Facing Stress, Finding Joy: What Does it Mean to Remain in Jesus?

[Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning everybody welcome to pre-service live a part of our church online experience i am here with my wonderful friend betsy torres hi betsy hello lexi running around this morning yes a little bit it's okay you know what it happens it's just this is just life this is you know we got a lot going on here this morning yeah i get to talking and you know it's a fall no i totally get it you just look at the time you're like oh no i've been there um well we're so happy to have you joining us this morning make sure to leave a comment in the chat and let us know where you're watching from today today pastor matt will be talking about how staying connected to jesus or remaining in jesus and following his teachings will produce a fruit in us that impacts those in our life so i'm so excited to hear more about that we were talking about it um we got some great things to talk about um some great things betsy has to share about that um but make sure to share this post and make jesus big today it's a simple way that you can join us in sharing jesus um you never know who's going to see the post you never know who's going to be scrolling on facebook scrolling on the internet um make sure to share that post so people can get connected this morning um okay we're just gonna start with a few quick announcements before we get into all the fun stuff all the questions um so yeah we have a marriage conference happening here very soon just in a few weeks on october 23rd gary thomas author of sacred marriage and deborah fleda author of true love dates are coming here to worship center for an in-person conference uh for married couples so we actually have a video to show you of our marriage and family ministry and they're gonna tell you a little bit more about what this conference is all about i'm sure many of you are wondering and some of you have asked why have a marriage conference on sex we know that talking about sex is awkward it's something that the church has not done a great job teaching about but if we don't talk about sexual intimacy if we don't figure out how to help couples have a wonderful sexual intimacy in their marriage then we're missing something it doesn't matter whether your sex life is a ten or a two this conference has something for you because you know what god designed sex for marriage our speakers deb fellata and gary thomas desire to have an open and honest conversation about an often hard topic this event is happening right here at worship center saturday october 23rd for more information and to register go to center dot org slash marriage conference so if if you're interested in learning more about this conference or you would like to register you can go to worship center dot org marriage conference um also exciting news especially for our online audience we are launching an online community at the end of this month are you excited awesome i know you're gonna be in there i know your whole family's gonna be in there so this online community is going to be a way for us as worship center to be connected throughout the week because we believe that in the one 167 hours that we're not here at church we should be connected and growing in our faith together because that is what discipleship is all about so stay tuned for more information as the month goes on about how you can get connected in this online community it's going to be so exciting we are so excited for this um and just one more thing um and local outreach opportunity um a few weeks ago the conestoga manor mobile home park in west earl was flooded and there's a lot of trailer homes that were damaged greatly and the costs for each of the trailers it'll be 2500 or more for each of them so we are going to have a local outreach opportunity coming up to help restore and repair but also if you would like to give financially to help them make repairs to this mobile home park you can go to worship center.org give and make sure to check the christ in action from the drop down menu that is where you can give towards this all right let's see who's joining us this morning we've got chelsea good morning wc happy sunday good morning chelsea good morning yolanda good morning she's always on here we love yolanda shirley says good morning god is moving and doing great things he is we're excited for what he's going to do today um we've got ryan mellon ryan mellon's birthday is today it is yeah so happy birthday happy birthday ryan we love you ryan and we know you're watching online with us we wish you're here in person with us yeah uh have a wonderful birthday um we got lourdes says good morning watching from new holland pa we've got ellie good morning ellie it's great to have you guys joining us this morning all right betsy we're going to talk more about what matt's going to be talking about today so as i mentioned he's going to be talking about how staying connected to jesus or remaining in jesus just for another terminology you know um and following his teachings produces this fruit in our life that really impacts those around us so kind of going off of that like speaking of like remaining in a place what is the place that you experience the least amount of stress [Music] and we want to know what you think as well what is your please tell us um i mean i would my go-to is always like i think of the beach right and when we're on vacation especially that's always like really fun uh because you're just like really you know just at that time you're not focusing on anything like i try to put my phone away or anything i can do the just focus and stay in the in the moment you know hearing the waves i really don't get in but you know i get that get in the water and that's when the stress starts coming yeah exactly what's your favorite place i'd say the beach as well but like specifically the beach in the morning like as the sun's coming up and just that the fresh like crisp air and just the peace and the water you can hear it yeah it's just i love it oh yeah it's done making me want to go there right now uh yeah so let us know what is the least stressful place for you to go um yeah so speaking of our least stressful place on earth it would be great to stay in that place forever but obviously it's not reality to be at the beach forever i mean if you live there but i wish you got to get off the beach at some point you can't you can't do life on the beach it would be nice yeah i would um so yeah when we remain in god we can't remain in these places but we can remain in god so yeah what does it look like to actually remain in the lord we want to know what does it look like to remain in the lord and betsy if you have any thoughts on that yeah i mean when i think of that i think of um it not being like a specific place or anything remaining in the lord is like an everyday daily walk right it's a decision that we have to make when we wake up you know it's having like that relationship with christ every day because it's all about relationship uh relationships we see it like in our daily lives um you know in in real life you know what i mean with our um friends with our families uh but remaining in christ it's just something so beautiful because we're we're cultivating that relationship in him so we do that through prayer we do that through um you know reading scripture and just like thinking about him all the time obviously it's the bible says pray at all times right so you can't do that you can't be on your knees like all the time right right but constantly having like those prayers in your heart and in your mind i think being intentional about that is very important and very key you know um even simple things like waking up in the morning and just you know good morning jesus you know i need you so much right because we need him daily you know so remaining in that and just seeking uh his word his his just to hear him even in that quietness you know right yeah yeah when you're talking i'm thinking about like where we go like for a lot of people our house is like our safe spot yeah and i was just had this image of like like living in the house of god like yeah just like walking into the house and staying there and what does that look like to like live in this house like live in the presence of god like god's presence is with us his holy spirit is with us as believers so like walking in that house and what does it take to stay there is it's his truth and being fully submerged and yeah i don't know that image just came to my mind yeah that's beautiful yeah i think um yeah when we when we are intentional again about it i think it's always like that choice that we have to make like i want to be more and more in love with jesus right we're intentional with you know our husbands and wives and things like that and that's the same way because he's our he's our um he's our groom you know and we're the bride right so being intentional about that relationship and seeking that out it's just very beautiful it is so beautiful you just gotta open the door yes absolutely all right let them in um all right let's see what our online audience has to say we've got robin says church is the least stressful place yeah i'd agree yes we get to be here all week yeah this is an honor and a privilege so there's no stress here yeah no no we need jesus's presence always yes uh yolanda says in my closet where i meet with the lord there is a time i just want to stay there forever that is so beautiful that is beautiful so beautiful chelsea says i take a drive with my windows down with my worship music on and with my puppy along that just makes my heart happy like you just drive past the someone on the highway with their dog sticking their head out the window and it just my heart bursts i know you're a dog person but i am yeah i love dogs they just yeah um shirley says in the woods is my peaceful place it's another and honestly anywhere in nature it's just yeah it shows god it's god's expression and i just i feel like when we stop and actually look at that right and stuff it's just like yeah we're very good very peaceful yeah all right so we got anything else here um ellie says fellowshipping with jesus all day long is a way that you can remain in the lord yeah that's really good all right um we got matthew says good morning good morning matthew happy that you're here joining us this morning all right betsy so yes let me get back to my questions here um yeah so when we remain in the lord we're remaining in god's truth and scripture says that god's the sorry we are the vine no he's the vine he's the place he's the vine and we're the branches yes yes yes it's too early it's your coffee we haven't gotten on i didn't have any coffee this morning so excuse me it's okay um god's divine and we're the branches and we bear this fruit when we're remaining in god but the fruit is actually this is what matt's going to talk about it's not actually for us it's for the people in our lives so the first of the spirit are love joy peace patience kindness goodness and self-control faithfulness sorry goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control what of what of these the fruits of the spirit do you want to grow in to impact people in your life um for me online online let us know please share today i don't know i just want to say all of them isn't that the truth i think one has to do with the other but if i had to pick um i know i always go to the the peaceful one you know just feeling that peace sometimes we have like so many expectations and things like that but just like resting and being in the peace of god and experiencing that i think it's so important and i always look to really uh be very intentional about that you know to to focus on the peace of god so i try to read verses and and sing things that will bring peace to my heart and my mind to be still and know that he is god so yeah that's good yeah i definitely need to like grow in in peace too and it's really hard you guys have to like let your mind filter pastor matt talked about that letting your thoughts filter yeah and stuff like that and you can experience this piece by remaining in his truth so yeah we're excited to hear what matt has to say this morning i can't wait patsy thank you for joining us thank you for joining us online this morning and we hope you enjoy the service [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] good morning welcome to church let's praise and worship jesus here we go [Music] come on let's get our hands up [Music] let's sing this out wandering into the night [Music] wanting a place to hide this weary soul this bag of bones [Music] and i try with all my might but i just can't win the fight i'm slowly drifting [Music] he told me that i was not alone you picked me up turned me around and placed my feet on solid crown i think the master i've been the savior because you healed my heart changed my name forever free i am not the same i've been the master i thank the savior i thank god [Music] i cannot deny what i've seen got no choice but to believe my doubts are burning [Music] like ashes in the wind so so long to my old friends burden and bitterness you can't just keep it moving now you ain't welcome here from now till i walk the streets of gold i'll sing [Music] i think the master i think the singer because you healed my heart changed my name forever free i am not the same i think the master i think the savior i thank god come on are you grateful for jesus today let's sing it out held us another one i am free i am free i am free hell lost another one i am free i am free i am come [Music] have lost on one i am free i am free because of jesus have lost another one i am free i am free i am free [Music] [Music] crown i think the master i think the savior because you healed my heart changed my name forever free i am not the same i think the master i think [Music] come on we celebrate because of what jesus has done for us we thank you lord [Music] [Music] come on do you believe that nothing is impossible in the presence of our god let's sing this out this is a house of worship this is a place of praise [Music] where every demon trembles where we proclaim your name this is a house of healing our hearts are full of faith you have our full attention [Music] you have the final say [Music] so come alive in the name of jesus come alive in the name of jesus this is the house of miracles we bring everything to the feet of jesus everything in the name of jesus this is a house of miracles [Music] there's resurrection your blood runs through our veins your kingdom triumphs over even the coldest [Music] so come alive in the name of jesus come alive in the name of jesus this is a house of miracles [Music] we bring everything to the feet of jesus every day in the name of jesus this is a house of miracles [Music] come alive in the name of jesus in the name of jesus this is the house of miracles we bring everything to the feet of jesus everything in the name of jesus this is a house of miracles i still believe you're moving i still believe you're speaking god i believe you're working all things were good i fixed my eyes on heaven god i receive your vision god i believe you're working all things for good we believe we believe i still believe you're speaking god i believe you're working all this work with our eyes i'll fix my eyes [Music] in the name of jesus come alive in the name of jesus this is a house of miracles we bring everything to the feet of jesus in the name of jesus this [Music] in is name of jesus this is a house of miracles to the feet of jesus in the name of jesus this is the house of [Music] miracles we bring it all bring it over we bring it all to you we bring it all [Music] we laying all down [Music] i still believe you're speaking [Music] [Music] all things for good we're singing out in faith i still believe your [Music] all mood were good i fix my eyes on fair god i receive your vision god i believe you're working all things for good come alive so come alive in the name of jesus [Music] we bring it all to you father to the feet of jesus this is a house of miracles thank you jesus this is your house jesus we are your temple have your way you were the word at the beginning one with god the lord most high [Music] you're hidden glory in creation [Music] now revealed in you christ what a beautiful name it is what a beautiful name it is the name of jesus christ what a beautiful name it is and nothing compares to this what a beautiful name it is the name of jesus [Music] you didn't want heaven without so jesus you brought heaven [Music] my sin was great your love was greater [Music] [Applause] what a wonderful name it is what a wonderful name it is the name of jesus christ you're like hey what a wonderful name it is and nothing compares to this what a wonderful name it is the name of jesus what a wonderful name it is [Music] the heavens are roaring the praise of your glory and for you i raised too come on jesus he has no rival [Applause] jesus christ [Music] [Music] what a powerful name it is what a powerful name it is in the name of jesus [Music] hey [Music] [Music] what a powerful name it is a powerful name it is come on let's give jesus the praise he deserves we love you jesus [Music] oh come on worship center do you believe [Music] [Music] let's [Music] nothing but the blood of jesus and what can make me you can make us whole again and nothing but the blood of jesus and singing all precious [Music] [Music] [Music] nothing [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh is forgiven us [Music] we're singing precious [Music] nothing her but oh yes we thank him for that blood don't we [Music] the very heart of the gospel is that jesus went to the cross shed his blood to redeem us to buy us back to make us whole and you know he's making us whole any time that we reach out and apply that work to our lives that's the gospel it's not just something that happened way back then it's today right now right now available to us he's making us whole so i'd like us to join together in praying there's a prayer request that i'd like to read i went like this prayer to cut off toxic relationships suffering from lifelong trauma and addiction running from god please god help and as i looked in our prayer walls out there i saw a number of requests related to addiction some for a brother or a father or a sister or cousin you probably know some people that are struggling or maybe it's to you just like the person that cried out to god in this prayer request can we join together and believe that the power of what jesus did on the cross can break these strongholds of addiction in jesus name lord we pray god we lift up this specific person first of all god i pray that your power in their lives would give them the courage to cut off the toxic relationships and god we do break the power of addiction lord in this person's life god i pray that they would be able to run towards you they would run toward help and they would open their lives up god for you to move and apply the power of the work that jesus did on the cross and god we pray that for all those that we know that are struggling in addiction god we pray that there would be freedom available lord jesus and that you would give them the courage to go toward it in your wonderful name lord jesus amen amen thank you jesus you know we love to pray for each other here and if you're here in the house you can write prayer requests on the walls that are right outside these these doors as you exit if you're watching online just reach out to the number that's on your screen someone will pray for you we believe in the power of prayer because jesus is about making us whole way man amen we also want to pray this morning for one of our church family members his name is musa mugambi and if you could come to the front with your daughters his wife mercy is watching online moose's brother ezekiel went home to be with the lord this week he was very close to his brother his brother lives in kenya he was an evangelist pastor to church a great man of god it's a hard time guys so let's stand together with this family lord we come to you in this precious name of jesus that we've been singing about and lord we stand with this family and we call forth the healing comfort of the holy spirit in the midst of this loss god this grieving this what seems to be such a shortened life here on this earth god we pray for all the people affected lord jesus the ezekiel's family and the church family this entire family jesus we ask that you would minister to them god that they would know that they know that they know that you are with them during this time and god i pray that in the midst of their tears and grieving and remembering they would be able to look up and remember jesus that this life here is so short and god that you've prepared an eternity for all of us so jesus i pray that the hope of heaven would carry them through this time in jesus name amen amen we love you guys and we're going to be praying for you in these weeks ahead well it is so good to worship together to pray together to support one another and so i just want to encourage you god has something special for you today just reach out to it and you'll be able to receive it so you can go ahead and be seated i'm going to give you an opportunity right now to give our ties and offerings in second corinthians 9 7 it says you must each decide in your heart how much to give and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure for god loves a person who gives cheerfully the thing that stood out to me is that god's always looking at our hearts isn't it he's always concerned about our hearts he's after our hearts and he says when we give him the heart it's the decision of the heart it actually makes us cheerful makes us happy and i love the fact that it says god loves a cheerful giver so it seems like it makes god happy too when we when our hearts are aligned properly as we give so no matter how you're giving today whether you're giving by text or online or you're putting it into boxes here or maybe you give by reoccurring giving no matter how you give i want to encourage you to take this heart check and say how's my cheerfulness gauge when i give is my cheerfulness uh being released am i giving out of that kind of heart because i believe god's after our hearts as we give today i also want to bring you an update being the first weekend of the month on where we are with accelerate the home stretch as we're coming down around the corner so this effort started a special effort in march to pay the last one million dollars by the end of this year and here's where we are uh since march 1st 800 2763 came in the balance is now down to 197 to 37. under 200 000 guys this is actually happening god has been so so faithful we see uh 523 of our families have contributed in this effort since march a couple other things to just kind of rejoice about today included in these numbers is 54 000 that someone contacted us this week and said we'd love to pay the last three months of the mortgage and so they already turned that in and uh and then and then a couple months ago a family gave a sizable amount to the building and then later they sent in a note and i thought it was uh it was be encouraging to all of us they said we had committed to giving five percent of our income to the building fund years ago and we've been faithful all these years we would sit in church and hear of someone paying a monthly mortgage and we would just dream of one day that we could do that recently we learned that we were going to have an increase in our assets and we prayed about an amount to give to the building because we weren't sure how much we would be getting but we were sure it would cover at least the five percent to our surprise to our surprise the rest of my note to our surprise what we received was actually 85 000 more than what we expected we decided to give all of that extra unexpected amount to the building after writing the check i went and checked to see what the monthly mortgage was and realized that we had just given enough to cover five months mortgage payments way much more than we ever dreamed that we could do god is so good so i just want to encourage you now you might think well that's awesome for them to give that big amount that's great we're going to get this paid off for people like that but you know who else is going to help us every one of us whether it's five dollars 10 20 i just want to encourage you maybe you've never given in this effort you can help get us around this last lap and i'd love for each of you to be able to participate in some way so if you're giving today obviously you can text you can give online you can put it in the boxes and we just want to encourage you that god can meet you right where you are and this is an example as a church family but it also translates to each one of our lives when we believe him so father thank you so much for the way you've been providing for this facility god it's such an opportunity lord to see you at work and i thank you for everyone the generosity of this congregation god reflects your heart we're so grateful in jesus name amen you know we say often around here that god wants to do a work in you so that he can work through you and it's amazing to see that so uh well are you ready for god's word today all right would you all stand please as we read our passage today and you know one thing i've noticed about sermons and i it's always a privilege for me to be able to bring god's word to you but i've know i've noticed that the impact of a sermon has much more to do about the person hearing it than the person giving it which is good for me right because it takes the pressure off but you know i prepare and i do my very best to bring but really it's it's about being hearers and doers of god's words i want to encourage you to have that heart to not just be hearers but to be doers and maybe you've grown up in church all your life maybe you've been somebody that this is just you know you come to church and it's just part of your regular routine which is a great routine today i believe god has a word for you maybe you're new to church maybe you've been in church but you've been disillusioned by it wherever you may be on your journey i want to invite you just to tune into what god has for you today through his word so my uh text today my simon is john chapter 15 verses 1 through 11. these are jesus words and he explains to us what it means to be a disciple of jesus so let's let god's word speak to us jesus says i am the true vine and my father is the gardener he cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful you are already clean or already pruned that's what that word means you are already clean because of the word i have spoken to you remain in me as i also remain in you no branch can bear fruit by itself it must remain in the vine neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me i am the vine you are the branches if you remain in me and i in you you will bear much fruit apart from me you can do nothing if you do not remain in me you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers such branches are picked up thrown into the fire and burned if you remain in me and my words remain in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you this is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples as the father has loved me so have i loved you now remain in my love if you keep my commands you will remain in my love just as i have kept my father's commands and remain in his love and then he wraps this whole passage up by verse 11. and i'd love for us to read this out loud together can we read it out loud verse 11 i have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete i want to talk today from this subject facing stress finding joy facing stress finding joy let's pray lord thank you so much for your word we come today with a heart of humility we come with our heart that wants to listen to understand listen to the words that you're speaking know what they mean and also know what they mean for us to apply so i thank you for that i just thank you for every person who is connected with us today god you would meet them right where they are in jesus name i pray we all said amen amen you can go ahead and be seated in this passage jesus used the word remain if i counted right he used it 11 times what does it mean to remain in him so uh last week last weekend kelly and i had the opportunity to go down to virginia and visit our two kids at in school there at liberty university and we had a great weekend with them uh we we got to meet a bunch of their friends we got to see the campus we got to uh we stayed in a hotel because all of that was taken care of and we had good food and we had some margin we had some quiet time we had some time with both of our kids together we had time with each of them individually it was a great weekend you know there was very little stress and a whole lot of joy in that weekend and for a moment i actually wanted to remain in virginia but we did have to come home right eventually come home now home for us our home is not a stressful situation i mean we've been in seasons where home is very busy and crazy but for us right now home is home is not that home is very peaceful but when i say we had to come home it doesn't mean that home is this place of stress it just means that home is this place of expectation and responsibility and relationships which means there's sometimes conflict and in this passage that jesus gives us he describes what it is to remain in him not remain in a place that is stress-free because as humans we have this desire to avoid stress and maybe pursue you know happiness and pleasure but jesus is pointing out a disciple does not look for a place but it's actually remaining in a person and he uses this word disciple and by definition a disciple is a person who chooses to follow the teachings of a teacher and so a disciple of jesus is someone who chooses to follow the teachings of jesus and when we know jesus there's there's this privilege of knowing jesus but there's also a responsibility there's a responsibility to obey what he taught us and so today i want to look at what does it mean to be a disciple what does it mean to be a disciple of jesus when he speaks these words i believe it helps us understand it not just knowing more about the word disciple but what it means for us to be a disciple of jesus and he invites us into to this journey so we're going to dig into this passage but let's get some context first john chapter 15 if you grew up in church you probably have heard this concept or you heard this passage but this is part of john the the disciple he recorded this this moment of that jesus had with his disciples and john 15 was part of this bigger conversation where jesus was communicating kind of his last words to his disciples before he would be crucified they didn't know that at the time but we see that because we read we can read the whole gospel so this passage is in this context of of really jesus final words to his disciples and if you've ever been with someone who you know before maybe they go to pass on those final words hold a little bit more weight don't they i remember i had this opportunity with mel hurst who was one of the founders of worship center he and i have had lunch many times before you know through the years but a few years ago when right before he passed away he was dealing with cancer and i decided you know i wanted to visit him in his home he and ruth and i asked daniel seitz our worship pastor if he wanted to go with me so the two of us went and we visited him we didn't know at the time but it was about a week or so before he would pass away we knew his time on earth was short and so that time when we were together with him the words that he spoke held a little bit more weight because it was the last time that i actually heard his voice speak words if you've ever had that experience you know those words carry some weight and so john 15 really john 14 through 16 john records all of these final words of jesus and just a few verses before john 15 and john 14 26 jesus says this he says the advocate he's basically telling the his disciples look i'm going to go but it's actually okay that i'm going to go i'm not you're not going to be abandoned i'm not going to abandon you the advocate the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything i have said to you then jesus said peace i leave with you my peace i give you i do not give to you as the world gives do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid in other words what jesus is saying is oh you will have trouble in this world but don't let that world's trouble get in you i'm not going to abandon you i'm going to give you this gift of the holy spirit and the holy spirit is going to teach you all the things that you've heard from me going to teach you how to live this out once i go it's actually going to be better if i go because the holy spirit gets to speak directly and you see when a person places their faith in jesus the holy spirit comes to live inside of us and the holy spirit is god's empowering presence god's empowering presence and there's a mystery around the holy spirit because we can't see the holy spirit it's kind of like the wind though you can't see the wind but you can see the effects of the wind the holy spirit is the same way we can't see the holy spirit but we see the effects of the holy spirit in our lives helps us to live out the teachings of jesus helps us to live it out in our everyday lives lives in real life and this is what jesus is communicating and then he gives us these different word pictures to help us understand what it means to be a disciple he says i am the vine you are the branches he and he uses this word remain 11 times so if you're taking notes i want you just to write this down we're going to learn what does it mean to be a disciple number one is this a disciple remains connected to jesus and his words a disciple remains connected to jesus and his word so when jesus said i am the vine you are the branches he's talking about a connection he's using the word remain so many times that communicates to me it must be easy to drift it must be easy to get disconnected if these are his final words it must be there must be a an easy it must be very simple or easy for us to drift away from practicing what jesus taught us what he gave us to do so he talks about who are you connected to who is your source or what are you connected to just like this vine the branches are connected to the vine of course the vine is where we where the branches get life you cut a branch off it's going to die so he points first who are you connected to who is your source and then how are you connected to how are you connected to jesus well the main way we connect to jesus is through prayer and scripture right prayer is this communion we have with god us speaking to god scripture is god speaking to us that's how that connection stays strong through this practice of prayer and scripture and then jesus says you need to remain in my words his words are what really give forms us spiritual we could call it spiritual formation see all of us are becoming somebody the question is not uh am i becoming somebody the question is who am i becoming you don't we don't just drift into being more like jesus we are formed into it and it starts by knowing what jesus taught jesus was the master teacher jesus was the greatest teacher one of his main reasons for coming was to teach and when we he he taught by using his words to communicate ideas but ideas have no influence on our lives until we believe them it was dallas willard who actually said we truly live at the mercy of our ideas the ideas that we believe so jesus the reason he came he used words to communicate ideas and now the only way those ideas have power in our lives is if we believe them because when we believe them it influences how we live i've been reading this book recently by john mark comer it's called live no lies and i'm about halfway through it but he points out this what psychologists call mental maps we are created or designed that we have mental maps and mental maps are these reference points to help us navigate life so let me give you a simple example of a mental map i i travel to this facility about five times a week uh this week it was six times and when i live about eight minutes from here when i leave my house to come here i do not have to put the address of this place into my maps app and i don't have to look at what is the street name no i'm supposed to turn right on butter road and then turn left i don't have to do any of that right i have there's a mental map that i'm doing it on autopilot so i can you know listen to a podcast or i can do you know i don't even have to think about where i'm going because i just automatically come here because there's a mental map there are reference points as points our brains are amazing and so these mental maps can help us not just know about jesus teachings but understand and put them to practice and so john mark homer he's pointing this out he actually said it this way about these ideas that jesus came to bring he said the idea is that we believe in our minds and then let into our bodies because there's a connection there what we believe influences how we behave they give shape to the trajectory of our souls put another way they shape how we live and who we become and so we understand these mental maps and i i hope that um this is a helpful point to when we understand how we're wired a little bit as human beings because jesus came to give us ideas that he framed these ideas that we learn about all throughout the gospels but they don't have any influence on our lives until we believe them and when we believe them they start impacting how we live counter culture how we live differently than the world around us so a disciple is remains connected to jesus a disciple understands jesus words and puts them to practice in their lives now let's take it a step further then jesus you know he says i am the vine you are the branches and he talks about fruit so secondly a disciple is pruned to produce fruit jesus said the father is the gardener right and then he said every branch that does not bear fruit pruned every branch that does bear fruit pruned so either way whether we produce fruit or we do not produce fruit we're going to be pruned we might as well get ready for that but jesus said a disciple is someone who is going to produce fruit in their lives and so let's let's talk about fruit and let's talk about pruning first fruit um fruit of the the most um probably most familiar list in the bible is found in galatians 5 verses 22 and 23 called the fruit of the spirit if you grew up in church you would be familiar with this this is a great list this again it's that when we allow the holy spirit god's empowering presence to work in our lives the result of that is this list let's read it the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace forbearance which is just a fancy way of saying patience but it's really about being patient with other people not just being patient when you're waiting for amazon to deliver your package it's being patient with other people kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control our favorite against such things there is no law in other words if these show up in your life you live these out you will not be violating any law of god so this is a great list and i've done a number of sermons on the fruit of the spirit so we're not going to dig into these uh today but you know there are other fruit in the new testament listed not just the fruit of the spirit look at philippians 1 11. the apostle paul said this may you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation the righteous character produced in your life by jesus christ for this will bring much glory and praise to god so developing righteous character developing righteous character is fruit that's what paul said let's look at colossians 1 10. apostle paul said this prior to this he's he said i want you to be filled with spiritual wisdom and spiritual insight and then he says so that you may live a life worthy of the lord and please him in every way bearing fruit in every good work what is that good work growing in the knowledge of god growing in the knowledge of god that's fruit not just growing in faith but actually growing and understanding who god is learning about him that's a lifelong journey we can read throughout the new testament there are other examples paul says that the apostle paul says that holiness is a fruit generosity is a fruit winning souls bringing people reaching people with the gospel of jesus christ bringing them into the kingdom of god you know being part of that jesus called that the harvest that's fruit how about uh this and this verse in hebrews 13 15 the writer of hebrews says this through jesus therefore let us continually continually offer to god a sacrifice of praise the fruit of lips that openly profess his name so worship is fruit the words we speak is fruit a fruit we jesus said if you want to be my disciples you show that you're my disciples by producing this fruit in your life you know when a tree produces fruit it's not so that the tree can eat it a tree produces fruit for other people to enjoy it's the same way in our lives we produce fruit in our lives not for us to enjoy not just so our lives go better it's actually for other people fruit now let's talk about um let's talk about pruning pruning you know when jesus said i'm the vine my father is the gardener so why don't you think about a knife in the hand of a skilled surgeon see a knife in my hand you would not want me to do open-heart surgery on you you would want the hand of a skilled surgeon and it's the same way when when we see that god is the one who does the pruning we do not it's because he is skilled in this he knows what to prune he knows what what to cut out he's very skilled so we think about branches being pruned could it be i mean the scripture does not teach us does not say this explicitly but i wonder if we could imply this i would just like to suggest to you when jesus says you are the branches he says plural branches could it be that those branches are actually all of the areas that jesus addressed in all of his teachings and jesus addressed areas uh like the motives of our heart the words that we speak he addressed how we view money how we uh view human sexuality he addressed how we interact with other people how we should serve and not wait to be served could it be that those branches represent each of those areas that jesus addressed and so we think about pruning he's dealing with those in areas and remember he said if you bear fruit you're going to get pruned if you don't bear fruit you're going to be pruned so we might as well get used to what does it mean to be pruned i was looking back over my own life in preparation for this message and i was thinking you know when were times where i could say oh that was god pruning me and i could think of a number of examples would you like to hear any i always hesitate to share it real personal because then i i regret later it's like man i think i was too personal i don't it's just nice to be more vague i think right um so but i'm just gonna be transparent with you so a number of years ago and this was before i uh made uh stepped into full-time vocational ministry so i was working in construction full-time and i had it was a good job i actually really enjoyed it but every day every work day there was a a particular talk show radio talk show that i really enjoy listening to for three hours a day and i'm gonna tell you which one it is because it really doesn't matter um but it was a talk show that was very entertaining to me uh kind of confirmed my bias talked a lot about politics and the news of the day and um the the host was very entertaining to me and maybe you know it was just a great way to spend the afternoon and so um there came a time and i cannot i cannot point to the time when this happened the day that it happened but i remember a time when i got just that little voice inside and this is what i believe the holy spirit's how he speaks to us and it was a question and the question that came into my mind that i think was the god's empowering presence the holy spirit here's what the hero here was the question and i felt like god asked me are the words of this talk show aligning with jesus words or are they misaligned and so i started to listen with that filter in mind and i started to pay attention you know really they didn't align because the host was you know someone who had a different political ideology you know they were the enemies um very disrespectful you know name-calling people were incompetent and blah blah you know and i started to see you know this this really doesn't align with the words of jesus now was it sin to listen to that no it wasn't just to be clear but it was the it was god speaking to me and working in me now how was it pruned here's what did not happen i did not go to my radio listening device and all of them were broken i was like oh i guess this is a sign i shouldn't listen to it anymore no i still had access to it but i had to make the decision to cut that off because it initiated by the voice of the holy spirit and here's why this was so important to me because this may not be that a radio talk show may not be a big deal for you but for me here's why it was important to cut that out of my life because i am uh naturally a judgmental person i can be very sarcastic it's been a lifelong journey to have self-control to to not um you know look down on other people because they think certain things or think a different way than i do and that 15 hours a week was just training me and i would take it further and say was discipling me to grow in the skill of sarcasm and just putting people down but you know when i cut that out there was a new level of fruit what was the fruit of love kindness gentleness and self-control and if again being transparent i might regret this later but i it actually i missed it i missed listening to it because it was just entertaining and fun but i knew that god was asking me to cut that out for fruit on the other side what would it be in your life it may not be that that may not be your your struggle but maybe it's something else see when god prunes something and we prayed for a person that talked about having toxic relationships most likely that person who's a toxic relation a person in your life most like that person isn't just going to walk away one day if that's a toxic relationship and got to say you know it's time to put a barrier there to cut that off and go a different direction i mean that's where you need to be tuned into the spirit of god in your life that's how pruning works that's one way how pruning works disciple is pruned to produce fruit let's go number three a disciple finds true joy in practicing what jesus taught why did i call this message facing stress finding joy because there's joy for living in this world that is not from this world what did jesus say in john 15 verse 11 we read it all together i have told you this jesus said so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete jesus said i have a joy that i i want for you and when my joy is in you your joy is complete it means you don't need to look for joy from anything in this world you will have a joy that's not from this world but you can actually walk in this joy in this world but as human beings and again i think it's important for us to understand what what our proclivities are what our desires are our desires are for pleasure our desires are for um you know happiness now every time we drive across the pennsylvania border i always look at this sign welcoming us and it always makes me smile because welcome to pennsylvania pursue your happiness have you seen that oh isn't that nice pursue your happiness and you just it makes you feel good inside and it's like yeah probably everyone gets along in pennsylvania because we're all pursuing our happiness everybody sees everything the same way what a great state this just seems like a great state to live in and it is but think about that phrase pursue your happiness on the surface it's fine right no big deal but if you believe that build your life on that that becomes a mental map for you play that out a little bit where does pursue your happiness take you well if there's something that i don't like in my life that doesn't make me happy i'm gonna go buy something else hoping that will make me happy if i'm not happy in my marriage if i'm about pursuing my happiness then i'm going to go find someone else that will make me happy i mean you can take that out and you see with where that leads to so we have as human beings we have this desire sin nature this desire for pleasure and for happiness and you know we like that dopamine hit but jesus said no i have come i want to give you a joy that is not about are you in a stressful situation or not has nothing to do with what you're facing in this life there's a joy that you can live in that comes from me and when you have that joy it's gonna be full i want to give you some sp i want to give you some real practical spiritual practices from this passage all right and i love this stuff so much this is why i wake up in the morning why i love being a pastor helping people put spiritual practices in their life and i want that for this church whether you're here at this church for the rest of your life or you're here for only a short season i hope that you can put some of these practices into your life because it's going to help you in your journey of being a disciple of jesus so first spiritual practice is this engage with the words of jesus regularly by reading scripture that's not mind-blowing is it make that a regular practice in your life read scripture it's god speaking to us get a be intentional about it have a good bible reading plan in your life if you have not put that practice into your life start today just by putting five minutes a day in but make it a regular practice engage with god's word that will build a foundation it will build those mental maps for you to take what's in scripture take the ideas that have been communicated in scripture and they will actually influence your behavior second practice is this set aside a few minutes each day this is different than the first one set aside a few minutes each day in prayer and reflection quietness so read scripture that's great habit but then take some time just in prayer and reflection reflecting on who god is now you might be sitting here you might be listening and thinking man i don't got time for that as soon as i'm up in the morning i got people to see i got places to go and i don't have time to just sit around like a pastor does you know that's probably just what my schedule is you preach sunday and the rest of the week i'm just sitting there quietly saying god what are you speaking to me no i get that man my schedule you would see my calendar it is it's very full but put this into your schedule i think there's something in us that we don't always know what is the value of that time like we know that it's a good idea to do that but we don't always know what is the value of that now think if i would say to you um every day that you set aside time in prayer and reflection i would pay you a thousand dollars would you do it yes we would do it it's okay i would yeah absolutely why because we're greedy no not well maybe we are a little bit but not because we're greedy but just we get the value of our time is valuable so when we go to work we don't work for free we work because there's value to that but when we give time in prayer and reflection it's a different value system and that's why that can be such a a hang up to make it a priority because we're in this um this kind of mental map if i can use that again we're in this mental map of saying okay my time needs to be i need to be using my time you know for something that's very valuable we get that and that's important it's an important part of life when we take time for prayer and reflection and quiet you'll be amazed at the peace that you experience in your soul allowing god to bring peace to your soul influence the rest of your life every area of your life and i don't know about you but i've been trying to do this practice on a regular basis and there are times when i'm can be quiet and reflect on it and there are other times i get very distracted and you know what i try to do in those moments i have a go-to and my go-to when i start getting distracted my go-to is just to thank god for his grace and his mercy and his goodness and my family just to begin to thank god for the things that are in my life and it puts that my focus on who god is so set aside time i would encourage you to make that practice in your life and then the final one is examine the fruit of your own life what does the fruit look like in your life does it look like galatians 5 22 and 23 does it look like some of the other verses that we read fruit that's called out we're going to continue to be pruned to produce fruit because when we're producing fruit as a disciple as disciples of jesus as men and women of taking the teachings of jesus we're choosing to follow them when we make that decision it will produce fruit in our lives and impact the people around us so we can influence the people around us for the kingdom of god i love spending time with people in the in the third season of life and who have lived this faith out for a long period of time and there's a number of people that i'm close to that have been a very incredible uh influence on my life and seeing how not that they're perfect not that they've never made any mistakes but how they've been faithful and how they produce fruit with their lives and they build a churning i love getting to know people and asking questions and learning from them and i would encourage you to do that as well find people who have been faithful for years and years and years having given up on their faith and ask them what do you do to stay strong there are men and women in this congregation or like apples of gold they have wisdom like apples of gold as proverbs says i would encourage you young people reach out to people who have lived out this faith get to know them ask them questions learn from them so melhurst was for me he was one of those now mel was not perfect he would have said you know he's made mistakes through the years but that time when we were together and daniel and i were at his house you know we we were having these conversations and then all of a sudden he got kind of serious and he said you know [Music] i think my time on earth is coming to an end and so we're just both there kind of leaning in and he looks at daniel and he says daniel i love our worship he said i'm so proud of where our church is he looked at danny said i love our worship he looked at me said i love your sermons and then he got kind of direct gentle but kind of direct and he he said something to this effect this is some of the last words that i heard from him he said don't ever [Music] let our church don't ever let our church not be about reaching people who are spiritually lost always make sure that worship center is a church that reaches people who are spiritually lost he said someone did that for me and i want to make sure we do that for others it's fruit he had a heart for the lost harvest that's fruit what is the fruit that god wants to produce in you wherever you are i want to invite you on that journey to pay attention to it that's what a true disciple of jesus produces fruit would you bow your head let's pray god thank you so much for our time together lord i love this your word i love it i love how it challenges us i love how it encourages us so god we just take a moment and we do ask and i just simply ask on behalf of all of us what are you speaking to us through this message are you inviting us to examine our own hearts so we do spend just a moment of in prayer and reflection god i pray for those who are on the fence i pray for those that are struggling in their own faith maybe they had an experience in church they feel wounded maybe they had a christian hurt them and so it's raised all these questions about church god jesus god i know that you have come to heal you've sent your son jesus to be the healer to heal those wounds for god i pray that you would heal lord i also pray for those who have just been going through the motions and have allowed habits allowed certain influences in their life certain voices in their life that don't allow align with your words god would you make that clear to us that's part of the pruning it's not fun but there's a joy on the other side of that that i believe you want your followers to experience in this world in this moment 2021 a joy that is not connected to this world but it's for this world lord would you make it clear maybe there's something to prune there's something to remove well for those who may be struggling with the addiction of pornography god let this be a moment they cut off the source if that means turn getting rid of the internet god would you give the courage to do it that means stopping a subscription god would you give the courage to do it you pointed out got me we have the courage to obey what a privilege to know you what a responsibility to obey god we thank you for thank you for working in our hearts thank you for working in our lives i pray all of this in jesus name i don't want to dismiss before giving you an opportunity today if you've never made a decision to place your faith in jesus maybe you've heard about jesus maybe you've heard about god maybe you've heard different bible stories but you have never made a decision once and for all to choose that you choose to follow jesus which means become a disciple to know him and to follow his teachings that decision is a first step living it out as a lifelong journey and i want to invite you to make that decision today if you've been on the fence been a casual observer i want to i want to invite you to make that decision today even if you grew up in church but you've never made a decision a public decision i want to invite you to do that and the way we'll do it is i just want to lead you in a prayer i'm going to invite you to repeat this prayer after me as a way of deciding place your faith in jesus and god's empowering presence comes to live inside of you to teach you to guide you to lead you to be your counselor to be your encourager to be your advocate to be with you if you'd like to do that i'm going to invite you to repeat this prayer after me we can all say it just so nobody's praying alone just say heavenly father i thank you for jesus i believe he is the son of god i believe he died on the cross for me i believe he he rose from the dead for me today i repent of my sins and receive forgiveness for my sins my old life is gone and the new life has begun to know jesus and obey his teachings in jesus name amen amen can we thank god for the gospel the power of the gospel i just feel like every time we pray through that it just is it builds that foundation a little deeper if you're here today if you're watching online or listening and you made that decision if you're here in the room would you just put your hands straight up in the air the usher has the ushers have a gift for you has a bible in there some other information just keep it up until an usher finds you and gives you that gift if you're online and you need prayer today and you would like to talk to a pastor just text that number 717-366-7226 anytime just you can contact us that's a text directly we can love to pray with you all right can we thank god for his word today i really pray it encourages you and build your faith to live it out uh tomorrow and the day after and the day after all right would you all stand please it was great being together today today worshiping if you need prayer for any reason there there will be a prayer team down front maybe something was going on in your heart you're not ready to leave yet come talk to one of our prayer team members we'd love to pray with you talk with you and really help you the best way that we can if you're new to worship center make sure you stop by connections you have a team of people in there that would love to help you get connected and any way that we can do that hey so good being together today let's have a great week stay connected in your group stay connected to one another and we'll see you here next weekend [Music] thank you so much for joining us as a church our desire is for you to follow jesus and find your purpose in him one thing we do is create resources each week to help you grow in your faith so please make sure you're connecting with us on social media by following at worship center pa we are also here and available to pray with you if you have any prayer needs we're just one message away you can message us on social media or you can text prayer to 717-366-7226 to receive prayer from our team thanks again for joining us and don't forget to stay connected with us online throughout the week [Music] you

Channel: Worship Center

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Length: 93min 31sec (5611 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 03 2021