Mill City 7/14/19 Mill City 7/14/19

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