WEBVTT 00:00:07.020 --> 00:00:18.640 John chapter 15, verse 5. We'll read one verse, 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:23.899 then we'll pray and get started. John chapter 00:00:23.899 --> 00:00:33.359 15, verse 5. I am the vine, you are the branches. 00:00:34.219 --> 00:00:38.460 The one who remains in me and I in him produces 00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:43.600 much fruit because you can do nothing without 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:47.219 me. Let's pray. God, we come to you today and 00:00:47.219 --> 00:00:49.100 we thank you for the freedom and the privilege 00:00:49.100 --> 00:00:52.840 to be able to read your word and to sing these 00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:55.560 songs. I pray, dear Lord, that your Holy Spirit 00:00:55.560 --> 00:01:01.340 would be on us today, that you would free us 00:01:01.340 --> 00:01:04.099 from All of the distractions and the thoughts 00:01:04.099 --> 00:01:07.799 of our minds and the worries and the pains and 00:01:07.799 --> 00:01:10.819 the sadness and the struggles and whatever it 00:01:10.819 --> 00:01:14.260 may be, dear Lord, that's competing for our attention 00:01:14.260 --> 00:01:16.420 right now. I pray, God, that you would block 00:01:16.420 --> 00:01:20.019 those things out. I pray that your Holy Spirit, 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:23.459 dear Lord, would help us to focus on you. That 00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:25.859 you would give us eyes to see you today and ears 00:01:25.859 --> 00:01:29.620 to hear you today, dear Lord. That we would trust 00:01:29.620 --> 00:01:33.489 you above all else. I pray, God, that you take 00:01:33.489 --> 00:01:35.890 away any pride or any fear that's within me, 00:01:35.989 --> 00:01:39.390 that every word that is said today from me, dear 00:01:39.390 --> 00:01:43.090 Lord, is from you, and it's all for your glory. 00:01:43.650 --> 00:01:48.090 And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. 00:01:49.310 --> 00:01:54.230 I was thinking about this week. I was thinking 00:01:54.230 --> 00:01:58.609 about this question. If I were to ask everybody 00:01:58.609 --> 00:02:01.900 in here this morning, When you leave your house 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:06.560 every day, what would be the one thing that you 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:11.439 could not leave without? The one thing that you 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:14.240 have to do before you leave, or the one thing 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:17.060 you have to take with you when you leave. What 00:02:17.060 --> 00:02:21.000 is the one thing that you cannot leave your house 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.780 without? Now, I suspect everybody's answers would 00:02:24.780 --> 00:02:27.180 be a little different. There were some things 00:02:27.180 --> 00:02:29.469 that I thought of this week that... That I've 00:02:29.469 --> 00:02:32.310 heard people say before and some that I say myself. 00:02:32.610 --> 00:02:36.750 And I hear some people say, I can't get my day 00:02:36.750 --> 00:02:39.349 started. I can't do anything until I've had my 00:02:39.349 --> 00:02:42.550 cup of coffee. Has anybody ever said that before? 00:02:43.069 --> 00:02:45.710 Maybe that's your thing. Maybe you're one thing. 00:02:45.810 --> 00:02:47.870 You could go without everything else. You could 00:02:47.870 --> 00:02:49.610 leave the house without doing everything else. 00:02:49.669 --> 00:02:53.530 But you've got to have that cup of coffee. And 00:02:53.530 --> 00:02:54.930 some people are shaking your head. You don't 00:02:54.930 --> 00:02:57.710 drink coffee and that's okay. But maybe there's 00:02:57.710 --> 00:02:59.990 other things for some of the rest of us. Maybe 00:02:59.990 --> 00:03:03.349 some of you say, I cannot leave the house without 00:03:03.349 --> 00:03:06.349 my wallet. Okay, or without my purse. Kind of 00:03:06.349 --> 00:03:08.430 the same thing because we've got a lot of stuff 00:03:08.430 --> 00:03:10.310 we need in our wallet and our purse. We've got 00:03:10.310 --> 00:03:13.889 our IDs. We've got our money. We've got all kinds 00:03:13.889 --> 00:03:15.610 of stuff in there. If you've got a purse, you've 00:03:15.610 --> 00:03:17.870 got all kinds of stuff in there. There ain't 00:03:17.870 --> 00:03:20.250 no telling what's in there. I'm afraid to ask. 00:03:21.870 --> 00:03:24.009 But these are things that we say, oh, I cannot 00:03:24.009 --> 00:03:27.139 leave without that. Maybe it's something else. 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:31.080 Maybe it's some technology. Specifically your 00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:34.780 cell phone. Just out of curiosity, I want to 00:03:34.780 --> 00:03:36.719 ask you this on all of them. Who in here this 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:38.240 morning brought their cell phone with them? Raise 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:42.120 your hand. That's just about everybody in here. 00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:43.719 There's a few of you that left them at home. 00:03:44.139 --> 00:03:46.680 But there's a lot of you that you could be halfway 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:50.000 to work. And you wouldn't even turn around and 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.039 go get your wife if you left her. But if you 00:03:52.039 --> 00:03:54.280 leave that cell phone, you're going to turn around 00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:56.840 and go back and get it, right? I mean, these 00:03:56.840 --> 00:03:58.539 are some of the things that we can't leave without. 00:03:59.580 --> 00:04:03.560 What about our glasses? It's hard to make it. 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:05.439 When you can't see very good, and my eyes are 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:07.819 getting worse and worse, when you can't see very 00:04:07.819 --> 00:04:10.180 good, it's hard to make it through the day when 00:04:10.180 --> 00:04:12.259 you forget your glasses. I forget my glasses 00:04:12.259 --> 00:04:15.830 sometimes. And that can be disastrous. I'll tell 00:04:15.830 --> 00:04:18.389 you how disastrous that can be. I went to the 00:04:18.389 --> 00:04:21.470 co -op, this was last summer, to get some ant 00:04:21.470 --> 00:04:23.430 poison. I had a bunch of anthills that had popped 00:04:23.430 --> 00:04:26.889 up. And I go in the co -op, and I pick out some 00:04:26.889 --> 00:04:29.509 ant poison, and I see some, and it's expensive. 00:04:29.649 --> 00:04:31.230 It's like 30 bucks or something. It's real high. 00:04:31.550 --> 00:04:33.550 It ain't like this big. It comes in a little 00:04:33.550 --> 00:04:36.269 blue thing. And it says on this, I forgot my 00:04:36.269 --> 00:04:39.170 glasses now, and it says on this thing, it says, 00:04:39.389 --> 00:04:45.779 kills up to 130 miles. And I said, this is unbelievable. 00:04:46.420 --> 00:04:50.139 I'm going to kill every, I'm killing every ant 00:04:50.139 --> 00:04:53.300 between the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast. 00:04:53.879 --> 00:04:55.899 Y 'all can thank me later, everybody, within 00:04:55.899 --> 00:05:00.379 130 miles. So I get this stuff while I get home, 00:05:00.420 --> 00:05:02.560 and I'm shaking it on there, boy. If you'd have 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:05.279 drove by my, it looked like just a pile of powdered 00:05:05.279 --> 00:05:07.540 donuts everywhere out in that yard. I sprinkled 00:05:07.540 --> 00:05:10.040 that white powder on there. And after I emptied 00:05:10.040 --> 00:05:13.569 the whole thing, And I had my glasses, and I 00:05:13.569 --> 00:05:18.589 could see. It did not say kills ants up to 130 00:05:18.589 --> 00:05:24.949 miles. It says kills up to 130 heels. Ant heels. 00:05:26.290 --> 00:05:29.529 And that ain't bad enough. I poured every bit 00:05:29.529 --> 00:05:34.350 of it on 10. It was enough for 130 heels, and 00:05:34.350 --> 00:05:37.569 I used the whole thing on 10 ant heels. And I 00:05:37.569 --> 00:05:40.269 said, that's what happens when you cannot see. 00:05:42.490 --> 00:05:46.370 What about hearing aids? Can't leave without 00:05:46.370 --> 00:05:48.269 your hearing aids. That's a lot of stuff some 00:05:48.269 --> 00:05:50.170 of you can leave without, but you can't leave 00:05:50.170 --> 00:05:51.689 without your hearing aids because you get in 00:05:51.689 --> 00:05:55.129 trouble if you ain't got your hearing aids. Can't 00:05:55.129 --> 00:05:57.709 hear nothing. Some of you can't hear this morning 00:05:57.709 --> 00:05:59.329 probably because you forgot your hearing aids. 00:05:59.370 --> 00:06:00.970 Some of you need hearing aids and you ain't got 00:06:00.970 --> 00:06:03.370 them. When your wife or your husband says you 00:06:03.370 --> 00:06:04.850 need them, maybe you need to listen to them. 00:06:05.509 --> 00:06:07.310 But you get in trouble if you ain't got your 00:06:07.310 --> 00:06:08.670 hearing aids. You can't hear what people are 00:06:08.670 --> 00:06:12.000 saying. And even worse than that, You talking 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:14.220 louder than you think you're talking. Let me 00:06:14.220 --> 00:06:17.519 give you a heads up. If you forget your hearing 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:20.740 aids, do not whisper to somebody. Because you 00:06:20.740 --> 00:06:22.740 ain't whispering. Because you look over there 00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:24.899 and you say, can you believe that they did their 00:06:24.899 --> 00:06:26.920 hair like that for church this morning? And you 00:06:26.920 --> 00:06:28.899 think you're whispering to your spouse and you're 00:06:28.899 --> 00:06:32.540 talking loud. These are things that we cannot 00:06:32.540 --> 00:06:34.779 leave the house without and we should not leave 00:06:34.779 --> 00:06:38.399 the house without. These are important things 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:42.069 to us. For some of you, maybe it's something 00:06:42.069 --> 00:06:45.170 more practical, like I cannot leave without brushing 00:06:45.170 --> 00:06:47.870 my teeth. I've got to brush my teeth or iron 00:06:47.870 --> 00:06:49.930 my clothes, right? You don't want to leave with 00:06:49.930 --> 00:06:51.790 wrinkles. You don't want to smell bad. You cannot 00:06:51.790 --> 00:06:54.790 leave without taking a shower. You've got to 00:06:54.790 --> 00:06:57.170 feel good. If you don't take a shower when you 00:06:57.170 --> 00:07:01.209 get up, you feel dirty all day. There's a whole 00:07:01.209 --> 00:07:05.209 list of things in our life that we cannot leave 00:07:05.209 --> 00:07:08.790 without. For some of you, it might be a gun. 00:07:09.449 --> 00:07:12.069 You got to have your gun with you. You're not 00:07:12.069 --> 00:07:13.689 going to leave the house, right? You watch the 00:07:13.689 --> 00:07:15.769 news. You see what's going on. You don't even 00:07:15.769 --> 00:07:17.850 come to church without it because you see people 00:07:17.850 --> 00:07:20.350 in churches getting shot up and you see so much 00:07:20.350 --> 00:07:23.149 stuff going on. And we have all of these things 00:07:23.149 --> 00:07:27.329 in our life that we say, I cannot leave without 00:07:27.329 --> 00:07:30.610 these things. I cannot live without these things. 00:07:31.829 --> 00:07:34.310 And perhaps these things say something about 00:07:34.310 --> 00:07:38.000 us and our dependency. What are we dependent 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:41.860 on to make it through the day? Perhaps we can't 00:07:41.860 --> 00:07:45.560 leave without our gun because that's our protection. 00:07:46.300 --> 00:07:49.220 Or we can't leave without our wallet or our purse. 00:07:49.259 --> 00:07:51.220 That's our security. That's our money. That's 00:07:51.220 --> 00:07:54.100 what's going to get us through. We can't leave 00:07:54.100 --> 00:07:55.899 without our cell phone. That's our connection. 00:07:56.339 --> 00:07:59.920 That's how we're connected to other people. That's 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:02.100 how we talk to people and people talk to us. 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:07.980 We cannot leave without our stimulant, our coffee 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:10.759 or our tobacco or whatever it is. It helps us 00:08:10.759 --> 00:08:14.040 to think better. And all of these things in our 00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:18.240 life, we begin to become dependent on these things. 00:08:20.339 --> 00:08:24.579 So much so that when we don't have them, we struggle 00:08:24.579 --> 00:08:27.339 to make it through a day. And that's because 00:08:27.339 --> 00:08:31.519 we're dependent upon the wrong things. That's 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:34.950 because we're trusting. and the wrong things. 00:08:36.769 --> 00:08:40.529 The one thing that we should say that we can't 00:08:40.529 --> 00:08:47.029 leave without every day is Jesus Christ. But 00:08:47.029 --> 00:08:49.690 there are a lot of days, perhaps, that we leave 00:08:49.690 --> 00:08:52.710 the house without ever once seeking the will 00:08:52.710 --> 00:08:57.389 of God, without once praying that God would guide 00:08:57.389 --> 00:09:00.110 us to make the right decisions during the day. 00:09:01.610 --> 00:09:04.850 That God would give us the strength to deal with 00:09:04.850 --> 00:09:09.129 the pesky co -worker or the crazy customer that's 00:09:09.129 --> 00:09:15.570 going to come in. Whatever it may be, our dependency 00:09:15.570 --> 00:09:20.129 should be on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ should 00:09:20.129 --> 00:09:23.769 be the one that we seek for protection. Jesus 00:09:23.769 --> 00:09:27.789 Christ should be the one that we seek for security. 00:09:29.699 --> 00:09:32.559 Jesus Christ should be the one that we're trying 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:35.580 to impress. Not everybody else with brushing 00:09:35.580 --> 00:09:38.100 our teeth and making sure our clothes are ironed 00:09:38.100 --> 00:09:40.879 and looking our best. Are we doing that for other 00:09:40.879 --> 00:09:44.600 people? Do we seek to live our life every day 00:09:44.600 --> 00:09:46.639 for other people and what other people would 00:09:46.639 --> 00:09:49.000 think of us? Or do we seek to live our life for 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:53.299 Jesus Christ every day? Because maybe you didn't 00:09:53.299 --> 00:09:56.720 brush your teeth this morning. Maybe you didn't 00:09:56.720 --> 00:09:59.240 iron your clothes this morning. Maybe you didn't 00:09:59.240 --> 00:10:02.440 take a shower this morning. Praise the Lord, 00:10:02.539 --> 00:10:05.440 God doesn't look at those things. But what he 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:10.320 does look at is our heart. And what we need to 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:12.700 think about every day before we leave our house 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:17.440 is what are we going to be dependent on? Or better 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:21.700 yet, who are we going to be dependent on? And 00:10:21.700 --> 00:10:24.870 Jesus tells us, In John chapter 15, verse 5, 00:10:24.970 --> 00:10:27.669 he says, I am the vine, you are the branches. 00:10:28.830 --> 00:10:32.009 Jesus says, I am the source of everything that 00:10:32.009 --> 00:10:37.509 you need and you cannot live apart from me. And 00:10:37.509 --> 00:10:40.230 if you are in me, Jesus says, you will produce 00:10:40.230 --> 00:10:44.690 fruit. We have to be fruit inspectors. As Christians, 00:10:44.750 --> 00:10:48.529 you are also a fruit inspector. You have to look 00:10:48.529 --> 00:10:50.389 at your life and see what kind of fruit are you 00:10:50.389 --> 00:10:52.789 producing. You're producing some fruit. There's 00:10:52.789 --> 00:10:55.429 no question about that. The question is, is it 00:10:55.429 --> 00:10:58.409 good fruit or is it bad fruit? Is it fruit that 00:10:58.409 --> 00:11:00.570 needs to be thrown to the side or is it fruit 00:11:00.570 --> 00:11:03.110 that's good enough to be presented to those that 00:11:03.110 --> 00:11:07.190 you encounter? And Jesus says we should be attached 00:11:07.190 --> 00:11:10.350 to him and he should be our source of life and 00:11:10.350 --> 00:11:12.830 our source of protection and our source of security 00:11:12.830 --> 00:11:16.210 and our source of joy and our source of everything 00:11:16.210 --> 00:11:22.320 that we need. We know how bad it is when we forget 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:26.200 our glasses and we forget our hearing aids. But 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:29.679 how much worse when we forget our Lord? For He 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:32.419 is the one who gives us vision to help us see 00:11:32.419 --> 00:11:34.700 the things that He wants us to see and gives 00:11:34.700 --> 00:11:37.399 us ears to hear the things that He wants us to 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:40.820 hear. And how many times do we look to the Lord 00:11:40.820 --> 00:11:44.240 and look to His Word? How many times do we open 00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:47.309 our ears to hear Him? How many times spiritually 00:11:47.309 --> 00:11:50.090 are we walking around without our spiritual glasses 00:11:50.090 --> 00:11:53.389 on and our spiritual ears open and we're missing 00:11:53.389 --> 00:11:58.610 what's going on around us? And Jesus says at 00:11:58.610 --> 00:12:03.190 the end of this verse, he says, without me, you 00:12:03.190 --> 00:12:09.730 can do nothing. So the one thing that we need 00:12:09.730 --> 00:12:12.549 more than anything in our life is Jesus Christ. 00:12:13.529 --> 00:12:17.350 And maybe in our addictions to our coffee and 00:12:17.350 --> 00:12:21.190 our phones and our trust and our wealth and how 00:12:21.190 --> 00:12:24.009 we look, maybe in the midst of all of these things, 00:12:24.230 --> 00:12:27.429 we forget the most important thing. We leave 00:12:27.429 --> 00:12:30.190 the house every day with our coffee in one hand 00:12:30.190 --> 00:12:32.710 and our cell phones in another hand and we look 00:12:32.710 --> 00:12:34.789 like we're ready to go to a beauty pageant and 00:12:34.789 --> 00:12:37.610 we get in our car and we leave and the one thing 00:12:37.610 --> 00:12:41.909 we forget is Jesus Christ. And we don't seek 00:12:41.909 --> 00:12:45.470 him for a second. We don't read His Word. We 00:12:45.470 --> 00:12:47.409 don't pray to Him. We don't listen to what His 00:12:47.409 --> 00:12:50.169 will is. We don't say, God, show me somebody 00:12:50.169 --> 00:12:53.470 that I can help today. God, help me to walk according 00:12:53.470 --> 00:12:56.350 to Your Word. Let it be a lamp unto my feet and 00:12:56.350 --> 00:12:59.250 a light unto my path. God, let Your Word and 00:12:59.250 --> 00:13:02.909 Your Holy Spirit guide me today. We don't have 00:13:02.909 --> 00:13:08.769 time for that because we're too busy. We've got 00:13:08.769 --> 00:13:12.360 too much else to think about. Now, I'm not saying 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:14.340 any of these things that I mentioned are bad. 00:13:15.340 --> 00:13:16.980 Don't wake up in the morning and say, I can't 00:13:16.980 --> 00:13:18.679 have my coffee. Brother Shan preached about that 00:13:18.679 --> 00:13:23.279 yesterday. I'm not saying that. Your coffee's 00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:26.740 not evil and your cell phone's not evil, although 00:13:26.740 --> 00:13:30.000 it could be like anything else. Hey, y 'all want 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:32.539 to know something crazy? I'm going to tell y 00:13:32.539 --> 00:13:34.779 'all something crazy. And you'll be surprised 00:13:34.779 --> 00:13:36.500 that we're even here today that the world didn't 00:13:36.500 --> 00:13:42.610 end. But Friday. I decided Friday morning that 00:13:42.610 --> 00:13:45.289 I was not going to take my cell phone with me 00:13:45.289 --> 00:13:48.470 all day. I put it in my pocket. I mean, I took 00:13:48.470 --> 00:13:50.409 it out of my pocket. I left the house. I woke 00:13:50.409 --> 00:13:53.929 up. I left it sitting on the bar. You know what's 00:13:53.929 --> 00:13:56.769 crazy? The world didn't end. I know what some 00:13:56.769 --> 00:13:59.309 of y 'all are thinking. I couldn't do that. I 00:13:59.309 --> 00:14:00.629 couldn't do that. And some of y 'all are thinking, 00:14:00.730 --> 00:14:02.190 well, what if somebody would have needed you? 00:14:02.210 --> 00:14:05.049 And I thought about that, and I said, well, that's 00:14:05.049 --> 00:14:07.250 probably more of a justification than anything. 00:14:07.450 --> 00:14:10.159 I'm going to just leave it at home. And you know 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:12.960 what? It didn't affect anybody except for my 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:14.340 daddy. He called me. He was the only one that 00:14:14.340 --> 00:14:17.700 called me all day. And I got home. I had one 00:14:17.700 --> 00:14:20.080 missed call. But that's the only person it affected. 00:14:21.340 --> 00:14:24.700 And I made it to the end of the day. It's unbelievable, 00:14:25.019 --> 00:14:27.320 right? Because we don't realize how often we 00:14:27.320 --> 00:14:29.320 pick up our phone a day. You pick up your phone 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:31.259 way more than you realize you pick up your phone. 00:14:31.340 --> 00:14:34.620 On average, even a light cell phone user picks 00:14:34.620 --> 00:14:37.379 up their phone like 60 times a day. Some of you 00:14:37.379 --> 00:14:39.240 are picking it up like 200 times a day, right? 00:14:39.539 --> 00:14:41.259 Because we've always got to check everything. 00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:43.500 Because we've got to check our bank account. 00:14:43.700 --> 00:14:45.360 And we've got to see what's going on on TikTok 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:48.539 and Instagram and Facebook. We've got to check 00:14:48.539 --> 00:14:51.200 all these things out. And we've got to do it, 00:14:51.220 --> 00:14:54.659 right? We've got to do it. You just can't not 00:14:54.659 --> 00:14:58.080 do it. You've got to do it. Because what if somebody 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:01.440 said something important on Facebook today? What 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:03.799 if somebody's selling something on Facebook Marketplace 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:07.519 and I didn't look at that? Or what if I got this 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:11.600 text message or this phone call? What if I went 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:13.320 a whole day? It's the craziest thing. I never 00:15:13.320 --> 00:15:15.039 picked up my phone. I didn't miss a single thing. 00:15:17.879 --> 00:15:19.580 Maybe there are some things in our life that 00:15:19.580 --> 00:15:22.740 we do need to cut out. Maybe there are some things 00:15:22.740 --> 00:15:26.409 in our life that are distractions. Maybe in the 00:15:26.409 --> 00:15:28.230 morning when you put your phone in your pocket 00:15:28.230 --> 00:15:29.950 or when you drink your cup of coffee or when 00:15:29.950 --> 00:15:32.289 you grab your glasses or put your hearing aids 00:15:32.289 --> 00:15:34.669 in or stick your gun in your pants, whatever 00:15:34.669 --> 00:15:37.750 it may be, maybe tomorrow when you think about 00:15:37.750 --> 00:15:40.070 these things, you'll also think about Jesus Christ 00:15:40.070 --> 00:15:44.590 and say, Jesus, without you, I can do nothing. 00:15:46.409 --> 00:15:48.529 And there's a lot of times in life that we might 00:15:48.529 --> 00:15:50.590 go through a day or go through a week and it 00:15:50.590 --> 00:15:53.570 just seems like nothing is working out. We can't 00:15:53.570 --> 00:15:58.639 do nothing right. And the reason why may be simple. 00:15:59.500 --> 00:16:02.259 It may be because we're trying to do it without 00:16:02.259 --> 00:16:06.720 Jesus. And Jesus says, without me, you can do 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:13.000 nothing. What a beautiful song. Some of you have 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.059 heard the song. Without him, it's based on this 00:16:15.059 --> 00:16:17.659 verse. Without him, I could do nothing. Without 00:16:17.659 --> 00:16:21.940 him, I'd surely fail. Without him, I'd be drifting 00:16:21.940 --> 00:16:26.860 like a ship without a sail. What a beautiful, 00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:30.639 beautiful song. What a beautiful, beautiful truth. 00:16:32.600 --> 00:16:35.120 There are some of you today that are so dependent 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:41.240 on your stuff and so dependent on what happens 00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:43.460 around you to the things you like or the things 00:16:43.460 --> 00:16:46.299 you're into that when those things crumble, you 00:16:46.299 --> 00:16:50.500 can't do anything. But if you place your dependency 00:16:50.500 --> 00:16:54.279 on Jesus Christ, You can do all things through 00:16:54.279 --> 00:16:58.700 Christ who strengthens you. Some of us are like 00:16:58.700 --> 00:17:01.159 that. There's a story in Luke chapter 10. You 00:17:01.159 --> 00:17:03.740 can go read it. It's a great story. A real short 00:17:03.740 --> 00:17:05.759 little story about a couple of sisters, Mary 00:17:05.759 --> 00:17:08.339 and Martha, and Jesus is coming to visit. And, 00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:10.380 boy, it's a big deal. Of course, they're friends 00:17:10.380 --> 00:17:14.000 with Jesus. He comes in, and Jesus shows up onto 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:16.160 the scene, and Mary just sitting down at his 00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:18.099 feet just listening to everything that Jesus 00:17:18.099 --> 00:17:20.460 is saying. And Martha, she comes in there, and 00:17:20.460 --> 00:17:21.859 she says, Look, we're trying to get everything 00:17:21.859 --> 00:17:25.079 together. We got guests here. Jesus, you need 00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:27.680 to tell Mary she needs to get up and help me 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:31.609 do some of this work around this house. And Jesus 00:17:31.609 --> 00:17:36.089 said, Martha, Martha, you are distracted by many 00:17:36.089 --> 00:17:42.470 things. But Mary, Mary knew what mattered. Mary 00:17:42.470 --> 00:17:46.230 knew what was important. All the noise and all 00:17:46.230 --> 00:17:50.589 of the distractions around her, Mary knew that 00:17:50.589 --> 00:17:53.910 being in the presence of Jesus Christ mattered 00:17:53.910 --> 00:17:58.849 more than anything else. Perhaps our... prayer 00:17:58.849 --> 00:18:02.470 each day needs to be that of Moses. In Moses 00:18:02.470 --> 00:18:08.250 chapter 33, verse 15, God had told Moses to lead 00:18:08.250 --> 00:18:11.269 the people to go toward the promised land, to 00:18:11.269 --> 00:18:16.450 get on their way. And Moses says to God, God, 00:18:16.450 --> 00:18:21.670 if your presence is not going with me, I will 00:18:21.670 --> 00:18:25.059 not go. God, if you don't go with me, I cannot 00:18:25.059 --> 00:18:29.019 go. God, I cannot do this. I cannot make it through 00:18:29.019 --> 00:18:31.819 this day. I cannot serve you in this way you've 00:18:31.819 --> 00:18:35.220 called. God, if you do not go with me, I will 00:18:35.220 --> 00:18:40.180 not go. But it's maybe more days than we'd like 00:18:40.180 --> 00:18:44.140 to admit that we leave God at home and we don't 00:18:44.140 --> 00:18:47.480 think twice. We go out about our day trying to 00:18:47.480 --> 00:18:50.240 do it on our own and never once. Call on God. 00:18:50.339 --> 00:18:53.180 Never once seek God. Never once allow God to 00:18:53.180 --> 00:18:57.019 lead us. Maybe our prayer tomorrow needs to be, 00:18:57.079 --> 00:19:02.440 God, I got another day ahead of me. And God, 00:19:02.460 --> 00:19:06.779 if you do not go with me, I cannot make it. So 00:19:06.779 --> 00:19:09.319 Lord, I ask that you would be with me today. 00:19:11.079 --> 00:19:18.119 Because without you, I can do nothing. So what 00:19:18.119 --> 00:19:22.170 are you depending on? today? What are you depending 00:19:22.170 --> 00:19:26.369 on for a good day, for a good week? You know 00:19:26.369 --> 00:19:28.049 something silly? I'll tell y 'all. This is silly. 00:19:28.190 --> 00:19:30.509 Y 'all can tell me how bad I am when I tell you 00:19:30.509 --> 00:19:34.549 this, but I like football, in particular NFL 00:19:34.549 --> 00:19:37.309 football. I'm a Philadelphia Eagles fan, if you 00:19:37.309 --> 00:19:40.190 didn't know that. My whole life, I watched the 00:19:40.190 --> 00:19:43.670 Eagles, and we never had won a Super Bowl until 00:19:43.670 --> 00:19:47.900 2017. And I always thought to myself, I thought, 00:19:47.980 --> 00:19:50.940 boy, if we could just get one, just one Super 00:19:50.940 --> 00:19:53.299 Bowl, I would be so happy for the rest of my 00:19:53.299 --> 00:19:56.220 life. And then we won that Super Bowl, and in 00:19:56.220 --> 00:19:58.099 the last eight years, we've been to three Super 00:19:58.099 --> 00:20:00.480 Bowls, and we won two of them, and we should 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:02.539 have won the third Super Bowl, and you would 00:20:02.539 --> 00:20:05.279 think that I'd be happy because I said if I ever 00:20:05.279 --> 00:20:09.119 won a Super Bowl on my team, I'd be happy. But 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:11.619 y 'all don't, please don't come to my house on 00:20:11.619 --> 00:20:14.720 a Sunday afternoon. When the Eagles are playing. 00:20:14.740 --> 00:20:16.759 Or y 'all will fire me from being the pastor 00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:20.900 of this church. Because no matter how much they 00:20:20.900 --> 00:20:24.539 win, I get so angry. And here's the, I said all 00:20:24.539 --> 00:20:29.480 that to say this. When the Eagles lose, the whole 00:20:29.480 --> 00:20:31.980 next week for me is horrible. It is just horrible. 00:20:32.299 --> 00:20:35.559 Like I'll wake up in the night like just mad 00:20:35.559 --> 00:20:38.859 about a play. Like I'm telling you. Like my whole 00:20:38.859 --> 00:20:44.140 week will be ruined. Because my team lost. I 00:20:44.140 --> 00:20:46.400 kid you not, for the year that we lost that Super 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:48.359 Bowl, I woke up for like a year straight after 00:20:48.359 --> 00:20:50.259 that having nightmares about that Super Bowl. 00:20:50.279 --> 00:20:52.720 I'd wake up angry every morning. And that's not 00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:56.480 good. We laugh, but that's not good. My weak 00:20:56.480 --> 00:20:59.740 and my attitude should not be dependent on whether 00:20:59.740 --> 00:21:03.400 my football team wins or not. My weak and my 00:21:03.400 --> 00:21:06.720 attitude should be dependent on whether Jesus 00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:10.980 Christ is the Lord of my life. And so even if 00:21:10.980 --> 00:21:13.490 the Eagles lose, Tomorrow night's when they play 00:21:13.490 --> 00:21:17.630 if y 'all want to watch them. Even if they lose, 00:21:17.950 --> 00:21:23.769 it shouldn't ruin my week. And maybe you guys 00:21:23.769 --> 00:21:26.730 have some things like that too. Some things that 00:21:26.730 --> 00:21:30.150 come up, some real simple, silly things that 00:21:30.150 --> 00:21:33.170 come up at home or with your ball teams, and 00:21:33.170 --> 00:21:35.269 you start the day off and the least little thing 00:21:35.269 --> 00:21:37.730 happens, it just ruins your day. It just ruins 00:21:37.730 --> 00:21:42.269 your week. And maybe these things ruin our week 00:21:42.269 --> 00:21:45.569 and ruin our lives because we're too dependent 00:21:45.569 --> 00:21:50.710 on these things and not dependent on Jesus Christ. 00:21:52.289 --> 00:21:58.470 Without Him, we can do nothing. Jesus Christ 00:21:58.470 --> 00:22:03.250 needs to be our security today. Jesus Christ 00:22:03.250 --> 00:22:08.490 needs to be our protection today. The Holy Spirit 00:22:08.490 --> 00:22:11.559 needs to... Open our eyes to see the will of 00:22:11.559 --> 00:22:14.960 God and the word of God and our ears to hear 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:20.359 the word of God and to do the word of God. If 00:22:20.359 --> 00:22:22.019 you've been trying to make it through this life 00:22:22.019 --> 00:22:27.299 without him, you can do nothing. And you know 00:22:27.299 --> 00:22:30.759 that yourself. If you've been trying to make 00:22:30.759 --> 00:22:32.740 it through your life today without Jesus Christ, 00:22:32.839 --> 00:22:35.259 you are like a ship without a sail and you are 00:22:35.259 --> 00:22:37.700 being tossed wherever the waves of life will 00:22:37.700 --> 00:22:42.119 toss you. into the storms of life, into the rocky 00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:44.259 cliffs, into whatever is around. That's what 00:22:44.259 --> 00:22:48.559 you'll be tossed into. But with Jesus Christ, 00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:52.779 he'll be like a sail on a boat. He'll guide you 00:22:52.779 --> 00:22:56.720 where you need to go. He'll take you to a place 00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:01.980 of safety. With Jesus today, you can make it. 00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:05.960 If your dependency is on Jesus Christ and his... 00:23:07.089 --> 00:23:09.049 crucifixion and resurrection and his sacrifice 00:23:09.049 --> 00:23:12.349 for you, if you know today that he loves you 00:23:12.349 --> 00:23:14.150 and that he wants to forgive your sins, if you 00:23:14.150 --> 00:23:16.150 would just trust him and put your faith in him 00:23:16.150 --> 00:23:22.289 today, with Jesus you can do all things. But 00:23:22.289 --> 00:23:24.650 Jesus tells us in this verse that without him 00:23:24.650 --> 00:23:30.170 you can do nothing. Let's pray. God, we come 00:23:30.170 --> 00:23:32.470 to you today and we thank you for these words. 00:23:35.139 --> 00:23:36.920 God, maybe there are some of us today that are 00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:40.960 doing pretty good. Maybe we start every day out 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:43.400 trusting you and seeking you first and foremost, 00:23:43.559 --> 00:23:46.960 and that's a great thing, dear Lord. Maybe there 00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:48.720 are some that do that, and I praise you for that. 00:23:50.559 --> 00:23:54.059 Maybe there are others that don't, God. Maybe 00:23:54.059 --> 00:23:56.380 there are some of us that when we get up and 00:23:56.380 --> 00:23:58.380 we start our day and we really don't think twice 00:23:58.380 --> 00:24:01.599 about you, not only when we start today, but 00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:05.509 when we go through the day, dear Lord. We become 00:24:05.509 --> 00:24:09.769 so dependent on these other things that we think 00:24:09.769 --> 00:24:12.690 we can't live without, dear Lord. I pray, God, 00:24:12.750 --> 00:24:16.150 that you would open our eyes to see that the 00:24:16.150 --> 00:24:18.490 only thing that we cannot live without is Jesus 00:24:18.490 --> 00:24:22.849 Christ. So I pray, dear Lord, that we would not 00:24:22.849 --> 00:24:26.529 put too much trust in the things of this world. 00:24:27.829 --> 00:24:30.789 That our joy would not be dependent on our ball 00:24:30.789 --> 00:24:35.940 teams and on our bank accounts. Anything else, 00:24:35.940 --> 00:24:38.200 dear Lord, there's a whole list of things. God, 00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:42.539 you know what's in our heart. And honestly, we 00:24:42.539 --> 00:24:45.599 probably do too. You already convicted us of 00:24:45.599 --> 00:24:47.880 the things that we know shouldn't be there. And 00:24:47.880 --> 00:24:51.279 so, God, I pray that if there are some today 00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:54.599 that have been trying to live without you, without 00:24:54.599 --> 00:24:57.980 Jesus Christ, that today that they would repent 00:24:57.980 --> 00:25:01.740 of their sinfulness. That they would know the 00:25:01.740 --> 00:25:04.200 truth of the words of Jesus today. That without 00:25:04.200 --> 00:25:07.039 Him, they can do nothing, dear Lord. Without 00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:11.680 Him, we're doomed to die in our sin. But with 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:17.099 Jesus Christ, our sin can be forgiven. So God, 00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:19.559 I pray that if there's anybody that doesn't know 00:25:19.559 --> 00:25:21.980 Jesus Christ, that now that they would ask for 00:25:21.980 --> 00:25:23.839 forgiveness of their sins. That they would ask 00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:26.480 Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. That they 00:25:26.480 --> 00:25:30.779 would trust Him this morning. God, maybe there 00:25:30.779 --> 00:25:32.920 are some today that are yours and they know Jesus 00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:36.119 Christ, but maybe we've just gotten caught into 00:25:36.119 --> 00:25:40.940 the trap, the trap of being too dependent on 00:25:40.940 --> 00:25:43.859 the things of the world, trusting in them, trying 00:25:43.859 --> 00:25:47.819 to find joy in them, and I pray, God, that you 00:25:47.819 --> 00:25:49.839 would help us to lay some of these things aside, 00:25:50.019 --> 00:25:54.039 that you would help us to find our joy in Jesus 00:25:54.039 --> 00:25:58.279 Christ because there is no other source. And 00:25:58.279 --> 00:26:01.480 I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.