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Walk This Way: The Cure
November 27, 2024 · 29 min
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Series A Significant Life November 27, 2024 · 29 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.
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 on0:12 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 inspire0:24 for generations to come. Reserve your copy of Rock Solid Faith today at asignificatlife dot com.0:38 Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends at a significant life. We are so thankful for you. We love hearing your stories of how God is making your heart happier and how he's satisfying your desires as you learn to say0:49 no to discouragement and yes to developing into the amazing person God called you to be.0:55 You know, the Bible calls us over and over to thanksgiving. And it's clear we're called to be grateful for the good times God gives us. But even more, God calls us to celebrate at all times. And1:07 today, I'm looking forward to God's word showing us why.1:29 Well, was 19 83, and I was going to ride a a boat from Amsterdam, Holland to Helsinki, Finland. And I was gonna be preaching in Finland for about1:41 6 weeks, but my first meeting was still 6 days away. So I took out my money clip to see how much money I had, which wasn't very much at the time because my sermons weren't very good, and1:53 that meant my offerings were really low. And when I saw 20 dollars, I'll never forget how was standing by the railing of the boat and somebody bumped me, and my money clip went2:05 down into the ocean and started going to the bottom of the sea. And when that happened, you know what? I didn't jump into the ocean and start swimming and looking for my money clip because I2:17 recognized that, you know what? No amount of effort would have caused me to get that money clip. It was separated from me forever. Now this morning, I want us to read a scripture in2:28 that light. It's in Micah 7 verse 19, and the Bible says once again, God will have compassion on us. He will trample our sins under his feet, and he will throw2:40 them into the depths of the sea. Now, I want you to notice that we're not called to overcome sin in our own power, but literally God says, you're gonna need my power to2:52 overcome what sin has done to your life. And Micah's message today is gonna help us learn how to not let sin's curse characterize our life anymore, but how to live a3:04 life where literally we're separated from the suffering and the pain and the identity that sin has brought into our lives. Before we look at Micah's words, I want us to read another scripture3:16 that shares with us how God sees mankind and the struggle that we have with sin. In Ephesians 2, the apostle Paul wrote first, once you were dead in your3:27 sins because of your disobedience and because of your many sins. Now this was a circular letter, so when Paul wrote this, it wasn't talking to just 1 person who was3:39 you, but he was talking to people plural concerning you. And he was saying, whoever you are, you may think some people sin more than you have, but I want you to understand that all3:51 of you have committed many sins in your life, and so don't ever look down on other people or speak down to other people because the reality is all of you need help with4:02 the power of sin. And then the next thing Paul says is she used to live in sin just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil who's the commander of the powers in the unseen world, and he4:14 is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. So first of all, Paul wants us to know we're sinful, but second, he wants us to know that the sin has a source,4:26 and that source is Satan, and it's the demonic powers. And that's important because God wants us to know that there's deception behind the sin that we ended up engaging in, being4:38 enslaved by, suffering because of. And God wants us to know if we wanna break the power of sin, we're gonna have to deal with a very deceiving being, and also there's gonna be an energy behind4:50 this sin. There's gonna be a spirit behind this sin that we have to break. Now in the next verse, Paul says this, he says, and all of us used to live this way, following the passionate5:02 desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. And by our very nature, we were subject to God's anger just like everybody else. So here's the third thing Paul wants us to know, and5:13 that is sin is gratifying to us, and the grief follows the gratification. And the reason that we end up getting tripped up by sin so often in5:25 our life is because sin is terribly tempting to us as human beings. But then Paul gives us the good news, and he says, but God is so rich in mercy, and he5:37 loves us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead, and it's only by God's grace. So Paul, of5:49 course, was a Pharisee, and he knew that often what happens to believers is we become moralists, we become separatists, we become people who are condemning of other people for6:01 their sins, when in reality, we're not even dealing with sin well in our own life. And God showed us how he loves dealing with sin. Way back in the book of Exodus, you know, the6:12 Bible talks about how Israel made poor church choices. They were enslaved at the hand of Egypt for a number of years, and God was delivering them. And as they were leaving Egypt6:24 with the Egyptian army right behind them, the Bible says they didn't know what they were gonna do. And so God parted the Red Sea, dried the ground underneath them,6:36 and they began to walk across to freedom. But there was this trouble, and that is the Egyptian army was bearing down on them from behind. And God unparted the6:48 water, and he put the water right back in its place, and God drowned the Egyptian army. Now that's what happens to us whenever we give our lives to the Lord. God doesn't just7:00 want us forgiven of sin, God wants us freed of sin, and God wants to bless our future because he loves us. But we need to know that whenever we're forgiven, we're not7:12 just having God say, you know, you're forgiven, but I wish you'd do a little bit better. We're having God say, you know what? You're forgiven, and I wanna annihilate what sin has done to you in7:24 life. And I want you to know it never has to come back on you again, but you can be more than a conqueror, and you can live in the blessing of the Lord. Can somebody shout amen? That's what Micah is7:36 talking to us about in this text. And in my particular bible, the New Living Translation, the subtitle of what we're gonna study today says this, how do we turn misery7:48 into hope? And Micah gives us what is really the cure for dealing with sin as human beings. And it starts this way. Micah says, how miserable I am. I feel like a8:00 fruit picker after the harvest who can find nothing to eat. Not a cluster of grapes or a single early fig can be found to satisfy my hunger. So Micah's doing something so8:11 important, and that is, if we're going to help people, we have to connect with their pain first before we bring the answers that they need. If you're trying to help your kids, it doesn't do a lot of good8:23 just to tell them what you know they need to hear. But if you can connect with their pain, if you can help them know that you understand how difficult it is to go through what they're going through right now, then8:35 then you can succeed a lot more at helping them get through the pain. And Mike is saying, I get it. I get it that it's really hard to live a satisfying life because8:46 of sin. Then he goes on in verse 2, and he says, the godly people have all disappeared. No. Not even 1 honest person is left on the earth, but they're murderers, setting traps even for8:58 their own brothers, and both their hands are equally skilled at doing evil. The officials and judges are demanding bribes, and the people with influence are getting what they want, and together9:10 they're scheming to twist justice. Now you remember that Micah wrote this because sin had caused society to be a difficult place in Israel. And so first he9:22 gave us the call from God, and the call was that God was helping us see that whenever we live for selfish gain more than we live for godliness, it's gonna create a9:34 difficult society for us to live in. So in America today, we hear this a lot. Man, it's a dog eat dog world. Right? And the problem with the dog eat dog world is eventually we all meet9:45 a big dog who ends up eating us and making our life difficult too. And so the call is we got to deal with this self gratification as a way of life, which is at the heart9:57 of our problem. Then we learned God's challenge to us, and he said, I want you to learn to act justly. I want you to learn to love mercy, and I want you to learn to live humbly before10:09 God. Now this morning, we're going to learn God's cure because all of us have been knocked down by sin in our life. And the first thing that Micah teaches us is10:20 that sin's fascination needs to be eliminated. It's interesting that Micah is confident. He says, as for me, I look to the Lord for help, and I wait confidently for God to save me,10:33 and I know God will certainly hear me. So Micah wasn't concerned with what sin was up to in society for his own sake, but he knew that his heart had a relationship10:45 with God that was gonna spare him from effects of sin. But he talks about where he found his answer when he says, don't gloat over me, my enemy, for though I fall, I'll rise again.10:57 Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. Now here's a really important insight, and that is Micah didn't say if I fall, he didn't say if I sit in11:08 darkness, but Micah understood that even good people make mistakes. And the reason that I'm convinced that God is going to do good in my life is11:20 not my own self righteousness, it's because of the love and compassion that I can always run to whenever I fail. Can somebody say amen? Do you remember the story in the Garden of11:32 Eden? Man, Adam and Eve blew it. Why did they blow it? Well, Genesis 3 tells us in verse 6, it says that she saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious.11:44 And so she took some of the fruit and she ate it, and she gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it too. So I want us to notice that sin looks beautiful, sin looks good11:56 to us whenever we're thinking about engaging in it. But what happens is it fascinates us first, and then it assassinates us after that. Right? So when I was a12:07 kid, listen, I have the gift of evangelism. So I believed if God made her pretty, I could make her holy. Come on, somebody. I I I thought I could take care of that. But can I tell you something? That's not how it works.12:19 Sin will fascinate you first. And the truth is if you don't love her and if you don't wanna walk through a lot of issues with her to help her live her best life, then you don't deserve to marry her.12:31 Can somebody give me a good amen today? But sin has fascinated and then assassinated lots of people. Here's the second thing Micah talks about is after it fascinates us, sin12:42 begins to oppress us. He said, I'll be patient as the Lord punishes me for I've sinned against him. In other words, if you're a new Christian today, God doesn't change your life12:54 overnight, but God changes your life over time. And sometimes it can get really frustrating because the Bible says that what we sow, we're gonna end up reaping. And so we come to the13:06 Lord, and we want the Lord to change everything overnight, but it doesn't work that way. And Micah said, I've learned not to be fascinated by sin, but I've also learned not to be oppressed13:18 by it, not to be depressed because of the circumstances that it placed in my life. Whenever Adam and Eve sinned, God didn't come down and say, Adam, what have you13:29 done? Man, I thought you were smarter than what you just did. No, God didn't do that. God came down and said, Adam, Adam, where are you? I understand that you were deceived13:41 by the power of sin. And I want you to know there's nothing you could ever do that would keep me from wanting to love you. I want you to know that my love for you is not based on you,13:54 my love is placed on you because I couldn't love you more than I do. See, a lot of people, it's so sad because sin fascinates them first, but then sin starts14:05 oppressing them and they don't believe that God loves them anymore. And Micah says, if you want to find a cure for sin, first of all, don't be fascinated by sin any longer.14:18 And number 2, don't stay oppressed because God wants to help you, and God still wants to bless you in spite of the things that you've done. Then there's the third thing that Micah addresses, and he says,14:29 if we're gonna overcome sin, our obsession with sin needs to be overcome. He says, then my enemy will see it and will be covered with shame. She who said to me, where's the Lord your14:41 God? My eyes will see her downfall, even now she will be trampled underfoot like mire in the street. You notice that Micah was addressing the fact that sin14:53 has a source behind it, and that's why sin has the power to allure us, and that's why sin has the power to oppress us. That's why we can feel the presence of sin15:05 whenever we're in certain circumstances. It's because the enemy's behind it. And if you want the enemy to destroy your life, just let sin begin to bring its obsession into your15:16 life. Isn't that how affairs really start? Right? They start with you being alert into something that you want now. But then you realize that the enemy steals from15:27 you what you wanted the most down the road because of that affair. And it's such a joy for me at Faith Family Church to see how many couples have recovered on the other side15:39 of that. Come on, somebody. How many of you know Jesus is bigger than anything that we could face? Amen? But we gotta watch our obsessions because here's how it happens. Have you ever gone to the15:50 mailbox and you get this envelope and it says, you can go on this beautiful vacation. All you have to do is sign up for this credit card. And man,16:02 it's an obsession. You think about spending 5 days on the beach and the sand going through your toes, and you think about drinking what you, you know, will16:14 be refreshed by, and you know, it just looks beautiful. So maybe you sign up and you enjoy 5 days on the beach, and then you come back and you pay that thing off for 5 months.16:25 Right? And you think what I should have done was go down to Port Lavaca for 5 days and watch the sunset instead of spending all this money. And that's how sin works. Sin will start by fascinating16:37 you, and you gotta eliminate the fascination that sin brings into your life. For some of you today, it's oppressing you, and it's telling you, you've made too big a mess of your life,16:49 but know God will take up your case and God will bless you. The third thing it does is sin begins to obsess us. It wants us to get obsessed with things. And I love17:01 this next part of Micah's words when he says, in that day, Israel, your cities are gonna be rebuilt, and your borders are gonna be extended. In other words, Micah's saying to17:12 them, listen, it's not as bad as you think because of who God is. And you know, anytime that we really give our heart fully to God, he has 2 things on his mind. Number 1, he's17:24 thinking about rebuilding the blessing that he planned for your life in the beginning. And if you messed up, you know, it's not just your dream that the enemy messes up, but it's your heart that the17:36 that the enemy messes up. And we need God to rebuild our heart, and we need him to rebuild our strength whenever we mess up. But Micah says, listen, there's gonna come a day17:48 whenever God's gonna rebuild your cities, God's gonna expand your borders, and I want you to know whatever you've done this morning, God's thinking about rebuilding your life. God's thinking about17:59 rewarding you on the other side of what the enemy's done to you. I've always liked this story I read about this farmer who was out 1 day and there was this big pile of wood, and18:11 he knew he should burn it, but he hadn't burned it yet. And he was walking by and he saw this little tail of a snake that was in the wood. And he thought, you know, I'm gonna just play with a snake a little bit. And18:23 he grabbed a piece of wood and he hit it. Well, it ended up being a big python when it came out of the wood pile, and it wrapped itself around him and18:35 it was gonna kill him. And fortunately, there was another farmer who was close by, and he came over and he was putting fence poles in the ground. And he took a fence18:47 pole and he knocked that that python off of that farmer. How many of you know that's what Jesus did? Jesus went to the cross to destroy the power of Satan and to destroy the power of evil18:59 in our life. Can you say amen? And when we're weak, we don't need to run away from him, we need to run to him because he wants to rebuild our lives. When he looked at the woman19:10 who was, you know, divorced 5 times, now she was married, or she was living with somebody she wasn't married to. You know what Jesus was thinking about? Not condemning her, he was thinking about rebuilding19:22 her and teaching her to live a life that God would reward, a life that God would satisfy. I love this in Micah 7 14. It says, oh Lord, protect your people19:34 with your shepherd staff and lead your flock, which is your special possession. You notice that Micah says, if you want the cure for sin, I want you to realize how special you are in God's19:46 sight. That's why he's protecting you against sin. That's why he's trying to guide you into places you could never reach without his love. I wanna encourage some of you this week to read Psalm19:58 23. And I want you to think about the state of your soul, and I want you to ask yourself, is the state of my soul in the place that David described in Psalm 23?20:10 Because he said, if the Lord is my shepherd, I'll have everything I need. He lets me rest in green meadows, he leads me beside peaceful streams, and he renews my strength. You know the20:22 number 1 reason we fall into temptation? We get tired, we have needs that aren't met, and pretty soon we do something that we're allured by, and it brings us pain down the20:34 road. But when the Lord's your shepherd, he strengthens you, and he keeps you from temptation. Next he says, he guides me along the right path, bringing honor to his name. Is your life bringing honor20:46 to God's name today? If it's not, it can. And you don't have to be perfect, you just have to love him and let him have his way. Can you say amen? He said, even when I walk through the darkest20:57 valley, I won't be afraid for you're close beside me. In other words, fear goes away whenever we spend time in the presence of the 1 who can bless our lives.21:09 Then he says, your rod and your staff, they protect and they comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies, and you honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup21:20 overflows with blessing, and surely your goodness and unfailing love is gonna pursue me all the days of my life, and I'll live in the house of the Lord. Now isn't that awesome21:32 that God is up in heaven and he says, you know what I wanna do? I wanna pursue you for the rest of your life with my love and with my goodness. I wanna show you how good21:44 life can be. And Mike is saying to a society where, man, they've been fascinated by sin until they were tired of how it assassinated life in their society.21:56 He spoke to a society that knew there had to be something better than sin, and he said, I'll show you how to live in what your heart's longing for. You need to22:08 say yes to the shepherd on the inside of your heart. And then he gives them 1 final thing that we're gonna close with in the message. And he says, once you give Jesus all your heart, you need to22:20 learn to say no to the shame that sin tries to keep you in. I love this verse in verse 18. It says, where's another God like you who pardons the guilt of the remnant,22:31 overlooking the sins of a special people? If you wanna know who God is, that's who God is. God's somebody who forgives people whenever they do wrong. He's a God who loves freeing22:43 people from what sin has done to them, so their life isn't characterized by the sins they committed. He's a God who loves blessing the future of His people because His people are so special to22:54 God. And can I tell you as a pastor of 35 years, it breaks my heart because I see what happens is people get angry because of what's been done to them because of sin,23:06 and then they carry that anger into their marriages, they carry that anger into the workplace, and pretty soon they're angry at everybody because everybody else is imperfect? See, there's a23:18 reason that the Bible says that anger only lasts for a moment with the Lord, but his favor's for a lifetime. What that means is he'll get angry when you do things that hurt you because he doesn't want you to23:30 hurt yourself. But his love is so great that his favor lasts for a lifetime. And that's what Micah is talking about to Israel. And he says, man, you want to live a life really23:42 separated from your sins, from what characterized your life because of sin? Do you wanna live a life that's better than you ever imagined life could be? Here's how you do it.23:54 You remember that once again, He'll have compassion on you. Whatever you've done wrong today, He wants to have compassion on you. Remember, He will trample our sins24:05 under His feet. Quit trying to beat sin in your own power and let God begin to deal with the power of sin. And then finally, he will hurl our sins into the depths of24:17 the ocean. Just like my money clip that day when it fell over that ferry boat, went down into the depths of the ocean. I didn't go looking for that money clip24:29 because I knew it was beyond recovery. Some of you today, God wants to lift you. He wants you to forget about what happened. He wants you to forget about those days because God only has 2 things on his mind. He wants to24:41 rebuild you, and he wants to reward you. And how many of you believe today it's time to get the devil off of your back and to get him under your feet where he belongs. Amen?24:53 I love this story. It was in the life of a good friend of mine. He was a teenager, and he sinned in a way that really brought shame into his life. And25:05 he pastors a wonderful church like Faith Family today, but that day as a teenager, he lived on the East Coast, and he decided he was gonna take a walk on the beach.25:17 And he felt so much guilt and remorse that he said, I just sat down and I started writing my sins in the sand. And he said, as I was writing my sins in the sand,25:29 I was not prepared for what happened next. He said, this huge wave came in, and he said, the wave knocked me down, and it went back out. And he said, when I25:41 looked at the sand, all the sins I'd written on the sand were gone. And he said, I had a supernatural moment with the Holy Spirit where he filled my heart. And he said, my son,25:53 that's how I see your life. Quit thinking about the wrong you've done. I'm a God who wants to reward you. I'm a God who wants to help you rebuild. I'm a God who wants to bless you. Amen?26:11 This is the time in my life that I really hit rock bottom. I got deeper into drinking and doing drugs because it was the only way that my feelings were non existent.26:28 My grandparents were the ones that raised me and as I got older I started to question why didn't I live with my parents. I felt26:40 unloved, unwanted and that's when the unforgiveness started to be planted inside of me towards my mom.26:53 At the age of 16 I met my now husband and then at 18 I found out we were expecting our first child together. Then at 26 weeks27:05 along I ended up facing some major complications. We ended up losing him and that's what caused me to really question God. This27:17 is the time in my life that I really hit rock bottom, but it was also in the same time that God started to surround me with good Godly mentors. I was27:29 mentally and emotionally ready to just go 100 percent all in after God. Every day confessing God's word over me, my children, my27:40 marriage because that's what forgiveness gave me. God restored our marriage. God blessed us with 4 beautiful, amazing girls.27:52 Being full of and overcoming unforgiveness has helped me to be able to truly love others, to love myself, to know that I am loved and28:04 worthy and live life with a purpose. God is real, God is love, and he is all about forgiving.28:21 Asignificant life dot com offers resources that will help you grace your unique destiny. Visit us today at asignificant life dot com.
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The Bond of Peace: Forbearance: His Way or the Highway Jim Graff
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