.jpg)
The Rock Family Worship Center
Taking The Church Outside The Walls
The Rock Family Worship Center
Fruit vs Root
This episode explores the critical importance of understanding our roots—our identity in Christ—rather than merely focusing on the fruits of our behavior. By emphasizing the finished work of Jesus, we discuss how true transformation comes from recognizing who we are and cultivating that identity, leading to lasting change.
• Understanding the fruit vs. root concept
• Common mistakes in dealing with behavioral issues
• The significance of Christ as our foundation
• The misalignment between good works and righteousness
• The importance of renewing our minds
• Practical steps for living in true identity
• A call to embrace our inherent worth and purpose in Christ
So I want to share something with you this morning Again. Some of you have seen this. I've taught on it before this message this morning, the title. If I'm not mistaken, I've probably had this title before, but I'm changing it up a little bit because I'm looking at it from a perspective of finished work and I've never done that. But I've talked about many times fruit versus root.
Speaker 1:I use this often in counseling sessions and that's what made me think of this yesterday, because I was talking to somebody last week about this and I use this often. It's just a little thing that I've seen years ago and it just made sense to me. I understood the premise behind it and I use it for every type of counseling. If somebody comes in for anxiety or depression or addiction or whatever it may be, it really don't matter. This can be used for that and it's real simple. I just simply, even though I'm not an artist, I draw a tree and I just look at them and I say do you know what kind of tree this is? Sometimes they'll answer and they'll try to guess and they'll say an oak tree or this or that you know whatever. But the fact is I say, really, though, you don't know, okay. But then I look at them and I say now do you know what kind of tree it is? Of course, apple tree. I say how do you know that? Because I see apples on it. Why? Because the Bible says in Matthew I think it's Matthew 13, that a tree is known by its fruit. So we can look at a tree, and we don't have to be a specialist in this. We can look at a tree and I can tell you if it's an apple tree, if it's a lemon tree, if it's an orange tree, based on what, based on the fruit that it produces. We are no different. We produce fruit in our life, and I use this because this is what I want to show you right here.
Speaker 1:You can look and say depression, anxiety, addiction, whatever it could be anything, anything that we struggle with. And do you know that depressed people have certain behaviors that you can see? Anxious people display certain behaviors that you can see. People who are going through addiction display certain behaviors that can be seen. So there are certain behaviors that we display, and what we do oftentimes in counseling and this is where I talk down on counselors on this, including myself, because I used to do this is we try to say well, they're going through depression, let's put them on medication, take care of that. They're going through anxiety, let's just walk them through some techniques to get rid of that. They're going through addiction, let's send them to rehab. They're going through addiction, let's send them to rehab, get rid of that.
Speaker 1:And we don't realize that, although we think we got rid of this, next season and I say next season, next situation, next circumstance, next trial error, whatever we're going through something is going to cause that fruit to come back on the tree. Because what happens when you pick apples off a tree Next season, if it's a good tree, apples come back again. Now, I didn't know this until we bought the property that we live on, that a plum tree only produces plum every two years. I didn't know that. But for the most part most trees produce every year. Fruit's going to come back.
Speaker 1:So we can't get rid of this stuff just simply by doing something right here and picking it off the tree. It would be very simple to just say let's pick it off and no more fruit. But here's the thing when you get down here and you start looking at what feeds this tree, and you get down here to the roots of this tree. If I want to kill the tree, I cut the roots up. If I cut the roots, guess what happens to the tree? Tree dies. When the tree dies, fruit dies.
Speaker 1:So if I want to get rid of behaviors, I can't just say stop doing that. I can, but it ain't going to work and it's proven that it don't work. But if I want to truly figure out how do I fix these things, I've got to get, I got to stop focusing on fruit and get down to the root of it. What's really feeding this thing? If I'm going through depression, if I'm going through anxiety or addiction, what is driving it and feeding it? Because, see, the roots is what feeds the nutrient. Without root, without a root system, there is no fruit being produced.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've got to pay attention down here with this. And I got to thinking about this. And the more I thought about it, the more I started thinking how does this work from a finished work perspective? Because I believe in that. I've used it for too long and I've seen too many people benefit from it. So then I started looking and said how does this work from the finished work perspective? Let me start you off in one verse in John 15, verse 5, and look at what it says I am the vine, you are the branches. I am the vine, you are the branches, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.
Speaker 1:Okay, many Christians focus on producing fruit. That's our goal. We want to produce fruit, and when I'm talking about fruit here, I'm talking about good works, holiness, righteousness. That's the things in the Christian faith that we look at and we say that is good fruit. I can look at somebody's life and I can see they're teaching Sunday school and they're doing all these other things and they're handing out pamphlets uptown at the red light and good fruit. We look at that and say, man, those guys are awesome, they got some good fruit in their life. So we focus on that instead of focusing on the root.
Speaker 1:What is the root? It's their, their identity in christ. It's christ living on the inside of us, because the whole process of the finished work was completed in the fact that he now comes and lives on the inside of me. He didn't just die, go to heaven, sit at the right hand of the Father and somehow we can pray and we hope that he hears us. It's a long distance, but we hope that he hears us. No, he lives on the inside of me. He said it is better that I do us. It's a long distance, but we hope that he hears us. No, he lives on the inside of me. He said it is better that I do this. Why? Because I'm going to the Father and I'm sending back a comforter. So he didn't do this and leave us. He even said I will not leave you comfortless, but I'm going to send back the Holy Spirit to live, to reside on the inside of you, to live, to reside on the inside of you.
Speaker 1:The finished work of Jesus means we don't have to strive to become righteous. We bear fruit because we're already righteous. We're focusing on bearing fruit rather than focusing on the root, and if we focus on Christ that lives on the inside of me, fruit automatically produces because of who I am. I don't have to strive and work to try to produce it. But let's look at what religion often teaches us. It often teaches us to focus on fixing behavior. You can go on Facebook this afternoon and go to some other denominations and different things and look at what was being taught, and a lot of things are being taught on how to fix behavior. Nothing wrong with that. I taught that for years.
Speaker 1:But the truth is, the issue isn't someone's struggles. It isn't the sins that they're dealing with, as we like to say. It isn't the weakness that they have in their life. It's what they believe about themselves. It all comes back to a belief system, what they believe about themselves. Fruit doesn't make the tree healthy. The good works does not make a good Christian. Fruit does not make the tree healthy. The good works does not make a good Christian. Fruit does not make the tree healthy. The root does Kill the root and you destroy the tree, forget the root of Jesus Christ living on the inside of you and focus on behaviors and there's going to be problems. And I'm going to take you to a verse in a minute where Jesus tells you that that's not just counseling, where Jesus tells you that so it's not just counseling. Jesus tells us that we abide in Him and he abides in us and we'll produce good fruit.
Speaker 1:But those who don't abide in me think about what someone may say when they have the wrong focus. If my focus is on behavior making sure somebody looks like a Christian, making sure somebody, no matter what they're going through, as long as they look good. Because if I want you and if you're coming to my church, I want you to look right, I want you to do the right things, I want you to dress the right way. That's some of the things that we're taught. That's what I was taught. Coming up Appearance it means a lot, okay.
Speaker 1:So think about someone who may have the wrong focus. They may say things like I need to stop sinning, I need to pray more, I need to try harder, I need to work harder at this Christian thing, this walk with God. But what if they change their thinking? What if they've done? This is a novel concept now. What if they've done what the Bible says To be transformed by renewing of the mind, to repent?
Speaker 1:Repentance simply means to change the way you think. It don't mean nothing about saying I'm coming to the altar and saying I'm sorry, that's called an apology. Repentance means changing this. When I change this, I see myself different, even if I'm still struggling, even if I'm still going through something. I've said it a couple weeks ago my condition that I'm going through does not change my position as a child of God. I don't care what you may be struggling with. It does not change who God said that you are. Now you may not be able to see it, and that therein lies the problem. But because you can't see it don't mean God was wrong. It don't mean, because you can't see yourself as righteous, as holy, as forgiven, as whole, that what Jesus accomplished didn't work. It worked. But we've got to change our mind to be able to see ourselves that way. What if I said I'm already righteous, I'm already whole and as I rest in Christ, fruit will grow naturally in my life. I don't have to try to work to produce it, it just grows naturally. Why? Because it's connected to the root. So here's a question Are people too often trying to fix the fruit instead of focusing on the root?
Speaker 1:Does church teach us to try to fix the fruit or to focus on the root? Let's talk about the root in just a minute. I said a while ago this is your identity in Christ. This is Christ living on the inside of you. This is your identity. This is you seeing yourself, not as a label that somebody put on you or a label that maybe you've even put on yourself. This is not because of a life that you lived or behaviors that you've participated in. We're talking about the root here Jesus living on the inside of you, going to the cross, the death, the burial, the resurrection, the ascension into heaven, and ascending back of the Holy Spirit to live on the inside of you. And now I'm looking and saying everything that he did is absolutely, 100% sufficient, and I am. I am in this earth as he is. Can I see myself that way? So that's what we're talking about here. Can I go back to the root and see myself the way that jesus sees me? The things that he done accomplished something in my life more than just allowing me a free pass into heaven. It actually accomplished something more.
Speaker 1:In romans 11 and 16, this verse right here is powerful, for if the firstfruits is holy, the lump is also holy. But here's the part I want you to see If the root is holy, now that's another discussion we can have. Some people may say I don't think God's holy, I don't think Jesus was holy. That's a whole other discussion. But if you believe that Jesus Christ was holy, if you believe that he was who he says he was, if the root is holy, so are the branches. You know, after the hurricane come and it blew branches off the tree, we didn't have any, well, we had one little one that fell, but even the ones that didn't fall, it blew some branches off. You know what those branches did? They died, the ones that fell off, because they were no longer connected to the tree. This verse, right here, says it's holy, the root is holy, so are the branches. So are the branches. You've got to read between the lines here the branches. That's connected.
Speaker 1:If I'm no longer connected, if I move away, and what I'm saying there is. Please understand this. When I say move away, because he says if I'm in you and you're in me, I believe that right there says there is no separation. I've said that so many times. You put sugar in tea, you can't take it back out. When the Holy Spirit comes into me, he's not going back out. How do you know that? Because he says I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you.
Speaker 1:So what is this talking about, then? Because he says if I'm in you and you're in me, some people read that and say that some people can be in Him and some people can be out of Him. I can't be out of Him, be in him and some people can be out of him. I can't be out of him, but guess what? I can see myself in a different way than he sees me when he's sitting here on the inside of me and he's saying you're holy, you're righteous, you're a child of God, and you're turning around, looking in the mirror and saying I'm this or I'm that, and it's totally opposite of what he's saying. I'm not in him, he's in me, but I'm not connecting with what he's saying. I'm not seeing myself in the same way that he sees. It don't change the fact that it's still true, because he ain't going nowhere, but I've got to see myself that way Again.
Speaker 1:It's like a million dollars has been deposited into your account and every day, every week, you're living in poverty. You got a million dollars in the bank, you are a millionaire and every day you're living in poverty. Why? Because you didn't know it was there. It does you no good if you don't know it was there. It does you no good if you don't know it's there. And some people's thinking the only way we're getting to Jesus is one day when we die, instead of saying he's on the inside of me. Right now I have access to all these things right now. If the root is holy, so are the branches. See, you don't become holy by producing good fruit. You produce good fruit because you are holy.
Speaker 1:We look at that thing totally opposite sometimes. How many believe that good deeds make you righteous Anybody. But we're all 100% on the same page that good deeds, doing good things, does not make me righteous Wow, we're all in agreement. So let me ask you this If good deeds don't make you righteous, can we also say that bad behavior don't make you sinners? Why do we struggle with that? We have no problem in it. It's not just you. Every church in Bacon County would agree that good deeds does not make me righteous. But I can flip that baby around and everybody would disagree, because as soon as you make a mistake, they're calling you a sinner, they're calling you a hypocrite. If it's true here, it's got to be true here. We can't turn it around.
Speaker 1:Statistics show that nearly and this varied, but I looked up the one that was showed more often but statistics say that nearly 40% of lottery winners go bankrupt within the first five years of winning the lottery. Almost 40% go bankrupt within five years of winning. Don't matter how much they win, it'll be a million or 15 million. I can't see somebody going bankrupt when they're winning that one billion, but I guess you could. Forty percent, that's high, okay, now think about that just a minute.
Speaker 1:A Christian can know they are righteous, know they are saved, but still not know their true identity. In Christ I know where I'm going when I die, but they don't know their true identity if they haven't renewed their mind. I can know I'm saved because I can remember back one day when I said a prayer. Nothing wrong with saying a prayer, but that's the way we distinguish that somebody is born again. I've seen people forced to say that prayer. I'm literally. I say forced because it was in situations to where they felt uncomfortable if they didn't say it. So they were kind of pushed to say it. That didn't mean nothing in there, but that's what we determine salvation by how many people come to the altar and said the Lord's Prayer of Salvation. So they can know this, they can know the date that they did that and they can know that they're righteous. Why? Because the Word says I'm righteous, but they never know their true identity and they will never know their true identity until they are renewed in their thinking.
Speaker 1:I go back to that and I use that example about the lottery because it's the same thing I said a while ago. These folks are millionaires, they won this lottery. Millions of dollars are going into their account, but they're still living every day and operating every day with a poverty mindset. You know what a poverty mindset says I ain't going to have this forever. I better spend it up while I've got it. You know when the poverty mindset is seen most often You're fixing to see it in about a month, when income tax checks start coming in Because people's going to get money that they did not have during the year and all of a sudden they're going to say I've got to spend this because, you know, in April and May it ain't going to be here. So they go off and they start buying things that they really don't even need. But they won't because now they've got the money to get it. And then all of a sudden, in a few months, they're back in the same situation.
Speaker 1:It's a cycle. Poverty is a cycle. It's the same thing that happens with these people that become go to bankrupt court because they can't manage the money they've got because they're operating with a mindset of poverty. That's the same thing that these Christians that I'm talking about here. They know they're operating with a mindset of poverty. That's the same thing that these Christians that I'm talking about here. They know they're righteous, they know they're saved, but they're operating with a mindset of defeat and victory Defeat and condemnation Instead of operating from a standpoint and a mindset of victorious living, not because I'm doing something right or doing something good, but because of what he did.
Speaker 1:It's not about what I'm doing, it's about what he did. And when I understand what he did and I come to terms with that, what I'm doing will flow out of that. My doing flows from my being and my understanding of who I am. So I'm not saying good works is not good. Some people would say, oh, he's saying don't do good works, no, I'm not. But I'm saying let the good works flow from my identity. I'm not doing them to create an identity. I'm not supposed to be, but that's what a lot of Christians do. I'm going to do this and this and this and all of a sudden I'm going to look good, instead of saying I understand who I am and out of this is going to flow certain things. Why? Because I just can't help it, and I'm going to show you another verse in a minute. I'm going to show you that. I want you to see these verses. I want you to see that they're saying exactly what we're saying here.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing, though Jesus didn't just change your behavior, he changed your nature. We've got to understand that. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17,. It shows us this. He talks about that in there, about how our nature changed. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. He is new. Old things have passed away. What old things? Whatever your old thing is, we don't have to call it out. I don't need you to come to the altar and start yelling out every negative thing that you've ever done. Listen, I don't need you to go, and you know you ain't going to do that.
Speaker 1:Some people may feel the need to do it, and that's fine. I'll listen to you, but it's not a requirement that you tell me every bad thing that you've ever done in your life. The old things, whatever it is, have passed away. Behold, all things have become new, but we're still focusing on the old things. That's where condemnation comes in at, because, even if I try to believe what you're in at, because even if I try to believe what you're saying, pastor, even if I try to take that and say I'm righteous, I'm righteous, I'm holy, then I start thinking over here, all the bad stuff I'm doing, and now there's a battle. And the battle was in your head. The battle was in your head, the battle was in your mind. The battle was Jesus trying to get you to see who you really are. But you keep fighting against it because of what you've done. But this verse right here, it kind of answers it for you. It says old things have passed away, not because of what you've done, but because of what he did.
Speaker 1:Many christians struggle with their behavior because they don't fully realize their new identity, their new nature in. We're taught to change behavior and I say that and I told you a while ago when I teach this, I used to teach change behavior. We still do that to a certain degree in counseling. If a parent brings a child in, they say man, this child is acting crazy, fix them. And then they get mad because once you really start asking questions, you realize that the ones that need to be fixed is them, because they're creating a lot of this. They want you to just fix the behavior that's going on. Make this crazy young and stop doing this that's going on. Make this crazy young'un, stop doing this. And they're never looking at what's driving them. What's feeding this behavior? Something's feeding them.
Speaker 1:I used to say this all the time People don't just live good lives and everything's going good and I've got a job and I've got a family and I'm working and everything's going great. They don't just live for years like that and then just wake up one day and say you know, I think I'm going to get addicted to meth today, just so I can lose everything. It don't happen like that. It really don't. Anybody who's ever struggled with addiction or knows somebody that has, knows it don't happen like that. It really don't. Anybody who's ever struggled with addiction or knows somebody knows it don't happen like that.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of things that lead up to getting to that point, but what we do is we say behavior, gotta get it stopped. It don't work like that. I wish it did, man. If I had the power and the ability just to look at somebody and say stop the idiot. It went away. Whew, y'all would see me all over TV. Dr Phil wouldn't have nothing on me. But in reality it don't work like that. You've got to go back and say let's fix some of the things that's causing that stuff. Now, that's not to say because I know somebody might hear this and say, well, I've done it like that, good for them. Good for them. I'm not saying it's never happened, but that's not the majority. Some people can do that because there was something in their life that made them say I'm putting it down or I'm stopping this or whatever. But that's not the way it works for most people.
Speaker 1:So many Christians struggle with this behavior because they don't realize this new nature that this is talking about. Right here we're taught to change behavior. Focus on behavior. Why? Because the main focus of what we're teaching in most churches is our destination. It's all about destination. Get to heaven, don't go there, that's going to be hot. Change your behavior so that you can escape hell and go to heaven. So it's all about changing behavior. Why? Why? Because of a destination.
Speaker 1:The finished work of Christ focuses on our identity. You are not a sinner trying to act righteous. That's why we say all the time you're not just an old sinner saved by grace. You are not a sinner trying to act righteous. You are righteous in Christ, the gift of righteousness was given to you because of what he did. You are righteous and you're learning to live from your true nature. It's still a learning process, but we're now realizing I am who he says I am, but I've got to know it, and when I don't know it, I start operating in all this other junk. Paul talked about it, they talked about it all through there.
Speaker 1:The prodigal son knew who he was, but then he went out and he acted like a fool. And then he come to himself and said I don't belong here, I belong in Daddy's house. So he went back. But when you read these stories you really got to put yourself in it and think. Don't just read, but think. Something told him when he was in that pig pen you don't belong here. And he started thinking. I don't know what was going through his mind. I'm having to read between the lines, but I'm using common sense. He was probably thinking man, I had it made. All I had to do is get up, and there were certain things that I'm it made. All I had to do was get up, and there were certain things that I'm responsible for. Why? Because I'm in Daddy's house, I didn't have to do all this stuff. I didn't have to work for things, certain things I was entitled to because I was a son. So you got to think.
Speaker 1:When he was in that pig pen with mud all over him, these thoughts had to be going through his head. And I was clean in daddy's house, I didn't have all this nasty mud on me. So these thoughts started coming and all of a sudden, it said he come to himself'd come to a realization I don't belong here. But then, as he gets up out of the mud and I'm just thinking through this story I picture him getting up out of the mud, maybe cleaning himself off, I don't know. But he starts back on the way home Because I've got to get back to Daddy's house. Somewhere on the path back home, those thoughts start coming again and he says I'm not worthy. Look what I did. I'm not even worthy to go back as a son. And when he got there he said I'm not worthy, take me back as a servant. So what did he do? He started looking down on himself. His whole idea of himself and his position changed in his mind. But what did daddy do? Daddy put a ring on him, he put a robe on him. He threw a party for him, he killed the fatted cat. He done all these things and said I don't care where you've been, I don't care what you've done, I don't care how much money you've wasted. You are my son and nothing you can do will change that. Even if you don't see it, even if you don't see it, you're still my son. If you don't see it, you're still my Son.
Speaker 1:The finished work of Christ focuses on identity. We've got to see that. You don't change who you are by changing what you do. You change what you do by believing who you are. Let me say that again. You don't change who you are by changing who you are. Let me say that again you don't change who you are by changing what you do. You change what you do by believing who you are. I don't want people to have a certain impression of me just because I do certain things and we do. That's natural. People do good things and we think good things of them. Nothing wrong with that. But we're taking a step further than just what we're seeing here and we're talking about spiritual things. Okay, I've got to understand who I am in Christ.
Speaker 1:What if we stop trying to fix people? Now this is going to cause you to think a little bit. Now this is outside the box of what we're taught in traditional Christianity, because we're traditionally taught that we're to get saved, we're to get our life right and then we're to go out there, and everywhere we walk to go out there and everywhere we walk to is a mission field. That's not wrong, but I'm just saying let's think about the concept a minute. What if we stopped trying to fix people and started reminding them of who they already are? The more we focus on the root Jesus in us, the more fruit will naturally grow. Think what could happen if we stopped focusing on behavior, if we stopped looking at people when they're coming in and we stopped looking at everything that they went through in their life and stop pointing fingers and telling them what they've got to change to meet the requirements of being a Christian. Think what would happen if we stopped focusing on that and put our focus on the root Jesus Christ in us, our identity in Christ.
Speaker 1:This happens a lot in addiction counseling, in rehabs, because we focus on stopping the problem, stopping the behavior, and it works. I'm not talking against rehab, they work. But then when this person gets out and they just don't have any idea who they are. And the next season rolls around, the next problem occurs that they can't deal with. They go back to the place that they were comfortable and it starts a cycle. There's only one way to break the cycle it's to get them to a place of understanding who they really are. When they understand who they really are, certain behaviors will begin to just I don't have a need for that anymore. I don't have a desire for that anymore. Why? Because that's not who I am. I've come to myself Now. This may sound crazy, but here's what happens when we realize our true identity in Christ and realize the finished work Transformation becomes effort. We don't have to try to transform In Galatians 5, 22 and 23,.
Speaker 1:Look at what it says. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, all those things you want Gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. So all those things that we want, all those things, the fruit of the Spirit that we say. This is the identification of whether you're a Christian or not. Number one did you say the prayer and then are you bearing fruit as a Christian? We look, this is the fruit Love, peace, all these things? Okay, but think about this. Notice it's the fruit. Go back to 22 just a second. Notice what it says right here in 22. But the fruit go back to 22, just a second. Notice what it says right here in 22,. But the fruit of what? Say that again. The fruit of, not the fruit of effort. I don't make an effort to love. I don't make an effort to have joy. I don't make an effort for peace. I don't make an effort for peace. Those things happen out of who I am. I don't go after them. They are just part of me Because they're part of who he is.
Speaker 1:Think back to the apple tree just a minute that I've talked about. It doesn't strive to make apples. It doesn't have to work to make apples. It produces them naturally by staying connected to the root. Cut it down and that thing ain't going to produce no apples next year.
Speaker 1:I was reading a story I didn't put it in my notes but I just thought of it, so I'm going to say it anyway About a guy that had an apple tree and it wasn't producing fruit. It wasn't producing good fruit. Apples were all nasty looking. So he went and he bought plastic apples and he hung them up on the tree and people would ride by and they'd say, man, look at his apple trees. Because they couldn't tell why? Because they judged the tree by the fruit. Those apples that were on there, those plastic apples, did not change the root. Something was wrong with the roots because it was producing bad apples. So he was going to go fix it up a little bit. Oh, how the church does that? Let's just fix it up a little bit.
Speaker 1:What would happen if we changed our thinking about the goal, the goal overall of the gospel message? Now I'm saying gospel. Whenever I say gospel, I don't know how you look at it, but when you hear me say it, I'm saying good news, gospel means good news. Let's change our perspective'm saying good news, gospel means good news. Let's change our perspective of the good news, the gospel message. What if we said it isn't about self-improvement but it's more about discovering identity? So you're saying you don't want these people to be good? No, they will be, but it's going to be real. Why? Because it's flowing out of a new identity. It's not hanging fake fruit on a tree. That's like a bad message, but we see it all the time In some rehabs, in some places. Teach it To be real. They're teaching. What if we said it isn't about self-improvement, it's about discovering identity? That takes a change of mindset.
Speaker 1:Imagine two trees and I'm getting ready to end right here. But imagine two trees, two separate trees here. One is law and one is grace. The one you water is going to live. The one you don't, water is going to live. The one you don't, water, is going to die. Now, just picture that a minute. Two trees, law and grace One you water is going to live and the one you don't, is going to die.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I think we spend too much time watering the wrong tree. I hear people preach all the time. I love to go online and listen to people preach, some for entertainment, some because I do learn I mean, I learn from other people and some of it again is just flat out, I laugh at it Because they're watering the wrong tree. They're preaching good, they've got a congregation of 1,500. Got a lot of tithe money coming in, they're building new buildings all the time, but they're sometimes watering the wrong tree. What do I mean by that?
Speaker 1:Law and grace, romans 7, verse 4 through 6. Here's what I'm talking about. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law. You've got to get that You're dead to the law through the body of Christ, not because of what you did, but you're dead through the body of Christ. That you may be married to another, to Him who was raised from the dead. That we should bear fruit to God, for when we were in the flesh the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by. It don't hold us no more, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter Law, grace. Newness of the Spirit talks about grace. The oldness of the letter talks about law. Which one are we watering?
Speaker 1:Many believers live from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Law, effort, performance that's what they focus on. Jesus brought us back to the tree of life Grace, union, unity, identity, love, unity, identity, love, peace. If you focus on sin, if you focus on law, effort, you're going to bear the fruit of frustration. You're still going to bear fruit, but what kind of fruit is it bearing If you focus on grace and Christ and the Christ in you, you will bear the fruit of life. So we've got a lot of people bearing fruit, but what kind of fruit is it? What am I feeding? Am I feeding the law? Am I feeding that old tree, because it'll still grow? But how good is the fruit? So it makes a difference when we live from the finished work. The first thing that it does is it allows us to rest instead of striving. I can rest in the understanding of who I am.
Speaker 1:One more verse right here, and then I'm going to close up. Hebrews 4 and 10. I'm going to kind of tie it together, for he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased, stopped, completed, ceased from his work, as God did from. His. God stopped working after the seven days. He said it's done. Jesus stopped working after the seven days. He said it's time. Jesus stopped working after he got everything completed and after he went to the cross, he said it's finished and now it's time for us to stop. If you've entered His rest, then you will cease from the works, as God did for Him. It's not about working anymore to gain something. It's about working out of what I've already had.
Speaker 1:Let me leave you with three things right here. Three practical things that I believe, and they're very brief, three practical steps that I believe we can take to walk in our true nature. Not a false nature, not who we used to be, but to walk in the true nature. Three simple things Speak what God says about you. Speak only what God says about you. Stop saying I'm struggling, stop saying I'm just a sinner, stop saying I'm an addict, stop saying I'm not good enough and start saying I'm victorious in Christ. It's finished. I'm a new creation. Old things are passed away. There's no condemnation to those who are in Christ. So if we just started saying what he already said, things would change. Number two stop trying to kill what is already dead. Stop trying to kill what is already dead.
Speaker 1:Romans 6 and 11 says Consider yourselves dead to sin. Consider yourselves. And if you look that up and study it out, it actually says Know that you are dead to sin. I don't like that word when it says consider, because that makes me think it could be or could not be. That's not what it's actually saying. It says Know that you are dead to sin, not because you killed it, but he killed it on your behalf. Consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. You don't need to fight old stuff every day. It's already dead. Instead of fighting sin, start resting in righteousness. That's where the new identity, the finished work, comes in.
Speaker 1:Last thing, stay connected to the vine. John 15 and 5,. This is where we started, this is where we're going to end. It says if you remain in me, you will bear much fruit. If you remain in Me, you will bear much fruit. If you remain in Me, he's not leaving you. I study that.
Speaker 1:When I hear that verse, I hear something different in it, because I know he's not leaving me. He's not saying that if you start acting crazy, I'm out of here. That's the mindset that we get a lot of times, because we'll even say things like you know, god can't live in something like that. We often say the house divided, we're not staying, and basically what we're saying is good and evil can't reside in the same place. Well, I can take you biblically and show you that it can, but he's not going to say oh, you messed up. I'll be back in a couple weeks to check back on you, see if you've changed. No, he's still there. He's just saying because you're acting and seeing yourself outside of what I've commanded you to be, then you're not in seeing yourself outside of what I've commanded you to be, then you're not in me. You're not seeing yourself in the likeness of me. He's not going to punish you because of that. You just simply aren't going to benefit from what's there.
Speaker 1:So if you remain in me, if you keep seeing yourself, if you stay focused on your identity, if you understand who you are, you will bear much fruit. Your job is not to try to produce righteousness, it's to stay connected to Christ. If I just stay connected to Him, I still got time. If I stay connected to Christ, righteousness is a byproduct, holiness is a byproduct. But if I start trying to produce these things, I create a religious mindset. I create an atmosphere to where I feel like I'm achieving something and I'm getting higher and higher and closer and closer to Him because of what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:That's religion. It's not producing you. It makes you look good on the outside. It makes you feel good, probably, on the inside. It makes people look at you and pat you on the back and say he's an amazing guy, she's an amazing woman, such an amazing man of God. We're at the end, so we can cut this if we have to. But have you ever met somebody? And other people come around them and other people's just I mean they're like lifting them up, they're next to Jesus and you know. You haven't been around anybody and you know, and you're not saying nothing. You're not trying to bust them out, but in you, you know, and you know a lot of that stuff is just behavioral. I'm just doing it to look a certain way you can stand.
Speaker 1:Gospel, good news. Have you ever asked yourself the question gospel, good news? Have you ever asked yourself the question what's the bad news? I mean, if gospel and we're supposed to preach the good news, what is the bad news? There's got to be a bad news. I mean I'm just saying news, there's got to be a bad news. I mean I'm just saying think about it, because I think we're probably preaching the bad news sometimes and not even we don't mean it like that. We're not purposely. I don't think any pastor is purposely leading people astray or anything like that. But if it's not turning people to the identity of who they are in Christ, it can be harmful. What's the old saying Just because it's good, don't mean it's God.
Speaker 1:I preached a lot of messages that I thought was good, and now I know it wasn't God. It was at the time because that's all I knew and I thought, man, this is man, heaven's fixing to come down when I preach this. And it wasn't God. I just about made a Facebook post this morning or a comment to somebody, and I won't call them out, but they had a post on there and it was a doomsday Get ready, go get your toilet paper bought up and get your water bought up and get everything bought up. And I sat there and I come so close to just saying why I wasn't going to say nothing, why, and just see what the response was. But what really got me in it was not just what was being said, but the first few words God just told me to tell you. Now I believe people's prophetic, no doubt about that.
Speaker 1:But I think we got to be cautious when we're saying God told me, especially if it don't line up with the word of God. And the more I know some people probably listen to me and think he's rude, the more you get into the understanding who you are, the more you see these things. They don't bother me, to the point that I feel like I just got to go on there and say something. I have to restrain myself sometimes because I want to say something, but then I think what good is it going to do? It ain't going to do any good to say nothing to them, but she's going to come back and she's not going to have an answer, or that she's going to have a crazy answer, and then I'm going to want to say something else and then it's going to start this debate and you're not going to win.
Speaker 1:It's like we say in the school listen, when you start debating with a child, you lost, you lost. When you start having a power struggle with a six-year-old, you lost. That's the same way. Having a debate with somebody that believes something like that, you're not going to change it. I think if God opens that door up for you to present something to them like if I'd have said why, and she'd have come back and said well, what do you think she just asked me?
Speaker 1:Now, that would have been different. But anyway, once you start getting into truly understanding your identity and understanding the finished work and seeing things from that perspective it really does you start to see stuff and stuff will start to bother you a little bit more because you're like man, how do these, what are they thinking, saying this stuff? Anyway, I hope this helps them Again. I've preached this before about the tree and about the fruit versus root, but I've never really looked at it from this perspective of finished work. And that's really what I'm trying to do now is I'm looking back at old sermons that I've preached and saying, okay, how would this have changed if I would have looked at it from this finished work perspective? And that's kind of what it's starting to do now is looking at some of the old stuff. That I don't think was wrong, it was just looking at it from a different perspective and from a different understanding.