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ABIDE While Being Human

Anyone can experience true belonging and rest by abiding in Christ while fully embracing what it means to be human.

Rhonda Frazier walks through John 15 and practical stories that validate the struggle to balance spiritual growth with everyday realities. You will find acceptance for your neediness, encouragement to surrender, and practical steps to invite God’s love into daily life. No matter your background, discover fruitfulness rooted in authenticity, not performance.

Scriptures Referenced

Genesis 2:18; Isaiah 5:1-7, 27:22-23; Ezekiel 17:5-6; Matthew 11:28-30, 16:24; John 8:12, 13:33, 14:30-31, 15:1-8, 21:22; Acts 17:28; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Galatians 5:22-23; Romans 8:38-39

Key Insights

  1. Acknowledge your real human neediness and find belonging in Christ, not shame.
  2. Spiritual growth happens as you surrender.
  3. Daily connection to Christ provides renewal, meaning, and practical hope for ordinary life.
  4. Honest questions and vulnerability are welcomed and are the pathway to freedom.
  5. Fruitfulness is promised to those who remain, regardless of visible progress.
  6. The measure of growth is love and joy, not perfection or spiritual performance.

Resources Referenced

  1. Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray
  2. Upon Waking by Jackie Hill Perry
  3. Knowing Faith Podcast (Jen Wilkin)
  4. "No Earthly Good" by Johnny Cash

Lent Devotionals (in the app)


https://springhouse.captivate.fm/episode/abide-while-being-human

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Gathering Times

  1. Sundays, 9:00 AM
  2. Sundays, 11:00 AM
  3. Thursdays, 6:00 PM

Contact Info

Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167

615-459-3421

CCLI License 2070006

Transcript
Speaker:

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

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

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

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

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bike, and he survived. And,

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

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

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

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

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

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We sang this morning, "Waymaker,

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

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

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

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

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morning as we bring bring up our next speaker, somebody

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

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

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Rhonda Frazier is a pillar of Sarna Assembly

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Springhouse Church. Her consistency, her faithfulness in the

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Lord has helped cultivate the longevity of

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

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Frazier.

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

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church? All right, well, in,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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And now, for something completely different.

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Would you roll that beautiful cheese footage?

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

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

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

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and it goes something like this. The mom,

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

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

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

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vine. What does that mean? What does

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abide in the vine mean? You abide in the

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vine. Well, I understand that, but how?

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

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you everything. Can you show me one thing?

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

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abide in. Okay, I don't know

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

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You just take this thing and you, if you say

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abide one more time,

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it says abide.

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Abide. It says abide. I also just think

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of the Princess Bride and that the

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

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you think it means.

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

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about what it means to abide while

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being a human. And my question to

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my leadership is, do we have another option?

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

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so. So I want us to start

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I want us to start just a minute with what the

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

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

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been experiencing. So all the

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disciples had heard at some point those beautiful

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two words, "Follow me."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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And to Peter, oh Peter, over in John

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22, it's really like Jesus is saying,

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"Peter, worry about yourself and follow me."

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

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But Jesus had also just said to them,

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like in John 14, 13, 14,

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

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to follow me." Earlier that evening he

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

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

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clearly did not understand what he meant. He encourages

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

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

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

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

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the Father has commanded me so the world may know

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that I love the Father. Rise up,

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

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Scripture, but there was an understood, "Follow

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me." This leads us to the chapter break and

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

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

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for this time. Jesus and the disciples were on

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

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weeks ago when he brought our attention to Old Testament

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passages that refer to Israel as the vine and

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God as the vinekeeper. And here in John

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

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

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okay. All right, "I am the true

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vine and my Father is the

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gardener." Some scholars say that since the

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disciples were on a walk, in transit,

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that it is possible that Jesus was talking

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to them in the temple courtyard in

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sight of a huge carved

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golden vine. This

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vine was the national symbol of Israel. Think

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Stars and Stripes. Some scholars wonder if Jesus'

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statement, "I am the true

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vine," might have been made in sight

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

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there is no doubt that the disciples knew the

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imagery and the pride of the symbol. They would

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recall hearing the readings from Isaiah and

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Ezekiel where the vine imagery is strong.

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In Old Testament passages, Israel is described as a

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vine. Israel was to be the channel through which the

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blessings of God would flow to the whole world.

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That promise was repeated over and over in the Old

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Testament. God's life and love and justice and

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righteousness were supposed to flow to all the earth through

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Israel. But the vine of Israel

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repeatedly fails to bear the fruit that God

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intended. And now here is Jesus with

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all of that strong vine imagery layered in

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their songs and their poetry and the prophecy of

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the ages saying to the disciples, "I

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am the true vine."

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

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

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

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Jesus is proclaiming, 'What I am, what Israel

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never could be. Life, love, power,

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

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And then Jesus says something so incredibly hopeful to the

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

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

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

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a purpose. You are the branches. Your place

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

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

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you will experience my life flowing through you

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always." That same declaration is made

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

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the humans reading this text, "Abide

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in me." But how?

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

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

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We have to remember that we need rest.

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

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leadership gathered. Matthew 11:28-30,

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come to me, all you who labor and are heavy

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

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upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle

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and lowly in heart, and you will find rest

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for your souls. For my yoke is easy

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my burden is light. And isn't it

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just like Jesus to marry the

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language of rest with the language of

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work? To marry the language of rest

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with the language of learning? You are

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laboring and carrying a heavy load.

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

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shoulder with me. "Come shoulder to me. Come

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be my student. Learn from me. Yoke yourself up

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

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

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be synced up." In other words,

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"Abide in me." But

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this takes surrender.

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Surrender of our will, surrender of our pride and our

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independence. This yoking up and abiding

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requires acknowledgement that we can't do the work without

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Jesus. In 1882, Andrew Murray

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

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

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

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

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

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access to the Almighty One, and

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he will teach us all day and keep

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

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promised he will do it. And what does

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that abandon and surrender to the yoke bring?

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Rest. I will give you

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rest. You will find rest for your souls. Stay

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here, dwell here, live here, shoulder

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

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rest. Finding a posture of spiritual rest

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in Christ is life-giving and empowering.

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Abiding results in work that

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brings rest.

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For humans to abide, we have to

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recognize that we are needy.

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

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

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where it echoes? All the way back to the garden

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where Vonda took us. All the

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way back to the garden. Adam, in the

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perfection of Eden, needed

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a companion like himself.

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

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in male and female, and she was saying that she

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envisioned when God put Adam to the work

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

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been doing was, "Giraffe, not like me.

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

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When Eve is presented, like me,

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like me, this is what I need. Adam

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needed Eve before the fall.

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

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

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gave the good gift of Eve to Adam before

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the fall and before they decided

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that the gardener was wrong.

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

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

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as a strength that keeps us in community and

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interconnected. We jockey for position and power.

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We grasp instead of help. We lash out instead of

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latching on, and we independently reject that we are

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truly needy. We forget that

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

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vine. We forget that Acts 17:28

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applies to us. "In him we live and

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move and have our being." Or as

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Jesus says to the disciples on this walk to Gethsemane,

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

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real glorifying value for the kingdom can be

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accomplished without abiding in

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

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

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and you can't come with me."

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

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referenced an exposition that John Piper had done on

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2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

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And that passage says, "Therefore do not

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lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet

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inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

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For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us

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an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So fix

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

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For what is seen is temporary, "but what is

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unseen is eternal." So I looked up

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

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what Paul writes here should give us great hope, that

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we are renewed day by day.

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

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

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

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

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what abiding is. New mercies every

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morning. Getting filled up daily.

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

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

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

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

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me my daily bread." This act of daily

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gathering was a physical reminder that they were

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needy, but their needs were met.

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

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

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recognition that the source of our very life is the

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vine himself. Everything else is

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powerless, gloryless, and a dim shadow of

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what could be. But in our

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humanity, we, like Eve,

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

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die apart from you. I know better than you.

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I can sustain myself. This knowledge won't hurt

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

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

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

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the heart of the vinedresser. We don't believe

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what the gardener says is true.

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

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Jesus to sustain and keep

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us. And the good news is,

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

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

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

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one might pose the question that Johnny Cash proffered in

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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hide it under a bushel, no. Right?

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

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

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'cause she didn't— Maw

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

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

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that's not Scripture. Because one could kind

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

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

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

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because I'm so busy abiding."

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

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

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smallest good to anyone

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or myself or any situation. Lazarus'

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

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heartily sang it in pointed direction to

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Mary.

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

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Mary was distracted by much serving. She

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

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She was anxious but still doing something good. No,

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

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

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

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Jesus, "Tell her to help me."

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And Jackie writes, "When we are

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

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God has to reorient our petitions and

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

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

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

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needs Jesus to sit at his

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feet. She thinks her anxiety and trouble will

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

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in human sense, but Jesus says your

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anxiety and distraction will not be fixed even

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if Mary helps. Sit down next to your

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sister and then you can serve without distraction.

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Oh, Father, help us to stop asking

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for a thing when what we really need is

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to be asking for you. And

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isn't that what the need to abide is?

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Replacing the need for a thing and reaching

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in prayer and meditation to the God of the

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

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actually need. When

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humans abide, there will be fruit.

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

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says there will be fruit. And this fruit is

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evidence of abiding in the vine. It's the

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logical, irresistible outcome of being in the flow

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

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vine. John 15 is a rhythm

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

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pruning, bear fruit, abide, bear much

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

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

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

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the fruit will come because the vine

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the gardener say it will come and

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send it. When we are in the vine,

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growth and change toward Christ-likeness is

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infinitely possible. So many times you and I,

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

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

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

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

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mindset It is incompatible with being a believer.

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It's bad theology. This

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is unrepentant, unredeemed world speak.

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You and I are described in scripture like

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putty. We are clay in the

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potter's hands. We can change. Only

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God does not change. Only God is

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immutable. You and me, we change. Thank

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God we can be changed. Tim Keller

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

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

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

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

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

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The selfish person becomes generous. The controlling

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person, a liberator. The cowardly person,

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courageous. The worrier becomes a rock.

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

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can only offer weak morality, magic,

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

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offers us something that transcends all of that.

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We get Jesus!

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Jesus, real and concrete. We are drawing from

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His pulsating life like a branch draws from the

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vine, and that's the secret. If we

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

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things that come to everyone

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

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hard. They soften us.

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They make us more human.

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The internal, abiding work of the Holy Spirit

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brings fruit. What's

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

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

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

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

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Glory? Proof of discipleship?

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Fruit is the evidence of abiding. A branch

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isolated or removed from the branch will never

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

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

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

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

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

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business to grow a cluster of There is

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only one component required for you to bear spiritual fruit.

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Abide in the vine. Abide. Fruit's been

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promised. I cannot manufacture it. I cannot muster it

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up. I cannot strive for it as hard as I

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want to. Love, joy,

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peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

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thanksgiving, Faithfulness, gentleness, self-control do not

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come by the sheer willing them into

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existence. We abide and fruit

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

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Fruit will come. Dwell.

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Remain rooted, grounded in the

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vine. Fruit will come. Amen. Jen

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

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

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

:

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

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

:

They had different opinions about that. So,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

:

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

:

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

:

was my hold on my faith.

:

Hey, I didn't know the vine was strong

:

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

:

he had me instead of me having

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

this suggestion. What if our prayer

:

journals became not so much a laundry list

:

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

:

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

:

prayers. But our prayer journal became a

:

chronicle of our asking God for the things he

:

has already promised he would give

:

us. That prayer book then would become a

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

to pray? Expand my heart.

:

Give me more love. Increase my joy. Give

:

me discernment. I need wisdom. Glorify your

:

name. Righteousness be exalted. Bring

:

peace. These are the promises of the

:

vine. When these show up, they are evidence that

:

in our lives that we are

:

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

:

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

:

in vine speak, that would be like noting seasons,

:

right? There are seasons of fruitfulness and seasons

:

of waiting and dormancy. Now, the

:

real human temptation is to try to pretend that we

:

have fruit when there is little to

:

none. Today, work in plastics and fabrics have improved

:

so much that faux plants have reached new levels in

:

their mimicry of the real thing. But

:

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

:

and greenery have when they've been exposed to too

:

much sunlight over time? While real

:

plants can't survive without sunlight, Fake plants

:

become cartoonish with prolonged

:

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

:

blossom or an edible piece of fruit or a lovely fiddly

:

fig are easy to spot as counterfeit

:

on closer inspection.

:

Manufactured pseudo fruit does not bring glory to the vine

:

or meet the desires of the vinedresser. And that

:

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

:

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

:

decoration of the

:

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

:

flowing to us, 'cause developing fruit has to have

:

water. And typically, plants only get their water from

:

their roots.

:

The life-giving flow of water is upwards

:

against the pull of gravity. That doesn't make

:

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

:

water does not benefit the leaf directly. In

:

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

:

that protects them from that water. The water drips

:

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

:

comes up through the vine, and then then

:

is able to bring life to the

:

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

:

a special mechanism whereby they can absorb water from

:

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

:

good Creator that allows these plants to survive the harshest

:

of conditions for short periods of

:

time. But I think that you and

:

I try to do the same thing. We

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

time when the voice of God is not

:

speaking. The living water that we long for is

:

there. But in this perceived drought, brought about

:

by any number of external circumstances or internal struggles,

:

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

:

cut off and strangled, 'cause we feel

:

parched. And instead of remaining and

:

tapping deeper into the vine, abiding

:

here, we grasp for drops of water around

:

us, lapping up mist and fog, when all the

:

time the vine has roots that are

:

reaching down to artesian wells of

:

refreshing. And we think these surface little

:

dribbles are gonna satisfy the deep longings that we have,

:

but in fact, they foster the growth of mold

:

and mildew and rot.

:

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

:

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

:

thought she needed in the wrong places. After asking her

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

That sounds like abiding. That sounds like

:

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

:

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

:

a Monday morning sometimes. This abiding, it seems

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

time. So how do we manage

:

this abiding all the time, and being

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

there's all the things that we have to

:

do. Vonda hit this too. There are big

:

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

:

are the spiritual disciplines of prayer, and Bible reading,

:

and fasting, and study, and meditation on the

:

Word, generosity, worship, gathering with believers, and

:

more. Those abiding times are easy to identify

:

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

:

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

:

our relationship with Christ as long conversations with a

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

your mind. It's just

:

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

:

love, even a smell can like bring back to you

:

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

:

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

:

do we have that presence of mind while

:

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

:

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

:

to also be human. Andrew Murray describes

:

it as kind of an undercurrent of our life because apparently

:

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

:

music or soundtrack. I don't know about

:

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

:

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

:

our attention shifts to the demands of the

:

day, your fellowship with Christ does not

:

subside because Christ himself is

:

maintaining the fellowship."

:

Christ himself is doing it. The

:

thing for

:

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

:

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

:

"For I am convinced that neither

:

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

:

present or future, nor any powers, neither height nor

:

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

:

to separate me from the love of God that is in

:

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

:

the power that our abiding comes from. So, we

:

can sing then and celebrate the song of

:

22 and 23. Sing about a

:

fruitful vine. Sing about a fruitful vineyard, 'cause

:

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

:

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

:

it. What a song! So if

:

abiding is like music, a

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

and in that moment we can lock in

:

and praise or prayer or

:

both, worship are on our lips.

:

It's the easy and natural, "I

:

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

:

just doing the next thing. It's the hearty

:

and "Thank you, Jesus," when hearing good

:

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

:

beautiful, or a trembling "Help me, Father"

:

in moments of weakness or despair. It is the silent

:

cry for wisdom, hopefully before we open

:

our mouths. It's Barbie's

:

"Ah, Jesus," when there are

:

not other words to say.

:

These prayers and petitions and little

:

acknowledgments grow from abiding, and they remind

:

us constantly that we are in Christ. They remind

:

us that He is right

:

here always. We are

:

in the vine no matter where we are or

:

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

:

to how, how the children of Israel could

:

not do this, and they were experiencing, they

:

experienced powerful deliverance and visual and verbal

:

daily manifestations of God's presence.

:

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

:

do it. How can

:

we? Because their measure was the law, And

:

our measure is love. Jesus

:

said, "As the Father has loved

:

me, so have I loved you.

:

Now remain in my

:

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

:

I have obeyed the Father's commands and remain

:

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

:

this? So that you can have

:

joy. And what was that command He mentioned? Love

:

each other. Dear sweet

:

branch, that's fruit. All

:

this is possible, all of this, even in

:

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

:

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

:

possible when Jesus says back in verse

:

4, "Remain in me and I

:

will remain in

:

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

:

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

:

on I remaining that we forget he

:

is

:

remaining. He calls and we come and

:

rest. He sustains and we admit that we need

:

him. He prunes and we bear

:

fruit. He pours out love and

:

we get joy. He

:

loves us and we get to love

:

others. He abides so we

:

can abide, all to the glory

:

of God. So I'm

:

feeling that some of this is

:

about— Vonda gave us some things about

:

distractions and listening, active listening. And I feel

:

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

:

is noticing. We notice. That's

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

just trashed. And we have a proverb

:

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

:

They have not

:

noticed. They have not noticed that a semester

:

worth of papers is now, you know,

:

right? Noticing. What are we

:

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

:

say, "That seems little. That seems

:

dumb." Notice, and

:

then notice what happens after you

:

acknowledge and notice. God

:

is so good. His love is

:

unfailing, and he is He does the keeping of

:

the vine. God is more gracious to

:

us than we could ever be faithful to

:

him. Let's

:

pray. Heavenly

:

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

:

hearts to notice the things that you are

:

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

:

stay in you, abide in you, that we

:

see the work. May our prayers become things that

:

we're asking you to grow in

:

us. Father, we give our surrender

:

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

:

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

:

there is no keeping. So do what

:

only you can do as you mold us and shape

:

us more into your image. And would you cause

:

us to be

:

fruitful? In Christ's name we pray,

:

amen. Amen. What are

:

you noticing? What do we need to see,

:

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

:

your appreciation for

:

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

:

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

:

pay attention to the vine? It is so much

:

better than we can ever imagine. And

:

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

:

we're going to come back to some phenomenal

:

workshop sessions, 2:00 and

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

text them and say, you need to get

:

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

:

right. There are food trucks. Are they

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

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

:

the workshops, uh, at, uh, at 2

:

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

:

at 2 o'clock.

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