Well, what do you think about that miracle-working God that we have?

You guys, we have had 2 miracles so far in this conference.

Last night, John MacLeod was in a— what could have been a

very tragic accident where a car hit him while he was riding a

bike, and he survived. And,

and here's the thing, I go over to him last night, he's sitting over there.

There's so many things you can say in that moment. And he says to

me, "Pastor Kevin, I really think the Lord's trying to teach

me," et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. My

goodness, my word. And then a baby has life.

We sang this morning, "Waymaker,

miracle worker." Do you believe in a miracle-working God?

He is a miracle-working God. Are you paying attention that He

loves us so much that He would connect the dots of the thread of

what He's doing? And He's going to continue to do it this

morning as we bring bring up our next speaker, somebody

who I would— I don't use this word lightly, and I have assigned this word

to under 10 people in this house, but I believe that

Rhonda Frazier is a pillar of Sarna Assembly

Springhouse Church. Her consistency, her faithfulness in the

Lord has helped cultivate the longevity of

this house and what the Lord's doing. Would you guys please welcome my friend Rhonda

Frazier.

Pastor, thank you, Pastor. Oh, good morning. Did Vonda take us to

church? All right, well, in,

um, uh, y'all, if we haven't memorized John 15:1 by now, you

don't need the slides for what— I mean, you know, let's just— we'll just see

about that in a minute. Also, I have some books. One of the

books has a, a— it was written in the 1800s,

so that's a long time ago. And so, people back then were

trying to figure out how to abide in Christ. And so, Andrew Murray wrote some

words about that to try to help them figure that out, and

we're gonna talk a little bit about that today. And in the,

you know, there's— this is not a Scripture, but it's

kind of a proverb or an adage, "Variety is the spice of life."

And now, for something completely different.

Would you roll that beautiful cheese footage?

All right, so I'm just gonna be honest with you and say that

when I read John 15, sometimes, and we've read it a lot,

I can feel like that. I can feel like that scene,

and it goes something like this. The mom,

"Follow Christ." "Oh, I've already done that. What number are

we on?" "I don't know, it's your Bible. Try to

keep up." "Oh, okay, the next step, abide in me." abide in the

vine. What does that mean? What does

abide in the vine mean? You abide in the

vine. Well, I understand that, but how?

How do you abide in the vine? What do you do? David, I cannot show

you everything. Can you show me one thing?

You just, you just, here's what you do. You just

abide in. Okay, I don't know

how to do that. And I don't know how to be any clearer.

You just take this thing and you, if you say

abide one more time,

it says abide.

Abide. It says abide. I also just think

of the Princess Bride and that the

Inigo Montoya, you keep using that word. I do not think it means what

you think it means.

So my assignment this morning is to talk to us and to think

about what it means to abide while

being a human. And my question to

my leadership is, do we have another option?

Is there a way to do this without being human? I don't think

so. So I want us to start

I want us to start just a minute with what the

humans that were walking with Jesus in chapter 15, so we

are gonna be in John 15, and what they might have

been experiencing. So all the

disciples had heard at some point those beautiful

two words, "Follow me."

And sometimes it was literally, "James!" "Follow me,

John, follow me." And other times it also could have been, especially

like if you're, you know, if you watch "The Chosen," it could have been like,

"Hey, Andrew, keep up, follow me." It was repeated

more than 20 times in the gospels, "Follow me, follow me."

And it was a recurring phrase. And when the disciples were called, either

in small groups or individually, it's, "Follow me."

Rhonda, in Matthew 16:24, we've already heard it this morning, that

says, "Take up your cross and follow me."

He says, "Follow me and walk in the light," in John 8:12.

And to Peter, oh Peter, over in John

21 00:05:28

22, it's really like Jesus is saying,

21 00:05:32

"Peter, worry about yourself and follow me."

21 00:05:37

The disciples were used to that call. It was familiar.

21 00:05:41

But Jesus had also just said to them,

21 00:05:45

like in John 14, 13, 14,

21 00:05:50

"I'm going away and you will not be able

21 00:05:53

to follow me." Earlier that evening he

21 00:05:57

had said, "My children, I will be with you only a little

21 00:06:01

while longer. Where I am going you cannot come." And they

21 00:06:04

clearly did not understand what he meant. He encourages

21 00:06:08

them and he promises to send them a helper, the Holy Spirit.

21 00:06:12

He promises to give them peace. And in the last verse of

21 00:06:16

John, 14, Jesus says, "I will no longer

21 00:06:19

talk with you much 'cause I've gotta go do what

21 00:06:23

the Father has commanded me so the world may know

21 00:06:27

that I love the Father. Rise up,

21 00:06:31

let's go from this place." And it's not recorded in

21 00:06:34

Scripture, but there was an understood, "Follow

21 00:06:38

me." This leads us to the chapter break and

21 00:06:42

we get into John 15, and this is the passage that we've

21 00:06:45

been living in, and dare I say it, abiding in

21 00:06:49

for this time. Jesus and the disciples were on

21 00:06:53

the move to the garden. Now, Pastor Kevin alluded to this 2

21 00:06:57

weeks ago when he brought our attention to Old Testament

21 00:07:00

passages that refer to Israel as the vine and

21 00:07:04

God as the vinekeeper. And here in John

21 00:07:08

15, we hear Jesus say, can we say it all

21 00:07:11

together? Now, this is from the NIV, so, Vine dresser, gardener, it's

21 00:07:15

okay. All right, "I am the true

21 00:07:18

vine and my Father is the

21 00:07:22

gardener." Some scholars say that since the

21 00:07:25

disciples were on a walk, in transit,

21 00:07:29

that it is possible that Jesus was talking

21 00:07:33

to them in the temple courtyard in

21 00:07:36

sight of a huge carved

21 00:07:41

golden vine. This

21 00:07:44

vine was the national symbol of Israel. Think

21 00:07:48

Stars and Stripes. Some scholars wonder if Jesus'

21 00:07:51

statement, "I am the true

21 00:07:55

vine," might have been made in sight

21 00:07:59

of that carved vine. And even if it didn't happen like that,

21 00:08:03

there is no doubt that the disciples knew the

21 00:08:07

imagery and the pride of the symbol. They would

21 00:08:10

recall hearing the readings from Isaiah and

21 00:08:14

Ezekiel where the vine imagery is strong.

21 00:08:19

In Old Testament passages, Israel is described as a

21 00:08:22

vine. Israel was to be the channel through which the

21 00:08:26

blessings of God would flow to the whole world.

21 00:08:30

That promise was repeated over and over in the Old

21 00:08:33

Testament. God's life and love and justice and

21 00:08:37

righteousness were supposed to flow to all the earth through

21 00:08:41

Israel. But the vine of Israel

21 00:08:46

repeatedly fails to bear the fruit that God

21 00:08:49

intended. And now here is Jesus with

21 00:08:53

all of that strong vine imagery layered in

21 00:08:57

their songs and their poetry and the prophecy of

21 00:09:00

the ages saying to the disciples, "I

21 00:09:04

am the true vine."

21 00:09:08

David Platt says of this scene, "It's like Jesus was saying to them, 'You thought

21 00:09:12

it was Israel, but no, it's me. I'm the vine.

21 00:09:16

I will be the channel through which the fruit of God will flow.

21 00:09:19

Jesus is proclaiming, 'What I am, what Israel

21 00:09:23

never could be. Life, love, power,

21 00:09:27

and goodness will flow to the nations through me.'"

21 00:09:32

And then Jesus says something so incredibly hopeful to the

21 00:09:35

disciples, 'cause if you hear that your nation is not the

21 00:09:39

vine, vine, then where does that place you? He says to

21 00:09:43

them, "But you have a place. You have a purchase,

21 00:09:46

a purpose. You are the branches. Your place

21 00:09:50

in the vine is secured. You are attached to me. You are

21 00:09:54

mine, joined to me. If you stay here and abide in me,

21 00:09:58

you will experience my life flowing through you

21 00:10:02

always." That same declaration is made

21 00:10:05

to you and me. Jesus says to you and me,

21 00:10:09

the humans reading this text, "Abide

21 00:10:14

in me." But how?

21 00:10:17

How do we abide? How do we fold it in?

21 00:10:22

This brokenness that we're left with, what does that look like?

21 00:10:29

We have to remember that we need rest.

21 00:10:34

Come to me and find rest. This came up on Thursday night when the

21 00:10:38

leadership gathered. Matthew 11:28-30,

21 00:10:41

come to me, all you who labor and are heavy

21 00:10:45

laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke

21 00:10:49

upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle

21 00:10:53

and lowly in heart, and you will find rest

21 00:10:57

for your souls. For my yoke is easy

21 00:11:00

my burden is light. And isn't it

21 00:11:04

just like Jesus to marry the

21 00:11:08

language of rest with the language of

21 00:11:11

work? To marry the language of rest

21 00:11:16

with the language of learning? You are

21 00:11:19

laboring and carrying a heavy load.

21 00:11:23

How does it get better? Come, come, come shoulder to

21 00:11:26

shoulder with me. "Come shoulder to me. Come

21 00:11:30

be my student. Learn from me. Yoke yourself up

21 00:11:34

to me. Yield yourself to my words and my ways. Come

21 00:11:38

in step with me and let your life, all of it,

21 00:11:41

be synced up." In other words,

21 00:11:45

"Abide in me." But

21 00:11:49

this takes surrender.

21 00:11:53

Surrender of our will, surrender of our pride and our

21 00:11:56

independence. This yoking up and abiding

21 00:11:59

requires acknowledgement that we can't do the work without

21 00:12:03

Jesus. In 1882, Andrew Murray

21 00:12:07

says, "It's not the yoke, but the resistance to the

21 00:12:10

yoke that causes the difficulty." Well, that'll preach

21 00:12:14

on Twitter or X or whatever it is. I don't even know. Okay, that could

21 00:12:18

be a meme. That could be a meme today, all right? What an incredible

21 00:12:21

thing to know that when we come to Jesus, we have

21 00:12:25

access to the Almighty One, and

21 00:12:29

he will teach us all day and keep

21 00:12:32

us all day, 'cause he's always speaking, for he has

21 00:12:36

promised he will do it. And what does

21 00:12:40

that abandon and surrender to the yoke bring?

21 00:12:44

Rest. I will give you

21 00:12:48

rest. You will find rest for your souls. Stay

21 00:12:51

here, dwell here, live here, shoulder

21 00:12:55

up here, abide here, come to me. Come to me and find

21 00:12:59

rest. Finding a posture of spiritual rest

21 00:13:03

in Christ is life-giving and empowering.

21 00:13:06

Abiding results in work that

21 00:13:10

brings rest.

21 00:13:15

For humans to abide, we have to

21 00:13:19

recognize that we are needy.

21 00:13:24

Humans, we are needy, but we don't wanna be,

21 00:13:28

and that's the rub of it all. Our neediness, guess

21 00:13:32

where it echoes? All the way back to the garden

21 00:13:36

where Vonda took us. All the

21 00:13:40

way back to the garden. Adam, in the

21 00:13:43

perfection of Eden, needed

21 00:13:46

a companion like himself.

21 00:13:52

I heard a teacher once, and this was a teaching on the differences

21 00:13:55

in male and female, and she was saying that she

21 00:13:59

envisioned when God put Adam to the work

21 00:14:03

of naming the animals, that part of the process that Adam might have

21 00:14:07

been doing was, "Giraffe, not like me.

21 00:14:11

Not like me. Not like me. Not like me." And then,

21 00:14:16

When Eve is presented, like me,

21 00:14:20

like me, this is what I need. Adam

21 00:14:23

needed Eve before the fall.

21 00:14:27

Being needy is a part of being truly human. It's a part of

21 00:14:31

our— it's not a part of our brokenness or fallen nature. God

21 00:14:34

gave the good gift of Eve to Adam before

21 00:14:38

the fall and before they decided

21 00:14:42

that the gardener was wrong.

21 00:14:47

But sin entered the picture and it entered us, and we no

21 00:14:50

longer understand our neediness correctly. We don't see it

21 00:14:54

as a strength that keeps us in community and

21 00:14:58

interconnected. We jockey for position and power.

21 00:15:02

We grasp instead of help. We lash out instead of

21 00:15:05

latching on, and we independently reject that we are

21 00:15:09

truly needy. We forget that

21 00:15:12

we need the vine. We don't want to need the

21 00:15:16

21 00:15:20

applies to us. "In him we live and

21 00:15:24

move and have our being." Or as

21 00:15:27

Jesus says to the disciples on this walk to Gethsemane,

21 00:15:31

"Apart from me you can do nothing." Nothing of

21 00:15:34

real glorifying value for the kingdom can be

21 00:15:38

accomplished without abiding in

21 00:15:42

the vine. And what a thing for Him to say, "Apart from

21 00:15:46

me you can't do nothing," when He just said, "I'm gonna be out of here

21 00:15:49

and you can't come with me."

21 00:15:55

I was listening to a podcast this week and Jackie Hill Perry

21 00:15:59

referenced an exposition that John Piper had done on

21 00:16:02

2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

21 00:16:06

And that passage says, "Therefore do not

21 00:16:10

lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet

21 00:16:14

inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

21 00:16:17

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us

21 00:16:21

an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So fix

21 00:16:25

your eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen.

21 00:16:29

For what is seen is temporary, "but what is

21 00:16:32

unseen is eternal." So I looked up

21 00:16:36

that sermon from Piper, and he goes on to say that

21 00:16:40

what Paul writes here should give us great hope, that

21 00:16:43

we are renewed day by day.

21 00:16:48

That is a hopeful idea. Piper says that when we live our, these are

21 00:16:52

his words, he says we live our life and we leak and we

21 00:16:56

fade and we must be renewed day by day because, his words,

21 00:16:59

we can't run on yesterday's gas. And that's

21 00:17:03

what abiding is. New mercies every

21 00:17:07

morning. Getting filled up daily.

21 00:17:10

We see this gift of daily manna to the children. We

21 00:17:14

see it in that, and for the children of Israel. We well know, we

21 00:17:18

know the story. They had to get that provision every day, and that's what

21 00:17:22

Jesus said too in his prayer when he taught us how to pray, "Give

21 00:17:25

me my daily bread." This act of daily

21 00:17:29

gathering was a physical reminder that they were

21 00:17:32

needy, but their needs were met.

21 00:17:37

The same is true for us. The call to abide in the vine

21 00:17:41

is a daily call, a constant call, an ever-present

21 00:17:45

recognition that the source of our very life is the

21 00:17:48

vine himself. Everything else is

21 00:17:52

powerless, gloryless, and a dim shadow of

21 00:17:55

what could be. But in our

21 00:17:59

humanity, we, like Eve,

21 00:18:03

stand in front of the vine and say, "I won't

21 00:18:07

die apart from you. I know better than you.

21 00:18:11

I can sustain myself. This knowledge won't hurt

21 00:18:15

me. This fruit is for me. It is mine to take."

21 00:18:19

And we don't believe the truth about the vine.

21 00:18:23

It's because we can't fathom his love for us. We don't understand

21 00:18:27

the heart of the vinedresser. We don't believe

21 00:18:31

what the gardener says is true.

21 00:18:36

Abide in the vine is the purest picture of our need for

21 00:18:40

Jesus to sustain and keep

21 00:18:43

us. And the good news is,

21 00:18:47

he promised to do that. That he would do it. He

21 00:18:51

will sustain us. Now, at this point, with all this

21 00:18:55

abiding and all this spiritual stuff that maybe we're trying to tap into,

21 00:18:58

one might pose the question that Johnny Cash proffered in

21 00:19:02

the lyrics of his song "No Earthly Good" back in

21 00:19:06

1977 when this maybe hit the airwaves, because it probably was on the B-side of

21 00:19:09

that album. Uh, come heed me, my brothers, come heed me

21 00:19:13

one and all. Don't brag about yourself or surely you'll fall.

21 00:19:17

You're shining your light, and shine it you should, but you're

21 00:19:21

so heavenly minded, you're no earthly good. Now, there's some

21 00:19:24

scriptures referenced in there, right? There's some scriptures in there,

21 00:19:28

right? Come, come, listen up, right? He who has ears to

21 00:19:32

hear, let him hear. Don't brag about standing, or surely you'll fall.

21 00:19:36

Pride goes before a fall. That's scriptural. You're shining your light, and

21 00:19:39

surely you should. You're a city on a hill, right? Don't

21 00:19:43

hide it under a bushel, no. Right?

21 00:19:48

I can remember my grandmother saying about some people, "They're

21 00:19:51

so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good." I didn't know she listened to Johnny Cash,

21 00:19:55

'cause she didn't— Maw

21 00:19:58

Maw Farley, I don't know, but that's not Scripture.

21 00:20:04

That's not Scripture. I mean, that's a good lyric in a country song, but

21 00:20:08

that's not Scripture. Because one could kind

21 00:20:11

of think like Cash, "All this abiding in the vine will

21 00:20:15

make me of no value to the people around me. I'll be

21 00:20:19

so caught up in spiritual things, I can't accomplish this thing

21 00:20:23

because I'm so busy abiding."

21 00:20:27

I don't know about you, but that never personally has been my experience about myself.

21 00:20:32

It is only when I abide that I can be of even the

21 00:20:35

smallest good to anyone

21 00:20:39

or myself or any situation. Lazarus'

21 00:20:43

sister Martha would likely have joined in Cash's chorus and

21 00:20:46

heartily sang it in pointed direction to

21 00:20:50

Mary.

21 00:20:54

In her latest book, Upon Waking, Jackie Hill Perry writes that

21 00:20:57

Mary was distracted by much serving. She

21 00:21:01

was anxious— not, sorry, Martha. Martha was distracted by much serving.

21 00:21:04

She was anxious but still doing something good. No,

21 00:21:08

hospitality's a good thing. To Jesus, Martha asked,

21 00:21:12

"Don't you care?" He cares and he loves, and Martha comes to

21 00:21:15

him not in intimacy, but in accusation. And she says to

21 00:21:19

Jesus, "Tell her to help me."

21 00:21:24

And Jackie writes, "When we are

21 00:21:27

distracted, it shapes the things that we ask God for.

21 00:21:32

God has to reorient our petitions and

21 00:21:35

reshape our thinking to let us know what it is that we

21 00:21:39

really need. You think you need something you don't actually need.

21 00:21:43

Martha thinks she needs her sister's help, but she actually

21 00:21:47

needs Jesus to sit at his

21 00:21:51

feet. She thinks her anxiety and trouble will

21 00:21:55

be fixed if Mary just scoots on up and helps her. It's reasonable

21 00:21:58

in human sense, but Jesus says your

21 00:22:02

anxiety and distraction will not be fixed even

21 00:22:06

if Mary helps. Sit down next to your

21 00:22:10

sister and then you can serve without distraction.

21 00:22:14

Oh, Father, help us to stop asking

21 00:22:17

for a thing when what we really need is

21 00:22:21

to be asking for you. And

21 00:22:25

isn't that what the need to abide is?

21 00:22:29

Replacing the need for a thing and reaching

21 00:22:32

in prayer and meditation to the God of the

21 00:22:36

universe who is the source He's the source of everything we

21 00:22:40

actually need. When

21 00:22:43

humans abide, there will be fruit.

21 00:22:47

And we know there's going to be fruit on the branches because Jesus

21 00:22:50

says there will be fruit. And this fruit is

21 00:22:54

evidence of abiding in the vine. It's the

21 00:22:58

logical, irresistible outcome of being in the flow

21 00:23:01

of the life-giving, character-changing power of the

21 00:23:05

vine. John 15 is a rhythm

21 00:23:09

of abide in the vine, bear fruit, receive the vinedresser's

21 00:23:13

pruning, bear fruit, abide, bear much

21 00:23:16

fruit, back and forth, abide, bear, abide, bear, prune,

21 00:23:20

bear. If there's any formula, that's it.

21 00:23:25

When the branches, you and me, get busy abiding,

21 00:23:29

the fruit will come because the vine

21 00:23:33

the gardener say it will come and

21 00:23:36

send it. When we are in the vine,

21 00:23:40

growth and change toward Christ-likeness is

21 00:23:44

infinitely possible. So many times you and I,

21 00:23:48

we buy into the babble of the world's phrases like, "People don't

21 00:23:51

change," or, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them,"

21 00:23:56

or if you've ever seen any episode of Oprah— of Friends,

21 00:24:00

"Once a cheater, always a cheater." I mean, you know, there's just those things. This

21 00:24:03

mindset It is incompatible with being a believer.

21 00:24:08

It's bad theology. This

21 00:24:12

is unrepentant, unredeemed world speak.

21 00:24:16

You and I are described in scripture like

21 00:24:19

putty. We are clay in the

21 00:24:22

potter's hands. We can change. Only

21 00:24:26

God does not change. Only God is

21 00:24:29

immutable. You and me, we change. Thank

21 00:24:33

God we can be changed. Tim Keller

21 00:24:37

rolled off this list when speaking about the enormous potential for change that you

21 00:24:40

and I have when the Holy Spirit is at work in us. And I'm insane,

21 00:24:44

when the Holy Spirit is at work in us. And he's

21 00:24:48

reflecting on Galatians 5 where the scripture of the list of the fruit of

21 00:24:52

the Spirit lives. And he says, this is his list.

21 00:24:56

The selfish person becomes generous. The controlling

21 00:25:00

person, a liberator. The cowardly person,

21 00:25:03

courageous. The worrier becomes a rock.

21 00:25:07

He continues, the world, I love this phrase, the world

21 00:25:11

can only offer weak morality, magic,

21 00:25:15

self-help, and try-hard. But the Word of God

21 00:25:18

offers us something that transcends all of that.

21 00:25:22

We get Jesus!

21 00:25:26

Jesus, real and concrete. We are drawing from

21 00:25:29

His pulsating life like a branch draws from the

21 00:25:33

vine, and that's the secret. If we

21 00:25:37

are connected to Jesus, abiding in the vine, the hard

21 00:25:40

things that come to everyone

21 00:25:45

don't break us. They don't make us

21 00:25:49

hard. They soften us.

21 00:25:53

They make us more human.

21 00:25:59

The internal, abiding work of the Holy Spirit

21 00:26:04

brings fruit. What's

21 00:26:08

the purpose of this fruit? Look at me, I got

21 00:26:12

a lot of things on my branches. No, John 15:8

21 00:26:15

spells it out, "This is to my Father's glory

21 00:26:19

that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." His disciples.

21 00:26:22

Glory? Proof of discipleship?

21 00:26:27

Fruit is the evidence of abiding. A branch

21 00:26:31

isolated or removed from the branch will never

21 00:26:34

bear fruit. In the world of botany— okay, let's go

21 00:26:38

to school for a minute. I mean, a different school. Different— okay. In the world

21 00:26:41

of botany, there are a lot of elements that come into play

21 00:26:44

for a vine to bear fruit. There are going to be seasonal temperature changes,

21 00:26:48

water, hours of sunlight, pollination. It's a complicated

21 00:26:52

business to grow a cluster of There is

21 00:26:56

only one component required for you to bear spiritual fruit.

21 00:27:00

Abide in the vine. Abide. Fruit's been

21 00:27:04

promised. I cannot manufacture it. I cannot muster it

21 00:27:08

up. I cannot strive for it as hard as I

21 00:27:11

want to. Love, joy,

21 00:27:15

peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

21 00:27:19

thanksgiving, Faithfulness, gentleness, self-control do not

21 00:27:23

come by the sheer willing them into

21 00:27:27

existence. We abide and fruit

21 00:27:30

will come. But I don't see it yet. Stay put.

21 00:27:35

Fruit will come. Dwell.

21 00:27:39

Remain rooted, grounded in the

21 00:27:43

vine. Fruit will come. Amen. Jen

21 00:27:46

Wilkin gave this encouragement a couple of weeks ago on the Knowing

21 00:27:50

Faith podcast. And this season on that podcast, they've been tackling

21 00:27:54

tricky questions that some believers have, and some of them have been quite

21 00:27:57

funny, like, will pets be in heaven? It's been a real fun ride. But

21 00:28:01

this particular one, and maybe you should listen to that one, it was fun.

21 00:28:05

They had different opinions about that. So,

21 00:28:09

on this question, it was like, how can I know I am saved??

21 00:28:13

And I don't know about you, but I grew up in a tradition where that

21 00:28:15

was a question I was asking all the time, 'cause I did not grow up

21 00:28:18

in a Reformed congregation, as much as I quote Tim Keller

21 00:28:22

and John Piper. That was not my experience. I think

21 00:28:25

I'm enjoying that as an adult because I didn't grow up with that. I mean,

21 00:28:29

you know, so it was like ride the altar rail to, you know,

21 00:28:32

to heaven. And we used to laugh. I think somebody said this, I

21 00:28:36

think maybe at my mom's funeral, that we were, and this is really not as

21 00:28:40

bad as it was, and I think I've said this here before, I'm pretty sure

21 00:28:43

we thought we were a white lie and a car wreck away from busting the

21 00:28:46

gates of hell wide open, right? You know, so insecure

21 00:28:49

was my hold on my faith.

21 00:28:53

Hey, I didn't know the vine was strong

21 00:28:57

enough. I didn't know. I didn't know that

21 00:29:00

he had me instead of me having

21 00:29:07

him. So she gives this encouragement that maybe, and for this

21 00:29:10

conference, like, how do I know I'm saved? Like, how do I know I'm in

21 00:29:13

the vine, right? It was a great theological discussion. She gave

21 00:29:16

this suggestion. What if our prayer

21 00:29:20

journals became not so much a laundry list

21 00:29:24

of things we want God to do for us? Not maybe

21 00:29:28

that those are bad things. John Piper says that even unbelievers pray those

21 00:29:33

prayers. But our prayer journal became a

21 00:29:37

chronicle of our asking God for the things he

21 00:29:41

has already promised he would give

21 00:29:47

us. That prayer book then would become a

21 00:29:51

biography of the spiritual growth that we are experiencing, the evidence

21 00:29:55

of abiding faith, of being in the vine. Do you know

21 00:29:59

what prayers would never be out of God's will for you

21 00:30:02

to pray? Expand my heart.

21 00:30:06

Give me more love. Increase my joy. Give

21 00:30:10

me discernment. I need wisdom. Glorify your

21 00:30:14

name. Righteousness be exalted. Bring

21 00:30:18

peace. These are the promises of the

21 00:30:21

vine. When these show up, they are evidence that

21 00:30:25

in our lives that we are

21 00:30:30

abiding. C.S. Lewis describes the life of a believer as one of undulations,

21 00:30:33

and if that's not a word you— it's ups and downs, right? And

21 00:30:37

in vine speak, that would be like noting seasons,

21 00:30:41

right? There are seasons of fruitfulness and seasons

21 00:30:44

of waiting and dormancy. Now, the

21 00:30:48

real human temptation is to try to pretend that we

21 00:30:52

have fruit when there is little to

21 00:30:56

none. Today, work in plastics and fabrics have improved

21 00:31:00

so much that faux plants have reached new levels in

21 00:31:04

their mimicry of the real thing. But

21 00:31:07

haven't we all seen the garish look that fake flowers

21 00:31:11

and greenery have when they've been exposed to too

21 00:31:14

much sunlight over time? While real

21 00:31:18

plants can't survive without sunlight, Fake plants

21 00:31:21

become cartoonish with prolonged

21 00:31:27

exposure. What once at a distance could pass for a real

21 00:31:31

blossom or an edible piece of fruit or a lovely fiddly

21 00:31:35

fig are easy to spot as counterfeit

21 00:31:39

on closer inspection.

21 00:31:42

Manufactured pseudo fruit does not bring glory to the vine

21 00:31:46

or meet the desires of the vinedresser. And that

21 00:31:50

is the purpose of fruit, to bring glory to God, not to the

21 00:31:53

branch. Who are we trying to fool? Fruit is not for

21 00:31:57

decoration of the

21 00:32:03

branch. Stay abiding, and water, the life of water is

21 00:32:07

flowing to us, 'cause developing fruit has to have

21 00:32:11

water. And typically, plants only get their water from

21 00:32:15

their roots.

21 00:32:19

The life-giving flow of water is upwards

21 00:32:22

against the pull of gravity. That doesn't make

21 00:32:26

sense. While rain and dew fall on the leaves, that

21 00:32:31

water does not benefit the leaf directly. In

21 00:32:34

fact, most leaves have a waxy coating, a cuticle,

21 00:32:37

that protects them from that water. The water drips

21 00:32:41

off, goes into the soil, gets back to the roots,

21 00:32:45

comes up through the vine, and then then

21 00:32:49

is able to bring life to the

21 00:32:53

branch. Now, there are some plants that in times of drought have

21 00:32:57

a special mechanism whereby they can absorb water from

21 00:33:00

dew on their leaves. This is actually a design feature by our

21 00:33:04

good Creator that allows these plants to survive the harshest

21 00:33:08

of conditions for short periods of

21 00:33:12

time. But I think that you and

21 00:33:16

I try to do the same thing. We

21 00:33:20

perceive that we are in a drought. We perceive that God

21 00:33:23

is silent. And when in fact, there is not a

21 00:33:27

time that the vine is not sending up water. There is not a

21 00:33:31

time when the voice of God is not

21 00:33:35

speaking. The living water that we long for is

21 00:33:39

there. But in this perceived drought, brought about

21 00:33:42

by any number of external circumstances or internal struggles,

21 00:33:46

we think that the flow of life-giving water from the vine has been

21 00:33:50

cut off and strangled, 'cause we feel

21 00:33:53

parched. And instead of remaining and

21 00:33:57

tapping deeper into the vine, abiding

21 00:34:00

here, we grasp for drops of water around

21 00:34:04

us, lapping up mist and fog, when all the

21 00:34:08

time the vine has roots that are

21 00:34:11

reaching down to artesian wells of

21 00:34:15

refreshing. And we think these surface little

21 00:34:19

dribbles are gonna satisfy the deep longings that we have,

21 00:34:23

but in fact, they foster the growth of mold

21 00:34:27

and mildew and rot.

21 00:34:30

We only have to look to Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan

21 00:34:34

woman. She's a great example of someone who's with who was looking for what she

21 00:34:37

thought she needed in the wrong places. After asking her

21 00:34:41

for a drink and being rebuffed, John 14:10 says,

21 00:34:45

"Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of

21 00:34:49

God and who it is that asked you for a drink, you would

21 00:34:52

have said, give me living water.'" And he goes on to

21 00:34:56

tell her that drinking this water means you'll never be thirsty again. It

21 00:35:00

means access to so much water that that springs well up.

21 00:35:04

That sounds like abiding. That sounds like

21 00:35:11

fruitful. So we're doing this, but we're

21 00:35:15

human. 'Cause that vine analogy, you know, that don't play too good on

21 00:35:18

a Monday morning sometimes. This abiding, it seems

21 00:35:22

daunting, it seems impossible. No matter how much we think that

21 00:35:26

we can hold two thoughts at once, we actually can't. Thus

21 00:35:30

the phrase, "You can't walk and chew gum." Now, there are some, right? You can

21 00:35:33

do some, you can have a conversation and walk. In fact, they say walking, or

21 00:35:36

running, or having a conversation with someone is good for your older brain. So,

21 00:35:40

you know, take that for, I have an older brain. So, you

21 00:35:43

know, so we can do things like that, but holding two thoughts at the same

21 00:35:47

time. So how do we manage

21 00:35:50

this abiding all the time, and being

21 00:35:54

cognizant of our Creator, and being in the vine, yet But we still

21 00:35:58

have to do things like take out the trash, and wipe

21 00:36:02

a snotty nose, and pick up car line, and cook,

21 00:36:05

and clean, and place a Walmart order. You know,

21 00:36:09

there's all the things that we have to

21 00:36:14

do. Vonda hit this too. There are big

21 00:36:17

times that we label as, "Oh, we're abiding," right? And those

21 00:36:21

are the spiritual disciplines of prayer, and Bible reading,

21 00:36:25

and fasting, and study, and meditation on the

21 00:36:28

Word, generosity, worship, gathering with believers, and

21 00:36:31

more. Those abiding times are easy to identify

21 00:36:35

and label, 'cause— and we go, "Oh yeah, we're connected. We're in

21 00:36:39

the vine. We're here." Those are as important to

21 00:36:43

our relationship with Christ as long conversations with a

21 00:36:46

friend to catch up, or a regularly scheduled date night, or

21 00:36:50

a game night with the family, the things that we plan to

21 00:36:54

do. But let me tell you, if you have anybody in your family

21 00:36:58

that you love, you know that they are never not far from

21 00:37:01

your mind. It's just

21 00:37:05

one little thing and you can be like— and if you've lost someone that you

21 00:37:08

love, even a smell can like bring back to you

21 00:37:12

like a conversation that you had, or a way that you loved

21 00:37:16

them, and it is very present of mind. So how

21 00:37:20

do we have that presence of mind while

21 00:37:23

still doing the dishes and the trash and the taxes and the things

21 00:37:27

and the money and all the things that we are required to do

21 00:37:31

to also be human. Andrew Murray describes

21 00:37:35

it as kind of an undercurrent of our life because apparently

21 00:37:38

in 1884 he would not have known to use the phrase background

21 00:37:42

music or soundtrack. I don't know about

21 00:37:46

that. Or maybe there's just not a good translation from Dutch

21 00:37:54

into I'm sorry. Murray writes, "Even when

21 00:37:58

our attention shifts to the demands of the

21 00:38:02

day, your fellowship with Christ does not

21 00:38:06

subside because Christ himself is

21 00:38:10

maintaining the fellowship."

21 00:38:13

Christ himself is doing it. The

21 00:38:17

thing for

21 00:38:22

us. How do we know? How do we know that's what's

21 00:38:26

happening? It's in Romans 8. Romans 8:38,

21 00:38:30

"For I am convinced that neither

21 00:38:33

death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nor

21 00:38:37

present or future, nor any powers, neither height nor

21 00:38:41

depth, nor anything in all creation, "Will be able

21 00:38:44

to separate me from the love of God that is in

21 00:38:48

Christ Jesus our Lord." That is abiding. That is

21 00:38:51

the power that our abiding comes from. So, we

21 00:38:55

can sing then and celebrate the song of

Isaiah 27 00:38:58

22 and 23. Sing about a

Isaiah 27 00:39:02

fruitful vine. Sing about a fruitful vineyard, 'cause

Isaiah 27 00:39:06

I, the Lord, watch over it. I water it

Isaiah 27 00:39:10

continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm

Isaiah 27 00:39:15

it. What a song! So if

Isaiah 27 00:39:19

abiding is like music, a

Isaiah 27 00:39:22

soundtrack that's playing, sometimes we hardly notice it.

Isaiah 27 00:39:26

There's music like all around and you don't notice it

Isaiah 27 00:39:30

until, well, maybe there's a shift in the melody or there's a

Isaiah 27 00:39:34

new harmony. They hear, "Oh, I didn't know. Oh, that

Isaiah 27 00:39:38

chord." That kind. There's something in the refrain and it catches our attention

Isaiah 27 00:39:41

and in that moment we can lock in

Isaiah 27 00:39:45

and praise or prayer or

Isaiah 27 00:39:48

both, worship are on our lips.

Isaiah 27 00:39:52

It's the easy and natural, "I

Isaiah 27 00:39:56

love you, Lord," that breathes out of us when we're

Isaiah 27 00:39:59

just doing the next thing. It's the hearty

Isaiah 27 00:40:03

and "Thank you, Jesus," when hearing good

Isaiah 27 00:40:06

news. It's "God is good" at the sight of something

Isaiah 27 00:40:11

beautiful, or a trembling "Help me, Father"

Isaiah 27 00:40:14

in moments of weakness or despair. It is the silent

Isaiah 27 00:40:18

cry for wisdom, hopefully before we open

Isaiah 27 00:40:22

our mouths. It's Barbie's

Isaiah 27 00:40:26

"Ah, Jesus," when there are

Isaiah 27 00:40:30

not other words to say.

Isaiah 27 00:40:33

These prayers and petitions and little

Isaiah 27 00:40:37

acknowledgments grow from abiding, and they remind

Isaiah 27 00:40:41

us constantly that we are in Christ. They remind

Isaiah 27 00:40:45

us that He is right

Isaiah 27 00:40:48

here always. We are

Isaiah 27 00:40:52

in the vine no matter where we are or

Isaiah 27 00:40:56

what is happening around us. But again, we might come back

Isaiah 27 00:40:59

to how, how the children of Israel could

Isaiah 27 00:41:03

not do this, and they were experiencing, they

Isaiah 27 00:41:07

experienced powerful deliverance and visual and verbal

Isaiah 27 00:41:10

daily manifestations of God's presence.

Isaiah 27 00:41:14

Manna, cloud, pillar of fire, and they couldn't

Isaiah 27 00:41:17

do it. How can

Isaiah 27 00:41:22

we? Because their measure was the law, And

Isaiah 27 00:41:25

our measure is love. Jesus

Isaiah 27 00:41:29

said, "As the Father has loved

Isaiah 27 00:41:33

me, so have I loved you.

Isaiah 27 00:41:36

Now remain in my

Isaiah 27 00:41:41

love. If you obey my commands, you'll remain in my love, just as

Isaiah 27 00:41:45

I have obeyed the Father's commands and remain

Isaiah 27 00:41:49

in his love." And he goes on, Why am I telling you

Isaiah 27 00:41:53

this? So that you can have

Isaiah 27 00:41:58

joy. And what was that command He mentioned? Love

Isaiah 27 00:42:02

each other. Dear sweet

Isaiah 27 00:42:05

branch, that's fruit. All

Isaiah 27 00:42:09

this is possible, all of this, even in

Isaiah 27 00:42:12

our humanness, being able to acknowledge and know that we are in

Isaiah 27 00:42:16

the vine and fruit will come and trust it. It's all

Isaiah 27 00:42:20

possible when Jesus says back in verse

Isaiah 27 00:42:24

4, "Remain in me and I

Isaiah 27 00:42:28

will remain in

Isaiah 27 00:42:32

you. If you remain in me and my words remain in you,

Isaiah 27 00:42:36

God gets the glory." See, sometimes we are so focused

Isaiah 27 00:42:40

on I remaining that we forget he

Isaiah 27 00:42:43

is

Isaiah 27 00:42:47

remaining. He calls and we come and

Isaiah 27 00:42:53

rest. He sustains and we admit that we need

Isaiah 27 00:42:57

him. He prunes and we bear

Isaiah 27 00:43:02

fruit. He pours out love and

Isaiah 27 00:43:06

we get joy. He

Isaiah 27 00:43:09

loves us and we get to love

Isaiah 27 00:43:13

others. He abides so we

Isaiah 27 00:43:17

can abide, all to the glory

Isaiah 27 00:43:21

of God. So I'm

Isaiah 27 00:43:25

feeling that some of this is

Isaiah 27 00:43:28

about— Vonda gave us some things about

Isaiah 27 00:43:33

distractions and listening, active listening. And I feel

Isaiah 27 00:43:37

like a word that could kind of sum it up is,

Isaiah 27 00:43:40

is noticing. We notice. That's

Isaiah 27 00:43:45

actually a little term that's come up in some gentle parenting

Isaiah 27 00:43:49

circles about helping your kids notice things. Instead of telling them to do things, you

Isaiah 27 00:43:52

help them to notice it, right? So if they notice it, then maybe they'll do

Isaiah 27 00:43:55

it of their own volition. I don't know. We try that with middle schoolers sometimes

Isaiah 27 00:43:58

at school, and they don't notice that they are made of paper and pencils, and

Isaiah 27 00:44:02

by the end of the day, all of it has leaked out of their lockers

Isaiah 27 00:44:05

and their themselves, and so, you know, the area in front of their lockers is

Isaiah 27 00:44:08

just trashed. And we have a proverb

Isaiah 27 00:44:12

at school, "Don't walk by a piece of trash without picking it up."

Isaiah 27 00:44:16

They have not

Isaiah 27 00:44:20

noticed. They have not noticed that a semester

Isaiah 27 00:44:24

worth of papers is now, you know,

Isaiah 27 00:44:28

right? Noticing. What are we

Isaiah 27 00:44:33

noticing? What is God drawing our attention to? And you may

Isaiah 27 00:44:38

say, "That seems little. That seems

Isaiah 27 00:44:42

dumb." Notice, and

Isaiah 27 00:44:46

then notice what happens after you

Isaiah 27 00:44:50

acknowledge and notice. God

Isaiah 27 00:44:54

is so good. His love is

Isaiah 27 00:44:58

unfailing, and he is He does the keeping of

Isaiah 27 00:45:02

the vine. God is more gracious to

Isaiah 27 00:45:06

us than we could ever be faithful to

Isaiah 27 00:45:11

him. Let's

Isaiah 27 00:45:16

pray. Heavenly

Isaiah 27 00:45:22

Father, would you cause our eyes and our ears and our

Isaiah 27 00:45:26

hearts to notice the things that you are

Isaiah 27 00:45:30

doing. Would you help us more and more that as we

Isaiah 27 00:45:34

stay in you, abide in you, that we

Isaiah 27 00:45:38

see the work. May our prayers become things that

Isaiah 27 00:45:42

we're asking you to grow in

Isaiah 27 00:45:47

us. Father, we give our surrender

Isaiah 27 00:45:50

to you. And we say, "Oh Lord, we cannot

Isaiah 27 00:45:54

do it." If you don't keep the vine,

Isaiah 27 00:45:58

there is no keeping. So do what

Isaiah 27 00:46:01

only you can do as you mold us and shape

Isaiah 27 00:46:06

us more into your image. And would you cause

Isaiah 27 00:46:10

us to be

Isaiah 27 00:46:14

fruitful? In Christ's name we pray,

Isaiah 27 00:46:21

amen. Amen. What are

Isaiah 27 00:46:25

you noticing? What do we need to see,

Isaiah 27 00:46:29

Lord, in this leaning into that posture? Would you guys show

Isaiah 27 00:46:33

your appreciation for

Isaiah 27 00:46:41

Rhonda and her word? Somebody said, I didn't know it was going to be this

Isaiah 27 00:46:46

good. But don't we just sow when we're— when we, when we don't

Isaiah 27 00:46:49

pay attention to the vine? It is so much

Isaiah 27 00:46:53

better than we can ever imagine. And

Isaiah 27 00:46:57

we're plugged in. We are going to take a lunch break, and then

Isaiah 27 00:47:00

we're going to come back to some phenomenal

Isaiah 27 00:47:04

workshop sessions, 2:00 and

Isaiah 27 00:47:09

3:30. So we have Pastor Sherri and Pastor Wayne,

Isaiah 27 00:47:12

and we have Pastor Will, and we have Josh McLeod that will all be

Isaiah 27 00:47:16

doing workshops. And I pray that you're going to be here. Now, if you've got

Isaiah 27 00:47:19

friends that are like, I decided to stay home on the couch today, and you

Isaiah 27 00:47:23

see how good it's been, they have time to get here for these workshops. So

Isaiah 27 00:47:26

text them and say, you need to get

Isaiah 27 00:47:30

here and, and, and see, taste and see that the Lord's good. Amen. All

Isaiah 27 00:47:33

right. There are food trucks. Are they

Isaiah 27 00:47:38

here? They're here and they open at 12. Okay, so by the time you hit

Isaiah 27 00:47:40

the restroom and make your way out there, they're going to be open out there.

Isaiah 27 00:47:43

Uh, if you do decide to go elsewhere, which we encourage you to stay and

Isaiah 27 00:47:47

hang out, but if you do go elsewhere, come back and be a part of

Isaiah 27 00:47:49

the workshops, uh, at, uh, at 2

Isaiah 27 00:47:53

o'clock. Okay, does that sound good? All right, bless you, and we will see you

Isaiah 27 00:47:56

at 2 o'clock.