to open our hearts and to open
our minds and to breathe new life into our soul, to bring
us into your very presence, to hear your word preached to us. We ask that you would work in
us, work in us as a church, let us show the face of Christ for
all the world to see. We ask, Lord, that you would
help us today for the sake of Christ, in whose name we pray,
amen. Good morning again, everyone.
I want us to turn to the text that
I read in the beginning of our service of the Gospel of John,
chapter 15, where Jesus teaches about himself being the true
vine and that his people, we, are the branches. And I taught
extensively on this. Oh, goodness, how many years
ago was it? I'm not necessarily remembering the years, because
the last three or four years have sort of gone together as
one, if you know what I mean. And so I don't know when it was,
but I know that I did a four-year stint in the Gospel of John. There's a lot of depth there.
I'm not going to cover that. I'm going to use this text as
a launching pad into some application this morning. And like what we've
been doing over the last few months, during the travel months,
is taking our time out of First Timothy, which we'll finish up
in the fall, and going and dealing with some doctrinal things and
some more application. I want to read a few verses,
then I want to speak about some things, then I want to tell you
what I'm trying to do. Jesus says, I am the true vine. I am the true vine, and my father
is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does
not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear
fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you,
speaking to the disciples at the time, are clean to them for
us. because of the word that I have
spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you, as
the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in
the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine,
and you are the branches, and whoever abides in me and I in
him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you
can do nothing. Now I'm just gonna stop there,
those five verses. And there's some things I want
you to see and to have in your mind as we make application using
proof text from other places in the scripture. But I just
want you to have some clarity. First, I want you to see Jesus'
confession and declaration that He is the true vine. He didn't
just say, I'm a vine, or I'm the vine. Of course this is a
metaphor, we understand that. He's not a vine, he's not some
weed growing out of the ground. But this imagery, the things
that cause us to see the parallel here are important. For he says he is the true vine. What does that mean? That means
there are other vines. There are other things to connect
ourselves to. There are other identities by
which we would stand. There are other things in life
that we could make paramount in relation to our purpose, to
our power, to our people. But yet if we want to live authentically,
if we want to truly be who we really are and we are really
Christ, then we need to understand He is the true vine. We can connect to anything. A
lot of us sometimes find our identity in our church, in our
friendships, in our spousal relationships, in our children, in our jobs,
in our career, in our accomplishments, in our health, in our physique,
in our money. But that's not it. And if you
haven't seen the pattern over the last few months, go back
and listen, starting with the first sermon I taught in Psalm
40, and begin to hear what I'm trying to teach us, church. We have lived in an extremely
myopic way, with, I would say, in a negative sense, blinders
to the reality of the essence of our being as believers. To the point that we have forgotten
that the true vine is Jesus Christ and we have connected ourselves
in culture, Christian culture. We've connected ourselves in
denominationalism. We've connected ourselves in
the context of certain historical theologies. We've made much to
do about distinctions rather than Jesus. And there will always
be the non-spiritually led, non-Christ led fear, oh what abouts, the
what abouts, the what ifs, the yeah buts, there's a bag full
of them everywhere you go, they're all on the bottom shelf, they're
ready to be poured out at your feet. There's always going to
be some hypothesis, some alternative, some hypothetical that could
offer an outlier to what I'm saying. Those in and of themselves
are also idols of our hearts and minds, fueled by the fear
of not connecting and finding our identity to the little weeds
that we think are the vine of Christ, like these theological
groups, or these relationships, or these things. And ostracization
is the tool of the Church of America to manipulate behavior
in such a way that everybody just becomes the same on the
outside. But the scripture is clear that
God sees the heart. You can't hide from him. There's nowhere
in the Bible that the scripture says, Oh, you know, God knew
the heart of Johnny, but Johnny worked so hard. It didn't matter. It's not there. I mean, this
is like a trailer for a very poor movie, The Religion of Johnny,
a story. No tickets are going to sell.
Yes, they would, if you're looking to take a nap. Or if you're a
legalist, you buy a whole reel of tickets. Beloved, we can't
act our way into Christian living. We can't pretend who we're not. It's a lie. And that's why so
many people in the, quote, faith of our culture, in every iteration,
no matter where we are, they all talk about freedom and joy
and peace and resting and trusting and all these benefits, but they're
living in such a turmoil because the system that has been created
that we call Christianity of which I have been a part of and
propagated the abuse of God's people from the pulpit is not
of Christ. Oh my gosh, abuse, oh man, what
is it? Oh, it's not the schism that
you're thinking, right? It's the subtlety. It's the emphasis. I don't know why God gave me
me, I don't know why I am the way
I am. I don't know why I speak the way I speak or have the personality
that I have, but there's something odd about the fact that when
I say things, people are like, yeah, that's probably true. I
don't know why. But that's not true. What's not
true? That's probably true. It's not
accurate. Just because I say it, it's not
to be taken home to the bank. And what's crazy is that I say
it often. Don't take my word for it. Read
the scripture. But people don't go read the
scripture. That's not what they do in the world. It's not what
we're taught to do in the system of evangelicalism, in the system
of Christianity that's set up to keep people in bondage to
an ideal or to a philosophy that's not from the Bible, but yet everybody
says, from the Bible. Do you know that every, and this
is a historical lesson, and American church history, I know, American
history, westward expansion from colonization on to the wild,
wild west as it relates to religion, is sort of like I'm a nerd on
those things, okay? Used to teach it, I love it.
I remember we were over at the other building years and years
ago, I did a Tuesday night, American church history, it was so exciting.
I love this stuff, so what I'm about to say is pretty authoritative,
so don't take what I said before that true until after I say this,
then you can take it as true. I'll say it this way to be safe.
Most every cult and Christian cult that exists in the world
today started from Puritan ideals moving closer
to the West Coast to get away from Puritan ideals. Every single
cult that you could probably name started in the times of
westward expansion. When the Constitution of the
United States, for the first time ever, these people heard
the words that they have a right to life and to freedom and to
the pursuit of happiness and that Congress shall make no laws
governing religion And you have freedom of religion, and furthermore,
if you dig exegetically into the implications of these laws,
you have freedom from religion. Really? So I can believe in anything? Yes, this is America. This is
what God established as our laws. It's not Christocentric at all. There is not one Christian thing
in the founding documents of this country. And I will go to
my grave showing you that if you really want to dig through
the authentic articles to the source documents. We got some
lawyers in the room now. We can go to source documents. But yet we were taught otherwise,
right? And I'm using that as an example. The very nature of
all these iterations of faith and belief come from the Bible. Come from the very Bible that
was brought over here by the separatists, by their very name,
want to separate from those god-awful, you know, heathens across the
pond. I mean, that's some deep religion
to want to move across the ocean to an unknown land. No internet, no electricity,
no grocery stores, on a boat. So they can escape the dogma
of religion, but what they did is they brought it with And we're
the product of that. We're the product of that. Jesus
says, I'm the true vine. Not Protestantism. Not the Reformation. Gonna get
me started there. I can have us a horrible history
lesson, remember? History's written by the victors
until now. Because now everybody can read. And now we have the internet,
they can read everything you write the minute you write it. What does it mean to be connected
to the true vine? I think simply put, is that there's
nothing we can do to separate ourselves from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus. That's Paul's answer to this.
Because the second thing that you need to understand is that
Jesus is saying the Father is the vine dresser. So our connectivity
to Christ is the Father's doing. I mean, we wake up every day
and we go outside and there's some amazing, phenomenal thing
that has taken place overnight. And there are two realities of
this amazing thing. is that the water that we gave
our plants the day before is gone and the plants are either
a little bit droopy or a little bit larger than they were the
day before. And there are more weeds in the flower beds. And somebody, Robin or myself,
has to get in there and dress it. I've never woke up and gone
outside and the weeds have taken care of themselves. in the bush
that's at the corner of my, for those of you who know my house,
that you can't even see out of my study window. I'm like, how
did that get so tall? Because the vine dresser hasn't
been tending to it. But where did the branches all
of a sudden discover the idea that they were the ones who pruned
themselves? They were the ones who attached
themselves. They were the ones who kept themselves. You see
the point? This is gospel, y'all. This is
the gospel. This is the good report of Christ. The Father has put you on Him. The Father will keep you connected
to Him. And the Father will grow you
from Him. There you go. There's a book.
Write it. So we need to learn how to live
the gospel. Well, that's why we're here every week. To live the
gospel. But there are some people I'm
going to give some negative things, then I'm going to get on with
the get on with the point and some negative things. There are
some people who have made their ministry. Now, let's define ministry
for a moment. Ministry is serving the needs
of others. OK, so you have the Ministry
of Agriculture and some cultures, you know, rather than the department
is the ministry because they serve needs. They really emphasize
the idea of service, servanthood, servitude. So ministry, in the
simplest form, is meeting a need. Meeting what need? Our own need?
No, that's selfishness. That's not ministry. Meeting
other people's needs. So we are stewards, we have responsibility
to oversee, to govern, and to do something for someone else.
Now, of course, Merriam-Webster and the rest of them and everything
else may define it differently, but in the context of the local
church, that is a fairly decent elementary definition. But some
people have made it their passion and their zeal and their movement
in life to say that their ministry is to keep people connected to
Jesus. Oddly enough, I said this some
two years ago in my estimation of some of these people's motives
and ignorance, I said to myself, these people have the divine
eye of God. They know things that God hasn't
revealed to me in this, and He's given them some type of insight
as if they themselves are God. Much like the serpent tempted
Adam and Eve in the garden, that they would be like God, you see? And they would know things. Well,
people claim to know things, and it's not just the wackos
that we see on TV from far off lands that are usually in towns
about this size. It's everybody. And they think that they can
connect you to the vine. Well, that's saying, I'm the
father. I'm going to keep you connected to Jesus through whatever
means. Some people say that they can keep you connected to Jesus
through obedience of the law. Nonsense. Can't happen. Why? Because you can't obey the
law. You can obey it to your best of your ability. You can
obey it even in a divine way to where you can't see your error
and your disobedience to it. And in the judicial way, if we're
the jury, we all say pretty obedient, right? Because we're in the same
boat, disobedient. But they'll insist, oh no, shame,
shame, shame, shame. It's the crown. of abuse in the
church. And many pastors wear it. And
shame on us for wearing it. Some would say, not obeying. Some would say, well, you're
not proving. You know, Jesus said, whoever abides in me, he'll
bear much fruit. What is this fruit? Glory, hallelujah. I don't have to go burn incense
and pray at the altar for 60 years to figure this out because
he answers it. This is my commandment, verse
12. That you love one another. Oh, that's easy. I have fondness
toward my neighbor. I really like my friends. I just
love pizza. Oh, pizza is not in there. OK.
See how silly we even use the term. Just love the summer. I just love them. I just love
vacay. I just love you. I just love pizza. I just love
my doll. I mean, did Jesus loved us as
we love our pizza? No, he explains it. Lay down
our lives for our friends. Oh, there it is. While I sit
in here in my third house with my four jets, let me go ahead
and tell you right now, beloved, God has called you all to be
poor. So give me all your money. Give
God all your money. Now I'll pass it on up. I can hear the Jefferson's theme
in my mind right now. I don't know why. I guess the terminology. Oh gosh,
that's weird. It's right there. I just want
to sing it and get it out. I'm not going to do it. So we're loving by laying down,
but we don't get to define what that looks like. How do we love that way? What
in the world would we do that? Our joy would be full. My joy
would be full in you. Isn't that what we're striving
for? Our joy will be full if it's Christ's joy in us when
we are resting, not wrestling. I used to believe this, y'all,
that we should wrestle. Well, I've sparred a lot of my
life. I've fought a lot of my life.
I have punched a lot of my life. I have done very little wrestling.
I don't like it. First time I did any floor work
or ground work in martial arts, the guy that I was sparring did
not know that. I'd never been thrown to the
ground before in my life. And I'm like, all right, let's
get started. Next thing I know, stars knocked out. My head hit the
ground. Had no idea. He slung me to the floor like
I was a pretzel. And when I woke up, they're laughing. I'm like,
that's not funny, brain damage. I don't do that. It was 12 seconds. Lights out. It's not fun to wrestle. We're not supposed to like, you
know, Israel, wrestle with God. That's not the call of the Christian
life. Ephesians 6 tells us we are already in a battle. And Romans tells us we're more
than conquerors in Christ. So it's about resting in the
midst of the wrestling, not wrestling in order to find the rest. It's
not our fight. The father's done it. Christ
abides in us. We are here. We cannot escape
him. This is not an instruction on
how to do. This is an instruction on who
we are. You see this? And I've kept my father's commandments
and I abide in his love. And these things I have spoken
to you that my joy, this is an implication of a speaking that
makes us clean. Christ spoke over us. It is finished. Not guilty. You're not guilty. That's how John can say something
so strange. If you say you have no sin, you're
a liar. But because we're in Christ, you won't sin anymore. How? I don't know. But God has said
it. It's like being convicted of
a murder that you did not do. And then the person you supposedly
killed two years later shows back, I was just hiding. And then you kill them. You didn't
kill them, because you already did. Ain't that right? Sort of double jeopardy type
stuff. Yeah, and that's not a game show. You murdered them! No, I didn't.
I already served time for that. When I didn't do it, and now
I did do it, and it's already paid for. That's grace. Except we
didn't pay for it, Christ did. There's the implication of when
we say we are not sinning, when we're resting in the love of
God Christ. And the moniker, I can't imagine the monikers
that I will receive for that statement. It'll be something
weird. But I don't care. Because what
I care about is your joy. I want you to understand how
to live a gospel life. And it's not about deepening
your knowledge of theologies, or making better distinctions,
or following the rules, or becoming a better version, or being more
like Jesus in every sense that He is. We can't become God. You see how messed up we have
done the culture? And what's crazy, if we're trying
to stay tethered to Christ, the Father has plucked us off. Paul says as much to the churches
of Galatia, doesn't he? If anyone thinks that they're
going to get closer to righteousness or closer to Christ, then let
them be accursed. The word there is not cursed
like what we think. Let them be cut off. He's playing
on words. Let them be cut off. They want
to cut stuff off to be close, let them be cut off from Christ.
Because you can't do stuff to get closer to Christ. except
rest where Christ is. Christ is in the bottom of the
boat sleeping. Why are you up here acting like a fool? Oh,
I'm going down, I'm going down. Just go to bed. What does Jesus
say when they wake him up? Such little faith, such little
rest, such little trust. You see me sleeping? I mean, I'm sure his attitude
was sort of like that. He's like, be still. And Peter's like, I ain't
moved. Oh, he just told the world to
be still. He just told the sea to stop. He doesn't stand up
and go, oh, peace! You know, like Merlin or something
having to work his magic to get the sea to stop. He probably
just said it that subtly, just be still. And the sea stopped. And if I was him, I'd have went
back to bed. I'm like, now, can we sleep? That's the Christian
life. But there are things that we
must be doing. We teach right teaching because the New Testament
teaching is not for our theological fortitude. and for our distinctions
to be fortified. These are important things as
we grow. But there are some who would
suggest, unless your vocabulary, unless your distinctions, unless
there are theological things in your mind that are able to
be articulated in every language under the sun, but English is
God's language. It's the authorized language. You know, we're going
to get there unless your vocabulary is as distinct as theirs with
all the implications therein. You have not been born again.
You know what that is? Nonsense. I was searching for
a word as I was getting to that. Nonsense is the safest thing
to say. It's nonsense. And if anyone
has a problem with me and my shepherding to say that I am
letting go of or not being serious about distinctions and clarity
in teaching, they don't know who I've been for the last 25
years. And I'll let the record speak
for itself. But I'm not going to tell you
that you're regenerated because God has given you some academic
understanding of something. You're regenerated when the storm
comes up and you look and Jesus is sleeping, you just lay down.
And you're regenerated if the storm comes up and you look and
you see Jesus and you freak out. You see what I mean? Because
nothing you do proves that you are in Christ or not. Christ
proves you are His because you will bear much fruit. And the
standard fruit of assurance is continually resting in the gospel
of grace. But what must I do? Go to sleep. Simmer down now, you know. Just
simmer down now. And I'm not trying to trivialize,
I'm trying to simplify. And as a friend of mine has even
said in the last week or so, sometimes oversimplification can be manipulative.
So I don't want you to discard the gravity of authentic doctrine
and true teaching. There is such a thing as false
teaching. There is such a thing as a false presentation of Christ.
There's no such thing as a false Christ. And there's no such thing
as a false gospel. There's false presentations of
those things. Like I can, and I have, I have
had a $20 bill before that was counterfeit. And it felt funny,
and it sounded funny, and it looked a little funny. I ain't
taking this. Dude tried to pass it off at
the convenience store. I'm like, that ain't right. Give
me another one. Sure enough, next time I'm in
there, it's on the wall, counterfeit. It looks right, but it's not
right. But every New Testament community, every community, every
person, every group of people, every city, every congregation
that's addressed in the New Testament had several things in common.
One of which is that everywhere there was the truth, there were
people that came along on the tailwinds of the truth givers
and brought some sense of error along after. Why? Because they thought they were
right. So anytime there's someone trying to get you into a corner,
pressing you to undo what God has done in your rest by analyzing
you or interrogating you, you can pretty much believe that
they're not sent by the Spirit of God. So living the gospel is what
we want to work on. Living the gospel. And beloved,
it's not about having Bible studies every day. It's not about doing
all this stuff, learning induction and learning all these different
things. We ought to be reading the word of God every day as
much as we can. More than reading, we ought to
meditate. We ought to get into the habit of focusing on what
it is that the scripture teaches us to do. What it is the scripture
is telling us to do. Living the gospel in a biblical
context refers to, in my opinion, the practical application of
the teachings and principles found in the scripture, specifically
the New Testament. The word good news, gospel, it
centers around the life, the death, and the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, and all the teachings about God's kingdom and him as
the way to salvation. Living the gospel is not about
intellectual knowledge, but it is about embodying, listen to
me, and I'm using these words on purpose now, it is about embodying
the transformative message of Christ in our life every single
day. Christ is, therefore I will. The gospel says, therefore I
can. God's love has, therefore I am. There is no such doctrine in
the Bible that rests in and on itself as knowledge enough that
does not call for us and command for us to do something with it.
The good news is, whether we do something or we don't do something,
it's not our assurance. Our assurance is the promise
of God alone, not what we've done with or how we apprehend
that promise. And if God the Spirit grants
you to rest in what I'm saying, hallelujah. That's regeneration. That's repentance. That's repentance. You're resting, not wrestling. So what does it look like? Faith
and repentance, what I just said. Let me give you 10 ways that we should
embody this. Faith and repentance. We trust
in the promise of the true vine. Jesus is making a promise here.
The Father. He says that over in John 6,
right? You can't come to me because the Father has not given you
to me. All that the Father gives me, come to me. So this is the
metaphor now of that picture of salvation being done by the
Father, accomplished by the Son, and held together in the context
of the Spirit, whom Jesus will send, as we heard at the beginning
of our service. I did not choose you, but, I
mean, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed
that you should go and bear fruit. Now, what is he talking about?
To the disciples, he's talking about their love for one another
and the love that they will teach others to have for one another.
But most importantly, he's teaching about how that that message alone,
no wrestling, no persuasion, no coercion, rather, but just
the dynamic work of the divine power of God in the Spirit through
the simple message of Christ crucified and resurrected. God,
as He wishes, when He wishes, at whatever occasion He wishes,
without any means that He wishes, can cause His people to be born
unto life through repentance, which is faith, rest in the finished
work of Christ. Now some people will argue, well,
what if the Christ that you were presented is not the true Christ,
then it was not a true message of Christ. I mean, why do we have to go
there? And I'm going to start asking people, well, are you
teaching a false Christ? Is that your problem? You're
afraid? The hypotheticals have become a wall. We're living in
a very tiny, tiny circle with extremely high walls, and we're
not living productive, fruitful lives. We're not able to see.
We're so scared. We're so fearful of anything that doesn't look
like what we have designed as our own gospel. Repentance and faith. Living
the gospel begins with faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior. And we will always be in a state
of being divinely taught by the Lord. There is no prescription
in the gospel accounts and even the letters. You can't get everything
in every letter. You know that, right? You can't
get every essential doctrine of Christ in one single letter
of the New Testament. You have to look at all of them. But you can get the message of
Christ in full and everything that needs to be preached perfectly
to a specific people group out of four different ways through
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And I prefer to use John almost
80% of the time when I'm sharing the gospel because it fits our
narrative, it fits our culture, it fits our world. So we live the gospel by faith.
And whether we do it right or we do it wrong or we live right
or we live wrong, we love rightly or we love wrongly, we're never
going to perfect it. It's OK. We are perfected in
Christ. We are sanctified in Christ once
and for all. There's nothing more necessary
for us to do, and there wasn't anything for us to do anyway.
God brought us to Christ, God gave us a new mind, and that
mind and its newness rests. That's faith. That faith is evidence
of repentance. Repentance is not about getting
the dirty out. I had a question come up this weekend. Somebody
said, in my accountability group at my church, the men have decided
to give each other our tax return so that we can be accountable
for how we spend God's resources. And then bank account stuff.
And I'm going, you're crazy. That's crazy. I'm just going
to say it. That's insanity. Grocery list next. Text messages. If the good news
is, watch yourself, I don't want it. If the good news is, beware,
then the disciples are liars. Just another way of control. And there's a lot of control,
and I'm going to be preaching a message in a couple of weeks on how we've
seen control destroy the church historically in my lifetime.
I don't know about yours. The second aspect of living the
gospel outside of faith is then doing the things that the scripture
teaches us to do, the first one being love and compassion. If
we don't get love and compassion, we shouldn't deal with anything
else. I'm going to say that again.
If we don't perfect love and compassion, we shouldn't be doing
anything else. Anything. We shouldn't have one
conversation about justification and its theological and judicial
implications until we love everybody perfectly. Now, we're not going
to, so we better learn to have those conversations in the midst
of all that, you see. But that's just how I am. I'm
not going to do this until I make this perfect, and then I never
get to this. And I never finished this, so I never do anything. And by God's mercy, I'm learning
to not be that way. I would never have but one shoe
on, because this left shoe is still not tied correctly. It
doesn't feel right. Central to the gospel is the
commandment to love God. With everything we are, which
means the only way we do that is to love others as we love
ourselves. It includes self-love. And more
people hate that word. That's all fuzzy. It's not fuzzy.
You know how hard it is to love you? Of course you do, because you
don't love you. Living the gospel involves showing
compassion and kindness and selflessness. with friends and strangers and
lovers and enemies, seeking and framing to see the good and not
to steal away from a lyric, but love is not in spite, it's regardless. We are to love regardless. And
love is a decisive act of the will. How can I do that because
God decisively, actively willed to love me in Christ? Regardless. God didn't love me
in spite of me. He loved me regardless. See how
little words make a big difference? And I'll unpack that biblically
as time moves on. forgiveness and reconciliation.
Christians are called to forgive as they've been forgiven. And
some infractions are never forgotten. But we can learn to love regardless.
And there are outliers, there are extreme things. And we all
have our limits and we aren't to be held to the standard of
remaining in situations where we're destroyed or abused. This
is not being persecuted for Christ's name. when we inflict others
to harm because of a social structure that we call Christian living. But we should be seeking reconciliation.
We should be seeking restoration between others. restoring broken relationships,
restoring things whenever possible. I mean, that's a direct commandment,
right? I don't have to go to Romans 14, 15, 16. I don't have
to show you that. You know that. That's what Jesus
means, love one another. The fourth thing is to serve.
We ought to be giving, laying down our lives as Christ talks
about. Laying down our lives. Husbands, love your wife as Christ
loves the church. You know what that means? He's
not the boss of his wife. Did you know that? Husbands are
not the boss of their wives. Yup, a bunch of eyes just fell
on the floor. We don't have flies in here,
I'll let go in. There is no such thing as dominance or authority
over another human being in the economy of grace. But culture has taught us all
sorts of crap about that. And I have spent My entire life
trying to figure out how it works and making excuses, well that's
not the way we are, that's not the way they are, but the system
is set up that way to marginalize and to control. Servanthood. Jesus Christ came
down here and embodied himself as a creature and became sin. When he could have easily just
went, bow down, I mean, and we'd all bowed. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church. As your own body. I pray to God by the time I die,
I get that. Generosity, stewardship. The
gospel teaches us to be generous with our resources, with our
time, with our talents, and emphasizes the responsibility
of handling things judicially and prudently that don't belong
to us responsibly. The sixth thing is that we have
to have a life of integrity and honesty. And I want to just go
ahead and caveat, let's just cut this caveat right out here.
This keeps it real. Speaking the truth in love is
not getting in the face of anyone about anything ever in that way. Speaking the truth of love is
minding your own business and speaking when you have a relationship
that warrants it. As one who is equally guilty
as the person you're speaking of, that you might help guide
them to the resting place of rejoicing, not cleaning their
lives up. Folks, that is so hard. Why?
Because we love the tabloid blood that runs through our American
veins. And when we can call somebody out on something, for some strange
reason, we get high. It's like dopamine on crack.
Is that even a couth to say? It's like, yuck! I got him! Put down them novels
and quit reading that witchcraft. Pick up the Word of God, only
the KJV. Well, guess what? That KJV idolatry is worse than
the witchcraft. Because you're saying God wrote
English. And at the end of the day, it
don't matter. If you want to read a KJV, read it. I'll read it. Now that I got a Bible on my
phone, I can pull up any version you want. You want the redneck
version? I guarantee you there's one. And all my 1611 friends, their
heads just exploded when I said that. I'll be preaching some
funerals this week. Integrity, honesty, living with
integrity, living with authenticity, living with honesty, speaking
the truth in love. requires gentleness, requires
love, requires extreme compassion, requires the desire for reconciliation.
Because you know, we should never speak the truth in love if it
doesn't directly relate to reconciling us to someone else. Or as someone
needs us, offering our time and prayers to help reconcile with
others. We're called to live faithful
and to persevere. Number seven, Christians are
called to remain steadfast in their faith. How are we gonna
be steadfast? What's that mean? That means we're gonna suffer.
We're gonna walk out, I mean, I went outside yesterday and
the basketball goal's blown over and the tables are blown over
and I mean, there's new furniture in my yard from someone else's
yard. I don't know where it came from. because we had a storm
the other night, and it just blew, and it blew, and it blew,
and it blew. It was not steadfast. How do I know? Because it's gone,
or it's moved. We don't get to be steadfast
until we're blown against, until we're pressed, until we have
pressure. Being steadfast is not floating along in an inner
tube with a 70 degree day and with a beautiful sky. It's as
we're in that place going, this is great, what is that? And it's
a class six rapid. and a thunderstorm on top of
it. I'm going to die. Just hold on. I can't. That's all right. The tube's
got you. The branch doesn't hold on to the vine. The vine holds it. The Father
keeps it. We're going to be called to be
steadfast. And in that, the number eight, we're going to be called
to humility and meekness, lowliness. It just stomps out all arrogance.
It stomps out all boasting. But yet, humble brags are the
greatest arrogance of the church. If I went for the grace of God,
there I'd go, I'd be like you. That's arrogance. That's not
humility. It's not. And the crazy thing is, is Jesus
says, you are my friends. Right? Verse 14 of John 15, you
are my friends. It's conditional if you love
others. So we love God when we love and
we love Christ and we're His friends when we love. You got
a friend? You got a spouse? You got a significant
other? And y'all are friends? You're
friendly? When what? When we're loving one another.
When we get to fighting, we're not friends anymore. Let's just be honest. The way
relationships stick is when we decide we want to keep that friendship
and work toward it. I mean, that's Christian living.
And the world gets it better than some church members, some
congregationalists, certain denominations. And honest to God, better than
the Christian culture of this world who is known for their
hatred and separation. And the irony behind that is
the ninth thing. that I believe is imperative about living the
gospel is to avoid hypocrisy. How dare we be objects of divine
love and then be adamant on being hateful toward other people who
don't live according to our standard? Well, that's not going to associate
with those people. You know what? There's only one context in the context of the church
where someone cannot be associated with, and that's when that person
refuses to put down destructive things in their life which are
destroying relationships. And then the church has to go,
we're just going to give you some time, arm's length. Why? So that they'll come back
and go, okay, I want to be close, I want to be friends again. But
we've abused that in the culture. And then we turn around and we
judge others, and we make judgments of others, and then we lead a
band. I mean, oh my goodness, you want a good teaching ministry?
Just bang the pulpit and talk about all the wicked things that
are going on in the world, but never turn them inwardly. And
you'll have a full house and a full bank account. You'll have
two or three full houses. And you'll call that church planning
and say, look what the Lord is doing, standing against wickedness. The Lord stood against wickedness
when He hung Christ on the cross. And then he gave the credit of
Christ's righteous life and death to us. And then in all of these things,
the tenth thing that I'll share this morning, the last thing,
is that in all of that we're sharing
the gospel. And sharing the gospel is sharing
the testimony of the life that God has promised us in Christ,
resting in Him, and then being lived out authentically together
as His people. A gospel testimony isn't, I used
to be that, now I'm this. You ever heard those? I remember
in the days of high school and college ministry, you know, we'd
have these large camps and There'd be this guy, real cool, real
tough, you know, pecks out to his cheeks and just rough. I was in prison 17 months. Jesus
found me in the toilet. I looked in the toilet and I
just knew Jesus. And I made $40 million and I
had Lamborghinis and I had 65 girlfriends in 20 minutes and,
you know. And it was awesome and awful
at the same time, but then I saw Jesus and now I'm free. And all
these kids would get back in the breakout sessions and go,
so you mean to tell me I can have all that and then get Jesus
later? I'm serious. It's not a testimony.
It's not a testimony. It's a testimony, but it's not
a gospel testimony. It's like it's not a gospel testimony for
us to say, well, you know, I was I was lost. And then I said these
magic words and I was saved. That's not a testimony. It's
not a testimony to say, hey, this and we all have these stories,
but a testimony is that God gave his son. And his son. Satisfied his wrath for me. It's simple, divine. God found me. God called me. And yes, God changed me. But there are a lot of things
that can change you. And God's Word doesn't promise that He's
always going to change all of us with everything. There are
some things that we will struggle with to the very last breath
we breathe. There are temptations that our mind will never let
go. And it's not a promise that will
escape them in this life. We will not be separated from
the vine. We will not be separated from
the vine. When we experience God's grace,
there is a transformation of the heart. And then our relationship with
God and all three persons begins through his word and with his
people. And we live in response to his sovereign grace, faithfully
living, ministering to others, worshiping, loving, adoring, and being empowered by the Holy
Spirit because of what God has done. This is my commandment that you
love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one
than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You
are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I
call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master
is doing, but I've called you friends. For all that I have
heard from my father, I've made known to you. You did not choose
me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear
fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask
The Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things
I command you so that you will love one another. And I'll unpack some of that
more next week. Beloved, this is a promise. And every one of us are sitting
in a position right now where two things are true. At least
two things. One of these two things could
be true. We're sitting here today going,
I am horrible, I cannot live up to this, and I don't know
what I'm going to do. That is not the point of the
promise. The second option is, I am so
glad that I did not have to live up to this because Christ lived
it for me. So I will rest in his word that
he spoke to me that I am being attached to him and pruned in
this very moment by his word that has been spoken to me. That I may become more focused
and sensitive and intimate with Christ as I become more focused
and sensitive and intimate with those around me, starting with
myself. Now, which one do you want? Then rest there. That's God's
gift to you. And when you take this table,
remember that the wrestling, that the struggle, that the trial,
that the damning was Christ to bear in the cup and in the bed
and the body with his blood. It's not ours to bear. The world
will hate us, as he says in the very next verse. But he was hated. And if we are His and He is ours
and we are in Him and He is in us, we will suffer in the same
way, but we will also be able to have the peace that He also
had in the midst of it. That's my hope for you. It's
not my hope for me. It's not hope for everybody,
all of us who aren't even here today. And we would find that,
that we would rest in that, and that we would come every week
to be refueled and recharged and re-encouraged and re-exhorted
to live it out. Let's pray and then take the
table. Father, we are so glad to be able to come together as
your people. Lord, I am not perfect, never
can I be, but I am perfect before you because of Christ's perfection
credited to me. That does not make what I do
always right. It does not make what I say always
true. So, Lord, test me that I may correct things that would
lead people out of the truth. For it is a great possibility
that that could happen. If we don't test it. Father, I do know that the words
that you have given us, that the words that Christ has said,
we do not get to decide what they mean, for they say what
they mean, and you have given clarity on these things. Lord,
give us a life of fulfilled living together in Christ. And help
us to break away from all the burdens, as John would teach
us, that the burden of the command that you give is not heavy, because
your love is perfect. So help us to quit living in
a place of burden and fear, fear of each other, fear of all sorts
of things that we may live intimately, openly, and honestly with each
other. as you have revealed your glory in that way through Christ
your Son. And we thank you for Him and what He has accomplished
for us, and that He is alive today, interceding through His
body and through His blood, because it is finished. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen. Please come.