spirit even if it was leading3:23 to something he didn't necessarily feel like doing. For instance, Paul felt like taking the gospel to Asia. And then I read Acts 16 6 and it said, now when they3:35 had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. And I was like, man, that's cool. Paul was close enough to know, even though3:47 I feel this, I gotta follow him. So the Holy Spirit actually sent him to Greece, which to us is like vacation Greece, but when he went there, uh-uh. It was not a cakewalk. He was, you know, had3:58 mobs formed against him, put on trials. In fact, I'm gonna show you 2 pictures from my trip. Okay? Just 2, and then I'll not do it anymore. Okay? But when you put the first picture up, check this out. This is crazy. That4:10 beam that I'm standing right in front of, that is the very beam Paul would have stood in front of when he went on trial in front of Galileo. It was not a very easy time for him, but the Holy4:21 Spirit led him there. And then when he finally left Greece, God sent him to Rome. And it wasn't like Rome was a cakewalk either. In fact, could you put the next picture up? That is the prison4:34 that Paul was kept in while he was in Rome. It was the prison where eventually he'd be sentenced to die and become a martyr for his faith. My point is this, God did so much through the apostle4:45 Paul. But the more I read his story, the more I see why God did so much through him. It was because Paul was willing not to just chase a feeling, he was willing to follow a person.4:58 He was willing to say, God, if you speak, I'm gonna listen, no exceptions wherever you lead me. And I don't know about you, but I don't wanna miss out on what God can do in my life because I just wanna chase feelings and5:10 not follow Jesus. I don't know, you know, where you come in, but I would definitely bet that there are some things in your life that you wanna conquer. You wanna see your family walk in God's best, that you wanna live a5:21 life of unshakable joy, unshakable peace, unshakable love. And the cool thing is that you can, but you have to understand God's invitation to5:32 walk closely with the Holy Spirit. See, Jesus says, when we walk closely with him, we will bear much fruit. Everybody say much fruit. Much fruit. What do I mean? This is5:44 what I mean. Galatians 5 22. You tell me if this is stuff you'd like more of in your life, because I bet that it is. It says the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love,5:56 joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. There is no law against these things.6:08 All of us want more of that. And as we live close to the Holy Spirit, he starts to develop this stuff in our life. So how do we do that? I wanna give you 3 things that help us walk6:20 closely with the Holy Spirit so that he can bear fruit in our life. I'm gonna tell you where I'm going in the sermon today. I'm gonna show you that bearing fruit has a prerequisite. Everybody say prerequisite.6:30 Prerequisite. It has a process. Everybody say process. Process. And it has a point. Everybody say point. Prerequisite, a process, and a point. This comes from Jesus' own words in John6:41 15 1 through 8. Here's what it says. Jesus says, I am the true grapevine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit6:53 and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they'll produce even more fruit. You've already been pruned and purified by the message I've given. Now I just want you to pay attention. I want you to see if7:05 you notice any certain word that keeps coming up. Okay? Remain in me and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it's severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful7:17 unless you remain in me. Yes. I am the vine. You're the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you could do nothing.7:29 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words7:41 remain in you, you may ask for anything you want and it will be granted. Did you notice a word that kept coming up? Remain. Good. Y'all are good listeners today. Remain.7:53 It is very clear that if you want to walk closely with the Holy Spirit and have him produce fruit in your life, there is a prerequisite. You know what prerequisite is, right? Just so we're all on the same8:04 page, it's something you have to do in order to do something else. So like, before you take algebra 2, you gotta take algebra 1. Good. Some of y'all are like, this is8:16 all the sermon I need to stop talking about math. I'm sorry. I'm not gonna talk about math. Well, seeing God work in your life, it has a prerequisite. Here it is. The prerequisite is I must remain8:29 with God. Now let me talk about this for a second. Because what does it mean to remain with God? Sometimes I'm like, that's what the bible says but it sounds so churchy. Right? Like,8:41 hey, man. What are you doing? I'm remaining with the Lord. What that's weird. Nobody talks like that. So I was like, Lord, how do I explain this? And I think it's just easiest to understand it in8:52 terms of a regular relationship. Okay? Let's say that you're married or that you're dating someone, something like that. Right? You love this person. You spend as much time as you can together, but at the end of9:04 the day, you still got different lives. So maybe you're at work and you're doing your thing and somebody comes up to you and they're like, hey, you wanna go out sometime? The correct response would be, oh, I'm9:16 sorry. I am with someone else. Even though you're not physically with them. In other words, if you want a good relationship, you are with9:27 them even when you're not physically with them. You think about them. Would this make them happy? Would this make them sad? You care about how they're doing. If you're on Instagram at work and you see9:39 a a reel that you think they'd like, you send it to them. Hey, isn't this funny? Miss you, l o l x o x o heart. No sane person wants to be9:51 with somebody only when they're physically with them. But hold on. I think Jesus is kind of saying the same thing. I think Jesus is saying, you will not see everything I can do in your10:03 life if you don't know how to remain with me. See, we should think about Jesus all the time. Like, the apostle Paul says, we gotta pray10:14 continuously without ceasing. The psalmist will be like, Lord, let the meditation in my heart and the words in my mouth be pleasing to you, my rock and my redeemer. We should always be going through life like, hey, is10:26 what I'm doing right now gonna make God happy? Is it gonna make him sad? What would he care about? See, we can't just be with God when we're at church and then, you know,10:37 someone totally different when we're at other places. I see so many people that, you know, it's sad. They come to church to check a box. And sometimes we'll slap like a holy label on it like, you know, well, the10:49 weekend is for God. Our whole life is for God. Not the whole weekend. Our whole life is for God. It's in him. We live and move and breathe and have our being. It's this relationship where it's11:01 like, man, would that make God's heart happy or not? Because if it doesn't, I don't wanna do it. Right? We've got to live to love Jesus above everything else. And I promise you this, if it's hard for you to love11:13 Jesus above everything else, it's only because you don't know as deeply as you should that he loves you above everything else. See, it sounds so simple. Remain with me. But you know what11:24 I've learned? I've learned that it's actually more work to stay put than it is to run off. Here's what I mean. It's like this. I got 2 dogs,11:37 Winnie and Waldo. If you don't like those names, the doors are right here. Just like Winnie and Waldo. I'm a pretty good dog trainer. I'm not11:48 gonna lie, with a little downtime and some YouTube, you could do miraculous things. So I've taught them various tricks, but some of the basics are sit and stay. Right? So12:01 sometimes I ask them to stay because they're trying to chase something that's gonna hurt them. Right? It's like, hey, Winnie, no. That's a semi truck. Okay. You're not gonna win. Come back. Stay. But other times,12:14 it's just to exercise. I just wanted to train them. So I get a little treat. Or if you want a little dog lecture seminar thing, a little corner of a piece of cheese works great. Okay? So you get a little corner of a12:25 piece of cheese, and I say, sit. They sit. And then I say, stay. And they'll sit there, they'll stay. I'll take a step back. Stay. And then I'll put the treat on the ground.12:38 Stay. And then I'll back up to the point where if they wanna beat me to the cheese, they probably could. Okay? I'm not gonna run that hard. I have more cheese in the fridge. So I'll say,12:49 stay. And at this point, this is where Waldo caves. Okay? He's a little cracked out. He's like, ah, jeez. Boom. Gets it. But Winnie Winnie loves me, man. Winnie love13:01 so she'll sit there and she'll look at the cheese. But she don't wanna let me down. So I'll be like, stay. And she'll like, stay, Winnie. And then13:13 finally, I'm like, okay. Go get it. And she goes and she gets the cheese and she'll roll over because she wants me to pat her belly. And it's so hard for her to stay. But13:25 at the end of the day, she wants to please me more than she wants to treat. And the funny thing is when she wants me more than the treat, she gets both.13:37 Listen. I know you probably didn't come to church to be compared to a dog, but this is the best I got. Alright. We're the dogs13:49 in this example. It's a lot of work to stay with God. It's easier to run off. And sometimes God is telling us, stay because14:01 what we're chasing is gonna hurt us. But other times, God's saying, stay. Not because what we're chasing is bad, but because he doesn't want us14:12 to get things and that be more important than us getting him. He is the priority. He the the Psalms say, you are my portion. But the crazy thing is,14:24 when we chase God more than we chase things, we end up getting both. Amen. Why? Because he loves us. Now I'm not saying, you know, you're gonna have a mansion.14:36 I'm not saying that. I'm saying that God cares about your needs. And when you want him more than anything else, he's like, hey, I got you. Matthew 6 33, it says, seek the kingdom of God14:49 above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything that you need. It is work to stay and to remain, but it is worth15:00 it. I had 1 more example come up in my head late last night. I was laying in bed, I was like, oh, okay. I'm gonna say that too. So I think the word remain15:12 is misleading because remain sounds so passive. Oh, just remain with the Lord. Right? But actually, even in Greek, it's an active verb. So I started talking to Edens. Like, you awake?15:24 No. Good. I got something to tell you. And so I was like, you know, it's really more like, have you ever been tubing on a boat and you thought the person driving the boat was your friend15:36 till you got on the tube? Yeah. You know. So your life flashes before your eyes and you're like, trying to hold onto the tube and it's coming up and you push it back down. Right? Okay. I think15:48 remaining with God is more like that. It's like remaining on the tube. It's work. Why? Because everything naturally in our heart wants to pull us off. We got a sin nature. Everything around the people,16:00 the people around you, they got a sin nature too. So they sometimes make you wanna get off the tube too. But at the end of the day, God's saying if you will work to remain on that tube and say, I'm not leaving anything16:11 or doing anything that would disappoint Jesus. When you make your life a commitment to living every second for God, You stay connected to a vine and bear fruit in a way you could not bear16:23 it any other way. That's the prerequisite. Prerequisite, I must remain with God. But now let's look at the process. Okay? John16:35 15 1 through 2. I love this. Jesus says, I'm the true grapevine and my father's the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't bear fruit.16:47 And he prunes or some translations say cuts back because that's what pruning a plant is. He cuts back the branches that do bear fruit so they'll produce even more16:59 fruit. See, the bible draws a very clear distinction between people that are connected with God and people that aren't. Those who are not bearing17:10 fruit, they're cut off. Meaning they're separated from God forever. But those who are bearing fruit, they're not cut off, they're cut back or pruned. Now when the gardener17:22 sees a a a plant or a branch bearing fruit, he still has to cut it and clean it. And I wanna be clear, this is talking about how the Holy Spirit will convict us in our life.17:34 Conviction. Where where where he gently and lovingly says, hey, that's not the right thing. Because when the gardener sees a branch with fruit, he's still gotta cut the weeds off because the weeds will grow and choke out17:45 the fruit. He's still gotta clean it because there'll be bugs on the fruit. And if he doesn't do all of this stuff, then it'll ruin the fruit. So in in other words, God's gardening ecosystem. Okay?17:57 There's 2 options. You either get cut off. Everybody say cut off. Cut off. For not bearing fruit. Or you get cut back. Everybody say cut back. Cut back. Or convicted. Why? So that you can keep18:08 bearing fruit. Now let me tell you where the devil got me for the longest time. Okay? I would read the Bible. I would come to church, and I'd feel convicted like, Lord,18:21 the pastor's my dad. He probably knows that I'm not doing this stuff. Right? Right? Like, don't let him know Jesus. I'm sorry. I'll repent right now. I'll never do it again. You know what I'm talking about? Are you18:30 acting more holy than you are? Just kidding. I would feel so convicted when I would come into church. And for the longest time, I thought God cutting back18:42 my sin was him cutting me off from his love. I thought that feeling of conviction was like, oh, God's mad at me. He's distant. He he kinda shoves me off to18:54 the side because he don't wanna see me right now. And then you know what I realized? That the gardener is never as close to the plant as he is when he's pruning it. The conviction19:06 was the proof that God had never left my side. The conviction was the proof that God was close by. And so I come here today because people come to church and you have condemnation hanging over you, and you know19:17 you're still trying to guess stuff right, and you think God's mad at you. I got good news. The fact that you even care if God is mad at you is the proof that he's working in you and is closer than you could ever19:29 imagine. He's not cutting you off. He's cutting you back. Why? Because you're bearing fruit, and he wants you to bear more fruit. And we need this assurance of God's19:41 love so desperately if we're gonna be convicted well. Look what Jesus says in verses 2 and 3 again. He says, he cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce19:52 fruit and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they'll produce even more. Then he says this, this is I I got confused reading this. I had to think about it and pray about it. He says, you have already been20:04 pruned and purified. How? By the message I've given you. So I started thinking about, okay, well, if we've already been pruned20:15 and purified, why does God have to keep pruning and and purify? And I realized, to let God purify us, you have to know you are already20:27 completely purified in his sight. What do I mean? Jesus says you've already been pruned by the message that I give you. What is the message Jesus brought? The main message was20:39 his cross. What does the cross tell us? We look at the cross and it says, oh my goodness, I'm that sinful? Oh my goodness, I'm that loved? It says, oh my goodness, somebody had to20:51 die for me? And at the same time, wait. Somebody was glad to die for me? Jesus' message to us was, listen, man. You are a work in progress, but you are in the palm21:03 of my hand. You are my child. I'm not letting you go. And we need the confidence of God's love if we're ever gonna be able to receive the conviction of his love. You've gotta21:14 know God's convicting me because he wants the best for me. God's convicting me, but he's not letting me go. God's cutting things back, but he is not cutting me off. The21:26 process of bearing fruit is right here. I must let God cut and clean me with his word. So here is where the rubber meets the road. If you really21:38 want to bear fruit, we have to accept God's conviction and understand he's not mad. He's convicting us out of love. We can't just feel God because here's the21:49 truth, our feelings aren't always accurate. Sometimes we think God is so mad at us and he's right there trimming up the plant helping us. Other times maybe you were raised in a family where doing22:01 something was totally normal and then you read the bible, you're like, wait, I'm not supposed to do that? We we can't just feel God, we have to read God. We have to understand that his22:13 word is designed to bring clarity, to cut us, to clean us, knowing that it's for our good and he loves us. We cannot do this thing where we read the Bible and then22:25 we say, yeah, but the Holy Spirit in my conviction is listen, I'm just gonna be straight with you. If the bible says that it is not fine and we say, well my conviction says that it is,22:37 then we are calling our feelings Holy Spirit convictions and we're using the Holy Spirit to justify things Jesus would have never been cool with. We're not gonna mature that way. Listen. The22:51 Holy Spirit is not a feeling. The Holy Spirit is a person and he will never convict you to live a life different than Jesus23:02 lived and he will never convict you to hold beliefs different than the ones he inspired in his word. So if you wanna know, am I feeling God correct? Always23:14 first check it with the Bible because that's where we can know God best. Amen? Amen. We gotta accept his conviction on his terms. He loves you. It's for your good. So let me recap so far. First of23:26 all, to walk closely, to mature as believers, there's a prerequisite. I gotta remain with God. Second, there's a process. How do I how do I mature? I gotta let God cut and clean23:38 me with his word. Now let me end talking to you about the point. Everybody say point. Point. Here's the point of bearing fruit. Fruit isn't just for you.23:50 The end goal of bearing fruit in our lives is to love other people well. Just think about think about what Jesus says. He says, I am the vine, you are the branches.24:02 But the fruit isn't for the branch. The fruit is for anybody who comes in contact with the branch. So that when they come in contact with the branch there's something there24:14 that nourishes them and strengthens them, something that refreshes them. So here's how you know you're really maturing in your faith. Are the people that come in contact with you blessed by your24:26 life? That's the end goal of Jesus' teaching. Look, he says in verses 16 and 17, you didn't choose me, I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit24:38 so that the father will give you whatever you ask for using my name. This is my command, Love each other. Bearing fruit has a point. I24:50 must love other people well. So here's my question. How are we doing? We doing good on this? Are we loving other people well? And I don't just mean our friends. Are we loving our25:01 enemies well? When people come into contact with us, are they blessed by our life? Whether they come into contact with us, you know, at work, at school, at H E B, God help me, yea though25:13 I walk through the valley, are they blessed by my life? If not, hey listen, if not, it's okay. God is convicting you. Why? Because he's close by and you're bearing25:25 fruit, and he wants you to bear more fruit. And this is what he's saying. He's saying, hey, I loved you. Go love other people. I was patient with you. Be patient with other people. I was kind to you. Be25:37 kind. I was forgiving to you. Go be forgiving to other people. And when people encounter your life and they taste the fruit that God is growing in your life and they say, why are25:49 you this way? Just make sure you tell them about the gardener. Tell them that, oh, man. God's working in my life to bring me to a place of love, joy, peace. And not only26:00 that, but God wants to work in your life too. Tell them about the gardener. He's the 1 that deserves all the credit. That's the fruit that really lasts. Did you notice in verse 16 would you put verse 16 up again? He26:11 said, you didn't choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit. The only thing that really is gonna last is the love that26:23 we show each other. Not first place trophy, not a bank account, not a master's degree. None of mean, that stuff's good, but you aren't gonna take it with you. At funerals, people26:35 don't get up there and say, well, he had a master's degree. No 1 says that. It'd be weird if they did. What do they do at funerals? They talk about the love that person shared.26:47 Why? Because our hearts are programmed to know what really matters and what really lasts. So here's my challenge. Don't live a life chasing a feeling. Live a life26:58 following a person, following Jesus, and bear fruit. Tell yourself this week, I'm bearing fruit. But remember, can I have my recap slide, please? Bearing fruit has a27:10 prerequisite. I must remain with God. Bearing fruit has a process. I must let God cut and clean me with his word. And bearing fruit has a point. I must love other27:22 people well.27:29 Wow, what a fantastic close to this series. You know, my father taught me that just as big doors swing open on small hinges, the doors into our dreams usually open or they stay closed based27:41 on the small decisions that we make. God wants to help us make those right decisions. And Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20 tells us that if we learn experience the Holy Spirit's presence well,27:53 the byproduct will be life experiences that are better than we'd even ask God for and definitely better than we could ever experience in our own power. That scripture really inspired the title of this book we've28:05 written Maximum Impact. It's written to help people just like you experience the power of the Holy Spirit every day, regardless of where our starting point is. But listen, life's too short not to28:17 experience God's best, right? I remember thinking that thought as a young man who had little training regarding experiencing the Holy Spirit's power. And now I say it as a man who's done the work necessary28:28 to learn and to live in the power of the Holy Spirit every day. And I promise you no invitation is greater. And it's because no no greater love or help can be experienced outside of the love28:40 and the help that the Holy Spirit brings in our life. So I hope you'll make a decision to honor his presence in your heart. Or maybe for some of you, you need to reconnect with him or to give him the respect needed for28:52 him to birth a new supernatural season of healing, blessing, or impact in your life.29:01 The Holy Spirit is a gift to all of us, given to us by God, sent from heaven to be our helper. Are you living in the full power of this incredible gift? In Jim and Tamara29:13 Graff's new book Maximum Impact, you'll learn the importance of living by the Holy Spirit understanding practical ways to do so in your daily life, even in the most ordinary of times. Even Jesus knew29:25 that living the Christian life can be hard, but he never wanted us to live in our own strength. This book will help you see that every part of our life is open to change and we can achieve our maximum potential through29:36 the Holy Spirit. Are you ready to claim this promise that God has given to every believer and change your life? If you want more of our God and the kind of power it takes to make a maximum impact on our29:48 world, visit asignificant life dot com. And for your gift of any amount, receive your copy of Maximum Impact today. Visit asignificant life dot com.
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The Bond of Peace: Forbearance: His Way or the Highway Jim Graff
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