[MUSIC PLAYING] This is the Commission Church online. Welcome to our podcast. We want to be a church who brings heaven on earth with the word of God and the love of Christ. I pray this week's message blesses you. I turn with me to John chapter number 15, verses 1 to 8. John chapter 15, I'm going to title my message today, Abide. I'm going to title my message today by John chapter 15, verses 1 to 8. Follow with me. I'm reading from the ESV, and you can read from whatever version you are in. And the Bible says this, I am the true vine. Jesus is speaking here, and he makes a statement-- or he's going to make certain statements-- in saying, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes. That is, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Verse 6, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch that withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. I want to pause there real quick in verse number 7. He says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Does that make sense? He's basically saying, if I am abiding in Jesus, and Jesus is abiding in me, what I wish is what he wishes. Isn't that powerful? Like, my desires are automatically going to be his desires, because it is inadvertent that it's going to happen, because I abide in him, I reside in him, and he abides in me. This is powerful. And in verse number 8, by this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Towards the end of the service, I'm going to introduce a couple of my Jesus. Two years, a little less than two years ago, I started playing golf. And the reason I picked up golf was because my main sport that I played, I had a very bad injury, where I literally hurt my finger, and I took months to heal, and then we were doing some construction here at the church, and I happened to run my finger through a table saw, and that aggravated another injury that-- yeah, I'm sorry to put you through that gary information, but do you want more information about the injury? I'm going to spare you of it. Ended up having to get a few stitches. So gave up that sport, and Sonia looked at me with great concern and said, it'll be really nice if you took on a sport that wasn't this dangerous. So then I took up a sport that many people don't consider a sport, which is golf. There are a few guys in the church that play regularly, so I jumped on the bandwagon with them, and I said, can you teach me how to play golf? And I was with guys that were so encouraging, like Jevin and Ron, and these guys, you play a bad shot, and they're like, such a great shot, Pastor. And I'm like, no, it wasn't. You don't have to make me feel good. Those are the guys that I played with. They're encouragers. They loved encouraging me, pushing me on, and making sure that I continued into this sport that I slowly started to get an affinity to, or gain an affinity to. And in golf, if you know, depending upon what hole you're in, you have either three, four, or five chances to make it to a hole, to make par. And it was on one of those holes. For a few months I've been playing, and the goal is, I think I was in a par four, where I had four chances to get on the green. So the goal of golf is to get from where you are to the green, where there is a hole, and you've got to get the ball from where you are into the hole. And you have four chances. So I usually average 10 to 12. That's how bad it was initially, and it was during that time. The only goal I had was to get to the green on my second shot. It was three months into me playing. I was excited. I took my golf club, swung that golf club on my second shot, and that second shot landed on the green. I was excited. It was the first time ever that I made the green in two shots. But my usual cheerleaders were not saying anything. They weren't saying, good shot. They weren't saying, go, pastor. Whoa, whoa, they weren't cheering me on. I was like, guys, did y'all see that? We on your phones? And I said, they were like, what's up? And I said, I hit it on the green. And they were like, pastor, you hit it on the green, but it was just the wrong green. It's the wrong hole. It's the other side, bastard. We're going this way. I missed the mark. I totally missed the target. We're all watching the Olympics. It's like a shooter that's aiming for his target, but ends up shooting the bull's eye of the guy or the competitor right next to him. In my opinion, John chapter 15 is the target. It is the bull's eye. It is to the Christian what Disney is to Orlando. It is to the Christian what the Hollywood sign is to California. Or it is to the Christian where the Statue of Liberty is probably to New York. As a Christian, John 15, verses 1 to 8, and I'm not stretching my imagination or your imagination by any means, I mean it with a lot of gusts that I believe that this is the target. It is the epicenter, and if you miss this target, you miss the whole message of the gospel. And why do I spend time talking about why it's important to hit this target because I grew up missing this target a lot? I grew up being taught that the main thing was something else. It's so important for us Christians to understand that the main thing about being a Christian or being a follower of Christ is to be abiding with Christ, to be in Christ, to be a follower in an ardent student and disciple of Christ. But in all our travails, in all our quests as Christians, we get caught up in side quests and targets that we shouldn't be aiming at, but we end up hitting the ball onto the wrong greens. And one of those greens was be a good kid. Your morality is important. That was what I was taught. As a young man, I was taught lying, and cheating, and stealing, and all that's good. I'm not saying that that's not biblical. I'm not saying that those are things that are not what Jesus tells us to not to do. I'm not saying that those are not in the Ten Commandments, but the things that I was supposed to do were things that were more emphasized on rather than relationship with Jesus. As I grew to be a teenager, you shouldn't have sex outside of marriage, because that's what the Bible teaches. You've got to be celibate, and it's true. It's powerful. It is the message that we've got to teach our teenagers. But my morality is secondary to my relationship with God. I want us to understand this. There is so much of importance that has to be given to our standing with God and our relationship. And how we see God and how we view God and our being with God. And unfortunately, a lot of us have been taught that the things that we do for God and the things that we do and surround ourselves is so much more important than our relationship really with God. Somebody actually mentioned this. The pastor once said, hell will be filled with many virgins, and heaven will be filled with many ex-prostitutes. And I think that's true, because sometimes there are people that are sinners that live in the midst of sin, that are drenched in sin, covered in sin, that understand the true message of the love, the forgiveness, and the grace of God. And they understand what it means to be with God. Being with God, abiding in God, being one with Jesus, that transforms their life, that changes who they are. It changes their view of God, because you can easily be caught up in this works gospel, and doing, and doing, and doing, and doing, and if I do this, and do this, and do this, and check these boxes, maybe I will go to heaven gospel that your entire Christian life, all you care about, is doing, and doing, and doing, rather than being in the presence of God. And you end up missing the green. You end up ending, ending up on the wrong target. You end up hitting the wrong bullseye, because you're always aiming from what man says is important, rather than honing in. And that's why I feel like this verse is the target. For the Christian. Or when I was growing up, it was devotion. It was prayer time. It was a pray more, read more, fast more. That's true. It was good. Jesus said, do all of those things. As much as that important, it is important. If quiet times was the target of the Christian, if it was the end goal of the Christians, the Pharisees were the ones that we need to look up to, because they had all of that. Dude, they knew the Torah. They memorized the Torah. What is that, Pastor? It is the first five books of the Bible. I understand, Prince. Genesis, I love Genesis. Genesis is great. I can read it. I don't know about memorizing, but okay, fine. I'll memorize Genesis. It's a great start to the story. Exodus, okay, well, it's the story of redemption. I get that. But dude, Leviticus, you memorize Leviticus? Don't start about numbers. Come on, somebody. But they knew that inside out. They knew it all. The Pharisaical attitude told them that as long as they memorize the Torah and prayed the Shema, the prayer, 18 times a day, they would be okay. But Jesus refers to them as whitewashed graveyard full of dead man's bones. That's what Jesus calls them. So don't come up to me with your Bible knowledge and your JBQ gold medal, and tell me that you have a relationship with Jesus, because boo boo, I'm sorry. That's not true. It's not, that's not how you gain relationship with Jesus, Martel. It's not, we've missed the mark because we've often bought into this church ideology that if we do and we check these boxes and we are good kid and we do these certain things, we will be just fine and I can tithe and I can show up on a Sunday morning and I can serve three times a month and I can love on God's people. I can serve in my community and I will go to heaven. You missed the mark. So many of us are like that. We are legalistic, we are self-righteous, especially us in our Bible-compened South. We know the Bible inside out, we know all the prayers, we haven't memorized, but we have zero intimacy or relationship with God. And you wonder why your co-workers have nothing to do with you or they want nothing to do with you. 'Cause y'all, we aren't the light of the world. We are not the salt of the earth. Why? Because we haven't understood what the main thing is and the main thing simply as the Bible teaches us is abiding with Christ, is being with Christ. If John chapter 15 verses one to eight is the destination, what then is that? What does that comprise of? It comprises of us understanding that intimacy with Jesus is not about doing, it is about being. It is about staying. It is about being connected. It is about staying connected to the vine and we're gonna talk about that in just a second because verse number one, the Bible introduces us to this topic where Jesus is making this statement and he says this, he says, I am the true vine. He starts off by making that exclamation and saying, I am God, every person, he's squashing, they have every human ideology that has this tendency of gravitating to anything that is the transcendent. I have friends in different times in my life that have come up to me and said, I know you're a Christian, but I believe in God, I believe in a transcendent, not necessarily Jesus, but I'm looking at each one of them and saying, there's only Jesus, Jesus is God and this is the main thing that Jesus sets him aside and says, I am the vine. Why is this important? Because that word I am is the loftiest word or the loftiest name of God that we find in Scripture. 80-year-old Moses is standing in front of a fire. Tending his sheep, he sees this fire on top of this mountain, he's gravitated towards it, walks up the mountain, he hears a voice that comes out of this fire that is burning and this bush doesn't seem to just go, wait, it's burning and it's raging and there's a voice that comes out of this bush and says, Moses, take off your shoes because you are standing on Holy ground. Moses slips his shoes off, God goes on to talk to him and says, Moses, I want you to go back to Egypt and I want you to look at Pharaoh in his eye and say, let my people go, say what, God? Hold on, God, say what, God? 'Cause he's a stammer, he's stuttering through his way and he's like, Lord, I'm barely making it myself and you want me to go back to Pharaoh? And he says, yeah, I want you to go back to Pharaoh, so here he is and he's like, okay, God, I don't think I'm qualified, it's his back and forth that goes and he looks at God and says, who do I? Who do I even tell? He's a godless man. Who do I tell him, sent me? And God looks at him and says, look at him and say, I am sent you, I am. What does that mean, God? I am. Not that I will, not that I was, I am. He said, I am the sufficient God, the same God that was yesterday, today and forever more, I will never be put in a box. I can be for you what you want to be in that moment and I will have to do a bunch of stuff. So all you gotta say is, I am. He was introducing Moses to this understanding of this all-encompassing, all-knowing, sovereign God that has it under control. I am. It's the same Jesus that says, I am the bread of life. I am the good shepherd, I am the door, I am the way, the truth and the life and I am the true vine. Jesus is saying, I am God. See now, Jesus is standing in the land of Palestine and Palestine was known as the land of vineyards. Vines and vineyards are not ancient to that particular time. It's all through the Bible. In fact, when you read, you read about vines, you read about vineyards. And in fact, Noah, as soon as he gets off the boat, he goes and he works hard to plant a vineyard. Israel is called the vineyard of the Lord. Hosea is, Hosea calls Israel a luxurious vine. Jews during the inter-testamental times in the middle of, in between the Old Testament and the New Testament, they had this coin on which was inscribed a vine. It was very, very evident in their culture. The doors of the holy place had a picture of a vine, an image of a vine that was carved into it. People understood the symbolism of the vine because the vine was very much intertwined and connected to life as it were. And Jesus is looking at them and saying, I am intertwined in every fabric and part of your culture. And I am God, I am your God. But it goes back to the fact that he was trying to prove to them that the purpose of a vine or a vineyard is at the end of the day of fruit. He says, I am the vine and you're the branches. And whoever abides in me will bear much fruit. He says, it's granted. If you abide in me, if you are just connected to me, if you say true to your source, can I be honest with you, the goal of the Christian is not church attendance. The goal of the Christian is bearing fruit. A lot of us can come to church, can do our due diligence, we can pay our tithes, we can serve in the church, we can do all the things, we can bring our kids to sign. All of that is great, all of that is amazing. But if you've missed the mark, if you only feel like your way to heaven is church attendance. You know, when you got saved, the Holy Spirit came inside of you. He gave you gifts for edification. Because Jesus moves inside of you through the Holy Spirit. You and I have gifts, we've talked about gifts. I've mentioned gifts here before. But men, gifts are not enough. I want us to understand this, like hell will be filled with gifted people. Please understand this, you know what Jesus says, right? They will come to me and they will tell me, I cast out demons in your name, guess what? That's a gift. I prophesied in your name, guess what? That's a, and they still ended up where? So you can be gifted and you could still end up in hell. Ooh, I lost all of you. All the amens went down. Your giftings do not equate your standing with God. Please, a lot of us get elevated and we focus so much on giftings and I'm gifted and I'm talented and I'm this and I'm that and God's like, man, I don't care about that. All I care about is your soul and is your soul abiding with me. This is the main thing y'all, all this other stuff is great, is awesome. We lay emphasis on it, we talk about it. All of that is just byproducts of your relationship with God. It doesn't take away from the fact that you need to have a personal, intimate relationship with your maker in the form of Jesus Christ. This is my cry, this is my plea today. I'm a charismatic, I am. But I'm a careful charismatic. I want you to be a careful charismatic. What do I mean by that? I don't want you to run into the error of diminishing your relationship with God and elevating your gifts to the point where you emphasize gifts so much to where it takes the place of your relationship with God. 'Cause you can jump up and down all you want. You can speak in tongues all you want, you can prophesy all you want. It's not how high Simone Bile jumps. It's not how many times she twirls and spins. It's how she, you can twirl, jump, spin, you can do all of that. But it's how you land and how you walk away, that matters. As a Christian, you can do all of the things that can bring an emotion that can stir up in emotion. And we're so used to that, I'm so used to that. I've done it, I've been there, done it, but doesn't yield nothing. You can be slain in the Spirit, you can prophesy, you can speak in tongues, all that is great and dandy. But man, if you're done with service and you walk out and if you're not a changed person, if God has not transformed your heart, don't come to me with all of that. God's like, I don't know you. He plain out denies you. There's no shying away. Some of you are looking at me like, "Pass, this is your first week back." Like, can you just like ease us into this whole thing? Like, you're coming, all guns blades. I'm sorry, I'm your pastor. You okay? And for so many of us, we're okay with bearing fruits that exist for ourselves. We eat our own fruits sometimes. But we fail to understand that we are the fruit. You don't have fruits and gifts for yourself, it's for the edification of the body. That's what the Bible says. You know, fruit that eats itself is called rotten. That's what a fruit that eats itself is called. Stop eating yourself, like stop consuming yourself, stop being all self-absorbed, yourself being all about yourself and your gifts. And some of you are like, "Ah, he's stepping on it." If John 15 is the target, John 15 verse four is the epicenter of that target. It says this, verse number four. It says, "Abide in me and I in you, "as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself. "Unless it abides in the vine, neither can you. "Can I be honest with you and tell you this?" A lot of people think that it's your job or it's your duty or it's something that you have to do that causes you to bear fruit. As long as the branches attached to the vine, as long as it's attached to the tree, the source, it's only a default that you will bear fruit. The condition of you bearing fruit is that you are attached to the vine. It's not your merit, because of anything you offer, because you have nothing to do with the roots, the roots, or the system. It's not you, it's not you. God, the vine dress, the Jesus, the vine. This is important for us to understand. This is powerful, and John is writing, and he's reminding us about this. How does God bring about fruit in my life? The first thing that John wants to learn, teach us is you have to abide. Someone say abide. You know, John is kind of writing in the Greek, and the word abide in the Greek comes from the word linger, or stay, or hang, or just be around. Earlier, between services, to save my voice, one of our leaders, she brought me some tea, and I love tea, you know, tea clears up my voice sometimes. How many of you all love tea, tea, tea drinkers? Okay, that's good. There are two categories of people that make their tea. There are the dippers and the abiters. You see the dippers, they get that tea bag out. Get the cup out, and they're like up and up and up, and up and up, and they're like swirling around, squeeze it, and I'm like, ew, just let it be. I lost all the dippers in the room. Come on, dippers, can I hear you? Say, hey man. The dippers love to go aggressive, man. You feel like the more you dip, the more you go, the more you swirl, all the juice is gonna come out of there, but guess what I do? I put that tea bag in there, and the hot water takes care of the rest. There's something about abiding. Nothing you do extra is gonna bring any extra flavor out of that thing, trust me. But still it's so tempted because we feel like if we do something, man, that tea's gonna be extra awesome. I know, it might just take a few more minutes. But that hot water takes on that color and that flavor and that tea does what it's supposed to do, and the byproduct of living in Christ is a fruitful life that brings color, that adds flavor. And the abiding aspect of it is so important. You know, a life with Christ shouldn't be about, and there's so many Christians dipping. Up and down, up and down, up and down, run and run and run, just doing. What are you doing, I'm busy, I'm busy, I'm a church all day, I'm doing things for Jesus. And all that's great, all that's awesome, and all that's, and I'm your pastor, and I love that you serve and that you do, and you're always available, but not at the cost of being in the presence of God. Not at the cost of that. If you are not reading your word, and if you're not studying the word, and if you're not praying, and if you're not in the presence of God, abiding with God, just being in the, I don't know how to explain it more, but just being in the presence of God, and being who God called you to be, and not constantly dipping, and doing things. The branch doesn't try, sorry, sorry, the fruit doesn't try, it just is attached to the vine, and that's all that's needed. As long as you're attached, you get the life source. But somehow, we've been taught that if we do, and do, and do, and do, and do, maybe I can gain extra fruit, or I can do bigger things, and greater things, and the Galatians chapter five, Paul says it beautifully, he says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace." It's forbearance, it's kindness, it's goodness, it's faithfulness, and it's gentleness, and it's long-suffering, it's self-control. Against it, you know this verse, but what a lot of people don't read is verse number 16, which is the premise of this verse, where you know what he says, so I say, walk by the Spirit. He says, "Step into the Spirit." Guess what, same word used as the word abide. He says, "If you abide, you will bear fruit." You wanna bear the fruit of the Spirit? Can I be honest with you? Love, joy, peace is not gifts and metals that add it to you, not tears of Christianity, not levels that you attain, it is things that happen to you, and characteristics that happen to you when you become Christ-like, when you are in step with the Spirit, when you are in tune with the Spirit, when you abide with Jesus, you can't help, but be kind. Who can I talk to somebody here? You know, the number of Christians, new believers that I've met, and they come up to me and say, "Pastor, man, this last month has been awesome, "it's challenges after I got baptized, "but my coworkers are telling me that I'm more kind, "that I'm more compassionate." And I'm like, "Ta-da, that's Jesus. "Does this make sense to anybody? "It's just being attached. "You are by association, fruitful. "You are by identity of being a son and daughter "of God, fruitful. "You don't have to do extra." I'm gonna come to it in just a second. So I say, "Walk by the Spirit." Verse number five, "Waiting on God is a second point. "I am divine, you are the branches. "Whoever abides in me, and I in him, "he it is that bears much fruit for a pot from me. "You can do nothing. "There has to be a time that comes in your walk with Christ "where you understand that outside of the presence "and the power of God, you are nothing." It's a moment of humility that you arrive at. You go through this period in life where you feel like, "I could do, do, do, do, do." And then you come to that point where you're like, "Nah, man, it's not me." Paul says that it's not me, but the Christ that is in me. Moses comes to that point where he looks at God and says, "God, if you're not going with me, "don't send me, God." David says that he says outside of your, like, "Take me not away from your presence, O God. "Take not thy holy spirit away from me." And I've said this before, and I say it again today, Christian, outside of the presence of God, you're a fish out of water, but when you're in the presence of God, you are fruitful, there is life. Stop escaping it for sweeter waters. There is no sweeter waters. That is life. He is life. That's what he's trying to teach us over here. What is your job? If you came here, and this is usually the sermons, right? Here's what it is, and here's three points to equip you. Go do this. I can't give you that today. Does that make sense? Like, there is no to do today. I can't say, go this week and do this, this, this. Because that's not what Jesus is asking us to do. He's just looking at you and saying, "Just be in my presence. "Just stay attached to the vine. "Stop disconnecting yourself. "Stop gravitating to the world every single time "that you gravitate, you detach, you cut yourself off, "and then, man, some of us are trying so hard "to attach ourselves back to this vine. "And some of the of us are orphaned branches, "just laying on the ground, "and we pick ourselves up on a Sunday morning. "And just to show other people, "you take some apples and some oranges and some pineapples, "and you just duct tape it on yourself. "And then you show up to church. "Anybody been there? 'Cause I've been there. "I've done it. "I've done it. "Been there. "Because I got to do church, Martell. "Because I got to show up, if I don't show up, "who's going to show up? "Because I got to put on a face. "I got to be a Christian right now. "I got to do this and do this. "Because that's what God expects of me, right? "I got to be a model husband, "and I got to be a model father. "I got to be the head of the home. "Blah, blah, blah, blah." And God's like, "You think I'm like, "I'm amazed and awed by your fancies?" He's like, "I don't know you, man. "I don't know who you are, "because all you do is keep detaching yourself "from the bread. "Every wind that blows, "blah, blah, gravitate towards the culture of the world. "Gravitate towards that, gravitate towards that, "grabitate towards addictions, "and you expect God to make you fruitful "when you don't hold your end of the bargain "of just staying attached." That's all he's asking. It's so simple. Philippians 2, 12, John, you can come help me out. Philippians 2, 12 to 13. I'll try to end with this, okay? Somebody said that they enjoyed the last four weeks and I told them, "Thank God for 25 minute messages, "get ready for 45 to 15 minute messages." "Therefore my dear friends, "as you have always debated, "not only in my presence, but now more in my absence, "continue to work out..." Listen, Paul says, "Continue to work out "your salvation with fear and trembling." Paul says, "What does that mean?" It says, "Work out." "Baz, baz." And he says, "For what? "For it is God who works in you to will and to act "in order to fulfill his good purpose." He says, "Work out your salvation and fear and trembling. "What does that mean? "It means stay attached to the wine." That's pretty much what he's saying. He says, "Work out with God consciousness. "Work out with fear and trembling. "What is the fear of God? "Fear of the God is the knowledge of God, "knowing that God exists. "In my speech, in my talk, in my actions, "in everything I do. "It's being able to go to work and have conversations "with your friends and still know that God is powerful "and God is mighty and the fear of God "that's inside of you reminds you and prompts you "and tells you that man, you can be better, "you can do better, that knowledge that God is with me. "I can't watch that. "I can't go to that website. "I can't be tempted to do that. "I can't pick up that. "I can't drink that. "I can't eat that. "Come on, I can't talk to that person. "I can't do this. I can do that." That's what he's talking about. He says, "Work out your salvation." Means the salvation that God, this free gift that he's given you, work it out, which means work it out. The sanctification process is a process that you work out day in and day out where you tell yourself you have to be God conscious, God is all around you, not because of anything you have to do. This working out of the salvation is this continuous working out where you have to make sure that the God conscious is the fear of the Lord is within you. Why? Because for God works in you. He does the work. He gives you the ability. He gives you the strength. He gives you the power. It's not by your power. It's not by your might. I am not transformed by my effort. You know, people think that growing a vineyard is pretty easy. If you go to Napa Valley, Jen, a vine dresser out there, an owner of a vineyard will tell you that a vineyard is a long-term investment. They'll get the ground ready. You're one. You're two, they're planting. You're three, they get some fruit, but what they do is they don't harvest, they let it fall on the ground. (gentle music) They prune, they trim, they cut off things that they don't need to cram because they want to make sure that those vines grow really strong. You're four, they will tell you that there's a small harvest that they allow to ferment and they age it for almost two years. For two years, they will age it. So they gotta wait another two years for the first bottle of wine to come out. So from planting to the first bottle is eight years. And an owner of a vineyard will tell you that from the first money that they make from their first bottle at eight years was little to nothing to making a profit is year 15. It doesn't happen overnight. Quality takes time. I have many passions, barbecuing is one of them. I love smoking meats that is calm down. Love smoking meats. It amazes me how you can take a tough cut of beef like a brisket from the cow and you can use it as a steak, you can use it like a filet mignon or like a ribeye. It's a tough piece of meat that if you cook it like that, it's gonna be so, so tough. And you gotta cook it with tenderness. So I take this piece of meat and I put it in a barbecue oven and a barbecue smoker. And this indirect heat that comes in 250 degrees, almost for 15 to 18 hours, sometime up to 20. This heat will go and cook this meat, it's infused it with the smoky flavor of this wood pieces that are in that smoker. I know some of you are salivating right now. You should, I love it because at the end of that 18 hour cook, what happens to that hard piece of meat? Anybody love brisket? You know what brisket tastes like? That thing falls apart. You can pull that thing apart and it's the most moist piece of meat that you will ever have. Why? Because it took time. You know, even wine dresses will tell you that there's a study that's conducted in California. The more hotter the temperatures have gone over the years, the quality of wine has gone up. Something that they've just started to discover recently. Quality takes time, y'all. On the other side is something that you've never experienced before. Moses, 80 years on the barbecue. Joseph, 13 years in the barbecue. David, 15 years in the smoker. Jesus, 30 years. Bruin, getting ready. Paul, 14 years in the desert. And I'm impatient for six months. Yesterday, I was sending some properties to Jeff, who's our realtor. And I was like, man, we need a building for the church. Jeff, come on, I need you to, we're in, and Jeff's like, pastor, the market's crazy, pastor. I need you to calm down, pastor. We got to pray through this, pastor. I said, I know, Jeff, but I'm getting impatient. We need a bigger church. But God's time is not our time. Sometimes we have to be patient. We got to say, hey, I just got to stay attached, because sometimes we get impatient. And because of that, we try to detach ourselves from the vine. And God's like, no, your job is just to stay put. Part of staying put means suffering. Paul says in Romans five, three, it says not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. Knowing that suffering produces endurance. And endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. I'm gonna end with this. I know the service went slightly longer today, but forgive me, I'm back. You know, sometimes fruit is only gonna come through pruning. You'll find a vine dresser often going up to the vines and just chopping off some pieces of this vine, and you're like, what are you doing? Don't you see that fruit is falling down? And he's like, I understand. And here's the thing, if anybody has done gardening before, you know what exactly I'm talking about. Sometimes it's the best part of the plant that you have to prune sometimes. Because not because it's bad, but because you see potential inside of it. That if you prune it, that particular part of the plant has the ability to produce more. Have you noticed that God sometimes prunes the most important part of our life sometimes? The most stable things in our lives, the job that you really loved, that relationship that you thought was the forever? Sometimes it's that friendship and God's like, snip, snip, snip, snip. Or it's that job that's coming in the way. God's like, let me prune that job. Or it's your health and God's like, man, I've noticed that comfortable, you get really comfortable in seasons of prosperity. And I hear you pray more when you're waiting on your test results. But you know what's crazy? Vicki, it's times where when you're getting pruned, you sit back and you're like, where's God? As a Christian, when you're getting pruned and snip, you're like, where's God? You remember Job's wife? Goes up to him and says, man, curse God and die. You call yourself a man of God? Where's God in all this mess? But can I tell you this? The vine dresser is closest to his vine when he's actually pruning it. He examines the vine so much more closer because the ones that he needs to eliminate which he feels like is gonna harm the plant, that he eliminates and that which he feels like he needs to cut off because something good is gonna come out of it, that he looks at more precisely than that which he has to eliminate and he says good is gonna come out of this. God's eyes upon you no matter what situation you're in, no matter what impossibility you're in, no matter what pruning season you're in, no matter what painful situation you're in, I want to assure you God told me today to tell you that God's eye is on you. Would you stand up to your feet when we church? I'm gonna call Peter and Vicki here in just a moment but I wanna just challenge you today before we pray for them. You know, we were on vacation and we went to the beach with the girls and as much as our girls love the beach, the aftermath is a nightmare. We take them back to a hotel room and we have sand in questionable places. Every crevice in every corner is filled with sand and to get those demons out of the hair and out of every part of the body is a nightmare. You have kids, you know, exactly what I'm talking about. You know, but I couldn't help this week as I was preparing to think about the oyster. That oftentimes finds its habitation lodged among the sand dunes and it's inevitable sometimes that no matter how careful it is that grains of sand will somehow get into the body of this oyster. And most of the time the oysters have the ability to locate the grain of strand and to expel it away from its body because it irritates them. So it tries its value, it has the propensity to eliminate these grains of sand. And they will get, they will be exasperated, they will be irritated, they will be exhausted and some of them they will get rid of and there's times that there might be one small speck of sand that still remains in the body and they can't really get it out of their system. And so the oyster goes into a self-preservation mode where it begins to coat it over and over and over again with a fluid that it basically puts on top of it to self-preserve itself. This fluid starts to calcify and that particular fluid is what turns into top dollar. That you and I will pay thousands of dollars to buy, which is a pro. But it started off as a porn in the flesh. Sometimes we look at these pruning seasons in our life and we look at the sand that's lodged in places and we look at the stuff that they're walking through and we're going through and we're like, Lord, why is this happening to us? Why is this happening to my marriage? Why is this happening to my person? Why is this happening to my health? And God is looking at you and saying, man, pruning and pains are a part of this Christian life, but in all of it, stay attached to the source. Be attached, because I am your comfort. I am your strength. I am your source. And Christian, let me tell you this, as long as you're attached to the source, God's eye is upon you. - Thank you for listening. We love bringing you the word in so many different platforms. We are so thankful for what God is doing in and through us. We'd love for you to subscribe so you don't miss out. 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