Glenmore Temple Live

baby yes [Music] do [Applause] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] you [Music] foreign [Music] good morning everyone welcome to glenmore temple we're so excited that you're here with us this morning if you're new we welcome you and we hope that you feel at home here and we're just so excited to be in god's presence those of you who are watching online welcome and i do have an announcement that i'm going to begin with this morning next weekend is rally weekend so we're going to be doing some fun things to kick off the year and so on the saturday night we're going to be watching a movie outside and it starts at 7 30 right right 7 30. okay 7 30. uh so i encourage you guys to come and bring your chairs and your blankets bring lots of blankets and if you have fire pits you can bring fire pits and we're going to have freshly popped popcorn and some treats to go with that so we'd love for you to come and just spend some quality time outside together watching a movie and it's super fun we've done it lots and we love doing it so we hope that you'll come and join us for that at 7 30 next saturday and uh sunday we're gonna have our service on sunday morning at 10 30 and then afterwards we're going to be having a barbecue so please come and join us for worship and then afterwards we're going to share and some fellowship together safely of course we'll make sure that we do everything according to the regulations and make sure everybody's safe but we would love to celebrate with you so we hope that you'll join us for that next week all right so i'm going to open with a prayer so let's just bow our heads together oh living god of past and future we praise you for this present moment fill us with your joy and empower us with your holy spirit that our strength may be renewed to sing a new song of your glory in a world with lot which longs for your justice and peace all we ask in the name of jesus in whom we become your new creation amen we're going to stand together and we're going to sing a song book song for our opening song and it's number 25 and it says god's love to me is wonderful let's celebrate that this morning his love for us let's stand together [Music] do [Music] so so so [Music] do [Music] good morning uh before we say a prayer for our offering just a reminder that the offering can be dropped off in the baskets in the uh in the foyer there afterwards or before the service and today i just wanted to read a verse from second corinthians nine verse seven each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give not reluctantly or under compulsion for god loves a cheerful giver and uh no tons to unpack there but i just want to i want to concentrate on the word cheerful and i was trying to figure out what that means a little bit more in the definition and sometimes we hear the word hilarious it's another way of defining it um but i think i think the best definition is right within the verse it's the opposite of reluctant or under compulsion and when i went through one study of it uh there was a definition here that said signifies cheerfulness is the something that signifies the readiness of mind that joyousness which is a prompt to do anything hence very cheerful so that readiness of mind in a joyful way and i was trying to think of something that was non-giving to help with that and and this summer i thought of my example of reluctance i was in vancouver island and the boys wanted to go bungee jumping and so from my point of view i was highly reluctant to do that and i'm not sure if you could do any kind of compulsion to get me to do that but then the reverse was we were doing a high high up in the trees ropes course and i was quite cheerful to do that i'm quite gamed to do that and uh and again i think maybe for each of us we can think of something that really makes us cheerful and joyful something that makes us stand at the ready hey i'll do that any day of the week and maybe what it requires is just practice i've never bungee jumped before maybe if i did it once it wouldn't be that big a deal to do it again and maybe we have to take small steps i don't think i'll take that step but will you pray with me and we'll talk about being a cheerful giver our father in heaven thank you so much that you were willing and ready to come into our world and to reveal yourself to us to save us and to sanctify set us apart day by day to become more like you we thank you for that may you work in our hearts to decide ahead of time what we want to give to you and be cheerful about it not reluctant not under compulsion but cheerful may you remind me this week what that means give us examples may we see cheerfulness all around us this upcoming week may you bless these gifts may you multiply them thank you for your provision that you enable us to do good works through giving in your name amen thank you for that stephen we're going to continue in worship this morning and we're going to sing a few more songs together and the first one talks about being intentional about choosing to praise even in the darkest moments and i love this from first chronicles 16 it says seek the lord and his strength seek his presence continually seek his presence continually even even if you're going through the darkest moments of your life choose to seek his presence continually and so this song says yes i will sing your praise in the darkest valley yes i will bless your name so let's stand this morning and let's make that choice to praise him this morning no matter what you've got going on outside of this building this is a place of joy so let's praise him this morning as we sing [Music] here we go [Music] [Music] the same god who's never late is working all things out you're working all things out oh yes i will let you hide in the lowest [Music] oh yes i will i count on one thing [Music] the same [Music] is oh yes i will and i choose [Music] to glorify glorify the name of all the days [Music] oh yes [Music] oh yes [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh yes [Music] amen and along the same lines this morning we want to introduce a new song and this is going to be kind of like our theme song for this be the beginning of this year and um i picked this song a few weeks ago before the restrictions uh came back some of the restrictions came back and uh and i was so excited about it and then i was like really should i be singing this song because it says there's joy in the house of the lord there's joy in the house of the lord today and i was like should we really be celebrating when there's still so much hurt happening and and i heard god like whisper all of these verses to me about joy from the bible and and i was just i was so moved by that and i felt him say there's joy in my house and there's joy in my presence and it's okay for you to celebrate that and so we can come into this place and we can come into his presence and we can be we can experience the fullness of joy in his presence and i found this quote from pastor sam storms and it says joy is not necessarily the absence of suffering it is the presence of god and so this morning let's celebrate even if we are hurting even if there's still stuff happening in the world around us that we're hurting for let's celebrate this morning that we can be in his presence and we can feel the joy that he gives and i encourage you to clap please clap [Music] here we go we worship [Music] he opened the prison doors he parted the raging sea my god he holds the victory there's joy there's joy in the house of the lord there's joy in the house of the lord [Music] and we won't be quiet [Music] [Music] sing to the god who heals we sing to the god who stays we sing to the god who always [Music] amen [Music] we won't be quiet [Music] we were the prisoners now we're running free we are forgiven [Music] accepted by his grace let the house of the lords [Music] [Music] we are forgiven accepted by his grace [Music] joy in the house of the lord today and we won't be quiet we shout out your praise there's joy in the house of the lord our god is surely in this place [Music] [Music] is [Music] join this house today [Music] we shall breathe [Music] amen maybe there may there be joy in your hearts today you can be seated in god's true book the bible jesus uses pictures to tell us seven great things about himself and they all start with the words i am here is the last picture jesus said i am the true vine and my father is the gardener have you ever seen a fruit tree i once saw a tree that grew lemons it was amazing it was very colorful when fruit grows on trees it makes people happy especially the gardener good fruit makes the gardener very happy now what does a gardener do it is the person that cares about the tree they water it and make sure the tree gets enough light and they cut off bits of the tree that aren't good so that the good bits keep on growing and what happens when a branch falls off that tree does it still grow leaves and fruit no of course it doesn't but why why don't branches that have broken away from the tree keep growing leaves and fruit because they are not part of the tree anymore branches need to stay part of the tree to enjoy being alive otherwise they just end up rotting on the ground here is what jesus means if we say sorry to god for the wrong things we have done and choose to follow jesus and that means that we listen to his words and choose to do the right things just like jesus did then god will make us more and more like jesus now that is great news jesus is saying he is like the trunk of the tree and we are the branches if we break off from the tree then we can't produce fruit anymore isn't jesus amazing he is the one that gives us life and helps us to grow fruit but what does jesus mean by fruit in another part of god's true book we can find a list of the good things that grow in us that make god our gardener happy they are love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control these are the things that make god happy so what have we seen jesus says he is like the trunk of a tree and when we follow him we are like his branches when we are connected to jesus it's like the fruit begins to grow fruit that makes the gardener happy if the gardener finds branches that are not producing fruit then he cuts them off so the whole tree gets better and better jesus is like a tree and we are like the branches that produce good fruit now here is an idea for you to do at home see if you can think of nine different fruits then why not draw them and cut them out and then you can write on each one one of these words love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control when you are done you can color them in and then stick them up in the same place that you go to bed and then each day when you wake up you can remember that god is growing these things in you don't we have a wonderful god who makes us more and more like jesus [Music] we're going to enter into a time of prayer and as we do we're going to sing the power of your love and it says lord i come to you let my heart be changed renewed flowing from the grace that i found in you so let's just uh focus in as we sing this this morning and major denise is going to come and pray [Music] lord i come to you let my heart be changed renewed flowing from the grace [Music] lord i've come to know the weaknesses i see in me will be stripped by the power of your life let your love surround me [Music] draw me to your side and as i wait i'll rise up like [Music] with this your spirit leads me [Music] to face the knowledge of your life me in my life in living every day in the power of your love [Music] me [Music] draw me to your [Music] sides away [Music] of your life and isn't it amazing to know that there is such a power in the love of god that no matter what our circumstances being in his presence and trusting him puts in us a strength that wasn't there before a strength that can carry us on and we have probably been learning the toughest lesson of that in the past year and a half haven't we because it has been so overwhelming the number of people struggling the number of challenges that are coming just in everyday living because of this pandemic this horrendous pandemic that just seems to be going on and on and on and so it is important that that we gather it is important that we remember together the power of god's love the power it is to change us to hold us to keep us with hope moving forward and so we come to him this morning and we want to bring to him all of our concerns and there are lots of concerns there are very valid concerns those people who are on the front line of working and dealing with the pandemic and those who have been affected by it families and and people who have lost jobs and trying to find jobs and trying to figure out how to work between home and work and just every challenge even school our students trying to figure out what it means to go to school and how to get through the day safely and without fear and then of course we have a couple big elections coming here in calgary the the federal and and the city mayor and all that is connected with that and we want to make the right choice and we want god's uh guidance in that don't we and then of course we know the concerns that we've brought and we know the concerns that you have at home that are watching and we want to take time to pray and so this morning we come to pray knowing the power of prayer but also with this this is from ephesians 3 and 20. now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us to him be glory in the church and in christ jesus throughout all generations forever and ever that tells us that that power of god is at work in us is at work in us in me and in you so i'm going to ask the musicians if they'll play you don't have to sing but i would just to play for a few moments and i would ask for just a quiet reflection it might be that one of you wants to pray out loud with us this morning feel free but just take time to remember those things on your heart this morning knowing that no matter what we ask god is more capable immeasurably more capable than we can imagine let's pray [Music] so [Music] [Music] heavenly father we come before you this morning and we just want to acknowledge that you are our great and awesome god that you are our creator and our father that you are our savior and redeemer that you are our very life and breath and we come to you this morning with all of the concerns that we have things that are just weighing on our mind and heavy on our hearts and we bring them to you because we know that of anyone who can make a difference it's you of anyone who can intervene and change what is happening it's you and so we trust you completely that you will hear us that you will know what is best and that you will indeed act on our behalf for us and so we come before you and we lay our burdens before you you've heard them god you've heard us talk of this pandemic and how it has affected people worldwide lord there's nothing we individually can do but you alone can handle this global pandemic so we leave these people in your hands and we think of the elections that are coming and lord we need wisdom we need to know what to do we need to think beyond our emotions and we need to know what your will is in this situation so father speak to us in the next few weeks give us your clarity give us your conviction help us to do the right thing and father for everyone who has a burden on their heart you've heard their heart this morning you hear their cry you hear their requests and i pray father that you would just settle your spirit in our hearts to assure us you've heard us that you care about us and that you are acting on our behalf father we trust you we love you we love this moment in your presence we do feel your joy we do sense the hope that you bring us and indeed we surrender completely to you knowing you care and that you love us we pray all of this in the name of jesus our beautiful savior amen and amen [Music] good morning the scripture this morning as you already know is taken from john chapter 15 verses 1 to 17 and this is the words of jesus as transcribed by john jesus says this 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 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 in 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 i have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete my command is this love each other as i have loved you greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends you are my friends if you do what i command i no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business instead i have called you friends for everything that i learned from my father i have made known to you you did not choose me but i chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit fruit that will last and so that whatever you ask in my father in the name of my father sorry whatever you ask in my my name the father will give you this is my command love each other thank you chris just before we hear from the word this morning we're going to sing a song to focus our focus our eyes on him and it says be still for the presence of the lord the holy one is here so let's just really focus in and allow him to stir our hearts as we sing these words [Music] is [Music] is still for the glory of my lord is [Applause] is [Music] is [Music] well it is certainly uh nice to have so many of you here it feels good to find that we're able to come back in we we are not taking for granted the privilege that is ours and the freedom that is ours to gather we might have at one point but not now now when we're here there is an excitement and there is uh an emotional connection i think to one another and so i am glad that you're here and i'm glad that you're joining us as well at home we miss you we wish that we were all here but we love that you are joining us and so just know that we you're in our hearts this morning well yesterday of course was the 20-year anniversary uh in remembering uh the events that happened on september 11th 9 11. and really i hadn't really been paying much attention throughout the day but in the evening i just i caught a short documentary and seeing those images just took me instantly right back to that day i mean i can't remember what happened what i had for breakfast like a week ago but 20 years and instantly i remembered i was in my bedroom i had the tv on i was getting ready for work the officers were meeting in moose jaw saskatchewan for seminar for something that i don't remember what it was i'm sure it was something really important but i was watching and and of course they began reporting on the fact that this plane had flown into one of the world trade centers towers and and there was just so many questions and it was confusing and i'm watching it and thinking oh wow this kind of stuff just doesn't happen like it was shocking and jarring and then as they were explaining what had been happening because i hadn't seen it happen i watched at and i saw as a plane flew into the building and my mind was just totally like wait wait a second how can they be showing me what happened when that building is is on fire like the building's on fire and the planes over here and then it i realized my my brain suddenly clicked in oh wait a second it's a second plane and to the horror of the newscasters and to me and to everyone else we've been watching we witnessed that horrendous moment and it was a horrible horrible day and we were very sidetracked i have to say i probably don't remember why we went for the seminar because we didn't really ever talk about the seminar we talked about what was happening and the fact that the border was closing down and we had people who had gone across to go shopping and were they going to get back home and were we able to put people up in the in the camp at beaver at beaver creek camp and so it was a confusing day but i remember that moment of confusion of what i was seeing not making sense and my brain not able to make sense of it immediately i had to work it through i had to process it and i think that's what it is that's how it is often maybe not in such a dramatic way but any time that we're learning some new concept something that we've never experienced or never known it's hard for us to fathom that it's even possible something that we have to figure out and our brains can't accept it at first until we can make sense of it a good example is just think back to the first time the very first time you ever turned on a computer for some of us it goes a long way back and it was a lot tougher than turning a computer on today i think that that is the kind of experience that the disciples were having the night that jesus tried to prepare him for prepare them for his death jesus and his disciples were in jerusalem for the passover feast which was one of the three pilgrimage festivals that every jewish male had to make each year passover was a celebration of the liberation of the hebrew people from slavery in egypt and more specifically a remembrance of how god had spared the jewish people his chosen people by telling them to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood from the sacrificed lamb and then as he moved throughout egypt killing the firstborn sons they were they were passed over they he did not come into their homes because he saw the blood of the sacrificed lamb so it was a week-long festival every year to remember the goodness of god and there was special worship at the temple there was special meals there was gatherings it was it was a week long of celebrating the goodness of god and the freedom that they experienced and this is right where jesus needed to be to carry out his father's plan of salvation for all mankind he came to jerusalem to be the once and for all sacrificial lamb breaking the power of sin and death and making it possible for anyone for everyone for whosoever to be forgiven and made holy and welcomed by god this was huge this was huge because up until then it was only the jews who were considered the chosen people or the people of god this was jesus purpose and mission on earth this was what god had commanded him to do this was why he was there so then we fee we find our scripture we start in john 13 it says it was just before the passover festival jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and to go to the father having loved his own who were there in the world he loved them to the end the evening meal was in progress and the devil had already prompted judas the son of simon iscariot to betray jesus judas had left the room and jesus knew at that moment there was no turning back the series of events that would lead him to the cross and to the grave had been set in motion and it was now time to prepare the disciples for what was about to happen and it wasn't an easy message for him to give it wasn't a message easy to give or receive when jesus spoke of leaving them of returning to the father they protested but jesus just kept on talking and the disciples were in that stunned confused state of what is he talking about where is he going why can't we go with him jesus tried to comfort them he said do not let your hearts be troubled trust in god trust also in me but the disciples couldn't get past not knowing where jesus was going and that's when we heard him say the first i am statement in that passage of scripture i am the way the truth and the life but it was all just too much for them they could not take it in nothing was making sense to them so jesus tried a different approach john 14 15 if you love me you will obey what i command and i will ask the father and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever the spirit of truth jesus was beginning to tell them about the coming holy spirit now the jews had an old testament understanding of the spirit of god which meant breath or wind of god and basically it was just kind of to acknowledge that there were moments when it seemed like there was a divine intervention into daily living but jesus was introducing a whole new concept the holy spirit would usher in a whole new way for mankind to commune with god the disciples had spent three glorious years walking with him and talking with him and eating with jesus the messiah they had a very deep affection for him they understood him and they understood that he was connected to god the father they may not have understood completely what that connection was but they knew that this flesh and bone man that stood right in front of them that was with them was indeed the son of god in fact jesus even said to them look you if you see me you've seen the father so what was all this about a spirit of truth coming to be with them forever he says in verse 17 the world cannot accept him because he is neither it neither sees him nor knows him but you will know him for he lives with you and will be in you now think about that for a moment you know him for he lives with you and in you this is the completely new understanding of god and i can just see all around the room jaws dropping that confused look the people scratching their heads god in us what and then jesus said in a little while the world will no longer see me but you will see me because i live you live too on that day you will know that i am in my father you are in me and i am in you this describes an intimacy with god that had never been experienced not with adam and eve in the garden of eden not with noah not with abraham not with joseph from moses not even with the disciples who had lived with jesus for the last three years and i love how jesus explains it in verse 22. judas not iscariot said to him lord how is it you're going to reveal yourself to us and not the world and jesus answered if anyone loves me he will keep my word my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him what a beautiful image when we love jesus jesus and god the father make their home in us i love that they want to be with us they want to live in us we become their forever home no renovations necessary it's not an easy concept to take in even for us but for the disciples back then this was completely unheard of it was a brand new relationship between god and mankind spirit to spirit god the father is in jesus jesus through his holy spirit is in us and we are in him but how do we know that the answer is simple it's love if we love jesus we'll keep his commands if we keep his commands they move right in and the dynamics change and if we think about it that's a little overwhelming isn't it it's exciting but it's also a little scary i mean it's a bit close don't you think god not out there somewhere not here beside us walking alongside us but in here and in here there's no buffer there's no where to hide in this new relationship with god and yet that's the intimacy that god invites his people to experience with god the disciples didn't get it and here's what i think happened jesus knew what was to unfold that night and i think in that moment he was wrestling with time does he stay here with the group and try to keep talking until they get it or does he get the group moving because he knows he needs to get to the garden of gethsemane there was a number of reasons he had to get there first i i think jesus just desperately needed to pray right he knew what was coming and he needed time with god the father i think he was just desperate to pray he knew that there was a lot about to happen and jesus was starting to feel the weight of it and he needed he could not face the cross without first meeting with god his father and we know that he wrestled in prayer we know that his prayer was so urgent that he swept drops of blood jesus couldn't go to the cross until he met with his father but jesus also knew that it would be in the garden where judas would bring the guards to arrest him and so that's a bit of a important practical detail in god's plan so for those practical reasons jesus needed to be in the garden and so he says to them and in the very last verse of chapter 14 come now let us leave they leave the upper room and they head out for the mount of olives and and i think along the way jesus and his disciples walked by either a vineyard or by a place where a smaller grape vine had grown up over a fence or a bush or maybe around a tree but somewhere jesus caught sight of a grape vine and instantly knew ah now here's something that could help you see everybody was familiar with grapes they were familiar with how they grew right that was part of of their culture they were very familiar with with what it took to grow grapes and they knew of the vine and of the branches and of the clusters of grapes they knew what it was and so he could see them being able to understand the concept through this metaphor and so i can just see him saying hey come here come here look at this look at this and in john 15 verse 1 he says i am the true vine and my father is the gardener every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit you are already clean because of the word i have spoken to you remain in me and i in you and and then maybe this is where he points to that branch that's connected to the vine because he says just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine neither can you unless you remain in me i am the vine you can just see him holding it up i'm the vine you are the branches and i can just see the light bulbs going off over their heads as they're starting to go oh we get it the one who remains in me and i in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without me and i can just see jesus bending down and picking up one of those branches that have fallen off of the vine if anyone does not remain in me he's thrown out a side like a branch and he withers they gather them and they throw them into the fire and they're burned if you remain in me and my my my words remain in you ask whatever you want and it will be done for you my father is glorified in this that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples the disciples had an image that they could now make sense of everyone understood what it was to harvest grapes you had to build a good vine and that was the job of the gardener plant the roots in the right soil nurture its growth keep it healthy and safe beth moore does a whole study on on chase it's called chasing vines and we did it just earlier in the last year and it's actually a really good study and it actually goes in there's just so much more that we could talk about that we just don't have time to talk about this morning and so if you're interested into a deeper study of the vine to see me and i'll let you use the book and the dvd and the workbook and the whole thing it's it's a great study but one of the things she talks about was that the vine dressers intimately knew their vines not from a distance they weren't overseers they didn't stand at the office door and look out over the vineyards they were in the in amongst the vines they knew every inch of that vine they knew every little branch they knew the condition of the grapes they intimately cared for their vines they are connected the vinedresser is invested in the health and welfare of every inch of that vine every branch that it produces every grape that it grows and the disciples knew the role and commitment of the gardener so when jesus said my father is the gardener they instantly knew what jesus meant they knew the disciples would have also understood the basic reality of the need for the branches to stay connected to the vine they knew that the vine carried water and nutrients from its roots up the trunk and along the entire length of the vine and into every branch that came off of the vine it was connected the vine carried a life flow to the branches and together they produced the grapes clusters and clusters and clusters of grapes they also knew that if a branch broke off or was cut off or was torn or was bent or was damaged so that it was no longer connected to the vine it could not survive it would simply wither and die and it was impossible for those branches to produce grapes on their own they just knew that so when jesus said i am the vine and you are the branches remain in i and i in you suddenly it made sense to them it was a matter of life and death god the father was connected to jesus through jesus would come eternal life for anyone who believed in jesus and the question became how do they how do they remain in jesus and what is the expected fruit they're two very good questions and the answer might actually surprise you because today in the world we're living in we so often associate fruit with being productive with accomplishing a lot of things we assume that much like seeing a bunch of grapes that somehow our fruit can be counted but jesus points to something very different he talks about something slightly different and he spells it out for the disciples in verse nine as the father has loved me i have also loved you 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 i think this next verse is actually the key to the whole thing verse 11 it says i have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy be complete how do we remain in jesus what is it that connects us to him it's love it's god's love god the father loves the son jesus loves those who love him and god's love flows through jesus to us through us to the world around us and when we are loved by jesus when we live in obedience to god's will his love in us produces joy now let me point out that this isn't some kind of surfacy shallow kind of love or joy on the contrary the world may have created this easy breezy kind of love that you fall in and out of this is on a romantic whim but don't let that idea of love cloud the idea or the view of what god's love is all about jesus is talking about a real love a real commitment to love a real joy that isn't full of laughter and silliness both of which are rooted deeply in god who is love and which forms an unbreakable foundation that carries us through even the most difficult of circumstances and what does that look like jesus tells us over and over again in this passage over and over and over he says trust in god trust also in me if you love me you will obey what i command whoever has my commands and obeys them he is the one who loves me if anyone loves me he will obey my teaching if you remain in me and my word remains in you if you obey my commands you will remain in my love just as i have obeyed my father and remain in his love this is jesus talking this is jesus whose obedient love of the father is about to take him to the cross there's nothing easy breezy about the depth of jesus love for the father and for us from a place of being loved by god the father jesus finds the strength to do the hardest thing he will ever be asked to do there is a moment when he desperately wants the easy way out but in the end he says not my will but your will and he willingly lays down his life so that you and i may live jesus says i am the true vine i am the true source of life-giving love if we stay connected to him that love flowing into you and through you will produce life-enriching joy so this morning i would invite you to consider what kind of fruit is filling your life how's the joy factor and i'm not asking how much laughter and frivolousness or silliness there is which is all good at some point in time but what i'm asking is is there real joy in your life that deep sense of being loved by the father that deep sense of his presence around you that deep sense of steadiness that comes from knowing that you are cared about by him that deep sense of hope that god's love will see you through whatever your circumstances a season of joy or in a season of sorrow and even through this never-ending pandemic how's your joy are you feeling connected to the source of life to jesus or have you somehow become disconnected it is possible when we take our eyes off of jesus when we don't live our life in obedience to god's will sometimes it happens during a crisis when things aren't going the way they they we want them to and we find that we have no strength of faith because we haven't spent any time with god in prayer or in study and it feels hollow and empty sometimes it comes out of being wounded by being hurt and offended by other people sometimes it can happen when we let the root of bitterness take hold in our heart it can happen when we let self-interests influence our own choices greed and jealousy anger and fear and sometimes it's just from defiant sin that we've allowed into our lives and there are times when we need to be willing to let god the father the gardener prune us and cut those things away from us so that the life-giving flow of the love of jesus can flow freely through us once more and he will if we trust him this morning we're going to take a time to pray and to reflect and and i'm going to ask the worship team to come and to help us through that time but i want to invite you to allow the holy spirit to bring to light any area of your life that you may need to trust god with be it woundedness or weariness or even sin that you might allow him to access every part of your life trusting him with even your deepest wounds allowing him to bring healing and forgiveness he will set you free from all that holds you back that stops that flow of love coming to you he will restore your life to a life of joy hear his words to you this morning he says this you did not choose me but i chose you i appointed you to go and produce fruit that your fruit should remain so that whatever you ask the father in my name he will give you this is what i command you love one another i want to invite you to pray this morning to take time to consider are there areas that need to be pruned do i need to trust god for that process and maybe it's a moment of surrender this morning and if you're here i want to invite you that feel free to come and to kneel in surrender to god this morning to let that that process that begin that healing to begin in your life and if you're at home i pray that you will just simply begin to talk to god just to kneel where you are and to let him know what's in your heart and mind and then let us know so that we can pray with you we want to sing a song and it's a beautiful song it simply says breathe this is the breath i have this is jesus it's it's like jesus is a part of me and that i'm breathing him in and i'm breathing him out it's life i'm desperate without it and that's our prayer this morning that we would know this life breath flowing through us it's easy to get weary in challenges and crisis and never-ending panic of pandemics it's easy and it's also so easy to simply kneel and just surrender to the god that loves us that cares for us and to let him breathe that breath of life into us again even giving us strength we want to thank god for his goodness we want to trust him for our future we want to rely on his energy this morning [Music] so as we sing let's pray [Music] this is this is the air i breathe your holy praises this is my daily bread this is spoken to me and now [Music] i'm desperate for you and [Music] this is the air this is the air i breathe this is your holy presence [Music] this [Music] is is [Music] to me [Music] i'm desperate for you [Music] lost [Music] i'm desperate for you [Music] i'm lost [Music] i sing i love you lord i love you lord oh your mercy never fails me and all my days i've been held in your hands from the moment that i wake up until i lay my head oh i will see how the goodness [Music] i love your voice you have led me through the fire and in darkest night you are closed like no other i've known you as a father i've known you as a friend and i have lived in the goodness [Music] you have been so good [Music] of the goodness of god [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] and all my life you have been fair with every breath that i am foreign [Music] shall we pray heavenly father we love and adore you and we are so grateful for your presence with us for the strength that comes in just knowing that you are here in the strength that comes in being able to pray and to pour out our hearts just know that we're safe with you and to know that you give us equip us prepare us for whatever is in front of us that you are showing us the way forward that all we need to do is stay connected to you that all we need to do is to look for you and we know the way you are the true vine you are our source of life you are our very breath and this morning we come strengthened from being in your presence god prepare us for the week ahead help us to be branches full of fruit full of joy not silly but real taking you into the world that needs you so much we pray this believing because you sent us jesus christ our savior and redeemer and it's in his name we pray amen for our closing song today we're going to sing number 910 in the song book and it says why should life a weary journey seem jesus is my light and song let's sing this together and let's worship him as we sing [Music] do [Music] suggestion from jude and it says now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the one and only god our savior through jesus christ our lord be glory majesty dominion and authority before all time and now and forevermore amen god bless you all i hope you have a great week and don't forget about rally day next week come back for that god bless [Music] so you

Channel: Glenmore Live

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Id: RXyJ8MEBVs4

Length: 90min 32sec (5432 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021