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NewCity Orlando Sermons
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NewCity Orlando Sermons
What Is A Disciple of Jesus? | John 15:1-11
Pastor of Formation & Mission Benjamin Kandt continues out January vision series, preaching from John 15:1-11, to reveal how abiding in Jesus is fundamental to bearing fruit and expanding God's kingdom right here in Orlando. Pastor Ben also draws on rich biblical metaphors that illustrate the union between Christ and the church, with special attention to the imagery of a bride and bridegroom in Ephesians 5. He also reflects on the extraordinary exchange between Jesus and the church, where burdens are lifted, and divine riches are shared. This marriage-like union exemplifies how Jesus embraces us with grace and love, inviting us to share in His rights and to entrust Him with our trials—a theme that resonates deeply within our journey of faith.
Pastor Ben concludes by encouraging us to embrace the transformative power of abiding in Jesus's love and work in our daily lives. Drawing on theologian John Owen and the wisdom of John 5 and 15, he discusses how communion with Jesus is an ever-evolving dance of grace, presence, and action, shaping our spiritual life. He invites us to explore how this divine connection offers strength and peace, leading us to rely on God's love, inspired by the love shared within the Trinity.
Hello everyone. This is Pastor Damien. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City.
Speaker 2:Orlando At New City we believe.
Speaker 1:All of us need all of Jesus for all of life. For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom. Thanks for listening. Good morning, hello, hello, good morning.
Speaker 2:Good morning.
Speaker 1:Please pray this prayer of illumination with me.
Speaker 2:Holy.
Speaker 1:Spirit, open our hearts to hear your word and, through your word, create in our hearts a home for your presence that we might live for the glory of the.
Speaker 2:Father and the kingdom of his beloved Son Through Jesus Christ. We pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Our scripture reading today comes from John 15, 1-11. I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may be more, that it may bear more fruit Already. You are clean 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, you are the branches.
Speaker 1:Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified. That you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. This is God's word.
Speaker 2:Thanks be to God.
Speaker 1:You may be seated.
Speaker 2:For decades, the ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park was out of balance until in 1995, wolves were reintroduced and something remarkable happened the land began to heal. Remarkable happened the land began to heal, and what they realized was going on is that without wolves, the deer and the elk populations grew too much and so, because of that, they grazed too much and they ate up a lot of the various plants and things like that that were meant to hold the soil in place, so rivers couldn't erode it and basically enabled the whole place to be fruitful, and so trees couldn't grow, streams eroded the land and other species suffered as a result. But when they reintroduced these wolves, they started eating elk and deer, so there was fewer grazing animals, and so trees began to flourish and flowers began to blossom. You began to see how birds would come back and nest in ways they weren't. Beavers were building dams, ponds were beginning to flourish with fish and amphibians. In other words, the wolves brought new life back to Yellowstone National Park. Now ecologists studying this have a term for what wolves are to the Yellowstone National Park. They call them a keystone species. A keystone species.
Speaker 2:Well, at New City we believe that disciples of Jesus are a keystone species in whatever environment they're in. That is why we give ourselves to calling, forming, sending disciples who can make disciples. That's why we believe that if we were to fill the homes and the workplaces and the recreation locations and the schools of Orlando with disciples of Jesus, that there would be flourishing as the kingdom comes in new and fresh ways. That's how our vision to see the Father answer the Lord's prayer and our mission to call for and send disciple makers works together. We really believe that these are connected in a meaningful way and so as we, a community of disciples, seek to expand the reign of God in our city on earth through the reproduction of disciples, we really believe that flourishing will come wherever you go. So this month is a vision series where we're asking and answering the question what is a disciple of Jesus? What is a disciple of Jesus? There's actually a lot of ways, very biblical ways, you could define that or answer that question. But yesterweek I gave you kind of the big picture on how it is the call of every disciple to be about making disciples, and this week and the next two, so these three weeks in a row, we're going to double click on our definition of a disciple. We're going to look at it section by section as we go through. So what is our biblical robust, simple, reproducible and compelling definition of a disciple of Jesus? We believe that disciples are united to Jesus in communion with God, community with one another and co-mission for the world. That's what we're giving ourselves to. If we can make mature and multiply more of those we believe the Father, we will see the Father increasingly answer the Lord's prayer. We'll see kingdom come in Orlando, on earth as it is in heaven, in new and fresh ways. So with that, I want to look at the first two parts of this definition. I want to look at what it means to be united to Jesus in communion with God, and we're going to do that by looking at John 15 together. So if you have a Bible or device, get John 15 in front of you and open so we can look at the text together and we're going to see what it means to be united to Jesus and what it means to experience communion with God.
Speaker 2:This is like a preacher's paradise, this text, which actually makes it really hard. You never feel like you can do justice to a passage as good as John 15. This was a harder sermon for me to prep, because I rewrote it once because I realized that I wanted to do something different than where I started. But that's just the beauty of this. So, if you're like, you didn't talk about this, you're right. I'm sorry, I'm trying to cut the length of my sermons down.
Speaker 2:Okay, look with me at John 15, verse 5. It says this Jesus is talking. He says I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing. You see, what Jesus is doing here is he wants to get at this deep, settled conviction that shapes our moment-by-moment, daily existence, which is apart from me, you can do nothing. He's trying to get at this innate allergy that each of us has to dependence on Jesus in the daily realities of our life. This independence or disconnection from Jesus leads to, I believe, most of the anxiety and anger, most of the meaninglessness and joylessness that we experience in our lives. And so Jesus is loving us here when he says apart from me, you can do nothing. Really, jesus, nothing, nothing Like that seems a little bit of an overstatement, right?
Speaker 2:And so you might be thinking well, yeah, but Jesus just means my spiritual life, right? Well, I don't think so, because I don't think Jesus would concede that you have a spiritual life and any other life. I think Jesus would agree with Mary Oliver that you have one wild and precious life, that's it, and that all of life matters to Jesus and that Jesus matters to all of life. So I don't think he's just saying, yeah, just in your spiritual life you need Jesus. I think he's saying in all of life you need Jesus. You can do nothing apart from him in all of life. But isn't it true that we can do some things Like? Yes, functionally, that's true, you can build a career, accomplish tasks, achieve goals. You can do those things. But here's what Jesus is trying to do. He's trying to help you with the math. He's trying to help you understand that if you add up a lifetime of efforts apart from Jesus, in the end the sum will equal zero. It will equal zero and you don't have to trust me, trust Jim Carrey.
Speaker 2:This is what Jim Carrey, you know the pet detective. Listen to what he said. He spent a lifetime trying to quote, make it as an actor and once he had arrived and become famous and wealthy and popular and all these things. This is what he said. He said that somewhere in the middle of absolute confusion, absolute disappointment, the fruition of all my dreams. Notice that word in the middle of absolute confusion, absolute disappointment, the fruition of all my dreams. Notice that word the fruition, the fruitfulness of all of my dreams, standing there with everything anybody else had ever dreamed about having. And I was still unhappy. Did you catch that? Did you see? Jim Carrey just said he gave himself to something that was fruitless in the end because he did it apart from Jesus.
Speaker 2:I don't know if Jim Carrey knows Jesus, but that's my assumption. He goes on to say this I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of, so that they can see that it's not the answer. You see, listen, jesus, andim are trying to love you right now. When he says, apart from me, you can do nothing, you can do nothing. It's a, it's a strong statement. So what do we do? What's the answer? Well, jesus has an answer for us in verse five. He says this us, in verse 5, he says this I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing.
Speaker 2:You see, jesus is helping us with the question like do you want your life to matter, do you want to have a meaningful existence, do you want it to count for something in the long run? What Jesus does is he draws your attention to all the sticks laying in your yard after a windy week. That's what he's doing, like. I walked around yesterday picking up dead, lifeless brittle branches with brown leaves from my yard and realized this is what Jesus is talking about here Now. The wind didn't cause most of those branches to die. They were already dead. The wind just revealed their deadness. That's a similar thing, because a branch and a human are similar in that the source from which you draw life is the most important thing about you. And so Jesus is trying to ask and answer a question for you what is your source? What is your source? Is it your energy, your charisma, your dreams, your willpower, your motivation, your story? Like? Is it all of those things? Because you can expect that you'll have a life of fruitlessness. If that's the case, jesus is drawing you. He's saying apart from me, you can do nothing.
Speaker 2:You see, in John's gospel the most repeated theme is life, what John calls eternal life. And so Jesus is regularly in the gospel of John, trying to help you find the false sources of life that you turn to and draw your attention to the true sources of life so you can derive a true, meaningful life. Now, according to scripture, there's really only two kinds, two types, two ways to differentiate human beings. This is the fundamental differentiation. There are those who are by nature. All humans are separated from God by sin, that's one group. But by grace, some humans are united to Jesus by faith, that's another group. That's it, that's all. Humans are in one of those two categories, and Jesus is trying to help us understand what it looks like to move from here to here, to draw life from source, from not separation from God, but union with Jesus.
Speaker 2:So what does that look like? Well, the Bible believes that one of your most important faculties is your imagination, and so it's constantly trying to baptize your imagination with various pictures and images and metaphors. And so if you read the scriptures, you see that union with Jesus, union with Christ, has multiple metaphors to help you understand the state of the union, if you will, and so I'm not going to take the time now, but maybe over the next few weeks we'll unpack temple and the stones, or the champion and the people, or the body and the head. These are all metaphors, but I just want to look at two. The first one I want to pay attention to here is in Ephesians 5, paul talks about how our relationship with Jesus, our union with Christ, is like a bride and her bridegroom. And so he says this. In Ephesians 5, 31 through 32, paul quotes Genesis to say that marriage between a man and a woman quote refers to Christ and his church. This union between a man and a woman is a picture. It's actually an image of what Jesus and the church look like when they're united together.
Speaker 2:Now, I've been a bicycle commuter on and off for over a decade now, and this week was a tough one for me. And this week was a tough one for me, and the reason why is because I've studied enough psychology to understand that freely chosen, harmless pain is really good for you what Andrew Huberman calls micro sucks. And so when I woke up in the morning and saw that it was 37 degrees, I'm still going to send it right Like I'm here for it. There's nothing I can do but go for it. So I climbed up into the attic after Monday and Tuesday and learned from my mistakes.
Speaker 2:Climb up in the attic on Wednesday and I'm looking for my snowboard gear, which belongs in the attic in Orlando. And I get up there and I look at my nice fancy snowboard bag, unzip it, open it up to find all of Alana's snow clothes in there. I'm thinking this is weird, where are my things? So I'm looking through the attic and I find this like tattered trash bag and I open it up and there's my parka and gloves and boots. And so I dig through it, find my gloves. And then I'm a little bit put off. I'm like how did this happen? How did my stuff get out of my bag and Alana's stuff get in my bag?
Speaker 2:And then I remembered that we're one flesh and what's mine is hers and what's hers is mine, and that the vows that I lead young lovely people through when they get married is that, with all that I am and all the vows that I lead young lovely people through when they get married, is that, with all that I am and all that I have, I honor thee. And and I'm thinking about these things she's not even here. She's in city kids right now. But, babe, like you can have any attic container receptacle for whatever you want it's. If it's mine, it's yours, you got it. But.
Speaker 2:But seriously though, unlike me, jesus is a good king and a good lover to his bride. He doesn't get upset when we take his things and put our things where his belong. In fact, the image that Jesus gives us of him as a groom and the church as his bride is almost like a great king who decides to marry a slave woman. And in marrying this slave woman, all of her debt becomes his and all of his riches become hers. Her servitude is absorbed by his magnitude. His freedom becomes her liberty. You see, all of your wrongs become Jesus' responsibility and all of Jesus' rights become your rights. This is union with Christ as your groom, as the bridegroom, as we are collectively, the church, his bride. It's a beautiful reality, because all that is his become ours and all that is ours becomes his Now.
Speaker 2:But listen for a moment. Some of you are trying to sign a prenup with Jesus, his Now. But listen for a moment. Some of you are trying to sign a prenup with Jesus. It doesn't work that way. Like you can't outline your assets as you enter into this relationship with him. It's intimate and total. It's all or nothing. This is the way that union with Jesus works, and it's actually good news. This is why the Song of Songs says it like this, in chapter 6, verse 3, I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. Can you say that about Jesus from the heart? I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. That is the picture of union with Christ as a bride and a bridegroom.
Speaker 2:Now there's a preacher story. I don't know if it's true, but that doesn't stop preachers oftentimes from telling a good story. And so the story goes like this there was an elder that was interviewing a child for membership, and usually at New City, when we interview children for membership to come to the Lord's table, we're asking to make sure they understand how the gospel, what the gospel is and how salvation works, these kind of things. And so the elder asked the question something like hey, how does someone get right with God? To which the child replied I do my part and God does his part. The elder got a little concerned and asked okay, and what is that? And the child said I bring the sin, he brings the salvation. You see the beauty of that, the simplicity of childlike faith is all that it takes to bring us into a transforming union with Jesus. That's good news for us, and so, as disciples are united to Jesus, it's actually in communion with God, and that's the second thing I want to look at is our communion with God.
Speaker 2:That's the emphasis of John 15. It's what Jesus calls abiding here in our text, what I'm calling communion. I'm using those terms synonymously. Okay, in these 11 verses that we read, the word abide shows up 10 times 10 times in 11 verses. That helps you sometimes, if you're reading scripture, to understand what is this passage about. It's about abiding, and I'm saying abiding and communion are synonyms. So Jesus wants to teach you what it looks like to draw life from your union with him. In verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches. That's about union with Jesus. But in verse 4, when he says, abide in me, that's about communion with God.
Speaker 2:I'm going to draw a distinction here between union and communion. I get that from a theologian named John Owen in maybe the best book that you'll probably never read, called Communion with the Triune God. It's thick and amazing and glorious, but hard to read at times, but it's an incredible read. But he draws this distinction and shows the relationship between union and communion. And it's actually really important to get this. If you can internalize the relationship between union and communion, it will change your life. I assure you of that.
Speaker 2:Now, what do I mean? The word communion is just simply calm union with union and it's when you, it flows from our union with Jesus, but it's making our union with Jesus, our oneness with him, an experiential reality in our lives. But you have to understand something here Union is the power train of the Christian life, but communion is like the hub that connects to that power train, displaces the power through the wheels, so the thing can actually roll and do something. Union is our unchanging oneness with Jesus, established by grace, through faith. Communion is the dynamic, lived experience of that oneness with him by grace and effort. Union is objective and secure and complete. Communion is subjective, lively, interactive enjoyment of that union with Jesus.
Speaker 2:Union is a never-changing, all-of-grace fixed-reality contingent on God alone. Communion can ebb and flow with our trust, our sins, our moods, our circumstances and our active engagement with God in our experience of our union with Jesus. You see, this is important If you had a straight, flat line. I don't mean in the sense of like death, but just a straight, flat line. That's our union with Christ. It's unchanging. It's not contingent upon you in any way, shape or form. That's our union with Christ. It's unchanging. It's not contingent upon you in any way, shape or form. It's all of grace, it's the gift of God. But our experience of that, our communion, can ebb and flow. It can have highs and lows, peaks and valleys.
Speaker 2:This is really important to get this for the Christian life to live fruitfully as a disciple of Jesus. And so what's the answer to a more fruitful life, what's the answer to more enjoyment of God, for a more lived experience of New Testament reality? It's returning to your oneness with Jesus in moment-by-moment daily life, so that you can draw life from him. This is really significant to everything that it means to be Christian. I'm convinced union and communion is the centerpiece of all of Christianity. It's all about this Union with Jesus, communion with the triune God. If you get those I don't just mean intellectually, like if that gets into your bones, into your soul you begin to live out of this. This is the Christian life right here.
Speaker 2:So how do we commune with God? How? How do we abide in Jesus? Disciples are united to Jesus in communion with God, through receiving and responding. This is my updated language from John Owen. It's simply receiving all that God is for us and responding with all that we have to offer back to him. It's this back and forth, dialogical, interactive relationship with God that we have Now. If I were to give those two words, phrases or questions, I would say we are receiving what God is saying and doing and we're responding with, given who you are, what will I do? What will you do? Okay, that's this receiving and responding, this back and forth.
Speaker 2:Now, this is based on the assumption that God is always at work in and around you, that God is pursuing a real, personal, interactive love relationship with you. Right now he's pursuing that, and that God wants to invite you into and get you involved in the work that he's up to in the world around you. That that's actually a constant invitation. He's just he's beckoning you Join me, come, do this thing with me. I'm about a lot of things going on in the world. I want you in on this. And so we receive that invitation. We respond with our willingness to join in and enter in, and so what does that actually look like in practice? I want to take the rest of the sermon just simply to equip you to receive and respond. Now in January, many of us start reengaging our scripture plans. We're doing the McShane plan here with New City. I want you to see what does it look like to receive and respond as we engage a scripture passage?
Speaker 2:Jesus said in John 5, a few chapters before ours. He talked about the Pharisees of his day and he said you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have life, but it's they that bear witness about me. Yet you refuse to come to me. I take Jesus' reading of scripture to mean that the Bible is a means to an end. The Bible is a means to come to Jesus through the scriptures. One of the reasons why scripture feels so dead and dry and lifeless is because you don't come to Jesus through the Bible. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have life, but it's they that bear witness to Jesus. And so the scriptures are signs, they're witnesses that point to Jesus so we can come to him in communion, receiving and responding to him. So just look at John 15 with me for a moment. We've already talked about this.
Speaker 2:Jesus is the true vine, verse 5. We receive that. That's union with him, and then we abide in him as our response. That's our communion right. Or in verse 2, it says that the Father is the vine dresser communion right. Or in verse 2, it says that the Father is the vine dresser. If the Father is the vine dresser, we receive that. We say this is who you are, god. I receive that and I respond by participating in the pruning shaping work that you're doing in my life. Or Jesus says in verse 7, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, that's receiving. If you receive the words of Jesus, you take them into you, you internalize them, what Psalm 1 calls meditation. If you're willing to receive them, then the response is verse 7, ask whatever you wish and it will be done to you. Do you see this Like? If you're willing to receive my words and respond with your words, you're going to see some fruitfulness start showing up in your life.
Speaker 2:Jesus is practically inviting you into what it means to commune with him. It's not surprising that receiving his words, responding with our words, which you could just call communication is core to our life with God. Is core to our life with God that we internalize God's words and we respond with our words through word and prayer, this back and forth dialogue with God. That's what we're being invited into as we commune with God through communicating with God. Okay, so some of you might go okay, that's in scripture, but you said a little bit ago that this is supposed to be for all of life. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:One of the reasons I rewrote this sermon is because my aim is for you to take John Owen into the marketplace, like I don't want it, just being in your quiet time quote unquote or like in that comfy chair with your coffee in the morning and then you go to work and it's nothing. I want you to take this into the wild. I think communing, receiving and responding to Jesus in everyday, moment-by-moment realities is essential. It's core to what it means to be fruitful. Dallas Willard said it like this the kingdom of God is what God is doing. That's important Simple definition the kingdom of God is what God is doing. So how do you seek first the kingdom of God? Well, you try to find out what God is doing and get involved with it. God is doing things in your neighborhood. God is doing things among your family and friends. God is doing things in your workplace. God is doing things, he's always on the move.
Speaker 2:Jesus says in John 5, I am working and my Father's working Present tense, ongoing. God is just working, he's up to something in the world, and so to seek first the kingdom means to get in on it with him. God, you're at work, I want to receive whatever it is that you're saying and doing, and I want to respond by giving who I am. I'm going to show up and join you in it. And so, god, what does it mean for us to actually engage in this in real life? I sent a text to a friend, a member here at New City, because I had a hunch that he would know what this is like. What does it mean to abide in Jesus, to commune with Jesus in business? This guy's in business in his work life, and so I asked him this question and this was the response. I'm just going to read it. It says this quote when I think about abiding in my work life, my mind goes to three phases of the day before work, during work and after work. Before work, during.
Speaker 2:He tells a story. He says during a business drought, he felt his heart starting to grow with anxiety, self-pressure and grasping for control. Anybody else. He goes on. He says so. I did the best thing I could do in that moment. I brought my heart to the Lord On an early morning bike ride. I just poured out my heart to him. As I was praying, a prospective client came to my mind and the Lord was leading me to call him. This person laughed because this client is notoriously hard to get a hold of, but he pressed. Notoriously hard to get a hold of, but he pressed and he trusted that this was really from the Lord. And so he said quote the Lord knows the clients I am to serve. I need to just abide and trust in his leading timing and provision. And so he called this client that morning. They connected and shortly after he became a client.
Speaker 2:Now, during work this is what he says there have been moments when I've been in a complex situation and needed the Lord's help to solve the issues. In coming to him in prayer and with a heart that is leaning and walking with him, he gives me his I love this language his creative ability, peace and the words to say. This has happened so many times. Many times I've asked please give me the words to say. And he answers that prayer because he promises to. Third, after work, we process the day together.
Speaker 2:I have many similar stories of being crossed or hurt or betrayed, etc. But God is faithful and there to meet me. He invites me to share the story with him, connect with him in my emotions and desires, comfort me and help me to recover. And it is connect with him in my emotions and desires, comfort me and help me to recover, and it is so loving of him to do this so that I can love my family well when I get home. There are many stories of God's faithfulness. This is how he ends.
Speaker 2:There are many stories of God's faithfulness, especially in work. The main thing is he is always there, he is willing and available. The question is will I abide? Will I accept his invitation? Will I connect with him? Will I trust him? Will I work with him in partnership? I told him nothing about this sermon other than it was on John 15. And so you can see how this person is a keystone species in their business. They bring life and flourishing and joy, not anxiety and competition and ruthlessness, because they are walking into their workplace in communion with the triune god as they go about their business.
Speaker 2:So as we close, leslie newbegin says that it is the life of Jesus himself reproduced in the lives of the disciples, in the midst of the life of the world, the life of Jesus in the midst of the life of the world being reproduced in all of your lives. That's the vision of John 15, right there. But there's a verse in here that I think might be the most breathtaking, astounding here. That I think might be the most breathtaking, astounding, mind-blowing. Few words in the entire Bible. Is that superlative enough? Look with me at John 15, verse 9.
Speaker 2:John 15, verse 9 says this as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. We break it down into communion language receiving as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Responding abiding in that love. Now listen for a moment. The Father's love for Jesus. Jesus has for you. That's what he's saying here. The intra-Trinitarian enjoyment, delight and bliss that's been happening between the Father and the Son and the Spirit for all eternity is poured out on your head, it's poured out into your life, it's given freely to you. The delight of the Father for his Son is the delight of the Son for you. That's unbelievable and words fail me. I feel that I feel the poverty of human speech to articulate what Jesus is saying here, and so all that I can really hope for is John 5, 5, where the love of God is poured out by the Spirit into our hearts. It's the only thing I can ask for in a moment like this. And so Jesus is genius. He knows that you have to be loved well before you can love well.
Speaker 2:A quote from John Owen's book. He says this communion with the Father, son and Spirit begins with God's love for us and ends in our love for God. You see, we give as much of ourselves. This is just. This is kind of factual. You'll understand this in your life. You will only give as much of yourself to Jesus as you believe Jesus has given to you. Now I don't mean intellectually, I mean like a settled confidence. Jesus has given me his all. Now I can give him my all.
Speaker 2:And so, because of that, jesus is inviting you to take a moment to consider that the source, that the standard of his love for you is the Trinitarian love of the Father for his own Son, utterly non-contingent upon who you are or what you do, or who you aren't, or what you don't do. This is life-changing, if we can receive this and respond to this. But you might be like me and say that sounds staggering. But I don't feel that love. I don't experience that on the daily. I get it, I really do.
Speaker 2:And the invitation of union and communion is to return to your oneness with Jesus, to look to him, especially on the cross, to see the love of the Father for you. You see, I'm not a vintner. I think that's somebody who has a vineyard. I'm not even much of a gardener anymore.
Speaker 2:But what I understand is that the only way that a branch can be grafted into a vine is if first that vine is wounded to create a place for that branch to be grafted in. You see, grafting is not possible unless the vine is willing to be laid bare and opened up so that the inner life of the tree can be received by the branch. It's only through such a wounding that this access into the fellowship of the sap and the growth and the life of the vine can actually be attained. And so in the death of the of j the cross, christ himself was wounded and in his open wounds he prepared a place for us to be grafted in so that we could draw on the love of the Father, son and Holy Spirit through Jesus into our lives in real time. And as we return repeatedly back to that, we can take up Jesus's words that are trustworthy and true, which say as the Father has loved me, even so, I love you, abide in my love. This is why Henry Nowlin says that life is just a little opportunity during a few years to say to God I love you too.
Speaker 2:Now, as we pray, I'm gonna invite us to do a practice, just to close out here, that I learned from the Chinese house church, which enabled them to endure persecution. They get on their knees. I put my hand on my heart because, as Romans 5 says, that's where the spirit pours out the love of God, and so I put my hand over my heart and I pray like this, and so I'm going to invite you to join me in this prayer. Lord, there is no righteousness within me, but you are my righteousness. I am afraid, but you are my peace. I want to flee, but you remain steadfast. I am small, but you are great. I am poor, but you are rich. I am weak, but you are strong. Thank you for all that you've done to make us one. It's in your beautiful name I pray Amen.