SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: And so, men and women, as we go into 2020, as we as we look at the future, as we think about a partnership with Christ, this is where it all lands.
SPEAKER_01: It's a heart-to-heart connection of worship unto him from heart to heart.
SPEAKER_01: Connection.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: John 15.
SPEAKER_01: John 15, man.
SPEAKER_01: And I said last night, and I want to reiterate today, I want to camp on a couple verses here that I did not do justice to last night that are so vital and dynamic in our growth in a partnership with God, a partnership with the Holy Spirit, partnership with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: I am the vine, you are the branches.
SPEAKER_01: He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit.
SPEAKER_01: For without me, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
SPEAKER_01: Really interesting that Jesus wants our heart.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I think of the trunk of the vine, I think of that as being the Father's heart.
SPEAKER_01: And when I think of the branch connected to the trunk, that being our heart.
SPEAKER_01: It's a heart-to-heart connection.
SPEAKER_01: You see, where religion always misses it is a constant focus on outward behavior, on what you do to be a good Christian.
SPEAKER_01: But what Jesus is saying, it's about being.
SPEAKER_01: It's about being in me and letting be in you.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to reveal his heart to each of us.
SPEAKER_01: But simultaneously, and in some kind of a mysterious, symbiotic way, he wants you to share your heart with him.
SPEAKER_01: That in that relationship with him, of you sharing your heart with him, he sharing his heart with you, there's power in that.
SPEAKER_01: There's weighted glory.
SPEAKER_01: Doksa.
SPEAKER_01: There's this weighted glory of us having a heart-to-heart connection with the Lord through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And that whenever we begin to have this relationship on a daily basis, you will start to bear fruit.
SPEAKER_01: And the fruit is not always outward at first.
SPEAKER_01: Oftentimes, it's only inward for a while.
SPEAKER_01: It's that inward honesty.
SPEAKER_01: It's that inward authenticity.
SPEAKER_01: It's that inward longing to do the right thing.
SPEAKER_01: To say the right thing.
SPEAKER_01: To quit lying where you've been lying.
SPEAKER_01: To quit cheating where you've been cheating.
SPEAKER_01: It's that conscience that's being birthed in a new way through a close encounter with Christ on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_01: Wherein his spirit is flowing through you and he begins to kind of ping.
SPEAKER_01: He pings your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You know, don't say that.
SPEAKER_01: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_01: Don't look at it.
SPEAKER_01: And nobody knows.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody knows except you and God.
SPEAKER_01: But what's happening, church, is that as you begin to obey God in the inner connection of branch to vine and heart to heart with him, you're developing a secret history with God that nobody knows about.
SPEAKER_01: But guess what you're doing?
SPEAKER_01: You're building equity in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody sees it, nobody knows about it at first, but you're building an equity with the Lord in heaven, and then he begins to, listen, trust you.
SPEAKER_01: And the more God can trust you, then the more he can open up doors for you in the assignment that he's given you.
SPEAKER_01: It's really important, understand that.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes we focus so much on what's my assignment, what's God's will, what's God's perfect will for my life.
SPEAKER_01: It's the wrong question.
SPEAKER_01: I can only remember it maybe a dozen times in my whole life where I've asked God what his will is.
SPEAKER_01: Because his will has regularly unfolded before me.
SPEAKER_01: We make it our focus to have a personal, vital, dynamic, growing intimacy with him, then he begins to just shove you.
SPEAKER_01: You can't even get out of it.
SPEAKER_01: You can't run from it.
SPEAKER_01: He just starts to move you right to where he wants you to be.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's saying here.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll have your heart in my heart, I'll have my heart and your heart, and you'll bear fruit.
SPEAKER_01: It will be organic, it'll be natural, it'll be normal to bear fruit.
SPEAKER_01: You won't be going, you know, you guys have heard the illustration before.
SPEAKER_01: You don't see an apple tree groaning to get the apples out, but an apple tree just naturally bears apples.
SPEAKER_01: As long as the apple tree is feeding on good sunshine and good water.
SPEAKER_01: So what happens is that as we are feeding on the Lord and the Lord is feeding on us, and we have this close, intimate, organic relationship with him, we start to bear fruit, and then we come to those places where we cry out to God for him to do something, maybe in our life.
SPEAKER_01: There's something on our heart, and it's out of our control.
SPEAKER_01: I'd say most of the time it's relationships that we feel like we can't see a breakthrough there.
SPEAKER_01: It just seems like a super big wall.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why he says in verse 7, if you are abiding in me, in other words, if you're partnering in me and my words are partnering in you, you will ask what you desire and it will be done for you.
SPEAKER_01: So this relationship with the trunk, this relationship with Christ, a real person, a resurrected, alive Christ in your life, you're connecting with him, you're starting to bear fruit, and then you hit these walls.
SPEAKER_01: You hit these walls.
SPEAKER_01: And so you cry out to him.
SPEAKER_01: But he says that a key part of all of this relational connection is abiding in his word.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at Romans 11 with me.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 11 is talking about the mind of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And most of the time we read Romans 12, 1 and 2 without reading the last part of Romans 11.
SPEAKER_01: And as you know, when the scriptures were written, there were no chapter headings or chapter endings.
SPEAKER_01: So this all flowed together.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to look at verse 33.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.
SPEAKER_01: So God is so unsearchable, God's wisdom is so deep, we can't even fathom how we could find out what his mind is.
SPEAKER_01: For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor, or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him, for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul is writing to the Romans and he says, There's really no way to know the mind of God.
SPEAKER_01: But then he says this: I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
SPEAKER_01: Some translations say it's your regular service unto God.
SPEAKER_01: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed what?
SPEAKER_01: By the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
SPEAKER_01: So nobody can fathom the mind of God, but then he says, if you present yourself to the Lord as a worshiper, if you present yourself in sacrifice of worship unto him, we will renew our mind and know the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: That the King of kings of the whole universe has given us the ability to know the mind of Christ through worship and renewal unto him.
SPEAKER_01: And so, men and women, as we go into 2020, as we as we look at the future, as we think about a partnership with Christ, this is where it all lands.
SPEAKER_01: Is a heart-to-heart connection of worship unto him from heart to heart.
SPEAKER_01: Connection.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a definition of prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: Because we're going to go to Psalm 1, and that's the great prosperity passage in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Prosperity is growing in a personal, vital, dynamic relationship with Christ and fulfilling his assignment over your life.
SPEAKER_01: Prosperity is growing in a personal, vital, dynamic relationship with Christ, and fulfilling his assignment in your life.
SPEAKER_01: So it's as we worship him, as we give ourselves unto him, vine to vine, vine to branch, that there's a trust relationship built between us and him, and God can begin to let his power flow into us.
SPEAKER_01: And in John 15, he says, his words abiding in us.
SPEAKER_01: So turn to Psalm 1 again.
SPEAKER_01: We looked at that a little bit, really, really quickly last night.
SPEAKER_01: I've written in my Bible, God's way of prosperity.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 1 and Joshua 1.
SPEAKER_01: So a vine connected to us, us to the vine, bears fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Jump past the first two verses, and let me start at verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: He shall be like a tree.
SPEAKER_01: So he's talking about a man or a woman of God, shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to be like a tree.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to be like a vine.
SPEAKER_01: God wants you to bear fruit in season and out of season.
SPEAKER_01: And we all know that there's tough seasons.
SPEAKER_01: Next Sunday, in my message, I want to talk about difficult seasons.
SPEAKER_01: The title, I'll just let you know, the title next Sunday is Action Faith.
SPEAKER_01: Action Faith.
SPEAKER_01: Faith that's activated.
SPEAKER_01: But God wants us to prosper, and in his plan, even though we go through seasons where it's dry and difficult, we still can be bearing fruit.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you want to bear fruit in season and out of season?
SPEAKER_01: And we can.
SPEAKER_01: So he starts off by saying this Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, prosperity begins in our lives, and this is important, with making a choice to not feed on ungodly counsel.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: Prosperity in your life begins with making a choice to not feed on ungodly counsel.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: People are getting their information through the internet or through their office mate or whatever it might be, their neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: They went through a divorce, so they've got some wisdom about divorces, I guess.
SPEAKER_01: So they go to them.
SPEAKER_01: My brother said, and my aunt said, and dumb.
SPEAKER_01: Dumb idea.
SPEAKER_01: Don't get advice.
SPEAKER_01: Don't listen to ungodly people.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if he's teaching you how to drive a car, that's one thing.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm talking about how to drive your life.
SPEAKER_01: Don't listen to ungodly people.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying the tendency in our lives is to listen to the culture.
SPEAKER_01: The tendency in our lives is to listen to those around us, and in so doing, it messes us up.
SPEAKER_01: And he gives a whole process here, a progress report.
SPEAKER_01: He says, walking in the counsel of the ungodly, standing in the path of sinners, or seated in the seat of sinners.
SPEAKER_01: So it's a process of kind of just listening, then kind of walking, and then sitting, and then just making it your home.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, first of all, don't do that, but here's what you do.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what we do in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I want you to write down meditate.
SPEAKER_01: Write down meditate.
SPEAKER_01: Prosperity begins when we delight in God through meditating in his word.
SPEAKER_01: Meditate, the Greek, I mean the Hebrew is haga.
SPEAKER_01: H-A-G-A-H.
SPEAKER_01: Haga.
SPEAKER_01: It means to reflect.
SPEAKER_01: It means to moan.
SPEAKER_01: It means to growl.
SPEAKER_01: Haggah means to growl.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to give you a whole new way of thinking about meditation tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Because the meditation that you think of, either through Eastern mysticism, New Age stuff, or even in churches, is way too tame for what God's saying here about meditating in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah says this, this is Isaiah 31, 4.
SPEAKER_01: As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, the word growl is haga.
SPEAKER_01: Meditate.
SPEAKER_01: The Hebrew word for growl is haga, translated meditate.
SPEAKER_01: So on more than one occasion, I've been sitting in the backyard at my house with a big fire going in my fire pit, with the word open, and I'm sitting there reading the word, or I'm preparing a sermon, or I'm writing a blog, or something like that, and I hear.
SPEAKER_01: And I look over, and there's sage with an elk bone.
SPEAKER_01: Generally speaking, we butcher our own meat when we shoot an elk radier.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we throw the bones in places in the woods and they they return.
SPEAKER_01: She's growling over this bone.
SPEAKER_01: She's gnawing on it.
SPEAKER_01: She's sucking the nutrients out of it.
SPEAKER_01: She's meditating on an elk bone.
SPEAKER_01: She's growling over that elk bone.
SPEAKER_01: And those nutrients from that bone are being disseminated into her physical bloodstream.
SPEAKER_01: And God is instructing us in Psalm 1 that that connection of the branch and the vine, that heart-to-heart connection, is us meditating, disseminating, sucking out God's word into our spiritual bloodstream.
SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel 2 talks about eat the book.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah speaks of eating God's Word, Jeremiah 15, 16.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 10, 8 and 10, same idea of Hagah, gnaw and consume God's word.
SPEAKER_01: We eat God's word.
SPEAKER_01: When we eat God's word, as we read God's word, we begin to know God's will.
SPEAKER_01: And as we know God's will and we meditate in it and we start walking in it, God begins to reveal his heart into our heart.
SPEAKER_01: If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.
SPEAKER_01: Eugene Peterson writes, speaking of eating the word, assimilate it, take it into your life in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love, cups of cold water, missions into all the world, healing and evangelism and justice in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: So as we metabolize God's word, we're getting God's will flowing through our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So, men and women, as we struggle with the worries that we have about what is God's will, that's not the right question.
SPEAKER_01: The right question is: am I becoming a worshiper?
SPEAKER_01: Am I becoming a sacrifice of worship unto the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Am I meditating in, am I prospering from being in God's word?
SPEAKER_01: Because as we are, God's changing us.
SPEAKER_01: We're becoming his trustworthy agents and his disciples, and he's going to start opening doors for our lives through our prayers by asking and receiving from him.
SPEAKER_01: True Christian prosperity is only found as we partner with Christ through a vital, growing relationship with him through his word.
SPEAKER_01: Then we know how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Then we know God's will.
SPEAKER_01: And it's all organic.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.