Partnership with the Holy Spirit Part 2: John 15 - Prepare 2020

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

I don't want anybody to have control over my emotions.

And you know what?

If you're holding, if you're holding unforgiveness, somebody's got control of your emotions.

They do.

And you guys know, you know, when you're set free emotionally, it sets you free physically.

When you get set free emotionally, it sets you free spiritually.

When you get set free spiritually, it sets you not always true, but a lot of times it sets you true emotionally.

But emotional freedom is where you break the power stress.

That's where stress is broken off.

At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.

For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Now, here's what we're going to do.

We're going to dive in with this idea that God actually has an assignment for every one of you in this room this year.

That He's got something for you to do that's unique to you.

He's got a work in your heart that you are not going to be able to accomplish without His power.

He wants you to bear fruit.

He wants abundance in your life.

He wants prosperity in your life.

He wants righteousness, peace, and joy in your life, but you're not going to be able to experience that without this understanding that the power, the source of all of those things comes from Christ.

It comes from Him.

So that's what He's saying in John 15.

I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Some of you are in a pruning stage.

Some of you are in a harvest stage.

We all go through seasons in our life.

There's always times of pruning.

There's always times of crushing.

There's always times of breaking, but there's also wonderful times of fruitfulness where God is moving.

We embrace both because one, right, is preparing you for the other.

So just like fruit in a tree, we can't bear fruit unless sometimes we go through seasons where God prunes us.

So if we can understand that the pruning process is making us more fruitful, then we can say, bring it on, Lord.

Because you're forming in me yourself so that I'm more fruitful, I'm more usable, I'm more connected to you.

You have already been clean because of the word which I've spoken to you, verse 4.

Abide in me and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

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.

If anyone does not abide in me is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned.

So the first point this morning was God wants a harvest in your life.

He actually created you, He put you on this earth to be fruitful and to multiply.

So this idea that you've been put here to bear fruit, to be a person who makes a difference and an impact in everything that you do is absolutely from the mouth of Jesus.

That's what he wants in your life.

So he sets us up with that.

Then he says this, verse 7.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

By this, by you asking, my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you prove to be my disciples.

So, secondly, there's this correlation between the word and prayer.

Now, I want to unpack that a lot more tomorrow night.

How it is that as you're believing what you read in the promises of God and you start to possess the promises of God, you start to ask God for things in your life, he gets glory, and that's how you prove you're a disciple.

So the world should be looking at the church as a group of people that regularly see miracles happening in their lives.

There's a big problem in the church today because that's not happening.

But God wants at the road, and that's all I'm responsible for, and that's all we're responsible for here, is the road.

I want a miracle-working church.

Don't you?

Don't you want to be a part of that?

Because there's something to be said about here we are tonight, you know, a few hundred of us in this room, believing together that increases your individual faith.

It's amazing.

God's the one who came up with the idea of the church.

Coming together, believing together.

That's why I feel like God said, pray for each other.

You guys get together.

Let's pray for each other tonight.

So the word, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

So God is increasing your faith as we read God's word, which then gives us the faith to believe that he can do something, that he can open a door in an area that's always been closed.

But we can't pray without God's word.

So he says here, abide in my word.

Now turn, keep your place in John 15, but turn to Psalm 1.

So right in the middle of your Bible, you'll find Psalm 1.

Psalm 1 is one of those seminal passages in the Bible that speaks of, and I've got it written here in my Bible, God's prosperity plan.

God's prosperity plan is Psalm 1.

Now you could also say there's always a give and a take in Scripture when it comes to obedience, disobedience, blessing, and cursing.

So we're not going to read all of it, but if you read all of Psalm 1, you see what happens when you don't do what he says in the first part.

So first of all, he says, Blessed is the man.

Blessed is the person who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.

Now what he's saying here, church, is be careful who you get advice from.

Be careful who you get counsel from.

I mean, doesn't it seem a little bit counterintuitive to think in terms of getting our advice from people who aren't living victorious lives, who aren't living a miraculous life, who aren't walking in joy.

You know, so be careful.

So it really becomes important as we're growing in the Lord that we start surrounding ourselves with godly people, with people of faith, who believe in the blessings of God, who know how to worship, who know how to pray, who know how to believe God.

Someone said, I think this is true, you're the average of your four closest friends.

You're the average of your four closest friends.

So you take who your four people that you spend the most time with, you're the average of that.

I'm telling you that if God's calling you to another level of faith, another level of trusting God, you may have to start having some new friends.

Because God wants to surround you with people that iron sharpening iron type people in our lives.

So he says, be careful who you get counsel from.

Verse 2.

But his delight, rather, is in the law of the Lord.

And in his law, he meditates day and night.

He 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.

Now here's what's interesting: is that God's prosperity plan is that as we meditate in Scripture, here's what I think he's saying, God gives you wisdom, he gives you insight, he gives you a perspective and a focus that you couldn't naturally have.

It becomes supernatural.

And I think it needs to be at day and at night.

So to start your day in God's word.

Start your day with your journal open, and we've got all the verses right there if you want to follow that plan.

Go through the Bible in a year.

We can all be on the same verses together.

I love what Jay's done there.

And so you begin to hear from God.

And then at night, right before you go to bed, don't have your phone on.

Turn your phone off.

Put your phone on the other side of the room.

Simon Sinek and some of the stuff that he's done with his teaching and training with millennials has said the biggest problem with millennials is they're just they're completely addicted to that little device.

And it's got that kind of attraction to it like cocaine.

And I've talked about this before, I won't go into it here, about what it does in your brain if you spend too much time in front of that screen.

So cut that off and open, God, just read one chapter.

Just start there, just read one chapter, just read one psalm or one proverb.

What Liz and I have been doing for the last several months is we get up early, we have coffee together, and we read a proverb and we talk about it.

We talk about the proverb together, and then we pray.

We pray for our family, pray by name for everybody, and that's how we start our day.

And so if you're married and you can do that, that'd be awesome.

We'll be talking about that at our marriage conference, how to grow in those kind of things, because those are those are barriers to that next level of what God wants to do in our lives.

So I'll talk more about that tomorrow night.

So go back to John 15 and let's look at verse 9.

As the Father loved me, I've also loved you, abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I've spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

So this partnership with the Holy Spirit is word and prayer.

And then thirdly, it's partnering in love, is through love.

It's a love relationship.

It's asking God to give us not only a love for Him, but also for our neighbor.

Loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves sums up all of the word.

Well, how do we do that?

Well, you can't.

Church, we can't do that.

We can't be that kind of a people without God's power.

I mean, some of you are in some conflicted relationships right now, and it seems like there's a major wall right there.

You've got to take tonight, we're gonna take a few minutes to do this, you've got to give that to God and let Him work a breakthrough of love and say, God, I don't have a love for this person.

I don't have a love in this situation.

I need you to give that to me, and I promise you, something will happen tonight.

Something is happening tonight, but it won't come to fruition unless you pray that daily and keep hammering away at that wall of the lack of love.

Because that lack of love is exactly where the church goes.

And that love can only be stimulated by asking for it.

God, I need you to give me a love for that person.

And for some of us, we need to ask for forgiveness.

And we need to repent.

Some of us need to repent.

They say, well, you're not gonna believe what they did to me, or I don't get this from them, or whatever it might be.

I always say, the one who's the most mature in the relationship is the one who's gonna be the first to repent.

So grow up.

Grow up before you grow old.

It's smart.

It's dumb to keep doing the same thing and getting it wrong when we know we can change.

But it takes guts, it takes courage, it takes grit, it takes tenacity to say I'm sorry.

You guys know some of the stuff I've been through six years ago.

And I'm making, even lately, overtures towards certain people just to continue to build those relationships because um, man, I don't want anything on me.

How about you?

I mean, I want to walk in freedom.

I don't want anybody to have control over my emotions.

And you know what?

If you're holding, if you're holding unforgiveness, somebody's got control of your emotions.

They do.

And you guys know, you know, when you're set free emotionally, it sets you free physically.

When you get set free emotionally, it sets you free spiritually.

When you get set free spiritually, it sets you not always true, but a lot of times it sets you true emotionally.

But emotional freedom is where you break the power of stress.

That's where stress is broken off.

And it's usually relational.

So he's saying here, if you'll abide in me in a love relationship, you'll have joy.

We want to be the most joyful church in this city.

We want to be the most joyful church.

Let's just start with at 2025 Parliament Drive.

I want to be the most joyful church there.

Since we're the only one, that's not as hard.

So I want you guys, I want us to have the most joyful Christian homes we can have.

It's love.

It's love.

It's a partnership with the Holy Spirit.

You can't do it by yourself.

You can't bear fruit doing it on your own.

We have to have Him.

Greater love.

Verse 13.

Has no one in this than to lay down one's life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant doesn't know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends.

For all things that I've heard from my father, I've made known to you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.

That you should go and bear fruit, and there your fruit should remain.

That whatever you ask the Father in my name, here we go, back to prayer, which we're going to talk about tomorrow night, that he may give you.

These things I command you that you love one another.

So it's fourthly, this partnership of the Holy Spirit is a friendship.

It's through a friendship.

It's a friendship with God, and it's a friendship with some blood-stained allies.

Men and women, we have to have others in our life.

We have to have people speaking into our life that we're developing a relationship with that's trustworthy.

And that takes time, does it not?

It takes time.

And some of you don't have any friends like that.

You don't.

And I'm going to say in 2020, that would be my prayer for you.

God, give me some blood-stained allies.

Give me some men and women that are headed in the same direction as I am, that I know that if I go to them and I seek advice and wisdom from them, they're going to stick, they're not going to cut and run if they know that I've made some mistakes.

But we're going to stick together.

Gotta have that.

I actually don't think there's any other way to grow.

It's interesting, recent studies that have been done that are coming out with Sean Accor, who's one of the professors at Harvard, and his positive psychology classes that he does, but a recent book that just came out, which was uh called Big Potential.

Great book to read, called Big Potential.

I'm actually gonna speak on some aspects of it, not this Tuesday, but next Tuesday at our staff meeting.

You're all invited.

Anytime you want to come to our 1015 staff meetings, but it's called Big Potential.

Here's the thesis of the book.

I'll just tell you that.

The thesis is that we've we've tended psychologically, sociologically, and even spiritually, to say that really your transformation and your reaching of your full potential has been based in what you can do.

And what the studies are showing now is that that's only partially true.

There's actually a ceiling on that.

That big potential is what you can reach when you're on a team.

When you have relationships with others around you, many of whom are better at where you want to go than you are.

That when you get a team together, the exponential impact is amazing.

Does that sound like church?

Does that sound like it could be community?

Could it be that this Bible actually has been talking about that for, say, around 2,000 years?

And they're just discovering that.

You remember Jesus had a team?

Paul had a team, David had a team, Abraham had a team.

I mean, this idea of having others around us, that we work together in our marriage.

We work together as a family, we work together in growing in certain areas.

It's amazing the exponential impact of our lives when we do that.

You're doing that right now.

Isn't that exciting?

We're doing that right now.

Why don't you turn to the person and say, we're doing that right now?

We're doing that right now.

I mean, we're here together, growing together.

And then lastly, and this is the this is the part you didn't want to hear, um, verse 18.

So this is where it's going, gang.

This is where it's going.

If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love you.

The world loves its own.

Yet because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you a servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

We'll just stop right there and just say this last point is partnering with Christ through persecution.

You're going to go through persecution this year.

It's a good thing.

It's a good sign if there's pushback in your life because you're standing for and with Christ.

Not a bad thing, it's a good thing.

There's going to be pushback.

How many of you have felt like almost everything you hear on the news you disagree with?

I mean, man, I do.

And I'm like, I feel I'm I'm so weird.

And I'm like, there's this longing to fit in.

There's this longing to kind of flow with the culture.

We're not going to flow with the culture.

We are going to continually be a people that do things counter-culturally.

So, so put on your seatbelt and become a warrior.

You've got to become a worshiper and a warrior.

And expect when you're in certain circles, there's going to be pushback.

What's your answer going to be?

How are you going to respond?

Prepare yourself.

Be astute.

Proverbs, be prudent.

Be ready to make an answer.

Be ready to explain where you're coming from in your relationship with God.

And it's, I think it's exciting to be intentional.

Be the first one to go for it.

As I was sharing this morning, you know, there was that bellhop, this guy right there at the Broadmoor, you know, and I went after him.

And I just started engaging him in conversation and then got to pray for him, you know, a few minutes later.

It was really exciting.

So if we come forth with the perspective that God has called us to walk in victory in every situation that we come in, it changes our mindset.

It completely changes our mindset.

I'm partnering with the Creator and the King of the universe.

He is with me right now.

He's going to be with you at work tomorrow.

He's going to be with you in your home tomorrow.

Isn't that exciting?

Man, that's really cool.

And so we walk that out through worship and through the word and through prayer.

So here's what I'd like to do with the time we have remaining.

I want you to write down these three questions in your notes and stuff.

I think we can.

There they are.

What are three things I want to change in my life in 2020?

What are three things I want to change in my life in 2020?

And then number two, what are three new habits I will start this week?

Three new habits.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We hope you have been blessed by today's message.

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Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.

Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen.

Listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.