Struggle or Snuggle- Breakthrough Faith

I have to tell you um about um one of my days where I showed my my real brilliance on a reservation.

Early in the days of the Arn Eagleswings ministry, we were uh we started actually uh in the southwest going to the Navajo Reservation. and um put a few, found a few Christian native kids, there weren't very many, and put them together with a team.

I think Brad was a teenager.

David Brad was still talking like this.

And we had and uh Doug was on the team and we had to go out.

We could sort of have some white kids on there too.

We didn't have enough native kids.

But we went out with native kids that summer and God did something we we didn't know we were doing.

We took our summer vacation We just knew God had put this passion and we thought a plan and a missionary said, man, we never thought we'd see to live today, live to see the day when Indian kids would lead Indian kids to Christ.

And we did, big time.

We said, man, God, you got, this is your idea, isn't it?

Well, um, on a day off, we had several non-native people helping us.

And I decided to take them a little sightseeing to the to a place called Canyon Duche.

And those of you who have done any sightseeing in in Arizona, northern Arizona, may know this has uh got a great history in the Navajo Nation, very beautiful place.

Actually Doug and Anna courted there.

Watch the moonrise, they got all these romantic stories, which they don't tell me.

But I heard there were some.

And uh and and it's a beautiful place.

Now it's quite a drive.

We had to drive from Window Rock, Arizona, which is the headquarters of the Navajo Nation, and I borrowed a station wagon from the mission organization there And I loaded up and we got the Canyon Duche.

That was great and everybody loved it.

We're coming back and it's starting to get dark.

And again, fairly long drive.

And uh all of a sudden the car starts to go, you know, starts to cough a little bit and sputter, and I thought, oh no, we literally are in the middle of nowhere.

We actually happen to be out in one of the most uh the the hotbeds of the Navajo traditional religion where even what are called skinwalkers which are really demonically possessed men and skins with supernatural powers and there were ceremonies going on all over and all of a sudden we're out of gas.

Now I am really bright.

But let me tell you it's not my fault.

Oh no, men are never lost and it's never our fault.

The problem was that the gas gauge, I swear, said three-quarters of a tank.

But They forgot to tell me the gas gauge was broken on the dumb mission station wagon.

So we're not going anywhere and we're 40 miles from the nearest gas station or anything.

Well, let me tell you, it was going to be a long cold night out there.

And as it got dark, you could almost feel the spiritual darkness closing in around you.

Well, um Karen had the idea that we should all start singing praise music and that was a good idea because everybody was pretty freaking out in in the car And when we sang praise music, the fear was gone.

Of course, smart Alec Ron, every once in a while, I had to insert, I said, well, I'll just lighten it lighten it up a little bit with a humorous comment.

As soon as I tried to say something funny Man of the darkness came back in.

Karen said, shh, sing.

So we just kept singing, and but we had no idea how we're gonna get out.

Thankfully, in answer to prayer, ultimately, a Navajo man drove up, he was on his way to a ceremony, and we said, would you please, uh, would you be we'll give you some money.

We didn't know if we would ever see him again, but would you go and get some gas for us in Fort Defiance?

Which your closest gas station.

We give him the money.

We don't know if he's gonna ever see the guy again.

Sure enough, hour and a half later, he came back With enough gas to get us going.

He said I got there as they were turning off the lights on the on the gas station.

He said I got there just in time We had a chance to share Jesus with them, tell them what it meant to us.

And we finally got back, and when we did, our Navajo brother Dion O.

Butler said to us, If I had known where you guys were, I would have come after you immediately.

That was not a good place to be.

Now here was here was my problem.

I was operating under the illusion that I was doing fine.

I was running on empty.

And I ended up in a very not good place.

There are millions of us followers of Jesus Christ.

Who look at our gas gauge and we think we're doing fine.

Especially if we look around, we might be doing finer than a lot of people we know at church.

We've they wouldn't come and listen to a weekend of Bible study, probably.

You've got an appetite for God and you're here and you care about God's work.

But in fact, you know deep down inside you may be running on empty or close to empty.

And we end up places we don't want to end up And instead of feeling joy, we're feeling stress.

And instead of it being a love affair with Jesus, it's more of a duty, it's more mechanical.

It's gotten kind of cold and official.

And we're running on empty.

And there are reasons for that.

And this morning, I get to share with you the fact that there is spiritual plutonium that could change the course of the rest of your life so you will never again, never again, as a follower of Christ, run on empty.

And have to just crank it out.

The Apostle John, really Jesus, as recorded by the Apostle John , we're picture people.

I love that that Jesus knows we're picture people.

That's why we have the bread and the cup.

And he gives us pictures to be able to see the abstract.

And so he gives us two pictures in the Gospel of John that are liberating and they are the keys to a more supernatural life.

You know plutonium in the nuclear industry.

For example, the the bomb that dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, that helped end World War II?

The key to that nuclear bomb was, in fact, its most important ingredient, they said, was plutonium.

It sustains a nuclear chain reaction.

It makes possible a level of energy or weapons that otherwise would not be possible.

The Gospel of John reveals to us where the spiritual plutonium is that can actually detonate a whole new level of spiritual power in our life.

And it's going to come down to two little words.

Two little words.

God wants to make sure it's within our reach.

And you'll see in your notes, one tells us the key to living God's plan for the rest of your life.

Knowing what it is and doing it.

What else would we want to waste our time on?

And secondly, it's going to give us the key to loving the rest of the journey.

Loving the rest of the journey Two little words that empower a fulfilling life of Christ.

Let's go to passion number four on the glory road.

Remember, we're talking about loving Jesus. for the incredible and estimable sacrifice he made for us.

We're talking about joining him in his rescue mission.

And we're um yesterday morning, you got it written down?

I don't have it memorized, but you remember that that um yesterday morning we we talked so much about trusting him, believing him for the amazing miracles.

And here is another passion that becomes these become these become what you care about, what you make your decisions based on.

These are the driving passions of the rest of your life.

And this one is surrendering to his supernatural empowerment.

It's a lot of words But I hope these two pictures will bring it to life.

Surrendering to his supernatural empowerment.

Let's look first of all at the secret to living his plan, and I call it living sheepishly Living sheepishly.

John chapter 10.

I want to say to Rachel and to Weston, calm down.

They're Navajos and I'm talking about sheep.

So they're all like, woo-hoo, dinner.

So Let's take a look at the first picture that Jesus gives us of him as the shepherd.

Those of you who went on the tour to our headquarters yesterday know we got to name our little street there and I picked the name and it was Shepherd's Way.

There is a reason, and I'll tell you that in a minute.

The watchman, Jesus says, now of course back then they're walking past sheep and shepherds all the time.

In fact, when you visit Israel, you still see them.

There's still the Bedouin shepherds shepherds are still herding their sheep along.

The watchman opens the gate for him And I want you to listen for the key word now in these next verses.

And the sheep listened to his voice.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them.

And the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

But they will never follow a stranger.

In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.

Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.

All whoever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.

I am the gate.

Now look, by the way, there's a recurring word besides sheep that you're hearing here.

I am the gate.

Whoever enters through me will be saved.

He will come in and go out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.

I am the good shepherd.

A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Let's fast forward to some of the later verses in the chapter.

My sheep listen to my voice.

I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.

No one can snatch them out of my hand.

Now, as we've gone through those verses , Did you happen to hear a keyword, a verb repeated over and over again?

You got it.

You were Listen.

Keyword number one.

Listen.

He said, my sheep end up where I want them to be because they listen.

By the way, that's a word we don't all do too well, do we?

Nobody listens anymore.

Did you ever like did you ever lose your your train of thought and you go, what was I saying?

Do you ever watch the other person?

They're like you count on one hand the number of times everybody knows what you're saying?

We're not particularly good listeners, but I'll tell you what, listening, Jesus said, is living sheepishly.

It is why sheep Avoid the predators.

It's why they don't die.

It's why they don't end up in danger.

It's why they have enough to eat.

It's why they go where they're supposed to be.

Because they listen to his voice and they know his voice.

Now Jesus has planted in our heart what I consider to be one of the most precious pictures in the Bible of our relationship with Him, the shepherd and sheep example.

This goes back to me being a boy.

You may have heard me say, and some of you know this, that our family was the lost, living in a little second-floor apartment on the south side of Chicago.

And never heard about Jesus.

We didn't hear about him at our home.

My parents smoked and they drank and they gambled and so on.

My dad was a machinist, but somehow they had money to spend on those things.

We didn't have a lot, I don't think I got a baby brother.

And when he was six months old, all I know is one night they left for the hospital with him very quickly, and the next day he was gone.

They never did diagnose what he died of.

They weren't even sure why he died.

It was all so sudden.

That smiling little boy, baby Stephen, was gone.

My dad could not recover from the grief.

My dad was devastated by that.

And somehow it came to him that having one child left, one boy left, he said, I gotta do right by this boy.

I should find a church to take him to.

I'm not going, but I should take him.

And so he took me, that just happened to be Emmanuel Baptist Church was three blocks away, and he, that was the closest church, so he would drop me off for Sunday school, sit in the car, read his Sunday paper, and his machine is closed smoke a cigarette and wait for his boy to come out.

I loved the Sunday school there.

I had there were friends, I liked the guys there, and you know, now they have video games.

Let me just tell you how old I am.

I was entranced with a sandbox.

Whoa.

I mean they had a sandbox that was like bigger than these tables.

It was huge.

I was great, a thousand little cars and stuff.

So I love the spiritual dynamics of that.

It was a great, but I'll tell you what, one day in junior church.

I saw a picture on the wall, and I never forgot it, because it's the first time I had a mental picture of Jesus.

And you've seen the picture, I'll bet.

It's the shepherd.

Walking along with a flock of sheep behind him by a stream.

He's got a little lamb in his arms, and another one kind of nestled up against his leg.

And I said, I know who I am.

I'm the lamb in his arms.

Me sheep.

Him shepherd.

To this day, I must constantly remind myself.

Me sheep, him shepherd, There is for me no more precious picture Jesus gave.

But it took me a lot of years to understand how that was such a key to living God's plan for my life.

By the way, just as a I have to tell you this.

I hadn't banned back to that church.

We were in a changing neighborhood.

That whole part of Chicago has been African-American community for years.

We were the last white families to move out.

And uh so I said, Karen, as we're going by this one exit on my way down to Moody, I said, can we, you know what, I should go try to see if I can still find that church.

We founded the old apartment in Park Manor Grade School where I uh where God prepared me for a lifetime of cross-cultural ministry by having me play with kids of a different color, and all our parents I think didn't like each other, but I didn't get the memo.

The kids didn't get the memo.

We didn't know we were different.

We just played with, we liked each other.

We were all kids, you know.

But I went back and I said I found the church and this wonderful African-American lady, I said, would you show me around?

I saw where the sandbox was.

I can't believe they got rid of it.

I don't know why the sandbox is not so I was gonna I was gonna play with it again.

And I remembered going up these stairs to junior church where I gave my heart to Jesus one Sunday and I said I said, I think we went, yeah, and I let's see what and it was coming back to me.

I mean I'd not been there since I was a little kid And I went into the room, I said, this is it.

This is where we had junior church.

And she said, well, this is a choir room now.

And I looked down the wall.

And there was my shepherd.

And there were the sheep.

Except for one thing was different.

The shepherd was black.

Isn't that cool?

Isn't that cool?

That was a very precious moment for me So this comes to life for me when Jesus says, if you want to know how to follow me, you get this sheep thing down So what did he teach us about sheep?

Well, first of all, the relationship of the shepherd and the sheep is personalized.

He calls his sheep by name.

When I went to Minnesota my dad always took us on fishing trips to Minnesota as a kid.

I never got into fishing.

I thought it was boring.

I apparently I'm a little too sugar driven to enjoy sitting there you know drowning a worm but uh but I I I remember we'd go to Minnesota and I remember that that he just to give me some fun there was this giant Paul Bunyan in Brainerd Minnesota I mean he was huge.

It was like, you know, as big as that wall easily over there.

And next to him they had a little shog cabin for proportion to show how big he was, and babe the blue ox was over here And so we go there, I'm 10 years old, and my dad pays, and I walk in, and as soon as I walk in, this voice booms out.

Hello, Ronnie!

I'm freaking out!

How does he know me?

When your dad pays for the ticket He tells the guy the little boy's name, who then tells it to the guy in the cabin with the big microphone.

Freak me out!

The big guy knows my name.

Let me tell you, the big guy knows your name.

And when everybody else may look at us, He may say they may say, look at that flock.

Jesus says, no, let me call you by name.

My father-in-law actually took care of sheep as a boy, and he told me, he said, I would call my sheep by name. and they would only come when I called their name.

No one moved, no sheep moved, except the one whose name I called.

This happened with Middle Eastern shepherds all the time.

Sometimes they would blend their flocks together in one uh one uh um Um, what do you call it?

Yes, you know the thing.

Defense.

Yes, all night long, right.

And they would put them together all night long.

And so you have all this intermingled flock.

But the shepherd would come along and then the boy, you know, my sheep didn't pay any attention to to you.

I'd come in and I'd start calling the name and man, they would come to me.

So to you, it may look like a flock, but to the shepherd, it's like there's Bumpy and there's woolly uh and you know there's Chubby and there's cuddles, and if you're Navajo, there's yum yum, you know, so you've got all these, all the All these names.

So I think how neat it is that he calls me by name.

I am he this is a deeply personalized relationship.

All through the book of John he calls people by name.

Simon, Lazarus, Philip.

And then that beautiful, tender scene in the garden where Mary thinks the body has been stolen, and Jesus says one word, Mary.

And she knows her master is alive.

Oh, he calls his sheep by name.

By the way, do you remember the first time when in your heart it felt like he called yours?

And that's the day you probably came to him.

You are forever cherished.

That's the first thing.

You are forever cherished with an individualized, personalized, customized, by name love for you.

What does that mean?

You can trust him.

You can follow him.

As one young man said to me When he finally decided he could turn over to Jesus, the one holdout thing he could was going to hang on to, he said, Ron, I can give Jesus everything but basketball.

Because basketball's my ticket.

Basketball is what I do.

Basketball is what I'm known for.

It's my way through life.

He said, I'm afraid what Jesus would do with it.

At the end of the week where I was speaking, he said the night before I went out on the beach, he said, Ron, I gave Jesus everything.

I said, you gave him basketball?

He said I did give him basketball.

Now you fill in a blank for your most precious He said, yes, I gave him basketball.

I said, would you decide?

How'd you decide that?

He said, because walking on the beach, I said, anybody who loves me enough to die for me will never do me wrong.

I can't trust me with basketball.

I'm going to give it to him.

So, personalized love.

Secondly, secure.

No , he said, you're never going to be out of my hand.

This is a secure relationship.

Chapter 10.

Let's look at those verses 4 and 11 and so on When he's brought out all his sheep, he goes ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

By the way, let's go back to that one for just a minute.

This is why you never have to be afraid of the unknown.

Some of you right now are heading into a season of your life that doesn't have a map.

There's change taking place.

The children have moved out.

It's emptiness.

It's different career.

It's retirement Illness is doing something.

Whatever.

You're in a different season.

This is there's there's it's not all mapped out for you.

I had it mapped out before, but this is this is new ground.

What do we do?

I love this verse.

I've hung on to it.

It's John 10, 4.

And every major transition in our life, Karen and I have hung on to this like a life preserver.

He puts his sheep out and he goes ahead of them.

Everywhere you're going to go, where he's going to take you, he's getting there ahead of you. getting it ready with everything you need, taking care of anything that will be endangered will endanger you.

He is a shepherd who goes ahead of his sheep.

You do not have to be afraid of your future Because there's no lengths to which he will not go for you.

He said, I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd, if I will lay down my life for you You are safe with me.

Your future is safe.

And so many times I have literally, I mean this is so practical, before I picked up the phone to call somebody, write an email, go into an appointment I was a little scared of, make a decision.

I was totally unsure what to do, and I would go Jesus, go in ahead of me.

I know you're in that office before I go in there.

I know you're on the other end of this call before I call.

Jesus, please go.

He said, I will.

I'm your shepherd.

I love you.

I know you by name.

I'm always going ahead.

Isn't that great?

Security?

That he's in your unknown before you get there.

Oh man, I tell you, I that that that to me is infinitely exciting.

By the way, Yogi Beira, the great theologian, said, if you don't know where you're going Chances are you will end up somewhere else.

I just thought I would share that with you.

So um that that's um Mets have had enough publicity here.

Um So that is why fear never has to be a deciding factor.

By the way, he also he says I will take care of you.

The hired man will flee from the wolf, but I will lay down my life to defend you.

Jesus is protecting you in ways you don't even know.

Some years ago before we had moved back to bear uh moved to Arkansas, uh I was in Ecuador and my wife and Rick and Lisa.

Karen was taking, they said, would you show us some of the places where you grew up?

You know, some of the things you did.

And they dis she said, well I'll take you back to this spring where we went to get water, especially during a drought, because the spring never dried up.

So they went back and uh there's a cave right there and and uh so they had to go through some very dense grass.

It's not a place people go a lot now And uh they were hanging out by the cave for about 20 minutes and Karen was coming telling some memories of what happened there and so on.

Rick was videoing all this stuff, so we had kind of the memories.

And uh when they got back to the hotel that night They said, let's watch the video.

And all of a sudden they get to one point in the video, Karen said, wait, stop.

Rewind.

Well, rewind again.

That's the first they saw the glowing eyes inside the cave.

They were within a few feet of the cougar the whole time they were there And I when I got home and I heard this, I said, honey, you realize how many times in our life we had no idea of the danger we were in.

And we're going to watch the video in heaven and see all the cats that never pounced.

Because the shepherd stood between you and the cougar.

How dare you let your life be governed by fear and worry with a shepherd like that.

Well, the single most important thing for a sheep to know is where the shepherd is going.

And to follow him there.

John 12, 26, Jesus said, here's my desire.

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, where I am, where I am, my servant will also be.

You what you want to know is, Jesus, where are you going with my husband?

Where are you going with my wife?

I'm going there with you.

I'm following you there.

Jesus, where are you going with this son of mine?

Where are you going with this granddaughter of mine?

Where are you going with this future of mine?

Where are you going with this career of mine?

Where are you going with this health of mine?

Where are you going?

I just want to know where you're going so I can go there too.

When we Brad brought home a little shih tzu pupper, pupper?

Pupper?

The puppy.

It was also a puppy we brought home.

And and he brought home this little shih tzu named Missy.

And it was really weird.

When he was gone to school, she was kind of She's laid down like there's no reason to live.

Brad's gone.

You know, and but she knew as soon as he was driving in.

But we didn't know it.

She could hear the whatever she heard, she knew Brad.

She whoop she goes to the door.

That's how we knew Brad was coming home She's at the door and Brad comes home.

If Brad went upstairs, she went upstairs.

Brad goes in the basement, she goes in the basement.

Brad goes inside, she goes inside.

She really didn't care where she was.

She just wanted to be where her master was going.

That's the sheep with the shepherd.

I don't care where I go.

I don't care where this takes me.

I'm going where my shepherd goes I'm following my master.

That's what you you've got to listen to him so you know where he's going so you can end up where he's going to end up.

The simple secret of knowing God's will, of living his plan. is the keyword listen.

Now, how do you know the shepherd's voice?

Because that's the problem.

You say, I don't know if the Lord's leading me to do this or not.

You know, I've got some things that I'm I'm I'm thinking about, financial or career or family or medical, I've got decisions to make, and I don't know if it's his voice or not Here's the way to know the shepherd's will is to know the shepherd's voice.

He says, they will follow me because they know my voice.

Now I know a little bit about this because I'm on the radio.

And it is weird being on a radio.

I've told you this before, because people think they know what you look like.

Why are you laughing?

This is my problem.

If some of you had the experience, first time you went, oh, that's it, huh?

I guess that's why he's on radio.

Some of you are laughing too much right now.

Just try to con we talked about self-control a few minutes ago.

No, it's funny because people I have a 25-year-old voice and an 85-year-old body or something.

I don't know what it is, but people listen, they go, oh, you're tall.

No, no, no, no.

You're oh you're young.

No, no, and you know.

So, but here's the funny thing.

They know your voice It's rip my kids used to say we'd go in a Christian bookstore they'd say dad don't talk They would, they were so sick of it We 're in a Christian bookstore, three aisles across.

The lady goes, that voice, I know that voice!

Oh come on.

She comes running over.

All they know is the voice But because they hear every day, they hear my voice for five minutes, they know the voice that they listen to regularly.

You have people in your life like that when they call you, some people call you, they have to identify who they are and why they're calling.

Some people call you and they would say, hi, this is Ron, Ron Hutchcraft, remember me?

We went to Branson.

And then uh then you have some people who call and they just start in.

But but wait-butt but they don't even tell you who it is, because you know the why?

I can pick my wife's voice, her laugh especially, out in any room.

Because I've heard her voice for years Here's the key.

The more you listen regularly to the Lord's voice, to your shepherd's voice, the more you'll recognize it when your decision depends on recognizing it.

You will do his will if you know his voice.

That's why meaningful time with Jesus needs to be the highest priority of your daily schedule.

Let me simply ask you, is it?

Or do you fit him in when and where you can?

Or is the one non-negotiable of your daily schedule, I will be with Jesus, I will listen to his voice, preferably before you listen to any other voice.

That's the only way you're gonna know his will when you really need to because you know his voice because you've been listening to him every day and you know what he sounds like.

He sounds like this.

You can read the Bible and uh picture Jesus in your room talking to you and you go, Jesus, wait a minute, are you squirting Bible verses?

He goes, that 's what I say That's me!

That's not the book!

That's me!

That's what I want to say to you.

It's also written down.

By the way, Moses provides a wonderful plan.

You want to know how to have a transforming meeting with God?

I'll give it to you in about two minutes.

Look at this.

Because he saw God's glory on the mountain.

The Lord said, chisel out two stone tablets.

That is not part of the plan.

You do not have to do that.

Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones.

I will write on the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.

Be ready in the morning.

Right here, you're going to get the five secrets of a great time with God.

Be ready in the morning and then come up on Mount Sinai.

Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain.

No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain.

Not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.

Write this down.

You ready?

Come away.

First of all, he says, get away from find a place that's just you.

Come away.

You ought to have a Jesus place.

It's kind of for you, Holy God.

It might look just like any old chair or any old place, but for you, it is your Jesus place.

You remember the movie War Room?

Some of you have seen that the lady has her closet, which is her come away place.

Okay, come alone.

He says, don't bring anybody with you.

I don't want anybody with you.

I want, this is just you and me This is Jesus and me.

For some of you it's going to be harder than others, but it is worth coming up with a plan.

So you come away, you come alone, you come early.

He said, I want you to come at the beginning of the day.

David said, early will I seek you.

I think if you just have your time with Jesus at night, it's like the day is over and by then it's a little listen late to listen to his voice for that day.

This is what said you touch the glory before you touch your day, remember?

Touch the glory before you touch your day.

So you come early.

Fourth, you come open.

He says, I want you to come and present yourself wide open.

Come on.

Have at me, Lord.

I'm all yours right here.

I am all yours.

And then come prepared to write.

Aren't you glad you don't have to chisel it on a stone tablet?

He said, I don't want you to just come and listen to me.

I want you to write down what I say to you.

You get yourself a journal.

And whether you are a writer, whether you like this or not, you say seems like school, you need to keep a record of your journey It will mean so much to you at pivotal times in your life.

It will cause you to think about what you read.

Your Jesus journal is a, it for me, Everything, if you read my journal from the last year, you'd go, well, whoa, I don't have to come to the president's retreat.

Because everything God's been saying to me came through there.

It's in that journal.

Keep a record.

Come prepared to write.

Okay, that's it.

That's the plan.

Come away, come along, come early, come open, and come prepared to write.

I like um I like what Dio Moody said.

He said, it is when a man is alone with his wife that he tells her the precious secrets of his soul.

So when we want to get the secrets of heaven, We want to be alone with Jesus and listen so he can come and whisper to our soul, the richest hours I have ever had with God have not been in great meetings But sitting alone at the foot of Jesus.

Who's the picture of that?

Mary sitting at Jesus' feet. listening to what he said.

I can almost picture Martha in the kitchen clattering with the pans, like, come and help me.

I'm doing all this myself.

Stupid sister.

And she's hearing the clatter in the kitchen.

Martha's going crazy in the kitchen, trying to get dinner ready for Jesus.

And Mary is sitting, listen, sitting at his feet means she's closer.

She can hear everything.

And she all she cares about is what do you've got to say, Jesus?

I'm not going to run around serving you when I can sit at your feet listening to you.

So um and um uh it was um here's a great quote you must not face the day until you faced God and not look into the face of others until you've looked into his.

What gets you first?

Facebook?

Email?

Texts?

The news?

TV?

Or Jesus?

Seek first the kingdom of God.

Um There's a second second key here.

One is to listen to know God's plan.

Here's the second word.

Loving the journey. means living fruitfully.

Living the plan means living sheepishly.

Loving the journey means living fruitfully.

We're going to go to John 15.

Verses 1 to 8.

Here is the second great picture.

We got the shepherd and the sheep.

Now we got the vine and the grapes.

I'm sure because they were ending up, they're on the way to Gethsemane.

Gethsemane had vines there, happened to be olive vines.

Gethsemane means olive press.

Jesus was about to be pressed and have everything squeezed out of him, like the olives were when they went to Gethsemane.

That's what it means.

Olive press.

So they know vineyards.

I mean I've walked down the the the from the Mount of Olives and I've walked down to Gethsemane and there's olive vines and there's grapevines.

So they're probably walking by and Jesus says Now guys, this is my last night with you.

I'm getting you ready for the rest of your life and a life without me being here.

And here's what you need to know.

I'm gonna live you a picture.

Every time you walk by this little grapevine, every time you walk by grapes, you think of him, you and me.

Just like every time you walk by a shepherd and sheep, you think of you and me.

Here we go.

I, now get this, you got this straight guys, I am the true vine.

Remember who I am?

My father is the gardener Who are you?

Well, he cuts off every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit.

Well, every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

So, remain in me.

King James, abide in me, and I will remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself It must remain in the vine.

Okay guys, you got this straight?

Me vine, you branch.

Me vine, you branch.

You're not the vine, you are the branch.

Got that?

You're not the shepherd, you're the sheep.

Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain or abide in me.

I am the vine.

Just let me spell this out.

I am the vine.

You are the branches.

Take a look at the grape, okay?

You see it.

There's the vine.

Here's the branch.

Here's a branch.

If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.

By the way, apart from me Nada.

You can do nothing.

If anyone does not remain to me, he's like a branch that is thrown away and withers.

Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, boy, listen to this.

Ask whatever you wish.

If this if you live like this, if you abide to me, you remain in me, my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish.

And it will be given you.

Wow, what a promise.

This is to my father's what?

Glory.

This is what this is how you get this is the glory road.

You bear much fruit and you will be a glory carrier everywhere you go.

You're gonna be a glory carrier Showing yourselves to be my disciple.

How?

You say I'm a disciple of Jesus.

Well you you how do you show that?

You would do that by bearing much fruit.

Now Here's our problem with this.

Let me put it in a story form.

Some years ago, I had a whole batch of a word with you to prepare.

I think we were driving, I forget, from somewhere up north to Asheville, North Carolina.

But I remember it was like a 12-hour drive.

And normally I would have driven I'm uh like most guys.

Now these days usually somebody else drives me because they got to work all the time.

But but back then I re- I love to drive.

I'm a marathon driver and I wanted to drive.

And uh I thought, man, I got so much to do.

I can't drive and get that done.

So I was forced to have one of our other two staff people who was with me.

I was like, very reluctantly, I'm gonna let them drive.

It's a control freak.

I don't know what it is that we gotta drive, you know.

But anyway, so I set up a little mini office in the back of the van we had.

And I got a little lap desk and I I had my computer and I you know I had a recharger and all that.

So here we go.

We're taking off And I'm like, uh at first I'm like, I'm really, I'm not, I don't like the way they're driving.

I really don't like it here in the back.

I really wish I was driving.

I like to drive.

But after a while I got to work.

I will tell you by the time I got there, I said, this was great This is the most productive trip I've probably ever had.

I've never been so productive.

And the reason?

I let someone else drive.

Jesus said the problem with your Christian life is that you're driving your Christian life.

Branches don't make grapes.

Vines make grapes We don't make Christians.

Jesus makes Christians So he said, but the problem is, and a lot of us were we are, we've gotten to the place as a Christian where we're more exhausted than excited We're more frustrated than joyful.

We're struggling more than having peace most of the time.

And it's more like bondage than freedom, though we would never admit that.

So in a word, here's the key word, and I'm going to use the old King James word, abide.

Abide.

It is mentioned eight times in seven verses.

Just like listen, Jesus just keeps using the word.

Abide, abide, abide.

You don't abide.

You do abide, here's what happens.

The Greek word.

It means to remain, it means to dwell in one place, it means to stay, to establish something permanently in my soul Kenneth Weist, the great Greek scholar, said, he translated it this way, maintain a living communion with me.

Believe me, this is so far beyond cognitive faith.

So and I'm going to say to the guys especially, guys, we are left brain people.

Left brain where all the th the mental stuff goes on.

Right brain, much more the emotional, the feeling, the experience side of us.

By the way, they've looked at male and female brains.

You know what they found out?

That the uh the the the the the the the the neural channel canal between the left and right brain in a woman is going, the two sides of the brain are talking to each other constantly.

With guys, here's the stuff comes to the left brain and it's kind of like this.

Eventually it makes it over to the right brain and we feel something.

We know we know I think ask a man well how do you feel?

I really have no idea how I feel.

I'm thinking about it though.

We have a cognitive faith with Jesus.

We got the theology, we got the beliefs, we got all that right.

This is not, this is right brain faith This is something you can feel.

This is something moving.

This is emotional.

This is not left-brain faith.

You see in your notes, vine makes grape, branches don't.

Jesus makes Christians and a Christian life produced and directed by me is doomed to fail.

It is doomed to fail.

So now we move into the significance of this abiding life.

So what is what's so good about it?

It says you will bear fruit.

I was at um you all better had this experience of your flown.

You've been at the airport waiting for your luggage and your usually is always the last suitcase to come out.

So you get to see all these what everybody else packs.

And there's you ever notice there's always a mystery suitcase?

Who's is this?

You say you're the last guy, you're you're last and there's still two suitcases there.

Who are the who are the mystery bags?

I don't know So, but you see, I was standing there at the carousel very bored waiting.

And I just all of a sudden I think all of us were so, we were just amused almost by this cute little scene we saw.

Here is a little probably four-year-old boy.

You know those carts, the baggage carts at the airport?

They look like a giant grocery cart with a basket on them?

And this little kid who's probably one-fourth the size of the cart is trying is pushing it And he's pushing this big cart.

Well, actually he wasn't pushing the cart.

Because the cute thing was his daddy was standing over the cart with his hands on the bar at the top.

And the little boy is pushing, or he thinks he is, and daddy is really providing the energy to move that thing.

The little boy got frustrated at one point because he said, I want to do the handlebar Well now we got a problem.

That thing's gonna come to a standstill with him pushing.

So the daddy wisely lifted, this is just this cute scene, lifts this little boy up and kind of holds him horizontally So he can hold on to the handlebar, but he holds him with under one arm like a football.

And he keeps one hand on the bar and keeps it moving.

This little boy was under the illusion that he was providing the energy and the strength to move when in fact his father was providing all of it.

This is the picture Jesus is painting.

That this is not a life of struggle and frustration and legalism and performance.

There are performance Christians in this room Because that's how you've been your whole life, you've been a performer.

And I don't mean an actor.

I mean you are a doer.

You are a make it happen person.

We got a lot of those in this room.

I think I'm one of them And we're the ones that have the biggest problem with this abiding thing.

But Jesus said, that's how you get a fruitful life.

If, like Jesus, you'll be changing lives We have ornamental pear trees at our office.

They bloom beautifully in the spring.

I thought that was a strange name.

I said, Karen, explain an ornamental pear tree to me.

They bear no fruit.

We just have flowers.

I said, oh my goodness, how many ornamental Christians are there?

Because we got all the flowers.

But how much fruit?

Do we have the are we communic are we filled with love?

Is that how we we bring love into a harsh situation?

We bring joy into a sad situation.

We bring peace into a stressful situation.

We bring patience into an aggravating situation.

We bring gentleness into a harsh situation.

We carry the fruit of the Spirit and we bear fruit because we are reproducing. people going to heaven with us.

You notice Jesus said it is not how how many branches, it's not how big the branches are.

All I care about is how fruitful you are.

So you get a fruitful life.

The second significance is answered prayer.

He said, I'll answer your prayers if you abide in me.

Why is that?

Let's go put the two pictures together.

If you're listening to Jesus and you are totally remaining in him throughout your day He is not a a binge in the morning and a binge at night.

He is your day.

If you're doing your day with Jesus, you will be listening to him all the time and guess what?

You are going to pray.

And think like Jesus more and more.

So when you pray more and more, I find this, I really find this happening late in life.

That I think I end up praying More along like what Jesus thinks.

I got a long way to go.

But see, that's why if you pray.

Lord, show me your will, but you say, Lord, reveal your glory.

I need this miracle.

I trust you for this miracle.

But I know what you're really doing.

You're really going to reveal your glory.

Now I am praying a prayer I know he will answer.

So the reason He says, you abide to me and I'm going to answer your prayers is because you're praying, you're thinking like him when you pray.

Because you're around him all the time.

And you're enjoying Jesus.

Look at 15.

11.

John 15, 11.

I've told you this so that my joy, if you do this abiding thing, my joy will be in you and your joy may be complete.

Listen, I learned a song when I was a kid.

Did you ever sing this whole song?

There is joy in serving Jesus?

And I got to the point where I said, that's a lie, that him is wrong.

For me, serving Jesus is a lot of work.

I am tired.

I've got the blahs most of the time.

I'm putting on a good performance.

I'm doing well.

Everybody likes what I'm doing.

But I'm telling you, I wouldn't call this full of joy.

Like Martha, serving Jesus busily, but joylessly.

I'm more Martha than Mary, I'm afraid Answered prayer, but he says you'll enjoy Jesus.

Now for Hudson Taylor's spiritual secret.

And you have quite a long excerpt here.

You saw my copy.

It's pretty beat up.

I've read it.

Start reading it at Moody Bible Institute 100 years ago.

But before I get into it with you, the problem with abiding Write this down in your notes.

We are addicted to activity and achievement, but not to abiding.

We are good at activity.

We are busy Christians.

We are achieving Christians.

Doing all the right things.

We are performing.

We are performing.

If only this were a performance.

But we're not abiding.

Now let me tell you about Hudson Taylor.

Our grandson Taylor is named after him.

He's such a hero to us that we named Taylor after Hudson Taylor.

Hudson Taylor went to China.

I won't tell you his life story. but Hudson Taylor went to China as a pioneer missionary, ran to, found out that all of the British missionaries were staying in the big cities along the coast.

They stayed dressed up in their stiff, starched uh suits, good good Englishmen, stayed in their little enclave together and went out and ventured out during the day and tried to lead some Chinese people to Christ.

He said, nobody's gone to the interior villages.

That's where really no one's even come near hearing about Jesus there.

And so he decides to do something radical.

He dresses up like a Chinaman He dresses up in the robe and and uh gets his hair in a cue and the British missionaries criticize him and they go, what are you doing?

You're not gonna have any dignity, they're not even gonna know you're a missionary looking like that.

He learns the language thoroughly, he looks like them He goes into these villages and as a pioneer he loses his wife there, he loses so much there, but he ends up with an army of people who end up going to China under China Inland Mission.

A huge missionary hero.

But well into his ministry, he realized how hollow he was.

Now I'm going to tell you something.

If Hudson Taylor, at that level of serving Christ, felt this way, I know somebody else in the room does.

So now we will read from his journal.

I prayed, I agonized, I fasted, I strove, I made resolutions, I read the word more diligently, I sought more time for meditation, but all without avail.

Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me.

I knew that if only I could abide in Christ, all would be well, but I could not.

I would begin the day with prayer, determined not to take my eye off him for a moment, but the pressure of duties sometimes very trying and constant interruptions.

Hello, Ron.

The pressure of duty, sometimes very trying and constant interruptions, apt to be so wearing, caused me to forget him.

There was nothing I so much desired as holiness, and the more I strove after it, the more it eluded my grasp.

Could anybody here have written those words?

I could have.

Finally, the answer.

And I found this transforming as a student at Moody Bible Institute.

Abiding, not striving nor struggling, looking off unto him.

Trusting him for present power.

Resting, well there was a new word, resting in the love of an Almighty Savior. in the joy of a complete salvation.

How then to have our faith increased?

Only by thinking of all that Jesus is and all He is for us, His life.

His death, his work, he himself has revealed to us in the Word to be the subject of our constant, live there permanently, of our constant thoughts.

Not a striving to have faith.

Okay, I need to have more faith.

That's what I know.

I see what I gotta do.

Gotta have more faith.

Gotta trust more.

There we go.

We gotta work our way into it No, he says, not a striving, but a looking off to the faithful one seems all we need.

A resting in the loved one entirely, for time and for eternity.

I have striven in vain.

To rest in him.

I will strive no more.

Listen to that sentence.

I will strive no more.

I'm going to quit trying to be a better Christian.

I'm gonna quit dedicating, rededicating, re-rededicating, re-re-rededicating.

I have quit striving.

For has he not promised to abide with me, never to leave me, never to fail me, and he never will.

One of the men who had worked very closely with Hudson Taylor made a comment as he watched Hudson Taylor, the same missionary, same courage.

Same pioneering spirit, but he said something is very different about him.

Here was his words.

He was a joyous man now.

I mean, knocking himself out for Jesus, working day and night, breaking new ground.

Always joyous.

He had been a toiling burdened man before.

Ring any bells?

He'd been a toiling burdened man before. with not much rest of soul.

It was resting in Jesus now and letting him do the work which makes all the difference.

A new power flowed from him.

Troubles did not worry him as before.

He just cast everything on God in a brand new way.

Does that sound like a nice life?

So let's talk about what it looks like.

Okay, let's bring it down.

The surrender of a connected life.

I think it starts with the liberating words that John the Baptist speaks in the first chapter of John.

When he stands up and he says, I am not the Messiah.

I need that on my mirror, in my wallet, on my dashboard, on my on my on my cell phone.

I am not the Messiah.

Bobby Dean, who serves on our board of directors, is a pastor, a native pastor, on a reservation where he is the only light in an extremely dark place.

We hope to go back to that reservation in New York this coming summer.

And Bobby said, and he's always looked to, people are coming to him day, even the traditional people who don't like his Jesus, they all turn to Bobby.

So he is just jerked back and forth. pulled on constantly.

And a guy came up to him and said, Bobby, I want to share with you five words from John the Baptist.

I think they might help you.

I am not the Messiah.

Bobby gave them to me.

He said, Ron, I think you need them too.

I think you might need them too.

Something happens when you resign from being the fixture of your husband or wife.

The fixture of your kids.

The fixture of your church.

The fixture of your business.

Forget Messiah.

I am not the fixer.

I am not the persuader.

I'm not going to be the one.

I've talked till I'm blue in the face.

I haven't persuaded him.

I am not the persuader.

I am not the answer man or the answer woman.

See, we are so used to accomplishing. .

How do we accomplish things?

We do it through increased effort.

How did you pull up your grades when Doug was in junior high?

Here's going to a little dip academically, shall we say?

I wanted to be positive about it.

I just found this in a file a while ago And I prepared at least for him.

It's a very historic document, our family.

It was a whole page called Academic Victory Plan.

Now this isn't that a nice spin.

I could be a spin doctor in politics, you know.

Academic victory plan.

You can kid them about it.

How are you doing on your academic victory plan?

Well The fact is that that's, we like, well, work harder to get better grades.

Um if we needed to make our business more successful.

How do you do it?

You work harder.

If you want to lose weight, you say, I can't keep getting this big.

I got to do something about this.

What do you do?

You work hard.

You come up with a plan.

You come up with a really good diet plan.

You don't come to Big Cedar.

Um you you know in sports you say man what do you think you say the only way to improve I gotta play better people better than me I gotta go to the weight room I gotta work harder work harder this is how we do everything we do business We do we do everything.

We do our Christian faith this way, and it's wrong.

Because we can't produce a Christian life any more than a branch can produce a grape.

Here's, see what this abiding life looks like.

It is the end of performance Christianity.

It is not busyness.

It is brokenness.

It is not busyness.

If it were, I'd be the super Christian of the world.

I'm pretty busy.

But it's not busyness, it's brokenness.

I'll tell you who's got the biggest problem with this.

The more gifted you are, the more competent you are, the more successful you have been.

The more influence you have, the more looked to you are, the more experienced you are, the harder it is for you to admit your failure.

I have failed to be like Jesus.

I am not, I am, I'm doing, I am very Christian active. very Christian busy, very Christian achieving.

But I have failed.

It is so hard for make it happen people to become let it happen people.

I am one.

And Hudson Taylor was liberated by understanding the power of abiding instead of performing Step one is to face your failure.

Facing your failure.

When my wife was a little girl, Karen 's a little girl, her her dad was given a piece of lamb by his dad, and he bulldozed it.

It was way out there.

In fact, she grew up like a Laura Ingalls Wilder. uh little girl.

No uh they had a wallpaper was like Montgomery Catalog ward catalog pages and and there was no s no running water and no electricity and they lived out in the boonies really beyond in fact the the boonies were very heavily popular.

They were beyond the boonies.

And and her dad wanted so bad to get electricity out to them.

And he went in one day to the power company in Harrison and he said, I really we need I'd like to get electric power out to us.

And the lady said, oh wait, I'll get back to you in a minute.

She had to go take a phone call.

He happened to see upside down the book with their name in it.

He turned it around.

And he saw Waterman.

And then two words.

Too poor.

We won't be bringing any power out to you.

Because you're too poor.

Jesus looks at this exactly the opposite.

He said, blessed are the poor in spirit.

Because until you're willing to admit you are too poor, you'll never get the power to you But the power to energize the rest of your life in Christ comes from saying, you're right, I am too poor.

Because you were saved for one purpose primarily.

You know Romans 8.

28.

I know you do.

All things work together for good, and those who love God are the call according to his purpose.

Did you read on?

What's the purpose that determines what's good?

The good that we all think things are going to work together for.

It says, for he predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son.

Your destiny is being is to remind people of Jesus.

Your destiny is to be like Jesus And we have failed at that.

All of us look and look at a huge parts of our life and go, when I say those things, when I act that way, when I'm so proud, when I'm so selfish, when I'm so all about me, this isn't.

This isn't like Jesus.

The stuff I'm attracted to on the internet, the way I look at women.

This isn't like Jesus.

Face your failure.

And then you cultivate constant connection with Jesus.

This is right-brained Christianity.

Because the secret is attachment, not achievement Attachment, not achievement.

AJ Gordon, a great Christian leader of another generation, said that he saw one time, walking down the street, he saw a man in the distance by a body of water, and the guy was was just vigorously pumping water, like this he just pumping water and getting weary talk.

And he walked and the closer he got, he's like, that's not a man.

That's a wooden figure of a man.

Really looks like a man.

Wait a minute.

He's and and you and then he realized the man wasn't pumping the water.

The water was pumping the man.

It was absolutely the best.

This is the whole secret of following Christ.

It is not me doing the pumping.

Looks like me.

Looks like a branch has makes grapes, doesn't it?

Cut that branch off and it could it could go over there.

You can have that branch on the ground and it's gonna go.

Try harder, make a grape.

It's just going to be a herniated branch, that's all.

Because it isn't going to be able to make a grape It all depends on its intimacy with the vine.

How are you on that?

Feeling Jesus, loving Jesus, overwhelmed by Jesus Bringing the valuable perfume out of the closet and breaking it open, broken before him.

I got nothing but you, Jesus.

Letting it flow, not making it go.

Praying without ceasing.

Jesus in me all the time, everywhere.

And by the way, declaring your dependence on him in your first waking moments.

Jesus.

It ain't me.

It's got to be all you today.

And before you think another thought, you train your brain to wake up in the morning and say, good morning, Jesus.

Please do it.

I am a branch Not a vine.

You think scripture.

Jesus said you're clean through the word that I have spoken to you.

You know the more and more time you spend in this word, you know what you develop?

God think.

You hear somebody talk and you are hearing scripture in your head.

You're like, you are processing conversations With God think, because you've got this.

You have spent so much time listening to him that when you listen to somebody talking, you are hearing in your heart what God is hearing.

Because you know how he thinks, you've developed God think.

When you watch the news, when you get bad news You start hearing scripture.

You pro when Karen, when the doctor announced to me that Karen was code blue and I thought I was going to lose her I didn't, I couldn't even think a thought.

Gee, what should I think right now?

You're not thinking.

Your brain is done.

Boom, what pops up.

I know whom I have believed.

And I know he is able to guard what I've committed to him.

Until that day.

Thank God I had God think that day.

Enough scripture at least to find peace in the midst of that storm.

This is abiding.

Trusting what you don't understand.

Now I'll tell you what I mean by that.

Remember Jesus said that he prunes?

I can only imagine if I'm a vine, if I'm a branch, how I feel, when the gardener comes with a knife and goes.

I'm a and the vines going, whoa, what do you do, potrop?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're killing me.

No, I'm not killing you I am concentrating all the energy in this vine to produce more grapes than ever before.

You're going to be more fruitful than ever, but I've got to get rid of some stuff for that to happen.

You may be wondering why some things are happening in your life.

Some struggles, some setbacks, some losses.

It may just be that Jesus is pruning his vine.

And it may hurt to lose what he's cutting off, but man, what he's cutting off is keeping you from being fruitful and keeping you from being all about him.

So this comes down to releasing rather than wrestling.

Releasing your son, your daughter, your husband, your wife.

Releasing your future, releasing your business, releasing your health.

Remember in John 17 when Jesus stands there, you know what he does as his last thing before the troops come for him?

He covers his loved ones with prayer.

Do you do that?

I bet you do.

There's this song I heard.

It's a kind of a country gospel song.

It says, cover your loved ones with prayer.

Take God at His promise and know that He's there.

For the storms they encounter and the burdens they bear.

Cover your loved ones with prayer.

It's just like the blood on the doorpost.

Cover your loved ones with prayer.

Jesus last thing what's he gonna do right before they come and take him he stands there and says Father they they were yours you trusted them to me These are the ones you gave to me, and I'm giving them right back to you.

You protect them, you guide them, you sanctify them, you make them special, keep them set apart.

I'm turning them over to you.

Release your loved ones and stop trying to run them.

And trying to fix them.

God, Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit, and you can look up the verses who's going to make all this possible.

Let's just wrap up with John chapter 7.

John chapter 7.

Where Jesus makes this great promise.

On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water, remember he promised that to the lady at the well back in chapter 4?

Streams of living water will flow from you.

Wherever you go, you're a source of life to people.

People feel more alive when they've been with you.

Streams of living water will flow from within.

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

Up to that time, the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified, and that's, of course, the glory of the cross I want to leave you with a very tru what I consider to be perhaps the most troubling question for me, Jesus ever asked It is in John 14, you don't have it in your notes, but write this down.

It is in John 14 and verse 8.

I want you to consider he might be addressing this question to you because when I got to it in my study, I said, oh my goodness, I think I need to put my name here.

Philip says to Jesus in chapter 14, Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.

Listen to this troubling question, you ready?

But take it as if Jesus was asking it.

Don't you know me, Philip, after you have been with me for such a long time?

This is not know in your head.

The word in the Greek is to know by experiences with him.

How is it you could have been around me so long, seen every miracle, heard every sermon, been to every service?

And you still don't really know me, do you?

I find that troubling.

That you can serve Jesus, work hard for Jesus, be an eyewitness to miracles, hear every word he speaks. and still not really know him.

But if we will say Jesus all day, every day.

My thoughts will be centered on you.

I want to be obsessed with you.

Nobody else will be able to tell.

But constantly.

I will be resting in, looking to, and turning to you.

Then you will have resources to meet all your demands, all your needs.

You'll experience his glory.

You will be a glory carrier.

I'll leave you with this story.

Back in the Olympics a few years ago, there was a figure skater named Sarah Hughes.

As they entered the final rounds, she's only 16 years old.

She was in fourth place, so it didn't look like she had any chance of a medal.

Sarah Hughes decided she was she was still going to skate.

And the others, Michelle Kwan and some of the other names we knew back then, were, I mean, it was electric in the in the in the stadium.

And everybody was like. you know, one mistake and the that one little tenth of a point and it's over.

So it's you kind of hanging on what they're doing.

Sarah Hughes came out and she's like, I got nothing to lose.

It doesn't really matter.

So I'm just going skate and have fun.

And she comes out and skates this amazing program with like this This exuberance, this this uh reckless abandon, and it's just amazing.

And she wins the gold medal It was everybody said this was different.

They said it was just fun.

It was enjoyable.

It was free.

She was free from performing.

How wonderful it is to be freed from being a performing Christian.

Jesus has already won the gold medal for us.

The prize is already ours.

We don't have to perform.

So we can skate with exuberance.

We can enjoy the event.

And just marvel that we got into the games at all.

I pray for you.

A new level of peace and joy and freedom As you listen to the shepherd and abide in the vine, and have an explosion of spiritual plutonium.

And a whole new level of Christlieness and lives changed because they knew you Read this book and read the book you got with Niking.

Let's pray together.

Lord, we've made this more complicated than it is, haven't we?

We've made this so harder so much harder Lord because we normally we know how to do get something done we work harder we try harder we we we and Lord you just A Christian life produced and directed by us will fail.

So Lord, I pray you'd bring some of us to the point of a new beginning, which will be a point of brokenness.

I says, Lord, I'm not, I am not getting this done.

I am not like you like I want to be.

But then I haven't been that good a listener.

I've been running right past you to go do things and I haven't really listened to your voice And then Lord, I pray that you would teach us, as Corey Tenboom said, to nestle, not wrestle.

For it is God who works in you.

It is God, it is God who works in you, both to will and to do what pleases him.

Oh, I'm so glad it is.

And Lord, I just want to in front of everybody ask you to accept my declaration of dependence I'm tired of trying to make it happen.

I'm tired of trying to make it go.

I want to let it flow.

I pray all of us here would be a source of life-giving to every life we touch.

Radiating the glory, because we abide in the vine.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.