Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Good Morning Village Church.
Speaker 1 00:00:08 Lost my brain just for a minute. I even, I forgot I was here. Sorry, <laugh>. Um, my name's Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the Village Church, and I have the absolute pleasure to open up God's word with you. You can open up your Bibles to John chapter 15. We're in a two week series called Abide. And before we get into that, I want to just ask you a question. Think about your own personal life. Have you ever been on a great unified team? If you haven't, it is so much fun in sports. A bad team that's gonna wanna make you transfer or quit. Amen. Anybody ever been on a bad sports team at work? A bad team is gonna make you wanna look for greener pastures at school. A bad team almost always results in bad grades and then often broken friendships. But a, a great team, a unified team, I mean, this is, this is objectively really special where everyone trusts each other, where hard things that need to be said are said, and hard things are received well, where you're appreciated not just for your strengths, but everyone knows your weaknesses and they're gracious toward you, despite them.
Speaker 1 00:01:26 Really, really beautiful. Serving on a healthy team is hands down. My second favorite part of being a pastor. My first favorite part is I get to open up God's word with you, but I love, and I just wrote down a few things that I love about being on healthy teams. I love the comradery of being on a healthy team. I love the inside jokes and the laughter of being on a team. If your teams don't have a little bit of joy, I think you need more Holy Spirit there. I think Jesus had a blast with his teams. My own personal opinion, I love making decisions. As a team, I prefer to make the least amount of decisions possible. Uh, a good healthy team protects you from the bad decisions. It gives you the accountability that honestly, all of us need. I love when healthy teams win their mission.
Speaker 1 00:02:12 When you set out a goal and you're like, yes, and we can look back and say, we did what we set out to do. I love, uh, looking back and seeing the faithfulness of God when in the moment you're like, I don't know how we're gonna get over this hurdle. But then you look back and you just see the hand of God all over the process. I love when my teammates are Apple users because <laugh>, because when they're all Apple users, I can name the thread and then put a ridiculous picture and you're all forced to see it. It's one of my favorite things. And you know this, and if you're not an Apple user, you have no idea what I'm talking about. But know this, we're all frustrated with you. Just, just a little bit, just just a tiny bit. Our entire church is built on teams.
Speaker 1 00:03:01 It is teams of teams of teams. It's so important that if you enter onto a team at church, we do training with you. Here's how we do teams. Here's what we think of teams. Here's how to be a really bad teammate. Here's how to be a good teammate. And we, we standardize this because really the health of our church is really as healthy as the teams, but every team of spiritual leaders will be attacked eventually. I have never experienced a healthy team, a healthy team of spiritual leaders that eventually in due time is not attacked. And the goal of every attack is division. A divided team is useless. Amen. And the evil one knows this. And so he goes right after any unified team of spiritual leaders. I don't care what kind of team it is, you can be a small group bearing incredible fruit.
Speaker 1 00:04:07 Just wait, just wait. If you get too close to the kingdom of darkness and threaten them, attacks will begin to emerge. Now, there are multiple reasons where there why There can be division on a team. Sometimes there's division on a spiritual team because there is simply a difference in values or strategy. So in the New Testament, we see the Apostle Paul and John Mark actually have to break up their team and go different ways. Not because one of them was good and the other one was bad. They saw things very, very differently. And it's, it's honestly, ax says they had a sharp disagreement. And one of the things I love about this is that it's a good reminder that not everybody is made to be on a team together. It, it's okay if some people aren't designed to work well on a team together. You can love each other, be brothers and sisters in Christ.
Speaker 1 00:04:58 And that's just fine. Sometimes there's a, a division in spiritual teams though because there is unde with sin in one of the teammates. We saw this twice with Peter. The first one we're gonna watch in John in a few chapters where, where Peter, uh, buckles under fear and breaks ranks with his team and disassociates or disa affiliates with Jesus. We've seen in the book of Galatians chapter two that actually Peter and Barnabas created division amongst apostles because they were afraid of what the Jews were gonna think of them if they stood up for the gospel. And then the Apostle Pauls to come in and and rebuke them. You wanna talk about division? What I, what I found most often is that unde with pride and anger, one of those are the two most common unde with sin issues that people bring into their spiritual teams.
Speaker 1 00:05:50 Sometimes there's division on a spiritual team because unknowingly there's a false Christian on the team. And this was the experience with Judas. Judas obviously created quite a bit of division on the, on the team of the apostles, and none of them had any category except for Jesus that he wasn't a true Christian. Um, sometimes there's division and a spiritual team because the leader just isn't leading. Well, I have been that person, but when spiritual teams are unified, anything is possible. And when spiritual teams are divided, heartbreak and inertia are inevitable. Our opening Bibles, John 15, Jesus is building and training the most important team of spiritual leaders ever assembled. And their mission is the most important mission of any team in history. And these young men have already had their first casualty in Judas, the fake Christian who betrayed everyone in a few short hours.
Speaker 1 00:06:59 They're still trying to wrap their brain around this. Their leader is going to be arrested, betrayed by one of their own tried and then unjustly, publicly murdered. And Jesus, he's trying to prepare them for what this is going to mean. In John 16, one, I'll put this on the screen for you. Uh, what Jesus does is he summarizes the purpose for which he is teaching everything we're seeing in John 15. Here's what he says, this is why John 15 exists. I've said these things to you to keep you from falling a way. And when the disciples heard that phrase, I guarantee they were thinking to themselves, no way, not me. I'm not gonna fall away, but, but Jesus clues them in bluntly, he leaves nothing with them to parable or analogy. Verse two, he says, they will put you out of the synagogues. So if I stopped here, and this was it getting kicked out of the church, losing all your social clout, et cetera, that's easy compared to with what they're actually going to have to experience. He says, indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering a service to God.
Speaker 1 00:08:22 The implicit question in John 15 is, will you be able to stand as one even in the face of your own death? Will you be so united that you would die for one another? S some missions, they're so important that the teammates need to be willing to die. They need to be willing to die for the mission, and they need to be willing to die for the team. You think about the President's secret service, you walk into this understanding the weight of the mission, and you walk into this team knowing my life isn't as important as the team and the president. Your brother's in war. Do you understand? When you go to war, you know this death is likely. And when you go into that, you understand it's the mission and and it is my teammates. And you go into this understanding. If we all are not willing to die for one another, we can't accomplish this mission. Your family lane, most moms and dads will say 99% would die for their family. You wanna talk about a spiritual team? Look at your marriage.
Speaker 1 00:09:48 And it's something I pray that you never have to experience. But in persecution, Christians and local churches together need to figure out if they would be willing to die for each other. Praise God. That is not a present reality here. But there are Christians all over the world hiding other believers, risking their lives right now if they get caught shot or hanged. And, and this is, this is sort of a preparatory lesson for them and for us as well. I have no idea what the future holds. Anything can happen in 5, 10, 50, a hundred years. But, but I do know this, that there is, there is something about Jesus' preparation for them that is preparing them for the worst. Because here's what Jesus knows, for these young men, they're gonna have to face the worst personally. So last week, Jesus taught us that abiding in him is necessary for the flourishing of our soul.
Speaker 1 00:10:45 If you don't abide in Jesus, you will never make it. Your soul will wither and die. And if you are disconnected from Jesus permanently, you will go to hell. So this week Jesus is gonna teach us that we together are a spiritual team and we, we will never make it if we are not connected to Christ and to each other. And so John 15, we're gonna see that they're spiritual and their physical lives hinge on getting this principle. Now I wanna warn you, not for this message, but for every week after every week we get closer to the crucifixion, the experiences are gonna get more intense for each of these, each of these men. And so every week the demands on them and the expectations are gonna go, they're gonna get really much more difficult. And so however this message lands with you, just wait.
Speaker 1 00:11:38 Because the next ones, they're just gonna get incrementally more challenging. John 15, 12, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. And, and this is the Greek word for agape, which um, if you know this means sacrificial love. It is the highest form of love. It's surpassed this friendship, love and emotional love and general affiliation love. Like this is the kind of love that I will die for you. Agape means to sacrificially love one another. He, he doesn't mince words. In, in verse 13, he tells us exactly what this means. He says, greater love has no one than this. Someone lay down his life for his friends. So you, you, you and I have rightly always applied this to Jesus and it does apply to Jesus. But it's interesting here, Jesus is applying this to their relationship with each other.
Speaker 1 00:12:38 And, and these disciples are, are, are beginning to learn a very difficult truth following Jesus might require your death and it might require you dying, not just for me, but for one another. So one thing to make clear, um, these disciples, all of them were likely not married. Peter, I think most likely was a widower. He does seem to have a mother-in-law, but we see no evidence of a spouse anywhere in the writings of scripture. So you can go if you get bored in this sermon and go Google that and see what you find. They didn't have competing loyalties. So if I have to choose my brother in arms over my family, who am I gonna choose my family? But these guys, they don't have this competing loyalty. They have Jesus and each other. And, and when Jesus chose them and called them, he didn't call them just to a normal spiritual team, again, he called them to the most important team of spiritual leaders ever, ever assembled in the history of the world.
Speaker 1 00:13:40 Verse 14, Jesus clarifies this spiritual friendship. He says, you are my friends. If you do what I command you. And what is Jesus commanding them? Love one another so sincerely that you would die for one another in verse 15. No longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I've called you friends for all that I have heard from my father. I have made known to you. So how do you, how do you know you're not just a slave to God? First Jesus says it to them, I'm, I'm, I'm keeping no secrets from you. Look, not not like a boss to an employee who only tells 'em the things they need to tell them so that the job is done literally everything I know disciples, I am sharing it with you. I am bringing you into the inner most parts of the working.
Speaker 1 00:14:32 I'm everything the father tells me. I just give it right to you. There's no secrets between us. How do you know you aren't just God's slaves? Secondly, Jesus says to them, I will literally die for you. Okay, employers, managers, bosses, how many of you will die for your employee? No one. Not unless it's your son, your spouse, a family member, blood, or it is your best friend in the entire world where you go back years and years or decades bound together through turmo, turmo heartache, right? And here's what Jesus says. Like, yeah, you, you gotta understand, you gotta change your brain here. You're not my slaves. We are brothers. God is our father. We are in this thing together. Slaves, they're not teammates. Slaves don't have a voice. Slaves are money, not brothers. No one will die for their slave. Master your brother. That's a different thing.
Speaker 1 00:15:28 Verse 16, he digs deeper. He says, you didn't choose me. I chose you and I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. Go to last week's sermon if you wanna go deeper there. But he says so that whatever you ask in the father's name, he may give it to you. And then verse 17, these things I command you so that you agape one another. Okay? Jesus, I got it. Love each other so sincerely that we would die for each other. But why? Why all this talk of death and love? Listen, when you're on a team that is united, you typically can't imagine a scenario that would break your team up. These guys so far have faced derision, slander, threats. They've only lost one of the 12 in the process. I mean this team of 11 is solid and they are tight. But these boys have never faced death. They have never been put into a position where they have had to choose the team or their own life.
Speaker 1 00:16:44 And there is no greater test of friendship and sacrificial agape love than when you have to choose your own joy, happiness, or life for the sake of the friendship or for the sake of the team. Listen to what Jesus says next in verse 18. If the world hates you <laugh>, know that it has hated me before it hated you. Okay? You're used to this. Here's how I think they might have responded. If, okay, Jesus, is that a possibility? We get the Pharisees don't like us. Got that the world, that's a big group of people. So you're telling me that it's highly possible. All the people in the world who aren't on team Jesus very well may hate us. He's prepping them, isn't he? In verse 19, Jesus gets really logical, and I, I love this. He says, if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own basic logic, right?
Speaker 1 00:17:50 But because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Okay, Jesus, I'm listening. Carry on. Okay. Remember the word in verse 20 that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. Yes, we remember that. Okay, let me apply this. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And verse 21, he says, but all these things they might, nope. But all these things they will do to you. If they're on team Jesus, you're good. If they're on team world, watch out. Because the way they treat me, if you affiliate with me, you are next. If they persecute me, they're gonna persecute you. Whatever they do to me, just wait. Your day is coming. So verse 21, there's more all the things they will do to you on account of my name, because they don't know him who sent me.
Speaker 1 00:19:08 Uh, I wanna go back to well forward, technically back in the sermon, but forward to John 16, verse two. I want you to just remember what he told them just a few verses later. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hours coming, when whoever kills you will think he is offering a sack or a service to God. And here's what he's telling these, these young men, don't be surprised when you threaten the world's idols that they come after you when you threaten the kingdom of darkness. When you begin to take ground and bear spiritual fruit, don't be surprised. This is the nature of the spiritual war that we're in. If you're gonna jump on a spiritual team and you want to bear spiritual fruit, just be aware of the process that's going to happen next. It. It's actually not a bad thing.
Speaker 1 00:19:56 It's actually a good thing. It's a sign that something positive in the spiritual realm is actually happening. Don't be surprised in John 1522, Jesus says, if if I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin and specifically the sin of murdering him. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates my father, whoever hates me, hates my father. Also. Here's what's interesting. Jesus was silent on controversial subjects for how many years? 30 of 'em He flew under the radar. Why It wasn't his time. Did people know that he was a devout Jew? Yep, he was respected and he was happy. Why? Because he didn't say anything. Have you guys ever noticed your life is more peaceful when you don't say controversial things?
Speaker 1 00:21:00 Jesus was beloved until his teaching and his miracles exposed what the devil was up to inside of the religious elites. And then how that trickled down to the masses, you and your spiritual team, you are safe until you dabble into the devil's territory. Until you start to take ground, you're fine. But the moment your team, it's a little too fruitful, a little too invasive watch. And for Jesus, the last three years they've culminated to this moment in John 15, he is prepping them. It's coming to an end. It's gonna be their turn. And the world of the disciples are learning a really important lesson. The world can be your friend if you never speak up.
Speaker 1 00:22:02 But God proves to be your friend if you speak when the moment arises. Jesus doubles down on this point in verse 24. He said, if I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, the sin of murdering him. But now they have seen and hated both me and my father. Most of the world won't hate you because you're a Christian. I think you've seen this by now. That's, that's not what makes the world hate you. Believing in your head and your heart that Jesus is God and that he died for your sins and was raised from the dead. Having that moment with Christ where you ask him to save you, that's not what is gonna make the world hate you. They will hate you when you stand between them and their idol. Being pro-life won't make you an enemy of the world.
Speaker 1 00:23:01 But when you defend the unborn, when you use your voice, having a biblical worldview won't make your non-Christian friends abandon you. But when you live your biblical worldview, even when you are kind and generous and gracious living it now that's a different story. Most, most Christians learn in essential survival technique. If I don't speak, I'm safe. You know this, right? And I wanna also be clear. Jesus waited 30 years to speak. There's a time, there's a place, there is wisdom for three years. Do you think Jesus called everything out all the time? If you're that person, God help you. There is wisdom and discretion. My guess is that Jesus said about 0.01% of the actual thoughts he had about other people's behavior. And and you'll notice the vast majority of discussions that Jesus has, they come to him interesting the most Christians, we learn to survive. And here's the deal. You will know when it's your time to say something. And many of us right now are thinking, oh, I've already, I've already failed that test. Right? I'm so thankful for the blood of Christ. I'm thankful for the story of Peter who failed miserably. And Jesus went right back to him and said, get up. Let's do this again.
Speaker 1 00:24:34 One of the challenges though is that, is that as the world does get darker, it gets harder and harder and harder to remain quiet and give God glory. So Jesus anticipates a question that's gotta be on their hearts. Okay, Jesus, why go through all this? This feels like really unnecessary. Why do you have to provoke everybody? Why do you have to die? And why do we have to die just because we're affiliated with you? And verse 25, he gives them the answer. He says, but the word that is written and their law must be fulfilled. They hated me without a cause. Jesus answers to their question. I I don't know if I was one of the 12 and I heard this, I'd be like, well then why did you prophesy that <laugh>? His answer is this, the prophecies require that the Messiah be hated without a cause.
Speaker 1 00:25:21 That's like the job. And I'm so sorry, but you're collateral damage because if you affiliate with me, then you get the, you get the hatred too. So, so sorry. But this is a prophetic, prophetic requirement. It's like he anticipates the response and the response is, is seems to be like, how can, how can we possibly do this? How can we possibly, possibly put other people's lives above our own? How can we rise to this mission? How can we actually be a spiritual team that loves with the kind of agape love that you are talking about? This feels utterly impossible. And I imagine Jesus might say, because it is, and that's why you need the Holy Spirit. Verse 26, when the helper comes, by the way, who's the helper? Holy Spirit, whom I send to you from the Father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
Speaker 1 00:26:12 And you also will bear witness about me because you have been with me from the beginning, the hatred and the violence that you are about to endure. Because if your affiliation with me, it will be doable for you. Not because you're strong, but because I am going to give you the Holy Spirit. Now, just wait on that discussion in the next two weeks, uh, next week we're gonna start a multi-week teaching on the Holy Spirit from John 14, 15, 16, and 17. So we're gonna punt all of that till then. There's so many sermons, I'm just gonna just wait.
Speaker 1 00:26:47 But in order to survive, you need three things. Number one, your soul needs to abide in Jesus. That was last week's message. Number two, you have to sacrificially love your spiritual teammates. Number three, you need the Holy Spirit. All three the moment, leadership, spiritual teams, the Christian life. The moment it gets remotely hard, when the world and you kind of come face to face, you have to be connected to the vine. You have to be on the same page with your brothers and sisters. And you have to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I'll give you a few. So whats number one? The darker our world gets, the harder mu, we must work for loving unity. Jesus gets something that very few understand, but I think Christians uniquely get this. United loving and courageous teams are unbreak, unbreakable, united, loving, and courageous. Elder boards are unbreakable, united, loving and courageous.
Speaker 1 00:27:54 Small groups, they're unbreakable, united, loving and courageous. Churches are unbreakable. Do you think that the evil one likes anything happening in this church or any other church that preaches the word, preaches the gospel and has any semblance of like love amongst each other? Do you think he enjoys this in any way, shape, or form? Like I always wonder in the spiritual realm, are they just like demons sitting there, uh, at the edge of our property, being protected by the Holy Spirit in the angelic realm, wanting to get into this room and just mess with you here, hates everything about what happens in this place and in churches all over the world, hates it with a holy passion. But our love, our unity, our courage, it makes us unbreakable. The darker world gets the harder we have to fight for loving unity. And the moment the agendas of the demonic realm or the world are threatened, the moment you start to bear spiritual fruit, personally as a team, as a church, this is just what to expect.
Speaker 1 00:28:58 And by the way, I dunno if anybody's ever taught you this, but there's a pattern to how they do it. It's always the same for 2000 years. It has never shifted. Here's the pattern. Number one, you go after the leader or the leaders and it's the leader's privilege to pray and to protect, to be a barrier, to be a garden. That that's what happens when you're a mom and dad, right? It's your privilege to protect your children. It's what happens when you're an elder or you're a deacon or you're a spiritual leader or a team leader. Like it is your joy and privilege to pray and protect the people on your team. It is awesome. It is wonderful. There is no victim in that. We walk into this joyfully called by God to love, serve, and protect. And we have leaders of teams all over this church that are standing as guardians over their teams.
Speaker 1 00:29:47 But after they go to the leader, then they go to the team. And the team's job is to fight for unity. Not unity just for the sake of unity, but unity rooted in love and truth. Healthy teams don't ignore sin. They don't ignore the obvious things. What we do is we fight for loving unity together. But then what happens after you go from the leader or the leaders, you go to the team next and then ultimately they go to the flock and they try to pick people off one by one. Because if you have a united leadership team, you have a united teams around the church, all they can do is pick off individuals. That's all they've got. And they will take whatever they can get, which is why individually you abiding personally in Jesus, connected to the vine, thriving spiritually as a part of a a, a spiritual community here at the church is vital.
Speaker 1 00:30:38 Because when we're not living abiding in Christ, we are vulnerable. And so we have this, this pattern, it's so easy to see and it's always been the same discredit through slander, induce fear through threats, and then silence people through violence. That's the process. Start with the leader. Slander, threats, fear, violence. Then you go to the team, slander, threats, violence, and then you go to the people, slander, threats, violence. It's always the same. So watch for it. And, and, and here's the reality, the vast majority, once you know what to look for, you're probably gonna step back. And throughout the next 24 hours, you're gonna think to yourself, I have actually been on the receiving end of demonic attack because of the unity and love that I have on a team at church or in the past. It's gonna start to make sense. But here's the second.
Speaker 1 00:31:32 Say what? Be an incredible spiritual teammate. Amen. Amen. Just let me measure this. Uh, I, I found that in spiritual communities and spiritual teams, there are three things that make for an incredible teammate, I wanna do all these. I work on these. Nobody is perfect, right? But like, if we can aspire to these, if this can be a trajectory in all of our lives, as we're on teams, praise God, three essential teammate qualities, they easily welcome feedback. Amen. Amen. Some of you are like, I can't tell that person the truth. Each teammate must have the ability to receive and welcome hard feedback. Uh, in the Bible they call this humility.
Speaker 1 00:32:24 I found that the best teammates, they just, they don't just receive it well, but on a semi-regular basis, invite feedback on purpose. Quality. Number two, they take extreme ownership. No excuses, mistakes happen all the time, right? And sometimes there's like context, well, you gotta understand this and that's good. But really at the end of the day, this principle of extreme ownership is so valuable. Even, even if the problem was 1% you and 99% someone or something else, we take that 1% and we own it 100%. And we say, whatever my part was, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take responsibility for me. Huge. Number three, they sacrificially love overall give more than you receive. And what you give is the overflow of what God is doing in your own heart because you are abiding all the fruit from the branch, right? Ultimately is being sourced by the vine.
Speaker 1 00:33:34 And when the vine has more than it needs, is able to bear fruit. And this is what we do. We give out of the abundance of what God is doing in our own heart and life, which is why we're spiritual burnout is when we're giving more than we're getting from the vine. And so what we need to make sure is that we, we are getting enough from the vine and then we are pouring out and loving sacrificially and Ps, this is also a great recipe. Devi a great marriage. Try it. <laugh>, my wife's probably thinking you try it <laugh> working on it.
Speaker 1 00:34:09 Are you on one or more teams pursuing spiritual goals? What you're doing is sacred. Take ground from the evil one. Stand together, not in falsehood, but in loving unity. Fight for it. Be an incredible teammate. Be unified as teams, as friends, as small groups fight for it. And there's nothing the devil can do other than maybe pick off a straggler or two who refuses to connect their soul to the fine. And here, here's what I know. If you wanna be a part of any team that bears fruit, this is just standard operating procedure, welcome it. And I always say, whenever there's attack, I'm like, good job. You got attacked. That's awesome. As you're doing something right? Keep it up a fight for unity. It's beautiful. So what number three, let's, let's confirm individually what team are you on? And the way Jesus describes the world is simply this.
Speaker 1 00:35:13 You are on team Jesus or team world and there really is no in between. A lot of us are like kind of maybe processing, am I gonna become a Christian? What do I think about Jesus? But I wanna be really clear, you're either on team Jesus or you're not. Now the process of considering team Jesus is an admirable good right process, but you're not on the team until you're on the team. And, and what I love, I love, I'm so happy to be a Christian for multiple reasons. One of them is entrance to the team is not by trying out <laugh> praise God. Because there'd be one person on the team and it'd be Jesus. And that would be it. <laugh>
Speaker 1 00:36:05 Entrance to the team is only ever in one way. And it is through personally, individually asking God for forgiveness and entrance outta the team, believing in Jesus Christ. And so this is, this is how you do it. Do you believe that Jesus is your God? Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins and was raised from the dead? Okay, great. Even the demons believe in that. And shutter have you personally come to him and said, I'm sorry, forgive me. I believe save me. There's not like a mantra you have to say, but that's the fundamental principle. And that moment that you personally, individually trust in Christ, that is the day you become his teammate. That is the day you become a Christian, saved, forgiven, justified, redeemed, confident, hope that when you die, you will be with him forever. It has never been entrance to the team, has never ever been about being good enough cuz nobody can do it.
Speaker 1 00:37:06 It is about personally, individually believing in Jesus. And so if you have believed in Jesus, you are secure. You are on team Jesus. As much as you struggle in sin or struggle with sin in this world, and as much as you have failed, your salvation is secure. If you truly trusted in Christ. But if you haven't personally made that, you're not yet on the team. And Jesus, if he were here, he would look at you in the eyes and he would plead with you. Trust me, today is the day of salvation. Anybody, no matter how wicked or evil you have been, the blood of Christ can cover your sins once for all forever. Today, will you believe in me? Will you trust me? And if you've never individually made that decision, I think today is the best day to do it. And tell somebody you came with I, I I I know that I need to personally trust in Christ.
Speaker 1 00:37:59 They would love to support you, champion you, anybody you see up front. We would love to just encourage you, pray with you, and help you take your next steps as you walk with the Lord. What an incredible privilege to go from being a part of the world to being called a son or daughter of God through faith in Jesus on team Jesus wants for all forever. Amen. Let's pray together. Father love you. I can. I can only imagine the weight of the disciples emotionally as they are processing this entire teaching from Jesus. And not just coming to grips with Jesus's death, but their own inevitable deaths and feeling probably inadequate to rise to the occasion. And I'm grateful, God, that you did not abandon them even when you ascended to heaven. You left them with the spirit of Christ, the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1 00:38:48 And so God, I am thankful that all of us in this room, even as we feel inadequate for the possibilities of what may happen, Lord, we have the example of brothers and sisters all over the world and throughout history who faced unthinkable difficult circumstances. And because of the power of the Holy Spirit, they were able to rise above the fear and they were able to live and even die for Christ as Lord. We all confessed to you that our lives are easy. It is so easy to be a Christian in America, generally speaking compared to the rest of the world. Um, but God, I pray you would build in us deeper trust, faith in you and God that you would grow our love. Lord, I know that the, the evil one hates this church. And, and I think of churches all over the world. I think of some of my brothers who are pastors in their churches and how much the evil one hates them.
Speaker 1 00:39:40 And just, I do pray that there would be not just protection from your spirit, but Lord, you would also protect us from ourselves. Um, God that you would continue to rise up inside of us, a love and affection for one another, rooted in unity and truth as we collectively connect to the vine who is Jesus. And so God, we love you and uh, thank you for not abandoning us. Thank you for your patience with us. Thank you as we struggle through all of this to figure it out. You've been so good to us. We love you and we pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen will church. Amen.
