← Life.Church with Craig Groeschel
Life.Church with Craig Groeschel
Where Christians Get It Wrong | Christian-ish | Part 5
00:35:59
Placing your faith in Jesus changes your eternity in an instant. But the other changes—the way we grow in love, faith, and purpose—take time. How can you tell if it’s happening? Find out in this message.
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Well, one year Amy decided that she really wanted some fruit trees at our house. And so she said, sweetheart, could we plant some fruit trees? What do you think that I said? You think I said, silly woman, we can't even keep fern plants alive. Think we're ready for an orchard? Think I said that? Of course I didn't say that. Why? Because I enjoy being married and cause I'm not that dumb. I love Amy and one of my life goals is like, genuinely, if there's something that she wants and I'm able to help provide that, I wanna do everything I can to bless her because she is my best friend and wife of 33 years. And so she wanted fruit trees and we actually planted for fruit trees. Three of them died. I'll show you a photo of the remaining tree. How's that look? Does that look good? It's the middle of winter. It looks not horrible, but it actually looks like that in the middle of summer as well. It's pretty bad. That is our only surviving peach tree. Over the lifespan of that tree, it produced three peaches. Three. And by peaches, I mean tiny rock hard golf balls that even squirrels wouldn't. I'll show you this. See, you can't even see it right there. Put a circle around that thing for me right there that looks like an alien peach. And that is the best that tree could do. I think we spent more money on those four. Three of them dead now. One remaining limp along peach tree. Spent more money on those four trees than we would have spent on a lifetime of peaches for all of you at the grocery store if we'd just done it the normal way. And it got me to thinking that that tree that doesn't really produce fruit is a lot like a lot of people that call themselves Christians. We're in a message series called Christian Ish. What does it mean to be Christian Ish? It means to have a half hearted faith in God. Claiming that we're followers of Jesus but not truly and faithfully following him. A lot of people would call themselves Christians. You might call yourself a Christian, you might even believe in God, you may even go to church. But just like those peach trees, there are many people that claim to be Christians but don't produce much fruit. And not only are they not fruitful, meaning the loving fruits of the spirit, like love and joy, peace and patience, kindness. Not only do you not see the positive fruits out of some people that call themselves Christians, but sometimes you actually see the opposite. There are some people that claim Jesus that can kind of be rude or selfish or like spiritually arrogant or judgmental or incredibly hypocritical. There are a lot of people that claim to be Jesus followers, but when you get close, they're all leaves, no fruit. And I don't wanna get too personal, but I wonder how many of you may know someone that says, yeah, you know, I'm a Christian, but when you look at their lives, you actually don't see a lot of evidence that they're truly following Jesus. If you know somebody like that, raise your hand. Raise your hand. Don't point at them. We'll pray for them. Don't point at them. But a lot of us know someone. Now, if it were later in the message, but it's too early for this, I'd ask you if you're ever a little bit like that, that you claim Jesus but you don't always display the fruits of the spirit. But again, that would be way too early to do that to you. So we'll wait until later in the message to ask you that again. God's word, his living word that's sharp and active and never returns void. His word is very, very clear that as disciples of Jesus, we should produce or we should bear fruit. And not apples or pears, but what the Bible calls spiritual fruit. And Jesus told us this in John 15:5. He said this. Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, what are you gonna do? Jesus said, you're going to bear much fruit apart from Jesus, apart from me. He says, you can do nothing. This is to my Father's glory that you do what? That you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my true disciples. In other words, Jesus is saying that you actually demonstrate your faithfulness to me by showing spiritual, you show that you're a disciple of Jesus when the fruits of the spirit come out in your life. And Jesus goes on to tell us that someone will actually know that you are committed to Jesus by the fruit that you sow. Here's what he said in Matthew 7. He said, you will know them, you'll know the Christians by their fruits. Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. Jesus gives us this really powerful and personal metaphor. He says, you are like a tree and a tree produces fruit. And that's how a non believing world will know that you belong to Jesus. Because they'll see from the spiritual fruit come out of your life, not just the words you say, but the way you live. In other words, they won't just know you by what you say, but by how you live. It's not that we claim Jesus, but the fruits of the Spirit display Jesus every single day. And many of you, you've seen it. A lot of you, you genuinely like this. Some of you, you know somebody. Shannon, like, people know you, and you're. They just. They. They see that you're full of love and you're full of joy and you're full of peace, and people want to be around you. And it's not that you're perfect, but they. They know that you care about them and you obviously care about other people. And some of you are like that. There's just something coming out of you that other people are like, I want to be around that. You live like Christ and you love like Christ, and you make a difference like Christ. And you. You care like Christ, and, And the way that you live demonstrates your commitment to Jesus. And they see the fruits of the Spirit. There's some of you that are like that. Then there are others who call themselves Christians. And they may be evil. They even able to quote a lot of the Bible. And they may have Bible knowledge, but they lack integrity. They'll say one thing and they'll do another. They say, yeah, I'm a Christian, but a lot of times they're rude or harsh or selfish. Now, we're deep enough into the message for me to ask you this. When others look at you, what do they see? Is it clear by the fruit of your life, the way you treat people, the way you carry yourself? Is it clear that you are a follower of Jesus? Do they see that you're loving and that you're patient and that you're kind and that you're full of joy? Or do they see fruit like that little peach thing on my tree? You call yourself a Christian, but you really aren't very caring. And you don't really have a whole lot of time for people. And you might be inconsiderate at times and unkind. Galatians, chapter 5. And you can read about this in Galatians 5. It lists for us nine fruits of the spirit. I have seven grandkids, which they are fruits of the loving Spirit in our house. Three of them, they're learning. They're memorizing the fruits of the Spirit right now. It's pretty kind of cute to hear him say it. But what are the fruits of the Spirit? If you know it, you can just say it aloud if you memorize it. The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. These are the fruits of the Spirit. There's also fruits of something else. And it's not the spirit, but it's the flesh. If you don't know, the apostle Paul talks about all of the time, we're basically living from one of two things. If you're a follower of Jesus, what happens? Your spirit is born anew. Your spirit is connected to God. The problem is our spirit is at constant war against our flesh. And when Paul calls it the flesh, he's not talking about your skin. The Greek word is sarks. It means your, your not spiritual nature. It means your fleshly nature. Your flesh wants to do what's selfish. Your spirit wants to do what's God honoring? And I'll show you the fruits of the spirit. And I'll show you the fruits of the flesh. And we'll kind of ask ourselves, are you more characterized by the fruits of the Holy Spirit, or are you more characterized by the fruits of the flesh? We'll look at the nine of them. Are you more loving? Or do you find that life's more about you, that you're more selfish? Ask yourself, are you more joyful? Or do you often walk around just frustrated? Peace. Are you more peaceful? Or do you find yourself, like many people today, living in an ongoing world of anxiety? You're often anxious. Do you find that you're more patient with people when things don't go your way? Or do you find that you're impatient, you're always rushed, nothing's going as you would want? Do you find that you're kind to people? Or you got things to do, you don't really have time to be kind and you could actually come across as uncaring? Do you find that there's goodness in you, that you so good fruits of the spirit? Or do you have a bad attitude, bad mouth, bad fruit? Do you find that you are more faithful with your friends, you stand by them, your word is good? Or are you occasionally disloyal? You might talk behind their backs or gossip and such. Are you more gentle with people or are you harsh? And then finally you can ask, are you self controlled, the fruit of the spirit? Or do you find yourself indulgent, giving in to the things that you want, when you want them? What would you say? Are you more characterized by the fruits of the spirit or by the fruits of the flesh? Here's where I'm going to make a theological mess and make it kind of weird. It's complicated because I actually see myself in Both of them. Maybe some of you are like that. Like, sometimes I can be really, really patient and godly. Other times, I ain't got no time for nothing and nobody. And I'm impatient. And here's what I've noticed about me is that almost every time my life displays the fruits of the flesh. In other words, almost every time that I'm showing bad fruit, I tell myself I got a good excuse. Someone else's fault. I'm just under pressure. There's a lot going on. You don't understand my life I'm facing a lot. If you got bad fruit, I'm judging you. If I got bad fruit, I got a reason. And what I've noticed is even though I tell myself I've got a good excuse, if I belong to Jesus and I'm connected to the vine, there is no excuse for bad fruit. Let me say it again. If you belong to Jesus and you're connected to the vine, there is no excuse for bad fruit. And here's where Jesus gets kind of like. I mean, it's touchy. He actually, in this text, he talks about wolves dressed in sheep's clothing. He talks about those that are not followers of Jesus that pretend like they are. And I don't know a lot of people that just do this intentionally. Like, I'm gonna go try to fool people, but I think there are a lot of people that may actually fool themselves that would say, oh, yeah, I may not kind of do the church thing. I'm kind of Christian. Ish. But then we dress up the flesh to make it look spiritual. Like, we literally don't have much good fruit. Like, a lot of our fruit's bad fruit, but we try to make our bad fruit look good. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, sometimes we just learn to talk the talk. Anybody know this? If you're new here and you're not a Christian or maybe you're a new Christian, what you don't know about us is we got our own language. And you could, like, act spiritual. Like, how are you doing? Praise the Lord, brother. I'm good. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. That's spiritual talk, you know? How you doing? Oh, God is good all the time. God is good all the time. And there are a lot of people that talk the talk but don't walk the walk. Do you know anybody like that? Are you ever like that? There's also a look. If you're around long enough, your T shirts start changing. You get a Free life church shirt. If you serve somewhere and you start knowing the Caleb songs, you know, and you got the radio on and your bio changes on your social media page and it says God's first, but you know he's not. Because we're the masters of disguise. We may have actually been changed by Jesus at some point, but when our fruit's not good, we start to disguise it and make it look like it's good. And we're really good. I mean the church world, I mean, we're so creative, we can disguise gossip as concern. The best, the most elite in the masters of disguise disguise gossip as a prayer request. Let's just pray for her sister so and so. Oh, she's been, she needs prayer. She needs the power of the Holy Ghost. I'm telling you what she's doing. Behind closed doors, we disguise. And then we can get really creative. Like we can disguise legalism as holiness. We're like so self righteous and judgmental of others. But the reality is that it's a performance based Christianity that's not a true reflection of who Jesus is. I know people that might even trick themselves to saying and believing, like, hey, I'm just righteously angry. And the truth of the matter is you're just plain old fashioned bitter. It's common like on social media to say, hey, I am promoting Jesus on my social media. But if you look kind of carefully, it's way more about self promotion than it is about Jesus promotion. And this one, like you guys are kind of quiet. Like sometimes you're like, yeah, pastor preach. Other times like, ah, I should have skipped this week. Some people will tell themselves, I don't have time to serve, I don't have time to serve. Someone else can serve me every week at church. They can pick me up on a golf cart, they can say hello to me at the door, they can take care of my kids, they can serve and. And said thinking, I don't have time to start because I'm practicing self care. Some of you might be, others of you, you've mastered the art of selfishness. Literally not doing anything for anybody else and no real spiritual fruit. And we find ourselves dressing up the flesh. But Jesus didn't call us to dress up the flesh, but to crucify it, to die to it, to crucify our flesh. So as we stick in the vine and abide in the vine, the fruits of the spirit come out supernaturally. And the reason this talk is really challenging and I kind of knew it going in is it would be really easy for you to hear this talk and think I know somebody who needs to hear this. And it's really, really hard to say, oh, my gosh, I need to hear this. Because it's really hard to see our own blind spots in the mirror. Can you say amen? It's hard to see our own hypocrisy in the mirror. Can you say Amen? So what I wanna do is I wanna ask you two questions and just let maybe the Holy Spirit speak to you about these two questions. The first question I wanna ask you is this. How pleased do you think God is with the quality of your fruit? Let's just sit there for a moment. When other people look at you at work, does everybody know? Not just by what you say, not just by the shirts you wear, not just by the words you speak, but by the way you live. Do they know and see the fruits of the spirit in you? Or have you worked at a place for seven years and someone says, oh, my gosh, you're a Christian too? I had no idea. Do the people at your school, your classmates, do they see that you're literally serving others? You're more others focused, that your life exists for the glory of God and to make a difference with other people? Or do they look on and say, you know, well, you know, you're busy and you're kind of selfish and, you know, I'm sure you probably serve somebody. I've never really seen it, but, you know, you probably do somewhere. How pleased do you think, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. How pleased do you think God is with the quality of your fruit? The second question is similar, but we're asking this. How pleased do you think God is with the quantity of your fruit? In other words, maybe you produce three pizzas a year and it's great if you get one of them, but everybody else walks by and gets the rock hard golf ball. How pleased do you think God is with the quality and the quantity of your fruit? Because I don't want to be selectively loving, but I want to be overflowing with love. And I don't want just peace whenever everything's okay in my life. I want a peace that comes from heaven that goes beyond my human ability to. I want people to look on and say, oh my gosh, you know, Craig and Amy, they may be going through a lot right now, but man, you can see the joy of the Lord is their strength. So ask yourself, like genuinely, how pleased if God wants us to bear fruit, if we abide in the vine and you will produce Fruit. How pleased do you think God is with the quality of your fruit and the quantity of your fruit? And so if you say, like me, and I'm just gonna say like, I genuinely need improvement here, what do we do? How do we produce spiritual fruit? And in seminary, this is where we talk about the application. We set up the message now, how do we apply God's word? How do we produce more fruit? For years, what I kind of thought and I would have said is, like, we have a relationship with Jesus, and you live for Jesus. You have a relationship with Jesus, and you live for Jesus. You just have a relationship with Jesus, and then you live for Jesus. That would be close, but it's actually wrong. And let me try to explain. Let's look again at John 15. Jesus was very likely near a vineyard when he was saying this to his disciples. He said, I am the vine, and you are the branches. So. So who is Jesus? Jesus is the vine. Who are we? We are the branches. He said, I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me, if you're connected to the vine and I in you, it's a promise. You don't have to do anything. You will naturally, or even more accurately, you will supernaturally bear much fruit. Now, if you're disconnected from me, Jesus says, you can't do anything. I am the vine, you are the. So let's nail down the players. There's two players in this story. There's Jesus and there's us. And the metaphor tells us this. Who is Jesus? Say it with me. Jesus is the vine and who are we? You are the branch. Let's personalize it, and then let's say it aloud. All of our churches online, you can type it in the comment section. Who is Jesus? Say it with me. Jesus is the vine and I am. One more time. Who is Jesus? Jesus is the vine and I am the branch. What happens when the branch is connected to Jesus the vine? It bears fruit. That's it. Boom. When you're connected to the spiritual source, the spirit produces spiritual fruit. When you, the branch, are connected to Jesus the vine, you are loving and joyful and peace. Now, does the branch have a relationship with the vine? The answer is yes. But it's way more than just a relationship. I've got a relationship with Pastor Sam. I don't want to be connected to him. I don't need to be connected to him because he is not the source of my life. So, yes, we have a relationship with Jesus the vine, but it's not just a relationship. The branch needs the vine to survive. The vine is the source of life for the branch. Thank you for that very polite clap. Let me illustrate it this way. Can you handle a silly Craig illustration? Great. Cause you're gonna get it whether you can handle it or not. Cause I've already got it in my notes. Imagine you could talk to a baby in a womb. A baby is life in a womb. And imagine if you talk to the baby, you can't do it. It's silly. A baby can't talk. But imagine if this is a really smart baby. You say, hey, baby, do you have a relationship with your mom? What would the baby do? Baby's gonna give you a weird look, bro. The reason the baby said bro is cause this is a smart baby and a cool baby, bro. A relationship, like, I literally live inside my mom. It's more than a relationship. Like, she breathes, I breathe. She eats a milkshake, I get a milkshake. She likes chocolate, I like. My entire existence is dependent on the mom. And that's what Jesus is trying to tell us. And he uses the same word eleven times in this chapter. Eleven times, over and over and over again. He uses the Greek word mino. And this word, it means to remain. It means to abide. It means to dwell, it means to live in. Eleven times, he says, you got to remain connected to the source of all life. And if you remain connected, you will produce fruit. This is what he says every time it's underlined. That's the word meno. He said, remain in me, dwell in me, live in me. And as you remain in me and dwell in you, I remain in you also. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain, it must abide, it must live in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in the vine. Jesus says, abide in the vine, stay connected to the vine. So you don't just have a relationship with Jesus, you remain in him, you live in him, you live by him, you live through him, you dwell in Him. And then what do you do? Then you live for Jesus, right? Not exactly. You abide in Him. Then if you live for him, the focus is still on you. If you're trying to live for him, then you're focusing on your works and your efforts. And that's where so many of us get it wrong. And we end up becoming Christian ish. We believe in him, but we still think it's about us. I've got to stop sinning, and I've got to stop thinking bad thoughts. And I've got to stop saying bad words, even though it's so hard. Cause have you seen the way people drive all the time? And I've got to produce spiritual fruit, which is really, really hard. Cause I've got kids, they drive me crazy. I've got it. And Jesus is showing us this. He's showing us. Don't focus on production, focus on connection. Stay connected to the vine. Abide in the vine. And if you stay connected, you will bear fruit. My pastor, Pastor Nick, he's so funny, man. He'd wear this Methodist robe. He had this big old robe. And he'd say, have you ever seen a tree trying to produce fruit? And he put his arms out like this and he would go. He would go, what are you doing? I'm trying to produce fruit. No, you don't. The branches just stay connected to the tree and poop. They produce fruit. Jesus is the vine. You are the branch. What's your assignment? Be the branch. Be the branch. Stay connected to Jesus. Abide in Him. Now how do you do that? Well, I got two answers. I got the normal answer and I got a better answer. The normal answer, and it's a good answer, is you abide in Jesus by doing this. You. You pray. Of course you do. You talk to him because he's relational and you worship Him. Of course you do, because he inhabits your worship. And you read God's Word. Of course you do. Because how can God renew your mind unless you know His Word? How can His Word direct your steps unless you hide His Word in your heart and you obey God's Word. And you do life together in community, in life groups. Because without life groups, you are an isolated Christian, vulnerable to the attacks of the Evil One. And so that's the normal answer. And all those things are important. But let me give you a better one. Let's just get above that. Instead of just the here's the little things. Let's take it a step above. Because this is what Paul says when he's saying, hey, here's the fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindly goodness. Then right after that, in verse 25, he says this. He says, since we live by the Spirit, let us do what? Say it with me. He said, let us keep in step with the Spirit, since we are crucifying the flesh. So we don't produce the bad fruits of the flesh. Since we're dying to the flesh, we are going to live by the Spirit. So what do we do? We keep in step with the Spirit. You keep in step, like literally you're remaining so close to Jesus that every step you take, he directs, every thought you think comes from his heart. You bury his word in your heart, so his power and truth comes through you. You keep inspiration with the spirit. Amy wanted fruit trees, so she got fruit trees. She also wanted to learn to ballroom dance. So back in the day, I rented her from Blockbuster a VHS cassette tape, and we learned to dance. The only step we know remember is how to get out of a corner. If we're ever in a corner, we're out of the corner. Want to see it again? I can show you. Well, this year, she said, I want to do more than get out of a corner. I want to learn to waltz. That's a little harder, a lot harder. Not very good at it. But what I do know is, is one of my jobs is to gently, very gently, very relationally lead her. And the way I lead her is often by just a little bit of a hand motion squeeze, going this way. And she follows and keeps in step. Or it's a little pull on the back that shows we're stepping this way. And with this most subtle, small, loving gestures. When we do it right, she's in step. And this is what we do with Jesus, is we abide in Him. And he nudges us, he prompts us. It's not like lightning from heaven is sometimes, but it's usually His Holy Spirit convicting us. Say this, do this. Hey, I know you're busy, but why don't you slow down and serve this person? Hey, I know that you're stressed out right now, but, hey, remember, there's joy that goes beyond the things of this world. And there is a peace that's very, very real. And how do you get that? You don't produce it. You stay connected to it. And the Holy Spirit produces it through you. So I'd ask you, how pleased is God with the quality of your fruit and how pleased is he with the quantity of your fruit? And the reason why I tell you I need this is because my fruit is not always great. Our family, once a month, meets as many of my kids and grandkids as we can for dinner, after church, after I preach at church. And one week I went back and I was unkind, and I was short, and I was critical, and I was on edge. And God showed me very, very clearly I was doing the work of the Spirit without the fruit of the Spirit. And this is where some of you are right now. You literally got the look without the connection. And I thought to myself, I Need to do better. And God said, no, no, no, you need to draw closer. What's your assignment? Not try harder. Draw closer. Be the branch, abide, remain, be faithful to Jesus. A faithful life is a fruitful life. And if you stay connected, he will produce fruit through you. So, Holy Spirit, do what only you can do. Produce fruit through us today as you pray without looking around at all of our churches. Those of you that would say, I am a follower of Jesus, but God may not be thrilled with the quantity or quality of my fruit. I want to be more connected to the vine. If that's you, don't think about it, don't consider it. Just lift up your hands right now and say, God is speaking to me. God is speaking to me. God, thank you for the voice of your spirit online. You can type in the comment section. I need to stay more connected to the vine and God. I just confess out of my own heart that even today as I'm preaching this, I haven't abided in you and my fruit is not as fresh as you would want it to be. God, forgive me. Forgive us, God. May we just fall in love with the vine dependent, remaining, abiding, dwelling in. And God, we thank you. Your promise is true. We don't have to work up the fruit. We just have to stay close to you and God. Your fruit will be on display for the world to see that we love you and we belong to you. As you keep praying today, there are those of you that will recognize you've never really had ongoing spiritual fruit. And the reason is because you've never really been connected to the vine. This was 100% me growing up. We went to church some. I believed in God. I was Christian ish. I claimed Jesus, but I wasn't fully devoted to him. I tried to do better. I ended up doing bad. Why? I wasn't connected to the vine. There are those of you you're gonna recognize you're not connected to the vine. And what's gonna happen today? Today, God's gonna do a spiritual miracle in you. We're gonna step away from our sinfulness. We're gonna call on the name of Jesus. Who is he? He is the son of God, who is without sin, who died in our place. And God raised him from the dead. And when you call on him, he'll hear your prayer and he'll forgive your sins and he'll make you brand new. Today at all of our churches and those of you online, you're gonna recognize you're not really connected to the vine. The reason you don't have fruit is because you don't know the giver of the fruit. And today we're not gonna try harder. We're gonna draw closer. And as you draw close to God, he will draw close to you. At all of our churches, those who say, that's me, I wanna know him, I wanna connect. I wanna abide in the vine. I'm stepping away from my sin. I'm giving my life to Jesus. When you do, he forgives your sins and he makes you new. All of our churches, you say, that's me. I need to know him. I want to be forgiven. I'm stepping away from my sin by faith. I give my life to him. That's your prayer. Lift your hands high right now, all over the place and say, that's me. God bless you. Right back over there. Up there as well. Praise God. Over here. Oh, my gosh. Over here as well. Right back over here. Come on, somebody. Come on. Church. Well, thank God. Others of you today say, jesus, I give you my life. Online. Right back over there as well, online. Type in the comment section. I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. Would you pray aloud for a heavenly father? Forgive all of my sins. Make me brand new. Help me to know you, to abide in you, to stay connected to you. Fill me with your spirit. Produce spiritual fruit through me to show the world you my life is not my own. I give it all to you. Thank you for new life. You have all of mine. In Jesus name I pray. Church, could you celebrate big? Worship God, welcome those born into his family.