SPEAKER_00: Morning, Central.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning to all of you in here at all of our other campuses, my home uh uh campus of Glendale.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, welcome to everyone online and all the things that we got going on here at Central.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for being here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And uh once again, my name is DJ, and uh man, just love being a part of what we're doing here at Central.
SPEAKER_00: And I love what we've been doing in this series, uh, this idea of healthy hustle.
SPEAKER_00: Healthy hustle where God has designed us for work.
SPEAKER_00: He has created work, he has created us to work, but he's also designed us and he created us for rest.
SPEAKER_00: He actually gives rest to all of us as a gift, and we got to figure out how to do this balance of hustling well, but also resting well, and that's where we get the term healthy, healthy hustle.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna continue our service and our uh our our uh uh sermon series um today, just figuring out what that means for us, our life, and how do we live a life where we're truly healthy?
SPEAKER_00: And that's gonna be our task um this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So if you can uh go to your Bibles and turn to John chapter 15, we're gonna be in the first uh four verses here in a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Uh before we get there, let me explain something, what's been going on inside uh of my life.
SPEAKER_00: And so Courtney and I, uh we have uh a relatively new homeowner, so we're about three years or so.
SPEAKER_00: So we're not rookies, but we're not uh veterans at this uh yet, as my uh families when we we we got our home.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we and we are man, we've just been learning a ton about what does it mean to own a house?
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot for us uh to figure out and and to do, and we've been learning a ton.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've been learning about things like uh HVACs and how not to get scammed by different companies, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We've we've we walked through that road.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna say the company because one of you may work for them, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna leave we're leave that alone.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, from plumbing and all the different things that we have going on inside um of our home.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's Father's Day, so shout out to all the dads out there.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you don't know what I'm talking about, I want you to find a dad or ask your dad if you don't if you don't have one in your proximity right now.
SPEAKER_00: After church, find a dad.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be wearing cargo shorts or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna you're gonna find a dad and you're gonna ask him, hey, what what um uh what's been going on at the house?
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna say something like this there's always something.
SPEAKER_00: There's always something going on.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you saw the picture, I got three little kids.
SPEAKER_00: There's always something going wrong and going and going on.
SPEAKER_00: It's it could be it could be absolutely a mess at times, but it's also a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just venting a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: I love my house, I love my kids, uh, but just venting uh a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: But there's always something going on, though, and that phrase never meant more to me than it does um right now.
SPEAKER_00: And so Courtney and I in March we pull up to our house and uh we notice something.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've been noticing it, but we've been ignoring it.
SPEAKER_00: But we come up to her house and uh we see our yard, our front yard, which I don't know if we do we call them yards here because we don't have grass, they're rocks.
SPEAKER_00: So you're saying yes, okay.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so but in in our in our front yard, it's everything is, I mean, all of our bushes and our plants, they're just completely overgrown.
SPEAKER_00: Like they are, it it's bad, y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm thinking, it's it's really, really bad.
SPEAKER_00: We have definitely neglected this as well.
SPEAKER_00: You've been there too, so it's just not me.
SPEAKER_00: I know some of y'all do the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: It may not be with the yard, but it may be with your laundry, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But I know you do the same thing, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And it's it was it was really bad.
SPEAKER_00: We just neglected it and we're just like, oh my gosh, this is this is really bad.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you have something going on at your house and you know the neighbors are talking about you, this is where we were in our life, and like everything was was completely overgrown because man, we've become, we've become really, really busy.
SPEAKER_00: And we've we would just like drive in and drive out, we're on to the next thing.
SPEAKER_00: We've become really, really busy.
SPEAKER_00: And if I think about and reflect on our yard in in March, man, I would also say that my life can also look like that at times.
SPEAKER_00: Just completely overgrown, completely out of control, completely out of order, not doing the things that we are supposed to be doing the way that God has designed us to do them, like my life can look like our yard did.
SPEAKER_00: And the problem is, is that our culture in our world today tells us like being busy, like having more and more and more in your life, accumulating more, jumping from one thing to the next, doing all those different things.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there'll be times where Courtney and I have different seasons in our life and we just see each other in the hallway, like, hey fist bump, hey, how you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Good to see you, roommate.
SPEAKER_00: Like, we have so much going on in our life where man, and our world can say, man, that's actually a good thing, and celebrate how busy you are.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about think about this.
SPEAKER_00: One of the uh biggest questions we all get asked is, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: There's two ways that a common way that we answered.
SPEAKER_00: One is fine, which is a lie a lot of the times.
SPEAKER_00: We're not doing well.
SPEAKER_00: And then the second way is we're busy.
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I'm just so busy.
SPEAKER_00: I say this all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh my gosh, just so busy.
SPEAKER_00: And and a lot of times, like if you're like me, sometimes I don't say it as a, oh my gosh, like I'm busy, like I don't want to be busy.
SPEAKER_00: We kind of say it as like a badge of honor.
SPEAKER_00: Like we get a busy badge from Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts or something.
SPEAKER_00: Like, like we say that we are busy as if it's a good thing, like fake humbleness.
SPEAKER_00: And our world says, you know, that, amen, like, yeah, like you get applauded for being that busy.
SPEAKER_00: Like, well done.
SPEAKER_00: Way to go after, way to go get more, way to hustle, right?
SPEAKER_00: To keep doing more and more and more in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And when we look at the person of Jesus, think about who we see the person of Jesus be inside the gospels.
SPEAKER_00: We don't really see him run anywhere.
SPEAKER_00: He walks everywhere he goes.
SPEAKER_00: His pace of life is where it's supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not like how ours is today, especially in a big city like Phoenix, where everything is so fast-paced and we're jumping from one thing to the next.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Cal last week even talked about this idea, man, of a boat, and how if we keep loading and loading more onto our lives, like we are eventually gonna destroy our lives, like we are going to sink, like it is not meant to go this way.
SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you, church, right now, that you are not meant to live a life that is of chaos and overgrowth and all the different things.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a few ways that our life can show up in overgrowth.
SPEAKER_00: The first way is the overgrowth of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's things inside of you that should not be there.
SPEAKER_00: Bitterness, anger, a lack of self-control.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a sense of panic and shame.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're experiencing lust, addiction, and greed.
SPEAKER_00: Overgrowth of the heart that should not be there.
SPEAKER_00: Or, or, and at the same time, we can have an overgrowth of our schedules and our calendar.
SPEAKER_00: Where we are just jumping from one thing to the next.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have any time to do what God is calling us to do.
SPEAKER_00: Our life can be overgrown.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you that that is not the life that God has for us.
SPEAKER_00: That is not the life that God has for you.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to be about something different in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Which leads to our uh verses of today, John chapter 15, and we're gonna be in the first four verses.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus speaking to his disciples, and he says, I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener.
SPEAKER_00: 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_00: You're already clean because of the word I have spoken to you, remain in me, and I also in you.
SPEAKER_00: No branch can bear fruit by itself.
SPEAKER_00: It must remain in the vine, and neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus talking to his disciples, and he's giving them this picture of abiding in him, which is almost a picture of like someone living together, like uh lodging or being in really close proximity with one another.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling his disciples, hey, you have to remain in me.
SPEAKER_00: And this discussion that Jesus is having with his disciples are coming at a really crucial point in both of their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is about to go to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what we call the Last Supper discourse.
SPEAKER_00: It's like Jesus is calling a timeout.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Hey, we got two minutes left in the game here.
SPEAKER_00: We got two minutes left, and I need you guys to get what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Like, in order for us to win this game, you got to know the strategy, you got to know the things that we are going to do.
SPEAKER_00: We got to call the right play and we got to execute the right place so that we can win the game.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus calling his disciples into what I would have called probably like a holy huddle.
SPEAKER_00: Or he's with his guys and he's like, hey, we got a mission to accomplish because Jesus knows what's going to happen next.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe that Jesus is not only preparing them for when he leaves them by dying on the cross, I think he's preparing them for when he ascends into heaven and he has a call on each one of them to say, Hey, you're gonna start the early church.
SPEAKER_00: Here's our most important things that you need to understand as you do that.
SPEAKER_00: Abide inside of me.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus has some order to this as well.
SPEAKER_00: He has some order to this idea of abiding.
SPEAKER_00: And so one of the orders is that man, you have to be pruned so that you can abide in Jesus fully.
SPEAKER_00: This idea of pruning, of cutting out things of your of your life.
SPEAKER_00: If we go back to our verse, there are two ways that we are pruned in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And the first way is that we are pruned by God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: This spiritual, this heart things I were talking about earlier, the lust and the greed and all these different things, God wants to prune those things out of your life.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 15, the first two verses say, I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener.
SPEAKER_00: He cuts off every branch of me that bears no fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Well, every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is making it very, very clear that it is God that does the pruning in your life.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he wants to do in your life.
SPEAKER_00: To get some of the things out of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is looking at his disciples and saying, hey guys, like, man, there's some stuff that you guys are, that you guys have inside of you that should not be there.
SPEAKER_00: Some overgrowth in your heart that should not be there.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you, let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: So in Luke chapter 9, you don't have to turn there.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just explain the story.
SPEAKER_00: So in Luke chapter 9, Jesus tells his disciples, hey, what I want you guys to do, I need you guys to go into Samaria, uh, Samaria and run some errands for me.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to prepare some things for me.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as we know, looking at church history and these early disciples, man, the Samaritans and the Jewish people, they did not get along at all.
SPEAKER_00: Like they were, they were more than rivals.
SPEAKER_00: They did not like each other at all.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples, man, they had some of this, some of this hatred, if you will, inside inside of them.
SPEAKER_00: Like back in the Jewish context, like if you were a Jewish man and you had to, or whoever you are, if you had a, if you were a Jewish person and you had to, your destination was on the other side of Samaria, you would not go through Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: You would literally walk around Samaria, so you did not have to deal with the Jew with the Samaritan people.
SPEAKER_00: And this was inside these Jewish disciples that Jesus had, and Jesus uh knew that, so he sends them into Samaria to do some errands, and uh the the Jewish guys, the disciples, they get there, and that says that the Samaritans were not kind to them, they were not welcome there.
SPEAKER_00: So James and John, they go to Jesus and they're like, hey, Jesus, um, do you want us to call down fire to kill all these people?
SPEAKER_00: This is what they say.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want us to call down fire from heaven and kill all these people?
SPEAKER_00: And we can laugh, but I can say maybe some of you have some people in your life that you want to call some fire down.
SPEAKER_00: But look at what this says.
SPEAKER_00: What does this say about what's going on in the hearts of the disciples?
SPEAKER_00: How can any good fruit come from that type of spirit in their life?
SPEAKER_00: How can they build the new church that was going to the all the ends of the earth that Jesus calls them to do when they have this type of stuff in their life?
SPEAKER_00: And God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, they want to prune these things out of them.
SPEAKER_00: To prune and to cut off these things that's going to prevent them from bearing the type of fruit that God is calling them to.
SPEAKER_00: And he does.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible doesn't detail how, but we see the results of God doing this pruning in their life because in Acts chapter 8, these same Samaritan people, they end up following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They become Christians, they end up following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They believe in him, they believe in the resurrections, and so they send for the disciples, and it's Peter and this same John that go to the Samaritans and they literally touch them now.
SPEAKER_00: Not only are they going through the town, they are touching and laying hands on these people and praying that they receive the same Holy Spirit that they also received.
SPEAKER_00: God had to prune some things out of their life so that they can bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this picture of a tree where, man, the bigger the tree grows and the more fruit that comes out of the tree, the more nutrition more people can get.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew that, man, the disciples had to do this for the early church and for all of us that are sitting here today.
SPEAKER_00: They are the reasons why.
SPEAKER_00: Because God had to prune some stuff out of their life so they can bear much fruit in their world.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants the same thing to happen inside of your life, to bear fruit, like we see in Galatians 5.
SPEAKER_00: The stuff that comes out of us when we are walking with the Holy Spirit, walking with God, abiding in Jesus, bearing this type of fruit where it's like love and joy and peace and kindness and goodness, man, gentleness, self-control, faithfulness, like patience, like all of these things that will come out of us as we abide in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And God is saying, Man, you have to prune some of this overgrowth that you have inside of you so that I can do something inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: That man, that leads into some goodness.
SPEAKER_00: That leads into a life that is full and abundant and on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what God wants for you because God prunes you for his purposes, not to harm you, but to prepare you.
SPEAKER_00: God prunes you for his purposes, not to harm you, but to prepare you for the work that he has for you.
SPEAKER_00: Like we read in Ephesians 2.10, where it says, For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
SPEAKER_00: So every single one of us has work, has hustle that God has created us to do.
SPEAKER_00: And we are to prune some things out of our life.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to get rid of the bitterness and the shame that you're walking around with and the pain so that you can see this type of fruit be born in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So that generations may be changed because of the work that God is doing inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are living a life where you're unhealthy, I would say that you are going to bear fruit, but it may be rotten fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Or you may bear no fruit at all, where Jesus says, if you look back at a verse, verse 2, He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit.
SPEAKER_00: So the assumption is if you call yourself a follower of Jesus, if you call yourself a Christian, if you're trying to do things his way, if you want to be a follower, a true follower of Jesus, what's going to happen to you is that you are going to bear fruit in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Your life will be changed.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to do the work that he has designed you for and that he wants you to do.
SPEAKER_00: If you call yourself a follower of Jesus, you're going to bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And guys, let me tell you, like what I'm saying today is not an easy thing.
SPEAKER_00: It can be really difficult to do this type of work in your life or to have God do this type of work in your life.
SPEAKER_00: It can be extremely hard.
SPEAKER_00: This is not an easy thing.
SPEAKER_00: It can be difficult.
SPEAKER_00: But God is with you in the difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: Reminds me of some friends that I have.
SPEAKER_00: Scott and Britney Kleinow.
SPEAKER_00: As you can see them on the screen right here.
SPEAKER_00: What's fascinating is that actually today is their last day at Central Glendale.
SPEAKER_00: These are some people that have some really been really close to our family and our life.
SPEAKER_00: They're some of the first friends that we ever had when we came to Central in 2012.
SPEAKER_00: And Brittany and Scott, while Britney was in a women's Bible study at Central, she was, and she was feeling God to move something in like in her heart, like, man, God, are you asking for more in my life?
SPEAKER_00: And she didn't know what that meant.
SPEAKER_00: She was praying.
SPEAKER_00: She's like, God, like, what are you doing inside of me?
SPEAKER_00: And then a friend called from across the country and called her and said, hey, I just heard of an opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: And for some reason, man, I thought of you.
SPEAKER_00: And I think you should take a look at this opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: And right there, it clicked in Britney's mind that, hey, maybe this is what God is calling me into.
SPEAKER_00: To move all the way across the country, leaving their roles at the church where they're leading ministry, leaving their families, where they have both families that get along, leaving their great jobs.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe God is calling them into some deep waters.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes God calls us into those deep waters as well, where we may can only see the next six inches in front of us.
SPEAKER_00: And he's calling us, hey, I just need you to step in those six inches and watch me do some work inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: So I asked Brittany, hey, Mike, what have God has been teaching?
SPEAKER_00: What if God has been teaching you inside of this season of your life?
SPEAKER_00: And she was responded to me, I'm gonna read you to, I'm gonna read you her response because I think it's man, it's really good.
SPEAKER_00: She said, God removed my need to control the narrative and my own, my old tendency to panic when plans shifted.
SPEAKER_00: I thought I trusted him before, but this move stripped away my comfort zone faith.
SPEAKER_00: What he caused my heart, he gave me a supernatural peace that genuinely shocks me looking back now.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't worried even when things got crazy.
SPEAKER_00: People would say, You're still going even though you guys haven't found a job yet.
SPEAKER_00: And she would say, Yeah, God said to go, so I'm not worried.
SPEAKER_00: He also gave me a deep desire to share my story boldly with others to show them that faith is real, not just for small things, but for uprooting your whole life.
SPEAKER_00: Then God being so good, he gave us a home and a job that I that I only ever dreamed of, but felt too undeserving to ask for out loud.
SPEAKER_00: He showed me how intimately he sees and cares for us.
SPEAKER_00: Did you guys catch what she said at the beginning?
SPEAKER_00: Though their story is not over, we're not really sure what God is going to do with this, but God had to remove something in her life.
SPEAKER_00: He removed the control, removed the panic, removed the comfort zone, faith.
SPEAKER_00: Where she can just and they can just coast in their faith while God had to remove something in their life, because God is preparing them to do some great things, even though it's all the way across the country.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants to do that very same thing inside of each one of our lives, prepare us to do the good work that He has for us so that we can prepare the fruit that he wants us to bear.
SPEAKER_00: That is the type of God that we have.
SPEAKER_00: Not passive, an active God that is inside of our life, that wants to see the best from all of us.
SPEAKER_00: And God does not want you to suffer with a heart that is overgrown, overgrown with things that should not be there.
SPEAKER_00: So the first way that we get pruned in our life is by is by God.
SPEAKER_00: He does it.
SPEAKER_00: He does the pruning.
SPEAKER_00: There's a second way.
SPEAKER_00: There's a second way that this pruning process happens in our life.
SPEAKER_00: And the second way is that it happens through ourselves, through us individually, that we have some responsibility in the pruning of our life.
SPEAKER_00: So in this passage, Jesus is calling us and saying that we have some agency inside of this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look back at a verse in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine.
SPEAKER_00: Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
SPEAKER_00: We have some responsibility in the pruning of our life.
SPEAKER_00: This is the part that we have to own because I believe that was preventing many of us from having this abiding, deep relationship with God is that our schedules and our calendars and the things that we choose to do have become so overgrown that you don't even recognize yourself any longer.
SPEAKER_00: Let alone recognize a God that's trying to speak to you and care for you.
SPEAKER_00: Your life has to become Become so overgrown.
SPEAKER_00: Much like my yard.
SPEAKER_00: That has become so overgrown.
SPEAKER_00: So back in March, Courtney and I, we pull up to the driveway, we both look at each other, and we look at this hot mess of a thing that we got going on, and we say, Man, we've got to do something about this.
SPEAKER_00: This is not sustainable.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to do something about this.
SPEAKER_00: So I had this bright idea that what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna start over.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna cut everything down to the root.
SPEAKER_00: I am not a gardener.
SPEAKER_00: I had no idea what was gonna happen, but I felt like that was the right thing to do was to cut every single thing down to the root.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, our yard actually looked worse than it did before.
SPEAKER_00: It looked worse.
SPEAKER_00: It was like, oh, maybe I should have left it.
SPEAKER_00: It actually looked worse.
SPEAKER_00: But now if I look at our yard today, from March till June, man, the plants look a lot healthier.
SPEAKER_00: Like even like the leaves on the bushes look better.
SPEAKER_00: It has a better form to it.
SPEAKER_00: Our yard looks a hundred percent better because they got the plants got pruned back.
SPEAKER_00: Things got cut off cut off of them that should not have been there.
SPEAKER_00: They look a lot healthier for it.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants to do a similar thing inside of your life.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to do a similar thing inside inside of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And if I can talk to my plants back in March and they can talk to me, do you know what they would say?
SPEAKER_00: They would probably say, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Leave me alone.
SPEAKER_00: Like we are good.
SPEAKER_00: We're totally fine.
SPEAKER_00: Like you don't know what you're doing, like you, like we are fine.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're good.
SPEAKER_00: Do not touch me.
SPEAKER_00: And many of you are doing the same thing to God in your life where God is looking at you.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, my child, you're not okay.
SPEAKER_00: This pace that you're keeping up is not okay.
SPEAKER_00: You're not doing well.
SPEAKER_00: You want to control everything.
SPEAKER_00: You want to have a comfort zone, faith.
SPEAKER_00: Like you are not okay.
SPEAKER_00: We got to get some of this stuff out of your life.
SPEAKER_00: You have to prune some things out of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And for some of you, you really need to ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_00: Like, are you ready to take inventory of your life?
SPEAKER_00: To see what it is like you have going on.
SPEAKER_00: Like maybe even physically write it down on the paper, all of your commitments.
SPEAKER_00: And you know only the only thing you can do is pick four things that you can be really committed to, but you have 12 things.
SPEAKER_00: And to trim down, man, to cut back, to prune all the stuff that you are choosing to do.
SPEAKER_00: Life is not happening to us.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the things that are happening in our lives because we chose to do them.
SPEAKER_00: And it's time for us to choose something different.
SPEAKER_00: To choose something different in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you can look at that list and you'll be able to say, man, there are a lot of things that I can that I can prune out of this, out of this life that I have.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's maybe it's things like shopping.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're an Amazon warrior.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about Wonder Woman either.
SPEAKER_00: Like you, you are, you are a shopper.
SPEAKER_00: This is what you spend your time doing.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's video games.
SPEAKER_00: Where you spend so many hours on video games that you don't have time for your faith.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe, or maybe you like the death scroll.
SPEAKER_00: I love a good death scroll every once in a while, but it's really unhealthy.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe if I can talk to the to the young people, and maybe especially the young men, there is a um and there's an epidemic going on with sports gambling.
SPEAKER_00: Or God is looking at you and say, I cannot bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot bear fruit inside of that.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you have bitterness inside of your heart like James and John.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to sit with somebody that can help pull this stuff out of you.
SPEAKER_00: Sit with somebody that can say, hey man, we gotta deal with this bitterness.
SPEAKER_00: We got to deal with this unforgiveness that you have inside of your life and inside of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it's a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean just go around just cutting off different relationships in your life because somebody made you mad.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm talking about at all.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about maybe you're in a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're in a relationship, man, where there are some really toxic things coming out of you.
SPEAKER_00: Or there are some behaviors that you that you didn't know you had inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're experiencing toxic behaviors, abuse from someone that is across from you.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to ask God, hey, God, is this something that you have for me?
SPEAKER_00: Is this a relationship that is actually glorifying you?
SPEAKER_00: Or now I'm just comfortable inside of that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid to be alone.
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid to be with you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid to abide in you because I don't know if I trust you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to ask God and put that relationship to God and say, Hey, God, is this what you have for me?
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're the type of person that has too many good things going on.
SPEAKER_00: Now you have this volunteer commitment, you have this ministry commitment, you have this commitment, you have that thing, you have all the things, and by themselves, those things are really good.
SPEAKER_00: But when you put them all together, man, it's it's too much.
SPEAKER_00: You're extended way too far beyond your means.
SPEAKER_00: Like you are, I mean, you're stretched too thin.
SPEAKER_00: You're out of energy, out of energy, you're exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you have a kid's sports schedule, extracurricular activities, or man, you haven't had a meaningful spiritual conversation with them in months, or they haven't been to church really that often in a long time.
SPEAKER_00: And you're a parent that's become just responding to the next stimuli that happens in your life and not being an intentional parent.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to look at your schedule and say, hey, we got to prioritize something different.
SPEAKER_00: We may have to make some really difficult decisions.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is not going to end well.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to do something about this.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're the type of person that you're young in your career and you're just chasing the next leadership thing in your leadership ladder, but you're chasing it so hard, you're chasing this mountaintop moment that you're willing to sacrifice your integrity.
SPEAKER_00: And then maybe by the time you get there, let me tell you, you're gonna reach that mountaintop if you get there.
SPEAKER_00: And it's gonna be it's gonna be fake.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to be what you thought it was gonna be.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be disappointed.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're not going to things that are happening in your family because you're so focused on chasing this dream, and chasing those dreams are important.
SPEAKER_00: God gives us ambitions, ambition, that is important.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe it's taking too much of your heart and too much of your life, but you're sacrificing the things that God has never meant for you to sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And if I can speak to the dads for a moment, if I speak to the fathers in here.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you are right now in your life chasing the next paycheck, chasing the next dollar, chasing the next rung on the ladder, and you are so focused in to try to provide for your family, which is really good.
SPEAKER_00: You need to try to provide them a life that you never had, that your family is looking at you and saying, hey, we got your full paycheck, but we got a fraction of your heart.
SPEAKER_00: We got your full paycheck, but we got a fraction of your presence.
SPEAKER_00: We got your full paycheck, but we got a fraction of your leadership.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you need to be reminded today that your most important work is not what happens when you leave the house, it what it's when you enter the house.
SPEAKER_00: The responsibility in the ministry that you have is the one that God has given you.
SPEAKER_00: We can get so caught up in providing that we forget that our number one job is to care and to lead and to love, and to be there, and to be present.
SPEAKER_00: Man, maybe whatever it is for you in your life, it may be time for you to say, hey, I need to, I need to go home today.
SPEAKER_00: Because this life is not sustainable.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to do something about this.
SPEAKER_00: And all of this all of this pruning that we're talking about, all of this stuff that God wants to get out of your life, all the things that you need to do and to take inventory of, and all the things that we need to get rid of that's happening in our life, all of this is because we need to do the most important thing in our life.
SPEAKER_00: It allows us to do the most important thing that we can do as followers of Jesus, and that is to abide in him.
SPEAKER_00: That's the goal.
SPEAKER_00: That's the purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Is that we abide in the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: That's the goal in life, that we abide in Him.
SPEAKER_00: So I really love the summertime for us as a family.
SPEAKER_00: This for us, like in the yearly rhythm of our life, like this really represents the time where we get to slow down a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: We get to slow down, we get to stop doing things.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, the idea of that we get to get up in the morning and you know, we have all the things happening.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta get the kids ready for school, we gotta, we gotta make them breakfast, you know, someone's missing a shoe, uh, someone doesn't have their clothes on, their socks missing, and it's like we don't do this every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Five days a week, you still don't have your shoes.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what is going on?
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is the life that that we have, and in the summertime, we get to suspend all of that for a season and just hang out with one another.
SPEAKER_00: Like when I get to wake up in the morning, and um, a lot of times, like one of my kids will get up and they will come and they will just sit with me.
SPEAKER_00: Not talking to one another, not rushing to get to the next thing.
SPEAKER_00: We just get to sit with one another.
SPEAKER_00: And I just get to enjoy their presence as a dad because I know like these moments are fleeting, they're numbered.
SPEAKER_00: And they just get to sit and enjoy the presence of their father.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe this is what Jesus is talking about, and he says, I want you to abide in me, to sit with me, to be with me.
SPEAKER_00: And I know God is looking at many of you, and God is saying, My child, wake up.
SPEAKER_00: Come sit with me.
SPEAKER_00: Come be with me.
SPEAKER_00: Not in where you wake up in the morning and you're already overstimulated by your phone and you try to throw in a quick devotion here or there.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean where you're just rushing out the door and you just say a quick prayer at your breakfast table.
SPEAKER_00: I mean like a true abiding in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like where you're just sitting with him.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians uh 3, 1 and 2 says this.
SPEAKER_00: Since then you have been raised with Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Set your hearts on the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_00: Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I would call a prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us may pray, but it's not maybe it's not a prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: You would call that an asking life.
SPEAKER_00: No, I I mean I mean a just being life.
SPEAKER_00: Where you're not looking for direction, you're not looking for an answer.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you just have a place where you're being with the person of Jesus because abiding in Jesus leads to true health.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to have a healthy life.
SPEAKER_00: It's because when we abide in Jesus, that is what's going to lead to the healthy things that He wants us to do.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's gonna lead to the way that we live a life that we are living a fruitful, loving, kind, generous life.
SPEAKER_00: Not an easy one, but a full one.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to be the person that understands healthy hustle, you have to abide in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You have to cut some things out, you gotta prune some things out of your life.
SPEAKER_00: And let me be clear about this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about where you have to get yourself right and then you can come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about where, okay, I gotta get all my steps right, I gotta stop doing this and then come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm I I literally mean like just come to abide in him.
SPEAKER_00: He wants all of your shame, he wants all of the pressure that you have, he wants all of the hurts that you have, he wants everything about you, he wants it all.
SPEAKER_00: He just wants you to come with him and be with him and create margin for him.
SPEAKER_00: You do not have to get yourself right first.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the purpose of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: That is not the purpose of what he wants.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to be with his kids.
SPEAKER_00: So some of you are even thinking to me right now, okay, so what is it that you want me to do, DJ?
SPEAKER_00: I literally mean nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Like I don't have a tool to give you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's time for you to stop doing some stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Where you can find a quiet place in your life, a quiet place in your heart, a quiet, a literal quiet space in your home.
SPEAKER_00: And say, I just want to be with Jesus and sit with him.
SPEAKER_00: And not to try to say a fancy prayer, to literally allow your mind to wander, to daydream about the goodness of God and who Jesus is to you.
SPEAKER_00: Where you can let your mind wander, wander on who Jesus is, and just sit with him and be with him.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're new, you're like, I'm not really sure how to do that.
SPEAKER_00: We do have something called guided prayers that can just help you calm your mind and your soul to sit with God.
SPEAKER_00: But either way, man, you have to find a space in your life where you're taking inventory of the things that you have going on and you start your time and you start your list with Jesus, not with the other things.
SPEAKER_00: Abiding in him is the goal.
SPEAKER_00: Man, church, if we if we do this, if if you're able to do this in your life, what God is gonna do inside of your heart, inside of your mind, inside of your schedules, inside of all the things that you have going on, he will show up and he will be with you.
SPEAKER_00: He's already there with you.
SPEAKER_00: And he will create something new inside of you so that you can bear much fruit in your life, so that you will know what is a life to be with him always, so that you can have a life that glorifies him.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the question that I have.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the question that I have for for all of us as we kind of close today.
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to allow God to show you what you need to take inventory of?
SPEAKER_00: Are you just willing to allow him to show you, hey, what what are the things in your life?
SPEAKER_00: And are you willing to let him uh show you what needs to be cut out of your life?
SPEAKER_00: What needs to go?
SPEAKER_00: That's really difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, are you ready to wake up?
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to get out of your beds, out of your slumber, out of your chaos, out of all the things you have going on?
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to ready to wake up and just go sit with your father?
SPEAKER_00: Because when we abide in Jesus, that is what leads to true health.
SPEAKER_00: But I want everyone to do at all the campuses, I want you to stand.
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray for everyone in this room and at all of our campuses.
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray for all of you, and then we're gonna sing a song that's just about resting in him and about trusting in him.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's sometimes that's all we can do with what's going on in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Can you bow your heads with me?
SPEAKER_00: Father God, I pray for every single person across this valley.
SPEAKER_00: That Heavenly Father, you show us where in our life is overgrown, or we've neglected, or we're not being intentional.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, I ask that you touch each and every person and let them know that you are with them, that you care for them, and that you just want them to come sit with you because you are the good father, you are the holy father, you are the worthy father.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, allow us to rest inside of your presence.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to rest inside of your presence.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to be people that abide and walk with you each and every day.
SPEAKER_00: That we carry it in our workspaces, that we carry it through our lives, and that we bear much fruit for your glory, Father.
SPEAKER_00: And all of his people said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate you guys.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.