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Our Struggles His Strength: Who Am I Really Counting On?
March 26, 2025 · 29 min
Watch A Significant Life every week in the PrayTV App or on YouTube.PrayTV App: Pray.comYouTube: youtube.com/@asignificantlife
Series A Significant Life March 26, 2025 · 29 min · A Significant Life
Watch A Significant Life every week in the PrayTV App or on YouTube.PrayTV App: Pray.comYouTube: youtube.com/@asignificantlife ...more Show the full description Show less Watch A Significant Life every week in the PrayTV App or on YouTube.PrayTV App: Pray.comYouTube: youtube.com/@asignificantlife
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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.
277K followers
0:00 America is at a crossroads with decisions to make that will affect generations to come. This reality can feel overwhelming, even unsettling. But when tomorrow appears unclear, our hope lies on focusing on0:11 today. What can we do today to build a faith that stands the test of time? This is the question Jim Graff answers in his new book, Rock Solid Faith. He shows us how to build a lasting faith that will inspire0:23 for generations to come. Reserve your copy of Rock Solid Faith today at a significant life dot com.0:34 It's always such a joy to be with you. And let me start by saying thank you to our significant life family. It's so fulfilling to teach people how to live with faith that causes God to work for good in the0:45 midst of all things.0:47 It is. And we've been doing it a while now. We've been blessed to pastor many of the same people in the same community for 35 and a half years. And of course, the church has grown, but more importantly, the people have.0:58 And today, we're beginning a series that helps us understand that spiritual growth is the secret to seeing our struggles turn into blessings through God's strength.1:27 Have you ever been denied access to something that you really wanted to do? I know for me, I'm a hiker. So when I drive by beautiful property, often I wanna get out of the car, and I wanna1:38 start taking a hike. But all too often, I see this terrible sign that says no trespassing. Or this 1 is funny. We went to a resort 1 time for Tamara's birthday,1:51 and we both liked to hike. And there were going to be miles of beautiful trails that we were going to be able to hike, but there was also a restaurant on-site. And I'd looked at the menu, and I couldn't wait to2:02 eat some of the food they said they served. But when I went to the restaurant, there was this sign that said, no sports coat, no service. And I looked at the hostess with2:14 exasperation on my face, and she said, sir, don't worry, we have a solution. And she brought out this coat that was so old fashioned, and it was so big on me. It was2:26 so awkward eating that meal. And as I ate, I thought, I'm sure this dude died, and his wife gave away this coat just as quick as she possibly could. But listen, whenever we see a2:38 sign, we know that sometimes signs are for our benefit, aren't they? They're keeping us from danger. Other times people give us signs because they don't want us to be messing with their stuff.2:50 Now, when God gives us a sign, we can always know that God is either pointing us in a direction of something good, or God is saying to us, I don't want you to go this direction because it's gonna3:02 do damage to your life. And this morning, we're gonna see 3 signs that God gives us in Romans chapter 8 where the apostle Paul begins this way. He says, there's therefore now no3:13 condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, you notice that he says, right now, in this moment that you and I are living in, God wants us to live with no3:25 condemnation. So the question becomes, why does God not want me to live with any condemnation? Is it because he wants me to stay positive regardless of how many poor3:37 choices I make in my life? Well, that's partially true because the Bible says that we're to rejoice in the Lord always, and God says, again, I'm gonna remind you, I call you3:49 to rejoice. And so God wants us to learn to stay positive because regardless of the poor choices that we've made, God always has a path to something good on the other side of our poor4:00 choices. But we're also gonna see in this chapter that God wants more than that for our life. He doesn't wanna be like this 88 year old man that I heard about who fell down the4:12 steps, and his wife was really concerned. And he got up and he said, honey, that was awesome. That's the fastest I've moved in years. Right? So God wants us to feel good, but more than that, God wants4:24 us to find the way into very good experiences in our life. And that's what Paul's words are gonna help us do today. I want you to notice that he says, not only there's therefore now no4:35 condemnation in Christ Jesus, but look at verse 2. It says, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit who gives us life has set us free from the law of sin and death. So Paul4:47 was concerned because there were a lot of people who were in Christ, and they had become believers in Jesus, but they didn't know what they could be set free from and the kind of blessings that4:59 they could experience through Christ if their relationship with him developed a little bit better. And that's what we're gonna learn to do this morning. As we go through Romans chapter 8, there's5:11 39 verses, but I'm gonna go slow because every single part of this chapter is so critical. If you wanna live a life where God strengthens you and gets you beyond5:22 struggles and gets you into supernatural blessing you could never receive any other way than through his love. And we're gonna go slow because the apostle Paul builds a case verse5:34 by verse that if we come to the end of the series and you're not convinced that in all things God's gonna work for your good, then the reality is you haven't grasped the truths that Paul has5:46 shared so well in these verses. Because let's face it, all of us struggle with something, don't we? We just had our pastor's conference recently, and 1 of my friends did a masterful job5:58 of being candid with the other pastors about his struggle. And I've known him for 20 years, and so I saw what he was describing, that in his twenties, he was a bodybuilder. He even6:10 owned his own gym. But over the years, with the stress of pastoring, he had gained over 100 pounds. And in that condition, his wife came to him, his doctor was talking to him6:22 because they didn't want his life to be cut short. But he said it was it was really hard because he was finding excess comfort and excess of joy in food. And all6:34 of us can do that. And he talked about how, you know, willpower would cause him to win, and then he would end up in the same place he was before he ended up losing the weight. And he said,6:46 finally, he realized that his answer was in something that he had preached to people who fought addictions over and over again in his church. But it took a6:57 vulnerability to God for him to find the victory that he was looking for. And he said that his victory really started 1 day when the Holy Spirit began to show him that he was7:09 as addicted to food as people he was helping were addicted to drugs, or they were addicted to anger to try to control people, or they were addicted to fear because7:20 it it protected them in their own minds. And he said the Holy Spirit said to him, Joe, you know, if I were to put you in a room that was filled with alcohol, and I was to7:32 give you a sleeping bag, and I was to tell you, you're to spend the night in this room, he said, you would not have 1 ounce of temptation in that condition. But he7:44 said, if I were to put you in a store that had ice cream all around it, that would be a different case. Can you say amen? So we're all tempted by something, but here's what he said that was so beautiful,7:57 is he said he realized that what he had to do was not look to willpower, but he began to form a special bond with his wife, and they began to study nutrition. And his children began to pray8:09 for him, and the bond he had with the Holy Spirit began to be strengthened in his heart. And this has been years ago now, y'all. And he he didn't just get set free for a week or 2. It's8:21 been 5 years. He's lost 100 pounds, and guess what? It ain't coming back because of what he found. And that's what Paul's gonna help us do. He's gonna help us learn how to overcome8:32 something, not through the strength of our own will, but through a special bond that forms with God, and through a special bond that forms with the people that God has called to love us, and8:44 the people God's called to support us. And God gives us 3 signs. And here's the first 1. God says, I want you to live with no condemnation in your life. And8:56 basically, here's what condemnation does. Condemnation says to us, you can't be counted on. You've made so many poor choices, and that's why you're in the consequence that you're in.9:08 And you know what? You deserve the bad condition that you're in because of the choices that you've made. Now we're gonna see from scripture that God doesn't feel that way. The truth is when we make9:20 poor choices, what God says is that is my child, and I wanna show them how much they can be blessed on the other side of this poor choice if they'll just let me love them. Can you9:32 say amen? Have you ever noticed how whenever you start condemning yourself or maybe other people are condemning you because of your failures, have you ever noticed how confused you get9:43 and how weak you get when that happens? Do you know why that happens? It's because whenever we condemn ourselves or we receive condemnation, literally a host of demons9:55 are going to come in and get involved, and they're gonna start condemning your life. And we have to break the power of that. That's why I love our Celebrate Recovery team because people10:07 come who hardly know God. They come into the environment of Celebrate Recovery on Thursday nights, and all they know at first is they can feel something that's different. And they love the10:19 love. They love the support. Then they start learning the scriptures, and pretty soon, something comes alive on the inside of them that, you know what? I can find power to to beat this10:31 because there are people around me who've beaten this in this room all over the place. How many of know that's what Jesus loves? He doesn't want anybody condemned. He wants people to say, you know what? The gates of hell10:42 can't prevail against my family. It can't prevail against the church I'm building. Amen? So first, God says, no condemnation. You're not allowed to go down that trail in your life.10:54 And when you look at the scriptures, it's clear that God doesn't want us to be condemned. Condemnation, the Greek word, means an adverse sentence. And so again, what happens when we11:06 condemn ourselves is we say, I've made enough poor choices that I deserve this bad consequence that I have in my life. But let's look at scripture, and let's look at how God sees11:17 us whenever we make poor choices. Psalm 1 0 3 says this, that he doesn't treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the11:29 heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. So whenever you feel like condemning yourself, instead, God wants you to look up in the sky, and he wants you to look how11:41 much higher the heaven is than the earth. And God wants you to say, that's how much God loves me whenever I make mistakes. There's a second sign God calls us11:53 to, and it's a sign that says no powerlessness. Verse 3 continues, and it says, for what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the sinful flesh, God did12:05 by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be our sin offering. Now, we're getting real theological here, but let me explain exactly what Paul's talking about. He's saying that when12:17 Jesus came, he was sinless. That's why he was born of a virgin. His father was God. And so Jesus never lived his life without having the nature of God.12:29 The second thing, Jesus had flesh like we do, but Jesus never gave in to his flesh. That's why that movie, The Temptations of Christ, was really a blasphemy because Jesus12:40 never entertained sin to the extent that that movie tries to tell us that Jesus entertained sin because Jesus knew how much damage sin would do to our life. And12:52 we're gonna understand in a minute how to treat our sinful flesh and how God sees our sinful flesh, but I brought a picture with me this morning. Let me see if anybody relates to this picture. Okay?13:04 Have you ever felt like this? New year, new you, but exit tacos. Come on, somebody. Tamara goes to see her mom on 1 Thursday night a month, and I'm by myself from Thursday13:17 till Friday late at night. And when Tamara leaves, she leaves me the healthiest meals. But you know what, y'all? She's not there to comfort me whenever I get home. So when I get ready to go home,13:29 I'm thinking about Venturas, and I'm thinking about TNT. I mean, it stands for tacos and tamales, you don't know that. But how many of you know they are dynamite? Come on, somebody. And13:41 and and God gave us food for comfort. God gave us food to to celebrate life with. But listen, here's what the enemy does. He tries to get you to do excessively something that's going to harm13:52 you. And that's what happens, for instance, with our sexual lives. It's not that God doesn't want us to live a life where we have certain gratification, but wise is the person who learns to14:04 live in a way where they understand God wants me healthy, God wants me holy, God wants me to live in a way where I'm satisfied in a way that my flesh could never satisfy me in14:16 life. And I want us to read a text this morning because just like Romans 8 is called by scholars, the best passage for us to learn if we want God to start working for good in the midst of all14:28 things. So Ephesians chapter 2 is probably the most concise definition that helps us or or the most concise passage that helps us understand the battle we have with the14:40 power of sin. And Paul begins this way. He says, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. So the way that God wants us to think about our life is when we14:52 were born into the world, we were dead to because of our trespasses and sins. Now dead to what? We were dead to the pleasure of God. We were dead to the special things that God15:04 would do if we began to form a special bond with God on the inside of our hearts. And when somebody's dead, they can't enjoy pleasure. Right? If somebody's dead physically, they're not gonna enjoy15:16 their children. They're not gonna enjoy their grandchildren. They're not gonna enjoy tamales and and tacos. If you're dead, you can't enjoy life on this earth. And Paul says, now here's the15:27 challenge. Here's why we struggle against sin's temptation so much. It's because when we're dead, we know the pleasure sin brings, but we don't understand the pleasure that God can bring15:39 into our life. And then he continues, and he says, in which all of you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who's now at work and those who are15:51 disobedient. All of us lived among them at 1 time gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts, and like the rest, we became objects of wrath.16:03 In other words, whenever we let the sinful flesh have its way, it's going to call us it's gonna tempt us with pleasures that bring us pain down the road. But listen to God's16:14 answer. It's not your willpower, but he said, here's our answer. But because of his great love for us, God who's rich in mercy made us alive with Christ, even when we16:26 were dead in our transgressions, it's by grace that you're saved. You notice it's not your own strength that saves you. It's not your own strength that blesses you,16:38 but it's a special bond that you form with the Holy Spirit. And God calls us to come together in church because there's to be a special bond between us and God. There's to be a special16:50 bond between us and the brothers and sisters that we worship with. And as we live in this special bond, you'll be surprised. But pretty soon, what's gonna happen is you're gonna desire17:02 the life that this special bond is forming over the the life that your sinful flesh is calling you to. I talked about my friend earlier, and he's such a compassionate guy that17:14 he has the nickname Papa Joe. And because he's so compassionate, he can sometimes say things that other preachers don't get away with. How many of you know what I'm talking about? So he talked in17:26 the in the pastor seminar about how, you know, in church, we gotta be careful because there are some sins we're so hard on. For instance, you know, the sin of adultery, the sin of sexual17:38 perversion, and it is sin, and it is hurting people. We need to call it sin. But how many of you think people need to feel God's love as we're talking about those sins? Amen? And he said, then there are other sins17:50 that in church we just put up with them. He said the sin of, you know, gluttony was something he was just putting up with. And he talked about the sin of being unforgiving to people18:01 or the sin of, you know, not being generous the way that God calls us to be generous with our time and our talents and our resource. And we don't realize that whenever we allow those things to18:13 reign in our life, we're keeping ourselves from special blessings that God wants to bring in our life. Can you say amen? So God wants us to say no to condemnation. God wants us to say no to powerlessness.18:25 And then here's the third thing, God wants us to say no to our sinful flesh. And we're gonna learn here that there is something that God wants us to condemn, but it's not ourselves. He says at18:37 the end of verse 3, what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering for18:49 us, and so he condemned sin in the flesh. In other words, what did Jesus come to do? He didn't come just to make you start doing more good things, but Jesus19:00 came so that we would live with this new attitude where we say, you know what? I'm not gonna condemn myself anymore. I'm not gonna put myself down anymore. I'm not gonna19:12 say that I'm powerless and there's no way good can happen on the other side of this struggle that I'm in. But I'm gonna realize that Jesus came so that I would understand God wants a special bond19:24 to form with me that leads to supernatural blessing. So flesh, I condemn you. Never again, flesh, am I gonna look for you for pleasure in my life. You are not gonna addict19:36 me to anything because you know what? I'm addicted to the love of God. This is bringing blessing to my life nothing else could ever bring. Can you say amen? That's when freedom starts exploding on the19:48 scene for us as Christians. You know, this week I was playing hide and seek with my precious grandson, Copeland, and I couldn't believe how well he knew the Bible. After he wore me out20:00 playing hide and seek, I had to think of something to distract him. So I said, Kopey, tell me a Bible story. And so he started telling me about Adam and Eve and, you know, usually when kids tell you a story from the20:12 Bible about the second line, you start laughing because they get something wrong. Right? You know, they'll say the snake bit Eve or something like that, you know, but he didn't do it. He got the whole way through the20:21 story, told me the story perfectly. And then when he got to the end, he talked about how God had banished them from the garden. And he said, God got mad at them and he banished them from the20:33 garden. And I said, Cobley? I said, that's not true. I said, God didn't get mad at them. Because when Adam and Eve sinned, the Bible says God came down, and he didn't say,20:45 Adam, Adam, what have you done? He said, Adam, Adam, where are you? I wanna love you. And God banished them from the garden because of his holiness. And Jesus20:56 died so that we can come back to God, and we can experience God's love in all of its fullness. And it was such a great moment with my grandson. But see, that's what21:08 God wants for every person who's here today. How do we start getting beyond our struggles? Well, we understand that God puts up signs. And these signs aren't for God's benefit, they're for our benefit. Tim21:20 Keller, who's 1 of my favorite pastors, wrote this, and I wanna read it to you this morning. He was talking about this very issue where we're forgiven, but we're allowing sin to reign. And because of that, the21:32 suffering that God wants to heal us from and to get us past is still continuing to plague us in our life. And he wrote this, that people from Western cultures want a God who's loving and21:44 forgiving, but not holy and transcendent. And he quoted studies of the spiritual lives of young adults from Western countries that reveal that the prayers, therefore, are generally21:55 devoid of both repentance and of the joy of being forgiven. See, we don't understand what Paul talked about, we find joy in being forgiven, but we don't find joy in God's holiness and22:07 his transcendent, you know, perfectness. And we don't understand that God wants to use all of who he is, all of his holiness, not to condemn us and judge us, but he wants to use it to bring out the22:19 best in us. Can you say amen? So anytime that God is saying no to us, he's saying, please don't diminish your life. Don't damage your life. I have so much better22:31 for you. The first century church understood this. Titus 2 11 and 12, it says this, for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people, and it teaches us to say no.22:43 Everybody say no. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passion and to live self controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. So next22:55 week, we're gonna talk about the Holy Spirit and how to live loved by the Holy Spirit. But I wanna give you a homework assignment this week. Okay? And that is I want you to unpack all23:07 the baggage, the condemnation, and unbelief in God's power, and look into the flesh for satisfaction. I want you to trim that down so we can start living this23:18 life where God begins to work for our good in the midst of all things. Amen? And I wanna tell you a story that might help you do it. Years ago, some of you remember, was 19 99, we just built this beautiful23:30 sanctuary, and Steve Saint came as a guest minister. His dad was 1 of 5 men who went into the Amazon jungle to a tribe called the Waidani23:42 people, and they were 1 of the most savage tribes known to man. Oil executives wouldn't go to this tribe because they speared people more than any other known tribe to people.23:54 Well, these 5 young guys felt like God called them, and Steve Saint's dad, Nate Saint, flew the plane that first would drop packages to express love to these people. And then finally 1 day,24:06 these 5 guys went, landed their plane on a gravel bar in the Amazon river, and they went to meet the Waddani people. Well, when they stepped out of the plane, the Waddani24:18 speared all 5 of these guys to death. And when Steve was here, he asked me if I would go with him to see the Waddani people. And so we did, and we bought a parachute24:30 plane that gave the Waddani the opportunity to to go to other tribes and to share medicine and to share Jesus with other tribes that were up in the Amazon jungle. But I'm telling you folks, what an24:42 experience it was. I mean, I was standing there talking to the people who speared those 5 men. And they talked about how when they speared them, angels began to sing in the24:53 trees. And they said, we looked at each other and we said, what have we done? How many of you are glad God can take people who are spearing people and he can make them people who25:05 save the lives of other people? That's how powerful the God we serve is. Amen? And the 1 who speared Steve's dad, his name was Micaiah, I25:17 met him. And he became the spiritual father of Steve later in Steve's life. You can read about it in the movie, The End of the Spear. But listen, when I was getting ready to go25:29 into the Amazon jungle, you know what happened to me? I was gonna fly in on this little missionary plane. And the first thing they did was they made me stand on a scale. I loved those people until they made me25:41 stand on that scale. Then they weighed my luggage, and they said, we got too much weight here. I couldn't do anything about this weight at that point.25:53 Right? So they took about half of my clothes and half my luggage, and the missionary plane put it aside, and then I could ride on the missionary plane. Here's my charge to you this26:04 morning. It's time to get rid of the luggage. Time to get rid of the baggage. How many of y'all want the condemnation and feelings of powerlessness and meeting your desires the wrong way? How many of say it's26:16 it's time for that to go on? It's time for the special bond that God the Father wants with us. Amen? To define our lives.26:26 It was such a helpful message today, and I'm looking forward to learning week by week how to live in the rewards Romans chapter 8 helps us receive. As you were teaching, Jim, that message, I thought about how the world26:38 always says be positive. Over and over we hear that, and it's important because staying positive always helps us overcome problems. But God's power does too. It helps us say no to things that will sabotage our26:50 efforts regardless of how positive we are.26:52 You know, I thought it was really interesting that before Paul taught the Romans about the importance of the Holy Spirit and living dependent upon the Holy Spirit, he taught them how to experience his strength.27:04 Whenever we're weak and we wonder what we're gonna do and he taught them to say no to the things sabotaging God's work in our life. And Tamra, the imagery of Romans is incredible. Paul tells us in chapter27:16 8 that just like sin is causing creation to groan, it's gonna cause us to groan too. But God has the answer.27:22 It does. And it promises us to fully live confident in God's answers and consecrate ourselves to celebrate the good God does. It is such a joy to do that with our church family, faith family church, and our27:34 significant life family.27:37 America is at a crossroads with decisions to make that will affect generations to come. This reality can feel overwhelming, even unsettling. But when tomorrow appears unclear, our hope lies on focusing27:49 on today. What can we do today to build a faith that stands the test of time? This is the question Jim Graff answers in his new book, Rock Solid Faith. He shows us how to build a lasting faith that will28:00 inspire for generations to come. Reserve your copy of Rock Solid Faith today at asignificatlife dot com. At asignificatlife dot com, we have 1 goal, to help you step28:12 into your God given significance. 1 way we do this is through pray dot com, where we post weekly podcasts, sermons, and more. Download the app today. The preceding28:24 program is made possible through the generous support of friends and partners of A Significant Life.
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The Bond of Peace: Forbearance: His Way or the Highway Jim Graff
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