EncouragHER
We are a God-given, purpose-driven ministry. At EncouragHER, our mission is simple, to spread encouragement to women. Join us every Monday as we encourage YOU. Our hope and prayer is that by encouraging you, you’ll be inspired to encouragHER today. We'd love to connect with you.
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EncouragHER
Ginny Owens: Abiding in Christ. How to Hear God's Voice Through the Noise
Reach out! I’d love to hear from you!
Talk from the women's conference at Fellowship Community Church on May 3rd, 2025.
Have you ever noticed how certain songs, thoughts, or messages play on constant repeat in your mind? In our noisy world, we're constantly listening to something, but what voice truly shapes who we are becoming?
Through personal stories of navigating blindness and the pressure to achieve, Ginny Owens unpacks the transformative power of "abiding" in Christ—the ancient spiritual practice that changes everything. Drawing from Jesus' powerful teaching in John 15 about the vine and branches, she reveals how we are always connected to some source of nourishment, whether it's career success, relationships, social validation, or Christ himself.
The revolutionary truth is that we don't manufacture fruit in our lives—we carry it from whatever source we're plugged into. "What you revere is what you will resemble," Jenny explains, challenging us to examine what voice truly speaks loudest in our daily lives. Are we drawing life from temporary sources that ultimately leave us withering, or from the true vine who offers eternal nourishment?
This message explores why God's pruning process, though painful, always leads to greater fruitfulness. Ginny vulnerably shares her journey from making "polite prayers" that created walls between herself and God to discovering the freedom of bringing her authentic heart to Jesus. She offers practical strategies—see, savor, and sing—for making Christ's voice the dominant soundtrack of your life.
Whether you're feeling disconnected from God, struggling with anxiety, or simply desiring a more authentic spiritual life, this episode will help you recognize what's truly playing on repeat in your mind and how to tune into the voice that brings genuine transformation. Join us in discovering how to let love be the loudest voice we hear.
Learn more or connect with Ginny Owens: https://ginnyowens.com/
Now get out into the world and be a woman who intentionally encourages another!
#women #podcast
Well, I thought it would be fun to start with a little music this time. Is that cool with you guys? You're welcome to get up and keep having your dance party if you want. That'll totally work.
Speaker 2:There you go. There is so much noise that fights for my attention, begging me to listen, but will I choose to listen? Oh, familiar sounds of doubt and fear and anger that threaten me with danger. But will I run from danger? When I know you love me Is when I find that I'm free To love the way you love me, love the way you love, love me.
Speaker 2:The loudest voice, I hear, the loudest voice, I hear. The loudest voice I hear, and love is Drowning out my fear, drowning out my fear. It's the loudest voice I hear. Yeah, feel free to clap if you want.
Speaker 2:The loudest voice I hear Is really just one word that says what we're all seeking Love is what we're needing. Oh, love is what we're needing. Seeking Love is what we're needing. Oh, love is what we're needing. It meets us where we are and puts us back together. Love's the only answer. Yeah, love's the only answer.
Speaker 2:I'll be the loudest voice. I hear, the loudest voice, I hear. The loudest voice I hear, and love is drowning out my fear. Drowning out my fear is the loudest voice I hear. Oh, love be the loudest. Love be the loudest voice I hear. Love be the loudest, love be the loudest, love be the loudest voice. Uh, y'all sing with me. Love be the loudest. Love, be the loudest. Love be the loudest. Love, be the loudest love. Be the loudest voice I hear. When I know you love me is when I find that I'm free. Love the way you love me, love the way you love. I hear the loudest voice. I hear the loudest voice. I hear the loudest voice I hear, and love is drowning out my fears, drowning out my fears. It's the loudest voice I hear.
Speaker 2:Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh, oh, oh oh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, the loudest voice I hear Love be the loudest. Love be the loudest, love be the loudest voice I hear.
Speaker 1:You guys are a little too well behaved. You're just so all quiet. You're like dancing and then you're quiet, you do whatever we tell you to do. All right, well, feel free to make some noise if you need to. I'm so happy you came back. I didn't scare you off the first time. That's really good.
Speaker 1:Um, I wanted to just say really quick if you are on the interwebs, we do like to do some things there. So I'm on Instagram and Facebook and YouTube at Jenny Owens Official or Jenny Owens Official is Instagram, I think, the rest are Jenny Owens Music. So we'd love to hang out with you there. But the place where I really love to get kind of the most personal is I write a biweekly usually a biweekly email, and it's kind of a devotional about what God is teaching me and maybe about new music or new book things that are coming out. So I would love for you to join me there, and I think there's a QR code on the screen, but there's also an old school email list at the table that you can sign up on.
Speaker 1:So now it is late, and so I thought we should do a few dad jokes before we dive back into heavy subjects. So here are my two favorite dad jokes what do you call a fish with no eyes, dad jokes, what do you call a fish with no eyes? Yes, we have some smart folks back here in the back Love it. Some of you are like what? So if you take the eye out of the middle of fish, it says yes, oh, I know. See, if I hadn't told you it would have gone the whole time thinking about that. It would have been so sad. All right, what do you get when you cross a refrigerator and a radio? Cool music. I think I read that in a weekly reader when I was like six and I've never forgotten it. But speaking of music, let's think about music for a minute, because I love music. Do you love music? Yes, and you know we always have a song on repeat in our minds, some music that we are dancing to, literal and otherwise.
Speaker 1:But when I was little, I sang all the songs that were on repeats in my mind, much to the chagrin of my mother and my little brother who were like stop. So you know I would learn songs and sing them and play them on the piano. And so I sang Jesus Loves Me a lot, because we sang that at church and then one time I sang this song called Shake your Booty in front of my parents' friends and my mom was like she needs a new song and repeat in her mind because that one will not work. My favorite song, actually as a little kid was the Hallelujah Chorus. You know Hallelujah, such a good one. I loved it because it was so majestic, right, so powerful, so transcendent. And if I could have only kept that song on repeat in my mind for all these years. But I did not.
Speaker 1:I grew up and the songs on repeat weren't actually literal ones as often. They were more like doubts and whispers that just kept looping over and over, repeating. They were unpleasant noise. Anyone know what I'm talking about? I think in general it's really interesting because the songs on repeat in our minds are not so good, right, they're like you're not enough, you should be more, you should have more. You're not enough, you should be more, you should have more. And yet we have more than anyone has ever had in history, like we have more options, more money, more opportunities. And so I think people who follow Christ should, in theory, have a different song on repeat in their minds A song of amazing grace, how sweet the sound or like a song, like Fanny Crosby who sang I and my.
Speaker 2:Savior am happy and blessed.
Speaker 1:You know we should sing those songs, but are those songs actually the songs on repeat in our minds? I want you to think for a minute about what song or songs tend to be on repeat in your minds. Now, as you can tell, I'm not necessarily talking about literal songs, although I can tell you a few Taylor Swift songs that are always on repeat in my mind if I'm not careful. But I'm talking about just what noise, what things you hear over and over. What songs does the voice of the liar sing to you? And pretty soon after I was born, my parents knew that there was going to be something wrong with my eyes. They could tell. So as a little kid I did have enough eyesight to learn my colors and the faces of my favorite people. I also loved climbing trees in our front yard and riding my bike and you know all that kind of cool stuff. And when I turned three, my eye doctor said that we would be doing a surgery and that surgery should stabilize the little bit of vision I had. So I went in for that surgery able to see all the things and the people I loved, and I came out of that surgery not able to see anything. So, yeah, the doctor took away all my vision. Not a great doctor. But after a few weeks I went back out to ride my bike and climb trees. Our poor neighbors, you guys, like they were freaking out. They were like, can I call the fire department to get her out of the tree? My mom was like no, she, this is her life. She's going to be learning to climb trees, literally and figuratively, all the time. So she's got to learn to do it. And she was right. I had to learn to live without being able to see. And, as I told you, when we talked about middle school, I learned that the biggest challenge was not blindness, but other people's sort of perception of, or fear of, what blindness is. So, even as a grown-up, the song that is often on repeat for me is something more like achieve, achieve, achieve Sounds like an angry bird, doesn't it't it? You know, then you will be accepted and acceptable. Or or the song is do whatever it takes to please whoever's in your space, because you have to prove your worth. So I want to just ask you I'm going to take a minute of awkward silence well, with the chip bags and stuff too, what song is on repeat in your mind what song I want you to bring it to the Lord today, because the Bible tells us in multiple places that God sings over us his song of truth and deliverance. But can we hear it? Can we hear those songs? Probably not as much as we want. To.
Speaker 1:Earlier, we said that God desires deep what with us. Friendship Yay, grand prize, all right. Friendship yay, grand prize, all right. And that he speaks his love to us through all he has made and how else? Through his word. And that the first step to moving into this friendship is accepting and believing that it is actually a real thing that he offers us, and then expecting that he's going to speak and that we can listen. And so, in this time together, I want to answer how. I mean, we talked a little about some practical tools at the end of the last time, but I want to dig in a little more, like how do we do this, listening to God's song more than the songs of the liar? How does his song become the one on repeat?
Speaker 1:And I want to introduce you to my favorite A word. It is an old school word, but I think it is a good word nonetheless, because this A word is the secret to our friendship with Jesus. It is the secret to his voice being loudest in our lives, and this A word is abide. Abide is the word that Jesus uses to describe how friendship with him actually works, how we actually connect with him from now till we see him face to face and, interestingly, friends. Fun fact Christianity is the only faith where you are invited into deep friendship with the one who created you and holds all the power. Isn't that interesting? You know, in every other religions you work to be good enough to earn your salvation, but not with Jesus. He's the one who invented the party and then invited you to it. And instead, the beautiful, profound truth is the more we actually rest in his love, the more we change. Not the more we do Doing comes from resting, but the more we rest in his love, the more we change. So let's look at what it means to abide in some words that Jesus spoke in John 15. And these are words that he is speaking to his disciples then and to us now, and this is a couple of days before his death, which makes it even more profound and interesting.
Speaker 1:So I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I've spoken to you. Remain in me or abide in me, and I will also remain or abide in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. But if you remain in me and my words ooh, you might have heard that before and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you Now. Remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. Amen.
Speaker 1:Water is needed, all right, so let's explore Jesus' call to abiding in friendship with him by asking four questions. I do like to be organized, especially for my note takers, but also for my own brain. So four questions. What does it mean to abide? Why should we abide in Jesus? Why don't we and how can we? What does it mean to abide? Why should we actually abide in Jesus? Why don't we and how can we? What does it mean to abide? Why should we actually abide in Jesus? Why don't we and how can we? Sound good? All right, what does it mean to abide?
Speaker 1:First, the sense of abiding. Jesus' disciple John, who wrote this book, uses abide or remain, depending on your translation 40 times in his book and 11 times in this chapter. So abiding is a big deal and, as I said, it is a verb that describes how friendship works with Jesus. And so, in the New Testament, abide or remain or stay are all the same word in Greek and the sense is a continual connection to a source. So resting in being plugged into a source is what abiding means. Does that make sense? So that's the sense of abiding. So the source. Super interesting.
Speaker 1:Here Jesus actually shows us what a source is by painting a picture of himself as the true vine and his disciples as the branches. And of course, his disciples would get this picture because there are vineyards full of thick, tree-like vines all over the Middle East. I live in New York City. We don't have vines there. Do you guys have any vines here in Jersey? Yeah, you do. Okay, cool, so you get it All right.
Speaker 1:Well, that's awesome. Well, the way a vine works, apparently and you might know this, but in case you don't is that it takes in water and nutrients at the root, is that it takes in water and nutrients at the root and all that nourishment flows up to and out through its branches. So a branch's only hope of staying alive is having nourishment flow to it from the vine. Guess what that means, friends, jesus is telling us here that you and I are never our own source. We are abiders, we are branches. We always get our nourishment from outside ourselves, and what I mean is we're always listening to, seeking approval from resting in, finding our worth in whatever vine or source we are plugged into. That source is what gives us what we need to keep going.
Speaker 1:And so, since we are all, at this very moment, abiding in something, we need to ask a few questions to help us know what source we're abiding in. Like what gets the most air time in your mind every day? Ouch, what has the most power to make you content or anxious? I don't like that question. Where do you get your sense of self and of purpose? Where do you get your sense of self and of purpose, ladies? That thing or person is your source, your vine.
Speaker 1:As a middle schooler, my source was my peers and what they said about me. My source has, of course, changed over the years. I know it should be Jesus and I want it to be Jesus, but sometimes it has been my career as an artist. Maybe some of you have that. You've found your source has been your career, or maybe it's been your kids or your marriage or your Insta followers. Whatever you are continually connected to and deriving your value from, that is your source. Now, all these things can be good things. I don't know the jury's still out on if Instagram's a good thing, but whatever it's here. So I'm not saying these are bad things. I'm saying if you derive your value and purpose for it, it's your source and that is where you will suffocate if this is your source, because it cannot give you life forever. So Jesus tells us why our source should be him In verse 1, he says I am the true vine, and we could easily just move over this as we read, but think about for a minute what it means.
Speaker 1:The true version of anything is always the best version, right? My favorite makeup secret weapon is a beauty blender. Anyone know about beauty blenders? Yeah, it's a little tiny, round, puffy sponge that costs like $6 trillion at Sephora. It's crazy, but I've tried all the store knockoffs and they're not true. They're not the same. So I buy this one like once or twice a year and try to take care of it.
Speaker 1:Okay, jesus is true on a whole other level. But think about our culture. Even now. I mean, we don't know what's true so often, right? We question every source. Is this source giving us the truth? Where is truth Like? What is truth giving us the truth? Where is truth? Like what is truth? We don't know, in our postmodern world, what is truth.
Speaker 1:So what does it mean that Jesus is the true source? That true word is so important. Jesus is the only source, or at least he claims to be the only source, from which eternal good will always come. And he tells us the chapter before this, in John 14, 6,. He says I am the only way to the Father, the truth and the life. And those are really big claims, and you are likely here because you believe them and whether you do or you don't.
Speaker 1:Quite yet, the biggest question that we all on this planet have to answer in life every day is is Jesus who he says he is? Is he actually true? Is he actually the only source from which ultimate good can come? Is he God? Okay, I guess that's a lot of questions, but truly, is Jesus true? Because if he isn't, none of what we're talking about really matters. But if he is, then we have to listen. If he is the true vine, the true source that will always give us good, no other source is going to provide what we need for our life Like none. No other source is going to provide what we need for life like none. So, in other words, no other source is capable of producing good fruit in us, like truly good fruit.
Speaker 1:Verse 4 says no branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you abide or remain in me. Okay, I know it's the middle of the afternoon, but I know you got this, so I'm going to tell you something that might make your head hurt just a little bit. Is that okay? Because we are abiders. Because we are abiders, we are fruit carriers, not fruit creators. Because we are abiders, we are fruit carriers, not fruit makers. You're like say what the source your heart belongs to produces the fruit that comes out of you. To say it another way, the real you is not just someone you dig down deep to find. I mean, the stuff in your heart matters, so don't hear me saying it doesn't. But the real you is actually mostly a combo of your talents and your personality and your experiences and your family, but its greatest influence is whoever's voice is loudest in your life is whoever's voice is loudest in your life. That voice is your source, and we come back to where we were this morning, and so your fruit is the outer evidence of that inner source.
Speaker 1:One of my best friends has lots of health issues and one time she went on this carrot juice kick, so she was drinking like a gallon of carrot juice a day, trying to reset her system. She went to the doctor for a checkup and I bet you know where this story is going. She walked in and he kind of gave her this startled look and he asked her like have you looked in the mirror lately? And he asked her like have you looked in the mirror lately? Yeah, turns out, if carrots are your primary source, you're going to look like one. So in the same way, whatever your life is centered on, built around that's going to be what you look like. I heard one pastor say it this way what you revere, you will resemble.
Speaker 1:So when my source was my work you can read more about that in my book. I won't go on about it now, but I will say I loved my work and really became very addicted to my work and was so driven by it. But my fruit was then. Well, it wasn't fruit at all, but it was talking about work. It was whining and worrying and self-focus and newsflash. That really just isn't fruit at all. Work is a good thing, but if it is my ultimate source that I abide in, I'm not going to bear fruit, I'm going to wither.
Speaker 1:But if we get our purpose and our self-worth and our life from Jesus, the fruit's just going to keep growing, no matter what is happening with work or kids or husbands or no husbands. And that's because of what verse four and five tell us Remain in me and I will remain in you, kind of like true when Jesus says I'm the true vine and we kind of skip over. True In is a word in these verses that is just a super big, important word, even though it's a real little. And Jesus wants to work in your heart to produce good fruit in your life. Here's what he doesn't say. He doesn't say hey, so you know me, now go make fruit happen. That's not what he says. Right, he says I live in you and so you will have good things growing out of you because I'm in here. The Spirit of Jesus is living in you. When you become a follower of Christ, you are in Christ. I mean, think about how beautiful that is, ladies. We don't have to change ourselves. That doesn't mean we don't listen to Jesus, but what I'm saying is he is the one that living in us does the changing. He is the one as we realize he's living there, it certainly becomes easier to think about his voice becoming the loudest, because you don't have to like manufacture stuff. He's in here. He's in here doing it. He wants to change you into a person who loves, as you have been loved.
Speaker 1:When I lived in Nashville before I lived in New York City I used to work with a group, a refugee ministry there, and one time the church was doing the shoeboxes at Christmas, you know, and they were filling all these shoeboxes and my friend who ran the refugee ministry was like kind of squirming. She was like these poor children here that I'm working with, they have nothing. They have nothing at all. They, you know, they can barely put food on their table. And you know, and she's like and we're sending all this stuff overseas when we could be helping these children right here. And so the kids were like Ms Corey, what's the, what are the shoe boxes for? And she was like oh gosh, I have to explain this now. So she tells them well, these are going to children overseas and really really facing really hard times and hard conditions. So she's just sheepishly sharing the story with them. And you know what they said. They're like oh my gosh, can we make a shoebox. They're like we know how much Jesus has rescued us from. So we want to go and help rescue other people from all of the hard things and we want them to know they're not alone. Isn't that so sweet? You're like, oh my gosh, it's so sweet.
Speaker 1:But that is a simple story of what it looks like when Jesus lives in us and produces fruit that comes out of us. He wants us all to be that passionate. Jesus has helped us. We want to be this light in the world because he is the light in our hearts. So it's a response to Jesus living in you. Do you see the difference in that? And like manufacturing, like niceness and goodness on your own, he's like no, no, I am working in you, that is what I have come to do. This is how you abide, is that we are in each other. So this is a beautiful thing, but there's more. There's always more, and one of the mores is that God, the Father, is your gardener when you abide in Jesus. So not only is Jesus living in you, his spirit is living in you, but verse 1 says my Father is the chief gardener, and one of the ways that God loves us is that he personally sees to our personal growth. He tends you, he cultivates you, and why? Because of what the second half of verse two tells us? Every branch that does not, every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it will be even more fruitful.
Speaker 1:Okay, why do you prune plants? Now, I had to do some research. I am, I'm, kind of a brown thumb girl. That's why I live in New York City, because it's okay. Um so, but I I talked to a couple of farmers and gardeners and botanists and stuff, and they said that pruning is always done to invigorate the plant, to give life and energy to the plant.
Speaker 1:So the pruner always has a purpose in pruning. When the trees are first pruned, they look really awful, right, they look half dead, but after they are pruned they grow fabulously and full in the direction and the shape that their gardener has pruned them to grow in. And that means what, friends? That pruning is only ever good. Only ever good. The Father is always doing what is best for you and for me. He is always doing what will make him known to you and to the world that you live in. As we like to say at my church, everything he does is for his glory and our good. And it sounds really nice, doesn't it? It sounds so nice, but it is so hard, right?
Speaker 1:Pruning always involves suffering, and I don't know about you, but I prefer comfortable, easy. I don't like suffering, but I bet many of us in this room right now, including me, are in a season of being pruned on some level, and so we got to go and see where's God speaking to us in this about how he prunes us, and I love what Romans 8, 28 says one of the verses that's taken so out of context and so many times. But there God promises that in his hands, all of the suffering of those who follow Jesus has purpose, all of it. It does not mean that suffering is good. There is suffering in our world because there is sin, but through our suffering, god, our gardener, makes us brilliant, beautiful branches that point to the vine. Elizabeth Elliot said it so well. She said God will never do anything to you that is not for you. His end goal is to always help you, love and look like the vine that you are connected to. So abide means you are being pruned and your suffering has purpose. Yay, that is hopeful. Let's hold on to that. But it also means that you are the recipient of some awesome, life-changing gifts besides this.
Speaker 1:So we're going to talk about a few real quick, answered prayers. 15-7. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you. So, as we abide, as we grow in friendship with Jesus, he changes us into people who love what he loves, to people who ask for the things that he would ask for. And abiding, though, gives us the freedom to talk to our Father, like Jesus talks to him about everything, and, like I said earlier, we can go to him and say hey, here, lord, is what is what's on my heart, here's what I want, but what do you want? And the more we are open with him, the more we trust that he sees what he can't, what we can't see, and that he's going to give us what we need. I mean, the more we go to him, the more that we're going to believe that is true. David was doing that in Psalm 19. He was calming his anxious heart by saying everything that he knew was true about God.
Speaker 1:And our tendency, ladies at least mine is to pray polite prayers. Have you ever prayed a polite prayer? Prayers have you ever prayed a polite prayer, my polite prayers. I remember in my early 20s really desiring to be married, so much because several of my friends were getting married and I was like this is, yeah, I was on the road, often by myself, and they were buying, you know, dishes. I was buying keyboards. It was just, yeah, wasn't so fun, and I would pray and ask the Lord to bring along a husband and then, because he didn't, I just kind of stopped praying about that and then, because I wasn't praying about that, I was kind of closing off piece by piece of my heart to him. I just wasn't praying about anything that was important after a while to him. I just wasn't praying about anything that was important after a while. So my prayers were kind of more like, dear God, bless me and all the people, amen, very polite. And so that led to a wall between me and God because of course, he knew what was going on in my heart. Christ is living in me and yet I'm not talking to him about it. So I'm building in my by my own power. I am building a wall between us. And so, ultimately, because I wasn't asking him for his opinion and because I wasn't crying out to him and all of that.
Speaker 1:I ended up dating a guy. That was not the right idea at all, and had I been talking to the Lord about it, that would have not been an issue, that would have not been something I would have done, and it ended up being a very difficult situation, far worse than if I had just talked to the Lord about it. But on the other side of it, I realized just how it makes so much more sense, for the short time that we're here on this planet, to just tell God everything. Just go there first, just do it. You'll hear his voice. If you're seeking it out, you know and I wasn't I was like I'll fix this, lord, and he said that doesn't, it's not going to work so well. And he was right.
Speaker 1:So no polite prayers, ladies. Let's just give up polite prayers. Tell God what's really on your heart. So that is true. That is a gift that we receive the ability to pray and seek and get what we ask for. We may not see all these, all the answers this side of heaven, but he will answer our prayers, even if it's simply with his love. So then, powerful witness in verse eight this is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Speaker 1:One of the most awesome parts of abiding in Jesus is you actually get to be his representative on earth. That's cool. Did you know that? Like, did you know that? Do you think that's cool? Anybody think that's cool? Okay, yes, cool. You are chosen to play a part in his bigger story. I mean, it's a little scary, but that's how important our lives are. Your life has an eternal impact and that just means that what you do with your seconds, your minutes, your hours, your days, it actually matters. So the more you are resting in, remaining in or abiding in him, the more you are shining his light in the world in or abiding in him, the more you are shining his light in the world. And, like we said earlier, we all are connected to a source, so we're always shining some light into the world, right, so we want it to be his. We want it to be his, and as we abide, the more we are going to believe his love is actually for us.
Speaker 1:Verses 9 and 10 say as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now abide in my love, and if you keep my commands, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his loves. So this is another like head hurt type thing. But Jesus loves you like God loves Jesus. And Jesus showed his love for his father by obeying him, by doing what he asked, and so we show our love for him in the same way. And if you're like me, if you're kind of a rebel artist like me, you don't really much like the word, the O word, the obey word, yeah, but think about it Like, whatever your source is, you always obey it. You know you're always obedient to something. The beautiful thing is with Jesus we obey not to earn God's goodness and love, but because we already have it If you have trusted him. Jesus' robe of goodness and love is always wrapped around you and secured in place forever and friends. That is not unlike when we honor our closest friends and family members, right, anyone that we love. We respond with obeying. Like, we want to know what they like, we want to do the things that they like. The difference is that when we obey Jesus, when we obey him because of his love for us, his robe of beauty, his beautiful robe of righteousness is wrapped around us all the time.
Speaker 1:I had a princess dress and I called it my princess dress this long like to the floor white eyelet dress that I wore as a flower girl in my aunt's wedding when I was five and I thought it was so great so I just wore it for like three more years and I would put it on and I would just turn into a princess, like I would say, I don't know, make up magic princess words and ask my mom for tea and do all kinds of weird princess stuff. But even if I had just been outside, you know, playing in the dirt and whatever, I would come in and put on that dress and I would just become the princess. And you know, here's the beautiful thing Unlike for me, I grew out of my princess dress. But we never grow out of Jesus' robe of righteousness. We never do. It is always secured around us, and so what we can remember, ladies, is that we are royalty because he has called us so. Remember, ladies, is that we are royalty because he has called us so and we get to go out in the world and be the princesses and maybe some of us don't like the word princesses but we get to be the royalty, the royal representatives that he has invited us to be, because this robe we wear it all the time. So when God looks on us, he sees Jesus and that is just a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:And finally, verse 11 tells us that abiding brings us true, eternal joy. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. May be in you and that your joy may be complete. There is a famous monk that says joy is the happiness that does not depend on what happens. I love that and I like to say joy is the inner smile that remains through trials. I mean joy says how crazy is it that I'm royalty? I mean joy says how crazy is it that I'm royalty? How crazy is it that I belong to the king of the universe? How incredible that he lives in me and he helps me radiate his beauty every day, because I can't do it by myself.
Speaker 1:And even in the midst of our most difficult times, ladies, you and I actually can have joy. It's actually a possibility because Jesus is in us, all right. So this is all great stuff, right? Cool stuff that happens when we abide. And I could say now end of story, go abide, buh-bye, good luck. His voice is going to just be loud if you just do this. But, man, it doesn't work that way. Because we don't abide, do we? We forget every five minutes. Maybe you guys don't here in New Jersey, but in the city I forget to abide every five minutes. It's really noisy there. So why don't we abide?
Speaker 1:I want to give you two reasons. The first is perceived self-sufficiency, which I'm going to call fake fruit. We, especially in the US, are strong, we are independent, we have a lot going for us and even if we aren't super wealthy, we have food, phones and Netflix. And even if we aren't super wealthy, we have food, phones and Netflix. And most of us also are really pretty nice people and we do some good things in the world. And so the more we have going for us, the more we forget how desperately we need Jesus, how desperately we need his help. We think you know we're doing pretty well and honestly, no one tells us otherwise, because we live in a culture that doesn't want to say but Jesus does. Jesus tells us the truth, he always tells us the truth. In verse four and five it says you can do nothing, nothing without me. So remember how I was saying your source determines the kind of fruit that you bear. Jesus is saying we are bearing no fruit if we are not attached to the true vine. So if I trust in my ability to share with you today and to sing some songs and I stop reading, and even if we choose to rely on ourselves to the end, wow what happens?
Speaker 1:Verse 6 says If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. People wither because they don't accept Jesus' invitation to be connected, and it's usually because they don't think they need him. They think they can do it on their own. And so part of abiding is coming to him every day and acknowledging we actually cannot do this on our own every day, and acknowledging we actually cannot do this on our own. Because what does God do when people insist on being their own gods till the end? He lets them. He lets them.
Speaker 1:15.6,. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. The branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. As CS Lewis says, there are two kinds of people in the end those who say to God, thy will be done and those to whom God says in the end, thy will be done. God says in the end, thy will be done. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find, those who knock. It is opened. So, ladies, let's don't let our self-sufficiency stand between us and Jesus.
Speaker 1:The other thing, though, is real doubt. This is another thing that keeps us from abiding. Now, we're all going to have our doubts and questions from time to time, and that is a real thing, and those are things that we work out in prayer and with scripture and with each other, but what I'm talking about here is just a nagging, constant lack of belief that we never push past, and part of the reason this happens is because we see other sources, other vines, up close and personal every day, and they are closer to us than Jesus. Right Like we live with our spouse, we live with our kids, we are in the thick of our job every day, and so these things are so close that they can easily become as important as Jesus, until they are then more important. It's kind of like we serve Jesus and X at the same time, and pretty soon that X becomes more important than Jesus.
Speaker 1:It fills all the space in our hearts and because we are not listening to Jesus, because we are tuned into this other source, we actually start to doubt Jesus' goodness. We start to doubt that he is really faithful to us, that he is really there. I mean, rarely do we think, wow, I haven't had time for Jesus really there. I mean, rarely do we think, wow, I haven't had time for Jesus. What do we usually think? Like, why isn't he doing what I want? Why isn't he doing what I want? And we doubt him. We're like is he really good? You know, we can't abide in Jesus when everything else is taking priority.
Speaker 1:Ladies, verse two says every branch that does not bear fruit, he takes away. So, in other words, our hardness of heart blocks the flow of Jesus' nourishment to us. So let's wrestle that unbelief to the ground until it goes away. So what do we do? So if those are the things that stand in the way, how do we abide? What is going to be different when we leave here today? I want to give you three things. They all start with S, because I love alliteration See, savor and sing.
Speaker 1:We have to see that it costs Jesus everything to say these words we're reading, and he knew it would. Even as he spoke them, he knew what he was about to do for us. For us to be welcomed into God's family and connected to Jesus, he had to be rejected by not only the world, but endure silence from God, his Father. So, 24 hours after these words were spoken, he was dying a horrible death on a cross, like a criminal. And what did he say? My God, my source, why have you turned your face away? There was no abiding with his father in that moment, and why John tells us that too. He says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will have everlasting life. Friends, God turned his face away from his son for a moment so that you and I could abide with him now until forever, so we could have his own unbroken friendship.
Speaker 1:And so, ladies, the bigger your view and my view of God moving heaven and earth to become our loving father and gardener, and the bigger our view of Jesus giving his life to be our vine, our source, the more desperately we are going to desire to be close and connected to him. I mean, what other reliable source do we have? So see Jesus. When you feel anxiety, when your circumstances are heavy, you bring Jesus into view. You remember that he walked through the worst darkness for you and you remember that he lives in you now darkness for you and you remember that he lives in you now. And the more you see Jesus this way, the more it is going to change the way that you see everything else and the more it's going to change the way that you trust him. And so, practically, you can do those things that we talked about earlier from Tim Keller, about when you're reading scripture, about the example to follow and the command to hear.
Speaker 1:But you can also say to your friends and as you're reading scripture what do I love about Jesus? A UK pastor said that, and I just love that. We need to tell each other more. The reason we don't tell people that don't go to church about Jesus is because we don't tell each other about Jesus. He said so what do you love about Jesus? Write it down. I've started to make that a practice of my daily prayer time. What do I love about Jesus today? What is moving my heart about him today? But tell each other too. So that's how we see Jesus. The more we think of these things, the more clearly we're going to see him. Then savor. In verse 7, it says if you remain in me and my words remain in you Words, words. That's what we talked about this morning. Right, we stay connected with Jesus by listening to, thinking about and meditating on his words.
Speaker 1:Tim Keller used to say the more you know the Bible, the more you know who Jesus really is, the more you saturate yourself in the word, the more you're interacting with the real God, not one you came up with. It's savoring. It's what David was doing in Psalm 19. The more you know his word, the more you're going to hear him speak and know it's actually him. It's not like just what you had for dinner last night. That's talking to you. His words are going to come back to you. So spend time getting to know him every day, like you would anybody else that you like, and I would say, if that feels new and heavy for you like, start simple.
Speaker 1:Take one verse that we have read today and you know, put it on a post-it or write it in a reminder that you see on your phone, but have it keep showing up, find ways to savor him, keep thinking out that truth in your mind and also pray. Pray, like your life depends on it, like what we saw David doing at the end of Psalm 19, like, lord, make, make my heart pure. Make the things that are coming out of my heart pure. I mean, that is how the word gets into us and changes us. A favorite teacher of mine would say prayer is the breath of the Christian life. It is the key to abiding, like my mom told me, tell him everything. Now some of you are probably still like ugh, jenny, this is like so hard. It is so hard. Pray, read what Like this is a lot. Can you just tell me that? Jesus is just going to speak to me in a special way?
Speaker 1:We work at what we love friends, right, we work at school, at marriage, at friendships, at getting better bodies, at helping grow our kids into decent human beings. Why would we not make it a priority to stay connected to the one who loves us more than anyone else and has offered us his friendship? But remember we're always working because he is already in us, at work in us, which is what Philippians 2.13 says. Okay, so savor, finally, sing.
Speaker 1:The more you sing something, the more you remember it. Like I said at the beginning. We all have a song on repeats in our minds. Right, I prefer to think about this in literal singing terms, because I like to sing, but if you don't, if you're like a singing humbug, that's cool. You can think about it in terms of just words. There's something on repeat in your mind, so talk to your friends and family about what God is doing in your life. Again, what do you love about Jesus? Sing it, sing it in worship songs. But the more you think about, sing about, the more that what is on repeat in your mind is the hope and the confidence that he gives you. The more that's going to be real, the more that is not just going to be theoretical, it's going to be true and powerful. So talk about it until it makes your heart sing.
Speaker 1:I remember one of my seminary professors telling me the story of some missionaries in Costa Rica, and they took in kids who had been abused by witch doctors, because witch doctors were very prominent in Costa Rica. And so they got these two little boys, who were brothers and they were I don't know three and five. They were super young. They were terrified they would go in. The missionaries would go in and find them cowering under the bed at night and just like seeing things that the missionaries couldn't see, like seeing spirits and all kinds of crazy stuff. And the friend who was telling the professor was telling me this said he went, he heard about the story and he went back to visit Costa Rica a couple of years later and these two young boys were like standing at the church door and just definitely had their wits about them and were handing out bulletins and were just like seemed like they were just doing so well and thriving.
Speaker 1:And so my seminary professor was like what happened? What did you do? And you know what the missionary said. They said we taught them scripture. We taught them to battle, to fight their battles with scripture. So when they saw something that was scary, we taught them words that they could speak and that, okay, if it can change a couple of young guys who were facing bewitching by witch doctors. What can Scripture do in your life and in my life? So we've got to sing it, we've got to have it as the song on repeat in our minds, and I think we should practice with a real song to close. How does that sound? We should do it. All right, we're going to do it. Okay, I know it's the end of the day, but I think you got this, so I'm going to teach you a little song, because it's way more fun if you sing too. And it goes like this Praise the.
Speaker 2:Lord, and you sing. Praise the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul For the peace, for the peace We've yet to know, we've yet to know. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul, oh my soul For the hope, for the hope We've yet to know.
Speaker 1:Beautiful.
Speaker 2:There is a fountain within a kingdom Ever flowing down to satisfy our hearts, and it is the stillness beneath the chaos and the current carries us into his arms. Our taste of heaven has just begun. Great is this peace, with greater still to come. Praise the lord, lord. Praise the Lord, o my soul, for the peace we've yet to know. Oh my soul, for the hope we've yet to know. There is a king who left the kingdom, sent to die and rise again our lives to save, and there'll come a day when our eyes behold Him and we will gaze upon the fullness of His grace. Our taste of heaven has just begun. Great is this love with've yet to know. Praise the Lord, oh my soul, for the love we've yet to know. When we've been there ten thousand years, bright, shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun.
Speaker 1:Lord, help us to remember that, help us to remember this is the shortest part of our life, and help us to start talking to you the way we're going to talk to you one day when we are face to face with you and all God's ladies said Amen. Thank you, ladies.
