Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Where Christians Get It Wrong | Christian-ish | Part 5

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

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.GET TO KNOW YOU—NEW!You get to hear our voices—now we want to hear yours! Check out this special survey for podcast listeners. It’ll allow us to get to know you better and hear how we can support you. Find the survey at: https://www.life.church/podcastconnectNEXT STEPSHave you made the decision to follow Jesus? You might be wondering what’s next for you. We want to help! Check out these resources to ​​discover what saying yes to Jesus means: https://www.life.church/yesABOUT THIS MESSAGEWe all have an idea of what it means to be “Christian.” But what does following Jesus really mean? How do we move past the label and truly live like followers of Christ? Let’s talk about it in our new series, Christian-ish.ABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.churchFind locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/appFIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/life.churchTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lifechurchYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@life.churchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/craiggroeschelFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@craiggroeschel#lifechurch #craiggroeschel #christianish Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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.
Starting point is 00:00:26 Why? because I enjoy being married and because 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 want to 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 four fruit trees. Three of them died.
Starting point is 00:00:55 I'll show you a photo of the remaining tree. How's that looks? 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.
Starting point is 00:01:19 Three. And by peaches, I mean tiny rock-hard golf balls that even squirrels wouldn't touch. 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 a 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
Starting point is 00:02:02 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 Christian. Christians. You might call yourself a Christian. You might even believe in God. You may even go to church. But just like those peace 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, enjoy, peace, and patience, kindness. Not only do you not see the positive, sound 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 want to get too personal, but I wonder how many of you may know someone that says,
Starting point is 00:03:16 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.
Starting point is 00:03:32 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 fruit 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.
Starting point is 00:04:13 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 going to 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 faith. to me by showing spiritual fruit. 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 show. Here's what he said in Matthew 7. He said,
Starting point is 00:05:15 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 the spiritual fruit. come out of your life, not just the words you say, but the way you live. In other words,
Starting point is 00:05:59 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're genuinely like this. Some of you, you know somebody. Shannon, like people know you and you're, but they just, 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. It's not that you're perfect, but 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
Starting point is 00:06:46 you care like Christ. And the way that you live demonstrates your commitment to Jesus. they see the fruits of the spirit. There are some of you that are like that. Then there are others who call themselves Christians, and they may be 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
Starting point is 00:07:54 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 five and you could read about this in galatians five 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 them say it. But what are the fruits of the spirit? If you know what, you can just say it aloud, if you can memorize it, the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Starting point is 00:08:48 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 that constant war, against our flesh. And when Paul calls it the flesh, he's not talking about your skin. The Greek word
Starting point is 00:09:25 is sarks. It means 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? Look at the nine of them. Are you more loving? Or do you find that life's more about you?
Starting point is 00:09:58 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
Starting point is 00:10:24 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.
Starting point is 00:10:43 Do you find that there's goodness in you, that you show 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-consult? control 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
Starting point is 00:11:34 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.
Starting point is 00:12:06 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,
Starting point is 00:12:23 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.
Starting point is 00:12:51 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 going, I'm going to go try to fool people, but I think there are a lot of people that may actually fool themselves that would say, oh, yeah, may I kind of do the church thing? I'm kind of, I'm 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.
Starting point is 00:13:25 Do you know what I'm talking about? Like sometimes we just learn to talk to 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 can like act spiritual, like how are you doing? Praise the Lord, brother, I'm good. Hallelujah, thank you, thank you.
Starting point is 00:13:43 That's spiritual talk. You know, how you don't? Oh, God is good all the time. God is good all the time. And there are a lot of people that talk to talk, but don't walk to 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 shirt shirt shirt if you serve somewhere, and you start knowing the K-Luff songs, you know, and you get the radio on.
Starting point is 00:14:08 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,
Starting point is 00:14:43 disguised gossip as a prayer request. Let's just pray for her sister soul and say, oh, she's been, she needs prayer, she needs power of the Holy Ghost. I'm telling me what she's doing behind closed doors. We're disguised. 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.
Starting point is 00:15:13 I know people that might even trick themselves to say and believe in like, hey, I'm just righteously angry. And the truth of 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, yeah, I should have skipped this week. This, some people will tell themselves, I don't have time to serve.
Starting point is 00:15:59 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 stuff. I don't have time to serve. because I'm practicing self-care.
Starting point is 00:16:16 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.
Starting point is 00:16:42 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 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. mirror. Can you say amen? So what I want to do is I want to ask you two questions. And just let maybe the Holy Spirit speak to you about these two questions. The first question
Starting point is 00:17:26 I want to 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?
Starting point is 00:18:13 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 just 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?
Starting point is 00:18:41 The second question is similar. ask you this way. How pleased do you think God is with the quantity of your fruit? In other words, maybe you produce three peaches 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 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
Starting point is 00:19:26 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 going to 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?
Starting point is 00:20:04 How do we produce more fruit? For years, what I kind of thought, and I would have said, is like, well, you 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.
Starting point is 00:20:32 He said, I am the vine. And you are the branches. 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.
Starting point is 00:20:45 If you remain in me, if you're connected to the vine and I and 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 branches. So let's nail down the players. There's two players in this story.
Starting point is 00:21:09 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 loud. All of our churches online, you can type it in the comment section. Who is Jesus?
Starting point is 00:21:26 Say it with me. Jesus is divine and I am. One more time. Who is Jesus? Jesus is divine 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.
Starting point is 00:22:04 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 life.
Starting point is 00:22:34 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, because you're going to get it whether you can handle it or not, because 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 going to give you a weird look. Bro. The reason the baby said, bro, is because this is a smart baby and a cool baby. Bro. A relationship, like I literally live inside my mom.
Starting point is 00:23:37 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, 11 times in this chapter, 11 times over and over and over again.
Starting point is 00:24:07 He uses the Greek word, me, no. And this word, it means to remain. It means to abide. It means to dwell. It means to live in 11 times. He says you've got to remain connected to the source of all life. And if you remain connected, you will produce fruit. This is what he says.
Starting point is 00:24:36 Every time it's underlined, that's the word me know. 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.
Starting point is 00:25:06 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.
Starting point is 00:25:41 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, because have you seen the way people drive all the time? And I've got to produce spiritual fruit, which is really, really hard, because I've got kids, and 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.
Starting point is 00:26:14 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 then 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
Starting point is 00:26:49 they produce fruit jesus is the vine you are the branch what's your assignment be the branch be the branch be can stay connected to jesus abide in him Now, how do you do that? I've 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 pray.
Starting point is 00:27:21 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 to let you know his word?
Starting point is 00:27:37 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.
Starting point is 00:28:05 when he's saying, hey, here's the fruit of spirit, love joy, peace, patient, God, the 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,
Starting point is 00:28:25 so we don't produce the bad fruits of the flesh, since we're dying to the flesh, we're 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.
Starting point is 00:28:48 Every thought you think comes from his heart. You bury his word in your heart. So his power and truth comes through you. in step 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, we 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?
Starting point is 00:29:41 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 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.
Starting point is 00:30:06 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 something. It's 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's a peace that's very, very real. And how do you get that? You don't produce it. You stay connected to it,
Starting point is 00:30:59 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.
Starting point is 00:31:39 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.
Starting point is 00:32:04 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,
Starting point is 00:32:29 but God may not be thrilled with the quantity or quality of my friends. fruit, I want to be more connected to the vine. If that's you, don't think about it, don't, 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
Starting point is 00:33:23 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 are recognized 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 Christianish. I claimed Jesus, but I wasn't fully devoted to him. I try to do better. I'd end up doing bad. Why? It wasn't connected to the vine.
Starting point is 00:34:01 There are those of you, you're going to recognize you're not connected to the vine and what's going to happen today. Today, God's going to do a spiritual miracle in you. We're going to step away from our sinfulness. We're going to call on the name of Jesus. Who is he is?
Starting point is 00:34:12 The son of God, who is without sin, who died in our place, and God raised him for 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 are you online, you're going to recognize you're not really connected to the vine. The reason you don't have fruit
Starting point is 00:34:27 is because you don't know the gifts. of the fruit. And today we're not going to try harder. We're going to 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 want to know him. I want to connect. I want to 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.
Starting point is 00:35:04 Oh my gosh. Over here as well. Right back over here. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on church. Let's 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 sense. Make me brand new. Help me to know you, to abide in you,
Starting point is 00:35:34 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.
Starting point is 00:35:51 In Jesus name, I pray. Church, could you celebrate? Brite big, worship God, welcome those born into his family.

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