trust in God – Blessings on the Journey

No Fear

Posted on May 3, 2019 by narciejeter

Do y’all remember in the 90’s the No Fear t-shirts? My brothers had to have them.

no fear

It’s hard to not have fear. Fear about the safety of our children. Fear about shootings and bombings happening all over the world. Fear about our health, our college funds, our retirement. Fear about climate change and what the world will be for our grandchildren. These are definitely first world problems…some people worry when they will get their next meal and fear for their very lives.

Christians are meant to be fearless. If we let fear rule our lives, it will paralyze us and our efforts to spread the Gospel. We name our fears and worries in our prayers and give them to Jesus. Naming and saying it out loud takes away its festering power. Like a boil, festering, it can ruin our spiritual lives. If we say our fears out loud they no longer have any power over us. That is, if we don’t pick them back up again. It’s hard not to because we think we can figure it out on our own or box the fears up on our own. We think we have to do it by our own strength. It’s Christ strength that is within us that says “No” to fear. It’s the Holy Spirit at work within us that says “No” to fear. God created Adam and Eve in the Garden to have no fear or worries and not til they had eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge did they experience fear. It was not God’s design to have us as fearful beings.

We have power over this fear. In God’s Word, in prayer, in being thankful, and seeing and knowing the fear, but overcoming it in Jesus’ name. The Enemy seeks to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus calls us to boldly proclaim his Good News to all people. We don’t have to just bob passively through life because we have a God who became flesh who is right beside us. In Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.” In Joshua 1:9 it says, “I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” And in Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me.” God walks right beside us even through the valley of the shadow of death.

At night when the fears and worries creep in, give it all to God in prayer and the things for which you are grateful. As it says in Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Wise words. Jesus even taught about this very thing in Luke 12:22-27, “He said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”

It’s hard to convince someone to trust. That’s basically what it’s about. If you’re fearful and worried all the time, do you have the trust and faith that God will work it out? It’s a nature of God question. Trust me, if you put these things in practice by digging into God’s word, intentional prayer, and being grateful for what you have, I promise it will change your life. You will still face hard times, but lean on the One who never will fail you. The One that says in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” And promises to love you no matter what in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The Triune God is faithful and true, and will never leave nor forsake us.

I’m preaching Sunday about common phobias and fears and I’ve created a handout with my favorite verses about conquering our fears. We are going to write down some of our fears then lay them at the altar and give them to God. As 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” If we seek the Lord’s direction in our lives, if we put our fears and worries in God’s mighty hands, as Psalm 34:4, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.”

I’ll close with this song that I love by Ben Rector called “Follow You.” Have a great weekend!

Follow You by Ben Rector

Go on, lay your troubles down
Set your feet on solid ground
Peace deep as I have found
I wanna follow you

Come on, all you weak and weary
Come round now if you can hear me
Poor, sick, and God-fearing
I wanna follow you
I said I wanna follow you

Leave all your trouble
Leave all your sorrow
Set down your burden
Come on and follow

Come on, heavy laden
Don’t wait for tomorrow
Come on, my brother
Come on and follow

Go on, leave your worries, too
Not a bit of good they do
There’s a word that’s coming through
Go on, leave your worry, too

So I call your name in the middle of the night
I wanna know can you hear my cries?
June heat and moonlight
I wanna follow you
I said I wanna follow you

Leave all your trouble
Leave all your sorrow
Set down your burden
Come on and follow

abraham, Covenant, Doubt, Dust, Inheritance, Promise, Stars, Trust, trust in God

Taking God to the Bank

Posted on July 31, 2017July 31, 2017 by narciejeter

Hear now the Word of God from the book of Genesis chapter 15 verses 1 through 12 and 17 and 18.

“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ But Abram said, ‘O Lord God what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? And Abram said, ‘You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.’ But the word of the Lord came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.’ He brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are about to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Then he said to him, ‘I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.’ But he said, ‘O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?’ He said to him, ‘Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.’ He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

As the sun was going down a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him….When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Raphaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.’”

This is the Word of God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God for it.

There are many things in life that are uncertainties, and for some of us our bank account is one of them. How many of us balance our checkbooks anymore? I know that I do online banking, trusting that the bank will keep their promise and is keeping track of what I’m spending, and I just check and make sure we’re not bouncing. But there are times I wonder – hmmm…..can I trust what’s in my account? Do I really know what’s in there? Will they keep their word? Call it the paranoid in me, I sometimes have doubts. Especially in the middle of the night, when all of those worries creep in. If you can identify with this, you know something of what Abram felt as he struggled to believe in God’s promise in the midst of his doubts.

Before we dig into the story wondering about trust and promises, what was going on with Abram before this happened? Well, you know the story of Abram, later called Abraham. In chapter 11 of the book of Genesis we move from looking at the world as a whole and its various acts of disobedience, to following the story of Abram. In chapters 11 and 12, God called Abram, saying “Go from your country, and your kindred and your father’s house to the land I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”[1] Wow. Leave all that you have known and go to this new land that God will show you and God will make you, who has no children, a great nation. That was pretty unbelievable. You’re 75 years old, with no children, and God tells you go and I’ll make you into a great nation. Yeah right. But what does the text say “Abram left, just as the Lord had told him.” So Abram begins this new journey. He steps out in faith. They really should make a movie like The Ten Commandments a la Charlton Heston about the story of Abraham because of the large scope of it all.

In chapter 13 God again makes a promise to Abram. “Raise your eyes now and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Rise up, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” So again, God promises Abram two very big things – the land and the offspring to inhabit it. Not just a handful of offspring, but descendants like the dust of the earth never to be fully counted, because who in the world could count the dust? I wouldn’t want to begin to count even the dust in our house. So yes, again, God had promised this childless man not only land but descendants as numerous as dust.

Right before we met Abram in today’s passage there had been a battle and to make a long story short, with God’s help, Abram won. When you win, you take the loot. Our family plays the game of Risk a lot, and in that game, when you win a battle, you take that person’s land. The goal in the game is world domination. Just like in anything else – if you win, you get the reward. Abram realized that God was the one who had delivered his enemies into his hand and after giving the priest ten percent of all the spoils, he didn’t take anything else for himself. That was a whole heck of a lot to turn down, but God had been faithful to Abram delivering him from Egypt and helping him win this battle, and he didn’t want to owe anyone anything, he and his allegiance belonged only to God. Since he gave God credit for the victory, the spoils weren’t his. His refusal was a sign of faith.

This is where we are in our text today. Abram has just turned down this handsome reward and God comes to him in a vision and says, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” God says look I’ve got your back, I’ve got you covered. You may have given up that loot, like in The Goonies, “the rich stuff,” but I’ve got an even greater reward for you.

What does Abram do? He, a little on the angry, maybe even on the sarcastic side of things, asks what can you give me when I’m childless and everything I have will go to a servant in my house. What can you give me? Doesn’t that sound like a question you hear today all too often. What can you give me? The Message says it this way, “God, Master, what use are your gifts as long as I’m childless…?”[2] What use are your gifts? That’s a pretty straightforward and forthright question. What good is all this stuff if I can’t take it with me and I can’t leave it to my children? Abram has heard God promise to make him this great nation, and he’s heard God say he’ll make his descendants as many as the dust of the earth, but yet, he hasn’t seen anything yet. It’s a show me the money kind of moment. He’s tired of the talk; he wants to see some action. Don’t we get like that sometimes? We’ve been given this promise, this word from God, and it seems that nothing is happening or that our prayers are going unanswered. Sometimes we start to worry if God’s taking a break or if we’ve misunderstood God’s will. In our fast-paced society, we often want things right NOW, and if they don’t come fast enough, we begin to think they’re not coming. We get discouraged. Abram had some of these same fears and questions.

What did God say to Abram, even before he began to ask his questions? “Do not be afraid Abram.” God cuts at the core of his fear. See in Abram’s day, being childless was a big deal. Some thought it was a sign of judgment or wickedness and as it is today, your children are who hopefully care for you as you get older, so Abram’s concern was not unfounded. God knew Abram’s thoughts and he gave him the proof he needed. God knows us, and God knows where we are and what we’re feeling even before we articulate it. God is a big God, and a gracious God and God doesn’t slink away from our questions, God doesn’t hide or back down from them, God doesn’t smite him down for questioning and God doesn’t get angry at his doubt – God reassures him. In the movie Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise’s character, a sports agent, has just made a huge stand professionally and he’s trying to rally all of his sports clients around him. Cuba Gooding’s character, a pro football player is who he calls first. Over and over again he reassures him that he is on his side, looking out for his best interests and working hard for him. And the classic scene shows Cuba yelling back and forth into the phone “Show me the money.” With Cruise responding emphatically assuring him as he yells into the phone, “I will show you the money!” He puts everything he has into it at the loss of all else. He assures him and puts his fears at ease. He steps up to the plate. God does the same thing. God meets Abram where he is, and answers him.

God says that Abram’s heir won’t be this servant, but a child of his own from his own body. God doesn’t give a general speech about keeping God’s promise, but God addresses Abram’s actual fears, the doubts and worries he has about his own specific situation – having an heir or a legacy to pass on. After he answers his doubt, God provides him with another image, another symbol just like the dust in his earlier promise. He says, “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them, so shall your descendants be.” Again, he gives him something so huge that it can’t even be counted. Can you imagine it? If you were Abram in the days, weeks, and years to come as you go through your every day life, in the daytime seeing the dust and in the nighttime seeing the stars and thinking about this promise that God made you, this crazy and unlikely reality that God has promised you, would you believe it? Would you keep the faith? Does Abram have concrete evidence that this will happen, that God will keep God’s word? Not really. But we have heard how God had called him and had provided for him, and how God continues to make the promise. We have heard how God answered his fears. And because of these things, through God, as our Covenant Keeper, Abram believed. Verse 6 says, “And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Through his faith, Abram was made right with God.

There is a story about Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China, going to a bank in England and opening up an account for the China Inland Mission. As he was filling out the application he came to a question asking him for his assets, or in other words what you got. Taylor wrote in the blank, “ten pounds and the promises of God.”[3] You can take God to the bank! If you know the story of Taylor and the China Inland Mission and all of the great, faithful work that they did, you know the foundation for his life was God’s promise: That God has begun a good work and would bring it to completion; faith that God would keep God’s covenant. When you have received God’s promise, it is something you can take to the bank.

Abram had seen God at work in his life and as unlikely as the promise sounded, he believed. He trusted that he could stand on those promises. And what about those words, “reckoned it to him as righteousness?” Paul would later allude to this verse in Romans 4 and Galations 3 when he begins talking about justification by faith. He uses Abram as an example to the early church saying that through his faith Abram was set in right relationship with God, not by anything that he earned or worked, but just by his belief. What Paul was trying to communicate was that it is the same with us. We’ve seen all the ways that God has worked in our lives, just as Abram saw, and just like Abram, all we have to do is believe to be reckoned as righteous, or counted as good even though we obviously don’t deserve it. We believe that God loved us and drew us to God even when we didn’t know it and that by grace God gives us the opportunity to believe. Through this faith and belief, we are saved.

In verse 7, God again reminds Abram of who God is, the God who has brought him to this place, and the promise. Here Abram goes again questioning God, “How am I to know that I shall possess this land?” Although in verse 6 it says that he believed, he is now asking for some sort of sign. Just like us, sometimes even when we do believe, we have questions and doubts. Again, God answers him. God provides the assurance that he needs both in word and deed. God makes God’s self vulnerable by making a cutting covenant with Abram. I know it sounds a little gross, but this is where we get our saying of “cutting a deal with someone.” The way it works is that you walk between the animals sealing your agreement and if you break the agreement then your fate is that of the animals. Covenants are serious, being cut in half is serious. These are not just promises, but something far more-weighty and binding. Marriage is one of these things, where it’s not just a promise made between two people, but it is a pledge, an oath that should not be taken lightly. It’s a covenant.

God’s covenant with Abram isn’t quite like a marriage where there is an equal partnership in the covenant-making. This is a special kind of covenant, a royal covenant, where a king rewards a servant for loyalty and faithful service. All of the responsibility and pressure is on the king to uphold the covenant because he is the one of greater stature.[4] In other words because of God’s love for us and God’s knowledge of our human limitations, God puts God’s self on the line, knowing that this is not an equal partnership, but that the majority of the risk is God’s. In the form of a smoking fire pot and flaming torch, God covenanted with Abram to fulfill both of his promises – to give him all of this land and to give him descendants to inhabit it.

What an amazing God we serve, that God has staked God’s own life on this promise. This is not a promise that Abram initiated, but it is a unilateral decision and covenant made by God. It is not something we have to do or initiate, but it is part of the nature of God. That’s the important point. God’s promise is certain not because of anything that we have done, but because of who God is. Yes, Abram has been faithful, but so has God and so God will be. God is not a distant God who watches from afar, but God is a present God who has entered into the fray with humanity. God seeks relationship with us and has covenanted with each of us in the greatest of all sacrifices on the cross. God doesn’t pull back or go half way, but as in popular games of Texas Hold ‘em, God goes all in. God, Emmanuel, became one of us. God is a personal God that seeks us, that woos us, that draws us to God’s self. On the cross God provided the greatest sign and gave us the opportunity to join in the greatest covenant.

What is our response? Our response is that of Abram’s, to believe. To have faith in the God of the universe that covenants to be in relationship with you and with me, sinners redeemed by the love and grace of Jesus Christ. To trust God’s promises – promises to never leave nor forsake us, promises to give us abundant life, promises to walk with us, both assuring us and answering our questions and fears, but also calling us to grow and trust and respond in faith.

An old man and woman were driving down the road, with the man behind the steering wheel and his wife of many years sitting next to the passenger-side door. They came up behind a car in front of them that had a very young couple riding side by side, almost looking like a two-headed monster because they were sitting so close together. The woman looked over at her husband and pointed at the young couple in front of them and asked, “Why don’t we do that anymore?” He slowly looked over at her and replied, “I haven’t moved.”[5] There have been times, like Abram, we have moved back and forth sometimes trusting, sometimes doubting and questioning God’s provision for us. At times we’ve even gotten out of the car, but God hasn’t moved.

In closing, one of my favorite hymns, perhaps because of the words, perhaps because of the gusto, is “Standing on the Promises.” Listen here to the second verse, “Standing on the promises that cannot fail, when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, by the living Word of God I shall prevail, standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior, standing, standing, I’m standing on the promises of God.”[6] You can stand on and trust the promises of God. God’s a sure thing. Bank on it!

[1] Genesis 12:1-3, All scripture references unless otherwise noted are from The New Oxford Annotated Bible – New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).

[2] Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2002), 39.

[3] Patrick Mead,“Standing on the Promises of God,” www.sermoncentral.com, February 20, 2006.

[4] David J. A. Clines, “Genesis-Esther,” HarperCollins Bible Commentary (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2000), 93.

[5] King Duncan, King’s Treasury of Dynamic Humor (Knoxville: Seven Worlds Press, 1990), 173.

[6] The United Methodist Hymnal: Book of United Methodist Worship (Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 2002), 374.

Abide, cactus, Center, Centering, core, energy, katharos, limitations, New Life, roots, seek, spiritual broccoli, spiritual disciplines, stronger, True Vine, trust in God, Uncategorized

3 Simple Rules: Stay in Love with God

Posted on April 3, 2017 by narciejeter

We continue today in our series on the “3 Simple Rules,” the guidelines for living the Christian life in such a way that we will actually be changed by God’s grace. Remember the image we’ve been using: if our sin and spiritual failures are like stumbling and skinning our knees, then we aren’t interested just in a faith that’s like a million band-aids; we’re interested here in a faith that invites us to grow into our spiritual legs so that we fall down less in the first place, so that, by God’s grace, we mature into being able to walk and maybe even run with God. So, the last two weeks we’ve looked at what it means to “Do No Harm,” and then to “Do Good.” That brings us to rule #3 which we’re going to translate a little, but first let’s look at the original text from back in the day:

General Rule #3

“Thirdly: By attending upon all the ordinances of God; such are:

The public worship of God.
The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded.
The Supper of the Lord.
Family and private prayer.
Searching the Scriptures.
Fasting or abstinence.

These are the General Rules of our societies; all of which we are taught of God to observe, even in his written Word, which is the only rule, and the sufficient rule, both of our faith and practice. And all these we know his Spirit writes on truly awakened hearts. If there be any among us who observe them not, who habitually break any of them, let it be known unto them who watch over that soul as they who must give an account. We will admonish him of the error of his ways. We will bear with him for a season. But then, if he repent not, he hath no more place among us. We have delivered our own souls.”

So the third rule is to attend upon the ordinances of God or, you could say, to observe the spiritual disciplines that help you abide in God. Bishop Ruben Job, who wrote the book that inspired this series, describes rule #3 this way: Stay in love with God. Stay in love with God. For John Wesley and the Methodists, a list like this, these sorts of things, were the tools of intimately relating to the Lord. They called them the “means of grace” because they’re gifts from God, for the people of God to apply, and God promises that when we put ourselves wholeheartedly into these things, we are guaranteed to meet God’s grace there. God is just waiting there, if only we come looking. So, the Methodists said, let’s go looking, weekly, even daily, through spiritual practice like this. Seek God.

Psalm 105:4 says, ^“4Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually.” If you have not struck up a conversation with God in a while, do it. I watched the movie The Shack a couple of weeks ago with my parents and I love how the little girl calls God “Papa.” I don’t think that that would come authentically out of my mouth, but I love the intimacy. If you’ve not been active in your relationship, it’s going to be a little awkward at first. There will be starting and stopping, but keep trying and practicing. Spiritual disciplines are simply about practicing our relationship with God, cultivating it. It may be like going a first date. One where you have one of your friends call for what is an “emergency” when conversation breaks down. Push through. Persevere. The conversation, the dance, the relationship IS worth it. You may be thinking, “It’s easy for you, Pastor. Sure! But I don’t have time. I don’t even know how to pray. I don’t know see God and I don’t even know if I trust God. God is an unfair and unjust God. God doesn’t care about me.”

As Matthew 7:7-11, “‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? ¹⁰Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? ¹¹If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

Seek – find. Ask – it will be given. Knock – door opened. God is a good God. God loves each of us with an abundant love. There is NOTHING that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. As Harry said last week, Jesus wiped the slate clean of any of our wrong doing and we are stamped Child of God.

I think we place our human hang ups on God. We think God’s a punishing God, keeping a record of wrongs. We think God is a genie God, a wish fulfiller. God cannot be boxed in. God is Yahweh, the Great I Am. In our Monday Small Group we are reading Bob Goff’s book Love Does and he writes, “I used to think God wouldn’t talk to me, but now I know I’m just selective with what I choose to hear.” So clean out the ear wax and hear the words of God. “I love you. You are bought for a price. You are fearfully and wonderfully made for a purpose. Nothing will ever separate you from my love.” And if you live knowing that? Nothing can stop you from radiating God’s love to everyone you meet.

Now, the thing is, you may have a hard time connecting to “stay in love with God” with a list like this. They can feel like spiritual chores, or eating our spiritual broccoli, and your love relationship with God can feel like rules and regulations, or something wild and personal and free. The thing about spiritual disciplines is that they depend on your perspective. They can either leave us feeling words like, “Boring. Difficult. Unattainable. Guilt” and, in our minds, we relegate spiritual discipline and holiness to only the few, aged maternal or paternal saints who are one-in-a-million Christians, the exception to the rule. Or we look at them like getting to know a friend better or cultivating a relationship with the lover of our souls. We need to rest in that knowledge and form a core and center in it. If we lead from our cores, if we act out of our cores, if we live in the live and grace of God that emanates out of our pours…than we will truly take this world by storm and bring God’s kingdom to earth. If we abide in the vine our core…

John 15:1-11

‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. ²He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he pruned to make it bear more fruit. ³You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. ⁵I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. ⁹As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”

Stay in love with God. Abide in God’s love so that your joy may be complete. If we keep our eyes and ears open, and our hearts, there’s a lot to this specific way of abiding, and if we’re brutally honest, some of the things that make it most special are the same things that, on occasion, make it really difficult.

First, not all of us at any given time like the idea of being pruned. Even metaphorically. In verses 2 and 3, Jesus describes how, with him, we’ll be pruned and cleansed, and it’s actually the same Greek verb both times, repeat after me: katharos. Katharos. A good English connection is catharsis. A catharsis is an expression of emotions that leaves us feeling deeply relieved. So, for instance, an ugly cry from time to time, whatever inspires it, that physically just cleans out your sinuses and emotionally unloads your burdens; that’s cathartic. Funerals are some of our biggest occasions for catharsis, to get everything out, and start to heal. This is the root of what Jesus says God the gardener does for us as branches in the vine: God prunes, gets the burdensome stuff out, purges the stunted growth, and leaves us whole by doing so. Great news, right?

Unfortunately, not all of us like to be pruned, we don’t always like self-denial, the idea of sacrificing things we’ve grown attached to. We look at God and say, “Can’t I just keep that one part of that one branch? I’ve gotten really comfortable with it. It’ll hurt if you remove that. Can’t I just send out a new branch in that direction, ‘cause I want to do that.” And pretty soon we’re a lot less like a fruit-bearing vine than a wild kudzu – more concerned with consuming in all directions than flowing with full life. Are you familiar with feeling that way? It’s why abiding is tough.

Second, not all of us at any given time really appreciate feeling tied down. Not only are parts of our lives open to pruning when we abide with Jesus, but he also says that we’re confined to the existence of branches. Now, again, sounds pretty great in a sense. Being intertwined with the Vine means having direction, having something to guide us. If you’ve ever ridden through a vineyard, these big gnarly stalks are usually carefully staked in, and supported on trellises, and there’s twine and gear everywhere to keep the branches properly placed to maximize production. It’s this big network of spider-web growth, orderly and efficient, and awesome. Even more, how awesome is it that Jesus is basically saying we get to live off his abundant, true life? Like, the very sap and richness and nutrients of God Almighty flows through the Vine directly into us. Really cool.

What some of us also hear in there is that abiding in the Vine means none of us gets to be a stand-alone plant. Nobody gets to be a towering trunk all on our own. We might start to fear that we won’t get to control our own destiny; or make our own decisions; or be creative and original. What if we won’t get to stand out from everyone else, or take credit for our own glory, or enjoy the spoils of OUR victories? Pretty soon we feel an itch to be, instead of a fruit-bearing vine all “tied up in knots,” a majestic oak that stands alone and knows no bounds. Are you familiar with any of that feeling? It comes natural. It’s why abiding is tough.

Last, when it comes to abiding in the Vine, a more elusive truth is that not all of us always want to be fruitful. We don’t always feel like it, don’t always think we’ve got it in us, don’t always appreciate the pressure of bearing fruit. But Jesus makes no bones: why does God prune? What’s the end-goal of my life flowing through you? So that produce comes forth. Not what you used to do. Not the result you got 10 years ago. I’m here living in you NOW. Just open your eyes to the possibilities and don’t live in the used to’s of your past. If we open our eyes to the unimaginable things God wants to do through us, then what can we not do? What is our limitation? Again, it can sound like the glory of glories that the Lord of Heaven and Earth chooses to use humble old us to accomplish amazing, eternal, life-saving, earth-changing feats of power and love. But as soon as we admit that we have the capacity to bear much fruit for God, all of a sudden it makes me wonder: “So where is all the good fruit then? Why does it seem like I’m not seeing any? What, instead, am I wasting my time on selfishly? What other priorities are driving my life? What if I just don’t feel like dealing with other people sometimes, or putting myself out there, or going out on the limb (vine humor), or doing it all over again? What if I can just never believe that somebody like me could ever do anything to seriously contribute to what God’s doing?” And pretty soon, rather than abiding in a fruit-bearing vine I’d much rather be, say, a nice, self-contained little cactus. Unassuming, inwardly-focused, good to go unto my own survival, sure a little bit prickly but, hey, now God won’t need to worry about expecting anything from me. Are you familiar with any of those ideas, those feelings? Anybody else ever have a little cactus in’em? It’s why abiding is so tough.

What I’m saying is that, for everything that makes a relationship with Jesus sooo good, so unique and powerful and one-of-a-kind on earth, so life-giving and glorious, there’s something that rubs against our sinful nature. There’s a natural drawback, hesitation, and even a sense of “let me run in the opposite direction.” I think these are the same reasons why the spiritual disciplines, the means of grace, as beautiful, powerful, and life-giving as they are, are usually described as confining, boring, and impossible to attain: because they are the ways that we know how to abide, and abiding is tough for our human nature. We would sometimes rather do a thousand other things than these; we’d rather get to these things last if we have time; we’d rather choose all sorts of artificial substitutes over these things, in order to feel like we get to grow what we want to grow, the way we want to grow, as selfishly as we want to do it. Sometimes, the “disciplines” we have to stay in love with God just aren’t that attractive to the part of us that is rooted in the world, but there’s freedom in that as well. Bob Goff writes, “The cool thing about taking Jesus up on His offer [to abide in him] is that whatever controls you doesn’t anymore. People who used to be obsessed about becoming famous no longer care whether anybody knows their name. People who used to want power are willing to serve. People who used to chase money freely give it away. People who used to beg others for acceptance are now strong enough to give love. When we get our security from Christ, we no longer have to look for it in the world, and that’s a pretty good trade.” That is a heck of a trade. Not to get our value from the world. Knowing and trusting God to give us the only value we need.

Y’all, as we close today, this passage isn’t supposed to be bad news. To the disciples’ ears, shortly before Jesus’ death, these words were meant to offer the hope of how they would get to remain in relationship with their beloved Lord and Master. Just listen to how Jesus wraps up in verse 11: ^“I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” The same is true for us. We know that when we pray, when we worship publicly, when we study scripture, when we fast and abstain, we have a chance to meet God, to know God, to be in love with God, and to stay in love. In these practices, God’s pruning helps us slough of the dead things that are draining our life; growing in Christ our Vine means living into holy design; and bearing fruit means taking part in the Lord’s redeeming work. As one of the three simple rules, abiding through the spiritual disciplines, means we are going to work on this together. The mighty redwood trees of California’s Sequoia National Park are the largest life-forms on Earth; yet it is a rare thing to see a redwood standing alone. This is because the roots of the Sequoia do not extend deep into the earth, as most tree roots do; they snake along just beneath the surface of the soil. So shallow are the redwood’s roots that, when a tree is young, it is easily toppled by the wind.

The redwoods that survive — and that grow to such astounding heights — are the ones whose roots intertwine with those of other trees, forming a great interwoven mass of support. The storms that bluster their way through the valleys of the Sierra Nevada can work no harm on those trees: for they stand strong and tall together, in community. We will walk with each other spurring each other on to good works. We will stand stronger together because we are going to create a firm foundation as we all seek to abide in Christ. We are asking and seeking to become more faithful followers of Christ and the Spirit of Christ will abide in us as we abide in him. Praise be to God.