Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:06 You probably have guessed by the, the screen here, abide that. I'm gonna be speaking from a particular passage of scripture that you might, you might, uh, recognize and know, but it's in John chapter 15, and we're gonna turn there in just a moment. So you can turn there now as I'm speaking. But, uh, just been praying so much and um, as I was praying on the lead up over the last few weeks, um, just trying to get what God might be wanting to say. Um, I find it really easy to, uh, speak in series because it kind of has a continuency and flow to it. Um, but when it's a one-off sermon, sometimes a little bit more pressure to kind of just get that one ramer word for the time of the season and just praying and really asking God what he wanted to say.
Speaker 1 00:00:45 And it was really clear to me after some prayer, um, and also being confirmed multiple times that I felt like the Lord wanted me to just, uh, share some thoughts on John chapter 15, uh, this morning. And, uh, I hope encourages, I hope it blesses. Uh, but more importantly, I hope God encomp and speaks to us where we find ourselves in this season. We've got so much coming up in the life of the church. The Lord has got so much planned for us as a church, and it's really exciting to see him fulfill his plans through his church every single day. And part of that process of him fulfilling his plans means that there's a call for us, the church, to make sure that we protect our hearts. You know, our hearts are important. How we are as people, how we are as followers of Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:01:31 How we are internally, not externally is really important. The thoughts that we have and the things that we're dealing with that perhaps anyone, nobody else knows in our lives. Those things, they're really, really important. I found in my life that I can do things for Jesus whilst not being close to him. I can do things for Jesus without doing things with him. And so often in, in my life, I can become a casualty of this implicit idolization of busyness. We live in a busy world, don't we? There's lots of things happening and you probably only have to look back over the last few days of your life and know that there's been a lot going on and we all find ourselves caught up in the trap. I'm gonna be really honest with you about something that took place in my life around five years ago when I was here at this church.
Speaker 1 00:02:22 Normally when things happen, uh, in, in, in your life, you normally choose to share those stories in different places. But felt the Lord wanted me to share it with you guys today of something that took place in my life. I've only shared this with our young adults ministry. And uh, yesterday we had a, a gathering of youth leaders across the region and, and felt the Lord prompted me to share it there as well. And I'm sharing it today because I feel like the Lord wants to do something to do with our hearts today. About five years ago, um, I, I was for my first four years here, been around for eight and a half years now at this church, specifically, came straight out of education, did a degree in applied theology in church leadership, moved here as a young gun, 21 years old. Some of you will remember the day, day when I walked through the doors.
Speaker 1 00:03:00 Uh, a very nervous young man not knowing what to expect. And boy, oh boy, did I not think I'd be here for close to 10 years at the time. And, um, I started as an intern. I was interning and just trying to get my way about, of just learning how to do life, really. Not just church leadership or ministry, but life. I was really young at the time. I'd not had much experience of a working environment. So there was loads of things that I was dealing and adapting with my first three to four years here. I was working part-time in different places around the city whilst serving one to two days here. And I did that for three to four years, was looking after the young people at the time doing youth ministry. And then eventually after around four years, we started to, uh, my role started to expand within the young student ministry and, and different areas as well as, um, I I, I served and there came a moment where, um, me and my, my wife at the time was driving to, um, em's, parents' house n Angela and Andrea.
Speaker 1 00:03:49 And we were driving there. And um, I started to think in this moment that was, I can remember the conversation happened in the car myself and m we were just chatting about our days and what's going on. And then it got to that point where we got halfway in the journey, about 15 minutes there. And this silence started to kind of come into the car. We'd, we kind of had lots of conversation and I started to think about all the things that was going on in my life, all the things that have happened in my life, but also all the things that I feel was gonna take place in my life moving forward. My responsibilities have started to change. I'd taken on more responsibilities for more people within, uh, the young adult youth group community and started to care for more people and trying to do my best at the same time, trying to manage my social life.
Speaker 1 00:04:28 And my relationship and my family are all up north. They live nowhere, got no immediate family close to me. They're all up in New Castle way. And um, I was kind of weighing these responsibilities up and weighing these pressures up in my life. And I can remember as I started to think about everything that was going on, all the changes of my life, all the seasoned moments of my life, it started to weigh really heavy on my shoulders in the car. I was thinking about everything and, and it just started to feel like a ton of bricks had come down on my shoulders. Like I was sat there in silent, nothing was going wrong in the day, nothing bad was taking place. But all of a sudden this great weight upon me, all the activities and engagements I had coming up the following week, I was thinking about them.
Speaker 1 00:05:11 And then out of nowhere, as I started to reflect about who I was and where I was in life, it felt like I came face to face with the reality that I'd caught up doing things for Jesus without knowing Jesus really well. And in that moment, m sat up on the back cause probably can remember it like I broke down, like I started to sob in this car. And m must have thought, what on earth is going on? And she pulled the car over into a little by where we were. We were only around the corner from Nre Andrew's house. And I was crying and I was crying and I crying and m was consoling and saying, Sean, what's up? What's up? What's up? And in this moment I looked at m and I had this conversation with her and it was this emotional spiritual exhaustion that came upon me of doing things for God and appearing in front of other people like I think was together. But internally, I'd neglected a heart to heart relationship with Jesus. I'd neglected what it means to be of first importance in our lives as followers of Jesus, which is a lover of Jesus, not a doer of good works.
Speaker 1 00:06:26 Perhaps as I share that story, there's been moments in your life that you've had similar situations because the reality is, is women's service leadership and the ups and downs of life, it's really easy for our heart to become tared, bruised by the winds and the waves, weed by the increasing pressures that we so often have, the thoughts of our children and family life and the worries that can set in upon our shoulders. And so often we persist out of a good intention to do good for Jesus. Whilst our hearts internally are struggling to adopt a constant changing of seasons that we so often face.
Speaker 1 00:07:10 Our hearts matter who we are in the inside matters. Our relationship with Jesus is far more important than what we do for Jesus. Jesus thankfully knew that this would happen. Isn't he good? He's so kind that he has a real wonderful way about him, that he knows the struggles of life are gonna come into our hearts and our lives. He has a wonderful way of kind of understanding that throughout the journey of following him in this time where he is not present in the flesh but in the spirit that we would wonder and we'd struggle and we'd have difficult times. And I believe in John chapter 15, Jesus was speaking into the hearts of his disciples, but also into the hearts of his church. Today I believe he's doing the same thing. And I believe what he wanted to do as he spoke some of these words, he wanted to set up to us that there is a way of us falling in love with Jesus more and more every single day whilst being fruitful.
Speaker 1 00:08:03 In fact, Jesus argues that if you are not connected to him, you can't be fruitful in the first place. John 15 comes along, Jesus gathers disciples and this is one of the um, like penultimate conversations he has before he has sends into heaven. These are words that he has to his disciples that he puts great importance on as his last words to his disciples, as they're gonna go out and build the church, go into the world and preach the gospel, go against all trials and difficulties. Most of the disciples and the apostles that he sent out ended up getting crucified and burnt alive for their faith. He knew they were gonna have difficult moments in their lives, in the hearts and in their actions. And he starts to speak to them. And here's the words that he says in John chapter 15 verses one to 11.
Speaker 1 00:08:42 You can read it in your word as well, but I've got it in here and I'm reading from the Es V version. And what I want you to notice, I want you to notice how many times we see the word in here, abide. Abide is an incredibly critical aspect of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And here is, is Jesus clearly, very clearly trying to get us to see how important it is. He says these words to his disciples and today he says these words to me and to you as a church. And may we read them with an open heart of Jesus speaking to our lives today through your word. It's not Sean's thoughts, it's gonna impact me. It's not Sean's thoughts, it's gonna produce change. It's this that we're reading together. The word of God produces great change in our lives.
Speaker 1 00:09:21 So as we read these, may we have humility to say, Jesus, speak to me today. Speak to us today as a church. Lord, come by your spirit and help us adapt. Change and shift things that we may need to in your world. We pray I am the true fine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bo bear more fruit. That's good news already. You are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. What a wonderful sentence that is to us today. What a beautiful, beautiful verse that is. You are clean for the word I have spoke to you today. How amazing is that? That Jesus doesn't look at our rags and our dirt in, He calls us clean because of his words over our lives already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself.
Speaker 1 00:10:19 That's a really important phrase there. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. Jesus is the vine, the church is the branches. Whoever abides in me, I and him, he is the one that bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing. That's a really interesting phrase there. Considering my story when I reflect back apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. We can look to be doing lots. We can appear to be doing lots of good things. But apart from Jesus, it's nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he has thrown away like a branch and rivers and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. But if you abide in me and my words abi in you, ask whatever you wish, anything you want and it will be done for you.
Speaker 1 00:11:16 But this by this my father's glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples as the fathers love me. So have I 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 so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Speak to us by your word Lord we pray and your wonderful name, our men 11 verses we see here in Abbi. If we could, Ali, thank you so much, uh, go to the scripture. Um, 11 verses here we see, uh, for abide and, uh, fascinating in these uh, it goes on. Jesus has a little bit more to say for the next six verses on this, uh, particular topic. Um, but here in 11 verses the word abide is mentioned 10 times, 10 times in 11 verses.
Speaker 1 00:12:12 It sounds like Jesus has been being pretty convincing of the word that he's wanting us to hear in these 11 verses. It's not a lot of the other things. It's largely this word aide. He repeats this word aide again and again and again because abiding in Jesus, abiding in the presence of God, abiding in his love is critical to our fruitfulness. If we long to be a fruitful follower of Jesus, if we long to be a fruitful church, the only way it is possible, the only way, there's no other way, the only way it is possible is by abiding and connecting our lives to the person of Jesus is by abiding his presence. It's by abiding his love abiding in his commandments. I love this verse here where it says, abide in my love. If you can meet my commandments, I will abide you will abide in my love.
Speaker 1 00:12:58 Anyone heard of the love languages before? Yeah. There's that famous book that came out that helped us understand each other a little bit and it's often used within like premarital counseling, all those different things. These like love languages that you will all kind of fall into play and it shows you and speaks to how you receive love and how you give love. My love languages are really simple. I've got quality time acts of service and touch three love languages. That is how I am. Uh, gifts, uh, are not a, a large love language of how I receive. Um, but they're the three love languages that I have and I really found it helpful myself and am in, in our short time of marriage over the last four years we've been exploring what our love languages are so we can best serve one another because we want to do that to the best of our ability. And one of the things when I started to read this, I started to think that this clearly here indicates the love languages of God. My love languages, quality time gift, um, quality time, acts of service and touch. You remember more than I am <laugh>, God's love language obedience, you will abide in my love if you keep my commandments.
Speaker 1 00:14:12 Jesus ends with these thoughts here that I speak to you about this because I want the joy of the Lord to be something that you carry in your life and it may be full. Jesus speaks about how long lasting impact only arrives through the place of abiding and we will not see change around us or in us unless we abide. In other words, the only way we see transformation in our hearts and the only way we see transformation around us are the people we care for, our colleagues, our workers, the people we're less desperately trying to reach out to. The only way we see long lasting impact is if we are connected to the source of life and we see the transformation of Jesus come through us. I have been in, in so many different seasons of my life, of course I have, but that season that I reflected to a few moments ago was a season in my life where I was doing lots but none of it was making a difference because I realized the only way I can see difference through my life is if in the secret place I am covered and abiding in the presence of God.
Speaker 1 00:15:11 Friends, I wanna tell you this morning, I wanna try my best to help you see that transformation will only come in you and through you. If it comes through the person of Jesus. My words will not transform my love will not transform. My joy will not transform. All my good efforts will not transform. But if I am connected to the want who is the true source of transformation and his power and life is working through me, suddenly we can see cities transformed. Suddenly we can see offices transformed. Suddenly we can see nations transformed because the church is connected to the one who can bring the transformation. We don't need another 10 step course of how to see transformation in our world. We don't need another conference, we don't need another seminar. All we need is the person of Jesus Christ doing what he said he would do, which is I will build my church.
Speaker 1 00:15:58 The gates of hell will not prevail against it. And we will see the kingdom of established here. And now it doesn't matter what's taking place in the nations around us right now because if we're abiding in the one who has everything under control, we will see that same abiding presence work through us. This sounds so countercultural to the way we have worked as a church, not here at rediscover, but globally as a church over the last 30 years because I have sat under 10 step courses and I could count them off the back of my hand of how to get better in evangelism and how to get better in mission. And here I am, measly old Sean looking at you this morning and I'm saying you don't have to go to another one cause I'm giving you the quick fix answer here. It's just simply to a bite, Sean, that sounds far too easy for my evangelism skills to go up a notch. Far too easy for my missional experience and outlay every single day to go up a notch. Or Sean, you are actually telling me that the way I will be a greater evangelist and missionary and teacher and prophetic and apostle, all those things we've been looking at, the way that we'll see those things grow in our life, you're telling me is just through abiding.
Speaker 1 00:17:14 Yeah, that's it. If it wasn't for church customer, probably end the sermon there,
Speaker 2 00:17:25 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:17:27 That's it. With all of our efforts and all of our skill sets and all of our giftings according to this word. If we're not abide then it makes no difference anyway. But to abide is to be fruitful according to the words of Jesus. Andy Croft, I'm gonna put a quote on the screen. He recently tweeted this and I I thought was super helpful.
Speaker 1 00:17:54 Fruitfulness isn't dependent on gifting, it's dependent upon proximity to Jesus. That's a powerful notion from a, a wonderful teacher. That fruitfulness isn't dependent on skillset or gifting or how many courses we go to or how sharpened we are to being able to weave Jesus into conversations or to be able to get our testimony to down to three minutes or all those things that actually fruitfulness in our lives is not dependent on any of those things. First, they're good, but it's first dependent on proximity. And I'm convinced more than ever right now, Jesus trying to draw his people, his church back to the source of transformation. And that's himself. That's himself. The shake ins of what's taken place around us can alert us to discomfort, but it also can alert us to the fact that the Lord is calling back his people home. We can have a perspective to everything that's taken place around us to see that actually Jesus is trying to draw his people back to his heart, not so that we can divert our attention from mission, not so that we don't have to engage in missional activity, but that we can see that transformation purely stems from him.
Speaker 1 00:19:15 The word abide is this Greek word called Meno. And again, it's gonna come up on the screen here. Meno arrives 63 times within the New Testament. We have just read 10 of those times in a short passage of scripture. But throughout the old new te about the old, um, New Testament Meno is mentioned 63 times. And it, and it literally means this, it means to dwell, it means to remain, it means to move close. It means in fact to actually be static, to stay close, to persist, to continue persisting with relationship in some translations that will say that it means to even tolerate and endure, to wait and to accept and what Jesus, when, when he, when he is speaking about men, when he is speaking about abide, He is speaking about what it means to not just physically be present somewhere, but to emotionally and spiritually be present somewhere.
Speaker 1 00:20:05 He's trying to get our attention to look at the fact that in order to follow Jesus, it's not just to physically show up in church, but it's to spiritually adopt our lives into the presence of God, where we build up enough stamina in ourselves, in ourselves to be able to remain, persist and be in his presence. The Lord wants us to abide, He wants us to stay close. It means to, to push in, to press pass, to not just think about that our lives as Christians is what other people see, but it's about what's going on inside. It's about what our hearts are saying, what a spirit man is saying. How we are connecting to the true vine, the one that brings all source of life and transformation. Our secret place is often far more important than our public place. Who we are behind the scenes is far more important than when we are in front of the curtains where everyone can see.
Speaker 1 00:20:55 And, and, and Jesus is trying to get his disciples to see, He's trying to get to gain the retention. To understand that being an abider in the presence of God is of first importance to to stay close to his love, to hear the heartbeat of Jesus, to hear the voice of Jesus, to come into his work, to listen to what the spirit is saying, to worship him like we do this morning, to be able to do these things as a persistent nature of our everyday life. To say that I am longing to abide in the presence of God. We all know the story of Judas and the, and one of the disciples in the scripture, right, The one that betrayed Jesus. I read something yesterday that really startled me and it simply said this, Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Most of you know that happened, right?
Speaker 1 00:21:40 Garden of Gsem, Mark and Nita and the, and the family of ours have been there this week. They've literally been stood in the garden of Gsem crazy perspective. And as this stood there, it took place. In that moment, Jesus told hiss disciples that I'm gonna be arrested and I'm gonna go die, unfortunately. And they all get a little bit defensive and he says, But I need to go. Where does he go to the secret place? Interesting, isn't it? Jesus goes to the guy, the garden of guest. So before one of the most critical moments of his life, one of the most critical, if not the most critical moment of our human existence. And he goes to the secret place, He says to the disciples, I'm going to abide into my father's house. I'm gonna go get a alone with the father. And that's where we get the beautiful prayer of Jesus and it speaks about him, um, literally sweating drops of blood because of the weight that was on his shoulders in that moment.
Speaker 1 00:22:26 Judas, on the other hand, is not with the disciples, he's out with the Pharisees, he's with the scholars, the tax collectors, and he's with the army at the time. And he says, I'm gonna lead you to the person that this, Jesus is the one who's saying he is the son of God, the one who is being a hypocrite in his ways, the one who in himself is blessed from us. He's going against everything we've been taught in the Old Testament, and I'm gonna walk straight up to him and I'm gonna kiss him on the cheek. And when I kiss him on the cheek, it's gonna be an indicator to you that this is the one that you need to arrest. This is the one you need to kill, and this is the one you need to crucify. So the scene maps out, Jesus is in the secret place.
Speaker 1 00:23:01 He's abiding in the father's house. He's abiding in the presence of Lord. He's praying to Jesus is saying, Is there another way that this can happen? Can this cup passed away from me? Surely there can be another way. And he's hearing the voice of the Father. He's in deep communion, deep community with the Trinity Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And then he walks out and all his disciples are falling asleep because who doesn't live a nap? He's frustrated at them. And then he sees this entourage walking towards the garden. And at the front of this entourage of this man called Jesus, uh, Judas. And Judas is like walking smugly. He's waiting for the cash he's gonna get from doing this. He's been told, You're gonna get, you're gonna be rich. We're gonna give you more money than you've ever had. Just lead us to the man that is Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:23:42 So he walks straight up to the crowd. The disciples at this point are just kinda just waking up a little bit awkward because they've overslept and they're a little bit disappointed that they're fallen asleep in a really important time. Jesus though is alert and awake. He knows what's coming. And Judas walks straight up to Jesus. And as he walks up to Jesus, he kisses him on the cheek, which is an indication to everyone else that this is the one you need to arrest. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. And implicitly this shows us that our public affection for Christ doesn't always tell the full story.
Speaker 1 00:24:25 We must learn to abide the person of Jesus in the secret place before we do anything in a public place. One of our forefathers in history said these words don't speak to people about God until you've spoken to God about people. You see Jesus, I said it earlier, He wants a hearts not our performance. He wants our heart. He wants your heart. He wants you as, as a person, as a child, as a son and a daughter as a friend. The next six verses in these versus 12 or 17, Jesus goes on to speak about how you are no longer servant. You are my friend. And what Jesus is looking for as a church is a heart is that would be solely surrendered to him, is that would be attached to him as a branch that's attached to a vine. It's that would be close to him.
Speaker 1 00:25:31 And it's even so much that we would be lifted up by him when Jesus was telling this story, most scholars and um, people are involved in a, in a lot of the Herman UICs would believe that this was a story told where there was lots of Ries around. Jesus was amazing at, at kind of finding modern day principles and relating scripture to them. And most people would believe because he's speaking in this passage of scripture about how our, there's a branch that's fallen to the ground and that branch, when it's not attached to the vine, will wither and grow old and it won't bear any fruit. But if it's, if it's taken away, it speaks about being taken away, it will be attached to the vine and there it can bear much fruit. And the word that it's used, if we can go to the passage scripture again, sorry I I'm throwing you around here.
Speaker 1 00:26:16 Every branch in that does not bear fruit. You see this first hit, he takes away the word he takes away there in in the Greek, which is his written, it is this world called arrow. Arrow. Everyone say arrow. Arrow. Come on, say it loud. Everyone say arrow. Arrow. He speaks about how there is a a branch. When I got outta the car this morning, I found the first bush and I was in the middle of bushes written this off and I probably look like an absolute crazy person. But here we go. There's a <laugh>, there's a branch, and he's speaking about most likely Jesus when teaching to the disciples at this point, there's actually a v tree there and some of the v trees there starting to bear grapes. It's starting to prove that it's fruitful because it's attached to the vine and the branches are starting to be fruitful.
Speaker 1 00:26:54 But most likely what took place when Jesus was teaching the disciples here, probably a lot of them around is he speaks and sees that there's a branch on the on, on the floor. And he says that, um, any branch that is not through, he takes away, he takes away branches that don't bear fruit, he takes them away and then he proves the branches that are are bearing fruit. And this word arrow, in actual fact, the translations that we read in, in, in the Greek that we've translated to the English, he takes away, it's probably not the greatest of translation because the word arrow that's used here is actually a word that means lift up. It doesn't mean take away actually means to lift up. He, he lifts up and what what they would say and what they would believe is actually when you have branches, uh, from a vine tree, they're starting to grow and bear, bear much fruit. The grapes stop to birth and the grapes stopped to come forth when the branch is hitting the floor. So Jesus here was actually probably speaking about when our branches get a little bit too heavy, when life starts to play on our shoulders, when we find ourselves in the dirt just like this branch is, he doesn't take it away from a place of anger or frustration. Instead arrow, he lifts it up.
Speaker 1 00:28:06 How many of you hear have been lifted up by God at some point in your life from the dirtiest of places, from the most broken places in our hearts and our lives, and we feel like there's nowhere else to turn where we feel like the eyes are staring upon us and judgment is coming. It's in those moments that Jesus, he doesn't throw away. He doesn't get angry. He does what arrow he lifts up. Remember the woman who was brought towards Jesus and thrown at his feet for being an adulterous woman. What does Jesus do?
Speaker 3 00:28:41 Arrow.
Speaker 1 00:28:43 He lifts up in the book of Acts, the disciples were told that they needed to stop preaching the message of Jesus, of otherwise to be thrown into prison. And here's what it says. Use the same word again. They lifted up arrow, they lifted up their praises to Jesus. We all know the story in John chapter 11 at the moment of Lazarus, right? He walks to the grave and there Lazarus is in a tube. Everyone's crying it and weeping. And Jesus also partake in that. And what does, what does Jesus do? It says these words. He lifts up his eyes to heaven and he prays lifts up error. I wanna simply say to you that if you're in a season of life where it feels like you're down in the dumps, even if you're a season of life where it feels like you are not very much fruit, we serve a God who doesn't get angry and throw you away. We serve God who renews all things and longs to lift up his people. There is hope in this house this morning for every single person, for every they go through because we serve a God who lifts up his people in all moments of life.
Speaker 1 00:29:52 This branch not connected to the right source, can't bear fruit. It can't be fruit. It's impossible. I've unfortunately, I, I'm sorry for those that love trees and stuff, but I just snapped this off. It's not a great illustration to bring into a sermon here, but we, we got a roll with it, right? I got out the car and for I needed to get something here, here. Here's our lives right here. Like this is who we are in the scriptures in in John chapter 15. This is who Jesus is relating us to. He's relating to the branch of a tree. This is who we are as a church. This is who we are as people and this is who we are in our lives. Sometimes we find ourselves disconnected and put on the floor and it feels like people are coming over and they're trumpet on top of us and it feels like there's nowhere to go.
Speaker 1 00:30:37 There's other moments in our life where we are connected to the source, we're connected to the life. And therefore when we are connected, we bear fruit. Good news for you this morning. It is a guarantee for a Christian's life to bear fruit when they're connected to the source. Thank you. A guarantee. It's not something you have to work on. It's not something you have to try. It's not something you have to muster up the strength to do. In fact, it says here, you will not, maybe not, sometimes not part of the time. It says you will bear fruit when you're connected to the vine because the vine is the one who gives the fruit. Did you know that you are not meant to bear fruit in your life, You're just meant to carry the fruit that Jesus births in you. Yeah, that takes off a lot of pressure of who we are in our everyday lives, that we are actually not meant to be the people that, that try to get fruit onto this branch.
Speaker 1 00:31:21 We can do everything possible. There's been moments in my life where I've not been connected to the source and I have been trying to bear fruit. And you know what we can do as Christians? We can do everything to this branch to try be bear fruit. Right now this physical branch is not gonna have any fruit on it, is it? I could stand here right now and I could say, be gone. Satan, get out of their demonn and bear fruit. Guess what? Won't bear fruit. I could name and claim the things down from heaven right now and I could posture onto this branch and guess what? It won't bear fruit. I could stand here as this branch and I could look at it really intensely and just go bear fruit, please bear fruit. Just just bear some fruit and it won't happen. Because when we tried to bear fruit out of our own strength and out of our own spiritual practices that we've adopted through church history, fruit will not come onto the branch.
Speaker 1 00:32:09 Fruit doesn't come through our own actions. It doesn't come through our own effort. Fruit only comes when the branch is connected to the right source. When the people are connected to the right spirit, when we are connected to the right presence in those moments, it's an absolute guarantee that the branch will start to bear fruit. There is fruit that hasn't blossomed in your life, but it's coming because in the coming seasons you will connect yourself to the right source. Your production of who you are as a person is intrinsically linked to the source that it's coming from
Speaker 1 00:32:43 Your production of who you are as a person. Your fruit is intrinsically linked to the source that it's coming from. Where what you're connected to, what your heart is connected to, what your mind is connected to, what consumes most of your time makes a huge difference on the production that flows out of your life. And this is a real challenge to us in our world because the reality is the enemy knows that the greatest thing he needs to do to the church is not trips up and make us bad. It's to disconnect us from the source. The enemy is longing for the church not to be connected to the source. He's longing for the church not to move in signs and wonders and powers. He's longer for the church for miracles not to take place because he knows that the only way that takes place, the only way that that happens that we don't step into what we've got is when we're disconnected, is when we're distracted, is when we're detached, is when we've got so many other things going in our lives that we have forgotten the reason why we are here, which is first to be connected to the vine.
Speaker 1 00:33:40 It's to be connected to the person of Jesus. And in that space, from that place, we start to see fruit take place. We start to see movement take place. We start to make a difference in who we are. Your production is directly correlated to your source. Your words will not hold power to transform lives around you if they're not coming from the source that can produce the transformation. Here's a confession of my life, the younger generation's life, I know I'm speaking into this. We are more connected to our phones and social media than we are to the word of God. How do we ever expect to see change when this is our source? We won't. We won't see the power of God move. We won't see transformation take place when our hearts are connected to the wrong source. The enemy knows this. If you were just abide in him,
Speaker 5 00:34:48 Stuff
Speaker 1 00:34:49 Will happen. If you were just abide in him. Transformation will happen if you were just abide in him. It doesn't mean that bad things won't happen around you, but it means that your perspective to those bad things will drastically shift because you're closer to the presence of God than you are to the presence of problems. If we were just abide, we would see God do all that he would do. So the enemy comes and his main goal, I I I believe this, this is, this is my understanding of, of what I believe the enemy's main goal for your life and my life for the church's life. It's really, really simple, is to disconnect you, you is to do what I did to this poor branch earlier, is to break you off.
Speaker 1 00:35:37 It's to sever the cord, it's to distract, It's to come in with all kinds of different problems, difficulties, social media, Netflix series, whatever it is, work big one, money, finance, popularity. And it keeps cutting and cut in and cut in with the aim of not burying you in the dust or by separating you from the source. Sometimes the greatest things that we see in the world and not the greatest things in the kingdom, but they are a distraction to the source. This is why you see people who don't know Jesus who could be appearing to live the most wonderful life. Because the enemy's goal is not to make us feel bad sometimes it's the opposite. It's the detaches from the source of life.
Speaker 1 00:36:35 So here's three things as I come to land, and I'm gonna pray in a moment. I wanna give you three really simple things. There's one or two or three of these. I hope that one of them will come and just provoke something in you to perhaps change this week just to provoke something in you to perhaps make a life altercation. And this first one that we're gonna read of, I'm gonna speak about how this was the change that I made five years ago. And it's a really critical one. It's abiding in sabba rest. You know, it was a command by God to rest.
Speaker 1 00:37:11 Wasn't a, an option, wasn't a good suggestion, it was actually a command. Now when you actually grasp that, you grapple with it and you, you, you wrestle with what that means. It is the most liberating, freeing perspective to ever have that God wants you to rest. Some of us feel guilty when we rest. You put your hand on if you've ever felt guilty for just resting. Oh wow, look at that. Gosh, flipping heck. I didn't expect that. We feel guilty for it. And and and I genuinely believe, I genuinely believe that that is the enemy I I do. I I genuinely believe it's the enemy. I believe it's the patterns and systems that he's put into this world. It's the way we live our life of such busyness and horrid lives. It's the attention spans that we have. It's all those things. The world is set up often by the principal and powers of of the enemy.
Speaker 1 00:38:07 We are meant to live under the different, the spiritual reality is the kingdom of God and the world is set up to what to disconnect us. And one of the ways the enemy knows, he knows that he can disconnect us. If he keeps you, if he keeps you busy, if he keeps you worried, if he keeps you hurried, if he keeps you in that spot, you're never gonna have the space in your life to abide it. So God comes along and he says, here's one. One of three ways. There's lots of ways. I'm just choosing three here. How to abide abiding, sabba rest, abiding rest. Find space in your life where you can say no, no to things. No to the busyness, No to the worry. No, no to the hurry. No to the to-do list. No to the checklist. Find those space and friends. Here's what I wanna encourage you as one of the pastors in this church. Fight for them. Fight for them with all your heart. Fight for them with all your might. And when you get there, cuz you will get there. Some of you've got those ribbons I'm sure in your life when you get there. Honestly, you kick that saying in the book, when it comes along, it tells you. It tells you that you should feel guilty for resting.
Speaker 5 00:39:12 That's right.
Speaker 1 00:39:14 Cast it off. Here's why I say that. I'm gonna read Exodus 20 verse eight to 11. That's gonna teach us about sabba. But here's another reason why I say it speaks about it in this God, when he speaks about the Sabbath rest and he brings it, He says, I want you to consecrate a day to me that is holy. I want you to consecrate day to me where you'd say no to work and no to. He even speaks about saying no to children can. Gosh, that's what it says, right? It says say no to these things because I want you to consecrate a day to me that it's holy and I need you to rest because if you do not rest, you won't be fruitful. Cause you're not abi in me. You won't be fruitful in the other six days of your work. All those six days that many of us put so much attention into, be in a good Christian, to be in someone that just shows the person of Jesus, we're praying, we go into the boardrooms and we we're meeting with people and we're in the coffee shop serving people. Whatever your work looks like, we're praying. God, please just let me be someone that shines with you today. I know so many of you long for that to happen. And you do that. And some of you are doing it because you're abiding. Some of you aren't doing it because you're not abiding. One of the principles of why that's not taking place is because you're not resting. You're not, you're not having an abiding Sabbath rest. Exodus 20 versus eight to 11. Remember the sabba day and keep it holy.
Speaker 1 00:40:27 Six days you shall labor six days, do all of your work. But the seventh day is a sabba day of rest to the Lord your God, to the Lord your God on it. Here we go. I'm gonna relieve you of some, some anxieties here on it. Do no work. Amen. Yeah, that's good news. Come preacher, good news today on it. Do no work or your sons or your daughters or your colleagues or your livestock or even the people within your house do nothing. That's the word of God there. Okay? For in six days, the Lord made the heaven in the earth and the sea and all that is in them. But he rested on what? The seventh day. Therefore the Lord blesses those who take cyber rest. He blesses two forts. First, for if God needs to create boundaries for him to rest, how much more do we need to create boundaries to rest?
Speaker 1 00:41:35 That's the first of all. Second thought, some of you are looking at me and going, You have no idea how busy my life is, Sean, you don't have children. Okay, I I can see it and some of your faces. Okay, now hands up. I know. Okay. I'm not naive enough to know. Some of you are much busier than me. But it is my responsibility this morning to not give you my opinions and thoughts of who's busier in this room. It's my, it's my goal and my perspective to bring the word of God towards you and to say, you will have to answer for the business of your life, not me. Okay?
Speaker 1 00:42:22 I, I don't know if, if your busyness is detaching you from the vine, I will do everything possible. If I, I'm sorry if I'm gonna offend and frustrate, I'll do it because your souls are far more important than your productivity. Your hearts are far more important. Secondly, I I'm, I'm I could have gone on there. I'm sorry. Abbi's word. This is a really, really simple one. I won't spend much time on this, but we do need to know that reading his word on abid persistent level, a persistent level and about that word abide me consistent, persistent, pressing. And it's really important. And coming to Sunday and hearing the word is not enough. Your souls, I'm sorry, it's not. And and again, and that sounds like it can sound really patronizing. I'm not trying to do that. I'm trying to allow you to see that the persistent nature of abiding in his word is far more important than your soul because that's what's connection you to the vine.
Speaker 1 00:43:12 Your branch will attach to the vine when you have a persistent, persistent nature of getting into his word. I was asked a question, um, yesterday at this youth conference, youth leaders conference. And, uh, the person that was doing one of the seminars, he wrote UMS 119 verse note line 11. And he just read it out. He said, How can a young person stay on the path of purity by a living according to your work or your word? Sorry, I will seek you of all my heart. Do not let me stray from your cans. And here's, here's what he said on this final verse. This is, uh, verse 11. I have hidden your word in my hearts that I mighten against you. He read those words and he just looked at me and he asked the question, How are you making the practice of hiding God's word in your hearts? That's what it means to abide, to not just have a to-do list of, I've gotta read my chapter tonight before I go to bed or this morning, wanna wake up, read my chapter, and then get on with other things I've got. But to abide, to go. I want these words to hide in me.
Speaker 1 00:44:10 That's abide in his word. And third and finally, community. Can I, I say moments like this morning when we had that worship experience, it's not just those moments, but it is those moments.
Speaker 1 00:44:26 I honestly, I absolutely adore doing life with you. I mean emotional saying that because there are so many people around the world that don't get the joy and honor of doing what we do. And I don't want to ever allow my heart to become stale to the reality that I get a ga I get to gather with brothers and sisters. So, so many of whom I learn from because there's so far on the journey and me so many of whom I get to try help because they're a little bit behind me on the journey. And we get to worship Jesus together as a family. But not only that, we get to serve one another and love one another. And the reason why abide in a principle of ab Biden in his community is not just cuz it's a moment we lift up the name of Jesus. Is that, But here's, here's what I wanna try get you to see that one of the main principles of abiding in Jesus is community. Because the reality is, is when you start to realize that you are surrounded by people who are abid in the presence of God, you will start to see Jesus in other people. In other words, you need other people.
Speaker 1 00:45:32 So when we come together, all things happen in this place. You, you've been a part of that God heals us, restores us, He builds us. We give him things. We praise him, we worship him, we pray. We seek for the heart of God. We're shaped, we're molded. But at the same time, in moments of community, in moments of being together, we abide in the presence of God because we see the person of Jesus biden over people here. Here's what I'll say, that there are people in this room. This is my final thought, who help me abide you. Help me abide in the way you serve, in the way you love, in the way you care, in the way you support one another, in the way you are in your day to day. You help me see Jesus. Therefore, you help me abide when I see the justice family serving every single week.
Speaker 1 00:46:23 First ones through the door, less ones out. Guess what? They help me abide. They help me abide. When I'm welcome to this door by John and Pam Todd, by the Smith family. They help me abide when I see Tony, who is headed in that box most Sundays, he's upstairs today. Look at that, making sure all these cameras are going across the airwaves. And he comes to me in the morning, he says, Hey, can you just speak into this camera when you do your welcomes, guess what it does? It helps me abide when I see the food hub team on a Thursday that Matt and Jason and Emma and the team run who are serving the most vulnerable in our community. I walk through this this whole Thursday often, just pick up a pen or something like that. And I walk out. And it helps me abide in the presence of Jesus when I see the yma Y M C A staffer, we've got so many in this church who bring every single alpha series like a table of two tables and fill it out with people who want to know about Jesus. Guess what it does? It helps me abide
Speaker 1 00:47:31 When I see Joe and Adrian Ruly who are sat in this room right now, serving the young people out for, for limit of stressful for seven years, cooking for them every single, every single year. Guess what it does? It helps me abide. I could go on and on and on for people in this room that help me abide to the person of Jesus because I see Jesus in them. And my invitation to you today as I close is how does that change your perspective to Sunday mornings? How can you help over as abide? How can you serve and bring something to this place that's intentional? It's got a purpose behind it going, I wanna help you abide in Jesus today. So I'm here to serve you. And how do you find your people to make sure that you're abide in the presence of God?
Speaker 1 00:48:22 The answer to your problems is not found in a pastor, I'm sorry it's found in Jesus. The answer to your worries is not found in distractions. It's found in Jesus. The answer to your longs to be fruitful and effective, it's not found in gifting, is found in Jesus. And may we today, as we go out from this place, be the church that chooses to abide through a variety of different means so that we may be attached the vine and that we may be fruitful in all that we do. Praise God for his word. Father, thank you so much for this wonderful church. Thank you for your people. Thank you for the joy that I have of just learning and growing and being close to you. And Lord, I'm, I wanna make a confession of perhaps some hearts in here. It's a confession of repentance. Some people may join me in this, but Lord, I wanna say sorry.
Speaker 1 00:49:09 When I have been detached from your vine in all the longs to be good and in all the longs to do well, there's been moments in my life where I've been detached, I've been distracted and I've been dropping to the floor. Father, I wanna thank you for your renewing power that you don't throw as away, but you pick us up. You're the God of the arrow, the lifter, upper. And Father, I pray for anyone in the room who feels detached right now, that they'll be lifted up and they'll be connected back to the vine. That this week will be one of the most fruitful weeks they've ever had in their entire life. I've got faith to believe that that can take pla place far for us all in this church as we do community now, as we have coffees and teas. We spend time with each of us.
Speaker 1 00:49:46 Some of us may shoot off. We've got things, um, to do today. I pray wherever we go, that you will teach us to abide well. So therefore we can bear much fruit. And when you give us the fruit, when you birth your fruit in us, the fruit of the spirit, when it starts to, um, gather on our, on our lips, on our minds, and our hearts and our souls teach us to bear that well, teach us to use it as a way that can influence other people. Fab, we thank you for your word. We thank you for teaching to teaching us. I'm sorry for ripping this branch off that precious tree. So forgive me for that. We pray this in your wonderful name. Amen. Amen. Thank you church.
