Be With Me I Pastor Kendrick Vinar

Have you ever felt weary from life's daily grind, carrying burdens that seem too heavy to bear? Pastor Kendrick unpacks Jesus's transformative invitation to "Come to me" in Matthew 11:28, revealing how learning to abide in Christ's presence is the key to finding soul-deep rest. Through practical insights on being still, waiting, and listening, he shows how Jesus wants to both remove our burdens and add His strength, clarity, and peace to our lives. Whether you're navigating daily stress or deep pain, discover how developing the learned skill of abiding can lead to renewed strength and complete joy. Watch now to experience Jesus's life-changing invitation to exchange your weariness for His rest.

📖 Key Scripture: Matthew 11:28
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Join us next week for another life-giving word from Grace Church of Chapel Hill!

Transcript

At the new year kind of getting launched. Hope you're doing really well. Wanna greet everybody out at Alamance Campus. We love y' all out of Alamance Campus. Put your hands together for the team and our church out there.

One church, two locations. Y' all are the best. Y' all are the best. So, hey, today we're in week two of our series called Disciple, where we've got this really simple goal over eight weeks. We wanna help you become a better disciple.

This is like straight up the middle. Like, this is foundational. Let me tell you this. If we could all grow closer to God, know God better, have the spiritual roots of our life go deeper, we're going to be healthier, stronger. It's going to impact every area of our life, and that's really our heart.

And prayer for you is that you would grow in your relationship with the Lord as a disciple. Last week we talked about Follow Me as a follower of Jesus. And so that's really our hope and prayer for you. We're doing eight weeks on Sunday mornings, but starting next week, we're gonna have six weeks of small groups that are gonna complement what we're doing on Sunday mornings. So what does that mean?

We have. You can sign up for a small group. You get in a group, you get to know some people, and on Sundays, we're gonna be talking about Follow Me. In our relationship with the Lord, how do we grow to know God better? How do we know God's will for our life?

And it's gonna be all kind of vertical in our relationship with the Lord. Now in the small groups, in those relationships, we're gonna talk about this, the relationships of a disciple. And let me tell you, this is very important. If you wanna be who God's called you to be and do what God's called you to do and be changed and be. Be significant at the end.

You need God in your life. Let me tell you this. You need people, too. You can't just go it alone as an island. And so the content in the small groups is completely different.

We're gonna focus on the relationships of a disciple, because as a follower, as a disciple, God's purpose, God's spiritual growth for you, he wants to work in you and he wants to work through you in other people's lives. And so I really want to encourage you to get into a small group. Today out at Alamance, here in Chapel Hill, we've got our small group expo. And so what that means is you can sign up between the two campuses. We've got like 130 groups you can plug into.

There's a lot of options, y'. All. Well, I don't know if one can work. Well, one of them can work. Okay.

And we would love to have you be part of one of these groups. I think you put these two things together. Sunday experience, small group. For these six weeks, you're gonna grow. It's gonna make a difference in your life.

And so would love for you to kind of dive in and go on this journey with us. So. Okay. Last week we talked about that being a disciple meant three things. Number one, being with Jesus.

Two, becoming like Jesus, and then three, doing what Jesus does. So it starts by being with him, and then we get changed to become like him. And then he works through us and we do what he does. Now, today we're gonna look at the first one, being with Jesus. So last week we talked about.

Follow me. Today we're gonna talk about be with me. Being with Jesus. And I really hope to make this hopefully practical and helpful. So this idea of be with me, you know, if God says be with me, I mean, in one sense you could think, isn't God everywhere at all places, at all times?

You know, he's omniscient. And let me just say this. In one sense, it's impossible to not be with God, right? But have you ever been with somebody but not really been with them? Like, you're in the same room, but you're not really connecting.

And I don't know why that could ever, you know, be, be, be, be, be an issue. You know, where you're there in the room, but you're not really connecting. Okay? And I think we've all experienced. I think at times God is everywhere, but we don't always feel like God is there.

We might not even be benefiting from his presence or really connecting with Him. So his invitation to be with me is because he wants her to be a flow, a connection, life, okay? And it's really for our good because y' all check this out. Let me tell you this. You're not gonna learn something in the next 30 seconds, okay?

This will not be new news for you. Are you ready? Because life is hard. Shocker, right? Life's not easy.

Life can really be tough, can't it? Like, we go through life, we get dinged, we get knocked down. Relationships can be difficult. Listen, I'm Mr. Positive.

Woo. You know, enjoy more and, you know, whatever. And. And I'm all for it, right? But let me tell you this.

Life's not easy. It's difficult. And what I want to do is talk about how we get dinged and we pick things up. Let me tell you this, I kind of broke it down into three levels. Here's level one.

Level one, life is hard and difficult. You day to day, right? There's day to day stresses, there's day to day pressures, day to day deadlines, things to do, you know, at work with the family responsibilities, things break down, you gotta get the car fixed. I think my brake pads, by the way, just FYI, are wearing out. And I heard a little grinding coming, you know, like, you know, and it's just another thing, right?

And some of these things, we end up carrying the weights and responsibilities and the stresses day to day. Now, level two, Level two is tough seasons where it's not just sort of the day to day stuff, but the next level up is when you go through a season that's particularly tough. It's not just that, like, there's deadlines, things are a little stressful at work. But like, I don't know, maybe you get a new boss or your company gets sold and you just go through a season that's particularly difficult and challenging. Or even in your family you go like, boy, we were doing well.

We were just cruising along and then all of a sudden this happened or that went sideways, or we face these challenges and sometimes they kind of stack up and you have like three things happen and like, oh, you know, and it's a tough season, Financial pressures, right? Maybe it's a tough season just for yourself. Personally, internally, like, I was doing great and all of a sudden I just feel like I'm not doing well internally, I'm stressed, I'm overwhelmed or I'm anxious, I'm depressed. Tough seasons happen. And then third level, just to discourage you a little bit more, is when there is like tragedy or trauma or deep pain.

Let me just give you the good news is, praise God, this doesn't even happen every year. This is like throughout your lifetime. But let me say this, it will happen to all of us. You lose a parent, there's a tragedy, there's a, I don't know, there's an accident, car accident, and there's something sort of traumatic that you go through in your childhood. Maybe, maybe currently you're going through something that's really deep, really painful, there's a betrayal, the relationship just didn't melt down, the person really turned on you, and it was hard going through a divorce.

It's traumatic, it's difficult. Makes it a beginning to. And let me Just say this. Sometimes I think some of the things we go through are. I'll come this sneaky tough.

Like if I asked you, are you going through anything traumatic or whatever you. Ah, no, it's. And we're tough and we're responsible and we're hardworking. Let me say this. I think it's sneaky tough.

Cause we don't realize the ongoing drain it's caused or the weight that we've been carrying. Caring for elderly parents can be really tough. You're in grad school and it's just overwhelming and the work and the hours and it's sneaky tough. And because we're hardworking and responsible, we're gonna talk about that. Which is a good thing to be hardworking, responsible.

Because of it, it can mask it. And we, and, and we just gotta kind of keep going. And we don't realize what we're really carrying. And we're, we, we've. We're carrying some things.

And let me tell you this. When we're carrying them internally, our soul, our heart, keeps the score. It impacts us. The body keeps the score. It'll show up physically in your body.

In fact, you know, when you're carrying things, when you go through something, let's go to level three, something traumatic or a tragedy. They actually say, physically, your brain will be rewired. Going through that traumatic situation. And your mind needs to be renewed, but your brain needs to be rewired. And sometimes we don't realize there's literally a physical thing that's happened to us.

Brain scans can show that the synapses of our brains and how we respond. You go, well, when I get in a situation like that, why do I react that way? And we actually end up needing to rewire our brains through renewing our minds. I mean, Jesus is the answer, let me just tell you. Impacts us.

It impacts us because we've gotten worn down and we're carrying things. We're worn down or carrying things. Now let's look at Matthew, chapter 1128. Jesus says this. Come to me.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Isn't that cool? He says, jesus says, come to me. There's an invitation from God to be with me. Come to me.

Abide in me. Remain with me, all you who are. What are the two things? Weary, you're tired, you're running on empty and are burdened. One version says, heavy laden.

You're carrying things around you. And again, let me just say this. Daily, through tough Seasons, through kind of the big stuff. We all end up weary, tired, running on empty a little bit because we don't have the strength within ourselves. And two, we all end up picking up things.

We've gotten dinged, we've gotten knocked down, we got hurt, we got offended. It was painful. And we're still carrying it with us. We're still carrying it with us. And the question is, where are you going to go?

He says, come to me, and here's a promise. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Now look at this.

I love this. I love the repeating of. You will find rest for your souls, your soul, your internal life. Your heart needs to be strengthened because it's weary and it needs to be unburdened, and it needs to be rested. It needs to be refreshed, and you will find it.

If you come to me and check this out. If, if. If you can take my yoke. You're carrying a yoke. You're carrying weight, you're carrying responsibility, and it's wearing you out.

There's things in your heart and your soul. The hurt, the offense, the pain, whatever. And this is so important. Look at this. Learn from me.

Learn from me. Now, let me tell you this. Learning to come to Jesus, to be able to unburden yourself with what you're carrying, is a learned skill. It's a learned skill. You will not do it naturally.

You're not gonna do it. Like, just going with the flow. This is something that you need to learn on how to come to Jesus and have this divine, like, transformation, change that happens where I can come and go. Here's my burden, here's my heavy lane. Here's my pain, here's my sin, here's my disappointment, here's my hope deferred.

My. Here's my broken heart. And give it to him and allow him to change you, to transform you. Cause let me say, here's the challenge. Here's the challenge, y'.

All. The challenge is this. We all have other places to go when we're heartbroken, when we're weary and when we're burdened. In fact, let me say this part of being a human being on planet Earth, and God created us all differently. So this is very important for you to kind of know this about yourself is this.

Where do you go when you're hurting, when you're overwhelmed, when you're stressed, when you're weary, when you're burned. How do you unplug, unload, decompress? How do you process pain, hurt, bad day? Where do you go? Now listen, I believe in Sabbath, resting, chilling out thing is really good.

Let me tell you this. We all have places to go that Jesus has come to me. And God can use a lot of different things that are good things to help us. But at the end of the day, he says, come to me. And we all have a natural tendency of where we tend to go to look to something else besides Jesus.

When we're weary and burdened, when we're stressed and overwhelmed, when we're in pain, when we're hurting, when we have a bad day, when we're frustrated. And let me just say this. What you soothe with, you serve. What you soothe with, you're going to end up serving that. What you use to cope will eventually rule you.

What comforts you will command you. And we all have things that we go to, places we go, experiences we create that we look to. Where will you go to feel better? Netflix. I mean, you can binge watch Netflix, sports scrolling endlessly, reels, watching YouTube, shopping, playing a game on your phone.

And some of these things are good, good things like your work, right? Let me tell you this. Sometimes when this, for some people, like when they get in a hurt and they're not doing well internally, they go like, oh, I'm just doubling down. I'm going to grind. I get in late, get in early, stay late.

And you just sort of soothe yourself and dive into just working super hard, you know, food, eating food's a good thing. It's really good for your health. But we can eat to feel better, to soothe, we can drink. You can end up drinking too much to soothe, to feel better, and you'll end up serving that. And, and there's a little bit of release, there's some comfort.

But let me tell you this. These things ultimately will not replenish you, refill you deeply. They won't give your soul the rest that it needs. And Jesus gives us an invitation, come to me. Because we're hardworking, because we're responsible, and because we keep going, we can sometimes not slow down enough.

We're just too distracted with all that's going on to slow down and really allow God to help us internally. So there's a famous story, famous story about two sisters, Martha and Mary, and they host Jesus in their home. So Jesus is coming over for dinner. Jesus is coming over for dinner is kind of a big deal, right? And so Martha is a hostess and she's going to, like, serve Jesus.

You know, serving is a good quality. She's responsible, she's hard working. And eventually what happens is Mary, Jesus comes over, is just chilling, sitting on the couch, listening to Jesus doing nothing. And Mary, I'm sorry, Martha snaps and says to Jesus, lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me.

And Jesus responds, martha, Martha, you're worried and upset about many things.

You got a lot going on and you're worried, you're upset, you're frustrated at work, with life.

But few things are needed. Indeed, only one. And Mary has chosen what is better. Jesus wasn't saying hard work isn't good, or being responsible or serving or being a good host isn't good. No, no, no, no, no.

What he was saying is this. Martha in the room, and you got an opportunity and your drive and your go, go, go, and your responsibility and your hard work. Jesus is in the room, and you're missing the opportunity to connect. And you're only serving, being responsible. Let me tell you this, y', all, like, that's a lot of us.

That's a lot of. He goes, you can work hard, be responsible and host, but you also know when. You need to know when and how to slow down to be with me, Jesus, be with me, abide in me, remain in me. Find the moments where you can come to me when you're weary and burdened and learn to take my yoke and get refreshed in me. That's what Jesus was saying.

And I want to say this for some of you, this is a new thought I'm trying to. I might be stretching you a little bit this morning. For some of you, you're gonna have this experience this morning. You're gonna go like, oh, I used to be better at that. And I got busy.

And I'm going, let me just say this. Why it might be a new thought is I think often we think about being with Jesus, coming to Jesus, or our relationship with God, we'll just say. And we go like, well, I read my Bible. I think reading the Bible is good. I pray, I think prayer is good.

But this concept of come to me when you're weary and tight, when you're weary and burdened, and then have this divine exchange of taking my yoke, learning from me. This is being with Jesus in his presence. Another word the Bible uses is, this is learning to abide in me, remain in me. And this is a different skill. Let me tell you all, again, this is a skill that you need to learn.

This is not according to human nature or American. Not very American. All right, let me tell you a little. Let me give you a glimpse, a snapshot of what I think we all need to learn to do, which we will not naturally do unless we see it and catch a vision for it and work to implement it in our lives. And we do this in order that we would be healthier and stronger on the inside as human beings, because we're gonna pick up all this stuff daily, seasonally through life, and we're gonna carry it with us.

We'd be tired because we're trying to do it on our own. And we're gonna be burdened because we're carrying all this stuff. So what is abiding? Abiding is this. Abiding is being still.

Be still.

Be still and know that I am God. Isn't that interesting? Be still and then you'll know that I am God in a lot of ways. Hustle, hustle, hustle. Go, go, go.

Like, y' all, listen, I'm preaching to the choir right here. I'm preaching. I'm preaching myself here. Like, I can be at the front of the line on this one. I need to hear this in the sense that, I mean, I go, go, go.

I got a plan. We got three services, got a meeting. After that, I'm gonna try to fit in a workout. Like, I got. I gotta get back and watch the Patriots and Drake May.

Like, I gotta. You know, I got my day planned, you know. And let me just say this. If you go with the flow, if you go with the current, you won't be still. You gotta have a vision to be still and to slow down.

Steve Shogun wrote a book about such a great title, Living at the Speed of Soul. I think I'm pretty sure that's close. I love that thought. The speed of soul. I think we all tend to go a little faster than the speed.

Abiding is being still slowing down. Abiding is waiting on the Lord. See, I'm not good at waiting. I know about y'. All.

I like, let's go. We'll make it happen. You know, I mean, I make a decision, bam, I, you know, I'm ready to go. Like, we don't need to wait on the Lord. Let me say this, those.

This is what Isaiah says. Those who wait upon the Lord, renew their strength and slowing down to wait upon the Lord to renew your strength. It says, if they will mount up with wings as eagles, they'll run and not grow weary. How can you mount up saying this? You can mount up with wings.

As eagles, you can fly.

I love that picture of an eagle flying. It's just. It's the wind that causes that ego. Just to not having to strive, baby. Because the wind caught them.

And they'll run and not grow weary. How do you run and not grow weary? It's not your strength. You've tapped into a different strength and that comes from waiting on those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. Because it's not their strength that they're tapping into, it's God's strength.

That's a learned skill, y'. All. Abiding is listening. Abiding is listening. Again, I'm all into talking to God.

That's prayer. Woohoo. Let's talk to God. That's really good. Share your heart, share your thoughts.

Present your requests. All right. But abiding is listening. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. Proverbs 8:34.

I love this. Blessed is the one who listens to me. Watching daily at my gates, waiting, waiting beside my doors. So listening daily, watching, waiting list. Receiving.

Abiding is casting your cares on God. See, when you abide, and this is what remember, we come in weary, so we're going to renew our strength. We also come in burdened. And learning to cast your cares upon God because he cares for you is a part of what abiding is all about. We learn to go, lord, here's my care, here's my concern, here's a decision I need to make strategically, blah, blah, blah, you know, at work or with the family, like, here's what I'm carrying, this is what I'm facing.

Learning to bring that to God and cast it on him is so important. Abiding is receiving, not just serving. See, Martha was serving, Mary was receiving. And again, I'm for serving. I'm for working hard, giving it all away.

Get after it. Yes, but see, you gotta replenish, you gotta restore. You got you, you gotta good at. Get good at receiving. We love because he first loved us.

So I'm not good at receiving love. I'm not gonna be good at giving it. You can't give away what you don't have. I gotta get good at receiving. And that's part of what abiding is.

Now, how do we do this? How do we do this? Well, John, chapter 15 is the most famous kind of. Jesus had this whole chapter. If you're intrigued by this Topic spend some time.

We actually it was our devotion in our devotional this week for our Pray 21, I think Thursday was John 15, John 15amazing chapters long. I'm gonna read a little bit and try to make it practical. I wanna try to make it real practical to help you. How do we do this? How do we put this skill into our lives to really help us practically.

John 15 starts off with this. I am the true vine. Jesus says, and my father is the gardener. He's gonna give this analogy in John 15, is that the Father's the gardener, Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. And the whole picture is the vine has nutrition and life in it.

We're a branch. And apart from him we can do nothing right. That if we're not abiding remaining in the vine, there won't be life. And so that's the analogy. Now here's the first thing.

We're just gonna read what the Bible says and we're gonna apply it. So this is what it says. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. Well, every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. He's saying this.

He prunes and cuts things off. He cuts things off that need to go, that aren't productive, that are negative, might be wrong, unhealthy, sinful, and then even the good stuff, he'll prune it back, snip it. Okay, and, and, and, and next verse, you are already clean because of the word I've spoken to you, which is that I cleansed you and removed some things from you, and it happened from my words. Here's the first big idea. Abiding removes things.

Abiding that when you learn to be with Jesus, wait upon the Lord, abide in him. It removes some things. And let me tell you this, this goes back to we're all carrying stuff. We're all carrying stuff day to day, tough season, big stuff that we carry stuff. And Jesus wants to create an atmosphere and environment where you can bring it to him and he can take your burdens, he can lift the weight off of you.

He can comfort you in your sorrow, in your sadness. He can heal your pain, he can ease the disappointment. He can bring hope where you're hopeless or where you're broken hearted. And he wants to come to those very areas. This is so important.

This is so significant. Let me just say this. I think we tend to underestimate the residual impact of what we carry into the future from what we go through. We get better, but maybe not as healthier as we could or we should be. So what happens is this.

We go through a tough season, but here's the problem with life. Life keeps going. Y' all notice every month they send you an electrical bill. Kids need diapers changed, get to school, bills need to be paid. Like, you just kind of, like, you go through something tough, but you gotta, like, kind of suck it up and keep going.

And you do. And let me tell you this, this is very important.

When God helps us, when we get dinged, knocked down, hurt, offended, pain, go through something, it impacts us. And often this is very important. The deeper it is, the longer it takes for God to completely get us to a healthy, good place. And it often happens in layers and not all at once. It happens in waves is another way to say it.

I talked with someone recently, and she was saying, like, she had this really good season and things had gone well and felt like she was in a good place. And then, like, bam, bam, bam. Some things happened. And she said, I lost it. I lost it.

I, like, lost. And in that moment, I just had this thought. I said, you didn't lose it. God was just digging deeper because she felt like she went backwards. He didn't go backwards.

God was just digging deeper to do another layer of healing and health and trust. He was working in you. And God works in layers with us. And what could happen is we underestimate the residual impact of things that we've been through. I'll be honest with you.

This morning, it was actually at our first service, I was here worshiping, and I knew what I was preaching on. I hate this when God makes me have to do the same message, you know, like, I'd rather just tell you all, you know, just kidding. But I'm there worshiping. And a situation came to my mind that I thought I dealt with. And this is what I realized.

I'm still disappointed.

I'm still disappointed. I forgave. I'm better. I'm good. We're all good.

Let me tell you this. Often we don't realize where we're really at. And it's like this. We haven't. In that situation, I was doing better, but I hadn't fully processed it.

Let me use some things that when you come in and abide and wait and you're still. And you're not talking, but you're listening, you slow down long enough to really get in touch with, oh, I'm still mad, or I'm disappointed or I still am angry with that person. A lot of things we don't do because we don't want to feel those things. We end up, we still are carrying things around. We've got some.

Let me give you some examples. Some unprocessed grief is an example. Some unprocessed grief, like there's a loss that we had with a loved one, with a situation, something broke, fell apart and you grieved and the Lord comforted you and helped you. Let me just tell you this, you can't just bounce right back like when you lose that loved one, when you go through a divorce. Like, like the grieving process is not just like, well, just forgive and move on.

Well, you can forgive in a moment, but the healing takes time. The process takes time and it's gonna come in waves and also you're gonna have memories of your dad again and tears are gonna flood back through your eyes. And it wasn't that you didn't mourn or weren't comforted before, but God's just doing another layer and it's just really healthy. And sometimes you gotta let that. And unprocessed grief is one thing, unconfessed sin where like you, you made a mistake but.

And you know, you messed up somehow. Like you just haven't brought it to the Lord and said, God, I messed up. And kind of rationalize it, minimize it, excuse it, but it will eat away your confidence in your relationship with the Lord if you just don't go like, lord, shine your light on me, just go splat. Here it is unexamined decisions. When we have choices that we've made in the past or need to make or are making right now in the present, but we're making them independently.

Let me tell you this. When you haven't really given it to the Lord and to let his light shine on it, make it with him, you will intuitively not be confident in the decision because you're making it by yourself and not with Him. And it can, it can carry something, unnamed fear.

You know, you wake up at 3am and you're like anxious and you don't know why or something at work, you're stressed out. Let me tell you this. Sometimes we just haven't named what it is and we need to slow down and be still long enough to go like, why am I out of sorts?

What's bothering me?

And I think it's true for men and women. Maybe, you know, maybe it's more true for men. You know, we're just kinda like, keep going, who cares? You know, and maybe we're not as in touch, whatever. I think it's true for all of us though, that sometimes we don't even know what we're feeling totally until we.

And it's an unnamed worry, you know, I'm not afraid, I'm just stressed. Okay, whatever, big shooter, you know, that's, you know, like call whatever you want. Worry, stress, anxiety, whatever. Like. Like it's same thing.

And so we don't. Or unresolved relationships. There's a person you need to forgive. There's a wall that's up. A conversation you've been avoiding.

A marriage that's functioning but not thriving and just staying busy creates this wall that stays up. Or lastly, unengaged faith, where our faith is just not engaged. We're going through the motions. We're checking the box. We read the Bible, but we're not really worshiping and experiencing God's love flowing.

Let me just say this. Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. Take my yoke, bring that to me. And I want you to learn how to give it to me. How to give it to me.

So here abiding is removing. Here's the second thing. Abiding is adding is adding. This is the encouraging part, is not only does God remove the painful, difficult thing, but he replaces it and gives us the nutrition, the life, the encouragement, the strength that we need. He prunes every branch.

That's unhelpful. But he also causes the nourishment to come. He says, remain in me as I also remain 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, unless you abide in me, unless you stay plugged into me. And this is a really cool thought to think that, like, it's like internally, your soul needs to be plugged in. Like you charge your phone every day, right? You gotta plug. Your heart needs to be plugged into God in order that you can receive his encouragement.

Let me tell you this. He adds strength to you, y'. All. He'll add strength when you're weary. He'll give you strength.

And you just cannot do life in your own strength. You're not meant to do it in your own. If you try to do life in your own soul strength, I promise you there's gonna be an unhealthy that's going to hurt you and hurt the relationships around you. You just cannot do it in your own soul strength. You've got to learn to.

How do I abide? How do I Take his yoke. How do I receive his peace, his grace, his strength. He adds clarity. Like when you're confused, trying to make a decision, not sure what you to do.

When you abide in him, you cast your cares and he'll lead you. He adds peace. He'll give you peace. In the middle of your struggle, in the middle of your pain, he goes, I'll give you. He adds love.

Love for God, love for others. Patience with yourself. Abiding gives your soul what you need to grow. We could go on hope and kindness, love, strength and encouragement. Let me tell you this.

God has for your heart every day, nourishment and learning to abide. Learning to make room for God, hearing his invitation, come to me. Developing that skill, y', all, is something we all need to do. We can all grow in. And ultimately, the good thing is this is what abiding ends up producing something in our lives.

It produces the cool thing. As we do this naturally, there's this fruit that flows from our life. Listen to this. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. It's gonna be done for you.

By the way, though, this is a little quick side note. This is telling you how to get answers for prayer. Hey, everyone, elements, check this out. You're. You wanna know how to get answers for prayer?

Right here. Here we go. All right. Here we go. This is important because listen, have you ever felt like God, I want you to answer my prayers, right?

I like to. How do you get God to answer more of your prayers? Do you get God to answer your prayers by praying more? Sometimes James says, you have not because he asked not, but Jesus said this. Y' all be careful.

Don't think you're gonna get your prayers answered because of your many words and repeating yourself. It's not how much you pray, it's not how loudly you pray. What this verse is saying is, the closer you are to the Lord, as you abide in him, he's going to answer your prayer. You know, like, I love to, like, serve people. And, you know, like, I like to please people.

And, you know, I love. Help people. And, you know. But of all the people on planet Earth, the person I'm closest to is my wife, Nana. And when Nana says, hey, sweetheart, could you.

The answer's yes.

The answer is yes.

Because of our relationship. Let me tell you this. What this verse is saying is, if you abide in him, if you remain in him, if you ask whatever you wish, it'll be done for you. Here's a thought. Focusing on being closer to God will actually allow God to produce and to work and move in your life more than trying harder in your own strength.

Here's the last verse that Jesus uses to summary. He says, I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. I love this is kind of a summary statement. I've told you all these things about abiding, that abiding removes things, abiding adds things, and that it naturally produces this. And God will answer your prayers as you walk with him.

Let me say I've told you all this so that as you learn this skill of casting your cares upon God, as you learn this skill of taking my yoke upon you, that I'm gonna remove some things, I'm gonna add some things, and my joy will be in you. And your joy. You're gonna have a joy. You're gonna have a passion in your life. You're gonna have a purpose to your life that's significant.

You're gonna have a strength on the inside. Internally, you're gonna be stronger because you're tapped into a source that's so much greater than you. And what I'm just praying for you and for me, for all of us today is that we would tap into that, that strength, that life, and that the Lord would put within us a desire. Here's my prayer for us is this is.

Do you want to make a decision to respond to Jesus Invitation? He says come to me. He says, be with me. It's an invitation. And it's different, y', all than pray to me.

It's different and I'll then read my word. It's an invitation to relationship. It's an invitation to be still. It's an invitation to wait upon the Lord. It's an invitation to listen.

Now I would say this. I'll be honest. I'll tell you what I've been praying. I pray for everyone know as I pray for y'. All.

Let me tell you this is what I prayed is that even today something would come to your mind where you go. I've been carrying it. I've been a little weary and I've been burdened. I've been carrying around like this morning what happened to me. I got it came to my mind.

Let me just say this. Wouldn't it be cool if all of us could just take a moment? We're going to pray here in just a second. And what if something comes to your mind? A person, a Relationship, a disappointment, a pain, a trauma, a tragedy, a season, something you've been carrying.

And let me just say this, the Lord won't. Isn't gonna fix it all in one brief little quick prayer. And God bless you. Go get him. Have a great day.

But you could open the door. You could open the door. You could say, yes, God, I'm going to come to you. I want to learn from you. I want to take your yoke upon me.

I want you to, like, start doing something differently. I'm coming. I want to. I want to learn to abide. I want to put this practice into my life and respond and say yes to you.

Let's pray. Father, thank you today that you really are a good, good father. And that, Lord, you give us an invitation that as we go through life and we get dinged and knocked down and get hurt, have pain, go through a tough season, go through something traumatic or tragic, have a deep pain, daily stresses, whatever it might be, Lord, you give us an invitation. Come to me, all you who are tired, weary, burdened, carrying things, or we want to learn from you how to cast our cares, to give it to you to. To really learn to abide a different skill, to be still.

I pray that we could say yes to this and. And, Lord, maybe even with the incident, the person, the situation, the internal thing that we're wrestling with, Lord, we want to bring it to you today. We want to bring it to you to humble ourselves, to say, lord, yeah, this is. This is unprocessed, not fully processed, at least. There's still residual hurt, offense, disappointment, pain, shame.

I'm still beating myself up, whatever it might be. Lord, I come and I step into the light. I want to step into relationship. It's an invitation into relationship. And maybe today you feel God knocking on the door of your heart, inviting you into relationship, inviting you to put him first, to follow him.

Let me tell you this. The most important decision you'll ever make in your life is to humble yourself and to say it. I want to become a disciple. I want to follow Jesus. I want to put him first.

Right now, you can make that decision to say, Lord Jesus, I want to put you first. Lord Jesus, I want to ask you into my heart. I want to ask you into my life. Come. I put you first.

Forgive me. I want to start afresh with. With. With you at the center. I just pray blessing over every person making a decision to surrender their life to Jesus Christ today.

Lord, we love you. We trust you. You began a good work in us. Keep doing that. Work.

And I pray you teach us all to respond to your invitation to be with you and to learn to abide in Jesus name. Amen.