Vitals | Week 2 | Full Service

I think for a lot of us, we're in a series called vitals. We're talking about being healthy in different aspects of our life. I think in areas where you and I tend to get unhealthy, most of the time we get to unhealthy places by not staying in the process, but drifting to a place that we never intended to be.

And we look at our life and think, how did I get so unhealthy in this environment? But my bet is, whether it's it's spiritual health like we're gonna talk about today, whether it's physical health, it's that we strayed away from the process. Instead of staying committed, we begin to to stray.

If you're taking notes, the big idea today that we're gonna unpack this morning is this. Spiritual health is formed when we stay, not stray. If you're in this room, my bet is you want to be spiritually healthy. And that is the result of us staying, what does that mean? We're gonna talk about it, instead of straying

away from God. I think what makes this so difficult in our culture is we have a culture that loves to start things. We have a culture that struggles finishing things. I love starting projects. I struggle finishing projects. This is why this time of year, gyms are packed with people.

Right? Because we like starting new, but we have a hard time keeping up with it. We know here at Rock Point, this service in three months will have less people in it. We just know this. Because people love to come to church this time of year, but we have a hard time staying

consistent. I'm not saying that as a guilt thing. I have a hard time staying consistent too. It's because when I look at my schedule, right, I have a limited amount of hours I can put into things. So it's hard to stay consistent on things because there's so many things, like, trying to grab my attention.

I want you to think about it like this. You and I have one hundred and sixty eight hours every week. We have one hundred and sixty eight hours to play with every single week. How many of you like sleeping? It's blown my mind every service how little hands go up when I ask that question.

I love sleeping. If you sleep about average of what a normal person sleeps, it's gonna be a third of your week. So a third of your week is spent simply laying in bed and sleeping. And if you have a full time job or if you're in school full time, that's gonna take up another third of your week,

which leaves you with simply fifty six hours remaining. How many of you have a social media account or YouTube? It's not six of you. Come on.

If you have social media, on average, you will spend seventeen hours a week on it. So there's seventeen hours immediately taken up, which leaves us with this small margin of hours, this this small amount of thirty nine hours remaining

that we get to choose what we do with it. And this is where we just fill it with stuff. Right? If you have kids My kids are vampires. They wanna steal all my time, and they just wanna fill all my time.

Maybe this for you, you go to the gym, you work out. Maybe you hang out with friends. Maybe you binge watch a TV show. But we have thirty nine hours that we just We fill with all kinds of stuff and Is there another line there? What's that supposed to be? Sorry. Oh, right, right. We're Christians. And we go to church

for one hour.

We wonder why we're not spiritually healthy. We come to church for one hour and we think that's gonna be enough for us to be spiritually satisfied. Some of you, you give God more than an hour. Some of us, we struggle to give him an hour a week. No wonder in our culture we have so many Christians

saying, I feel like this isn't working. I feel like I'm not being spiritually poured into. But if all we do is give him an hour, I think we're missing the point of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Because Jesus is gonna give us a framework of how to be spiritually healthy, and it's not this.

If you got a Bible, we're gonna be in John chapter 15.

John chapter 15. Jesus is is is towards the end of his life. The way we say it here at Rock Point is is Jesus is God with skin on. The theological term is incarnate. It means he's he's God wrapped in skin. The way I like to say it is Jesus is God in a bod. So Jesus,

he shows up on this earth humanly speaking. He lives thirty three years. He's at the end of his life. He's he's done all the miracles. He's in an upper room with his 12 disciples. And then he's gonna walk to the Garden Of Gethsemane where he's gonna be portrayed, where he's gonna be start the process

of being killed. That's where we're at in the story. He just left the upper room in Jerusalem and he's heading to the Garden Of Gethsemane. And he's talking to his closest followers. John chapter 15. Jesus. These are his words. I am the true grapevine and my father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I'm giving you. We're gonna stop there for a second.

I know we're in church but we're gonna go to school for just a little bit because it's important to understand the context of what Jesus is saying. Because if you just read this on its surface, it's like, that's a cute analogy. It's it's actually kinda brilliant what Jesus is doing here.

You read it and go, that's a that's a cool object lesson. It it's far greater than just a cool object lesson. So I'm gonna give you some context to the content that he's saying. First, who is he talking to? He he's talking to his disciples. These are not rookies in following Jesus. These are highly committed

followers of Jesus. He's talking to a guy named named Peter. Peter who saw Jesus walk on water and had so much faith in Jesus, he got out of the boat to walk on water towards Jesus.

That's who he's talking to. He's talking to James. James who saw Jesus go on a mountain and take off this human skin and it says that his glory shined like the sun. He's talking to John. John who saw Jesus go up to a 12 year old girl who was dead and walk up to her and he looked at her and said,

which means little girl arise and breath back in her lungs. These are committed followers of Jesus. And what he's gonna do, and he's got final words with him, he is going to remind them who he is. And he starts by saying, I am the true grapevine.

Now, what he's saying there would have made his disciples the hair on their neck stand up. Because what he's doing, he's saying something that's very theological and he's saying something that's very cultural. Hang with me. We'll get out of school soon. What he's saying theologically.

A lot of people in this culture didn't say the word I am a ton. Because to the Jewish people, to say the phrase I am, they don't say it like we do. It it was a theological term. Because when when God

showed up to Moses in Exodus chapter three, he showed up in a burning bush and said, you are gonna deliver my people out of Egypt. And Moses says, yeah, but what's your name? And God says, I am who I am. Tell Pharaoh, I am has sent you. It's a very sacred statement. So when Jesus says, I am,

he's saying, don't let these sandals fool you. Don't let this skin fool you of who I really am. He says, I am the true grapevine. Now when he says this, he's doing something he's done throughout the entire gospels. It's called messianic replacement.

Messianic replacement. Jesus would take something that was sacred to the Jewish people and go, hey, do you like this? And they would say, yeah, we like that. And then he would drop kick it, stand in its place and say, that was about me. He would go to his people and go, do you like the Sabbath?

Like, yeah, we like sleeping more than Rock Point does, I guess. We love resting. And Jesus would drop kick it and say, I am the Sabbath. And they'd be like, what? Like you like the temple? I am the temple. You like the word? I am the word of God. You like Moses? It's like, not Moses.

Moses was an Old Testament figure pointing to your need of me. You like the Passover where you sacrificed a perfect lamb for freedom? I am the lamb of God to take away sins of the world. He says, don't don't let these sandals fool you of who I really am.

He says, I am the true vine. In in this context, in this culture, Israel believed that they were the vine of God. They believed that they were the vine of God that was gonna produce fruit for the entire world. And Jesus shows up and says, Israel is a failed nation to and could not produce fruit.

You think you're the vine of God, but you're not producing anything. I am the true vine. And then he's talking to his guys and he says that there's two type of branches. That's you and I, by the way. He says there's some branches that stay connected to the true vine and that will bear fruit.

And for those branches, he's gonna prune them, which is cut part of it off. That's not God punishing us. It's God preparing us for more fruit. Because if you're in me, you're gonna produce fruit. But then he says something a little more unsettling. He says, there's also branches that appear to be in me,

but they're not producing anything. And Those are gonna be taken away. There's gonna be some branches that look like they're connected to the vine, but actually are not. It's possible to appear like you're in Christ and not actually be in Christ. It's possible to think you're connected to the vine when you're actually not.

Before you start questioning your own salvation, I wanna tell you, I wanna give you the context of what I believe Jesus is doing here. I think he's making a direct parallel between the 11 disciples he's talking to and to Judas. See, he was in an upper room on his way to the Garden Of Gethsemane.

What happened in the upper room? Jesus said, Judas, you're gonna betray me. And Judas storms out. The 11 disciples had to be shocked. This this man has been following Jesus for three years and he's gone? This man has been following Jesus and he's gonna betray Jesus?

And then Jesus leaves the upper room. He goes to, most likely a vineyard and says, you guys, you 11, you're still connected to me. I'm gonna do something amazing for you. But there's also people who look like they're connected to me, but really aren't. I believe they're all immediately thinking of Judas.

Jesus is saying, it's possible for you to look the part, but not actually be connected connected to me. If then he's gonna say one word 10 times in the next seven verses. If I say one word in four sentences, you know the word I'm trying to emphasize.

And that's what Jesus is gonna do here. So we're gonna play a little game that I want you to try to catch what that one word is. Okay? And if you can't, we have a prayer room. We'd love to pray for you after service. Okay?

He says, verse four, remain, that's a clue, in me and I will remain in you. You don't got it yet. I don't know how to help you. Remain in me and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it's severed from the vine. You cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes. I am the vine. You are the branches.

Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. He says remain 10 times in seven verses. So I thought it would be a good idea to look up what that word meant in the Greek writing. And the word remain means to remain.

Got that? No one wrote that down. That was pretty pretty deep. That's as deep as I get. It means to stay. It means to stay connected. Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say try harder. He doesn't say learn learn more information. He doesn't say be better. He says stay connected.

Remain in me. It's almost as if he's saying, I am your power source. He says, apart from me, you can do nothing. Stay connected to me, and I will do amazing things through you. That he's saying, he is their power source for us Christians. The only reason right now you can hear my voice is because I'm connected

to this power source.

You can hear my voice again. It's what Jesus is saying. Saying, stay connected to me because I am your power source, and apart from me, you can do nothing. You can do nothing that's gonna last if you don't stay connected to me. He'll continue. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch

and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask anything you want and it'll be granted. When you produce fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my father. I have loved you even as the father has loved me. Remain in my love.

When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love. Just as I obey my father's commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you'll be filled with joy. Yes, your joy will overflow. This is my commandment, love each other the same way I have loved you. And they keep walking.

Jesus has given us a framework of how to stay connected to him and how to be spiritually healthy in these 12 verses. If you're taking notes, how to be spiritually healthy, the first thing we do, spiritual health happens when we stay connected, When we stay connected. I wrote it this way in my notes. When we stay connected

when it's tempting to replace Jesus.

That we stay connected when it's tempting to replace him. This is why Judas left him. Because the version of Jesus they got, Judas wasn't interested in. This is why the nation of Israel would kill Jesus, because he claimed to be the Messiah, and they said, you're not the type of Messiah we are looking for.

And it's easy to look at this and go, wow, I can't believe they were trying to replace Jesus. And we do it all the time.

On Thursday, me and my family, we went to Build A Bear. And it's a pretty cool experience if you don't know what Build A Bear is. We we go, and because I got three boys, you know, all three of them got a bear, and it only cost us $7,000, so that was a surprise at checkout.

It's pretty cool process though. You walk in and the kids got to pick like the the suit of if you will, the skin. And I got a picture of one of my boys, the youngest trying to grab a Paw Patrol character.

You get to pick the suit. When I was a kid Build A Bear was to throw around but you had to only pick bears. Now you can pick anything you want. My kid picked a Pikachu and it was awesome.

And what's cool is you have like different accessories that you can give the bear. They even have this like plastic heart that when you press it it actually beats. It's kinda creepy if I'm being honest because it's like, is that thing alive? They they have this voice thing that you can speak into it and record your voice and put it inside the bear. And if the child squeezes it, it'll say those words. So you can be like, mommy loves you. Right? Cost $250,

so we didn't do it, but you can do it. Then then you get to the next section. It's like, what shirt do you want them to wear? They have all these cool phrases and sayings. You get to pick the pants. You get to pick the shoes. You get to put a hat on it. It was a really cool experience.

It was cute seeing my kids build a spear. It's dangerous seeing the church do this. It's dangerous when the church says, I'm gonna build my own Jesus. And we do it all the time. I like forgiveness for me. I'm gonna leave out forgiveness for others. I like the crown of thorns.

I don't know I don't know about this whole financing you're telling me to do. I like your love. You want me to do what with my sexuality? It's easy to take parts of Jesus we like and begin to build a fake version of him. This is the bible, this is what we call heresy.

It's when we take this book and say, I like this. I'm leaving that. I have done this. You have done this. This is why we don't experience spiritual health, because we're connecting to a version of Jesus that does not exist. Be very careful of that. It's easy to replace Jesus

when the things Jesus says no longer aligns with my values and what I want out of this life. So he says stay connected to me. How do we connect to him? He says it in verse seven. But if you if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything and it will be granted.

See, the way you connect to me is the way you connect in any relationship. It's through conversation. It's through reading his word, spending time in the scripture, and spending time in prayer. That's how you connect to Jesus. You spend time hearing from God and you spend time in communication with God.

It's it's not magical. It's trust. It's choosing to be in relationship with him by prayer and by scripture. Spiritual health happens when we connect to the real Jesus, when it's tempting to replace him. Second thing we see in this. Spiritual health happens when we stay consistent.

When we stay consistent. I wrote it this way, stay consistent when it's tempting to quit. Stay consistent when it's tempting to quit. It's easy to start a relationship with Jesus. It's difficult to stay in a relationship with Jesus. And there are times it's gonna be tempting to quit. Often, it's when we don't see results.

But he says, remain, stay, stay connected to me over time. And that's difficult. I spoke here about a month ago and I was in the lobby and I was talking to this guy, he walks up to me and the first thing he says is, hey, I'm a black belt martial artist. And I'm like, where's my security guy?

That's a weird way to start a conversation, man.

And it was a cool conversation, we kinda went back and forth and he's telling me about it because obviously I don't know anything about martial arts, you can just look at me and tell that. And we began to kinda dialogue and I was like, man, a black belt, that had to be so difficult to get. He's like,

it actually wasn't as difficult as you might think. He's like, you know what's harder to get? A white belt. I looked at him and said, I don't think that's true. Like, how is it possible that a white belt's harder to get than a black belt? He said, because most people quit before they ever get to the white belt.

Most people don't stay long enough just to get to the white belt. Then he said this, this powerful, he said, what do you see when you see a black belt? And I said, someone to run from. He said, when you're looking at a black belt, you're looking at a white belt who has been consistent. Consistently showing up, consistently

training, consistently staying on top of it. When you look at people who are spiritually healthy, what are you looking at? You're looking at someone who has stayed consistent.

I'm learning this in my own life. For the last six months I've been working out. I figured if I'm gonna have 19 boys I probably should work out and keep up with them. So whenever

I get into something I go all in on something right. So we built a home gym in our garage and I've been working out for six months. I've been like pushing myself. I talk to Bill a lot because obviously, so

I'm like bro give me some help, give me some training and he actually said I'm working out so hard, he's like, you might need to tone it back a little bit, like your body's still getting used to this because I'm trying to be so consistent, I'm trying to be so intense about it and I've been doing this for six months and I look in the mirror and I'm like, can someone tell my body I've been doing this for six months? Because somehow the message is not getting received.

Like look at these arms. It doesn't look like it's been six months. It looks like it's been six minutes. Are you with me? So I'm talking to Bill, I'm talking to like David, our worship leader and one thing they all are telling me is you can't focus on the results. You have to focus on the process

because if you're so fixated on the results you are going to get frustrated and you're gonna wanna quit. You have to fall in love with the process. You have to fall in love with getting up and going to the gym. Christian, you have to fall in love with Jesus. Not what Jesus can give you.

We fall in love with the process, not simply what Jesus can give you. We do that by being consistently connected to him through prayer, through reading his word. It goes beyond coming to church one hour a week.

What Jesus wants is he wants us to be connected to him in all areas of our life, because we do only have one hundred and sixty eight hours to give him. What he wants, he doesn't want a little section of your life. Jesus did not die on the cross to be a part of your life. That is not the message of Christianity.

Jesus died on the cross to own our life. He doesn't want a section, he wants all of it. He wants consistent faithfulness and you will bear fruit. Consistently waking up and saying, I'm going to just do it again. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. Consistency is not the same as being perfect. You're going to fail.

This is why we need grace. This is why we need love. This is why we need mercy, because we will fail. In fact, I tell people when it comes to this, you should probably plan to fail. Cause you're just going to. Here's here's a simple quick tool for you if you struggle being consistent with God in prayer and in scripture.

Whatever you're doing, keep it simple, keep it short, and if you miss one day, don't miss two. That's gonna help you stay consistent. Keep it simple, keep it short, if you miss one day don't don't miss two. And take things that you know you're gonna do consistently.

There are some workouts that I gave up doing because I'm like, I'm miserable when I do this and it makes me not wanna go to the gym. So I cut those out and instead I replaced it with something I actually enjoy because if I'm gonna fall in love with the process, I need to make sure I'm gonna enjoy the process.

So if you're like, I can't wake up and get on my knees and pray at 06:30. Then don't try. You know you're not gonna do it. But if you're like, hey, if I go hiking,

that's where I really connect to God. Then put that apart of your day and go hiking. It's taking things that you're good at or taking things that you enjoy and connecting God to that. Some of you, the way you connect to God is by worship and singing, and that's great. Some of you have amazing voices. Some of you don't.

Hey, but you still love singing. That's why we have the volume so loud. We can't hear you. So you do you, man. Keep singing.

Singing worship, it's a way to connect to God. You find the things that you enjoy doing and you add that to your routine and you constantly stay consistent with connecting to God even if the results don't show up. Because spiritual health is connecting to God when it's tempting to replace him.

It's being consistent with God when it's tempting to quit. And third, spiritual health is when we stay committed

to God, when it's tempting to compromise. Some of you might be thinking, what's the difference between consistent and committed? Here's the difference. Consistent is when you stay when it's boring. Consistency is staying when it's boring. Commitment is staying when it's painful. That's the difference.

Consistency is staying when it's boring. Commitment is staying when it's painful. Because following Jesus, if you have not learned this yet, will cost you something. If it hasn't, I'm not quite sure you're connecting to the real Jesus. It will cost you something. Your commitment to him will get tested at times.

Here are some ways our commitment to Jesus will get tested. Again, if you're a Christian for five minutes or a Christian for fifty years, this is either has happened or you're gonna experience this. Your commitment to him will be tested when what he asked you to do doesn't make sense.

There will be times in your life where what Jesus wants you to do is going to feel illogical. There are gonna be times in your life what Jesus is asking you to do doesn't make sense, and your commitment to him will get tested. There'll be times in your life that your commitment to Jesus will cost you your comfort.

And there'll be times in your life where your commitment to Jesus, where he's gonna remove something that you love. This is pruning process. That there's gonna be times where Jesus is gonna remove things that we care about to make way for greater fruit. And you're gonna be tempted to tap out of this Christianity thing

because there are times where Jesus will prune you and cut something out, but there's also times that we just live in a broken world and we wonder why God allowed something to happen. Whether it's God pruning or just broken world happening, there's gonna be times when we look up and say, God, what are you doing?

And you're gonna be tempted to tap out. Jesus says, no, no, no. Remain in me even when it's difficult. Remain in me even when it doesn't make sense. Stay with me when you feel like giving up. This isn't just, for me, just, it's not theoretical. I'm the youngest of six in my family. So

I have a couple brothers, couple sisters. And growing up, my best friend was my brother.

He's three years older than me. So it's a cool age, right, where because he's just three years older than me, like, was okay with me hanging out with him because I wasn't the annoying little brother to him. I was like kinda close to him in age.

And he wasn't he wasn't so old where it's like there's a lot of distance. Like, had the same common things that we enjoyed. And as a kid, man, this He was my role model.

He got into skateboarding. I was like, I guess I'm getting into skateboarding. Got into Pokemon cards. They got into Pokemon cards. One time he dyed his hair blue, and I'm like, all right, my turn. And I just did whatever he did. And some of you understand that if you've got a brother.

Really close friend. We were close all the way to high school, and we stayed close, and we stayed close, and we stayed close. But what I didn't realize was, he was dealing with some things, he had some battles he was internally dealing with that, he's probably wise, I had no idea about. He he was in a lot of pain. And

how and what, I'm not gonna get into some of that, but he, man, emotionally, mentally, he's just wrestling with things. And because of that, if you know people who really struggle and wrestle with pain, he tried to mask it.

First, started with alcohol. He was about 18 at the time. Started with alcohol, and when that didn't work, he went to smoking. When that didn't work, he went to marijuana. When that didn't work, he went to cocaine. And when that didn't work, he went to heroin. And by the time he climbed this ladder,

he's almost completely unrecognizable. Some of you know people who've kind of done this. It's hard. It's hard to look at someone that you idolize and seeing them so just so broken. And he became very aggressive, physically aggressive, where me and my family were kind of afraid of him, to be honest, at times.

And he was unpredictable. He would just show up random times. And it was scary. And none of us knew what to do or how to help him. He ended up getting arrested. And it's a weird thing to say in a room like this, but we all kind of felt relief because we're like, maybe this is what he needs.

Maybe like God will use this. And you hear stories all the time of people who have a struggle. They go to jail, they come out the other side. And that's what we were like, this might be good for him. He's in jail for two years. And he's getting close to getting out of jail. He's

getting close. And my mom decided, you know, this is my son. I'm going give him one more shot. So she gets his room ready in the house. And she's like, I'm gonna let him live in our house and give him one more opportunity to stay here. And as it starts to get a little more real, I begin to really feel uneasy

about him coming out. I'm now married. And I was nervous of what version of him we're going to get. So I started praying a prayer that's really honest prayer. But again, it's weird to say out loud to a lot of people. I began praying, God, I don't want him to get out. God, don't let him out.

I don't really know what I was asking. I just kept praying over and over and, God, don't let him get out. God, please don't let him get out. Six weeks before he was gonna get out of prison, get a call from my sister, which is pretty normal. My sister and I have a good relationship.

And I'm in my room, and I answer the phone, And she says, your brother's dead. And I sat on my bed because I had to kind of collect my thoughts. And I was like, what? She said two hours ago they found him dead in his cell. If you've ever some of you have experienced something like that.

I never dealt with anxiety. I didn't understand anxiety. But that moment she said that, it was like a blanket of anxiety was just dropped on me, and I couldn't take it off. Immediately, we grab our keys. We go to my parents' house. And we pull into my parents' house. And my mom's outside waiting for us. And

I walk up to her. And man, the loss of a kid, I can't imagine. Having three kids, I can't even fathom. Brace her. I'm not an emotional guy. I'm crying. She's crying. I had a thought that haunted me for the next six months. Did I cause this?

I prayed, God, don't let him out. Is this my fault? Did I do this to my mom? Did I do this to our family? Next six months, I wrestled with that thought. Theologically I wrestled with that thought and personally I wrestled with it. I had so much anxiety. I had so much guilt. I had so much grieving. Here's

the weird one to say out loud in front of you is, I felt a sense of relief. I didn't know what to do with that.

And I was working full time at a church. It's weird. It's weird to work at a church full time and start to doubt God's goodness at the same time. And I was. It's like, why would God allow this to happen?

Maybe he didn't cause it, but he didn't stop it. Why would he do that? And I began to really wrestle with God's goodness. I never wrestled with, does he exist? I wrestled with his goodness. And it was difficult, and I wanted to tap out. There's days where I'm like, I don't wanna do this anymore. This isn't

what I signed up for. It was ten years ago, and people ask me, people who know a little bit of this, they ask me, like, you tell that story, but why did you not tap out? Did, like, God show up in some amazing way? No. Did I have this amazing moment that there was this incredible breakthrough? No.

It's going to sound very unspiritual, but it's extremely spiritual. I chose not to leave. I chose to stay. I chose to remain. I was confused. I was angry. I was bitter and I stayed. And I chose just to remain.

And I look back, and there's been some healing from that. There's still some ways to go on this stuff. But as I look back at what happened and where I am today, I see fruit. God has used something horrible to bear fruit. I do a lot of funerals around here, and I wasn't a very empathetic guy back then.

I'm extremely empathetic now to death because I just understand it at a different level. God has used this moment in my life to be a blessing to other people. I still really struggle with anxiety.

Just being very real, every time I get a phone call to this day, that blanket of anxiety comes back over me. That hasn't gone away in ten years. But I have found some freedom from anxiety too. And I talk with a lot of people who struggle with anxiety to some level. And I'm able to say, God's with you. God can help you.

And I'm not all the way on the other side of that journey, but I can tell you I'm not where I used to be. And God is bearing fruit. There's going to be times where God's going to look at you and go, I just need you to stay, just remain, even when it gets difficult. How about you?

Jesus heads to the Garden Of Gethsemane, where he knows he's about to be betrayed, beaten, put on a cross. He's talking to 11 guys. All of them but one will be killed for their faith in following Jesus. And he looks at them and says, remain. Stay. And when you remain, I will be with you. It's gonna be difficult. Remain.

And when you do, your life will bear fruit that will last for all of eternity. Just remain. Father, help us be a church that stays connected to you when it's easy to replace you. Help us be a church that doesn't satisfy with fake versions of you, that we don't turn to anything but the real you. Father, help us be a church

that is consistently faithful, that in the boring times when it feels like it's not working, that we stay faithful and consistent to you. Father, help us be a church that says committed to you, even when it's hard, even when it's painful, even when it hurts. Because we believe you.

He said, in this world, we're going to have trouble, but you have overcome it. Give us the wisdom of these things, Father. I pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for joining us online today. Stay connected all week long on our app and on social media.