[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: As I was preparing for this message this week, a certain phrase came to mind. And you've seen it, I'm sure, on the title of this message, Guide, Guard, and Direct us. But what it did is it brought me back to a lot of phrases that I heard when I was growing up in the 80s in church, and I thought that you might appreciate some of those as well. There are things that I don't know how they came to be and how they became such a part of our dialogue. Maybe a sweet brother uttered a beautiful prayer and it was so poetic that someone said, ooh, that's good. And they started to say it over and over, and then other people caught on and it just started like that. I don't know, it was like a wildfire. But, you know, maybe you can think of some that, as I share with you, a few that I thought of and I was preparing for this. Like, the first one is a ready recollection.
Y' all know what I'm talking about, right?
We pray for a ready recollection for the preacher. Now, I didn't know exactly what that meant growing up.
I certainly didn't say it necessarily, but I heard that all the time in prayers, and I think I found out what it means. Please don't let the preacher ramble on and on. I think that's what that means, right? Make sure he's ready, prepared, and remembers all those things. And, you know, now that I'm preaching, I can identify with that a little bit more.
What about pray for those who have been providentially hindered?
Y' all remember hearing that growing up? I heard that a lot in the church that I was growing up in, and it was one of those things that I didn't necessarily understand it. But I think as time has gone by, I think I get it. It's praying for people who, you know, didn't choose to not come to church, but they had something happen along the way. They're in the hospital. They're, you know, they're.
I don't know, maybe an accident took place or maybe they're sick or they're shut in or those kinds of things. I don't know that we pray for people who just skip church, you know what I mean? Or maybe we do and it's like, hey, pray for them to get back in church or something like that. Right. Well, what about this one?
Separate and apart. And by the way, I did pray that none of these were said this morning, but separate and apart, I thought that was one continuous word. When I was growing up, I did not necessarily realize the significance of saying separate and apart, but as I grew older, obviously I recognized that, you know, when we were passing out trays a lot and passing out baskets for the offering, it made sense, you know, just from a logistical standpoint, to have men up here who would serve the Lord's Supper and then afterwards they would be ready to serve, you know, and take up the collection. And so I get that we were trying to say, hey, you know, this needs to be a separate identity. It needs to be, you know, something that we focus on from a Lord's Supper perspective. But also our giving is very fundamental to our trust in God and giving our very best to Him. And so that's something that we think about. How about this one? Bring us back at the next appointed time. Y' all remember hearing that? Yeah, a lot, right? It was like, hey, we just left, but we're going. We want to make sure that we pray to come back the next time. Right. And so the idea is that we'll leave from here, we'll go to our places, but we're going to look forward and anticipate the time that's coming up. And then finally this one that we're talking about this morning, Guide guard and direct us again. I thought that was all one word.
And I think what I gathered from it, as I really stop and think about it, it's very mission oriented. Guide guard and direct us. It means that we have accepted a responsibility on our part. And yet at the same time, we need God to be there with us, to protect us, to guard us, and to watch over us, and to also help us define our direction in life. And so I think when we think about us as we're talking about this concept, the way of Jesus, and we're talking about being disciples, we understand the Great Commission, right? We read texts like this that we're the Great to go and make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. We understand that we're supposed to go into all the world, all creation, and teach the good news to people about Christ.
And we talk about that. And anyone that believes and is baptized shall be saved. We grab the idea that baptism is a key element of our surrender to God, that we give ourselves to him, that we die to ourselves, and we're buried with him to be raised up. And we understand that principle of the Great Commission and the idea of making more disciples. But part of that discipleship process requires something of us.
It's not enough. And I'm afraid sometimes we think about that baptism as that finish line, that place where we arrive and we say, oh, good, they're Christians, and now we can all relax. But in reality, the next part of this is the part that we're talking about with regard to us and our own personal development and God transforming us into people that we need to be. And it's this part. Teach them to observe all the things that have been commanded. And if you look at it in most translations, it actually uses the term teaching them.
The idea is that it's prolonged, that it's a long game. It's not this short aspect of just teach someone what they need to know and that's it.
No, it's a continuation of that. It's continuing to teach them, continuing to teach ourselves, continuing to learn. And. And in that process, we have this idea of transformation. Now we've talked about discipleship in these terms. We've said, hey, it's about being with Jesus, being like Jesus and doing the things that Jesus did. And in that, we believe that there's a transformation that takes place in us, that as we spend more time with Christ and we model the things that he does, that it becomes a part of who we are. And what takes place inside is there's a renovation that takes place. And while transformation is possible, while it is, you know, the opportunity is there for us, it's not inevitable.
And I think this is something we need to be reminded of, that we're not changed just because we exist. We're changed because we are committed. We change because we've been touched by God. We change because things inside of us are being renovated. We're beginning to see things a little more clearly, and it adjusts the way we live our lives.
So I'll try to draw it up in these ways that we can understand, sort of a systematic way of thinking. Back in September, we Had this groundbreaking in the back of our property for this new facility. And before I get too far, I want to say to all of those who committed to supporting this financially and have been giving your contributions weekly or monthly or however you chose to do that, thank you so much for your persistence and your dedication that we have seen that. And it's been inspiring to see that people are honoring those commitments. It's great. But as we looked out here, one of the things that we did was our shepherds were putting in front of us kind of a plan that needed to be executed. You know, we're running out of space. We were running out of places for us to gather.
Some of our classes were too large, and we're not getting that intimacy and that closeness that we can have if we had, like, smaller group settings and those kinds of things. And so we also have not had a big fellowship, church wide meal inside in forever. We've had our outdoor things, but we've never been able to get together around tables and enjoy that fellowship and talk to each other in spiritual dialogue and grow closer in those relationships. And so they set out to do this, and that's great. They had a plan. We saw the picture of it and all those kinds of things. And then you looked up and there was a fence around 60, okay, maybe 100 parking spaces. And we walk by this all the time, and we've been kind of monitoring and watching it. And just recently, you know, you began seeing, like, you know, the structure coming up, and you were able to look at it and go, wow, that's going to be huge. It's going to be nice. It's going to be exciting and all those things. But I want you to be reminded of this.
This framework is only the instrument to do the thing that we were called to do.
It's just a building. It's just a structure. But that structure has the power to open up new doors for us. It has the ability to give us new opportunities with people maybe we haven't explored before. It gives us that opportunity. Can you imagine walking inside of this? And right now, by the way, so much has been done since this photo was taken.
And if you were able to go inside and just look around and see and walk the space and see how much room is gonna be there for us to gather around tables and enjoy that time together, for us to have fun and fellowship together, for us to have rooms that are spacious and available to help us do the work that we need to do to be more outreaching and evangelistic, I think about our Care Bears, and I think about our helping hands and all the space that will be dedicated to different ministries to help us move forward in our outreach to other people. I think about the beauty of that moment. And if you were to walk in, the structure may look cool on the outside, but if you were able to see what's happening on the inside and begin envisioning not just what's going to happen in that building, but what could happen in our hearts, the opportunities are limitless.
And so I want to ask all of you to do something every time you walk by that building, and I know some of us are parking out in the back 40. Okay?
Every time you walk, every step is an opportunity for you to say, God, make this facility a place where we teach your word.
But the prayer is actually a little deeper than that.
The prayer is, lord, help me be ready to use this facility for your glory, for your honor.
We have opportunity in front of us.
The structure is there.
The transformation is taking place on the inside. Is it taking place inside of all of us?
And I hope we're thinking about that. Let me get a little bit deeper into this message as we think about that and how it applies to what we're talking about here. You ever thought about the word trellis?
Well, it comes from a Latin word, regula, which we get, like regulation or regulator or ruler or rule.
And basically what it is, is when we think about trellis, the idea is that we have some kind of structure that is built that helps direct the path of whatever vine is growing on that trellis, that it shapes it. In fact, the word for ruler is kind of the idea of like a lattice piece, like a straight line that helps design and force that that plant to grow in the way it should go. When you think about a trellis for a vineyard, maybe, look at this structure.
It's pretty, just nothing. It's basically a couple of posts and it's a couple of lines that go across it and, you know, and it looks pretty, you know, just generic and simple and those kinds of things. It's not very sophisticated. But when this is done right and when things are given the nutrients they need, it grows into something that looks like this, which is absolutely beautiful. And notice a few things.
Notice that the fruit is off the ground.
Notice that the leaves are reaching higher to the skies to get closer to the sun. Notice that there's space in between for it to breathe. Notice that it's off the ground where it could be trampled on or where insects could maybe get into it. Or maybe mildew and mold could rest underneath the leaves as the weight of it pulls it down to the ground. Think about all the things that can cause a problem with that. This trellis, actually this framework, this structure allows it to grow in a very powerful way.
So much so that it maximizes the potential of that fruit.
That's what we're talking about with regard to this trellis. And as I think about it, I'm brought back to the text that we read for scripture reading, John chapter 15, where Jesus says this, I'm the vine, you're the branches.
And he says, basically, in close proximity to me, you're going to bear much fruit.
So I love this, that it reminds us that as we are closer and we are connected with Christ, that there is the ability for us to bear fruit. But don't miss the warning that comes on the end of that passage where it says, apart from me, you can do nothing.
That sounds kind of harsh, doesn't it? Jesus is saying, hey, if you don't stay connected to Me, it's not that you don't bear fruit, it's that you get pruned, it's that you get cut off, you get thrown into a pile and that pile is going to be burned. That's kind of hard to hear, but I hope what you're getting from this is not that Jesus is trying to condemn us. What Jesus is saying is, hey, I need you. I need your influence, I need your work, I need your conviction, I need your self discipline.
I need you to abide in me. And that's a choice that you make. You don't just grow because you gave yourself to Christ. No, you grow because you are connected to Christ and you abide in him.
And so I think about this quote. This came from the book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Cesaro.
And he says this naturally. Nurturing a growing spirituality with depth in our present day culture will require a thoughtful catch this conscious, intentional plan for our spiritual lives.
I was just thinking about this and when I thought about the world that we live in now, the culture that we're in, there are three things I think we have to navigate. First of all, it's attraction. You know, there's so many things out there. There's so many opportunities for us to enjoy life and have a great time. And there's really, in this area, there's almost nothing that we can't find to do to entertain ourselves and engage our minds and spend time doing fun things. Right?
That can be a little bit of a problem. It's not a problem in and of itself, that there are things for us to explore and do. But if those things become too much a part of our world, then we lose some effectiveness in other areas, Right? But not only that do we live in a time of attraction, but we also live in a time of reaction.
And what I mean by that is everybody feels like it's their position to share everything that they think about everything out loud. It's that you have to have a hot take. It's that you have an opinion about something and you must engage. You'll hear people say, sometimes silence is complicity. Well, that's baloney.
Sometimes you just don't want to say something, and that's okay.
In fact, I think it'd be better if maybe we got back to that time where people thought, if I didn't have anything not to say, I wouldn't say it at all, right?
But we have people in this world that feels like everybody's waiting to hear where I stand on this. And I must say it, and I must bring it with some significance. I must come down hard on this conviction. And what I want you to understand is in that reactive mindset, what happens is you say things that probably polarize yourself.
And here's the real setback of that, is in the polarized comment, in the polarized viewpoint, you actually lose influence with other people.
You know, if you're one side, you may have a group of people that go, oh, amen, that's right.
But you can have another group of people over here somewhere that don't see it that way. And maybe the way you said it, the attitude that you said it kind of set them off a little bit.
You know, there are people who think that it's my job to make sure everybody knows exactly where I stand. You don't have to make a remark about those things. We post way too much.
We share too much, we react too much.
We come across harsh at times.
Like even within the church, we see this from time to time.
I'm just saying we don't have to react.
It's good to respond. And sometimes there are times where you must absolutely declare who you are and what you're about, but it's not our necessity. Our culture has taught us to come hard and to react and to be argumentative, but that is not going to build our influence in this world.
The other thing in our culture that I think we have a problem with is distraction.
And I think that can be seen by everybody. There's so many things we could do I mean, this alone is enough of a distraction to keep us occupied for a long time. I guess the point I'm making is we got all of these things and it's very difficult. So what I'm encouraging all of us to think about is how we can build a spiritual trellis for our life. How do we shape the things that we do? What structure do we put in place that helps guide my decision making, the way I live my life, the way I go about things, the way I share my faith and all those things. If I, if I had a structure in place, that would help me think about it.
Something that's intentionally structured, something that gives room to breathe in the same way we saw, you know, the trellis earlier helps us to avoid things that encumber our growth and then guides us in the direction we should go. Think about that. If we all had a spiritual trellis that allowed God's transforming work to take place because we are invested and we're making decisions that show that kind of loyalty. Let's get into each one of these individually.
So intentionally structured. I think about this passage in Proverbs chapter four. I want to read for you about seven or eight verses here in Proverbs chapter four. And anytime you read from the book of Proverbs, one of the things that you're going to see is this is wisdom. Okay, God gave Solomon wisdom. He didn't always use it, but he expressed it so beautifully at times. And when we read the Scriptures and you're looking at it, I want you to understand that they're meant to kind of be absorbed a little bit at a time.
They say something and you may go, oh, that's good. But then if you really stop and think about it, it's like, oh man, that's like real good, to the core good. And if you start applying it to your life, it changes the way you see things. Well, here Solomon is talking to his children and he says, hey, my sons, I want you to hear some things about these commandments that God has given. And he says In Proverbs chapter 4, verse 20, says, My son, be attentive to my words and incline your ear to my, to my sayings. Listen, these are things that I need you to pay attention to. Says, don't let them escape from your sight and let them, keep them within your heart.
Catch this. Because these commandments, they are alive to those who find them and healing to all their flesh.
He's saying, this stuff that I'm sharing with you that comes from God is, it's the very thing that's going to help you navigate life. So he says, keep your heart with all diligence. Some translations say, guard your heart. Guard over your heart. Watch over it, watch intently over it, for out of it flow the springs of life. The idea is that the things that are taking place inside of here, the things that you make a focus, those things by necessity begin to reveal themselves in the behaviors we have. So what does he say? Put away from you crooked speech and put devious talk far from you.
Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you.
He says, ponder the path of your feet. Like really stop and think about where am I going and what am I doing. Calculate this, he says, then all your ways will be sure. And he says, do not swerve to the right or to the left, but definitely turn your feet away from evil. Think about all the things that are mentioned there. Be attentive, pay attention, wash your mouth out if you need to. Do whatever it takes to get yourself focused. Build a structure in place that gives you a direction in life, a structure to live by. Don't swerve to the right or the left, but definitely stay away from evil things. All of us need some kind of structure in our life to guide our thinking. The transformation is going to take place inside of us, but we have to be committed to this, ready to make decisions that show that Jesus is our priority in this life.
So years ago, I taught a class in our youth group, and it was called Habits class. It was a quarter long study. We went through each of these six habits twice. And then we had like an overview that we did at the very end. And this may seem simple to folks, it may seem weird and awkward, but youth ministers are weird. No offense to our guys, we're all a little bit weird. But one of the things that we did, we came up with catchy ways for us to remember certain things. And so we had a habits class. And this was meant to be a structure that we put in place in our life that helped guide us through our spiritual development. And there were six different things that we explored. The first one was hang time with God. And that may be a weird way to say it, but what we were talking about was spending time with God, alone and quiet, praying with him, meditating, spending time talking to him, making that an active part of your day. That's a structure that you're gonna have in place every day. But then we had accountability. And accountability was something that I think is real important because we were trying to teach Responsibility for your behavior. You know, if all of us say, hey, I want to be right, and we do it under the guise of I want to be right with God, then what happens when we're wrong?
Well, if we want to be right with God, then that wrongness causes us to say, hey, I want to do something to make that right. It may require me to repent. It might require for me to confess a certain sin that I'm going through or something that I've done, But it may be that I've offended someone or that I've hurt someone.
You know, accountability means because I want to be right with God, that I make a decision to move beyond myself and to not be so satisfied in where I am, but to refine a little bit and to act with humility and make things right with somebody.
But then another thing that we talked about was Bible memorization.
You know, that's the concept of Psalm 119, verse 11, your word I have treasured or I've hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.
What we tried to do is identify different temptations that we knew were common, and we would look for passages that helped address that, like, how do I stay strong in these moments? What do I do? It'd be things like 1 Corinthians 10:13, where we look for the way of escape. Or it might be, you know, I will not lay my eyes upon anything that's unhealthy for me. Like, different passages that we would focus on. And I would say, memorize those. And when you are tempted in these ways, let that scripture guide your thinking and make a decision that's based on this truth.
But then we talked about involvement with our church family, how important it is to be, as a part of our regular structure, to come together with our church family, to be encouraged with each other, to be an encouragement to others, but also to glorify and honor God and grow in our relationships spiritually, to be challenged all in the same ways.
Then, for lack of a better term, we call it tithing commitment. It's the idea that no matter what you make in life, whatever you earn, that you recognize that that blessing came from God. And so you're willing to return a portion of that back to God as an evidence of your. Your confidence and trust that God is gonna take care of you and your needs. We taught that with the teenagers. And then finally, study of Scripture, which was a different thing altogether. It was about digging deep into a passage, letting it ruminate in your heart a little bit, letting it Shape the way you think about things. It wasn't about how much you read. It was about how you applied that passage. And if those kind of habits. That was a structure that was set in place to help these kids understand what it means to grow and develop with discipline and the ability to choose.
So let's talk about one of those habits, the hang time aspect, and I've got it here, in the sense of this trellis is room to breathe. And what I mean by that is that you give your time to God. Psalm 46, verse 10 says what? Be still and know that I am God. The idea is, cease striving. Quit fighting against things. Just stop for a moment and recognize that God is sovereign, that he's watching over you, that he's in full control.
And so this passage in Psalm 62 reminds us of this, says, let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him.
Listen to what it says. He's my rock, my salvation, my fortress.
He's all these things, and I cannot be shaken because of it. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge and a rock where no enemy can reach me. Do you capture that?
Do you believe it, that just being with God strengthens you and helps safeguard you against your enemy?
But then this passage, just one chapter over, says, my soul will be satisfied.
Well, how is that? When I remember you upon my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night, saying, there are times where just that quietness and the darkness of your room, when you're laying there and you're spending time with God, that something happens inside of you. Now, I can't make you believe what I'm saying, but I do want you to challenge. If you have never done this, I want to challenge you to just get quiet and talk to God.
I remember when I was going to college, I would drive from Decatur to Montgomery, and I'd get through the chaos of Decatur traffic and get on the interstate and you can just go. And it was nice.
And I remember, like, I would start right at the exit 334, you know, that Somerville exit off the I65.
And I would turn down the radio and I would just start sharing things that were going on in my life.
And some of those things are really personal. Some of the things were about other people. Some things were about the challenges I was facing, the sin that I had committed.
And I would look up and I'd be about at Clanton when I realized I've been talking with God this long.
Do you Understand what I'm saying? Like, there's something happens when you open up your heart and you begin talking to God.
That in the middle of that, there's some kind of therapeutic thing going on, that God is healing you from within. That in the quietness of that time, as you were just contemplating life and the blessings that you have and what God is calling you to, that as you begin pouring that out, it actually helps you. And you look up and it's been a long period of time, and you think, how could I possibly spend that much time doing it? And this just happens if you haven't done it yet? I'm encouraging you to spend that time. Listen to what it says.
You have been my help.
And in the shadow of your wings, I will sing for joy man, to fall under the protection and provision God and have him gathering you around and watching over you and strengthening you. That happens in those quiet moments.
So in those quiet times, meditate on goodness, all these things that we've already talked about. Pray for spiritual awareness, the ability to see things that are right there in front of you. You know, if you have burdens that you're holding onto, offload those things on God. In the midst of this, you'll look up and you'll spend a long time and you'll feel that healing that comes from it.
The next thing is eliminate encumbrances that keep us from growing.
You know the passage in Hebrews, chapter 12, and I'm paraphrasing here, but it says, hey, you know, since we have so many great examples and witnesses in front of us, people who have shown their faith says, hey, what you need to do now is lay aside all the encumbrances, all the sins that hold us captive, and run with patience, the race that it's set before you. Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And I'm saying this to us because it's so important for us to realize that things that we hold onto, sins that keep us trapped forever, we have to find a way to let those things go. But then also listen to the words here in Proverbs, chapter 6. Again, Solomon is talking to his children. And actually he says, in this case, listen to the words of your mom and I. Both of us are talking to you. We're sharing with you these things. We. Why are these commandments important? Well, when you walk, they will lead you.
When you lie down, they'll watch over you. When you awake, they will talk with you.
Catch this. For the commandment is a lamp. And the teaching a light.
Isn't this interesting? Psalm 119, verse 105. David, his father says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And here Solomon is passing that along to his children and to all of us who will listen. Yeah, those commandments are light and lamp. They definitely illuminate for us what we need to do. They show us the way and all of those things. But don't miss the last part of this text. And the reproofs of discipline are the way of life. What's he saying?
Yes, it's lamp, it's light. It's there to illuminate you, but it does no good if you don't choose to discipline yourself and live according to these commandments.
And that's the challenge for all of us, is to build this structure in place that guides our life. Kind of a rule of life that helps me observe the things that I need to.
So what are those encumbrances that we need to remove? I've written down just a few of these, just kind of categories. The first one is idolatrous pursuits.
And you may say, well, Brandon, what is it that makes something an idol?
And I don't know that. I could go every step by step and look at your life and you could fold it all out for me, and me say, oh, that's an idol. That's an idol. But here's what I will say, just on a generic level that I believe an idolatrous pursuit is.
An idolatrous pursuit is something that you really, really enjoy.
It's something that you have a passion for and that you just can't wait to get up the next day and do it again and again.
It's something that brings excitement, but with that excitement coupled with it is a little bit of guilt.
And the guilt comes because as you are experiencing this and you're enjoying this, there is something inside of you, as a Christian that says, I don't give this same level of passion to God.
And if whatever it is you could observe in your life is that passion that trumps any passion you would have for living for God, then I would say that's an encumbrance that needs to be removed.
It's something that's keeping you from giving your full devotion to God.
But there's also busy activities. I don't need to itemize those. We all have them. We do a lot of busy things that don't necessarily yield anything. They're just busy, but then idle wanderings. And that goes back to the phone, looking at reels endlessly.
You know, going from social media platform to the other, occupying hours of time.
Not wrong to enjoy those things on a controlled level, but spending hours of your day doing that can be really harmful for you.
But then also sinful behaviors, and that's the stuff that you know is taking you further away from God.
You're convicted that what you're doing is a sinful practice. You know it. You know you need to repent.
You know you change. You know you need to find discipline. It's the things that become repetitious, things that become, you know, maybe I maybe even say addictive.
Those kinds of things.
Those are things that need to be put away.
But then finally, in this trellis that you're building, it needs to have something in it that guides and directs us in the right way, because that's where the transformation takes place. It's when we hit that direction and we are disciplined and we are following the right path that God begins to work on us from the inside and shape who we are.
And because we're listening to His Word and because we're following him, we get a clarity on what life is really all about. And it helps guide us in our decision making.
Here's a couple of passages just to think about. 2 Timothy 2, 7 says, hey, we've not been given a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and what discipline you got. Proverbs, chapter 25, verse 28. I love this passage where it says, you know, a man who doesn't have self discipline is like a city without walls. It's like you don't have any defense mechanism. If you don't have discipline, if you don't have the ability to make a good choice, then you're inviting all enemies to come and attack whenever they might like.
Discipline is a critical piece of this.
Titus chapter two talks about, you know, the grace of God has appeared to all of us, training us in a few things. What to deny ungodliness and to live self controlled in this present age.
First Timothy, chapter 4, verse 7 and 8. First Corinthians, chapter 9. Both talk about physical exercise. They're talking about, hey, it's good to be physically in shape. It's good to work hard and to train in that way. But while that is good and it's profitable in some ways, practicing godliness, training for godliness, getting a direction in life that helps you in all areas of your life. And so in First Corinthians 9 it says, you know, the person who's training doesn't just beat the arrow aimlessly. No, they do it very specifically, very discerningly, so they can move in the right direction and get trained in the way they want to. That's the same thing for us spiritually. And I'm afraid sometimes we don't think in terms of how we need to structure these things to help us live a life that is glorifying to God but also transforms us from within.
Jesus says this at the conclusion of this text, of this scripture, this passage, this section, he says, but if you remain in me and my words remain in, you may ask anything you want and it will be granted.
But catch this.
When you produce much fruit, that's the proof that you are my disciples. And that brings great glory to the Father.
So it behooves us to come up with this structure, right?
This filtering system that helps us be the best we can be. It's a discipline on our part. The transformation is taking place because God is working on us. But it's our buy in and our commitment to that that helps it. Think about it. It'll help you turn your vision into reality.
It'll help you find peace when your values and your behaviors marry up. You know, you don't say one thing and do something else. No, you don't have that conflict anymore. You're living according to your values, you're living at a healthy pace.
And you have this great balance between discipline and some freedom, like doing the first things first allows you the opportunity to enjoy life and some of those other things that we talked about in a way that blesses your family.
So I'm going to encourage all of us, first of all, to realize that when we put this together, and I hate to use the term, but I'm going to have to right that when we put this kind of structure in, God can help guide, guard, and direct us, put us on a course, help protect us and shield us from things that are harmful for us, and set a course that makes sense in our lives spiritually. So let me offer this action step.
Come up with a spiritual trellis for your life.
And in that spiritual trellis, build this framework that helps you filter the way you live your life, identify the direction, remove the encumbrances, embrace quietness, and bear fruit. And understand that all the while God is working on you from within, transforming you into that disciple that has been with Jesus, acts like Jesus and does what Jesus does.
This morning, I want to encourage you if you're there, if you're ready to make that decision. If you need help, if you just need clarity, if you just need someone to sit down with you and kind of iron that out and look at your life and work. Whatever you may need, we encourage you to come and dare I say it, as we stand and as we sing.
