The Extra
The Extra is a podcast hosted by Crosspoint Christian Church in Conyers, Georgia. Senior Minister, Curtis Zehner, and his friend, Ken Pierce, talk through each week's sermon unpacking the extra material that didn't make the cut for the weekend message. Curtis' and Ken's conversational and relaxed style lend itself to listeners of all ages and spiritual maturities.
The Extra
Easter pt. 3 | Vine and Branches
What does it truly mean when Jesus says "I am the vine, you are the branches"? Dive with us into the profound metaphor of spiritual pruning and fruit-bearing that shapes authentic discipleship.
Check out more at www.CrosspointConyers.com
this week on the extra ken pierce, and I talk about john, chapter 15 jesus is the vine, we are the branches. Come on, let's do it what's happening, ken? Another perfect intro lies, lies that one took me three or four. Takes that time and nobody saw well, I guess they didn't see it, but now they know it. Welcome back to the.
Speaker 2:Extra Forget I said that Everybody.
Speaker 1:It is so good to be here, ken, hanging out with you in the booth today and wherever you are listener, whether you're in the car. I would love to know where you listen from.
Speaker 1:We have a steady consistent group of like 20 people who listen every week. So our listens go up and down, but about 20 people who listen every week. I would love to know are you in the car when you listen, or are you sitting at home? Maybe you're like working out. Maybe you're at work listening. Drop us a line. Shoot us a text message. You can do so by clicking the link that's in the description of this episode. Shoot us a text message. You can do so by clicking the link that's in the description of this episode. Shoot us a text message. Tell us where you're listening from and who knows, maybe we'll shout you out on the podcast. We've had a couple people text us and make fun of us.
Speaker 2:That's been fun.
Speaker 1:There are some people who appreciate our style of humor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good.
Speaker 1:And they've made us aware that they appreciate our style.
Speaker 2:I don't know, have I seen those? Probably Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:We got compared with.
Speaker 2:We got compared to somebody. We did.
Speaker 1:That's huge yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it doesn't matter who. Somebody said they were close to me.
Speaker 1:Hey, thank you so much for that feedback. You, who you know, you are. That's good stuff Today, ken, we are man. We're deep in Easter. Yes, dude and Mike, actually we got our podcast start at Easter last year. Do you remember that?
Speaker 2:Is it already a year?
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, yeah, it's been a year. Yeah, yeah, we did a series of four episodes last year based on the Easter, lead up to Easter. Okay, yeah, Yep and um. We didn't get into this consistent podcasting every week until until later on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But that was kind of our, our uh, proving of the concept, if you will. Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And this year, this Easter. So far we've been talking through some of the Passion Week moments the triumphant entry, the cleansing of the temple, the last supper, passover meal in the upper room, and then, two days ago, on Sunday, I got to preach, through the vine and branches metaphor, the teaching that Jesus gives as they're walking to the garden of Gethsemane. Really famous passage of scripture. You know, you're familiar with this passage I am the vine, you are the branches.
Speaker 2:Yes, I've heard it a few times before and it obviously means more now than ever just because it's being I think we've compared it to being a dad, or being a parent is a vine branch situation and it means it rings much more um loudly absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is um I I've preached on it before, but this past weekend I just really enjoyed kind of taking this angle on it. We talked about pruning a little bit, uh, but the majority of it was based on the fruit Jesus describes. He says remain in me and I also 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. So where do you want to start on this?
Speaker 2:You want to start with, like, the pruning part, or yeah yeah pruning happens in, I would say, almost every area of life, because the less is more, phrase to me as a metaphor for staying grounded.
Speaker 2:Staying. What is keeping you secure, what is keeping you anchored, grounded in the faith in your life, in your family, your family, job, whatever. Yeah, keep the main thing. The main thing as they say, that's right. So you have that, and then on the other side, you have okay, I'm a branch off of this. Vine branches need to be pruned, bulbs of flowers and plant flowering plants need to be pruned. Bulbs of flowers and flowering plants need to be pruned so that they can grow. Grass needs to be burned sometimes so that it can grow.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 2:That happens in life, business, sports, name it. These things have to be let go so the strong can be stronger that's the goal anyway, that the strong would be strong yeah hopefully there, with the vacuum that is created when you prune right, something takes its place and hopefully that is a strong branch.
Speaker 1:Yeah certainly in life there are many times um, in every season. Yeah, I'm just thinking back on myself, like adolescence, high school, college.
Speaker 2:How many times I needed to be pruned so that I could it become more mature become a better follower of jesus become a our friend and roommate.
Speaker 1:Eventual husband.
Speaker 2:Being pruned is. You could almost substitute the word humbled. Yeah, you need to be humbled.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Which is not knocked down. You're going to get knocked down. That's going to take care of itself. Yeah, and it doesn't mean humiliated. You may get humiliated at some point in your life, I don't know but being humbled means you're going to learn. It doesn't mean humiliated you may get humiliated at some point in your life, I don't know but being humbled means you're going to learn. It's synonymous with learning. Yeah, because, just like in the brain, as we were talking before we hit record, in the brain you have these neurons and these synapses, and neurons either get stronger or they get weaker and go away. The ones you don't use go away, they get pruned as you learn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay. So all these different highways and roads in your brain, for neural pathways, they're getting bigger and bigger, wider and wider, more accessible. And the ones you don't use, say, for, if you don't speak a certain language, how many languages don't you speak? Think about that. Yeah, right, when you're a baby, there's a theory that you're able to speak every possible language. But you settle into English or you settle into Spanish, right, based on the reaction based on the learning, so those neurons go away. Or you settle into Spanish, based on the reaction based on the learning, so those neurons go away. The neurons for Russian or Mandarin Chinese, they go away.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm with you and English stays around and you get humbled into English. It's just one language, yeah right.
Speaker 1:And not everybody on earth speaks it. I wonder, is there a difference between being humbled and intentionally cutting something out of your life? Because when I think of pruned I love those thoughts. Right, I'm totally tracking with you.
Speaker 1:Before you said all that, what I was thinking through was the process of actually trimming a plant back manually was like the process of actually like trimming a plant back manually and I'm not putting like humility the way that we were just talking about, as like I'm putting the plant in its place, right, or like humiliating it. Yeah, and you said it doesn't always have to be a humiliation. Yeah, but there's a humility that's involved with it. So is there a difference between a humility and intentionally cutting out something that's just not good for the plant?
Speaker 2:Well, it's, either it's outside in or inside out. Okay, humiliation comes from the outside, shame comes from the outside, and hopefully that makes you humble and then you learn from it. The other one is a choice that you make.
Speaker 2:I'm going to get rid of this. Yeah, okay, I don't need this. I don't need this in my life. I don't need, I don't need this interest. I don't need this addiction. I don't need this group of friends or this place. In addiction literature they say change people, places and things. Changing could mean getting rid of. Yeah, say change people, places and things. Okay, changing could mean getting rid of. Yeah, just as easy as okay. When I go, the next time I go here, I'm not going to do these things. Well, how about you?
Speaker 1:just don't go there right, just don't go to that place yeah, and so I'm assuming that, like part of the literature, is that if you remove something from yourself that, uh, just like in a vacuum, like the vacuum will fill itself. Yes, something will come in behind and fill the vacuum, yeah, and it's placed. So, if you remove a place from your life, you're going to find a different place, and the goal is to find a more healthy place for you, exactly, yeah.
Speaker 2:I literally had that same conversation today with somebody. Oh, and they're in the process of working at a new restaurant. It's very stressful. And they say I said do you want to go down on your dose? And she's like, not right now, not right now. And I said okay, okay, too much at once. So we have to prune what we're trying to do, we have to cut back, and she's cutting back what she's trying to do. We have to cut back, she's cutting back what she's trying to do, not doing too much at once. I can only do restaurant-type stuff right now. I will do treatment-type stuff next month because she's got about two weeks left on her stress budget for this restaurant, nice.
Speaker 2:She's following the. After that then I will pay attention to my dose, but right now it's for this restaurant Right, and she's following the like. Okay, after that then I will pay attention to my dose, but right now it's right where it needs to be, so she's humbling herself and saying, no, I can't do that right now. Saying you can't do something and saying I don't want that is is. It's very similar to having something else right, saying I don't, I don't need that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's. It's similar to having to possessing something else entirely Because you're going, you're going to have. You have so much room in your life, only so much room in your life. Those holes are going to get filled. Could be drugs, could be alcohol, could be toxic friends, could be a bad relationship, or it could be religious community, could be faith, could be physical exercise, it could be knowledge. Could be any good thing or any bad thing, but you are a vessel to be filled.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well then I wonder what is God? What is Jesus talking about then in John 15? What is the pruning that God is going to do in our life as the gardener? Yeah, so I guess you can't really talk about this portion of it without also talking about the fruit that is produced, because that informs a lot of what needs to be cut out of our life in order to produce the type of fruit that Jesus is telling us, we need to produce.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the pruning is ourselves, our very selves.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think that to me, not as an outsider, but as a person relatively new to this scripture, it sounds like you need to prune of your very self, and let me Jesus fill that void.
Speaker 1:Okay, describe that some more. What do you mean by prune of your very self?
Speaker 2:I mean, you have an ego. Everybody has an ego, whether they know it or not. Ego is a part of the psyche. It tells you that you can do something and that you deserve certain things, and that you have what's called self-efficacy.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:How good am I going to be at this thing? Some people have really big egos, right yeah, in baseball terms. Some people are, you, say, bryce Harper, where they have a big ego. And then some people are, say, like Fred McGriff, where you can't even see, like I don't even know what you do for a living, right Right, I don't even know that you would be a baseball player if I didn't know who you were. Crime dog, yeah. But everybody is born with an ego, it just forms naturally.
Speaker 1:So are you suggesting that in order to be a follower of Jesus, you've got to do some pruning?
Speaker 2:Yes, you have to do it of yourself.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Now the world's going to prune you, no matter what. Okay, right, the world and culture by and large prunes and teaches. We can say teach. The world teaches men by and large, and a lot of times the same thing happens among women, but it's sort of like. Nature does that through childbirth and the parent-child dynamic, but culture and the world does that to men through rites of passage, what we might call toxic masculinity these days. So if you get out ahead of it, make the choice to I'm going to get rid of these things that aren't good for me and you go to a Bible-based church with good leadership, with right intentions, open heart, clear mind. Jesus is going to fill that void.
Speaker 1:Okay, very good. So we are creating a void in ourself to be filled by Jesus. Yeah, Okay. So in this passage I think you're totally right.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:The passage, however, talks about how God is going to do the pruning of the branches. Okay, and so we might be talking about two different things here. There is a response like we have to have a part in this play, and you and I have talked about that before. I think we may have even used that type of language on the podcast before. We rely on God, but we still have to make the decision to stop doing a sin like, to stop doing that action or stop going to that place, all the language that you're using here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is free will.
Speaker 1:Yes, but this passage, that what Jesus is saying. Let me read it again John 15, one through four. Just read the first couple of lines. I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. So there's a little bit of helplessness as a branch the way that Jesus is describing it. I mean, if we take the metaphor literally, at face value, this is a vineyard and this vine has all these branches growing off of it. The branches aren't even the ones who produce the fruit, they're just the conduit through which the sap travels to feed the bud on the end of that branch so that the fruit can be produced.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a perfect analogy would grow wild and they would produce less fruit because the sap is having to go to places in that branch that aren't producing very well. That it shouldn't go Exactly. So this analogy, is it an analogy or a metaphor? I think it's-.
Speaker 2:Are those the?
Speaker 1:same things. Honestly, I don't know we need your wife in here to be able to tell us the difference between those things Analogy.
Speaker 1:That's true. This is personification. Faith hit us up on the text messages. I do know it's personification. We're taking an inanimate object and pretending like it's a person. So in this personified metaphor forgive me literature teachers Jesus tells us we're a little bit helpless as followers here. Yeah, like we have to make the decision to connect to the vine and then really like Jesus is the one who's producing that life-giving that I'm calling it sap, because we're killing the metaphor here. But then God is the one, like the Father is the one who prunes back the branches. At face value, I don't think I have much to do with any of that. Yeah, do I?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, you're saying to begin with, you're either in the metaphor, you're either in the vineyard or not. You're either a believer or not, and a believer will hand it over. And a believer?
Speaker 1:will hand it over. Yeah, I'm suggesting that. This John 15, he's talking to believers. Yeah, that this isn't about whether or not you're saved or not saved. Right, he's assuming that everyone who's reading or hearing this teaching is saved, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So it goes without saying that you will, you will hand it over being a believer. That's what a believer would do. Okay, yeah, the condition. The conditions are already set up.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:If you're a believer, believer equals handing it over. Handing it over equals pruning believers equal you will be pruned.
Speaker 1:Well, oh, believers, equal, you will be pruned. Well, I mean yes, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 1:I think I'm trying to play a little bit too hard of a devil's advocate here. I got you, but I think we're getting close to or maybe we're already on it and I'm just trying that reference argument that contrarian argument a little too much.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking about what Jesus was trying to say to his disciples that evening, because it was hours before he would be arrested and then eventually crucified, nailed to the cross. What kind of pruning happened to those disciples I think of Peter very, very quickly after his arrest. Jesus told him at dinner that evening that you will deny me three times before the rooster crows tomorrow morning and Peter's like, I'm not doing that Right.
Speaker 1:You got the wrong guy, yeah, but sure enough, as the sun was rising and right before the rooster crowed its third time, peter denied having even known Jesus, denied being a close follower of him, I would imagine that's a pretty pruning moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That you're being revealed. Well, what's within you is being revealed? Maybe it was like a fear that Peter had.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Fear of persecution maybe yeah, fear is a good one. Once you encounter fear, that's going to be a pruning situation, because you now have to learn and again pruning. In the scientific community, pruning and neural pruning, or neural plasticity and learning are the same thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would say that he did learn from that moment. I can't be decisive that it was that moment that taught him this or made him this person, but okay, so Jesus dies, three days later he's resurrected, and then, somewhere around 40 days after that, he ascends to heaven. And then I'm getting this wrong. Oh man, do you have your phone? Oh man, you didn't bring your phone.
Speaker 2:I mean, I have my phone, but my Bible app is off.
Speaker 1:Okay, Bible scholars, which is everyone who's listening. Forgive me that I just got that timeline jacked up, but within a couple of months let's just put that parameter on it.
Speaker 1:Jesus ascends to heaven and then, on the day of Pentecost, the people are together and Peter ends up preaching the first sermon of the new Christian church, and he does it before thousands of people and he preaches boldly that you people are the reason why Jesus was crucified because of our sin and he died for you. So what are you going to do about it? And 3,000 of them that day came and dedicated their lives, through Christian baptism, to Jesus. So Peter went from being afraid if that's how we're labeling it on the night of his arrest so much that he denied even being friends with Jesus to, a couple months later, being bold enough to preach in front of everyone, thousands of people at the risk of persecution. Because the church enacts the first three chapters. It talks about the persecution that the disciples faced and that they celebrated that persecution. So the pruning is that what happened to Peter?
Speaker 2:There's pruning and then maybe in that situation that's just called behavior change. That's what we would call behavior change. It goes from you didn't even know something existed to okay, I know it exists, or the problem. I know it exists and I don't want to do anything about it. Now I want to do something about it, now I am doing something about it, and now I'm maintaining that action.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:He's in like the contemplation, or he's in the pre. It's called pre-contemplation. I'm not, I don't even want to do that, that's the doubt. But he did know him. He was just lying about it, but he was afraid of what was going to happen. He was uncertain I think uncertainty is a better word. He was uncertain of what was going to happen, okay. And now, after seeing all that, he was very certain about what was going to happen. Now he is who he says he is and I believe it. Yes, he's in action mode.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And the resurrection would be the definitive moment that all of them said okay, I believed, but now I definitely believe. Yeah, right, yeah. That would be motivating enough.
Speaker 2:It was almost like belief, with a tiny little condition. Now I'm unconditionally a believer. Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 1:It's an interesting way to think about it. So let's define the fruit that we need to be producing, yeah. Or let me rephrase it, not that we need to be producing, or let me rephrase it, not that we need to produce. Let's define the fruit that should be produced naturally in us as disciples, because, remember, we're the helpless branch. So then, what needs to be produced out of us as his disciples? Well, I talked about it in the sermon, and so, if we wanted to, we could go back down the list right, there's the fruit of the spirit, Galatians 5, 22 and 23.
Speaker 1:The fruit of the spirit is yeah, the song. We're both dads of young kids Are you ready. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Speaker 2:But what I thought was interesting is that you put it says the fruit, not the fruits.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, exactly, I like that.
Speaker 2:Like you, can't have one without the other. Exactly, I like that.
Speaker 1:Yes, Well, I mean, it's true, the Spirit doesn't just like decide. Oh, Ken, I'm going to give you a little bit of love and to Curtis, I'm going to get a little bit of joy. Yeah, you can't be a person of peace without being a person of love. I mean. So the fruit of the Spirit is one product that's coming out of you. Yeah, one product that's coming out of you. It's a cluster of grapes. There's a lot of different grapes on that cluster, but they're all the same fruit. One is not growing an orange and the other one a banana and the other one an apple. We're all growing the same fruit from the same spirit.
Speaker 1:But there's more that is described in the New Testament. There's winning others for Christ. There's being harvest participants producing holiness and obedience in your life, having a dedication for the benefit of others, for other Christians dedicated to the body of believers, Good works and service toward the Lord. Praise to God from our lips. All of these things are fruit that is produced in the life of being a disciple that's connected to the vine. So when we talk about pruning, then what is God going to cut out of us? It's the things that are not that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the opposites of those it's what's preventing us from being people who win others for Christ? Yeah, it's what's preventing us from doing good works and service for God and for praising him with our lips. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Impatience.
Speaker 1:Hmm.
Speaker 2:You know, impulsivity yeah, things like that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. We want to be people. This is really core for me. We want to be people who are at work for jesus accomplishing his mission. Everything else, in my estimation, is secondary, you know, um, our knowledge of god even secondary, because god wants relationship with us. There's, there's, no. If it were based on knowledge, then the law would still exist. Our knowledge of the law and ability to keep the law would still be in existence. But God, through Jesus, has issued a new covenant with us that our salvation is not dependent on the ability to keep the law or know it. It's the ability to know Jesus and remain in relationship with him, to move in with Jesus, the way I put it in the sermon on Sunday. And so out of that we should be producing the fruit of evangelism, of reaching for Jesus plus one. That's the way we say it at Crosspoint. It's our motto as a church, but always ready to give an account for the faith that we have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Just that tough word. You said evangelism. Yeah, the big E word.
Speaker 1:The big E word, and it is a tough word, isn't it? Yeah, when's the last time you just casually used the word evangelism?
Speaker 2:You don't casually use it Exactly.
Speaker 1:That's the thing. You don't casually use it.
Speaker 2:If you use evangelism, it's because you almost woke up that morning saying I'm going to use this word with this person if I see them in this situation and you are looking forward to it. Somebody that uses the word evangelism is looking forward to it. They wouldn't shy away from it, Right yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I think Jesus was the person who woke up every day ready to use the word evangelism yeah, ready to use the word evangelism, yeah. Ready to do the word, evangelism. His ministry, his life was one of radical love and service to other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean so much that at the end of his life he gave his life as an offering. In place of my own, he substituted himself for me. That's the greatest act of love and of service that anybody could do for anyone.
Speaker 1:Greater love has no man than this that a man would lay down his life for his friend. That's exactly what Jesus did for us. So radical love and service for other people. And can I say that I do that every morning I wake up saying Can I say that I do that every morning? I wake up saying oh I can't wait.
Speaker 1:Have radical love and service for other people today, yeah, but being a disciple of Jesus, that's the type of fruit that should be produced in me, and if it's not, god's going to be pruning away.
Speaker 2:And I pray that I don't become the type of branch that's described earlier in that verse, the type that is dried up and withered, and so it's cut off from the vine and thrown into the fire, Never to produce again, never.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, it's a tricky one, because we're not talking about whether you're saved or not, right, and so we could probably run the analogy even further. Is Jesus talking about the church here, or is he talking about just individuals who are in relationship with him? I'm not sure I can answer that on this podcast, but, at face value, we have what have we said? We're kind of helpless to an extent, because we're a branch. We have no ability to create on our own or to fix it so that we can create more on our own. We're reliant on the vine.
Speaker 1:Who is Jesus? He is the one who gives us all the nutrients we need, and so I would liken that to prayer and Bible reading, wouldn't you? I mean, if you want to know who Jesus is and how to live like him, you open up your Bible, right, and you read Matthew, mark and Luke and John, and you read the epistles of the guys who followed him and had encounters with him, and then you pray. That's part of having a relationship is talking to the person that you're following and in relationship with, and so staying connected to the vine and then allowing the father to prune you back and so being willing to listen to the Holy Spirit prompting in your life. You know, maybe you do need to let something go and God's been prompting you for that, yeah.
Speaker 2:Letting go is always tough and it's always good for you, because I always use the analogy and I used to in groups a lot of times and now one-on-one is you are either a carving or a sculpture, and a carving is where you strip things away until the form is revealed.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Sculpture is where you keep adding away until the form is revealed. Okay, sculpture is where you keep adding stuff until the form is revealed. Okay, people are carvings.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:You need to strip away until you are you.
Speaker 1:Gotcha yeah being chiseled away at.
Speaker 2:Yes, and by the gardener, the constant gardener, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm thinking how painful thater. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm thinking how painful that is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very painful To be a big rock, mm-hmm, was it Michelangelo?
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was a painter, was he a sculptor?
Speaker 2:Who's a sculptor?
Speaker 1:Well, he sculpted, he did, he did the David how painful would it be to be sculpted by Michelangelo, right, you know, meticulously, over years. This is not an overnight process, nope, just you know, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding ding.
Speaker 2:A little bit at a time, until you are revealed, uh-huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a guy on YouTube I've been watching lately who does uh, sculpting. So like oh cool he worked on notre dame. Yeah, the renovations they've done because you know the fire, they've reopened this year a lot of the outside, um, uh, what are those called spires? Spires, yeah, the artwork, the, the ornate decorations on the spires. That's what he does is he sculpts the rock and then it gets placed.
Speaker 2:It's very fascinating. Yeah, like marble it's marble?
Speaker 1:yeah Well, certain stones on the outside. I don't know if this particular was marble, but he shows a lot of different materials that he works with. That's cool, but it's fascinating to watch.
Speaker 1:It's almost mesmerizing, you know, because it's just one little hammer tap at a time, but over the course of several days and weeks it becomes this final form that can be put perfectly into place. Yeah, and like the, the crest of the spire. You know it's like 400 feet in the air, but it fits perfectly right where it's supposed to go and you can't even tell that it was broken to begin with.
Speaker 2:Just fascinating yeah.
Speaker 1:That's what God's doing with us, you know. Just one little hammer tap at a time, one little cut of the branch turning us into the people that he's designed us to be, People who follow that great commission right, Reaching for Jesus plus one. We are searching for the lost and bringing them to know Jesus.
Speaker 2:And you. Yeah.
Speaker 1:We all have the opportunity to do that this Easter, and I hope that you will Remember our initiative is no empty seat this Easter, so I wonder, have you invited anybody to fill that seat next to you? This Easter season We've got a lot of different opportunities as well the Easter experience coming up on the 16th and 17th and the Good Friday service on the 18th, plus the 40 hours of prayer. I'm out of breath just talking about it. There's so much to do at Crosspoint this Easter and I hope that you'll get involved and live on mission. We're aiming to double our impact as we reach for Jesus, plus one Ken great discussion today. Yeah, it felt a little more abstract A little bit, but I liked it.
Speaker 1:I like that we kind of allowed ourselves to think outside the box today uh, on what it means to be a branch and be pruned, and it's a lifelong journey. Yes, thanks for taking it with me, my friend, absolutely. And thank you guys, all of you, for listening today. Have a great week. See you sunday. Bye.