Holy Spirit | Part 3

So here's what I'm gonna do to open up. I'm gonna, show you a commercial because that's because you haven't seen enough TV, but I wanna make a point out of this. Watch this commercial. Have you ever worked for doctor Francis? Oh, yeah. He's okay. Just okay? Guess who just got reinstated. Well, not officially. Nervous? Yeah.

Yeah. Me too. Don't worry about it. We'll figure it out. I'll see you in there. Just okay is not okay. How would you like to be that guy that's about to have surgery?

That would be terrifying. What I love about the the commercials, I I like funny commercials. That's pretty anybody know what that's a commercial for, by the way? Oh,

you guys actually did watch too much TV. The two services last night, nobody knew what it was for. And I I couldn't remember when I wanted to look it up because I was too busy laughing at it to pay attention to what it was for. But it's interesting how they kind of use humor to exaggerate an actual truth. There's certain things that you okay. You just don't wanna be okay with. You don't want to have an okay surgeon that just got reinstated, not officially.

You know? You don't you don't you don't want to have that kind of stuff. You you don't want to have a a babysitter to watch your kids as everyone says, oh, they're okay. You don't you don't want certain things that are in your life. You don't want your marriage just to be, oh, it's okay. It's like, okay is not okay. Right? We we get that. There's a lot of things that we are gonna be really, really careful about to make sure that I don't want it just to be okay because just okay isn't okay.

But then it comes to our walk with God, which should be the number one thing that we would never be okay with just okay. Yet how often do we slip into that mode of okay is okay? And that's why we're talking about the Holy Spirit in this series.

Because I think many of us didn't understand who he is, which we talked about the first week, and what God the Holy Spirit does in our life. And what he does is he's the one that makes it not just okay.

He takes it to amazing and beyond. Because as we talked about the first week, when it comes to the plan that God had for our lives, for all of creation, it's like God the Father thought the plan. Jesus, God the Son, bought the plan. But the Holy Spirit's the one that brought the plan.

The one that empowers us. He's the one that makes our life work. So we've been talking about that. Last week, we looked at how he he gives us gifts and and gifts that, that are that are there to us, but they're not for us necessarily,

and we're supposed to use them. Well, today, we're gonna start talking about this thing called the the fruit, the fruit that the spirit produces in us. And we're gonna we're gonna see how that works because there are some of us here that are just okay. Our faith, we're okay.

We're okay with it just being okay. But there's also some of us that are not okay with it being okay. We're not okay with just okay, but the way we're trying to make it more than okay isn't okay. Okay?

Now you got it. Because here's the big idea I wanna talk about for a few minutes here today. It's simply this. The fruit of the spirit is not a quest for perfection,

but a test of connection.

The fruit of the spirit is not a quest for perfection. It's not this list, this thing that I gotta go after. It's like when I perfect myself in this, then I'm good. It's it's actually a test of connection as we're gonna see. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna be, in a couple passages. The first one we're gonna be in is in Galatians chapter five,

where it actually, talks about the the fruit of the spirit. And and I'm gonna read through it, but I'm gonna go through them three at a time. There's nine attributes

when it comes to the fruit of the spirit. So you're like, what is what is this? I just wanna answer two questions. What is the fruit of the spirit, and how does the spirit what's the process of it being produced in us if we know Jesus?

Well, the first thing is is we get into here, I'm gonna read in in Galatians chapter five. The passage the whole chapter is about making a choice of how are you gonna live your life?

Are you gonna live your life by the flesh, the power of the flesh, or the power of the spirit? Live in the spirit or in the flesh? The flesh just means by the sweat of my brow. It means by I am just gonna go make life work. I'm gonna use I'm not I'm gonna ignore God. I'm gonna kinda do it my way. And you know what's funny is he's talking to Christians here. So you can be someone who believes in Jesus,

but be living your life in your own power.

And that's when it's just okay. And there's actually a list. There's two lists in this passage. We're gonna look at this list that's talk describes the fruit of the spirit, but there's a naughty list a little bit earlier. Go back and read it yourself. And and and what's funny is we read these through this passage, and we think what it's saying is, here's the quest.

Don't do these things, but make sure you check off these nine things. And that's not really what these lists are for. They're a test. They're they're a they're a test to look and say, hey. Is my life showing these things or is it showing more of these things? And if it is not showing the fruit,

it's actually showing you that you're not connected to the spirit. There's a connection problem.

Kinda like, you know, we've been using a lot of our WiFi lately. Right? At home, school, work, all these things. And if you go on, it's like, it's just not connecting. It won't and it says you might you're you're you can't get online, and then you gotta figure out what's going on. And you you can go to near hit that button and test the connection.

It's just letting you know there's a connection problem. So as I read this list, I'm gonna go through there's nine attributes, but the thing to set it up is, first, gotta realize one primary thing going into this about the fruit of the spirit is you notice it says fruit, not fruits?

The fruit of the spirit is a singular thing. The fruit of the spirit is, first and foremost, it's singular. It means it's one thing. There's one fruit, especially if you're using a tree, a fruit tree example. A fruit tree doesn't produce nine different fruits. You can force it. You can graft it, but naturally,

you know, you got a peach tree. You get peaches. Right? And and so these nine things are not nine separate fruits. That's why it's not a quest. It's not, okay. I'm working on love. Now I gotta get this. I'm not so worried about that right now. That's not how it works. It's one fruit, and it's produced by the holy spirit. It's it's singular. There's there's just the fruit. And so when I look at these nine things, I'm gonna read through it, and I'm gonna describe them. We're gonna look them in groups of three. Three groups of three real quick. Because as you look at it, it's one fruit.

This just describes what it tastes like. So when the Holy Spirit produces this in us, you get all of them. Matter of fact, that's a good part of the test. If you're looking at this list, you're like, well, I'm pretty good at these three, but I these are not existed in my life. There's a good chance

that the reason you have those other attributes is because you're just working really hard at trying to display those attributes. But if it's the Holy Spirit empowering you, the whole fruit comes together. Singular. But when you do look at them, it's interesting how the nine of them, they're in groupings of three.

They're relating to a different connection. So let me show you. Let's start off in Galatians five verse 22. It says this, but the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Who does it? Holy Spirit. What I already said.

It doesn't say, but when you produce these things in your life, the Holy Spirit's happy with you. It says the Holy Spirit produces these things in our lives. And here's the first three: love, joy, peace. Love, joy, peace. Those attributes are a description of our connection to God himself,

our relationship and how we connect to God. That if I am connected with with with God, the Holy Spirit produces that love, that joy, that peace. In other words, that you you have the you you know God's love so clearly that now you've been the Holy Spirit's allowed you and unlocked our ability to love him back. It says we love because he loved first. So when I remain in that love and I know his love now, I can love. And that opens up that makes me better at loving all the relationships around me. But then also what comes with that is joy and peace. Joy is different

than happiness. The difference is happiness is controlled by your circumstances.

If your circumstances are not happy, you can't say, well, I'm happy. But you can have joy, which is which is a deeper thing than than happiness. You know, this isn't good, but I have this joy that comes from the Lord, and that's where peace comes. It says in scripture that there's a peace that pass surpasses all understanding.

That's a peace that comes from the Holy Spirit. That's a fruit of the spirit. Peace. And it means that life can be terrible, but for some reason you have this this peace. Doesn't mean you're happy, but you you have a peace. And and and for a peace to surpass all understanding,

it needs to be a peace that confuses everybody around you. So it can't be a piece that, like, you just all things will be fine or they're okay. It means you naturally should feel, like, out of control, but you don't. So this first three that attributes is really about our connection in our relationship to God.

And what I'm not gonna do is sit here and spend a whole long time on each one. Yesterday, I said I wasn't gonna explain them at all. They're pretty self explanatory. Then I realized I started explaining every one of them because that's what I do when I'm in front of people. So we'll see what happens. Right? So

here's the next three. The next three. Patience, kindness, goodness. This is the the the flavor of the fruit of the spirit in relation to our connection and relationship to others around us. It's how do we connect with others?

So what I'm trying to do is these three categories. Here's how you take the test right now. Instead of making this a nine list of nine attributes you go run after, look at these as, okay, do I have that love, that joy, that peace?

If not, even if I have the others, I'm probably not connected. There's something in my connection is wrong. Then when you look at your relationships with others, are your friendships, is your marriage, is the things that you're around you, are they marked by patience, kindness, goodness?

In other words, as you yell at someone over how stupid they are for wearing a mask or not wearing a mask, do you at least do it with patience, kindness, and goodness as you tell them they're stupid?

And then the last three, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. We see that all through scripture as as these are these attributes in how we relate and connect to the mission God has given us as believers.

That the body of Christ, the mission to go point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. To take the gospel into the world. To go make disciples. And see, this is the thing where I know there's a lot of people that you you know Jesus.

You you you you you crave to grow. You don't want okay is not just okay with you. But you're not connected to the mission at all. Well, if you're not connected to the mission of God with faithfulness, gentleness, and self control,

then whatever you're doing to get love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness is on your effort. Because if it's the Holy Spirit producing it, you would be engaged in the mission as well.

See what I mean? How this is a test, not a quest? Because you you don't get these by just looking at them. That's not how you get there. It's it's kinda like this. Baseball. When you play baseball. When you go out to bat. What's the goal when you're at bat? Hit the ball. Just wanna what else? Get on base.

Those are those are those are a little bit of a those are some mini goals. Those are objectives.

But the opt score. That's the ultimate goal is to is to come around and touch home plate. Right? But you know, you can't just go up to the plate and you know what's kinda twisted about baseball is the goal is to touch home plate and you start standing just right there. You're like, why can't I just go,

did it. That's not how it works. So the real thing is is you you wanna touch home plate. But even if you hit a home run, what do you have to what other you have to touch all three bases before you can touch home plate. And and so the so you have to go around the bases.

So as you break down the idea of trying to score, the first thing you're really trying to do is get to first base. Right? I gotta go touch first base. So when you go up to bat, when you know the goals, I have to get to first base. Do you go up to bat and just stare at first base? Oh, that's where I need to be.

I'm so far away. I I I I I wanna get there. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna make myself go there. No. You're out. Or you stand there and you just stare at it and you're like, I'm trying so hard. I so want first base. Strike one. That's okay. I I I just want for it to strike two. Strike three. You're out.

When you play baseball, you don't get to first base by staring at first base. What do you have to look at? Keep your eye on the ball. Right?

How many have been taught that or taught your kids that? You've coached baseball. And you say the first thing of hitting is keep your eye on the ball. True. But that's actually not the goal of hitting though either, is it?

You can keep your eye on the ball all you want and still not get to first base. My son used to do this. He loved getting walks. He didn't wanna swing. He didn't he'd strike out a lot. So he says, I I got the best bet of just going there and hoping that that guy throws four balls before he throws three strikes. So he would go up there and watch perfect pitches go right by. Strike one. Strike two. Strike three. Strike know, and he would sit there, he was he kept his eye on the ball. He watched it go right out of the hand, right into the catcher's glove.

Boom. Boom. You can watch the ball all you want and still not get anywhere. Right? What do you have to do to actually move to first base? Hit the ball. You have to connect to the ball. It's a connection that moves you.

You see? And that's the same when it comes to to to our walk with God. We don't run after these nine attributes that are of of the singular fruit. What we do is we need to connect to Christ. We connect to Christ, and that's what gets us there. Look. It says in a the the right after the it lists the the the fruit.

It says, where am I at? Verse 23. There is no law against these things. Then verse 24. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the spirit, let us follow the spirit's leading in every part of our lives.

You catch that? It's like it's this connection. We need to connect. And the thing we need to connect to, because I'm gonna turn to another passage here in a minute, is the way the fruit of the spirit is even comes into our life. The way the the holy spirit produces it in us is through staying connected to Christ.

We have to to connect to Christ. Now some of you don't read like, so we need to hit Jesus with a baseball bat. Don't take it that literally, but it's that idea. It's in the act of connecting that the Holy Spirit can now empower and produce the fruit.

So my goal is not to run after these things and force myself. My goal is just to say, how do I stay connected to Christ? I pursue connection, not perfection. I pursue the connection, and that is how the Holy Spirit then takes over and does the rest.

So a lot of us, we we have it backwards. And you know what? And it's not just seeing the ball.

See, a lot of us, we see Jesus all the time. Someone's coming here, and you're here, and you're just seeing Jesus. You're hearing me talk. You're here. You're you're we're singing some songs. You're watching. You're just watching the ball. You're keeping your eye on Jesus but you're not connecting.

You're just pitch after pitch after pitch after pitch. And then you wonder why your life is just okay. And you can't get to the other side of these things. Because you have to connect. Not just look at.

What does that look like a little bit? How does how does that even play out? Well, there's there's four things about how the spirit does this. How does the spirit produce the fruit in my life? I already told you the first one. The fruit of the spirit is singular. It's one fruit. But secondly, it's inevitable.

If you connect to Christ, it is inevitable. It happens because the spirit's the one that produces it. That's why it's a test when you read these. If they're not showing up, you have a connection problem. Third, gradual. Because just like it's it's really describing like an actual how fruit is really produced.

It it it doesn't just happen. You don't just put a seed in the ground or plant a tree, and then all a sudden, five seconds later, you poured some water. Oh, good. That's a good peach, you know. Or that's a great tomato. Because tomatoes are fruit, by the way. Didn't know if you knew that.

But they're gradual. They don't come all at once. It doesn't just here you are. No. Sorry. There's no grand slams when it comes to you don't just go crack. I connected once. I'm all the way around the bases. Woo hoo. Doesn't happen that way.

But then the last thing, what I've been kinda already saying this passage says, but I wanna go to another passage is, they're dependent on its roots.

You see when it comes to fruit, like if if you don't have a healthy roots for a tree, no fruit.

A branch that produces fruit has to be connected to the healthy roots. Otherwise, nothing. So turn with me back to to to John, the gospel of John, back a few pages in your bibles. John chapter 15, because Jesus describes what the root is. What is the true root of all of this, of how it works?

And it says here, fart starting and starting farting. Sorry. I said farting, and I just said it again. So I'm just gonna shut up. I'm gonna take a drink of water.

See the nice thing about video is we could have edited that out. Here we go.

See, most people just hope nobody heard what I said, and they would just move on. Not me. I'll go say it three or four more times and point it out, so that's good. Well, Jesus. Let's get to what Jesus has to say because it's way better than what I just said.

John 15 verse one. I am the true grapevine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I've given you if you know Jesus. Remain in me, and I will remain in you.

For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes. I am the vine. Look. He keeps going back and saying the same thing repeatedly. You know what? If if if if you're a parent and you're repeating the same thing, you,

it's something that's important to you. Right? And if you're a kid and your parent keeps repeating the same thing, something bad's about to happen to you. So it it he keeps repeating it. He goes, I'm the vine. You are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit. From apart from me,

you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it'll be granted.

When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my father. So so here you go. So he basically says, I'm the root. I'm the you you are the branch. I'm the root. You're connected to me, and that's how the Holy Spirit then produces the fruit. So

you need to stay connected. Remain in me. My words remain in you. He's saying, you just stay connected. That's how it works. How do we just need to to to be in this connection and and and stay that way. But what's interesting is because look look what it says. There's some scary stuff in here.

He's very throat punchy. He basically says, if you are never He says, first of all, if you're You know me, even as you produce fruit, I'm gonna prune you to produce more. Others are gonna be cut off. They're cut off completely. They're never connected. He goes, eventually, they're gonna be thrown into a fire and burned.

That's some scary words. That means if you're not connected to Christ, you're gonna go to hell. Which is not a popular message today. So it's throat punchy but he actually wants something for us. He's warning us.

You need to be connected to me. And even if you are, the pruning part here's the problem. Cutting a branch and pruning a branch look exactly the same.

It is just where it's getting cut at. And so some of us are are are are struggling through this season in life because you're like, hey, I I I feel like I'm staying connected to Christ, but life is hard. And and and I'm going through painful things, and I don't understand why God's allowing this.

My encouragement to us would be, if you are connected to Christ, he's gonna use this stuff to prune our lives so we produce even more fruit. See, if you think connection to Christ means everything's always easy, then you're missing the point. Matter of fact, in our culture, that's called prosperity gospel.

It's the biggest life in the pit of hell that's ever existed because it turns a relationship with God into us centered.

It's about I do this. I get that. I do this. I go produce the fruit. I get what I want. I do this. I get that. And here's what's weird though. But but, Bill, didn't he just say something similar to that amidst all the throat punchiness? Didn't he just say down here in verse no. No. No. No. Seven.

But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want and it'll be granted. Doesn't that contradict what you just said? No. Because there's a key thing. You get whatever you asked for if you do what? Remain in me and I knew. That didn't remain

connected to me. That didn't say, if you perform for me, you can ask for whatever you want. That's the prosperity gospel. That's the mentality he says. I go do these things. I go show up at church. I put in my time. I I I do these things, and now I've been a good boy or girl, and now I'm praying about something I really want that has nothing to do with the kingdom of God or anything. It's just selfishness or whatever else. And you get frustrated because God's not giving what you've been asking for over and over and over again. And you're like, the system doesn't work.

This is not about manipulating God. The key word is you remain in him and his words remain in you. You stay connected to God. Here here, bottom line. I'll explain to you what he's saying is. If you want what God wants, you always get what you want. Does that make sense?

We got, lost when I was a kid, and we were in San Diego. And my dad finally got dark. He first of we pulled off. We were starving. And the only restaurant we could find that was open was this Italian restaurant. We go in, and it was fancy. Like, were staring at us the way we were dressed. And we sit down, and my dad looks at the menu.

He's like, I can't even afford water in this place. So he looks and finds the cheapest thing, the basic spaghetti plate. And he looks at my sister and I, and he goes, hey. You guys can order anything you want as long as it's spaghetti.

God says you can ask for anything you want and you'll get it as long as it's my will. Because if you remain in him and remain connected to him and his words remain connected into you, guess what you're gonna want?

Connection is different than performance. Being connected and remaining in his word and his love allows the holy spirit to now produce this fruit. And when you have those nine attributes of that fruit, guess what? You want God's will in your life.

That's how it works. And if you wanna be stubborn and say, I'll do it my own way, that's the problem. You'll be a disconnected branch.

Well, if you think about it and going back to the the the the the fruit illustration, how do you get there? How do you begin?

Like, how do the next few weeks, we're gonna talk about three primary ways we can connect to Christ. What are three pretty traditional biblical things that God talks about that help us connect, that help us keep connected.

Next week, the one of them is right there in the clue. If my words remain in you. The first one, we're gonna talk about how the bible how how you need to be in the bible. That the bible isn't just a rule book. The bible is not just something where you look at and you wanna win arguments with. The bible doesn't just have the right answers. The bible is something you need to go through, but then you need to let it go through you.

And we're gonna talk about how the words of God help you. So a lot of us, we're having a hard time with our connection to Christ because what I just read to you in the bible is probably the only Bible you've even looked at all week. You can't do that and stay connected to Christ.

So you don't some of us, we read our Bibles. Okay. Did my and we take that perfection. That quest for perfection. Oh, I'm doing the good things now. I'm doing the good things now. God, give me what no. You're doing it because it connects you to Christ and enables the Holy Spirit to then work through the word.

Then we're gonna look at prayer. And then the last thing, we're gonna look at people. That God uses the Holy Spirit uses people, connections to others to help us. But to get this started, how do you get connected? Because some people in this room and online, you're not

connected to Christ at all. You may see him. You may watch. You may come to church, but you've never connected to him to begin with. You you you you you've never received the gospel. But for all of us, to get a fruit tree, you gotta plant a seed. Right? Do you know what that seed has to do before a tree can be produced?

It dies. Jesus talks about it. He says you plant a seed. The seed has to die before you get the tree. His point is we have to die to self. We have to die to self to connect to Christ. And then the Holy Spirit is the one that produces the stuff in us. We don't have to be on this slavish quest for perfection.

Just focus on connection and see where it goes. See where it goes. So let me let me kinda sum this up and and and give you an example of how this all works in real life. And I wanna use an example of something. I wanna show you a picture. I wanna show you a picture here. Do you guys know where that picture is of?

It's right out there. It's it's our cross. And it's it's drawn from an angle through our little narrow gate that that looks at it. This was a picture that a friend of mine, Matt Hamilton drew for me.

And it was really cool because I I would like to say we designed it this way on purpose, but no. He just has this incredible insight. He's an artist and all that. And as he looked, he sat out here and looked at this thing. He saw the narrow gate and then the cross,

and he he drew this for me and then put Matthew seven thirteen right there. Matthew seven thirteen says, enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate that leads to destruction.

And so he he he kinda saw this angle of he thought it was so cool that the narrow gate and then what what you see through the narrow gate is the cross. And so then he he he gave it to me. You know what's interesting about that is is is you see, that's he saw it correctly.

You see, if you have that quest for perfection, you think it's about performance for God. When you read a verse like Matthew seven thirteen that says, enter the narrow gate, for wide is the gate to destruction, what you think it just said is, you better stay on that straight narrow path. You better get all these things right. You better do the right things, or or you're going to hell. He's like, no. The idea of trying to do it that way is the wide path that leads to destruction. Because that's every other teaching philosophy in the entire world is make yourself better, work really hard, go do these things, Be successful. And then you made it. That's the road to destruction.

The narrow gate is the cross. The reason it's called the narrow gate is Jesus goes on to say, what? Later on the passage. Anyone know what he says? I am the gate. What he's saying is it's narrow and that's what Matt saw. He saw that that cross, he goes, what a cool symbolic illustration.

The gate is narrow because it's the way of the cross. There's only one way to have life work. There's only one way to have eternal life. There's only one way to live out life right now in the power of the Holy Spirit, the way God created us to be. There's only one way, and that is connecting to Jesus. And the first way you have to connect to Jesus is you gotta meet him at the cross.

And you have to die to self and know that he died for you, that we are sinners. We are not mistakers. The biggest lie is we think we just need to get a little bit better. We are totally disobedient, absolutely rebellious,

separated from a righteous, holy God who will judge sin no matter what, and there is no way we can make ourselves good enough. And that is what sin is. We choose to go after our own things. We choose to even come to church, see Jesus, try to manipulate the system to turn him into the genie that gives us what we want. We That is sin. It is a twisted,

deformed way of thinking that was brought on by our brokenness, and there is only one way to get past it. And that is through Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross. That is the gospel. You have to connect. But here's what's crazy.

Matt drew me this, dropped it off, and then he died a couple weeks later.

Friday, we had his funeral in here.

This is the last thing he ever drew, and he gave it to me.

And I. He's the type of guy that he didn't he wasn't trying to teach me a lesson. He just thought it was really cool. But the holy spirit grabbed my heart. I have the original sitting in my office right there in the table where I study at. So every time I prepare a message I look up at this thing. And it reminds me.

No matter what we're talking about, we have to always, and the answer is always the narrow gate of meeting Jesus at the cross.

Always. But what's interesting about Matt when we're at his his his his funeral is

he had been a small group leader in this church. He led a a a small group of middle schoolers. He served. They gave. They're passionate. He he gave to this building. He so wanted to be here to worship, never made it.

He did get to come. We did tours for the people that gave. He sat right there in that row seat two. That's what was gonna be his seat. That's where he liked it. So he got to be in here one time. That's when he saw this and and drew it for me. But you know what made him all those things?

Is when people were talking, every the eulogies got up and talked. I was just listening and and everyone said how he was intentional. And you know what he was intentional about? Connecting to Christ. You know what he told his small group? We need to connect to Christ.

You know what he told his kids and everyone? You need to connect to Christ. He was so intentional about connecting to Christ. That's all he cared. That's what he pointed people to. And because he was so intentional about connecting, you know what's really interesting about everyone who spoke about him?

I tallied it up because I was thinking about this message as I was sitting there.

Here are nine words that came out of people's mouth when they described it. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.

That's who this man was. Where do you think that came from? The holy spirit produced it in his life because he chose to connect.

He's only a couple years older than me. And it was interesting because his wife, Melanie, she goes, we she said, come dressed in shorts and comfortable. I'm like, yes.

And then because he he he had joy, peace, he was okay. I mean, he he he was sad to leave his family, but he he had that peace that surpasses all understanding. He had these qualities about him. And and and one of the the the message in in the service that Caleb did, our middle school pastor, he he

talked about how, hey, you can't you gotta confront the question of some of you who are maybe mad at God, why? Why would something like this happen? Why did God why die? Why die?

And and you know what the real answer is is is why how to confront that anger, that fear, all that, and why Matt didn't wrestle with it because he had the fruit of the spirit? He wasn't so worried about why he died because he already had the answer to why he lived.

If we wanna run through life worried about not physical, maybe physical death, but also like, when does this get in? When's life gonna get better? If all we do is worry about all the things we're afraid of losing,

the things that we don't want, the things that are gonna die in our life, but we never answer the question, how do you even live in the first place? You're gonna be frustrated your entire life no matter how many times you come in here and keep your eye on the ball of Jesus.

It's not till you choose to connect.

That okay will stop being okay. And God will take you someplace so much better. So I wanna pray. And there there there's kinda two groups in here.

There's those of us that know Jesus. You are connected to the vine, but you're not you're struggling with the pruning. You're struggling with maybe God's trying to prune some stuff in your life, And and you're you need to be led by the spirit. You want him to to to to he's trying to guide you.

I want you to just start praying and let the holy spirit talk to you about what you need to talk about because he's better at doing his job than I am. 's some people in here I I wanna pray with though and online.

And that is those that are you're a disconnected branch. You are not you've never entered the narrow gate. You've never met Jesus at the cross. You might have come to church. You might have heard it talked about. But you have never personally

we always say invite Jesus into our heart. It doesn't really work that way. We don't need to invite Jesus. We need to give our heart to Jesus. We we need to put our faith in him. We need to turn from our sin and our broken and our trying to make life work our own way and turn to him and say, I confess I am a sinner. I repent, which means to just turn around.

And I am putting my faith in your death, your burial, and your resurrection, what you did for me. Your love, your grace, and your mercy.

That's what it means to first connection with Christ. And some of you have never done that. You're still on that. You're going through the wide gate. It's time to enter the narrow gate. So you pray with me?

If you're one of those people that says, hey, don't think I've ever just surrendered my life to Jesus. I don't think I've even if I've been at church, I I I don't know. But then this is your moment. And some of you are feeling this tug. You're like, don't even understand this but I'm I'm being tugged and and

I don't get it. That's the Holy Spirit. He's crying out to you. Enter the narrow gate. If that's you, just pray with me. But make it your own prayer in your heart. Make it your own words. It's not a magic incantation. It's just a simple confession and a profession. Just pray something like, dear Jesus, thank you.

Thank you that there is a narrow gate to life. I thank you that you went to the cross and died for me. You came back to life giving me life. And right now, I choose in the best way I know how to turn from me. To say I'm sorry for my sin. I'm sorry for my trying to go my own way and ignoring your love. But I turn to it now

and I believe in your death, burial, and resurrection. I ask you to forgive me and I thank you for forgiving me because that's what you promised to do. Thank you for finding a way for me to connect.

Can you please help me go from here and each and every day maybe grow in my understanding of how to connect to you in a deeper, more consistent way so that the Holy Spirit can produce great things in me. Thank you for connecting with me so the Holy Spirit can make me like you. I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus, amen.

Hey. If if you just prayed with me in here or even if you're online, we would love to hear about it. We have people that want to pray for you. So you can actually go on to rockpoint.io and you can click the tab that says, say yes to Jesus.

And and just fill that out and, let us know because hey. Just because you connected to Jesus, like I said, life doesn't become all rainbows and unicorns immediately.

You're still gonna be wearing masks. You're still gonna be wondering about your job. You're still gonna, you know, have kids that irritate the snot out of you, you're stuck with them all day right now. You still that life doesn't get easier. But it can have more joy, more peace, more understanding.

That's the power of the Holy Spirit when we connect to Christ. Amen? Amen. This was fun. It was good to be back. So have

fun farting around the rest of the day.