Guest User 11/3/20 Guest User 11/3/20

Abiding = Lasting a Long Time

November 1, 2020 - David Stockton

Good morning. Welcome everybody online. I feel like I want to extent more welcomes. Welcome to all the Democrats. Welcome to all the Republicans. Welcome to everybody who’s not claiming either. Welcome to the rich. Welcome to the poor. Welcome to the black, the white, the brown, whatever it might be. Welcome to all those who identify male or female. Welcome to all those who are confused about that. Welcome to all those with different sexual preferences. Welcome to everyone. We’re going to sit here and we’re going to listen to the words of Jesus and everyone is invited to the table.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you identify as at all. If you have anything in you that ever want you to come and sit at the feet of Jesus, you are welcome. Please hear what Jesus would say. “Anyone can come. All who come. Anyone who calls out to his name can be saved.” And the rest of us here, we’re with you. It’s not like we’ve crossed over to the other side. We’re still just sinners in need of a Savior. We’re still just doing our best to continue to hear the words of Jesus and let them do its work in our hearts, so that we can walk maybe a little bit different each day. A little bit better each day. A little bit more like Jesus each day. That’s the whole thing that we’re doing.

So all are welcome. Thank you for being here. Thank you for tuning in online. That’s what we’re going to do.

As we were praying downstairs before we came up, I don’t know why, I like watching college football on Saturday. But my family got in the way big time yesterday. And maybe the football gets in the way of my family sometimes, so, it’s funny to hear me say that out loud at church while I’m about to preach. Anyway, my family got in the way of all of my plans to watch college football yesterday. But still, as we were downstairs praying, and Ryan was leading us, and we were kind of waiting to see what the Lord might be speaking to our hearts, or us as a group, I just had this picture of a wide receiver going down the sidelines and just running as fast as he can, and just putting his hands up like this. I saw this last week because I didn’t get to watch it this week. I can’t even remember who it was, but the quarterback put the ball so perfectly, as the guy was running, he put his hands like this, and his head like this, and he didn’t even really see the ball, and the ball just went right in his hands, and then he fell in the end zone. And it was a touchdown. And everyone was cheering for him. And what did he do? He kept running and he kept his hands up. He kept running and he kept his hands up.

So often we feel like we’re the quarterback of our life. And we’ve got to make the call, make the play, make the pass and it’s got to be perfect if anything’s going to move forward at all. But I just felt the Lord’s message for us today is “keep running and keep your hands up.” Keep running and keep your hands up and you’re going to see what the Lord has for you, fall into place at the right time if you can do that.

Before we jump into John 15,—it was Halloween last night. Anybody have fun? Anybody got a toothache, maybe? It’s election week this week. Yeah. At the beginning of the year—I wrote about this in my weekly email—at the beginning of the year, I really thought it was so funny to be in a crowd of people, like, we’re getting ready to play a basketball game and everybody’s got their team set up and I’d be like, “What’s up election year?” And I’d just say that and everybody would laugh and kind of roll their eyes. It was just kind of a funny thing to say. But it’s not funny anymore. You say election year and people are like, they want to fight you. So anyway. That’s happening on Tuesday, in case you didn’t know.

On Wednesday night we’ve been doing Fam Nights. Even though COVID is still a real thing, we’ve been taking real calculated steps forward, feeling like it’s the church’s job to lead people back to each other. So we’ve been taking real calculated, small, super-respectful steps going forward as a church. We’ve been meeting in person for four months. That’s not something we did with a lot of excitement and courage and faith. We just said, “Okay, well, we feel like at this point maybe we can get some people together for prayer.” So we did that for two months. And we’ve just continued to march on.

One of the next steps we’ve taken is we’ve done these Fam Nights. So on Wednesday nights, we’ve done two of them now. We meet together outside int eh Courtyard and we have a meal together. It’s been really wonderful to get to know a lot of new people that are coming to that. And then we come in here and we’ve been focusing on evangelism. Which again, is not a very popular topic anywhere ever. But it’s been really neat because we’ve had hundreds of people joining us in person and online to join us for these times as we’re just saying, “Okay, God, we want to say yes to whatever you want to do. And right now we’re feeling you want to equip us, encourage us, inspire us in order to share who you are with the people around us, especially as they’re getting shaken.”

So we’re going through that process. We’re getting some methodology. We’re getting some stories and testimonies, and you guys, I mean, I’m getting emails from people, I’m talking with people all the time who are sharing Christ with people and they are giving their lives to Christ. Literally, I’d probably say twenty in the last week I’ve heard of, of people in our church who are sharing, and people who are responding. It’s just been beautiful to see already and we’ve got three more of these Wednesday nights to go.

In fact, this Wednesday night’s going to be a little different. This Wednesday night we’re going to focus on intercession and worship. We felt like in light of whatever happens Tuesday and whatever we know by Wednesday night, or don’t know, we just want to come in here and rejoice that Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords and his purposes and intentions cannot fail and will not fail and never have for even one second.

So we’re just going to worship Jesus as the King and we’re going to really intercede on behalf of our nation and the people we know who don’t know Jesus in that place. So feel free to come get some food. You can register online. If the number starts getting too high then we might have to cut off the registration. So don’t delay. Don’t get cut off. The only reason we would do that is to honor COVID social distancing and all that.

(Skipping another announcement here.)

John chapter 15. We’re going to get three really important concepts, Kingdom of heaven concepts. Jesus, again, is in the last week of his life. He’s in the last kind of group time with his disciples. He’s trying to impart something very, very important to them. In John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, which is kind of this last hurrah, this last message of Jesus before he goes to the cross and he gets crucified and he goes away for a couple days, then he resurrects and he kind of just pops in and pops out and his disciples are just totally freaked out and confused about what’s happening their lives. So this is Jesus’ kind of final messages there. It’s very important. He’s giving them in this chapter some really important principles to help understand who he is and what his kingdom is all about.

If you wanted to know what the Stockton kingdom is all about. Me and my brothers, there are three of us. We’re all Stocktons and for some reason we only produced girls. So the Stockton name is in jeopardy for sure. If you want to know about Stocktons there are three things you’ll find out real quick. Everyone who knows my family, not just me, would laugh when they hear these things. There are three things to help you understand what Stocktons are all about: Rules are made to be outsmarted. Some people would say rules don’t apply to them. That’s what they think. No. It’s actually the rule is a challenge to us to see how we can get around it by actually fulfilling it but doing what we want at the same time.

The second one is: Being on time is not as important as getting a lot of things done on the way. So some people think we just don’t care about being on time. We do. We really want to be on time. But we also care about getting seventeen things done on the way there. So it makes it tough.

And then, the last thing is: Sadness requires a lot of food. That’s a big time Stockton trait. When a Stockton goes down to the hospital, whatever it might be, you can be sure there will be way too much and it will not be good for you.

Anyway, that’s the Stockton kingdom. You should not care about that at all. Because it will do you no good in any way. But Jesus’ kingdom is a whole ‘nother story.

John 15. Jesus says:

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 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. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 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.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

In this section right here, we have two really important kingdom principles. If you don’t know God, if you don’t believe in God, if you don’t know Jesus or follow Jesus, no problem. You’re welcome to listen and to be in this place. But a lot of times, as Christians, we’ll say things that don’t make a lot of sense to people. In the Christian community, you’ll be like, “Are you bearing fruit? Are you bearing good fruit?” And people will be like, “What are you talking about? That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard someone say.”

But it’s such an important kingdom principle. This idea of bearing fruit. You’ll hear it all the time in Christianity. And this other thing is remaining. So this word abiding or persevering or enduring, this is where Jesus is saying, “You must remain in me and I in you. My words must remain in you.” There’s this remaining.

These are two principles that Jesus is imparting to his disciples on this last time with them. “You’ve got to remember. Your life is supposed to bear good fruit. And the way that you’re gong to bear good fruit is if you remain in me and my words remain in you.”

So I want to talk to us about this bearing fruit, because Jesus is making a claim that your life, your breath, your heartbeat, your body, your brain, your skills, whatever it is that you have, has been given to you by God so that you will bear fruit. If you are not bearing fruit, you will be cut off and thrown away into the fire.

We’re just reading black and white words that have seemingly been dead for a long time. But this is Jesus—God in the flesh—full of the love that created everything, but also full of a wrath against sin that created hell. In God we have the fullness of love and every single drop of love that we have ever felt or given as humanity pales in comparison. It’s just a shadow of the reality of the fullness of God’s perfect, powerful love.

Yet, at the same time, God is also a God of wrath, according to the Bible. God hates. God is angry. God punishes. What does he do? He punishes sin. He hates sin. He hates what it does to a family, to a person, to children. He hates what it does between nation and nation. He hates the way it warps a mind and destroys people. He hates it with a passion, with a fervency. And here we have this, in just these simple words, Jesus is basically saying, “Look. If you will remain in me, you’ll experience my love. And if you don’t bear fruit, disciples, please hear me, I’m going away. You need to understand something. If your life does not bear fruit, you will be cut off. You will lose whatever you have experienced between you and me right now if you do not remain in me. If your life does not bear fruit, you will be cut off.”

And Judas is in the room. Judas is sitting there, hearing the words of Jesus enter into his ear. And these are not new words. Judas has heard these long before. But Jesus is pleading with his disciples to bear fruit, to remind in him so their lives can bear fruit. And this is not a new thing. In fact, what we’re experiencing in John 15 is Jesus, most likely, is in the garden of Gethsemane. In chapter 14, remember, it says, “Come, let us leave.” That’s the way chapter 14 ends. And they were probably having their last supper there where Jesus washed their feet and imparted to them, “This is my body, this is my blood.” But after chapter 14, when he talks about he Holy Spirit, he says, “Come, let us leave.” And where they went was the garden of Gethsemane.

In that garden, Jesus is basically making these appeals to them. In John 16, he again talked about the Spirit. In John 17 he prays. Basically, what we have is we have Jesus kind of bringing in this garden concept as he’s in this olive garden, where they would take the olives and they would press them and make oil. In some ways, you have Jesus speaking to them about this need for them to bear fruit in this garden of pressing. And it makes someone who’s Jewish, someone who’s a biblical reader, harken back to that other garden, the way it all began—the garden of Eden. The word Eden means paradise. The word Gethsemane means pressing.

In the beginning, when God made humanity, God made humanity to be fruitful. That was his command to them: “Adam and Eve, I’m giving you this paradise. I’m giving you everything you could ever need. And I want you to be fruitful and multiply. I want you to take this garden-like experience that we have together, where my presence rules and reigns, and I want you to go and garden the rest of the earth.”

This is the claim that God had on creation from the very beginning, that they were to bear fruit. I want to read this to you:

God has made a claim on your life. He really feels like he can tell you whatever he wants you to do, and you should do it. He has a claim on your life. And here’s why. His claim first on you is because you are his creation. He created you and I to know him and enjoy his present forever. He created us to take the Garden of Eden and spread it over the whole earth, spreading everything with his image and his presence. But instead of responding well to this claim, we humans, Adam and Eve, and us too, we decided that we wanted to be equal to the Creator and to be in control of our own destiny. We wanted the other aspects of creation to serve us. So we ate forbidden fruit and we continue to do so today. Because of this, we experience, just like Adam and Eve, separation from God and the garden now has thorns. We are now slaves to sin, death and the devil, who ruled over mankind.

Basically God claimed us for his own. He made us. He said, “You’re mine. You belong to me. And I’m going to care for you. I’m going to give you my presence. I’m going to give you purpose and intention. And I want you to do this. I want you to go and take this relationship, I want you to take this dominion that I’ve given you, this presence, this image, you’re made in my image and I want you to go and spread it over the whole earth, so all of the earth can be a garden.”

And right at the beginning, Adam and Eve decided, “Well, we actually want that to be for us.”And basically that’s been humanity’s problem ever since. Instead of using all that we have to worship the Creator, we now have tried to make creation serve us as if we were the creator. And in doing so, the wage of sin is death. The wage of sin is slavery. And humanity has fallen under a curse, the curse of sin and death, and the dominion has been passed over to the devil. That’s why, when the devil came to Jesus and said, “I’ll give you all the kingdoms of this world if you bow to me,” Jesus didn’t say, “Hey, you can’t do that.” Jesus knows that humanity passed that on. We had been given dominion and we handed that over. So now we live under this bondage, under this slavery. Yet, God’s claim doesn’t stop there.

God’s second claim on you and me came at the appointed time when God sent his Son on a rescue mission. Jesus became human and carried out God’s plan perfectly. He spread God’s garden everywhere he went. He carried God’s image and presence into the world like we were supposed to. And then, in order to purchase us back for God, he took on sin, death, and the devil on the cross. And the whole of creation held its breath until that third day when he rose again, triumphant, proving his sacrifice was enough.

He ransomed creation back to God. He gained dominion back from the devil. In Acts 3 says, and now he’s seated at the right hand of the Father until the next appointed time, where he comes and he claims all of creation for his own and he restores everything. God has made claim on your life. In the beginning he created you, so he had claim on you. This is the way John says it in a later book.

1 John 4:4 he says, “You belong to God, my dear children.”

He says in Revelation 5:9, “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll,’” [which is that dominion, that titled deed to the earth], “and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood, you ransomed people for God from every tribe, every language, every people, every nation…” every Republican, every Democrat. He ransomed everybody. He put a claim on their life that they belong to him. And he did it with his blood.

Paul picks up the same theme and says in 1 Corinthians 7:23, “You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves to men.”

And then in 1 Corinthians 6, he says, “You are not alone. You were bought at a price; therefore honor God with your bodies.”

You guys, we have been purchased. We have been created, if that wasn’t enough of a claim, Jesus didn’t want us to see us under bondage. So he came and purchased us back with his blood and he says to us once again, “I want you to be fruitful. I want you to bear fruit. I want you to go into this world and bear fruit. I want you to once again pick up the job that I had given Adam.”

Tim Keller, when he’s writing about this claim that God has and this concept of bearing fruit, and what God’s job for Adam and Eve and all of creation is, he says this:

God wants us to be rearranging the raw material of his creation in such a way that it helps the world in general, and people in particular, thrive and flourish.

It’s so interesting because this is ultimately what God has done. He wants us to be gardeners. He wants us to take the creation that we have dominion over and use it not to serve ourselves, not to build our own kingdoms, not to fill our bank accounts, not to increase our status in this world; but he wants us to do it so that we can create human flourishing. That really is the role of government. That is the role of politics. That’s what politicians, I would like to think, really got into the business for. To create the most amount of human flourishing for the most amount of humans. But because we’re broken people, because we’re sinners yet to be completely renewed, somehow it gets twisted in there. And we fall into the same old traps and end up wanting all of creation to serve what we really want, our political party, our interests, America vs. others. Whatever it might be.

But God’s claim upon our life is that we would take everything there is in creation, everything that is at our disposal, and we would use it to the best, use it to produce the most amount of human flourishing in the world.

When you look at Jesus’ life, what he did is he did his best to take care of the ones that God had given him. And it wasn’t everybody in the world. It was the twelve. It was the hundred and twenty. It was the Samaritan woman. It was the person who couldn’t walk. He gave them a taste of who God was. He did his best to care for them.

And God has given people to you. In your family, maybe, in your workplace, friends, whatever. He’s given you resources and you’re supposed to use those to make as much human flourishing as you can. And watch out for using it all to try to improve your situation alone.

John Mark Comer writes a book called Garden City. And he says it this way:

Our job is to make the invisible God visible—to mirror and mimic what he is like to the world. We can glorify God by doing our work in such a way that we make the invisible God visible by what we do and how we do it. You were made to do good—to mirror and mimic what God is like to the world. To stand at the interface between the Creator and his creation, implementing God’s creative, generous blessing over all the earth and giving voice to the creation’s worship.

I love that. This is what bearing fruit looks like. It’s a claim that God put upon creation, put upon humanity in the garden when it was paradise, and it’s the claim that Jesus Christ is not reinstating to his disciples in the garden that is named “pressing”—that we are to bear fruit. We are not just to receive what God has and be like, “Yeah. That’s awesome.” We’re supposed to receive in order to give. Our lives are to bear fruit.

Not only are we supposed to bear fruit, but God does care what kind of fruit. It’s supposed to be good fruit. It’s supposed to be fruit that remains. You can look at Galatians 5, where the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, meekness, gentleness and self-control. Self-control? How did that sneak in there? The rest of them sound great but that one’s “what?” But that’s a fruit of the Spirit—self-control.

So that’s the first principle. The second principle is remaining. How do we remain? We want to bear good fruit. Jesus said, “If you remain in me, you’ll bear good fruit.” So what is remaining like? Psalm 1 describes what remaining looks like for the life of a believer:

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

This is what it looks like to remain. It has two things. One, it is to point yourself to direct your attention and affection, to direct your time and energy into your relationship with God, into your relationship with Jesus. But it also means to steer clear of other things. Sometimes we’re so confused why God doesn’t bless us, or we don’t feel good about it, because we’ve got so much of Jesus we can’t enjoy the world, and we’ve got so much of the world we can’t enjoy Jesus. And then we blame God and get mad at him, because we’re not seeing the fruit that we want to see.

I really believe the Church is being called to some sort of serious consecration right now. I don’t fully understand it, but we’re going to spend the whole month of January fasting and praying to try to get a deeper understanding of it as a church. But to remain in Jesus is to cease to remain in other things. We’ve got to understand that.

Romans 12 (MSG) kind of says the same thing:

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

One of the fruits that we’re supposed to have is maturity. We’re not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine that comes. There’s a steadiness to our walk. Unlike Peter that, one day was saying, “Jesus, you’re the Christ,” and the very next moment Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan.”

But Peter, after he was filled with the Spirit and was walking in the presence in the book of Acts, there’s just a steadiness to his walk. God’s trying to produce that in us. How he does that is by us not becoming so ingrained with the culture that we live in, but fixing our attention on God.

Another fruit that we can look for is that we’re actually able to know the will of God, and we have a desire to do the will of God. The way that happens is by coming out of the culture that we live in. To be in the world, yes, but not of the world. And figuring out what that consecration looks like for you.

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NASB):

Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith,

He’s the author and perfecter of our business. He’s the author and perfecter of our bank account. He’s the author and perfecter of our politics. He’s the author and perfecter of that car we’re trying to restore. He’s the author and perfecter of our relationships. He’s the author and perfecter of my physical body. Whatever it might be. I don’t know. We want God to author and perfect a lot of things. But what he’s really interested in is your faith. That’s what his business is. He’s trying to create in you this beautiful thing called faith, which actually results in the salvation of your soul forevermore. That’s what he’s trying to create. And, actually, all of your life, everything you have and don’t have is ultimately God trying to grow that thing into something beautiful and precious—something that can endure and last.

And again, how we do this, how that fruit is produced in us, the kind of faith that we want to have, is by laying aside all the weight and the sin. When I first heard this verse, I remember just thinking, “Whoa.” Because it’s hard enough just trying to get the sin out of my life. But he said the weight and the sin. There’s a bunch of stuff in this world that is just baggage. It’s not necessarily sin. But if you continue to play around with it, if you continue to allow it in your life, it’s going to weigh you down.

And, yes, you can justify it. It’s not sin. But it’s stupid for you to keep carrying that around and allowing that into your life. And his name might be George. Or I don’t know. I’m sorry if that hit home or whatever. I’m not thinking… there’s no…yeah. But sometimes we allow things into our life that are just there and those things have got to go if you’re really going to get serious about Jesus.

So this is remaining. I want you to understand that remaining isn’t just focusing on the good things. It’s also eliminating the weight and the sin.

I love this. Jon Foreman writes a song and he says this, talking about the challenge of remaining. I love the way he puts it.

All attempts have failed
All my heads are tails
She’s got teary eyes
I’ve got reasons why
I’m losing ground and gaining speed
I’ve lost myself or most of me
I’m ready for the final precipice
But [Jesus] you haven’t lost me yet
No, you haven’t lost me yet
I’ll sing until my heart caves in
No, you haven’t lost me

He’s feeling the pressing of this garden of Gethsemane. He’s feeling the reality of the thorns and the bondage. But he’s hanging on by faith that he belongs to Jesus. And that’s where he wants to remain.

These days pass me by
I dream with open eyes
Nightmares haunt my days
Visions blur my nights
I’m so confused what’s true or false
What’s fact or fiction after all
I feel like I’m an apparition’s pet
But you haven’t lost me yet

Then, to get us into this next principle, he says:

If it doesn’t break your heart
It isn’t love
If it doesn’t break your heart
It’s not enough
It’s when you’re breaking down
With your insides coming out
It’s when you find out
What you heart is made up of

And ultimately, what he’s describing there is love. And that’s the third thing that we see here. Let’s keep reading in John 15:9:

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Jesus now wraps this whole thing in love.

Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

Here at the end Jesus is saying, “You have not chosen me. I have chosen you. I have laid claim on your life that you might go and bear fruit.” And what is the fruit, ultimately, that Jesus and his Father are looking for to come out of our lives? Love. It’s love. That word in the English language can go a billion different ways these days. The Hallmark Channel is one version. Valentine’s Day is another version. The hip hop songs another version. The country songs, I guess, another version. There are all kinds of versions out there.

The love that Jesus is talking about, he defines real quickly after he says this. He says, “My command is this. Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” The love of God is sacrificial love. It’s the kind of love that Jon Foreman said in his little bridge there. “If it doesn’t break your heart it isn’t love. If doesn’t break your heart it’s not enough. It’s when you’re breaking down with your insides coming out. That’s when you find out what your heart is made of” —what your love is made of.

That’s the kind of love that God is calling us to. That’s the fruit that he’s trying to produce in our lives. Love that is sacrificial. It is outward. It is without strings attached. It is without the need of reciprocation. It won’t improve our status in this world. If you read the next little section, but we don’t have time to, Jesus again reiterates to his disciples, “If you get everything right, if you love me really well, if you love the world really well, if you love them just the way I did, they’re going to hate you and they’re going to want to kill you. Because that’s what they did with me.”

But he says, “But there will be some that will receive it. There will be some that will receive it and they will get to know my love.”

This is the kind of love that Jesus is calling us to, and also in there he’s saying, “You have not chosen me. I have chosen you.” He’s saying that this isn’t the kind of love that you love people, you love one another, you love them so that you can get the love back. He’s saying that you need to cut that kind of love completely out of your mind. The reason I’m asking you to love is because I have loved you. That is the motivation for our love.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter what the other person does that God is calling us to love. It doesn’t matter if that person hates us or is an enemy, right? We love them because of the supply of love that we get from God. So, ultimately, what happens here is both bearing fruit—the fruit that God wants us to bear is loving one another. But then how do we remain? He says, “If you remain in me, keep my command.” What’s his command? To love one another.

So if you want more of the love-one-another fruit in your life, you’re supposed to love one another. And if you want to know how to get more of the fruit of loving one another, you’ve got to remain in him, which is really just to love one another. And that’s why he says all the prophets are fulfilled in these two things, you love God and you love people.

What we need work on, is we need work on our love, so our love can be the kind of fruit that God produces. Not the kind of love that our own strength, our own culture produces. Because it’s a very ugly fruit that doesn’t remain and doesn’t really satisfy anyone.

NOTE: We apologize that technical issues caused this sermon to end abruptly.

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Guest User 10/25/20 Guest User 10/25/20

Anxiety and Jesus

John 14 is where we’re going to be. Last week we got to hear from Marty on John 13, which was good stuff. Secret agents of service. And here we go. John 14:1. Jesus is speaking to his disciples. It’s the last week of his life. This is his last training session with them. It’s very intimate. He just washed their feet. And then he says to them:

October 25 - David Stockton - John 14

1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas [who had been with Jesus for three years now] said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus [after probably a real long sigh, fighting off too much discouragement and disappointment] answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

As Jesus has, again, been with his disciples, he knows his time is just about coming to an end, where he’s going to leave them. Basically the training he has done in this way is going to stop. And they’ve seen him do so many things, they’ve committed their lives to him, no doubt. He’s taught them time and time again about who he was. And you and I have been going through the book of John. John is writing this whole book, this whole story, this whole testimony (in some ways), to help people know who Jesus really is; so that they will put their belief in him, they will put their trust in him. They will no longer put their confidence in the Greco-Roman world in Roman citizenship. They won’t put their confidence in Roman government. They won’t put their confidence in whatever resource they have. They won’t put their confidence in their own strength, or their own wisdom. But they’ll learn to put their trust in this small town Jewish Messiah named Jesus.

This is what John is writing all of these stories to do. And he started by basically saying “I want to tell you the story of how I came to put my confidence in him.” And he tells us a story in John 2 about how Jesus had called him and some other guys and they all went to this wedding. At the wedding they ran out of wine and Jesus, who was this teacher Messiah, turned a whole bunch of water into wine and it tasted really good. It was like really good wine. And John was like, “That was the beginning. That was the first sign.”

John gives us seven signs. Basically “There were seven things that Jesus did when I was with him that made me so convinced that this guy was more than just a guy. This guy was more than just a teacher or a prophet.” More than just his understanding of Messiah before meeting Jesus. He really put his faith in Jesus, that he was the one who made the universe and had all the power and authority—who was God himself. The guy that he hung out with. It’s fascinating.

That was the first sign. Then we know there was another sign in John chapter 8 when Jesus fed the five thousand. After that, all these five thousand men came and grabbed Jesus and they tried to make him king by force. And Jesus went away from them. He disappointed them. He said he wasn’t going to build a kingdom that they wanted, a kingdom of this world. And then you just see after that, John 9, 10, 11, 12, there’s all this debate about Jesus. There are people on one spectrum saying, “We should kill this guy. He’s a cancer.” To people on the other side saying, “He might just be God himself walking around with us.” And everywhere in between.

Now he’s sitting in John 14. He’s just washed his disciples’ feet. He knows the time is coming when he’s going to die. And he’s saying to them, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Don’t put your confidence in the strength of the trouble. Don’t put your confidence in the power of the storm. Put your confidence in me. Put your confidence in what I can do to stop a storm or make things better, even through the devastation of the storm. You’ve got to learn to put your confidence in me.”

He’s telling them this because he knows what they’re about to go through. Then he says, “I’m going to prepare a place for you. And when I go, I’ll come back and I’ll take you to be where I am.”

And then Thomas is like, “Where are you going? What’s happening?”

It’s like he just woke up. It’s like he hasn’t been paying attention at all. Jesus is like, “I am the way. You know the way. I am the way. You follow me. You connect with me. You stick with me. You believe in me and you’re going to get to see the full revelation of all that God has for you. The Father has such good plans for you. If you stick with me, if you follow my ways, you will get to see all of them.”

And Philip says, “Oh, you’re going to show us the Father.”

Jesus is like, “Philip! I’ve been with you all this time. How many times do I have to use the word Yahweh when talking about myself? How many times do I have to say I am Him.”

That’s what John said. Seven times also there are these I Am statements where Jesus is claiming to be God in a very blasphemous, difficult, challenging way. The people wanted to kill him because he kept making these blames. It’s not blasphemy because it was true. He said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. If you get me, you get it all.”

And he goes on to explain that some more. That’s one of the reasons he’s saying, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled.” And if you skip down to verse 15, Jesus goes on and says:

15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

So then he goes on to say, basically, “This is not working out so well. You guys are not quite getting it. But don’t worry. If you love me, just keep following my commandments and the Father is going to send one to you that, after I leave, he’s going to send another.” And the word in the NIV is Advocate. But in the King James it’s Comforter. There’s kind of a wide definition of this. In John 16, we’ll get into a more full explanation of who this Holy Spirit is and what he does. But for now, basically Jesus is saying, “I’m not going to stress out right now. I’m not going to let my heart be troubled at your ineptitude and your challenge to understanding this. Because I know that it’s not just that you have to get it right now. God is going to give you a guide that the Spirit of God is going to come and reside with you. He’s been with you, but he’s going to be in you to help you navigate, to lead you into all truth.”

He goes on in verse 25:

25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Do not be afraid is probably the number one command in the Bible, because fear and faith can’t coexist. God is trying to create a people of faith and so he constantly has to tell us, “Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid.” When fear starts to rise in your life, you need to understand that faith is going down. You can’t be full of faith and full of fear at the same time.

If you’ve sensed in your soul, when things get quiet and you’re face to face with your own thoughts, with your own soul, and you feel like fear is rising and winning the day, you need to know that faith is being regressed. And it’s time to take that seriously. It doesn’t mean you won’t be afraid. But don’t stay there. Do something about it. Make a change.

And Jesus is saying, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid.” And then he goes on:

28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

“Come now; let us leave.

The last thing he says here, he goes on to say, “The Advocate is coming. The Comforter is coming. He’s goin gto guide you. He’s going to lead you.” And then he says, “I’m going away. I’ve told you that before. I’m going to the Father. I told you before it happens so that when you get to see all these things happen you will believe. You need to understand the prince of the world is coming and he has no hold over me. But what he’s going to do is going to help you understand that I love the Father and the Father loves me.”

Obviously he’s talking about what’s gong to happen in just a couple more chapters, where the devil is going to enter into Judas Iscariot and he’s going to go behind the scenes and create this plot to have Jesus arrested. Jesus is going to be there in the Garden of Gethsemane, doing battle with the devil, the tempter, and then somehow the power of the devil is going to basically insight the Jewish leaders as well as the Roman leaders, and they are actually going to bring about the crucifixion of Jesus. Where the very people that he created, that he came to die for, that he loved, that he healed, are going to spit on him and mock him and pin him to a tree and laugh as he takes his final breaths.

They’re going to see the full power of the prince of the world deal devastating blows of death. The full power of sin and death, like we’ve been talking about, will be on display for the whole world to see. The sun is going to go dark at the noon hour and everyone is going to think, “See how powerful sin and death is? Jesus claimed to be the way, the truth and the life. He claimed to be able to take us there. And now, look. Sin and death has got him too.”

And Jesus is saying, “You need to see that the prince of this world is coming, but you also need to see that he has no hold on me.”

And, sure enough, Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, Sunday morning. You guys know the story. The disciples got to see that the prince of the world, the power of sin and death had no hold on him. And he was excited about that, even though he knew what he was going to have to go through. He knew what it was going to mean to them.

So, in this chapter, we have Jesus making it very clear that he doesn’t want our hearts to be troubled. The world troubled there is probably better distressed. The word anxiety is in there, for sure. He doesn’t want us to be fearful. He doesn’t want us to be anxious. How are you doing at that? Everybody doing good? No anxiety? Not worried at all? Actually, the election sounds awesome to you. You’re so pumped about it. Yeah? COVID? “That’s been great. I love it. It’s so awesome.” Racial unrest? “Oh, yeah. Got that perfect too. No problem. I know exactly how to make everything better all the time. “

No! It’s not good. I mean, it’s a tough time. It’s a very tough time and I get to hear all the stories. And I get to see all the things that are happening in our church. I will say that I am so impressed with Living Streams. I have heard story after story of the resilience that you guys possess. I have heard story after story of how you have been able to not let your hearts be troubled through these times, but actually bring about some good—not just for you, but for other people. I’m so impressed. I’m so thrilled.

There’s a study from eh Barna Group that we’ll pop up here. They said they interviewed all these people. 90% of people in America say that they’re Christian. It’s like. That’s amazing. That’s awesome. It’s not true. So what they did is they took that word Christian and they asked enough questions to figure out how to differentiate between different types of Christians. These are the four different types of Christians that they’ve discovered.

Out of that 90%, 22% of them basically were saying that they’re Christian because they were at some point and now they’re not. But that wasn’t the way they answered the question. They basically said, “Yeah, I have some sort of Christian in my background, so I’m Christian.” But obviously they’re not doing anything Christian at this point.

30% they called nomads. These are people that have had a church experience. They’re not against Christianity. They went there on Easter or Christmas, and they’re like, “Yeah, I’m cool with Christmas. So I’m a Christian. They’re not locked in. They’re nomads.

They’ve got the habitual churchgoers. Uh-oh. Starting to meddle a little bit. These are the people that do all the Christian things, like church, trying to be a nice person, but there’s no real relationship with God. And if you take away something like meeting together on Sunday mornings and the church habit that they’re used to, they come unglued. The wheels come off. All kinds of stuff goes on.

And then you’ve got the 10% that they define as resilient. These are the ones that it doesn’t matter what you do to them. Their relationship with Jesus is real. It is their source for life, peace, joy, and guidance. And I’ve seen a lot of resilient Christians in our church.

There’s a police officer in our church. I remember talking to him a couple of months ago when things were really intense. I said, “How are things down at the precinct?”

He said, “It’s not good. It’s not good at all. I’ve never seen such a group of people in such despair. They all used to have this kind of a little bit of ‘I feel good that we’re doing this. We’re helping people.’ And now they’re just so ashamed of what they do and they’re so nervous.”

So I said, “How’s it been for you?”

And he said, “Honestly. It’s been a really great environment for me. I just go there and I’m full of peace and people are asking me all the time where it’s coming from. ‘What’s wrong with you? Why are you so relaxed?’”

And he gets to tell them about Jesus.

I was talking with people who have lost jobs or lost health. I’m so impressed with the way that they kind of keep their head up. You can see that they’re hurting. But they’re not keeping their head up because of pride. They’re keeping their head up because they believe. They’re saying, “I have confidence that this is a really hard thing. But I have a greater confidence that somehow I’m going to see God come through. And he’s going to come through in a way that makes me want to keep walking and keep my head up.”

I’ve seen some of them actually land new jobs that are better than what they had before. And I’ve seen some of them come out of the health thing and they have a new trajectory for their life, and they actually feel like God met them in the midst of that illness. I’ve seen all kinds of things. I’ve seen hundreds of people show up for evangelism teaching. What? I’m sure we could have thrown some other topics out there and had a whole bunch of other people. But we’re not actually trying to draw a big crowd, so it is a little bit strategic. But still, we had a bunch of you show up to learn about evangelism. It’s just beautiful.

I hear about all these prayer meetings meeting in parks. And moms getting together to pray for their kids. That’s resilience. That’s showing up in the midst of the challenge. It’s been beautiful. It’s awesome to watch. I’m so proud of you guys.

In this passage, we have Jesus giving us three reasons why we should not let our hearts be troubled. He doesn’t just say “Do it.” But he says, “Here’s why.” As we go through, we’ll see three of them.

The first one, he says, “Don’t let your heart be troubled because I’m going to prepare a place for you. Then I’m going to come back and take you there.” This is a big deal. The reality of heaven. You can’t forget about this. As Christians, we get so focused on this life that we forget that one of the greatest promises, one of the only things in our Apostles Creed that has not come to pass yet, is that Jesus is coming back. And we’re almost a little embarrassed to say it or we’re like, “Yeah, Jesus is coming back…” but we don’t want to say it out loud. Because it’s not going to help anybody right now. But that’s not true. The hope of heaven is what makes this life doable.

What I mean by that—I was twenty years old once. I was working at this summer camp and a bunch of us love to play basketball. We were all going to this guy’s house to play basketball on the weekend, because we had weekends off. We were so excited about it. We woke up and it was like 100 degrees outside. When you’re living in Oregon a hundred degrees is like death. For you and me, it’s like, that was yesterday.

We couldn’t get motivated. We couldn’t do it. A couple of guys would go out there and shoot a little bit. It was just so hot. They’d come back in and they were like, “No, I can’t do it. It’s too hot.” But then the mom of my friend came in and said, “Hey, you guys know we have a community swimming pool. You can go jump in there and it should be fun.”

It was interesting. All of a sudden something happened with us. We thought, “Oh.” The idea of having a swimming pool to jump in made us want to go play basketball. So we actually went and played basketball for about three hours. It was a lot of fun. We never stopped because we knew at any minute there was this relief that was coming. There was something afterwards that we could look forward to. So it gave us this rejuvenation to go at it. We even fought each other and everything. We were fired up. And then we went and got the relief.

That is a true reality. That is not shallow. That’s not cheap. That is a reality. For Christians, this is as bad as it gets, this life. We have a hope in heaven and it’s hard for us to really understand heaven because it doesn’t seem real to us. But the truth of the scriptures is that heaven is more real than this life. You’ve got seventy or eighty years. Some of you jokers might get to a hundred. But that’s it. It’s gone. It’a vapor, the Bible says. But that’s everlasting. That’s more real than this life. And it is not foolish to put your hope in that. Actually, that’s something that’s going to make you a lot more effective and a lot more alive in this live.

Not only that, but check this out. That was in the morning. We’re driving back to the camp later that day. I’m in my little Nissan pickup truck. Sorry for those at my table talk. I told this story at our evangelism night so they have to hear it again. But it’s a cool story, so you’ll be okay.

We’re driving back and there’s this guy hitchhiking. We’re way out in the sticks because that’s where the camp was. As we’re driving up I just feel like the Lord’s saying, “You should pick this guy up.” And I was like, “I don’t want to pick this guy up.” I had two guys with me and we were going to be on time for the first time ever in my life. They always made fun of me. But I feel like the Lord was telling me. So I stopped and said, “Hey, man, you want to jump in and we’ll take you to where we’re going?” He’s like, “Yeah, that’d be great.”

So we take him down and the whole time we’re just driving, I feel like God’s saying, “This is time to share. This is one of those moments I’m setting up for you. You’ve been praying that you’d have chances to share me with people and I’m giving you one right now.”

It’s not like it’s in my heart. It’s like down here somewhere. I don’t even know what part this is. Maybe my heart is so cold it was not able to get in my heart or something. There was like this wrestling match going on. I don’t know if some of you have ever experienced that before. I just knew I was supposed to share with this guy.

So we got to the part of the camp where we were supposed to turn. I said, “Hey is this far enough or do you have to go further?” He’s like, “Well, my truck’s at the end of the road.”

“End of the road? Great.” So I keep driving and again, just battling this whole thing. We get to the end of the road. There’s his truck. I turned around, getting ready to go back. His truck’s on one side, we’re on this side. I rolled down my window and he’s getting out and I said, “Hey, do you know Jesus?” I mean literally, I was just that flippant. I didn’t even roll my window down the whole way. And I was like, “Hey, do you know Jesus?”

And he was like, “Well, you know.” And I was like, “Here comes the awkward. I knew this was going to happen.”

And he was like, “I just kind of think life is, you’ve got to make the most of it. That’s really all you can do. I’m not really into all of that.”

And I was like, “Really? You think that you just make the most of it and die and that’s it?”

“Yeah.”

I go, “Doesn’t that sound depressing? Isn’t that kind of a bummer? You really think all of this is just a mistake.”

“I don’t know.”

And I said, “Let me tell you a story.” And I told him the basketball story about how the hope of the going swimming made us so much more alive. And he was like, “Okay.” I was like, “You want that hope?” Again, I’m trying to get this overwith so we can go, because I know nothing’s going to happen.

And he didn’t answer. So I looked over at him and he’s standing a little bit away from me. He’s standing there and he just has this look on his face and I go, “You want that hope?” And he goes, “Yeah. I could use some hope.” I was like, I don’t know what to do right now. This has never happened before. So I was like, “Come over here.” I should have gotten out of the car. I didn’t get out of the car. I rolled the window down the rest of the way, so that’s pretty good.

So he came over and I talked to him a little bit more about Jesus and what he did for us, that’s why we can have this hope. I was like, “If you really want that, let’s pray and God can fill you with hope.” So I prayed and he repeated after me and then it was like, “That was cool.”

And then he was walking back to his truck and there was a little spring in his step. And my friends and I were like, “What is happening?” And he walks back. There were two yellow lines in the middle of the street. And as he’s walking back he kind of stops and he looks down and he reaches down and he grabs something and he pulls it up. It looks like it’s stringy like gum or something. And I was like, “Oh, he’s a crazy guy. That’s why this worked. He’s crazy.”

But then he picks it up and starts walking back toward us. His eyes are huge at this point. And he’s like, “Look! Look!” And I was like, “What’s happening?” And he gets next to me and I can see the think is shiny. It’s a gold chain and it has a golden cross with a diamond right in the middle of it. And he was like, “Look! Look!” And I was like, “Oh!” And I told him, “Look man. I don’t know how this has happened. But I think you can know that Jesus is with you. God heard your prayer. And he’s been watching you and he set this moment up. This has nothing to do with me, man. This is all you and God.

And he was like, “Take it.” And I said, “I’m not taking that man. You take that and you keep it.”

And he goes, “Are you guys angels?”

And I was like, “No. Definitely not.”

But that hope is real. And it’s powerful. And we live among a people that just have it. And they can. So that’s the first thing. Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Jesus is coming back to take us to forever. Forever.

The second thing he does here: Don’t let your hearts be troubled because he’s going to give us the Advocate, he’s going to give us the Comforter, He’s going to give us the Spirit of Truth. That Spirit of Truth is not only going to be with us, it’s actually going to be in us and it’s going to teach us everything and lead us into all truth and give us then peace of God. “Don’t let your hearts be troubled because I’m going to give you something. You have access to something that can change everything.”

All right. Second service. We’re going to do a little work right now, okay? I don’t know if you had a hard week. But just shake it off. We’re going to do a little brain work now. I’ve been reading this book, Reappearing Church by Mark Sayers. It’s cool. He says some stuff in here that is pretty amazing. He’s talking about a society that I think really describes ours well. A society of emotionally regressed people. We’re emotionally regressed because we’re so filled with anxiety. The anxiety in our society, the fear in our society has caused us to actually emotionally regress. We’re all acting like two-year-olds throwing temper tantrums right now is kind of what he’s saying. And this is Friedman. He’s not writing right now. He’s writing about twenty or thirty years ago. But the way he describes society and where we’re heading. It’s like, oh yeah.

I’m going to read some of these things. He talks about this cycle, these five things that describe this emotionally regressed society.

The first thing is Reactivity:

The vicious cycle created when individuals and culture continually react intensely to external situations with negative, anxious, angry and fearful emotions. They no longer rely on inner values, common sense or dialogue to help them find truth.

They’re just in this vicious cycle of reactivity. The second thing that he noticed about these societies is that they go to this ting called Herding:

As culture becomes reactive, we begin to act in herdlike ways. The mob mentality takes over. Society lowers itself to pleasing and not offending its most emotionally immature and unhealthy members who end up dictating the health of the culture.

That’s just number two. All right? That’s just number two. Another thing that he described this type of thing happening is Blame Displacement:

Instead of searching out the underlying causes of toxicity, we focus on symptoms. We retreat into a perpetual victim status blaming others and external forces instead of examining ourselves. When blame and fear of offending take over, it creates a gridlock which prevents renewal.

And then we go to this Quick Fix Mentality.

Our culture of Hedonism [which is basically pleasure at all cost—no pain at all cost] has created in us a low pain threshold which prevents us from persevering through the pain that is part of the process of renewal. We look to technology, more commentary, and more information as the cure for our ills.

Oh, by the way, Friedman is a rabbi and he is a family system theorist. Anybody a family system theorist in here? I don’t even know what that is, but it sounds awesome.

And then the last thing that he notices is that there is a Lack of Well Differentiated Leaders:

The anxious environment works against the leadership needed to lead a toxic emotional system to renewal. The inevitable backlash from trying to break free of the emotional reactivity, herding, blame displacement, and quick fix mentalities keep the kind of leaders and leadership needed to bring about renewal.

So you might say, “Okay. I see this in America these days.” And then you might actually say, “Well, if I’m really honest, I see this inside my own soul. I see this in my family. I see this in my friend group or what used to be a friend group but now it’s gotten real thin. Our relationships have gotten thin because we start to see each other as maybe dangerous, or as part of the problem.” And it becomes real serious and it’s easy for our hearts to become troubled or distressed. What Friedman goes on to say is the answer to this, the only way to get out of this vicious cycle is for there to be a non anxious presence introduced into this system. You need a differentiated leader, a kind of leader that is not in the system, a kind of leader that is outside the system, a kind of leader that still relies on those inner values to be able to be inserted into the system. In doing that, it can actually create a pathway to renewal.

And when Jesus says to us, “I’m going to go and you are going to find yourself in a deep, endless cycle of emotional regression and anxiety. I don’t want you to let your heart be troubled because I’m going to give you a non anxious presence that is a differentiated guide. It’s not of this world. It doesn’t depend on things in this world to guide you. That’s the Spirit of God. That’s the Holy Spirit that you and I have access to in Christ Jesus. And you and I do not have access to outside of Christ Jesus.

Jesus said it’s not just going to be one that’s with you, it’s going to be in you. If you and I will receive the Holy Spirit, we will be filled with a non anxious presence, a differentiated kind of guide that can lead us in our own souls, and lead our families, and lead our institutions that we’re a part of. We can be that non anxious presence as we go forward. That’s the mystery and the beauty of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed when I think about politics, when I think about all the systemic problems that we have in America. They’re everywhere. Greed, pride, deceit, stealing and cheating. Those are the main ones. Our country is riddled with those things. We’re actually celebrating those things, rewarding those things at this point.

I get so overwhelmed, but then I remember that what God is asking me to do is just “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. As for me and my own soul, I will serve the Lord. As for me and the institution I’m a part of called Living Streams Church, we will serve the Lord. We will try and, every chance we get, get rid of any corruption, get rid of any compromise so that this can be a place where people can taste what a non anxious presence is like, where people can begin to feel and know that renewal is possible.” If there’s enough little renewal, it will actually show up on the big scene.

America is always talking about top down. But that’s not what we need if we’re going to change this place. We need grass roots. We need bottom up. We need one on one discipleship. We need life groups. We need caring for one another. We need to stand up and defend our own souls, our own homes, our own relationships. That’s what at the church is called to. That’s why God sent his Spirit.

The last thing that Jesus says that we should not let our hearts be troubled is because the prince of this world has no hold on him. And if it has no hold on him, then it has no hold on us. That’s the big debate. That’s the big challenge. Mankind has faced sin and death. Mankind has been cursed with the stain of sin and death. Mankind has never really been able to get free. But then Jesus came and he took on humanity. He took on the curse. He took on sin and death. And just like everybody thought, sin and death once again claimed another victim, until that third day, when Jesus rose from the dead and began to be this first fruits of a new kingdom, of a new creation. And he says, “If you will follow me, if you will keep my commands, if you will allow my non anxious presence to fill your life and to guide you into all truth, then ultimately sin and death will have no hold on you either.”

That is my prayer for all of us, especially those of us in this room who have never really experienced the presence of God, the non-anxious presence of God. You’ve never invited Jesus into your life. You’ve never said, “God, I am stuck and I need you to come set me free.” You can not only receive what Jesus has for you now, but you can receive life forevermore. That’s the promise of the gospel. That’s the only thing that’s going to keep our hearts from becoming troubled not matter what happens with the election, no matter what happens with COVID, no matter what happens with your own relationships and brokenness. If you give your life to Jesus and you receive his Spirit into your life, you’ll find his peace is more powerful than the pain.

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