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The Long Road: God Will Give Us Lasting Fruit · The God Who Sees You Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the big idea for today is that God takes us on the long road to develop real and lasting fruit.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, friend, and welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We are going through a series called The Long Road, and we're talking about how sometimes God takes us on this long journey, and we don't always get immediate answers or immediate relief.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he just takes us on this long, windy road.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: But there's beauty there and there's lessons there.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're going to talk about how there is where you get the fruit of the spirit.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was thinking about how God has really taught me this in so many areas of my life.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: But one area was actually through my struggle with body image and eating issues.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I struggled for many years with this, you guys, like just constantly thinking about food and what I was going to eat and how I would lose weight and just so many different things.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this really took up a lot of mental space for me.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of shame crept in, right?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I just felt like, why can other people do this and I can't do this?
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or why am I addicted in this way to something?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And like there were just so many things that I wanted freedom from, right?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept pleading with God, God, free me from this.
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  SPEAKER_00: Like I don't care about this as much as I care about you.
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  SPEAKER_00: Like I want freedom.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: But there were things that he had to teach me along the way.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of times his answer in this particular struggle was no, I'm it not yet, right?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's coming, but I want you to learn some things along the way.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was thinking about that struggle.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking about how if I didn't go through those no's from him, I would not have developed this real and lasting fruit in my life.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And fruit is what comes out of a heart that is fully surrendered to God, right?
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: We call it fruit because it's sweet and it's good things that come out of our lives.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so I saw the fruit that came out of him saying no, right?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that was really hard to come to grips with that.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that now looking back, I can say, wow, that's where the development happened.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's where he changed me.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the big idea for today is that God takes us on the long road to develop real and lasting fruit.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: The harder the long road is, the more we are dependent on him and grow even closer to him, and the more we develop that real and lasting fruit.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: James 1, 2 through 4 says, Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: If we were given everything on a silver platter, right?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: If God just said, Here you go, right, here is what you want, what do we learn in that process?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we are given the miracle, and it leads us to praise Him, right?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it leads us to this moment where we're like, wow, God, you can do anything.
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  SPEAKER_00: You came through.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't always lead us to have fruit.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Fruit comes when there is a hard-fought hallelujah, when there is a struggle, when there's toil and pain in the process, and we see, oh, this is why you want me to be self-disciplined.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is why I have to abide in the spirit so I can produce fruit.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why you want me to stay so close to you in the process.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So much takes place in this long road that leads to the lasting fruit.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if we get what we want the easy way, that doesn't often lead to us having that lasting fruit.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think in Romans 5, 3 through 5, Paul really illustrates this beautifully.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what he says: he says, but we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Perseverance, character, and character, hope.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into the hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is the kind of fruit that we gain from walking through hard trials with God.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: We gain perseverance, we gain character, and we gain hope.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, we gain more of the Holy Spirit.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: We know how to walk in step with him.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not only are we walking like this long road with him, but we're learning how to walk in step with him, and we're learning who he is.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you're walking with a close friend, sometimes your stride actually matches their stride.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking about these two ladies that always walk in my neighborhood, and they walk every day faithfully, and their walk is starting to look the exact same.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like they just walk together, right?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Their stride is together.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly how it should be with the Lord, right?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: The longer we walk with him, the more we understand his stride, and the more we're in sync with his Holy Spirit and what he's doing, and we're learning to abide in him and to walk with him.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happens when we walk through trials with him, when we walk through these hardships.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: We understand his pace.
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  SPEAKER_00: We understand his heart and his motives.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where we gain that fruit.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's where we gain that lasting fruit.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is this beautiful process, right, that happens as we take this long road with him.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And these are the things that we gain from it, right?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: We look back and we say, wow, I'm changed, right?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like I look back at how I used to view food and diet and exercise and how much I used to punish myself and how much shame was involved.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I am free from that now.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I can just look back and say, wow, Lord, you've done a work in my heart.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: It came through a very long road and so many pleading prayers where he said, no, not yet, not yet.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still working.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: But now I can look back and say, wow, things have changed, right?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: There has been growth.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: There is fruit.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I can see it now, right?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure you can see it too.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you can look back on things where God has done that for you as well.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: So let me pray for us, friends.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, uh, we are walking through this long road with you and we understand, Lord, that sometimes you're gonna say no and you're gonna say not yet.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we still praise you anyways.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: We still walk with you anyways.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I just pray, Lord, that out of all this, out of these trials and struggles, that we would start to bear fruit, that that fruit would grow and that we would just be this sweet smelling aroma to you, Lord, and that our lives would just reflect the work that you've done in our hearts.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And how, Lord, one day we can look back on this and say, wow, there has been growth.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: There has been fruit.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for that, Jesus.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that as we walk with you this week, we could be more and more in step and in sync with your walk.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that our heart would be attuned to your heart and that we can just practice knowing you and loving you and just being in your presence.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that would cause us to walk differently and to think differently.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for this precious friend listening on the other side of this podcast.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that they would know you and love you more this week.
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  SPEAKER_00: In your name.
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  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Friends, if you want to um grab the link below, I'm gonna put it for a deeper study into this long road.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to kind of dig into this with the Lord yourself, I created a Bible study to help you go through some questions and ask him and read for yourself, look through these passages and just understand his heart for you more.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: I will see you next time.