SPEAKER_00: We are continuing on with our series of uh uh Friends of Redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: And this week we have the honor and privilege of hearing from Pastor Sean Kelly.
SPEAKER_00: So we're super excited about that.
SPEAKER_00: Um of you may recognize him who heard last year, but uh a couple of a little bit of information about him.
SPEAKER_00: He was uh here at Redeemer as well.
SPEAKER_00: From 1998 to 2007, including welcoming two of his four sons while on staff year.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get better.
SPEAKER_00: All right, kind of squitoes.
SPEAKER_00: Oh like I thought you gotta help me with this.
SPEAKER_00: Involved mosquito, which I think we got that curve in uh Minnesota.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so faster from 2007 to 2012, and spooner faster from 2012 to ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Deeply connected mutual ministry uh serving on the LCMC Board of Trustees and the chair for the last three years and uh helping out the master institute on the board, and it's currently on staff with the Alliance of Renewal Church.
SPEAKER_00: And Sean and his wife Jenny have four grown sons, two grandchildren, and two dogs, which are two sons that still live in the twin city today.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's they have so many different connections here.
SPEAKER_00: So it is an honor and privilege to welcome Pastor Sean Kelly uh to hear from him today.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he's he's getting he's getting better at uh pronouncing the uh the name.
SPEAKER_01: So Peñasquitos Lutheran Church, if you can say mosquitoes, you can say peñasquitos.
SPEAKER_01: Peña means small in the Spanish language.
SPEAKER_01: If you know the terrain of the community I serve, it's uh small rocky cliffs, and it literally describes the geography of the area that I live.
SPEAKER_01: And so it makes sense in my context, but outside of San Diego, it makes no sense at all.
SPEAKER_01: So thank you, thank you for welcoming back.
SPEAKER_01: This is like a homecoming.
SPEAKER_01: I am shocked that after I was here last year, a year ago for this series, that Pastor Ben invited me back.
SPEAKER_01: Apparently, I went long.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, and so uh I did get four emails from him in the last two months, and every email included the similar thread.
SPEAKER_01: Twive minutes.
SPEAKER_01: 25 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: To which I responded, that's usually my introduction.
SPEAKER_01: Um but no, uh, it's been it's just uh an honor uh to be back.
SPEAKER_01: As Jonathan said, our connections here at Redeemer uh run very deep.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you I have known in this room for a really long time.
SPEAKER_01: I see some familiar faces.
SPEAKER_01: I did this at the last service, so I'm gonna do it at this service too.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to raise your hand if you remember when I was an intern here.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: That's actually a few more than I thought.
SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_01: If you remember when I was an intern, the rest of you you can still play along at home too.
SPEAKER_01: But if you remember when I was an intern, I want you to subtract 30 years from your current age.
SPEAKER_01: That's how old you were when I was an intern here.
SPEAKER_01: June of 96, I started my internship here.
SPEAKER_01: So I've known some of you in this room for over 30 years, which at least for me is over half my life.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, that's as far as I'm gonna go with my age.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to know uh how old I am, I'm at that point now.
SPEAKER_01: And instead of when people uh say happy birthday, they now tell me congratulations.
SPEAKER_01: So that's that's where that's my stage in life right now.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know where you're at.
SPEAKER_01: My congregation has blessed me this summer with a sabbatical.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you know the principle of uh of a sabbatical, and uh it's it's in the world of education, it's in the world of ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Uh now the uh uh executives in the business world are beginning to understand the value of taking a period of time to cease.
SPEAKER_01: Cease from your everyday life to renew, restore, and rejuvenate the soul, the spirit, the mind, the body.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I I've been blessed by uh by a sabbatical this summer, but when Pastor Ben said, well, if you're gonna be on sabbatical, you don't want to do this, I said, No, I really want to do this.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the problem.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is, is I have not preached a sermon for like over two months.
SPEAKER_01: So this might be really, really long.
SPEAKER_01: It might be really, really bad, or it could be both.
SPEAKER_01: So um I do have something I want to share with you.
SPEAKER_01: It's something that the Lord has been speaking into me, and oftentimes I find that when I have the privilege of preaching, uh, which I have been able to do now for almost 30 years, uh, it is always the opportunity first for God to speak something into my own heart.
SPEAKER_01: And I've just found that where God grows me, uh, and if I share from that growth, that oftentimes it connects with people.
SPEAKER_01: Now you may not connect with what I have to share today, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: It's probably because you're in a little bit different season of your relationship with God, but I just want us, like we prayed that prayer in the song that we just ended with.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, open my eyes so that I can see.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to open your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to open your hearts today to see what God might be speaking into you.
SPEAKER_01: And it might be something I say, it might be something I put on the screen, it might have nothing to do with what I said, but it might be something that the Spirit of God just puts on your heart.
SPEAKER_01: So would you open your minds with me?
SPEAKER_01: Would you open your hearts?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, we just want to hear from you.
SPEAKER_01: We want to encounter you today.
SPEAKER_01: We want to see amazing things for your kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And if possible, God, would you position our hearts and our minds?
SPEAKER_01: Would you position this congregation to continue to do great things for your kingdom?
SPEAKER_01: But we know, God, that our hearts have to be in the right place.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, would you just open our eyes, open our ears, may we hear your spirit today in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: My first sabbatical I got to take eight years ago.
SPEAKER_01: It was coming off of a season of really uh uh it was a grind, just to be honest.
SPEAKER_01: It was uh one I have a wonderful congregation, and uh, since some of them might be watching this online, I love you all.
SPEAKER_01: Um they won't be watching, it's okay.
SPEAKER_01: But we had gone through a just a huge transition, a lot of changes.
SPEAKER_01: Some changes we just needed to make, some changes we were forced to make.
SPEAKER_01: Our communities change, and I know your community here at Redeemers, you just things change.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's the only constant in life, right?
SPEAKER_01: So after a grind, uh I was given the gift of my first sabbatical, and and something happens on that sabbatical that for me was like this aha.
SPEAKER_01: Where it was like that bolt of lightning where God just speaks to you.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't hear the audible voice of God.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are gonna go, that's it?
SPEAKER_01: I do that every day.
SPEAKER_01: But for me, it was the gift of time that I allowed myself to go on a long walk.
SPEAKER_01: Just a long walk.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, any type A's in the room?
SPEAKER_01: Type A personalities?
SPEAKER_01: Any screaming type A's?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, that's where I raise my hand.
SPEAKER_01: I have lists and I have lists of my lists.
SPEAKER_01: A Google Keep, are you familiar with that?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I have to have at the top pinned the list of all the lists I have.
SPEAKER_01: That's like that's my life.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: So taking walks is not, was not a part of my vernacular until eight years ago.
SPEAKER_01: What I realized eight years ago is when I took time just to kind of cease from doing all the things that God would have me do on his behalf and in his name, which are all good things, right?
SPEAKER_01: I learned, even after all of the years of walking with the Lord, I learned God can just speak in revelation.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have to go look it up, I don't have to Google it.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the Spirit of God just puts things and things will pop into my mind, and God was speaking to me, and I learned that as an important lesson because then something else happened between my last sabbatical and this hat uh this sabbatical.
SPEAKER_01: It was called COVID.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've ever heard of it.
SPEAKER_01: Changed the world, changed lots of things, polarizes people, polarizes, I mean, just all the bad stuff that had come out of it.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, like this congregation, like uh uh we were navigating together, all the congregations in our tribe and the people that I still stay connected with.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we it was just it was a really tough season.
SPEAKER_01: And any sermon that I could prepare for my head, and even from my heart, anything I could look up, anything I could wrestle with was not adequate.
SPEAKER_01: But the gift I had in being locked up was I went on a walk.
SPEAKER_01: And what did I learn from the first sabbatical is when I got to go on that walk, oftentimes God would just kind of give me some revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And through there I was able to lead from a place of non-anxiousness, even though it was exceedingly difficult.
SPEAKER_01: On this sabbatical, uh, my wife and I, by the way, my wife Jenny brings greetings.
SPEAKER_01: She can't be with me here yet.
SPEAKER_01: She's gonna join me at the end of the week.
SPEAKER_01: My family and I, who uh live here, we're gonna go um up and uh spend some time with some friends up uh up north, but uh, she brings her greetings.
SPEAKER_01: We she got to spend two weeks with me in Italy as part of my sabbatical, it was an awesome trip.
SPEAKER_01: And you know the thing that we talked about about our trip on our way home most often?
SPEAKER_01: The thing that we liked the most, and it wasn't seeing the Colosseum, it wasn't seeing all the historical sites, it wasn't going and tracing kind of Paul's route when he was uh uh in Rome and in prison and then eventually put to death by Nero.
SPEAKER_01: I like all the history stuff and the archaeology, and we were exploring all of that.
SPEAKER_01: We went to Florence, we went white, I went wine tasting, and um we went to Venice.
SPEAKER_01: Um the whole thing, you know what we talked about?
SPEAKER_01: What we're gonna miss?
SPEAKER_01: The 22,000 to 25,000 steps a day that we took with one another.
SPEAKER_01: Walking just has a way of connecting us, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Your mission statement as a church to walk in the way of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want to push you today.
SPEAKER_01: Not just walk in the way of Jesus, walk in the way of the Redeemer, I think is how you say it.
SPEAKER_01: But walk with the Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Walk with him.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean to walk with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna give you a visual here in just a minute, not yet, but I want you, how many of you, you just want to be used by God and you don't even mind trying really hard to be used by God in any way, shape, or form?
SPEAKER_01: You're just gonna do whatever it takes and you're gonna work as hard as possible to do great things for God.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you would just love to live a life like that and you're in?
SPEAKER_01: Sign me up, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I I three.
SPEAKER_01: There's literally three of you who raise your hands.
SPEAKER_01: Literally three.
SPEAKER_01: One, two, and three.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: All of us want to do great things.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the problem.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is that oftentimes what it looks like, and this is a picture of my life in the last season.
SPEAKER_01: This is the season I'm coming out of.
SPEAKER_01: This is the season that I stepped into sabbatical into, and I'm trying to relearn some things because this is what my last season of life looked like.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you will understand this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying really, really hard.
SPEAKER_01: Like a toddler trying to lift 400 pounds.
SPEAKER_01: And apparently, in that picture, he doesn't even know how to use his hands.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you don't even know how to use the right technique.
SPEAKER_01: I have the secret sauce for you today.
SPEAKER_01: About how to do good things for God, how to produce fruit for God.
SPEAKER_01: Would you like the secret sauce?
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, open your Bibles with me.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 15.
SPEAKER_01: If you brought them with you, we're gonna put it on the screen too.
SPEAKER_01: As I read this, I'm gonna read it all.
SPEAKER_01: Not the whole chapter, just eight verses.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_01: See how God might be speaking to you, in what words, what phrases, or something that as it's said might be new for you.
SPEAKER_01: Many of you have heard this.
SPEAKER_01: But what word or words will just jump off the page or off the screen here in these next moments?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says this to his disciples I am the true vine, 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.
SPEAKER_01: You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
SPEAKER_01: Remain in me.
SPEAKER_01: Remain in me, as I also remain in you.
SPEAKER_01: No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must what?
SPEAKER_01: Remain in the vine.
SPEAKER_01: Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
SPEAKER_01: I am the vine, you are the branches.
SPEAKER_01: If you remain in me, and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Apart from me, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_01: If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers.
SPEAKER_01: Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
SPEAKER_01: If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
SPEAKER_01: This is to my father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna stop there.
SPEAKER_01: Um, if any of you are lawyers in the room, I know we've got at least one, but uh, you might say, objection leading the witness.
SPEAKER_01: When I asked you to consider what words might be jumping off the page, I led you all in in what jumped off the page for me this week as I was preparing this for all of you.
SPEAKER_01: That word kept coming up over and over again in four verses.
SPEAKER_01: I read eight, but in four verses, that word remain comes up eight times.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think that that's important?
SPEAKER_01: It's not a trick question.
SPEAKER_01: No objection to leading to witness.
SPEAKER_01: This is it, it's an important principle, and it's gonna be ultimately what I'll call the secret sauce.
SPEAKER_01: The secret sauce of walking in the way of the redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Walking with the Redeemer along life's paths.
SPEAKER_01: A couple principles I want to uh share this morning of divine.
SPEAKER_01: The first principle is this discipleship is not about effort, it's about connection.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about how hard you're working for the kingdom of God, it's not about how hard you're working to even stay connected to God.
SPEAKER_01: See, Jesus deliberately uses this vine imagery.
SPEAKER_01: He does this because it's rooted in Israel's history.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, can we put that?
SPEAKER_01: It's up there.
SPEAKER_01: Uh read that with me, John 15, 1.
SPEAKER_01: Ready?
SPEAKER_01: I am the true vine and my father is the gardener.
SPEAKER_01: Very important principle, especially for the disciples that would have been hearing this.
SPEAKER_01: There's two philosophies that are at play in that word true.
SPEAKER_01: The Greek word is alethanos.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean that something can be true or false, but in the sense of something is real, it's tangible, it's actually before you.
SPEAKER_01: In Greek philosophy, there was an understanding that everything that you and I see in the material world is actually a shadow copy of something that's happening in the spiritual realm, not necessarily how we understand the Christian spiritual realm.
SPEAKER_01: So when I'm looking at you, I'm not looking at the real you, I'm looking at the copy of you, the shadow copy of you.
SPEAKER_01: Some early hearers, when Jesus would say things like the true vine, when John, who died in Ephesus, when he most likely wrote this gospel, this is a very important word for him because he talks about it often.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about Jesus quoting as being the true bread of life, being the true light of the world, being here the true vine.
SPEAKER_01: He is the real thing.
SPEAKER_01: He's not a copy, it's not a shadow.
SPEAKER_01: But for the Jews, they would have understood this, that it was Jesus who was speaking specifically of how God called and referred to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was referred to as God's vine.
SPEAKER_01: And so when Jesus says, I am the true vine, he is connecting to their history.
SPEAKER_01: And he's connecting, and I think part of why John writes this in the way that he does, because of the gospel he writes, because of the location where he writes it, he's also speaking to the other philosophy.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing about the Old Testament use of the imagery of the vine is whenever God spoke that word, whether it was through some of the prophets, most of the time in the book of Psalms, the vine, Israel being God's vine, was spoken of as failures.
SPEAKER_01: They failed.
SPEAKER_01: They failed because they could not produce fruit.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a vineyard and you grow grapes so that you can make raisins or you can have wine or grape juice, do you think it's important that your vines produce fruit?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, not a trick question.
SPEAKER_01: See, this preaching is not rocket science.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't this isn't hard.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, of course it's important.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus is speaking to these words, he's connecting to this Old Testament understanding that Israel is God's vine, but they're failing.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus comes and he's preparing his disciples for his departure, because that's where we're at in the story of John's gospel, this is called the farewell discourse.
SPEAKER_01: A series of chapters where Jesus is imparting to his disciples some final words and some encouragement so that they can go be and do and walk in the way of the Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: When the Redeemer finishes his job on the cross, ascends back to the Father in heaven, and the movement that he started, this movement of resurrection, this movement of redemption, will be carried out by those who follow in his footsteps.
SPEAKER_01: And he is telling them, I am the true vine.
SPEAKER_01: Where the nation fails, I've come to take its place.
SPEAKER_01: You see just how rich that is?
SPEAKER_01: I can't see it in the light.
SPEAKER_01: I hope some of you are nodding.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, I'm the real thing.
SPEAKER_01: I've come to do a work.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples haven't quite grasped the whole thing yet, but they're getting there.
SPEAKER_01: See, fruitfulness, fruitfulness flows from our connection.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't flow from our effort.
SPEAKER_01: Has anybody ever used a power tool before?
SPEAKER_01: And you've pulled the trigger, let's say you're using a saw and you pull the trigger and nothing happens.
SPEAKER_01: What's the first thing that you do when nothing happens?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let me rephrase.
SPEAKER_01: What's the first thing you do if you're smart?
SPEAKER_01: First thing, put that picture on.
SPEAKER_01: First thing, is it plugged in?
SPEAKER_01: The principle here is the same.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm feeling somewhat disconnected, if God feels distant to me right now, let's start with the very basic thing.
SPEAKER_01: Are you connected?
SPEAKER_01: Are you plugged in?
SPEAKER_01: Another way, are you walking closely with the one who invites you to walk with him?
SPEAKER_01: Here's a reflection question for us with this today.
SPEAKER_01: Where in my life am I relying more on my effort than on my connection with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Where am I trying things really hard?
SPEAKER_01: But maybe not necessarily where I'm connected right now.
SPEAKER_01: Here's another principle of the vine.
SPEAKER_01: Abiding is an ongoing relationship.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a one-time thing.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that old spiritual?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's an old hymn.
SPEAKER_01: I have decided to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone?
SPEAKER_01: I have decided to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: No turning back, no turning back.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's true, no turning back.
SPEAKER_01: It might be a time where you remember praying something that says, Jesus, I want to experience you as the real thing.
SPEAKER_01: Come be the Lord and Savior of my life.
SPEAKER_01: However, it is that you prayed.
SPEAKER_01: The vernacular is not important how you pray it, but just acknowledging that somewhere along the way, I have committed my life to Jesus as he has committed his life to me.
SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_01: See, abiding is this ongoing relationship.
SPEAKER_01: The word abide, and the way that we've translated it in the NIV that I read from today, we translated it as remain.
SPEAKER_01: The word abide is rich, it has a lot of depth to it.
SPEAKER_01: We might just say, remain in me.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have as much punch, but abide means something different.
SPEAKER_01: Abide means like to dwell.
SPEAKER_01: Another way that it means is to stay, but not just to stay like we tell our dogs, stay.
SPEAKER_01: I got two dogs, as was read.
SPEAKER_01: I had no idea where that came from, but I do have two dogs.
SPEAKER_01: I tell them, stay.
SPEAKER_01: And they're mindful.
SPEAKER_01: And then when they don't mind, I put it back in their place.
SPEAKER_01: Nope, I told you to stay.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like dogs.
SPEAKER_01: I do that with my kids.
SPEAKER_01: Um where was I going with that?
SPEAKER_01: I don't remember.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but the word means stay, but not just stay, but it's almost like stay as in a fix.
SPEAKER_01: Think of a post that stays put, even in the winds and the storm to hold up the fence, because it's affixed into the hole in the ground, full of concrete, not just one foot of concrete, three feet, four feet, five feet down.
SPEAKER_01: Pylons.
SPEAKER_01: Remain in me, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: We've already determined that that was an important principle.
SPEAKER_01: Remain, stay, affix yourself, make your living.
SPEAKER_01: There's a great verse that we read at most Christmas uh times, is the verse from John chapter 1, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God, he was with God in the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: We usually skip to verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: The word became flesh and what?
SPEAKER_01: Made his dwelling among us.
SPEAKER_01: Literally translated, pitch descent among us, but the same word in Greek, different form of it, is used to make his dwelling, is the same word that's used here.
SPEAKER_01: Remain.
SPEAKER_01: Stay.
SPEAKER_01: Make your life affix it to me.
SPEAKER_01: Abiding is about consistency.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if you're feeling, and this is, and admittedly, I said I'm kind of, what's the Lord's been saying to me in these in these recent months?
SPEAKER_01: By the grace of God, we just because of the policy, I had to plan the sabbatical.
SPEAKER_01: It's been on the books for a year.
SPEAKER_01: But even leading up to it, man, I was just feeling dry, spiritually dry, emotionally dry.
SPEAKER_01: That spills out into my relationships, especially my closest relationship.
SPEAKER_01: It spilled out to my staff.
SPEAKER_01: God, what is it?
SPEAKER_01: How come?
SPEAKER_01: Because what I was doing in the months leading up to my sabbatical is I was trying really hard to get it back.
SPEAKER_01: Like lifting that 400-pound barbell with my wrists as a toddler.
SPEAKER_01: And I got really intense with my faith.
SPEAKER_01: And I got really intense about working for God.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone try that before?
SPEAKER_01: You feel dry?
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna, I'm gonna I'm gonna buckle down, I'm gonna read my Bible even more.
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go to church even more.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do this that anybody relate to that?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: But that's not what Jesus is asking.
SPEAKER_01: He's not asking us to be more intense.
SPEAKER_01: He's inviting us to be deeper and more deeply connected with him.
SPEAKER_01: I get that white knuckle faith.
SPEAKER_01: Show that next picture.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I look like sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: I just grip that steering wheel, and you know, you just get really intense as you drive and you have that all going on.
SPEAKER_01: That was what my faith can look like sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: But the invitation of Jesus is not to, you know, it's it's don't be so intense about it.
SPEAKER_01: Can I say I can, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I can say whatever I want.
SPEAKER_01: Um, some of my least favorite people in the entire world, are you ready for this?
SPEAKER_01: Are you sitting down?
SPEAKER_01: Are really intense Christians.
SPEAKER_01: The really intense ones.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever met an intense Christian?
SPEAKER_01: Mufaza.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It's just it's like the white knuckle faith.
SPEAKER_01: Everything's just intense.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes it's how are we staying connected in the midst of that intensity?
SPEAKER_01: See, abiding resting loosens the grip and invites God's presence in, not his pressure to perform.
SPEAKER_01: Make sense?
SPEAKER_01: Here's a reflection question.
SPEAKER_01: What does my current rhythm say about how closely I'm actually walking with Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: This isn't meant to be legalistic.
SPEAKER_01: This is meant to be an invitation to examine the heart.
SPEAKER_01: Especially, I this is a word, especially for those of you who just are feeling really either disconnected or dry, or maybe God just doesn't seem to be real close to you right now.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not feeling close to God, which one of you moved?
SPEAKER_01: So, what are the rhythms that you're practicing to foster those connections?
SPEAKER_01: Here's another principle of the vine.
SPEAKER_01: Pruning is part of growth.
SPEAKER_01: It's not punishment.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2, it's kind of tough.
SPEAKER_01: Every branch that does not bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
SPEAKER_01: Every branch that does not bear fruit will be pruned.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any experience of gardening or any experience in working with fruit trees or or or vegetable gardens or anything else, especially fruit trees, you know this principle.
SPEAKER_01: You prune back the things that aren't producing so that what can happen?
SPEAKER_01: So that the resource and the nutrients can come up through the ground, into the roots, up through the trunk, out through the branches, and onto the leaves, which then produce fruit.
SPEAKER_01: It can concentrate, and this is what the promise of God is.
SPEAKER_01: In my younger days, I used to think uh very judgmentally about this.
SPEAKER_01: Like I had better be careful, or else God's gonna cut me off from the family.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm not producing fruit, I better try harder.
SPEAKER_01: See the problem when we can get into?
SPEAKER_01: But as I've gotten a little bit older, just a little bit, I've begun to see this actually as God's grace.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because a gardener prunes the things he cares about.
SPEAKER_01: If God is pruning me in a season, if God is pruning a congregation in this season, like he's pruned my congregation, it's for good things.
SPEAKER_01: It's because he cares.
SPEAKER_01: We go through seasons of fruitfulness, but then there's also the season of abiding, the season of resting.
SPEAKER_01: This is the principle of growth.
SPEAKER_01: It's the principle of how we garden, it's the principle of how Jesus has chosen to speak to how he works inside of us in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not his punishment as much as it is his grace.
SPEAKER_01: Because left unpruned, branches grow wild.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things about visiting Minnesota is I have 19 years, it's been since I've served here and lived here, uh, I forgot how quickly things grow out here.
SPEAKER_01: It's like nothing grows during winter, and then spring, you're cutting your grass like every four days.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And then it's like, man, how many of you have neighbors?
SPEAKER_01: Don't raise your hands.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, this is one of those don't raise your hands.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have neighbors that just don't tend their yard and everything's overgrown?
SPEAKER_01: That give me a picture of what our soul does when things aren't pruned, when things are left unattended.
SPEAKER_01: I have a neighbor not too far down the road.
SPEAKER_01: I've spent a lot of time, I've spent a lot of money, I've done my own sweat equity, and I've made my yard look really good.
SPEAKER_01: But a few doors down, guess what?
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't look very good.
SPEAKER_01: And when I look at that, what do I think?
SPEAKER_01: They must not care about their yard.
SPEAKER_01: It's probably true.
SPEAKER_01: But God cares about me, God cares about you, and what do caring gardeners do?
SPEAKER_01: They prune the things that they care for, they prune it so that other good things can come up through.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews says this in uh chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: Read this with me.
SPEAKER_01: No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.
SPEAKER_01: Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
SPEAKER_01: There's something that happens when God prunes us.
SPEAKER_01: I have come through a season.
SPEAKER_01: We're in a season in my uh my current ministry situation.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's fruitful, things are great.
SPEAKER_01: But just God's just had to do some pruning.
SPEAKER_01: Some things personally, some things professionally.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I came into my sabbatical, I described it to one of my spiritual mentors, I described it as I just feel like I'm panting, just feel like I can't catch my breath.
SPEAKER_01: Looking back and some of the things, lamenting, like maybe kind of the pity party that I will sometimes have.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone else have pity parties inside their own heads?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I do too.
SPEAKER_01: And the pity party, I'm looking back and but as I've been walking literally more with the Lord in the sabbatical time, as I did drive out here.
SPEAKER_01: It took two weeks to drive out here on my own, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't recognize me with a beard, it's because this is uh this is an indication of how long it's been since I've seen my wife.
SPEAKER_01: She hates it.
SPEAKER_01: So since she hates it and I haven't seen her in a while, I've just let her grow.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, um that was a freebie.
SPEAKER_01: But what I realized is, you know, some of the things that God has been pruning, and it hurts his grace.
SPEAKER_01: It is not without purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And I can start seeing things.
SPEAKER_01: But God is just repurposing it and purposing it for good things, even though, man, it can feel painful.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, if if you feel like God is pruning you right now, the two words of encouragement I want to give you today hang in there, and any pain is not without purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Here's a reflection question for you.
SPEAKER_01: What would it look like this week?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, nope, I read the wrong one.
SPEAKER_01: What might God be gently pruning in my life so that something healthier can grow?
SPEAKER_01: Somebody after the last service said, gently.
SPEAKER_01: It feels like God's taking a machete to some things.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: What might God be taking a machete to in your life?
SPEAKER_01: What might God be pruning in your life so that something healthier can grow in its place?
SPEAKER_01: Final one this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Final one means, and I know that I'm almost out of time, probably already out of time.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit is the result of abiding.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to hear this very carefully as I finish the sentence.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit is the result of abiding, not the requirement for belonging.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: We have such a cause-effect culture.
SPEAKER_01: You put the work in when you're in school, you do the homework, you take the test, and you get the grade.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, I love the grade.
SPEAKER_01: I want to know where I stand.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody else?
SPEAKER_01: I want to know what the bar is because you know what I'm gonna do with that bar?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna raise it.
SPEAKER_01: And that can have ill effect on my relationship with the Lord because if there is a standard by which I want to know, God, is there a standard for me to live by?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm gonna try to overachieve that standard.
SPEAKER_01: And if I fail to measure up, and in Romans, what does Paul write?
SPEAKER_01: For all have sinned and fall short of God's standard, the problem is that if I feel like a failure, I feel like I can't belong to the very community that can help me bring me back.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: Folks, we gotta, we we gotta change the scorecard in this.
SPEAKER_01: This is why I call it the secret sauce.
SPEAKER_01: It's about remaining, it's not about achieving.
SPEAKER_01: Fruit is the result of abiding.
SPEAKER_01: An apple tree with the proper soil, connected through the roots, up through the trunk, out through the branches, into the leaves, cannot help but do what?
SPEAKER_01: It cannot help because it's built this way.
SPEAKER_01: It cannot help but produce apples.
SPEAKER_01: Believers with Jesus who are walking close in his way cannot help but produce the fruit of the vine.
SPEAKER_01: What is the fruit of God's spirit?
SPEAKER_01: You cannot help but produce love.
SPEAKER_01: Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.
SPEAKER_01: You ever recognize the more that you like hang out with somebody, the longer you've known somebody, you begin to take on some of the characteristics of that person.
SPEAKER_01: My wife and I are over the 30-year mark of marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Not too long ago, I was watching her talk.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you know my wife.
SPEAKER_01: My wife is literally the opposite of me in every way.
SPEAKER_01: That's probably why we get along so well.
SPEAKER_01: I am a talker, she is not.
SPEAKER_01: I am loud and obnoxious, she is quiet and demure.
SPEAKER_01: The other day she's talking, not the other day, it's you know, beard.
SPEAKER_01: Um, not too long ago, I was I was just chuckling to myself because I'm watching her talk and she was getting louder as she talked.
SPEAKER_01: This is like, who is this person?
SPEAKER_01: And you know what the real tell was that we have been together a really long time as she was talking with her hands.
SPEAKER_01: Like, who is this person?
SPEAKER_01: She is talking and communicating like I do.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't tell Pastor Ben this, but if you want this message to be five minutes long, just tie my hands behind my back.
SPEAKER_01: The more, the more that we're around somebody, the more that we're gonna take on their characteristics, the good and the bad sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: The more that we're connected to the one who gives us the sustenance, the one who invites us into a life with him, the more we're around him, the closer we're connected, what can't we help do?
SPEAKER_01: Produce the fruit of his spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, we try so hard.
SPEAKER_01: We do the spiritual checklists.
SPEAKER_01: If I just pray more, if I just give more, if I just serve more, if I just go to church more, if I just try harder, it's all gonna work.
SPEAKER_01: But that is not the secret sauce.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have tried the spiritual checklist stuff?
SPEAKER_01: It has its place.
SPEAKER_01: Don't hear what I'm not saying.
SPEAKER_01: It has its place, but it's more out of the response of being closely connected to the one.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just give you a few things this week.
SPEAKER_01: What it would look like for you as a church this week if every one of you did one of these next five.
SPEAKER_01: Don't do them all at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: It's a spiritual checklist.
SPEAKER_01: Ironically enough, I'm gonna give you a checklist, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But here are some steps of how we can abide together with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Choose one of these.
SPEAKER_01: Choose one of these every day this week.
SPEAKER_01: Five minutes of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the key before you check anything else.
SPEAKER_01: Before you check your phone.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's a discipline.
SPEAKER_01: That's hard for me to do.
SPEAKER_01: I I I'm not putting this up here because I think this is a good idea.
SPEAKER_01: I I put this up here because this is this is what I need to do.
SPEAKER_01: My first go-to is to check the phone, and I'm checking emails, I'm checking text, I'm checking, I'm checking, I'm like doom scrolling.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't even know that was a term.
SPEAKER_01: I'm learning these things.
SPEAKER_01: What if you what if you begin your day just praying a prayer of surrender, which by the way is the most dangerous prayer you can possibly pray?
SPEAKER_01: Prayer of surrender is, God, I have my plans today.
SPEAKER_01: I have my checklist today.
SPEAKER_01: God, I have all of these things, but you know what?
SPEAKER_01: If it's not aligned with how you want to use me today, redirect me.
SPEAKER_01: Interrupt me.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody like challenges?
SPEAKER_01: Who likes a challenge in this realm?
SPEAKER_01: I dare you.
SPEAKER_01: I double dog dare you.
SPEAKER_01: Ooh, the double dog.
SPEAKER_01: I double dog dare you to pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, interrupt me today.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because he will.
SPEAKER_01: And somewhere along the way you'll go, I need to do something different.
SPEAKER_01: It's outside my comfort zone.
SPEAKER_01: How about a um, if you commute, or if you walk, or if you run, or if you bike, or if you take the train.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is, how you get from point A to point B in our world of transportation.
SPEAKER_01: What if instead of listening to podcasts and listening to the music, what if it's just a silent amazing things happen when you do this?
SPEAKER_01: Hey God, I'm all ears.
SPEAKER_01: I'm all ears.
SPEAKER_01: And that's it.
SPEAKER_01: Repeating a simple Jesus prayer.
SPEAKER_01: It's a prayer that you repeat throughout the entire day.
SPEAKER_01: This is my go-to Jesus prayer.
SPEAKER_01: You ready?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, make me more patient today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a patient person.
SPEAKER_01: And that came out in droves yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: My son loves to fish.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he loves to fish.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just stop at that.
SPEAKER_01: He loves to fish for muskie.
SPEAKER_01: And he wanted to take me muskie fishing, which apparently is really hard.
SPEAKER_01: And it takes a lot of patience.
SPEAKER_01: Four hours was I praying that prayer yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, make me patient.
SPEAKER_01: I love my son.
SPEAKER_01: I hate fishing.
SPEAKER_01: Pray a repetitive Jesus prayer.
SPEAKER_01: What is it for you?
SPEAKER_01: That's it for me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just giving you insight on how I do it.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe that's helpful.
SPEAKER_01: Saint Ignatius had this prayer called the examine prayer at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_01: It's a way where he reflected on the day just before I fell asleep.
SPEAKER_01: And it just started by giving thanks for the day.
SPEAKER_01: And it moved from giving thanks just to breathing.
SPEAKER_01: Just to pause and to breathe.
SPEAKER_01: And to reflect what went well during today.
SPEAKER_01: Where did I fail today?
SPEAKER_01: Where did I miss God's voice today?
SPEAKER_01: Then it turned into a prayer of God forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: Help me grow.
SPEAKER_01: And then just to rest and to trust.
SPEAKER_01: Admittedly, I never make it through the examine prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I always fall asleep.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody else fall asleep during your prayers?
SPEAKER_01: How do you think God feels about that?
SPEAKER_01: I think God loves it.
SPEAKER_01: I think God loves the fact that I can't make it through a bedtime prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And I only knew that when I became a father myself and held a little one in my arms.
SPEAKER_01: And then just watched that baby making all the noises that that baby would make and all the stuff that comes with babies, even the smelly stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And just watching that baby being so safe and so secure and to fall asleep in my arms.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing better.
SPEAKER_01: How do you think the Heavenly Father feels about that when we do that at the end of the night?
SPEAKER_01: We just fall asleep in this presentation.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe on Sunday afternoon when you take a nap after listening to this long sermon.
SPEAKER_01: Don't tell Ben I went over.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you stand with me?
SPEAKER_01: I want to pray a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: This is a.
SPEAKER_01: It was meant to be a commissioning for rabbis.
SPEAKER_01: It's a rabbinic saying.
SPEAKER_01: And the rabbinic saying goes something like this.
SPEAKER_01: This is how we would translate it in English from Hebrew.
SPEAKER_01: It would be this may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to pray that as a prayer blessing for you as you walk in the way of the Redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And as I've been pushing you today to walk with the Redeemer, may you walk so closely with the Redeemer that as he's trampling up dust on the path, it's getting all over you.
SPEAKER_01: Because that means what he is communicating, what he is saying, what he is teaching, what you are observing about the path that he's on is the one that you are following, and it's the path that you will walk in and be leading others in.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, I pray blessing over this congregation today.
SPEAKER_01: I pray blessing over everyone who hears this morning, that they may be covered in the dust of you, their rabbi, because they are walking so closely with you, and may his road become your road in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.