Exodus 4:27-6:9
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles. Go to Exodus chapter 4. Exodus is the second book of the Bible.
If you grab one of these blue Bibles that's in the little rack under the chair in front of you, it'll be on page 28. The big number is the chapter. The little Numbers are the verse. We're going to start in Exodus chapter 4, 27. So where we're picking up today, God came to Moses in the burning bush and said, Go.
You're going to go to Pharaoh. You're going to proclaim that he's to let my people go. And I'm going to drive you out. I'm going to bring the people out. And he's going to send Aaron with him and he's going to go. And where we get to start today, we get to see the first steps in Moses' obedience to this call.
Spencer said a couple weeks ago that it'd be like if God came to you and said, Pack up. Go to Russia. We have a message for Putin. You're going to go stand before Putin and you're going to declare that this is over. And it'd be like that amount of intensity. But Moses is going and we're going to see that as Moses steps out in faith, that immediately everything gets worse.
Just way worse. And it's a little bit surprising. Like that's not how we thought this was going to go. It's surprising to them. It's surprising to Moses that this is like, Oh, they were doing what you said to do. Why has it gotten worse?
And if we're honest, a lot of us feel like that in our walk with the Lord. Why is this so hard? Why, when it feels like what I'm trying to follow you, I'm trying to read, I'm trying to do the things that I'm supposed to do. Why is this so difficult? Some of you are like, I became a Christian because my life was a mess. And I had in my head that after I became a Christian, it would be less like that.
But it's still extremely hard. In some ways, objectively worse. And so we're going to see as Moses goes to the Lord and says, Why? Why is this working this way? Why have you done this? We're going to see that God answers him.
And God does not tell him why. He's not going to answer that question. Why it's worked out this way. But what God is going to tell him is why it's worth it to keep going. And so for us this morning, I hope that's what we get out of this. Is that we understand, maybe we want to get all the answers to why has it played out this way.
Why has it been this specific thing. But why it's worth it to keep going. So let's pray and let's study this together. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your work of redemption among the Israelites. It gives us a tangible picture of your ultimate work of redemption from sin.
And we thank you, Lord, that you do work to redeem in the lives of your people. That you see them, that you hear them, that you know them, and that you come to save. We pray, Lord, that as we study this this morning, And that you would help our hearts be grasped by why it's worth everything to follow you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Chapter 4, verse 27.
The Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. Okay, so that and kissed him part, I'm going to cover that first because that's weird for us. It just means it was a very warm reception. It's an Eastern thing, a Middle Eastern thing to kiss in a greeting. They're excited to see each other.
They're brothers. Aaron is a couple years older than Moses. It seems like Aaron was born in the Shifra and Pua era of Pharaoh saying, kill all the babies, and then Shifra and Pua, the midwives, being like, Hebrew women have babies too fast. That zone. And then Moses was born in the, okay, throw all the boys in the river zone because that was what happened with him, and he was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. And so Moses grew up pretty much separate from Aaron, but he knew he had a brother.
Aaron knows of Moses. And God tells Aaron, go see Moses. And Aaron hadn't seen Moses since he killed a guy and ran away. And that's been years, 40 years or so. And so my first question when I read this, though, was how does Aaron just get to leave? Aren't they slaves in Egypt?
The text does not tell us, so I came up with two theories that I'm going to share with you now. Theory one, sneakiness. It's possible that God told him to leave, and so he just sneaked on out of there. I actually don't like theory one as much as I like theory two. Theory two, Aaron, this isn't a theory, we know this, is like 84 years old. So my second theory is that the Egyptians didn't care.
They were using slaves for manual labor. I think Aaron was past his manual labor days, and he was like, I'm out of here. And they were like, bye. Nobody minded. That's my second theory. All right.
Verse 28. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak and all the signs he had commanded him to do. Throw the staff down, turns into a serpent, stick your hand in your cloak, pull it out. You have leprosy. Put it back. No leprosy.
He also has a sign where he can take water from the Nile and pour it out, but I don't think he's able to do that one here because I don't think they're at the Nile yet. But it's possible they traveled some. Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And if you'll remember, that's what God worked out with Moses, which is Aaron's going to speak on your behalf. And the people believed.
Can you all feel this? Moses gathers them, shows them this sign, all the elders, and they believe. And they worship. And I can imagine that this news spread through the Israelites. Israelites, I mean, I bet there were people that couldn't sleep that night. I bet there were those that went to bed and just thanked the Lord that he was answering their prayers, that they had been begging him.
I bet there were those that went to sleep and they were saying, Lord, I'm sorry, I had lost heart. I had lost faith. But thank you that you hear and that you redeem and that you work. And I bet among the Israelites, it felt like it's just something in the air, the way it feels before a storm, that there's something going to happen. I bet there was giddiness. And it was the first time they ever woke up to go be a slave where there was a little bit of movement in their step that like, ah, not much longer.
You know, when you put in your two weeks notice and that's the best two weeks you've ever had at work. That kind of a thing. That feeling. God's working. They worship. And I know that some of you, as you have placed your faith in Jesus, you've had that.
That I see it. I know who he is. And I believe. And something happens in you that you can't explain. And sometimes your friends try to ask you to explain it. You can't explain it.
That something is happening to the Holy Spirit that's working you. And there's this moment of belief for them and excitement for them. And then we move forward. Chapter 5. Afterward, so we don't know exactly how long, Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, Let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. Not be free forever.
That's not what they say. Let my people go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. And they're going to say later to offer sacrifices. But it says, But Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord. And moreover, I will not let Israel go.
I appreciate this response for two reasons. One, he says, Who? I don't know him. And also, No. I just like that he says, And moreover, No. And also, on top of me not knowing him, No.
You cannot go. But his questions, Who is the Lord and why should I obey him? Those questions are going to be answered for him. He's not going to like the answers, but Pharaoh will get those questions answered. Who is the Lord and why he should obey him? But he says, No.
No. Not obeying him. Don't know him. Get out of here. Then they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us.
Please let us go a three days journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. They're saying, He's our God and if we don't obey, it might go poorly for us. But the king of Egypt said to them, Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens. And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land are now many and you make them rest from their burdens. This is how slavery works.
They are valuable to the Pharaoh for production. He says there's a lot of them and slowing down production is a bigger deal. Get back to work. And Pharaoh said, verse 6, The same day, that same day, so immediately, they go talk to Pharaoh and immediately, Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks as in the past. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past, you shall impose on them.
You shall by no means reduce it for they are idle. Therefore they cry, Let us go and offer sacrifices to our God. So I want to show y'all, yeah, let us go and offer sacrifices to our God. I'm going to make sure I hadn't jumped ahead of myself here. Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words. But I want to show y'all a picture.
This is a picture that was in a, these were on the walls of a tomb in Thebes. And it is pictures of people making clay bricks. So what they would do is they'd take, they didn't have stone to quarry, so they would take water, they had mud, they would make clay bricks. Straw was used, it's kind of like rebar, it helped it dry out and it helped it make more, made it more solid. So without straw, the bricks would break apart.
And you'll notice in a couple of the pictures, there's just a guy sitting holding a stick. Those are taskmasters. He's not working, he's just there to make sure you work. And so they would give the Israelites straw, they would bring it to where they were, give them straw to make bricks. And so now he says, well quit bringing them straw. They have too much time on their hands.
If they can have little get togethers where they talk about, hey, let's leave, they got too much time on their hands. So now, just quit giving them straw. And they still, but keep the same number of bricks. So if they had to make 500 bricks a day, they still have to make 500 bricks a day. But now, go get some straw and maybe you won't have times to get together and have little discussions.
Verse 10. So the taskmasters and the foreman of the people went out and said to the people, thus says Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least. Okay. Moses and Aaron said, thus says the Lord. And they come out and said, you know, thus says Pharaoh.
It's a decree of a God. And if you're the people of Israel, one of those is having more of an effect on you right now. One of those feels more real. I don't know if you've ever felt that. You're like, I know what the Lord says, but man, does this feel more real. I know what he says, but this is the one that seems to work.
I know what he says, but this is the one that seems to apply to my life. That's the situation they find themselves in. Verse 11, go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least. So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. So they have to make bricks that hold together.
They have to have straw to do that. They don't seem to own a lot of land and people have already harvested the straw, so they're just running around wherever they can to find stubble just to try to piece this together. The taskmasters were urgent saying, complete your work, your daily task each day as when there was straw. And the foremen of the people of Israel, so they had taskmasters and then they had foremen. Foremen were Israelites over other Israelites to make sure the work gets done. The foremen of the people of Israel whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them were beaten and were asked, why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday as in the past?
Moses and Aaron come and say, hey, God's visiting us. He's going to rescue us. Moses and Aaron go in front of Pharaoh. That same day, the rules come down that they're not going to get straw anymore and then it says, today and yesterday, they didn't meet quotas, so on that end of the second day, they're beaten. This happened quick. That the foremen are brought in and beaten by the taskmasters because they're no longer fulfilling what they're supposed to fulfill.
Now could you imagine being the foreman? For just a moment, God's visiting us. This is changing. We're going to be set free. Then they come and announce, y'all are wasting time.
You have too much time on your hands and now you've got to get the same amount of work done with less and that's hard and impossible. And then, as they fail, while people stand over them yelling, then two days in, they're beaten for it. Verse 15, then the foreman of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, why do you treat your servants like this? No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, make bricks. And behold, your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your people. Your own people is in your own people.
Verse 17, but he said, you are idle. He said, lazy. You got too much time on your hands. You are idle. That is why you say, let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. Go now and work.
No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks. And the foreman of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, you shall by no means reduce your number of bricks in your daily task each day. They leave and they said, well, we're in trouble. This is not going to work out for us. Verse 20, they met Moses and Aaron who were waiting for them as they came out from Pharaoh and they said to them, the Lord look on you and judge because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants and have put a sword in their hand to kill us. Now from, Moses says, okay, Lord, I'll go.
I'll step out. If you remember at the burning bush, he said, please no. And he gave a bunch of excuses and then when God went through all of his excuses, he said, okay, you got through all my excuses, but also one more thing, please no. I have no more excuses, but please don't send me. And he sends him and Moses goes. Moses steps out in faith.
He goes before Pharaoh and it gets worse and then the people who he's coming to try to help look at him and say, may God judge you. They're going to kill us because of you. Verse 22, then Moses turned to the Lord and said, oh Lord, why have you done evil to this people? why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people and you have not delivered your people at all. Why? Why have you done evil?
Why has this gotten worse? You haven't delivered the people at all. Like you said you were going to deliver them, you hadn't done that at all. Like it's the opposite. It's worse. Ever since I came it's just gotten worse.
Have y'all ever thought this? Have you ever prayed this? Lord, why has this gotten harder? Why has this gotten worse? I thought this was going to be good. I thought you were going to bless.
I thought, I mean, I don't believe in the prosperity gospel. I didn't think I was going to be a millionaire and have a jet. I wouldn't be mad at you if that happened but I didn't think that was going to happen. But I didn't think it was going to be like this. I mean, it feels like I'm trying to fight uphill through briars and now there's a guy hitting me with sticks. Like I don't, it's gotten worse.
Why is this so much harder? Why isn't this easier? I've been following you for years now and it still feels like I'm in the same stuff. Why? And for Moses, Lord, I'm obeying. Why?
I did what you asked me to do. You haven't delivered at all. So chapter 6, God answers. And he doesn't answer that why. Why has this happened? He doesn't answer that.
But in his answer, I think he gives us why it's worth it. Why we should trust him. Why we should keep moving forward. In chapter 6, he says this, But the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will send them out and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land. So it's interesting because right now Pharaoh's using his strength to keep them.
And God said, Watch. Pretty soon he's going to throw everything he has at getting rid of them. God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name, the Lord, I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves and I have remembered my covenant.
So this first part is an answer to Moses and then he's going to tell him what to say to the people of Israel but he says, I am the Lord and he talks about what he's done, who he is and what he's done and he talks about that he's remembered this covenant and he's going to fulfill his promises. In the next bit he's going to talk about the fulfillment of those promises. But I think that's part of the first answer we get, part of where we should start is who is he? What do we know of his character? What do we know of his nature? And we have a much more beautiful answer than Moses has when we sit and consider that.
Moses has that he fulfilled his promises to the fathers in some measure that he's working this out and that he's going to fulfill these promises now in Egypt but we actually know that he does fulfill these promises in Egypt and more than that he fulfills them eternally in Christ for us. That he loves us so much that he died for us. That's what we read earlier in Ephesians 2 that while we were still sinners Christ died for us that he loved us so that he would rescue us by grace. We start there but then here's what he's going to say to say to the people of Israel this is verse 6. Say therefore to the people of Israel I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from slavery to them and I will redeem you with outstretched arm and with great Acts of judgment.
I will take you to be my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob I will give it to you for a possession I am the Lord. And Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel but they did not listen to Moses because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery. They just couldn't hear it. They had a broken spirit and harsh slavery and there is really nothing worse than a broken spirit. And so my hope today is that even in the midst of wherever you are that you would be able to hear this answer.
That you would be able to hear what he says. When I was in seminary we they referred to a study I learned about a study where they had people tell a Bible story and then have to retell a Bible story. So you would listen to a Bible story and then you would retell it. And what were they studying? I don't know. Who's they?
Also don't know. But it's not important for this illustration so try to stay focused. What they did though was they did this with people in the United States and then they did this with people not in the United States that were more in it was either in Africa or kind of the Middle East India area but it was a very different culture. And so what I'm going to call is we'll just call it the West United States and we'll call it the East the not the United States. I remember like I said all the pertinent details. But they told them the story of the prodigal son and they had them repeat it.
And you don't need to know the whole story of the prodigal son. I mean for this illustration you don't. You should know it. It's good but you don't for this illustration. It comes from Luke 15. The main thing you need to know is that the prodigal son goes off and he does two things.
He has two problems. One is he wastes all his money and two there's a famine in the land. That's the problem he has. He wastes all his money there's a famine in the land. When the Westerners retold the story almost all of them remembered that he wasted his money. But only some remembered there was a famine.
Most of them did not. When the Easterners retold the story almost all of them remembered there was a famine and very few of them remembered that he had wasted his money. Now I don't know what they were studying but one of the things they found was that sometimes we only latch on to the things that seem to connect with us that make sense to us that we're excited about that we think about. Westerners understand wasting money. Maybe they've never really gone hungry never had to live through a famine never understood what that was like but they know about wasting money and the Easterners in this study didn't have a whole lot of connection to wasting money but they'd lived through some famines.
Now this is one of the only times I'll ever say this don't look at your Bibles just for a second don't look at your Bibles what does God promise that he's going to do? He says say this to the Israelites and he promises that he's going to do something what does he promise he's going to do? Get your answer in your head don't shout it out you'll ruin it for the rest of the class. I think that the majority of us remember he's going to set them free from slavery. He's going to get them out of the burdens of Egypt. If I had to guess what was the second most remembered thing is that he's going to take them to the promised land.
But there's a third thing that he says that I think we're likely to overlook. One of the reasons I think we're likely to overlook it is that as I was preparing this I kept overlooking it. And it's this you will be my people and I will be your God. And you see I think there's times where we read this and as Americans land of the free oh we got that freedom land land of the free home of the brave and it's like well it's land of the free home of the milk and honey but you were close. But you see the purpose of the freedom that he gives is not to get them to the borders of Egypt and say go live your dreams.
He sets them free that they might be his. He gets them away from Pharaoh that they might belong to him. I want to read this. I want us to see it. Verse 6 say therefore to the people of Israel I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from slavery to them and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great Acts of judgment. Amen.
He sets them free from slavery. There's a wonderful glorious thing that he's going to do and that he promises to do. Verse 7 I will take you to be my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will bring you into the land that I swore to gifts he's going to give them land to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob and I will give it to you for a possession I am the Lord but see what makes the freedom wonderful and what makes the land wonderful is that they belong to God. And how dare we fail to see how glorious and wonderful he is that he's actually what the point of the promise is.
The promised land is the promised land because he's there because he's making a people for himself. If you were in an orphanage and it wasn't a good one it was a rough place and someone came by to see you and they said one day I'm going to get you out of here. One day I'm going to get it lined up and I'm going to get you out of here. And you're not going to stay here anymore and you're not going to have to put up with this anymore and you're going to be free. And there's not going to be a day where you're laying and staring at this ceiling anymore and you're surrounded by these people anymore you're going to be free.
And one day they do it and they come to get you and they sign everything and they get it all worked out and they walk out holding your hand and then they look at you and say okay you're free best of luck to you and walk off. No the point of the freedom was so that you might belong to them. The point of the adoption was so that you might come live with them that you might belong to them and they might belong to you that they might share themselves with you and that's the glorious point of this promise here is that God says I'm going to make you mine. And if all we see is some of the stuff around it then it's possible in the midst of the difficulty we'll think is it worth it?
Because I'm pretty sure this other thing will give me some of the stuff. I mean I signed up so that my kids would behave. I started following you so that things would work out for me. I started following you because I thought it was going to make life easier. I started following you because I figured if I'd obey then I'd be married by now. I started following you because I figured this would happen or that would happen or I'd make work work out.
I don't know I didn't want you to I wasn't trying to think of you as like a lucky penny or something but I kind of I don't know. It just feels like you're not fulfilling the things. It feels like you haven't delivered at all. And if all we understand is that he's going to do some wonderful things for us but we don't understand that he's wonderful and that ultimately he's the prize and that heaven is only heaven because he's there. But if we understand that well it doesn't matter where he takes us because if he's at the end of that road it's worth it.
It doesn't matter how long it doesn't matter how much suffering it doesn't matter how much hardship the truth is Paul tells us that the suffering of this time are not worth compared to the glories that will be revealed to us that he's actually preparing for us an eternal weight of glory that only suffering works out in us and so that the more suffering to have the more we're going to carry a weight of glory that we cannot fathom because we're going to belong to him and he's going to belong to us and that's the point that he's redeeming a people for himself and praise God that he is. Praise God that heaven isn't just that weird rodeo place from Pinocchio where it's just like go do whatever the heck you want and that somehow it's just all the fun things that we could dream of because the truth is all of that is empty if it's not for him. If heaven isn't heaven without him and so we long for him we long for this day that he looks on us we long for this day that he sees us we long for this day that we're welcomed home and that is what we hold on to. Why does it play out like this?
Why do you have the struggle you have? Why do you have the pain that you have? Why do you have the hurt that you have? Why do you have some of the emptiness you feel? I don't know and I don't know if he's going to answer that but I know that if you get him at the end of it oh it's worth it that the suffering of this time pales in comparison to that day that Jesus Christ is reconciling the world to himself that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself and that no one comes to the Father but by Christ and that it's through Christ that we're forgiven and that we get the Father and that's the point.
Now this is how the Bible ends.
The Invitation to Abide
Transcript
My dad likes to fish and hunt, and he went, on a regular basis, would go fishing with my uncle. It was his brother-in-law, my Uncle John, and they would go fishing. And they went fishing one time, and they were out, and it was cold, and it was raining, but they were catching fish. And so they had spent the time to get out there, and they were fishing, and it was getting colder and colder. And my dad eventually looked at my Uncle John and said, aren't you cold? Can we just, can we call it, can we go in?
Because, I mean, I don't know if you've ever spent much time out in the rain. It doesn't have to be raining very hard for you to eventually get completely and utterly soaked. And he was completely and utterly soaked, and it was cold. And fishing can only be so fun if you are cold and wet. And so my dad looked at my uncle and said, can we call it? And my uncle was like, no, we're going to catch a fish.
And, like, I'm fine, so you should be fine. And so my dad was like, all right. Because I don't know if you've been here and heard some stories about my dad. He's not tender or delicate. He does happen to be here this morning, if you would like to confirm some of the stories I've told and see if they are true. The quickest way to do that would be to try to slap him on his way out and see what happens.
I'm just kidding. Don't do that. But I did. This past Christmas, he asked to help him get set up so that he could listen to the podcast or the sermons. And I helped him set that up for Christmas. But I said, I just want you to know I've talked about you with complete immunity for, like, four years now.
And it is mostly true what I've said about you. But so he just, you know, he's like, all right, I'm going to buck up. I can handle it. I can handle it. You know, so they just keep fishing. And my dad's sitting there, you know, he's shaking at some point.
He looks at him and says, I think probably about time to go now. My uncle's like, no, no. I'm like, you know, and he's giving a hard time. He's like, come on, kid. You can't handle it? You know, so my dad's like, all right.
So eventually they just keep going. But finally it just soaks, I mean, to the bone. My dad looks at him and says, you know, I don't care. Like, I just, I've been as much of a man as I'm going to be today. Like, let's go. Like, I don't hear it.
Let's pack it up. Let's go. So they went back to where they were staying. They get in. My dad's shaking. He's taking his clothes off.
My uncle unfazed the whole time. Just, just take, you know, unbutton his clothes. And I say, my dad's peeling off wet layer after wet layer. And my uncle takes off his first jacket and has on a raincoat underneath it. Undoes his raincoat and was perfectly warm and dry the entire time. My dad's peeling wet t-shirts off.
And he's like, you, you, you gotta be kidding me. My uncle's like, how was I to know you didn't have a raincoat? We knew the forecast. Like how? I just assumed everyone dressed the way I dress. And in reality, what we want in life, what everybody in here wants in life is to be able to walk through life like my uncle was able to be out in the rain where it doesn't matter what's going on around us.
We're still warm and okay. That it doesn't matter what's happening around us. It doesn't matter what life is throwing at us. It doesn't matter the circumstances. It doesn't matter our finances. It doesn't matter our relationships that we're okay.
But in reality, many of us feel like my dad did on that day. Like what is going on around me has soaked to the bone. And I don't know if I can keep going. I don't know if I can move forward. I don't know if I can keep walking in this. It has gotten to me and I don't know how to move.
We just spent three weeks talking through idolatry where we said that we were designed to love something, to cherish something, to have affection for something and to have it set for us life, our meaning and our purpose and our hope and our satisfaction. We took the time to say that we consistently, that was meant to be God, but we consistently move him from that position and put something else there and it cannot handle the weight of our worship. And every time we spend time talking about idolatry, I'm convinced. I'm reconvinced that I am an idolater and that I need to love and worship Jesus above everything else.
But maybe that's where you are, but maybe you're like one of the guys in our, in my community group this past week who said, yes, yes, I love this thing more than Jesus. And yes, I'm supposed to love Jesus more. And I know I'm going to, but how, how, how do, how do I force myself there? How do I get my heart there? And so that is our hope in this series that we would be able to learn how to abide in Christ so that we were consistently filled up, made fresh, kept warm, even in the middle of everything else that's going on, that we would be pumped full of life. And that's what we're going to read in John chapter 15.
So let's pray together and then let's begin studying this together. God, we thank you for the invitation that you make to your disciples today. We thank you for the command that you give your disciples today. And we pray that we would learn how to rest and abide in you. We ask for your help in Jesus name. Amen.
John chapter 15. This is Jesus with his disciples. The, the night he is betrayed, the night before he will go on trial and then be crucified the next day. And he knows what is coming and he is in some ways finally finalizing all the information he's given him. He's praying with them. He's coaching them up and he's doing this all in the context of the crucifixion, the gospel that he's about to die, be buried and rise again.
And so he's talking to his disciples and I just want to make this clear as we read this, he is talking to the, to the men that were around him and he had been training and equipping. And as he prays for them later, he prays not, he says, Lord, this isn't just for them. It's for all those who will believe through them. So this is for us as well. So what he's saying to them is for them, but then for the church, for all those who would choose to follow Jesus.
He says, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. So the idea here is like a grapevine. And he's saying that he's the vine, he's, he's the, the health, the life, the vitality. He's the one that has roots that, that reaches up and that the father is the vine dresser who comes along and prunes.
And he says, you are the branches. Already you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in me. And I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I'm the vine.
You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burn. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit. And so prove to be my disciples.
We're going to keep going in just a minute, all the way down to verse 11 in this section. He says, abide 11 times, abide, abide, abide, abide, abide. Now this is not a word that we use very often. But it means to live in, to dwell. This is where the, an abode is where you live. I remember my young brother, my younger brother came up to visit us after Anna and I had gotten married and he walked in and he said, thank you so much for welcoming me into your humble abode.
And I was like, dude, if I call it a humble abode, it's humility. If you call it a humble abode, it's rude. So I wouldn't just rock up to people's houses and say that like, I don't mind. But like in a minute, she's going to fix this food. Don't sit down and thank her for the meager sustenance. Okay.
Like, but an abode is where you abide. And what he's saying is live, dwell with, wait here, stay here. Terry, live in me. Abide in me. Make your home here. Now that is a beautiful invitation made more beautiful to you if you're an introvert.
Extroverts maybe don't really understand how beautiful that invitation is, but introverts are like, oh yes, a home. Yes. You close the door. People don't bother you. It's wonderful. That's what my wife every once in a while I'll be like, hey, look, I'll watch the boys.
You can go somewhere. And she's like, oh, and I'm like, all right, I will take the boys somewhere and you can lock the door and pretend no one exists and just be in your house. Because that means so much more. And that's what Jesus is saying is he's saying, dwell here, live here, have life here in me. Abide in me. I am the vine.
You are the branches. And without me, you can do nothing. You will wither and die. Some of you have heard the phrase about having a friend who is ride or die. Well, with Jesus, it's abide or die. You have to dwell in, live in him, be filled up by him, or you will die.
I brought something with me this morning I want to show y'all. So this is a branch that used to abide in my backyard. It lived on a tree. The tree is still there. This branch is not. This branch got to come here.
These used to be green. Oh, that was embarrassing, buddy. There used to be more of them. The other branches are looking a little better than this one. This is Jesus' point. That as soon as this was removed from the tree, this branch has no more hope.
It will wither and die. It took a little while to get this way. But it has been doing what he said. It's been sitting in my backyard waiting to be burned. So I just went and grabbed it out of a pile this morning so that he could come on a trip and y'all could get to meet it.
So here's the thing. When you go to abide in Jesus, he says, I am the true vine. Not, I'm a good vine. I'm the true vine. I'm the only one that can actually pour life into you. I'm the only one that can give you vitality.
And what he's saying is that you need something outside of yourself to give you life. That seems pretty straightforward, but in American culture, we don't believe that. We are told constantly, you, look inside of you. Find what's inside of you. Learn how to express it. Learn how to bring it out.
If you can find the real you and the inner you, then you'll have peace and you'll have life and you'll be full and you'll be free. This branch is free. It got to come on a trip and see the inside of Glen Forest. Live its dreams. And many of us feel like this. We've been told you're all you need.
Fill yourself up with you. Find you. Whatever. And the truth is we're not fruitful and lush. We're dry and brittle and exhausted because we were meant to abide in Jesus. But if you're going to abide in Jesus, if we're going to stick with Jesus, the truth is he says the result will be fruitfulness.
And in reality, what we so often want is the fruitfulness. We want this to be green. We want it to have fruit. We want it to have life on it. But if you're going to have fruit in life here, you've got to pay attention to this end of the branch.
Not this end. This end. Where it attaches to what pours life into it. So many of us are exhausted because we're over here trying to accomplish everything over here. We're trying to make it look fruitful, trying to be fruitful. And we don't know how to attach rest in Christ.
We don't know how to abide in him. You see, when he says that we will bear fruit, what he means is that there will be, as we abide in him, as we're connected to him, that life will be poured into us. And it will be both internal and external fruit. He says that you would bear much fruit and by this way prove that you are my disciples. That he desires that. But that's the end result.
And it's internal and external fruit. I might pick this up again later, but I've got to put it down now. It's internal and external fruit. Internal being character. So the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control.
Wouldn't it be nice if that actually described us? If we were so connected to Jesus that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control were the markers of our life? Don't you actually want to, in a deep way, love people? And don't you find that extremely difficult? Don't we want to be patient and kind and at peace? But see, as we connect to Jesus and stick to Jesus, he pours that in us.
And it's not just internal fruit, but it's external fruit, that we would see people come to know Jesus. The point of fruit is not for the vine, it's for others. So that as we bear fruit, it's that it would be a blessing. We'd be a blessing to those around us, that people would come to know Christ, that people would be served. Martin Luther, I believe, is the one who said that God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does. And that's the reality, that Jesus has accomplished everything on our behalf, but he pours in us and we bear fruit.
This is actually what happens with Jesus when he's hanging out with Martha and Mary. He's hanging out with two sisters. Mary comes and sits at his feet while he's teaching, and Martha runs around working. She's preparing everything, she's fixing everything, she's getting a meal together for him. And she comes over to Jesus and she says, Hey, Jesus, will you tell Mary to come help me? Because, what the heck?
Like, I'm busting my tail here, and Mary's just hanging out in front of you. And Jesus looks at Martha, and I'm going to be honest with you. I'm like, thank you, Martha. Tell Mary to get up, what is she doing? Like, look at you, busting your tail, and your lazy sister, just plopped on the ground. You have guests.
Like, there's part of me that's like, yes, thank you. And then Jesus is like, no, no, no. Martha, Martha, you're busy and worried with many things, but Mary's chosen what's better and it won't be taken away from her. You see, Jesus, Martha was preparing a meal. Jesus can make bread out of anything. He can prepare a meal, he can do whatever.
And he just says, she's chosen something better. We'll be okay if we eat later or if we eat something different. She's chosen what's better. She's actually learning how to sit and rest and not have all this activity. And so there are people in this room who we're saying, I'm working so hard, I'm trying so hard, I've got so much ministry going on, I've got so much going on in life, I'm so busy, I don't have time. I don't have time for this, learning how to sit with Jesus stuff.
And the reality is you don't have time not to. Because you are going to dry up and die. And your ministry, if that's what you're shooting for, will not be fruitful. And if it's just life stuff, just raising children, just having a job, if it's just that and we don't learn how to daily stay connected to Jesus, we will not make it. So we have to, have to learn that it really matters.
My son and I have started watching this Bear Grylls show on Netflix where you can like choose what he does, which is great because he's always like, all right, I can either eat some tree bark or some fish eggs. My son's like, fish eggs? We have made him throw up so often and like we lose our adventure because he's later like throwing up and he's like, you ate the wrong thing. And it's like, well, we're going to go back and make you do it again. But one of the things he does on a consistent basis is he repels down from like a cliff down a thing.
So he takes his rope, watched him do this multiple times and he gives you this option, he can repel down something and you pick for him to repel down. And one of the things I've noticed is he's got a rope. He actually, he hooks it up here and then he walks over here and he just kind of looks and he'll just throw his rope and then he turns and he repels down. He spends way more time on the side of the rope that's going to hold his weight than he does on where he's trying to go. I've never once seen him walk over with his rope and toss it here and then turn and just toss it back this way and then try to repel.
Well, it would not go well for him. Jesus says, this is the side that keeps you alive. Not all your activity, not everything we're running out and doing, not all of our ministry, not all of our fruitfulness. That's a result. This is the side that keeps us alive. Do we know how to abide in, live in Christ?
When he says, live in me, was anybody like, oh, I know exactly how to do that. That it matters immensely that we learn how to stay stuck to, tethered to Christ. That's the whole point of this series is that we might learn ancient practices, things they've done forever that help us stay tethered to, stuck in Christ and abiding in him. In verse 9, he says, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. There might be a temptation for us, specifically for those of us who are busy and active and trying to work hard, to go, okay, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to suddenly put in all this effort. Jesus said to do it. I'm supposed to do it. Let's figure this out. And it's not a, he's not chiding us. It is a command.
He's telling them to abide in him, but he's not, it's not aggressive. He says, abide in my love. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Do y'all have any idea how much God the Father loves God the Son? No, you do not. The best picture we can come up with, it does not reach the depths of the love that the Father has for the Son.
The amount that he prefers him, desires him, chooses him, cares for him, knows him. And Jesus looks at his disciples and has the audacity to say, the way the Father loves me is the way I love you. And that's true. And he goes to the cross to prove it. He tells them, nobody has a greater love than this, that someone would give up his life for his friends. He's about to prove this, put this on display.
And that's the reality for us, that if you were in Christ, he loves you with an unending, unyielding love that is beyond compare. That he is not frustrated with you or upset with you or sick of you. That he prefers you and desires you and wants you to abide in his love. He wants you to rest in, stay connected to him because he cares about you so much so that he would die for our sins to redeem us out of our brokenness. That he did this for us, not while we were clean and perfect, but while we were sinners. He's saying this to the people who are betraying him and about to deny him.
Who are about to fail him and run away. He's inviting them to abide in him and to rest in his love. And that's the invitation for us. Verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I've kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. If you keep my commandments, verse 10, I'm reading again, you will abide in my love just as I've kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. Now this is written in context.
So I want to show you two things he says in John 14 because at first it sounds like he is saying the opposite of what I just said, which is just, hey, work real hard, earn it, and then I'll love you. Verse, John 14, 15, it's on the screen, says this, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. So he just flipped it in 15. He says, keep my commandments, you'll abide in my love. And then he says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And in 14, 21, he says, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.
You see, the reality is that obedience to Christ goes hand in hand with a love for Christ and brings us into, helps us rest in, the love of Christ. This is what we've been talking about in our idol series is that we love something else more than Jesus, so we serve it, we obey it. And what he's saying is, if you love me above everything else, then you will serve and obey me and you will rest in my love. And if you love me, you'll keep my commandments and if you keep my commandments, you'll abide in my love. That our hearts will be oriented to him so much so that he is chief above everything else and so that we will be able to rest in him.
You see, many of us are anxious. we live in a country that is extremely wealthy, that gives us access to health care, entertainment. Our needs are met so much so that we come up with new needs. We need four pairs of shoes. We need, we need, like we have, but we're anxious. We're not, we're not at peace. We're stressed out.
Not only that, we're busy, overly busy. Do you realize that because of our cell phones, we live very distinctly different than people did 20, 30 years ago? You remember, you remember, if you ever had, you haven't had to like wait at a, at like a doctor's office or like wait in line at a thing or sit in a chair? You know, you used to, your brain would just like do stuff on its own. You would think, like thoughts. But now we have a phone in our face?
That if you look at the little report, it says you stare at it three hours a day? Some of you don't. That's what you use Netflix for or whatever. You stare at that. We just, we've learned how to push all the margin out of our lives so that we don't have the ability to just rest and to just sit and that is distinct to us because this is, this is a new way of living in the past 20 to 30 years. We're anxious and we're busy.
We don't know how to sit and be quiet. We don't know how to rest. Not only that, we're bored. It's weird to say that we're busy and we're bored but those are symptoms of the same problem. This is why a lot of men will spend a lot of time and money on adventure hobbies. This is why we, yeah, men will get caught up in video games and we're not in the past.
We're not cheering for a sports team vigorously because it's, it's something in us that wants to be a part of something bigger that matters, wants to accomplish something, wants to achieve something and in reality when we've bought the lie that we're supposed to go out on our own and be free, we have so much freedom but now we have to define our own value, we have to get our own purpose, we have to make our own meaning and it is too much. It's too much. My wife and I had the opportunity to take our four-year-old, he was three at that point, we got to go to Disney World for two days, saved up, we went. One of the things we did was we walked around with him, we let him make a lot of choices, we asked him what he wanted, we asked him if he was having fun, a lot.
Did you like that? Did you like that? Did you like that? About two hours into that, he had almost lost his mind. It was the first time in life we had ever just walked around with him going, are you happy? Are you happy?
Are you complete? Do you want this? What do you like? And I looked at my wife and I said, he doesn't get to choose anything else. We're done asking him if he's happy? I don't care.
The reality is he wasn't designed to be able to handle that. He's four, he's not supposed to make all of his decisions. If right now, he got to choose when he went to bed and what he ate and what the purpose of life was, he would mess himself up. We understand that because he's four, but the reality is we're creatures designed by a creator. we were not meant to define our own value, give ourselves meaning and purpose and know exactly what the role of the world is. We were meant to find that in God and only when we are tethered to him are we actually free. You need less freedom so that you might actually have love and meaning.
And not just that. See, he says that if you follow my commandments, if you obey, you'll dwell in my love and if you love me, you'll obey. And then he says this, verse 11, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Full. When was the last time you said, you know, if I had more joy, I think it would kill me. Full.
Filled up to the brim. So, I just, joyous. I need to buy, like, bigger clothes to handle all the joy I got. That we're to have full joy in Christ as we learn how to rest in his love and as we learn to be tethered to him. This is the freedom that you are offered. And you're not able to do it.
The limbs, the branches that stayed in my backyard are not free to roam around. But they're doing better than this guy. There's actually more joy in being stuck to Jesus, tethered to him so that there are certain decisions in your life you don't get to make, you don't get to decide your value. Christ says that you are absolutely valuable, that he loves and cherishes you above all else. You don't get to decide your worth. You don't get to decide your purpose and your meaning that God gives us this and then we get to rest and have joy and life as the vine pours life into us.
But we have to learn how to sit with him. We have to learn how to rest with him. We have to learn how to daily stay connected to him. It's not like rechargeable batteries where we get to go spend away time with him and then you get to go back out into the world. Some of you have children. You get like 12 minutes a day by yourself and during that time their hands are under the bathroom door.
We have to learn how to stay connected to Jesus in the mundane and the normal so that life might be poured into us at all times. There is a pastor named Alistair Begg who I really appreciate the way he thinks about things and I listen to him on a regular basis. He said that he found that young pastors overestimate what they can accomplish in a short time. So if you talk to a young pastor in six months we are going to be doing this in a year we are going to be doing this and then I don't know well just like ascend into glory. And he says they underestimate what they are able to do over the course of a long time.
So they overestimate what they can do in a year but underestimate what can happen what the Lord can do in 20 years in 25 years. And I don't think that is true just for pastors I think that is true for us. That we so undervalue what happens if we will learn how to stay tethered to Christ for the next 25, 35, 45 years the amount of people that will be blessed the amount of fruit that will be born. That's even the thing is that a healthy tree bears fruit in season. There are times where the limbs on that tree look just like this. Guess what?
They are coming back next year. This one is not. The rest of them will. But there are times where we do not look fruitful but if we are stuck to Christ we will be eventually because this end of it is the result of the vine working not the branch working. The branch's Job stay stuck to the vine. The vine's Job do all the other stuff.
That we actually get to stay connected to Jesus and Jesus works through us and in us for his glory. It's by the fact that we bear much fruit that the Father is glorified and this is for our joy and our freedom. There's a story in the Old Testament of a Syrian general. He's powerful. He's rich. He's feared.
But he has leprosy. So his body is rotting away. He's in a position that we would most look at and say he would be to be envied in the amount of power he has and the amount of wealth he has and the amount of stature he has. His name's Naaman. He actually they capture an Israelite have her as their servant and she tells him there's a prophet in Israel who can take away leprosy. The Lord works through him.
You can be healed. So they load up the head to the castle to where the king is. They say where's the prophet? The prophet says oh the king's not in charge of the prophet. He does his own thing. He's not here.
Because the only thing he'd think was like where can I go get more power? Where can I you know where would be the strongest person? Let's go to the castle. They send him over to the prophet. God tells Elijah that Naaman's coming. Elijah tells his servant go outside and talk to Naaman.
So he goes out you know it's possible the servant talks to him first and goes in and talks to Elijah. Y'all can read it later. I'm getting a few of these details messed up. I'm going to get most of it right. I also periodically get Elijah and Elisha confused. And so I just this is going to be real close.
And I'm now realizing I should have read this whole thing before I got up here. Tried to paraphrase it. Alright. So the servant goes out to Naaman. Naaman tells him why he's there. He's brought all this gold.
He's brought all these changes of clothes. He brought all this stuff and he says I'm here to get healed. And the servant says yes. Go to the Jordan River. Dunk yourself in it seven times. Your leprosy will be gone.
Naaman gets angry. The prophet won't even come talk to him. He just talks to his servant. The servant tells him to go to a small dirty river and wash himself. He just turns around and he says we're leaving. They start riding off.
Tells him to go to a small dirty river and wash himself. He just turns around and he says we're leaving. They start riding off. He said the Tigris and Euphrates we have nicer rivers in Syria. I've got better stuff I can go wash in than y'all's dirty little podent garbage river. Again, let's paraphrase. One of his servants stops him and says Naaman if he had
Told you to do something great wouldn't you have done it? Like you're a military leader if he had said to you climb to the top of a mountain battle a wizard get the golden crystal bring it down like if he'd have told you like take the ring to Mordor whatever wouldn't you have done it? He picked it's like a super close river
It's not even deep like I don't even think you could drown in that if you wanted to like just head on over dunk yourself seven times it's simple see humble yourself so Naaman does he goes and he dips himself in the river seven times and he comes out and it says his skin was like a baby's skin which I'm sure was weird the next time he got in
You know was having to do general stuff and fight and stuff because of his tender little new skin that he had had to regain some calluses and what not perfectly clean his leprosy is gone there's part of us that wants fruitfulness to be based off of how good we are Jesus Jesus
Just says rest in me abide in me rest in my love stay connected to me it will take some effort some you will actually have to open your bible we will actually have to pray we will actually have to make it a practice of these disciplines that we're going to try to coach us through and practically how to do but it's the
Amount of effort it takes for a war hero to go dip himself in a river seven times you just gotta do it it's not that difficult it's like if someone prepares a meal for you and when you're done taking pictures of it with your phone they have the audacity to not walk over and cut it up for you
And stick it in your mouth you actually have to use your hands like did you have to work to eat the meal yeah you had to chew it your body had to digest it you had to use your hands but what did you prepare the meal that's what Jesus is saying he's the life he's the one we get to rest
And he's the one we get to connect to it's going to take some effort we are going to have to be disciplined we are going to have to put our phones away we are going to have to set aside some time we are going to have to wake up a little earlier go to bed a little later we are going
To have to do some of those things but all of those things are so that we can get connected to Jesus and he can do everything else Jesus in Matthew chapter 11 it will be on the screen he makes this invitation
He's in a big crowd he says come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you a yoke's what ox wear to pull a load take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am
Gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls a lot of us vacation but we don't know how to find a rest for our souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light
You see the reason this is true is that we do not have to earn our own salvation you do not have to gain your own value you don't have to find your own purpose and meaning that you get to
Trust in Jesus and his finished work on the cross and you get to have him pour life into you if we will only stay connected to him then we'll bear fruit in season when we're
Meant to we'll have life and vitality pouring into us at all times the band's going to come back up Eugene Peterson is a pastor who on a consistent basis would translate the Greek
To English for his congregation in just real simple terms and so he eventually just compiled all that and made the message version of the Bible and I think it's helpful the way he phrases this and again he's just
Trying to hit the gist of it in very common wording he says this are you tired worn out burned out on religion so this is him taking what Jesus just said we read in Matthew 11 he says
Come to me get away with me and you'll recover your life and I'll show you how to take a real rest walk with me and work with me watch how I do it learn the unforced rhythms of grace
We are meant to submit to Jesus we are meant to follow his commands we are meant to stay connected to him so that he is the guiding ruler of our lives and we are told we are
Withering and dying by a burden that is too heavy for us we cannot save ourselves we are withering and dying and Jesus says come to me learn the unrushed rhythms of grace learn how
To dwell with me learn how to make me your home learn how to sit and get what is better our hope our goal is that we would walk with Jesus for a lifetime bearing fruit in season not look great for a short time and flame
Out dry up die be gathered and burned but that we might learn how to rest in Jesus and have a sustainable pace of life where there is joy to the full and if you are like me saying I don't know if my
Joy is full I don't know if I feel like the Lord is pouring life into me every day then let's commit to walk down to the Jordan and dip ourselves seven times and trust Christ and his grace
And do a little bit of work that gets us close to him that moves us under the waterfall of his grace where we might have life poured into us where we might be made full come accept the invitation to come and rest accept the
Invitation to abide and let's learn how to practice some ancient practices so that we might dwell in Christ who offers us hope and life and joy through his resurrection and the life that he brings to all those who would trust in him
Let's pray God we thank you for your grace thank you for the hope that we have in you and you alone and I pray that we would that you would train us through your Holy Spirit that we might abide that we
Might learn how to rest in you that for all of us who are right now trying to earn our way trying to prove ourselves that we would lay down those burdens that we would come to you who picked up our burden at
The cross and might we have joy and might we focus on the right end of the branch and let you do the rest for your glory and your name and your praise amen
Transcript
My dad likes to fish and hunt, and he went, on a regular basis, would go fishing with my uncle. It was his brother-in-law, my Uncle John, and they would go fishing. And they went fishing one time, and they were out, and it was cold, and it was raining, but they were catching fish. And so they had spent the time to get out there, and they were fishing, and it was getting colder and colder. And my dad eventually looked at my Uncle John and said, aren't you cold? Can we just, can we call it, can we go in?
Because, I mean, I don't know if you've ever spent much time out in the rain. It doesn't have to be raining very hard for you to eventually get completely and utterly soaked. And he was completely and utterly soaked, and it was cold. And fishing can only be so fun if you are cold and wet. And so my dad looked at my uncle and said, can we call it? And my uncle was like, no, we're going to catch a fish.
And, like, I'm fine, so you should be fine. And so my dad was like, all right. Because I don't know if you've been here and heard some stories about my dad. He's not tender or delicate. He does happen to be here this morning, if you would like to confirm some of the stories I've told and see if they are true. The quickest way to do that would be to try to slap him on his way out and see what happens.
I'm just kidding. Don't do that. But I did. This past Christmas, he asked to help him get set up so that he could listen to the podcast or the sermons. And I helped him set that up for Christmas. But I said, I just want you to know I've talked about you with complete immunity for, like, four years now.
And it is mostly true what I've said about you. But so he just, you know, he's like, all right, I'm going to buck up. I can handle it. I can handle it. You know, so they just keep fishing. And my dad's sitting there, you know, he's shaking at some point.
He looks at him and says, I think probably about time to go now. My uncle's like, no, no. I'm like, you know, and he's giving a hard time. He's like, come on, kid. You can't handle it? You know, so my dad's like, all right.
So eventually they just keep going. But finally it just soaks, I mean, to the bone. My dad looks at him and says, you know, I don't care. Like, I just, I've been as much of a man as I'm going to be today. Like, let's go. Like, I don't hear it.
Let's pack it up. Let's go. So they went back to where they were staying. They get in. My dad's shaking. He's taking his clothes off.
My uncle unfazed the whole time. Just, just take, you know, unbutton his clothes. And I say, my dad's peeling off wet layer after wet layer. And my uncle takes off his first jacket and has on a raincoat underneath it. Undoes his raincoat and was perfectly warm and dry the entire time. My dad's peeling wet t-shirts off.
And he's like, you, you, you gotta be kidding me. My uncle's like, how was I to know you didn't have a raincoat? We knew the forecast. Like how? I just assumed everyone dressed the way I dress. And in reality, what we want in life, what everybody in here wants in life is to be able to walk through life like my uncle was able to be out in the rain where it doesn't matter what's going on around us.
We're still warm and okay. That it doesn't matter what's happening around us. It doesn't matter what life is throwing at us. It doesn't matter the circumstances. It doesn't matter our finances. It doesn't matter our relationships that we're okay.
But in reality, many of us feel like my dad did on that day. Like what is going on around me has soaked to the bone. And I don't know if I can keep going. I don't know if I can move forward. I don't know if I can keep walking in this. It has gotten to me and I don't know how to move.
We just spent three weeks talking through idolatry where we said that we were designed to love something, to cherish something, to have affection for something and to have it set for us life, our meaning and our purpose and our hope and our satisfaction. We took the time to say that we consistently, that was meant to be God, but we consistently move him from that position and put something else there and it cannot handle the weight of our worship. And every time we spend time talking about idolatry, I'm convinced. I'm reconvinced that I am an idolater and that I need to love and worship Jesus above everything else.
But maybe that's where you are, but maybe you're like one of the guys in our, in my community group this past week who said, yes, yes, I love this thing more than Jesus. And yes, I'm supposed to love Jesus more. And I know I'm going to, but how, how, how do, how do I force myself there? How do I get my heart there? And so that is our hope in this series that we would be able to learn how to abide in Christ so that we were consistently filled up, made fresh, kept warm, even in the middle of everything else that's going on, that we would be pumped full of life. And that's what we're going to read in John chapter 15.
So let's pray together and then let's begin studying this together. God, we thank you for the invitation that you make to your disciples today. We thank you for the command that you give your disciples today. And we pray that we would learn how to rest and abide in you. We ask for your help in Jesus name. Amen.
John chapter 15. This is Jesus with his disciples. The, the night he is betrayed, the night before he will go on trial and then be crucified the next day. And he knows what is coming and he is in some ways finally finalizing all the information he's given him. He's praying with them. He's coaching them up and he's doing this all in the context of the crucifixion, the gospel that he's about to die, be buried and rise again.
And so he's talking to his disciples and I just want to make this clear as we read this, he is talking to the, to the men that were around him and he had been training and equipping. And as he prays for them later, he prays not, he says, Lord, this isn't just for them. It's for all those who will believe through them. So this is for us as well. So what he's saying to them is for them, but then for the church, for all those who would choose to follow Jesus.
He says, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. So the idea here is like a grapevine. And he's saying that he's the vine, he's, he's the, the health, the life, the vitality. He's the one that has roots that, that reaches up and that the father is the vine dresser who comes along and prunes.
And he says, you are the branches. Already you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in me. And I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I'm the vine.
You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burn. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit. And so prove to be my disciples.
We're going to keep going in just a minute, all the way down to verse 11 in this section. He says, abide 11 times, abide, abide, abide, abide, abide. Now this is not a word that we use very often. But it means to live in, to dwell. This is where the, an abode is where you live. I remember my young brother, my younger brother came up to visit us after Anna and I had gotten married and he walked in and he said, thank you so much for welcoming me into your humble abode.
And I was like, dude, if I call it a humble abode, it's humility. If you call it a humble abode, it's rude. So I wouldn't just rock up to people's houses and say that like, I don't mind. But like in a minute, she's going to fix this food. Don't sit down and thank her for the meager sustenance. Okay.
Like, but an abode is where you abide. And what he's saying is live, dwell with, wait here, stay here. Terry, live in me. Abide in me. Make your home here. Now that is a beautiful invitation made more beautiful to you if you're an introvert.
Extroverts maybe don't really understand how beautiful that invitation is, but introverts are like, oh yes, a home. Yes. You close the door. People don't bother you. It's wonderful. That's what my wife every once in a while I'll be like, hey, look, I'll watch the boys.
You can go somewhere. And she's like, oh, and I'm like, all right, I will take the boys somewhere and you can lock the door and pretend no one exists and just be in your house. Because that means so much more. And that's what Jesus is saying is he's saying, dwell here, live here, have life here in me. Abide in me. I am the vine.
You are the branches. And without me, you can do nothing. You will wither and die. Some of you have heard the phrase about having a friend who is ride or die. Well, with Jesus, it's abide or die. You have to dwell in, live in him, be filled up by him, or you will die.
I brought something with me this morning I want to show y'all. So this is a branch that used to abide in my backyard. It lived on a tree. The tree is still there. This branch is not. This branch got to come here.
These used to be green. Oh, that was embarrassing, buddy. There used to be more of them. The other branches are looking a little better than this one. This is Jesus' point. That as soon as this was removed from the tree, this branch has no more hope.
It will wither and die. It took a little while to get this way. But it has been doing what he said. It's been sitting in my backyard waiting to be burned. So I just went and grabbed it out of a pile this morning so that he could come on a trip and y'all could get to meet it.
So here's the thing. When you go to abide in Jesus, he says, I am the true vine. Not, I'm a good vine. I'm the true vine. I'm the only one that can actually pour life into you. I'm the only one that can give you vitality.
And what he's saying is that you need something outside of yourself to give you life. That seems pretty straightforward, but in American culture, we don't believe that. We are told constantly, you, look inside of you. Find what's inside of you. Learn how to express it. Learn how to bring it out.
If you can find the real you and the inner you, then you'll have peace and you'll have life and you'll be full and you'll be free. This branch is free. It got to come on a trip and see the inside of Glen Forest. Live its dreams. And many of us feel like this. We've been told you're all you need.
Fill yourself up with you. Find you. Whatever. And the truth is we're not fruitful and lush. We're dry and brittle and exhausted because we were meant to abide in Jesus. But if you're going to abide in Jesus, if we're going to stick with Jesus, the truth is he says the result will be fruitfulness.
And in reality, what we so often want is the fruitfulness. We want this to be green. We want it to have fruit. We want it to have life on it. But if you're going to have fruit in life here, you've got to pay attention to this end of the branch.
Not this end. This end. Where it attaches to what pours life into it. So many of us are exhausted because we're over here trying to accomplish everything over here. We're trying to make it look fruitful, trying to be fruitful. And we don't know how to attach rest in Christ.
We don't know how to abide in him. You see, when he says that we will bear fruit, what he means is that there will be, as we abide in him, as we're connected to him, that life will be poured into us. And it will be both internal and external fruit. He says that you would bear much fruit and by this way prove that you are my disciples. That he desires that. But that's the end result.
And it's internal and external fruit. I might pick this up again later, but I've got to put it down now. It's internal and external fruit. Internal being character. So the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control.
Wouldn't it be nice if that actually described us? If we were so connected to Jesus that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control were the markers of our life? Don't you actually want to, in a deep way, love people? And don't you find that extremely difficult? Don't we want to be patient and kind and at peace? But see, as we connect to Jesus and stick to Jesus, he pours that in us.
And it's not just internal fruit, but it's external fruit, that we would see people come to know Jesus. The point of fruit is not for the vine, it's for others. So that as we bear fruit, it's that it would be a blessing. We'd be a blessing to those around us, that people would come to know Christ, that people would be served. Martin Luther, I believe, is the one who said that God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does. And that's the reality, that Jesus has accomplished everything on our behalf, but he pours in us and we bear fruit.
This is actually what happens with Jesus when he's hanging out with Martha and Mary. He's hanging out with two sisters. Mary comes and sits at his feet while he's teaching, and Martha runs around working. She's preparing everything, she's fixing everything, she's getting a meal together for him. And she comes over to Jesus and she says, Hey, Jesus, will you tell Mary to come help me? Because, what the heck?
Like, I'm busting my tail here, and Mary's just hanging out in front of you. And Jesus looks at Martha, and I'm going to be honest with you. I'm like, thank you, Martha. Tell Mary to get up, what is she doing? Like, look at you, busting your tail, and your lazy sister, just plopped on the ground. You have guests.
Like, there's part of me that's like, yes, thank you. And then Jesus is like, no, no, no. Martha, Martha, you're busy and worried with many things, but Mary's chosen what's better and it won't be taken away from her. You see, Jesus, Martha was preparing a meal. Jesus can make bread out of anything. He can prepare a meal, he can do whatever.
And he just says, she's chosen something better. We'll be okay if we eat later or if we eat something different. She's chosen what's better. She's actually learning how to sit and rest and not have all this activity. And so there are people in this room who we're saying, I'm working so hard, I'm trying so hard, I've got so much ministry going on, I've got so much going on in life, I'm so busy, I don't have time. I don't have time for this, learning how to sit with Jesus stuff.
And the reality is you don't have time not to. Because you are going to dry up and die. And your ministry, if that's what you're shooting for, will not be fruitful. And if it's just life stuff, just raising children, just having a job, if it's just that and we don't learn how to daily stay connected to Jesus, we will not make it. So we have to, have to learn that it really matters.
My son and I have started watching this Bear Grylls show on Netflix where you can like choose what he does, which is great because he's always like, all right, I can either eat some tree bark or some fish eggs. My son's like, fish eggs? We have made him throw up so often and like we lose our adventure because he's later like throwing up and he's like, you ate the wrong thing. And it's like, well, we're going to go back and make you do it again. But one of the things he does on a consistent basis is he repels down from like a cliff down a thing.
So he takes his rope, watched him do this multiple times and he gives you this option, he can repel down something and you pick for him to repel down. And one of the things I've noticed is he's got a rope. He actually, he hooks it up here and then he walks over here and he just kind of looks and he'll just throw his rope and then he turns and he repels down. He spends way more time on the side of the rope that's going to hold his weight than he does on where he's trying to go. I've never once seen him walk over with his rope and toss it here and then turn and just toss it back this way and then try to repel.
Well, it would not go well for him. Jesus says, this is the side that keeps you alive. Not all your activity, not everything we're running out and doing, not all of our ministry, not all of our fruitfulness. That's a result. This is the side that keeps us alive. Do we know how to abide in, live in Christ?
When he says, live in me, was anybody like, oh, I know exactly how to do that. That it matters immensely that we learn how to stay stuck to, tethered to Christ. That's the whole point of this series is that we might learn ancient practices, things they've done forever that help us stay tethered to, stuck in Christ and abiding in him. In verse 9, he says, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. There might be a temptation for us, specifically for those of us who are busy and active and trying to work hard, to go, okay, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to suddenly put in all this effort. Jesus said to do it. I'm supposed to do it. Let's figure this out. And it's not a, he's not chiding us. It is a command.
He's telling them to abide in him, but he's not, it's not aggressive. He says, abide in my love. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Do y'all have any idea how much God the Father loves God the Son? No, you do not. The best picture we can come up with, it does not reach the depths of the love that the Father has for the Son.
The amount that he prefers him, desires him, chooses him, cares for him, knows him. And Jesus looks at his disciples and has the audacity to say, the way the Father loves me is the way I love you. And that's true. And he goes to the cross to prove it. He tells them, nobody has a greater love than this, that someone would give up his life for his friends. He's about to prove this, put this on display.
And that's the reality for us, that if you were in Christ, he loves you with an unending, unyielding love that is beyond compare. That he is not frustrated with you or upset with you or sick of you. That he prefers you and desires you and wants you to abide in his love. He wants you to rest in, stay connected to him because he cares about you so much so that he would die for our sins to redeem us out of our brokenness. That he did this for us, not while we were clean and perfect, but while we were sinners. He's saying this to the people who are betraying him and about to deny him.
Who are about to fail him and run away. He's inviting them to abide in him and to rest in his love. And that's the invitation for us. Verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I've kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. If you keep my commandments, verse 10, I'm reading again, you will abide in my love just as I've kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. Now this is written in context.
So I want to show you two things he says in John 14 because at first it sounds like he is saying the opposite of what I just said, which is just, hey, work real hard, earn it, and then I'll love you. Verse, John 14, 15, it's on the screen, says this, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. So he just flipped it in 15. He says, keep my commandments, you'll abide in my love. And then he says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And in 14, 21, he says, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.
You see, the reality is that obedience to Christ goes hand in hand with a love for Christ and brings us into, helps us rest in, the love of Christ. This is what we've been talking about in our idol series is that we love something else more than Jesus, so we serve it, we obey it. And what he's saying is, if you love me above everything else, then you will serve and obey me and you will rest in my love. And if you love me, you'll keep my commandments and if you keep my commandments, you'll abide in my love. That our hearts will be oriented to him so much so that he is chief above everything else and so that we will be able to rest in him.
You see, many of us are anxious. we live in a country that is extremely wealthy, that gives us access to health care, entertainment. Our needs are met so much so that we come up with new needs. We need four pairs of shoes. We need, we need, like we have, but we're anxious. We're not, we're not at peace. We're stressed out.
Not only that, we're busy, overly busy. Do you realize that because of our cell phones, we live very distinctly different than people did 20, 30 years ago? You remember, you remember, if you ever had, you haven't had to like wait at a, at like a doctor's office or like wait in line at a thing or sit in a chair? You know, you used to, your brain would just like do stuff on its own. You would think, like thoughts. But now we have a phone in our face?
That if you look at the little report, it says you stare at it three hours a day? Some of you don't. That's what you use Netflix for or whatever. You stare at that. We just, we've learned how to push all the margin out of our lives so that we don't have the ability to just rest and to just sit and that is distinct to us because this is, this is a new way of living in the past 20 to 30 years. We're anxious and we're busy.
We don't know how to sit and be quiet. We don't know how to rest. Not only that, we're bored. It's weird to say that we're busy and we're bored but those are symptoms of the same problem. This is why a lot of men will spend a lot of time and money on adventure hobbies. This is why we, yeah, men will get caught up in video games and we're not in the past.
We're not cheering for a sports team vigorously because it's, it's something in us that wants to be a part of something bigger that matters, wants to accomplish something, wants to achieve something and in reality when we've bought the lie that we're supposed to go out on our own and be free, we have so much freedom but now we have to define our own value, we have to get our own purpose, we have to make our own meaning and it is too much. It's too much. My wife and I had the opportunity to take our four-year-old, he was three at that point, we got to go to Disney World for two days, saved up, we went. One of the things we did was we walked around with him, we let him make a lot of choices, we asked him what he wanted, we asked him if he was having fun, a lot.
Did you like that? Did you like that? Did you like that? About two hours into that, he had almost lost his mind. It was the first time in life we had ever just walked around with him going, are you happy? Are you happy?
Are you complete? Do you want this? What do you like? And I looked at my wife and I said, he doesn't get to choose anything else. We're done asking him if he's happy? I don't care.
The reality is he wasn't designed to be able to handle that. He's four, he's not supposed to make all of his decisions. If right now, he got to choose when he went to bed and what he ate and what the purpose of life was, he would mess himself up. We understand that because he's four, but the reality is we're creatures designed by a creator. we were not meant to define our own value, give ourselves meaning and purpose and know exactly what the role of the world is. We were meant to find that in God and only when we are tethered to him are we actually free. You need less freedom so that you might actually have love and meaning.
And not just that. See, he says that if you follow my commandments, if you obey, you'll dwell in my love and if you love me, you'll obey. And then he says this, verse 11, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Full. When was the last time you said, you know, if I had more joy, I think it would kill me. Full.
Filled up to the brim. So, I just, joyous. I need to buy, like, bigger clothes to handle all the joy I got. That we're to have full joy in Christ as we learn how to rest in his love and as we learn to be tethered to him. This is the freedom that you are offered. And you're not able to do it.
The limbs, the branches that stayed in my backyard are not free to roam around. But they're doing better than this guy. There's actually more joy in being stuck to Jesus, tethered to him so that there are certain decisions in your life you don't get to make, you don't get to decide your value. Christ says that you are absolutely valuable, that he loves and cherishes you above all else. You don't get to decide your worth. You don't get to decide your purpose and your meaning that God gives us this and then we get to rest and have joy and life as the vine pours life into us.
But we have to learn how to sit with him. We have to learn how to rest with him. We have to learn how to daily stay connected to him. It's not like rechargeable batteries where we get to go spend away time with him and then you get to go back out into the world. Some of you have children. You get like 12 minutes a day by yourself and during that time their hands are under the bathroom door.
We have to learn how to stay connected to Jesus in the mundane and the normal so that life might be poured into us at all times. There is a pastor named Alistair Begg who I really appreciate the way he thinks about things and I listen to him on a regular basis. He said that he found that young pastors overestimate what they can accomplish in a short time. So if you talk to a young pastor in six months we are going to be doing this in a year we are going to be doing this and then I don't know well just like ascend into glory. And he says they underestimate what they are able to do over the course of a long time.
So they overestimate what they can do in a year but underestimate what can happen what the Lord can do in 20 years in 25 years. And I don't think that is true just for pastors I think that is true for us. That we so undervalue what happens if we will learn how to stay tethered to Christ for the next 25, 35, 45 years the amount of people that will be blessed the amount of fruit that will be born. That's even the thing is that a healthy tree bears fruit in season. There are times where the limbs on that tree look just like this. Guess what?
They are coming back next year. This one is not. The rest of them will. But there are times where we do not look fruitful but if we are stuck to Christ we will be eventually because this end of it is the result of the vine working not the branch working. The branch's Job stay stuck to the vine. The vine's Job do all the other stuff.
That we actually get to stay connected to Jesus and Jesus works through us and in us for his glory. It's by the fact that we bear much fruit that the Father is glorified and this is for our joy and our freedom. There's a story in the Old Testament of a Syrian general. He's powerful. He's rich. He's feared.
But he has leprosy. So his body is rotting away. He's in a position that we would most look at and say he would be to be envied in the amount of power he has and the amount of wealth he has and the amount of stature he has. His name's Naaman. He actually they capture an Israelite have her as their servant and she tells him there's a prophet in Israel who can take away leprosy. The Lord works through him.
You can be healed. So they load up the head to the castle to where the king is. They say where's the prophet? The prophet says oh the king's not in charge of the prophet. He does his own thing. He's not here.
Because the only thing he'd think was like where can I go get more power? Where can I you know where would be the strongest person? Let's go to the castle. They send him over to the prophet. God tells Elijah that Naaman's coming. Elijah tells his servant go outside and talk to Naaman.
So he goes out you know it's possible the servant talks to him first and goes in and talks to Elijah. Y'all can read it later. I'm getting a few of these details messed up. I'm going to get most of it right. I also periodically get Elijah and Elisha confused. And so I just this is going to be real close.
And I'm now realizing I should have read this whole thing before I got up here. Tried to paraphrase it. Alright. So the servant goes out to Naaman. Naaman tells him why he's there. He's brought all this gold.
He's brought all these changes of clothes. He brought all this stuff and he says I'm here to get healed. And the servant says yes. Go to the Jordan River. Dunk yourself in it seven times. Your leprosy will be gone.
Naaman gets angry. The prophet won't even come talk to him. He just talks to his servant. The servant tells him to go to a small dirty river and wash himself. He just turns around and he says we're leaving. They start riding off.
Tells him to go to a small dirty river and wash himself. He just turns around and he says we're leaving. They start riding off. He said the Tigris and Euphrates we have nicer rivers in Syria. I've got better stuff I can go wash in than y'all's dirty little podent garbage river. Again, let's paraphrase. One of his servants stops him and says Naaman if he had
Told you to do something great wouldn't you have done it? Like you're a military leader if he had said to you climb to the top of a mountain battle a wizard get the golden crystal bring it down like if he'd have told you like take the ring to Mordor whatever wouldn't you have done it? He picked it's like a super close river
It's not even deep like I don't even think you could drown in that if you wanted to like just head on over dunk yourself seven times it's simple see humble yourself so Naaman does he goes and he dips himself in the river seven times and he comes out and it says his skin was like a baby's skin which I'm sure was weird the next time he got in
You know was having to do general stuff and fight and stuff because of his tender little new skin that he had had to regain some calluses and what not perfectly clean his leprosy is gone there's part of us that wants fruitfulness to be based off of how good we are Jesus Jesus
Just says rest in me abide in me rest in my love stay connected to me it will take some effort some you will actually have to open your bible we will actually have to pray we will actually have to make it a practice of these disciplines that we're going to try to coach us through and practically how to do but it's the
Amount of effort it takes for a war hero to go dip himself in a river seven times you just gotta do it it's not that difficult it's like if someone prepares a meal for you and when you're done taking pictures of it with your phone they have the audacity to not walk over and cut it up for you
And stick it in your mouth you actually have to use your hands like did you have to work to eat the meal yeah you had to chew it your body had to digest it you had to use your hands but what did you prepare the meal that's what Jesus is saying he's the life he's the one we get to rest
And he's the one we get to connect to it's going to take some effort we are going to have to be disciplined we are going to have to put our phones away we are going to have to set aside some time we are going to have to wake up a little earlier go to bed a little later we are going
To have to do some of those things but all of those things are so that we can get connected to Jesus and he can do everything else Jesus in Matthew chapter 11 it will be on the screen he makes this invitation
He's in a big crowd he says come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you a yoke's what ox wear to pull a load take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am
Gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls a lot of us vacation but we don't know how to find a rest for our souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light
You see the reason this is true is that we do not have to earn our own salvation you do not have to gain your own value you don't have to find your own purpose and meaning that you get to
Trust in Jesus and his finished work on the cross and you get to have him pour life into you if we will only stay connected to him then we'll bear fruit in season when we're
Meant to we'll have life and vitality pouring into us at all times the band's going to come back up Eugene Peterson is a pastor who on a consistent basis would translate the Greek
To English for his congregation in just real simple terms and so he eventually just compiled all that and made the message version of the Bible and I think it's helpful the way he phrases this and again he's just
Trying to hit the gist of it in very common wording he says this are you tired worn out burned out on religion so this is him taking what Jesus just said we read in Matthew 11 he says
Come to me get away with me and you'll recover your life and I'll show you how to take a real rest walk with me and work with me watch how I do it learn the unforced rhythms of grace
We are meant to submit to Jesus we are meant to follow his commands we are meant to stay connected to him so that he is the guiding ruler of our lives and we are told we are
Withering and dying by a burden that is too heavy for us we cannot save ourselves we are withering and dying and Jesus says come to me learn the unrushed rhythms of grace learn how
To dwell with me learn how to make me your home learn how to sit and get what is better our hope our goal is that we would walk with Jesus for a lifetime bearing fruit in season not look great for a short time and flame
Out dry up die be gathered and burned but that we might learn how to rest in Jesus and have a sustainable pace of life where there is joy to the full and if you are like me saying I don't know if my
Joy is full I don't know if I feel like the Lord is pouring life into me every day then let's commit to walk down to the Jordan and dip ourselves seven times and trust Christ and his grace
And do a little bit of work that gets us close to him that moves us under the waterfall of his grace where we might have life poured into us where we might be made full come accept the invitation to come and rest accept the
Invitation to abide and let's learn how to practice some ancient practices so that we might dwell in Christ who offers us hope and life and joy through his resurrection and the life that he brings to all those who would trust in him
Let's pray God we thank you for your grace thank you for the hope that we have in you and you alone and I pray that we would that you would train us through your Holy Spirit that we might abide that we
Might learn how to rest in you that for all of us who are right now trying to earn our way trying to prove ourselves that we would lay down those burdens that we would come to you who picked up our burden at
The cross and might we have joy and might we focus on the right end of the branch and let you do the rest for your glory and your name and your praise amen