Transcribed by Beluga AI.
Let’s read John 15. We’ll pray and get started. John 15:4-8.
John 15:4. Abide in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, 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. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, 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. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
4 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. 5 I am the vine; 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. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15:4-8, ESV)
Okay, let’s pray. Father, we gather in your presence at different points of our spiritual journey. We ask that you would send the Holy Spirit, that you would soften hearts. We invite your presence. This is your house. It’s a house of prayer. We pray that you meet us. We do our part.
We open up our hearts wide as you knock on the door every moment of every day. We pray that we would do our part and open up our hearts wide and meet you. We pray that you come and visit with us and speak to us.
We’re sheep who are desperate to hear the Shepherd’s voice. We pray that you would have your way in this time. We surrender and give you this time. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
We’ve been talking about discipleship. How can you tell a true disciple from a false disciple? Based on the verses that I just read. And this is not rhetorical. We can. We’re small enough. We can ask some questions and get some answers.
So what? How can you tell a true disciple from a false one? The fruit. Yes. That is straight out of verse eight. It says, by this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15:8, ESV)
And whose fruit is it? Another question. I just want to ask everybody. Whose fruit is it? Anybody? This is not meant to be too hard. Is it the vine’s fruit? It’s Jesus’s fruit. It’s Jesus’s fruit. The fruit of Jesus.
It says in verse 4, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides or remains in the vine, neither can you unless you abide or remain in me. I am the vine, 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.
4 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. 5 I am the vine; 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. (John 15:4-5, ESV)
So Jesus is the fruit. The fruit comes from the vine. The vine is the source of fruit, the source of life. Like if you see a branch broken and on the side of the road, you know the moment it breaks, it is dying. And you just give it a few days, you give it a week, a few weeks.
That branch that sits by the side of the road next to the tree, although the tree is thriving, this branch, because it’s no longer connected to the tree, it is on its way toward death. And Jesus uses this metaphor and says, for the disciple, you need to remain in me and receive my fruit, my life. I am your source.
And what are the consequences for those who fail to remain or abide in Jesus? And because they don’t abide in Jesus, they don’t bear fruit. What are the consequences for such people? From the text, you’re going to die. And it says in verse six, you’re going to be thrown away like a branch and withers.
And the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. The consequences of not abiding in Jesus and therefore not bearing the fruit that comes from Jesus are severe. And I just want to clarify.
People say, well, I believe in Jesus, but belief in Jesus by itself, if you look at passages like this, belief or doctrinal understanding of who he is as a Son of God, that alone, in a sense, doesn’t save you, because there is a big range of believers.
There are believers who say, I believe in him because I got baptized, I shed a tear, and it happened 30 years ago, and therefore it’s a done deal, I’m fine. And they just live out their life and they don’t cause too many problems.
But that’s the extent of their knowledge of Jesus. I did something. I committed my life to him. He met me once, and it was a long time ago. I’ve been attending church ever since. A lot of people, they give themselves this kind of assurance that because that happened and I got baptized, therefore I’m good.
But I would say to such people, where’s the fruit? Where is the fruit, the fruit that comes from Jesus that He guarantees to all disciples who abide in the vine, where is the fruit? Whose fruit is it?
It’s the fruit of Jesus. And so I want to ask, what kind of fruit is it? Is it internal or external? Who thinks it’s internal? Raise your hand. Okay. A handful. Who thinks it’s external, raise your hand. Okay.
And I saw some people raise their hand twice, which is very safe answer, I think. Yeah, I’m thinking about it one more time, actually. Both are right. Both are right. But I would say if you’re going to focus on one of them, it has to be internal first. It has to be internal first.
Says in John 15, this is not a verse that we read a little bit lower down in verse 16. It says, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide or remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (John 15:16-17, ESV)
And so some people in their college years, they’re really zealous for the Lord, but over time, that zeal cools off. And looking at this text, maybe they actually bore fruit in the first few years of walking with Jesus. But as life got busy, as they got married, as they had family, as they had bills, they had grandkids, they had health emergencies along the way, the once closely walking with Jesus grows distant more and more and more.
And the fruit that used to be there 30 years ago, now you see that person, where’s the fruit? The fruit actually did not remain. And he says, go and bear fruit. And so when, if you’ve been attending church for a while, we might think this is external fruit, especially if you hear Paul being preached on Sundays.
Paul, if you think about Paul, he is a minister, he is a missionary, he’s a church planter. And so if you read his letters, and pastors love to read from his letters because they’re trying to imitate the same success that Paul enjoyed in his ministry. And so if we’re, if we’re not careful, we might think primarily he says, go and bear fruit.
And so we should go and externally bear fruit of salvation and baptisms and mission trips and church planting. And that could be the focus. But if you think about the person who wrote this letter, Apostle John, you don’t think of John in that way. You don’t think of John as a church planter. He actually doesn’t talk about the ministry he did. All you know about him is that he’s close to Jesus.
Jesus tells him secrets that none of the other disciples knew. Jesus entrusted his own mother to this man. And this is the final apostle. While everybody was martyred, he’s the last one to stand. And on Patmos Island, the revelation of Christ was given to him that we have at the end of our Bibles.
So John, if you think about John, I think primarily what John is talking about here is internal fruit. And he has it in large, large measure internally. Of course, it expresses itself externally. He has people that he writes to in 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John. But you don’t think of John as a ministry machine, as a church planter.
You see John as somebody who is just close in his heart to Jesus, who really loved Jesus, and he bore internal fruit primarily and also external fruit secondarily.
And so now we, now we ask who, like, what is this fruit of Jesus that is being mentioned here? Matthew 11:29. Jesus invites all people, especially disciples. Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:29, ESV)
And so if you’re interacting with a Christian who is close to Jesus, who is interacting with Jesus, who is learning from Jesus, you should see the qualities of Jesus.
Jesus says, I am gentle. Does that characterize the Christians that you know? Does that characterize the pastors that you know? Are they gentle? Are they lowly in heart, or are they proud?
It’s like an oxymoron. How can you be a proud pastor? How. How can this be that you’re proud and you look down on people and you. And you’re harsh with people in your congregation because you’ve been given a position. It is so opposite of somebody who is regularly abiding in Christ, learning from Jesus.
If you learn from him, he will say, this is my fruit. Now, why don’t you, why don’t you grow in these areas? Humility and gentleness.
Another list we could look to is Galatians 5:22. The fruit of the Spirit and the Spirit is the Holy Spirit, of course. But another way to say it, this is the same Spirit of Jesus because the Holy Spirit points to Jesus Christ and he bears this same fruit by this spirit. Galatians 5:22.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23, ESV)
This is the fruit that we are to bear, and we are to take with us as we go out into this world and make disciples.
What happens if you focus on external fruit and you neglect the internal fruit? What happens? Well, we go out there with the opposite, the Spirit. We go out in our flesh.
It says in John 15:12, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. (John 15:12-14, ESV)
So we, as ministers of the gospel, as people who go out to try to demonstrate fruit and to perhaps be used by God to acquire in the kingdom external fruit for God’s glory, do it in the manner that Jesus did it for us. And it says, as I have loved you, now go and love one another.
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. (John 13:34, ESV)
This love is patient, this love is long suffering. This love has a long fuse. This love is gentle. This love is sacrificial. This love is not heavy-handed, is not manipulative, is not burdensome for the person receiving it, as if they owe you something.
It’s the way Jesus loved you with no strings attached. And he says, it’s up to you. Will you love me in return? Will you follow me in return? And now, as you learn from me, now share this love with the world in gratitude for the love that I show you is as I have loved, as Jesus has loved us.
This is how we love others. If we don’t focus on internal fruit and we just go out in our flesh, then what happens?
It mentions it in the same passage that mentions the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:18. But if you’re led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:18-21, ESV)
So if we don’t focus on external fruit and we go out supposedly as a representative of God, but it’s in our own flesh, what we will give the people is not love. We’re going to give them a heart that always has strife in us and envy in us.
And when you love like that, unfortunately, it is heavy; it is burdensome on the receiving end. It’s like you, Lord over this person, and you say, you owe me your life. And it is so unlike the love of our Heavenly Father expressed through Christ.
So I would say we must deal with the heart. We must examine, is there fruit? Because if we start ministering out of the flesh, we’re going to possibly forfeit our own soul as we’re busy doing things for other people.
So the application here is: how do we learn to abide in Jesus so that, over time, we bear more and more internal fruit, so that we can grow into a more loving person that may experience some external fruit along the way? And all of this is not for that person’s personal glory, but for the glory of God. Let me repeat.
How do we learn to abide in Jesus so that over time we bear more and more of this internal fruit along the way, obtaining some external fruit of ministry, growing into a more loving person for the glory of God?
I mentioned the seven signs that Jesus performed. And now I was looking at that list again. Because John, the Gospel of John, was written after the three other gospels. And so John has a very particular reason why he’s handpicking these seven signs out of thousands upon thousands of things that he witnessed in Jesus’s earthly ministry.
He said, I saw so much that all the world’s books could not contain it. But he’s handpicking these seven. And the first one, the water to wine, a promise of transformation. The last promise, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, promise of eternal life.
And then in between, the five warnings of things that may derail us from these very promises. But I looked at this list again, and I realized there are times when Jesus comes to us as he did to the paralytic at Bethesda, who was a sinner, who looked to the pool of water as if this would cure him of his main problem, which was not the paralysis. It was his sin.
And if you remember, when you were in sin before you knew Jesus, likely you did not come to him, but he came to you. Because a sinner in rebellion toward God would not come to Jesus. Jesus has to come looking for you as he did for all of us. So there are times when Jesus comes to us.
Also, the walking on water. John 6. The disciples were in a boat during a storm, and they were panicking and they did not think to look to Jesus because they were so stressed. And there are times in our life we’re so stressed, we’re so overcome by this situation. But Jesus comes to us in that stressful situation. That is his kindness, that he does that to calm the storms and remove the fears.
To the man born blind, there is no way a blind man would ever find his way to Jesus. So Jesus came looking for him, found him, healed him of physical blindness. And then, as a secondary encounter, he cured him of his spiritual blindness. So there are times when Jesus comes to us, but there are many, many times that as a disciple of Jesus, we must learn and be trained to go to Jesus.
The wedding at Cana. The water runs out. In this story, when this emergency happens, what does Mary, the mother of Jesus, do? She brings the situation to Jesus. That is somebody praying to Jesus, bringing the situation to Jesus. That is what trains a person to start abiding in Christ.
What about the royal official’s son in Capernaum? The son was at the point of death. So this loved one was dying. And what does he do? Instead of panicking, instead of going to other earthly solutions, he brings his son’s situation to Jesus. And Jesus takes care of it.
He is learning how to abide in Christ through the crisis with a loved one. What about the feeding of the 5,000? The crowd is looking for Jesus. And even though it was with the wrong intention, they just wanted their bellies to be full.
Still, aren’t there times that we come to Jesus and it’s with a mixed motive, but that’s better in some sense than not going to Jesus at all. Because as you come to Jesus, even with a wrong heart in that encounter, he can start correcting that heart. The key is the crowd and all of us. Let’s keep going to Jesus.
What about the raising of Lazarus? Lazarus was ill. Martha and Mary, the siblings of Lazarus, they bring the situation to Jesus.
Where do we learn to abide in Christ? It is through the school called life. Everything you face in life is an opportunity for you to run to Jesus and to learn to abide in him and remain with Him. He has to be the first person you turn to in a crisis.
He has to be the first person you turn to during a storm when your loved one is sick. He has to be the first person you turn to when you are blind and lost. He has to be the first person you turn to when you’re sick and paralyzed beside a pool of water. He has to be the first person you turn to.
Life will teach you how to remain in Christ. If you understand that all of this is training to be a disciple. Often the crisis takes over and we don’t go to Jesus.
And then maybe after things calm down, after a week, two weeks, a month. Oh, I guess I should pray. He wasn’t the first person you went to. My encouragement to you is, let’s bring everything to Jesus. Let’s bring everything to Jesus.
Luke 7 talks about John the Baptist, whom Jesus called the greatest man who ever lived. And he had a ministry of preparing the way for Jesus, as we’ve been talking about in the early chapters of John. And John had a difficult ministry, but he did it well.
Jesus said earlier he is a burning and a shining lamp. He’s pointing people to Jesus. There’s a fire that’s burning within him, and he is faithful to his assignment. But at the end, he stumbles a little bit. He calls out the king, Herod, for marrying his brother’s wife. He says that’s unlawful. He calls out the sin.
You know, sometimes we think, well, politics, we should keep out of the pulpit. That’s a very political thing that John the Baptist did, calling out the king.
So I’m not sure, maybe at some time we need to call out presidents and world leaders for sinning, because that is what Jesus did. Why did the whole world hate Jesus? Because he called out the sins that he saw in the world.
He’s not trying to be popular on Instagram. He’s calling out sin. And therefore, because he’s saying the wicked works of this world are wicked, therefore the world hates him. And John the Baptist, because he called out King Herod. What did King Herod do? He threw him into prison.
And John is about to be beheaded and executed. And so John the Baptist is discouraged. He tells two of his disciples, can you go to Jesus? And he asks this one question, are you really the one?
Like this burning and shining lamp, the person that Jesus said is greater than any man who ever lived, to this man, he’s wavering and he has some doubt. And he asks his disciples to ask Jesus, are you the one? Are you the one that I’m going to turn to in this crisis?
And Jesus says to the disciples of John the Baptist, go back and say, tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them, and blessed is the one who is not offended by me.
22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. 23 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Luke 7:22-23, ESV)
There are a lot of things that are going to happen in the life of a disciple of Christ that are going to be confusing. There are going to be maddening, are they going to be frustrating, are going to be tempt you to throw in the towel.
And during these seasons that you will hear the accuser’s voice, he will tell you God is not for you. God is against you. Just give up. Just curse him and die. Like, like Job’s wife, just curse him and die.
You are suffering. God is not for you. He just, just, just throw in the towel. you’re going to hear the accuser’s voice during seasons of difficulty.
And Jesus says, blessed is the one who is not offended by me. So in those times when you’re tempted to be offended, tempted to throw in a towel, remember this verse and run to Jesus with your doubts, with your confusion. Run to Jesus.
And I know John the Baptist, after he heard this, his faith started to rise again. So we’re going to have moments where we stumble, we waver a little bit, but what matters is how you end your life. You could, you could mess up 99% of your life like the thief on the cross.
I don’t recommend this. He cut it really close. I don’t recommend living like that because tomorrow is not guaranteed. But the amazing thing, if you’re the 11th hour worker, you still get the same wages as the one who signed up at the beginning. If you repent and put your faith in Christ in your final hour and you live like a scale scoundrel all of your days, there’s still salvation waiting for you. So what matters is not how we start, but how we finish.
That is the guarantee and the assurance that you will be with Jesus in heaven. That on your last breath you confess him as your Lord. You run to him in the crisis. On your last breath you say, Jesus, I am for you.
But for all of us here who are already on the journey, we have the rest of our lives to prove to ourselves and to the world that you are a disciple of Christ. How do we prove it? We prove it by the fruit. How do we get this fruit? By running to Jesus.
Whose fruit is it? It is Jesus’ fruit. You run to him in every crisis that seeks to topple you. And Satan is tempting you. He wants you to give up. But we say no, I’m not offended by the situation. I know who the source is. I know where I need to go. I’m going to run to Jesus. I’m going to seek him.
And the secret. One of my personal favorite Scripture verses in all of Scripture is Matthew 11:25-30. And I’ll end with this. At that time Jesus declared. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and reveal them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father. And no one knows the Son except the Father. And no one knows the Father except the Son. And anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26 yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:25-30, ESV)
Even people who’ve attended church their whole lives, the truth of this Scripture is still hidden from many people’s eyes. This is not just a passage about salvation; this is a passage about discipleship.
Because I know that before I was a Christian, yes, my eyes were blind. November 1993. As a second year on a college campus, I came to faith in Christ and I gave him all of my burdens. But it doesn’t stop there. As I live out my Christian journey for the last 30 plus years, I’ve had opportunities to test.
Am I going to give him my burdens today in this situation? Am I going to give him my doubts today that I’m having a rough day? Am I going to run to him today? Or am I going to rely on myself, rely on other people, rely on doctors and friends and my money and solutions, earthly solutions?
It’s my testimony that I, after the first few years of my spiritual life, when I actually saw fruit, after the first few years, for about 20 years, I focused on external fruit, and spiritually I got lost.
And then I became a full-time minister, and I was still very much lost because I thought I needed to focus on external things while the internal things remained. I still had ambitions, and it was my ambitions. It’s not up to me to say what kind of church or what kind of ministry impact in this world I’m going to have.
But I already had it planned out. I’m going to plant churches, we’re going to do missions. I even told people in the early years, this is my plan, this is my vision for this place.
And it’s like, who am I? Did God tell me that? Or is that just coming from my own voice, my own ambition? And by focusing on external fruit, neglecting the internal fruit, I got lost. But God in his mercy, for the last 10 years or so, he’s starting to rewrite the priorities and he’s bringing me back to the beginning.
Remember the beginning when you just loved me? Remember when you just ran to me between classes? Remember those sweet times when you could not get enough of my word? Remember how you. It’s like a four-hour prayer meeting. But I did it. It’s like, that’s nothing. Yeah, four hours I can be in God’s presence. Four hours. I did that.
Now it’s like 15 minutes. I’m falling asleep. It’s like, what happened? I know I’m getting older, so I’m a little more fatigued at the end of a night, but still, it’s like, what happened to that love that I had for Jesus in the beginning?
And I did a lot of external things. I did evangelize, but it’s not because someone told me; it was just coming overflow. And then things after time, like in a marriage, very like strong emotions in the beginning, it gets cooled off, and then we’ve been married 25 years.
Jackie’s my best friend, but it’s not like the first year—up and down, butterflies, drama, and just slamming of doors. It was not pleasant, but exciting at the same time.
As we become Christian, it becomes the Word of God. Jesus becomes so familiar. You used to run to him because you didn’t know any better. But now you’re wise in your own eyes, and you have a lot of solutions, a lot of securities around you, a lot of people you can turn to rely upon.
Your bank accounts kind of filled up, so you’re not really stressed like you did when you were a poor college student, when you didn’t even know was someone going to give me a job.
And my encouragement to you is bring all of the situations in your life to Jesus. Bring your burdens to him, your heaviness to him, your disappointments to him, your doubts to him. Your difficulties, crises, the loved ones, the questions, the confusions, the doubts. your own sins, your own character flaws, your personality disorder. Bring all of who you are to Jesus.
You surrender and repent in his presence, and you just stay close to Him. Through life, you’re being trained to be close rather than being trained to be distant.
We want to be a people who are close to Jesus, like a branch. Even if you’re one inch away from the vine, there’s no life flowing into that branch. You have to be connected. You have to stay connected. That life has to flow in.
If you stay connected, you break off. You stay connected, you break off. There’s not going to be much fruit, but through all of life, the school of life, you get trained. I should run to Jesus. That branch stays connected long enough for fruit to start to flow in.
I pray that we can practice Matthew 11 every single day of your life so that you learn to depend on Him. Okay, let’s pray.
Father, we thank you for your message today. We thank you for your invitation that as disciples of Jesus, you invite us to be a branch that is grafted in and connected and stay connected to the vine.
Forgive us for so easily breaking off, for so easily wandering off, for so easily thinking that we have life in ourselves. We have answers in ourselves. We run to all the wrong sources, and you’re standing right beside us. You never leave nor forsake us. And we just look past you. We ignore you.
And we look back on 10, 20, 30 plus years. Where’s the fruit? Where’s the fruit? I pray starting today, we can know where the source of the fruit is. It is not our fruit. It is your fruit.
You are the source of life, Jesus. And so we run to you. We bring you all of our burdens, all of our heaviness. Like John the Baptist, all of our doubts, all of our confusion. Like the official whose son was dying. Like Martha and Mary. We bring our loved ones to you. All the emergencies in our families, we bring them to you.
You’re inviting us to exchange all the heaviness for a light burden. you’re inviting us to stay yoked to you. Stay close to you. Even one inch apart is too far.
We need to stay connected throughout the day. Lord, teach us how to stay connected. We can just pray to you throughout the day. Help me, Lord Jesus. Help me, Lord Jesus. Meet me, Lord Jesus. Help this situation, Lord Jesus. Help my loved one, Lord Jesus.
You can invite us to live life completely differently through Matthew 11. Thank you that you’re starting to open up eyes and ears and giving us understanding. Lord, forgive us for our pride. We read these very verses we didn’t understand. It applied for believers and disciples.
You’re teaching us how to do life. Train us through the school of life to stay close to you. To bring every situation and leave them at your feet. To trust you for everything. Thank you. Lord, be with us. Thank you for Your Body that was broken for us and your blood that was shed. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.