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All right. Hey, good morning everybody. How are y'all doing? Good. Good. My name is Chris

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Britton and it's always a pleasure just to be here at the house opening God's

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Word with you all. And we're in a series about the book of John and I'm just

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gonna continue on the path that we have been heading in and I will be headed in

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John chapter 15 this morning. And if you missed any of these, man go check these

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out online. Some good stuff. And I hope that my prayer is today as we open up

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God's Word in John chapter 15 that you know there'll be a little illustration

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Jesus is using some poetic techniques here so I always love that about vines

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and branches and all that good stuff and how we can abide in Jesus. Before we get

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to it just imagine you know in our day and age imagine that you're with a group

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of people that you've done a lot of life with or you're with a group of people

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and there's one person or one family that says hey I'm gonna be moving away

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and here's my info here's the way that you we can stay connected like what are

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ways these days that we can stay connected with people that might maybe

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far away. You can go ahead this is a social media what are some specific

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things that you could do to stay connected with people like Facebook

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FaceTime Instagram. Letters okay the young person says letters I like that

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pen pals. Have a little get-together pick up some dates to have it I like that. We

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can be strategic these days right it would be a sad occasion where it's like

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oh you're gonna be gone however we could be right up in their grills right when

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they touch down we could watch their journey on a reel or whatever so there's

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some ways where we kind of still can be kind of face to face a little bit and

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this wasn't the case here when Jesus in the setting of this that we'll read

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today Jesus is sitting with the disciples they have no idea that he's

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he's gonna be going away in a sense of the way of crucifixion so as he sit in

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with the table of these loved ones and he's having this conversation imagine

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position ourselves when we read these scriptures in the context of it I'm

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always fascinated by the context of when we read the scriptures it says you and

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we're kind of like like yeah he's talking right to me but we weren't we

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weren't there at that table so we do have to remember that he's at this table

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with the disciples speaking specifically to them when these scriptures are

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quoted by Jesus he's saying you like y'all so let that be on our mind as we

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go there this morning in John 15

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sorry about that technology but we have a tradition at our church where we kind

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of give attention to the scriptures as you are able you could stand or get in

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the posture where you are just making yourself available to God's Word again

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we're in John 15 1 through 8 and we'll read this John 15 1 through 8 I'll be

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reading from the ESV I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser every

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branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that does

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bear fruit he prunes that it may be more fruit already you are clean because of

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the word that I have spoken to you abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot

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bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide

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in me I am the vine you are the branches whoever abides in me and I in him he it

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is that bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing if anyone does not

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abide in me he's thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are

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gathered thrown into the fire and burned if you abide in me and my words abide in

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you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you by this my father is

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glorified that you bear much fruit and so proved to be my disciples let's pray

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God we thank you for this morning just opening your word will you please use me

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as a vessel to speak your truth speak your word concerning your scriptures

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that tell us about abiding in you staying connected in you may we lean

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deeper into your understanding Lord that we may implement ways in our lives to

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stay connected and lastly may we be encouraged and even made free this

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morning so we can experience you in a way that's unique on this new day that

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you've given us thank you amen maybe seated

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when I look at a room that I'm speaking God's Word to maybe it's a room that has

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some people that have walked with God for a while but maybe you still feel

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stuck in the same place or maybe it's possible that your life isn't like

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completely falling apart but you just may need a spark spiritual jumper cables

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to kind of to charge you up to get you back going no matter what place that

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you're at what I hope that we find that God's Word today is like the discipline

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ourselves to stay connected to stay plugged in to stay abiding in Jesus

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hopefully will help us to possibly get rid of some bad habits from living a

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basic kind of regular mundane barely like thriving barely active like

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spiritual faith and that's my hope today amen amen so the context of John 15 as I

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mentioned before this is in Jerusalem during the week of Jesus's crucifixion

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and in the previous chapters John 13 and 14 tensions are high and Jesus here is

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sharing a symbolic Jesus shared a symbolic foot washing in John 13 he

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predicts his betrayal by Judas in John 13 21 through 30 he comforts the disciples

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with promises of the Holy Spirit in John 14 John 14 is filled with Jesus's

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teaching about love and faith and his upcoming departure and by this time John

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15 the disciples are probably filled with mixed emotions at the table like

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love fear to me if I'm at the table I'll be like dude I'm kind of confused like

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we've been kicking with you for a long time and now you kind of talking like

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some doom and gloom type stuff like where you going like what's going on but

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this is where Jesus delivers his powerful like metaphor of vines and

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branches in the hopes that he would offer comfort and in a way a roadmap for

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a thriving life as they can continue to follow him so when we read John 15 we

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could think of it as kind of this heartfelt conversation that Jesus has

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with the disciples during what's known as the Last Supper it's heavy but Jesus

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knows that his arrest his crucifixion are near actually in the book we're only

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a couple chapters away from it we're only a couple chapters away and he wants

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to prepare his closest followers for what's coming and assure them that they

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won't be alone so again imagine the room filled with mixed emotions love fear

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confusion the disciples probably devastated by the news of Jesus's coming

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departure not totally understanding everything and this is Jesus's attempt

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again to comfort them using this metaphor and here's the thing the

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metaphor wouldn't have been too bizarre it wouldn't have been too strange for

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them because it was common people were very knowledgeable about vines wines

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grapes things of that nature as a matter of fact if we turn to the first miracle

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what did Jesus do turn the water into wines grapes which attached to vines we

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all know that right so it's not something that they would have been like

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man what is he talking about right here they would have understood a matter of

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fact throughout the Old Testament when you come across someone or something

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that's being the vine it was always Israel or the people of God but it was

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used negatively in the Old Testament when Israel was the vine it was always

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usually accompanied by a declaration that the vine was not bearing fruit

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therefore the wrath of God was coming so because of this what would have been

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made more of a surprise is that Jesus at the table was referring to himself as

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the vine but not only the vine but it's like he's saying like I'm him the young

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people know what that means I am him so at the table with having about three

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years of ministry together Jesus kind of flips the script and refers to himself

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as the true vine again so Jesus is saying I am being something that y'all

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couldn't be because I'm able to do something that y'all can't do they

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couldn't be fruitful in a way that pleases God by themselves he's rescuing

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this narrative of the Old Testament narrative of when you look at the

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stories there's kind of a rise and fall and a rise and fall and a rise and fall

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and Jesus is rescuing that narrative saying like I got this I'm gonna take

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care of this and this is what leads Jesus to talk about this and he starts

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off by saying I'm the vine you are the branches I am the true vine I'm the

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genuine one I'm the real deal and God the Father was the vine dresser the

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gardener and Jesus is the true vine and we them at the table we are the are the

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branches and then the conversation leads us talking about this word abiding and

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what happens when they don't and when they do and the fascinating thing about

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Jesus is often times we forget that the supernatural component the Holy Spirit

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and how it indwells believers like Jesus knew this this this metaphor in chapter

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15 affirms this the verb for indwelling appears numerous times but now it is

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viewed in terms of its results spiritual experiences and how they must lead to

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fruit-bearing in the form of a new obedience and love Jesus is saying even

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without y'all following me you can still be fruitful like without you being with

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me in my presence every day like how they were at this table like what's

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gonna happen to me you can still bear fruit my spirit will be with you matter

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of fact when we look at the word abide it means to stay to hang out to remain

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to loiter what's it called and young people y'all can help me out I could tell

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my age here but what are the things called you take your phone out I know

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it's a charger but it's like a wireless charger you just put your phone on it

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and it just charges that's kind of crazy it's a portable charger y'all know I'm

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talking about you can just throw it on there and it's hard yes yeah yeah but

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with with the cordless right you just throw it on there and it might turn

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green or something like that just to let you know that it's in the right place

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like thinking of abiding this power source right and that we're willingly

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taking this because we understand and identify the place and where we need to

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put this that everybody everybody runs to their chargers all right how many

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people in the room you forgot your charger somewhere you hit somebody up

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and said like could you look on the wall like that one in the kitchen no no right

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over there or can you look under the seat in the car like we all understand

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how to get this thing charged up to make sure it's powered correctly so we can do

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everything that we need to do and we feel some type of way if we can't get

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this charged up as fast as possible we need the power right and Jesus simply

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when he's saying abide in me he's saying I want y'all to think about like how y'all

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can stay connected to this true power source so you can do all the things that

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you need to do that I'm calling you to do but I'm gonna be the one that empowers

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you you don't gotta plug into a wall but when you think about this metaphor I

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often think about like how am I positioning myself to be powered up by

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Christ spirit for some of you maybe it is coming to church or it's I'm gonna

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get into a couple more practical ways that we can practice this in our

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Christian faith in just a moment before I do I don't want to miss a point where

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again I've asked you to imagine yourself as the disciples at the table and how

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they would have possibly perceived this message as individuals because when you

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think about the group the bunch of disciples that's at the table a lot of

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them are in different places when Jesus called them to follow him so they

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probably had some different emotions and different ways that they could apply

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this to their own lives and their own perspectives and some of it might

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resonate with you but here's kind of a breakdown that I thought of of how the

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disciples might have received Jesus words in John 15 considering their

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backgrounds and their personalities so let's start with Peter remember in a few

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chapters Peter is gonna be like cutting somebody's ear off and stuff and later

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on he's gonna you know Peter Peter's gonna be like yeah I don't know that guy

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and all that stuff Peter the impulsive and passionate Peter hearing this he

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might have felt a surge of determination Jesus is called excuse me to abide would

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resonate with his desire for loyalty however Peter might also have grappled

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with a little self-doubt remembering his recent denial of Jesus John often called

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the beloved disciple John likely felt a deep sense of comfort or closeness and

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the emphasis on love in John 15 would have resonate resonated with with him

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very deeply Matthew who we know is a former tax collector he might have

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really appreciated the metaphor of the vine and branches because he who had been

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considering an outsider was now included in the source of life Matthew the

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outsider the tax collector like you don't even belong here bro why did he

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pick you and he's looking like yo like I I'm connected like I can stay connected

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to Jesus and the other disciples I'm sorry we can't forget about Judas what

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about Judas Chris he knows what he was on at the table possibly consumed by his

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betrayal and the burden of his secret Judas's heart was probably heavy the

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message of abiding and having answered prayers might have kind of been this

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hollow stark contrast on the path that he was choosing at the table and the

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others disciples like James Thomas Philip and others would have each had

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their own mix of emotions and some might have felt a renewed sense of purpose and

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others might have grappled with fear and uncertainty about the future without

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Jesus physically being there and wondering how they will move on so what

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does this mean for us as we like what about us as we're sitting at these

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tables here listening to Jesus's words what does that mean how can we apply

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this and and I believe a couple things Jesus is called to remain in him and

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bear fruit could resonate with those on a few different levels first of all we

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can think about the need for us deepening our connection right all the

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disciples had already spent years following Jesus witness and miracles

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learning his teachings remaining would mean continuing to prioritize the

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connection prioritizing the connection staying close to his words and his

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actions it would involve prayer following his teachings and actively

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seeking guidance there's a lot in there but I know for me last fall last year

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was the last time I was up here like doing a message and last fall there was

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a an event in my life that brought up a lot of like old-school hurts and wounds

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and stuff like that I remember hitting Greg up just saying like I didn't say

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this right I didn't say this exactly but I was really expressing the need for me

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to prioritize my priorities right and I was I remember it was very difficult for

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me to say like I need to just step away and just chill for a little bit it was

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so hard for me to say that because I was just used to like go go go go go you can

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do it just go go go like you have the the skills to do this and that and blah

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blah blah and it was hard for me when I met with Greg I love his Greg was so

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gracious and calm he was like yeah okay and he pointed out something that I had

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I hadn't thought of at that time he said you know like you graduated with your

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undergrad and we went to the same college and stuff started youth

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minutes everything every time ever since you started youth ministry you haven't

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really stopped like you graduated you started doing full-time ministry so once

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you take some time just to just to live just to be present here with our church

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you ain't in trouble right and I was like it's a matter of fact take as much

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time as you need you know and we'll see what happens and that's exactly what

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happened I kind of repositioned myself started kind of falling in love I said

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my prayer was simple right if I can be vulnerable with your mom for me

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repositioning myself just meant like falling back in love with some of the

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spiritual pathways that I had been connecting with God with before and I'll

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leave some of those with you at the end spending time with him in creativity

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some of y'all know I like like poetry and all this hip-hop stuff and all that

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kind of stuff so I really started connecting with God in another personal

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way where I just wasn't like teaching and stuff all the time but I just was

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connecting with God with a lot of my art writing poetry where's my boy Dave

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Hodges at connected with him as he's working with young adults with

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narratives and started teaching some poetry classes and I remember telling

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Dave like dang I feel alive again because I'm using these gifts and there

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are participants in the community that are young adults we meet here on

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Wednesdays and there have been some phenomenal things that have happened

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here on Wednesdays what God's doing just and I'm like I felt like God's sidekick

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again it's like me and you we connecting and I'm charged up and I was like man

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this is great but it took so much time and it took so much of me just searching

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and seeking and saying God like what's wrong with me is there something wrong

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with me like God just searched me and helped me to reconnect with you in a way

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that's just real and I wouldn't be up here standing before you if things

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weren't better in that in that way amen so deepening our connection with him the

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second thing is continuing his mission the disciples understood that Jesus's

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message of love forgiveness and the kingdom of God bearing fruit would

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likely have been understood as carrying forward that mission sharing the

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teachings demonstrating his love through acts of service and compassion these

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will be ways for the disciples to continue to bear fruit and we understand

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after Jesus's death and resurrection and when he ascended the disciples did just

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that they continued they continue to serve God and to carry forward his

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mission and and for us is seeking what is that and a lot of Christian circles

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you know we like uses big C word like calling and things like that maybe it's

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not that the maybe it's not you trying to search this radical calling but it's

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just starting with you in your circle of influence or just you in your heart

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alone as we prayed this morning about peace is sometimes it just takes us to

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sit in silence for a little bit to think about ourselves and perhaps what is God's

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mission for us on a personal level what is that and I always believe you know I

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always believe in a church this size where some might say like oh that's small

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imagine everyone connected in a thriving way relationship with Christ

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continuing their mission and excited about their mission in a personal way

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what would that do in our community there's brilliant people in this room

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with with hearts that are amazing and if you imagine us all connected to that

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thing that we are called to do and what that would mean for not just our our

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church community but our community outside of the walls the last thing is

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strengthen in their community the disciples we know we're a close-knit

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group but facing an uncertain future so remaining in Jesus will strengthen their

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bond with each other sharing their faith supporting one another through the

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difficulties and working together to spread the message these things would

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all be fruits born from their connection to Jesus together our community can be

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strengthened when we abide in Christ because what we do for one another is we

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offer that grace we offer that truth and love and that's like the pruning and

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stuff all right right now there's I kind of asked who's a green thumb because I

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need some help you know that was kind of like a personal

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question like who said yeah so I walked out of my house a couple weeks ago I

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don't know what this is I heard you know some somebody told me you could take a

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picture on your iPhone and identifies like I'm am I like years off of knowing

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that and stuff that's crazy I was like what you can take a picture on your

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iPhone and it can't help you identify the plants and stuff yeah you knew that

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okay but it still didn't help me I didn't know that I like identified the

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plant but I was just like okay what do I do but we have this thing in front of

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our house man it has its own G-man Jumanji ecosystem in it it has mold on

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stuff and there's flies and everything's eating one another like it's crazy I'm

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happy that they're thriving in that however it's nasty things are moldy and

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but here the thing is it grows every year so my say there's growth right

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there's growth but there's something in there that needs attention they need

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some trimming back there's different strategies I'm sure that y'all can help

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me with probably without this but some of y'all will laugh and say like I know

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what to do with this you need to cut this back and you need to you know stop

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putting this kind of kind of mulch in there or you need some more room is too

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crowded or whatever what are the things for us that are too crowded like imagine

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again if you will just this simple concept of putting this down what if

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there's too much stuff around it's not you can't you can't put the charger

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thing under this and then just throw the phone on there and expect it to charge

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there's there's something in the way right what needs to be removed moved

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around so you can have the best connection possible to thrive somebody

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can come over and help me if you want to but but my point is that was an

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illustration for me when I walked down I'm like that grows every year so we can

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always you know depending on how we want to to phrase growth I can look at and

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say it's growing grows every year I grow in my face every year Chris I don't know

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what you're talking I'm growing can we clearly identify some of the things that

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need attention so it can be healthier growth right healthier growth as I wrap

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up I want to give a few ways that you can make this kind of real in your life

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there's a leadership conference I went to years ago I heard a leader mentioned

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something about spiritual pathways and then I found out kind of their source

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and who they had got that from and I went and I looked it up because I

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remember as a as a young like Christian leader I remember there's so many books

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that was about your leader Christian you got to get up at 5 a.m. you got to do

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this you got to spend two hours in your prayer closet and if you ain't reading

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five chapters a day and you ain't doing this and this and I used to be when I

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was a young adult Christian I was just like dang that's crazy

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y'all seen dr. strange where he's just going like this and he's trying to

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figure out all these calculations I used to be like this is like this is wild how

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can I do all these things and still like eat dinner but practically what do you

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do all right and then I heard this and I remember it blew my mind because then I

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didn't feel so bad about how God wired me because I love art I love hip-hop and

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all that kind of stuff there was no books about that loving God and hip-hop

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at the same time like there was no books about stuff like that it was all really

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like this is what you got to do you ain't doing it you ain't leading

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spiritual pathways man to help revolution like my life so I'm gonna

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share some of these with you and it might do the same for you it might do

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the same for you but these are some practical ways that maybe you're wired in

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a certain way where you connect with God in certain circumstances and things like

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that so these are spiritual pathways okay and if you want you can come holler

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at me afterwards or we can try to email this out or something like that like I

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have it on a whole document but if you want it and you want to kind of look at

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that and see where you where you fall if you forget some of these things let me

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know we'll make sure that we get it to you so first of all there's something

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that was outlined called the creation pathway and these are people that love

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being surrounded by God's creation being in a natural environment dramatically

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increases their awareness of God they pray they worship best when surrounded by

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the beauty of God's creation have you ever known somebody that says like I

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just need to go out in the woods I just need to go camping I need to see the

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sunset I need to see a waterfall right and maybe you just feel weird like why

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do I always have to do this and I just feel like this is so beautiful it's okay

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that's probably like your pathway where you connect with God the best I know

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somebody that said that he used to work wake up in the morning before work and

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go down by sunset or something I just think like why just reach it by well

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but for them they needed to see the beauty of the morning and hear the birds

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like I think about Ace Van Turer but I'm not built that way that's okay though

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but you might be and that's okay there's something called the worship pathway and

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it's kind of plain like just like it says there's some people just a good

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worship song just helps them to connect with God in a powerful powerful way they

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feel closest to God when they're fully engaged in worship through music and the

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highlight of their Sunday might not be me it might be that song that was sung

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right and you might be feeling bad because it's like I wish there was just

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more songs aren't they play songs at the end aren't they play songs after

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everything the beauty of music draws them into a deeper communion with God I

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like this next one the relational pathway there might be people that where

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solitude feels like solitary confinement for them to feel refreshed in their walk

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they need to be around people maybe lots of them and they feed off of the energy

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of others that is revitalizes their walk with God aka like community tables might

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be the highlight of their year because they're around people that they can talk

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to maybe even some days you're like I have to be at this table and sit with so

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and so because I want to talk their ear off I love being around people and

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talking about God maybe you feel bad like man I get around people I just want

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to talk about what book they're reading I want to talk about the verse I want to talk about all

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this stuff that could be your spiritual pathway as well a couple more the

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intellectual pathway these are folks that can't have a morning devotional

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without three commentaries open up for them their spiritual walk isn't alive

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until their mind is fully engaged like they skip past the fluff and they dive

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into the deep stuff into the depths right and those might be people that walk up

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to you and ask you these deep questions and you're just like bro what are you

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talking about and they look at you like you ain't thinking about this and you're

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like nah not really right but the intellectual pathway don't feel bad if

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that's you flip them commentaries open find some people that's like that and

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get together right the serving pathway there's some people that catch their

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spiritual stride or they don't catch it unless they're like serving on a

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consistent basis being spiritually refreshed comes when they go out they

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roll up their sleeves and they tangibly serve somebody else they'd rather serve

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then sit in hours of prayer they'd rather serve than hours of reading they

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rather serve then then singing this might look like old once the entertainment

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to them and they're just like let's go do something why don't we do more stuff

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let's go out and do this stuff last to the contemplative pathway this is what

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we normally think about when we think about pathway the Christian alone with a

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Bible in a journal they kind of marched to be their own drummer and a spiritual

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revitalization comes with heavy doses of just isolation just like let me be alone

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with my book in my journal I'm good now I don't need to talk about it I'm cool I

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got this book got my journal and I got the lower with me okay lastly the

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activist pathway and activists it kind of sounds like the activists are in their

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happiest when going at like mock to sometimes servants sometimes leading

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just always doing something a comp comp contemplation to them might be the

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cruelest form of torture for an activist they feel most spiritually alive when

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they're actively doing something for the kingdom I'm sorry last to the creation

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pathway that's where I kind of find myself more when I heard somebody talk

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about this I was like yes these folks love being surrounded by God's creation

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being in a natural environment dramatically increases their awareness

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of God and their creativity being creative and the worship pathway well I

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think I already said those off my bad my bad but identify your pathway you know

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identify what's the some of the best ways for you to connect with the Lord

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and don't feel bad about it okay feel like this is cool like this is the way

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that me and God could be together and I can get recharged and I can be connected

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I don't have to feel bad if I escaped to be alone I don't have to feel bad if I

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if I write some rap lyrics about God or write a song or write a poem or if I go

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dancing or if I just jog or if I have 50 commentaries out about one verse and I

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got to know the Greek and Latin and Hebrew and everything about it if I got

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maps in my on my walls about the stuff you don't have to feel bad you're

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connecting with God in a way that he wired you my hope and prayer is that we

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can just be a church that learns to abide in Christ and be branches that

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extend fruit to one another and to our community amen amen let's pray God I

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thank you so much for

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this time and space to expand your word a little bit Lord to hopefully help us

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on a path where we can remain plugged in with you in a real way in a real way

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God in a way that shows fruit to one another and outside of our walls Lord in

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our homes and our sphere of influence may we be able to identify in our growth

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just like that bush outside of my house what are some of the things that may

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need attention for us to grow in a more thriving way a more life-giving way

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thank you for the illustration Lord and pray God that it will help just to shape

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some practical steps that we can make in our lives to be faithful and closer to

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you and our spiritual walks in your name we pray and thank you amen