John chapter 15, verse 5. We'll read one verse,
then we'll pray and get started. John chapter
15, verse 5. I am the vine, you are the branches.
The one who remains in me and I in him produces
much fruit because you can do nothing without
me. Let's pray. God, we come to you today and
we thank you for the freedom and the privilege
to be able to read your word and to sing these
songs. I pray, dear Lord, that your Holy Spirit
would be on us today, that you would free us
from All of the distractions and the thoughts
of our minds and the worries and the pains and
the sadness and the struggles and whatever it
may be, dear Lord, that's competing for our attention
right now. I pray, God, that you would block
those things out. I pray that your Holy Spirit,
dear Lord, would help us to focus on you. That
you would give us eyes to see you today and ears
to hear you today, dear Lord. That we would trust
you above all else. I pray, God, that you take
away any pride or any fear that's within me,
that every word that is said today from me, dear
Lord, is from you, and it's all for your glory.
And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
I was thinking about this week. I was thinking
about this question. If I were to ask everybody
in here this morning, When you leave your house
every day, what would be the one thing that you
could not leave without? The one thing that you
have to do before you leave, or the one thing
you have to take with you when you leave. What
is the one thing that you cannot leave your house
without? Now, I suspect everybody's answers would
be a little different. There were some things
that I thought of this week that... That I've
heard people say before and some that I say myself.
And I hear some people say, I can't get my day
started. I can't do anything until I've had my
cup of coffee. Has anybody ever said that before?
Maybe that's your thing. Maybe you're one thing.
You could go without everything else. You could
leave the house without doing everything else.
But you've got to have that cup of coffee. And
some people are shaking your head. You don't
drink coffee and that's okay. But maybe there's
other things for some of the rest of us. Maybe
some of you say, I cannot leave the house without
my wallet. Okay, or without my purse. Kind of
the same thing because we've got a lot of stuff
we need in our wallet and our purse. We've got
our IDs. We've got our money. We've got all kinds
of stuff in there. If you've got a purse, you've
got all kinds of stuff in there. There ain't
no telling what's in there. I'm afraid to ask.
But these are things that we say, oh, I cannot
leave without that. Maybe it's something else.
Maybe it's some technology. Specifically your
cell phone. Just out of curiosity, I want to
ask you this on all of them. Who in here this
morning brought their cell phone with them? Raise
your hand. That's just about everybody in here.
There's a few of you that left them at home.
But there's a lot of you that you could be halfway
to work. And you wouldn't even turn around and
go get your wife if you left her. But if you
leave that cell phone, you're going to turn around
and go back and get it, right? I mean, these
are some of the things that we can't leave without.
What about our glasses? It's hard to make it.
When you can't see very good, and my eyes are
getting worse and worse, when you can't see very
good, it's hard to make it through the day when
you forget your glasses. I forget my glasses
sometimes. And that can be disastrous. I'll tell
you how disastrous that can be. I went to the
co -op, this was last summer, to get some ant
poison. I had a bunch of anthills that had popped
up. And I go in the co -op, and I pick out some
ant poison, and I see some, and it's expensive.
It's like 30 bucks or something. It's real high.
It ain't like this big. It comes in a little
blue thing. And it says on this, I forgot my
glasses now, and it says on this thing, it says,
kills up to 130 miles. And I said, this is unbelievable.
I'm going to kill every, I'm killing every ant
between the Mississippi River and the Gulf Coast.
Y 'all can thank me later, everybody, within
130 miles. So I get this stuff while I get home,
and I'm shaking it on there, boy. If you'd have
drove by my, it looked like just a pile of powdered
donuts everywhere out in that yard. I sprinkled
that white powder on there. And after I emptied
the whole thing, And I had my glasses, and I
could see. It did not say kills ants up to 130
miles. It says kills up to 130 heels. Ant heels.
And that ain't bad enough. I poured every bit
of it on 10. It was enough for 130 heels, and
I used the whole thing on 10 ant heels. And I
said, that's what happens when you cannot see.
What about hearing aids? Can't leave without
your hearing aids. That's a lot of stuff some
of you can leave without, but you can't leave
without your hearing aids because you get in
trouble if you ain't got your hearing aids. Can't
hear nothing. Some of you can't hear this morning
probably because you forgot your hearing aids.
Some of you need hearing aids and you ain't got
them. When your wife or your husband says you
need them, maybe you need to listen to them.
But you get in trouble if you ain't got your
hearing aids. You can't hear what people are
saying. And even worse than that, You talking
louder than you think you're talking. Let me
give you a heads up. If you forget your hearing
aids, do not whisper to somebody. Because you
ain't whispering. Because you look over there
and you say, can you believe that they did their
hair like that for church this morning? And you
think you're whispering to your spouse and you're
talking loud. These are things that we cannot
leave the house without and we should not leave
the house without. These are important things
to us. For some of you, maybe it's something
more practical, like I cannot leave without brushing
my teeth. I've got to brush my teeth or iron
my clothes, right? You don't want to leave with
wrinkles. You don't want to smell bad. You cannot
leave without taking a shower. You've got to
feel good. If you don't take a shower when you
get up, you feel dirty all day. There's a whole
list of things in our life that we cannot leave
without. For some of you, it might be a gun.
You got to have your gun with you. You're not
going to leave the house, right? You watch the
news. You see what's going on. You don't even
come to church without it because you see people
in churches getting shot up and you see so much
stuff going on. And we have all of these things
in our life that we say, I cannot leave without
these things. I cannot live without these things.
And perhaps these things say something about
us and our dependency. What are we dependent
on to make it through the day? Perhaps we can't
leave without our gun because that's our protection.
Or we can't leave without our wallet or our purse.
That's our security. That's our money. That's
what's going to get us through. We can't leave
without our cell phone. That's our connection.
That's how we're connected to other people. That's
how we talk to people and people talk to us.
We cannot leave without our stimulant, our coffee
or our tobacco or whatever it is. It helps us
to think better. And all of these things in our
life, we begin to become dependent on these things.
So much so that when we don't have them, we struggle
to make it through a day. And that's because
we're dependent upon the wrong things. That's
because we're trusting. and the wrong things.
The one thing that we should say that we can't
leave without every day is Jesus Christ. But
there are a lot of days, perhaps, that we leave
the house without ever once seeking the will
of God, without once praying that God would guide
us to make the right decisions during the day.
That God would give us the strength to deal with
the pesky co -worker or the crazy customer that's
going to come in. Whatever it may be, our dependency
should be on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ should
be the one that we seek for protection. Jesus
Christ should be the one that we seek for security.
Jesus Christ should be the one that we're trying
to impress. Not everybody else with brushing
our teeth and making sure our clothes are ironed
and looking our best. Are we doing that for other
people? Do we seek to live our life every day
for other people and what other people would
think of us? Or do we seek to live our life for
Jesus Christ every day? Because maybe you didn't
brush your teeth this morning. Maybe you didn't
iron your clothes this morning. Maybe you didn't
take a shower this morning. Praise the Lord,
God doesn't look at those things. But what he
does look at is our heart. And what we need to
think about every day before we leave our house
is what are we going to be dependent on? Or better
yet, who are we going to be dependent on? And
Jesus tells us, In John chapter 15, verse 5,
he says, I am the vine, you are the branches.
Jesus says, I am the source of everything that
you need and you cannot live apart from me. And
if you are in me, Jesus says, you will produce
fruit. We have to be fruit inspectors. As Christians,
you are also a fruit inspector. You have to look
at your life and see what kind of fruit are you
producing. You're producing some fruit. There's
no question about that. The question is, is it
good fruit or is it bad fruit? Is it fruit that
needs to be thrown to the side or is it fruit
that's good enough to be presented to those that
you encounter? And Jesus says we should be attached
to him and he should be our source of life and
our source of protection and our source of security
and our source of joy and our source of everything
that we need. We know how bad it is when we forget
our glasses and we forget our hearing aids. But
how much worse when we forget our Lord? For He
is the one who gives us vision to help us see
the things that He wants us to see and gives
us ears to hear the things that He wants us to
hear. And how many times do we look to the Lord
and look to His Word? How many times do we open
our ears to hear Him? How many times spiritually
are we walking around without our spiritual glasses
on and our spiritual ears open and we're missing
what's going on around us? And Jesus says at
the end of this verse, he says, without me, you
can do nothing. So the one thing that we need
more than anything in our life is Jesus Christ.
And maybe in our addictions to our coffee and
our phones and our trust and our wealth and how
we look, maybe in the midst of all of these things,
we forget the most important thing. We leave
the house every day with our coffee in one hand
and our cell phones in another hand and we look
like we're ready to go to a beauty pageant and
we get in our car and we leave and the one thing
we forget is Jesus Christ. And we don't seek
him for a second. We don't read His Word. We
don't pray to Him. We don't listen to what His
will is. We don't say, God, show me somebody
that I can help today. God, help me to walk according
to Your Word. Let it be a lamp unto my feet and
a light unto my path. God, let Your Word and
Your Holy Spirit guide me today. We don't have
time for that because we're too busy. We've got
too much else to think about. Now, I'm not saying
any of these things that I mentioned are bad.
Don't wake up in the morning and say, I can't
have my coffee. Brother Shan preached about that
yesterday. I'm not saying that. Your coffee's
not evil and your cell phone's not evil, although
it could be like anything else. Hey, y 'all want
to know something crazy? I'm going to tell y
'all something crazy. And you'll be surprised
that we're even here today that the world didn't
end. But Friday. I decided Friday morning that
I was not going to take my cell phone with me
all day. I put it in my pocket. I mean, I took
it out of my pocket. I left the house. I woke
up. I left it sitting on the bar. You know what's
crazy? The world didn't end. I know what some
of y 'all are thinking. I couldn't do that. I
couldn't do that. And some of y 'all are thinking,
well, what if somebody would have needed you?
And I thought about that, and I said, well, that's
probably more of a justification than anything.
I'm going to just leave it at home. And you know
what? It didn't affect anybody except for my
daddy. He called me. He was the only one that
called me all day. And I got home. I had one
missed call. But that's the only person it affected.
And I made it to the end of the day. It's unbelievable,
right? Because we don't realize how often we
pick up our phone a day. You pick up your phone
way more than you realize you pick up your phone.
On average, even a light cell phone user picks
up their phone like 60 times a day. Some of you
are picking it up like 200 times a day, right?
Because we've always got to check everything.
Because we've got to check our bank account.
And we've got to see what's going on on TikTok
and Instagram and Facebook. We've got to check
all these things out. And we've got to do it,
right? We've got to do it. You just can't not
do it. You've got to do it. Because what if somebody
said something important on Facebook today? What
if somebody's selling something on Facebook Marketplace
and I didn't look at that? Or what if I got this
text message or this phone call? What if I went
a whole day? It's the craziest thing. I never
picked up my phone. I didn't miss a single thing.
Maybe there are some things in our life that
we do need to cut out. Maybe there are some things
in our life that are distractions. Maybe in the
morning when you put your phone in your pocket
or when you drink your cup of coffee or when
you grab your glasses or put your hearing aids
in or stick your gun in your pants, whatever
it may be, maybe tomorrow when you think about
these things, you'll also think about Jesus Christ
and say, Jesus, without you, I can do nothing.
And there's a lot of times in life that we might
go through a day or go through a week and it
just seems like nothing is working out. We can't
do nothing right. And the reason why may be simple.
It may be because we're trying to do it without
Jesus. And Jesus says, without me, you can do
nothing. What a beautiful song. Some of you have
heard the song. Without him, it's based on this
verse. Without him, I could do nothing. Without
him, I'd surely fail. Without him, I'd be drifting
like a ship without a sail. What a beautiful,
beautiful song. What a beautiful, beautiful truth.
There are some of you today that are so dependent
on your stuff and so dependent on what happens
around you to the things you like or the things
you're into that when those things crumble, you
can't do anything. But if you place your dependency
on Jesus Christ, You can do all things through
Christ who strengthens you. Some of us are like
that. There's a story in Luke chapter 10. You
can go read it. It's a great story. A real short
little story about a couple of sisters, Mary
and Martha, and Jesus is coming to visit. And,
boy, it's a big deal. Of course, they're friends
with Jesus. He comes in, and Jesus shows up onto
the scene, and Mary just sitting down at his
feet just listening to everything that Jesus
is saying. And Martha, she comes in there, and
she says, Look, we're trying to get everything
together. We got guests here. Jesus, you need
to tell Mary she needs to get up and help me
do some of this work around this house. And Jesus
said, Martha, Martha, you are distracted by many
things. But Mary, Mary knew what mattered. Mary
knew what was important. All the noise and all
of the distractions around her, Mary knew that
being in the presence of Jesus Christ mattered
more than anything else. Perhaps our... prayer
each day needs to be that of Moses. In Moses
chapter 33, verse 15, God had told Moses to lead
the people to go toward the promised land, to
get on their way. And Moses says to God, God,
if your presence is not going with me, I will
not go. God, if you don't go with me, I cannot
go. God, I cannot do this. I cannot make it through
this day. I cannot serve you in this way you've
called. God, if you do not go with me, I will
not go. But it's maybe more days than we'd like
to admit that we leave God at home and we don't
think twice. We go out about our day trying to
do it on our own and never once. Call on God.
Never once seek God. Never once allow God to
lead us. Maybe our prayer tomorrow needs to be,
God, I got another day ahead of me. And God,
if you do not go with me, I cannot make it. So
Lord, I ask that you would be with me today.
Because without you, I can do nothing. So what
are you depending on? today? What are you depending
on for a good day, for a good week? You know
something silly? I'll tell y 'all. This is silly.
Y 'all can tell me how bad I am when I tell you
this, but I like football, in particular NFL
football. I'm a Philadelphia Eagles fan, if you
didn't know that. My whole life, I watched the
Eagles, and we never had won a Super Bowl until
2017. And I always thought to myself, I thought,
boy, if we could just get one, just one Super
Bowl, I would be so happy for the rest of my
life. And then we won that Super Bowl, and in
the last eight years, we've been to three Super
Bowls, and we won two of them, and we should
have won the third Super Bowl, and you would
think that I'd be happy because I said if I ever
won a Super Bowl on my team, I'd be happy. But
y 'all don't, please don't come to my house on
a Sunday afternoon. When the Eagles are playing.
Or y 'all will fire me from being the pastor
of this church. Because no matter how much they
win, I get so angry. And here's the, I said all
that to say this. When the Eagles lose, the whole
next week for me is horrible. It is just horrible.
Like I'll wake up in the night like just mad
about a play. Like I'm telling you. Like my whole
week will be ruined. Because my team lost. I
kid you not, for the year that we lost that Super
Bowl, I woke up for like a year straight after
that having nightmares about that Super Bowl.
I'd wake up angry every morning. And that's not
good. We laugh, but that's not good. My weak
and my attitude should not be dependent on whether
my football team wins or not. My weak and my
attitude should be dependent on whether Jesus
Christ is the Lord of my life. And so even if
the Eagles lose, Tomorrow night's when they play
if y 'all want to watch them. Even if they lose,
it shouldn't ruin my week. And maybe you guys
have some things like that too. Some things that
come up, some real simple, silly things that
come up at home or with your ball teams, and
you start the day off and the least little thing
happens, it just ruins your day. It just ruins
your week. And maybe these things ruin our week
and ruin our lives because we're too dependent
on these things and not dependent on Jesus Christ.
Without Him, we can do nothing. Jesus Christ
needs to be our security today. Jesus Christ
needs to be our protection today. The Holy Spirit
needs to... Open our eyes to see the will of
God and the word of God and our ears to hear
the word of God and to do the word of God. If
you've been trying to make it through this life
without him, you can do nothing. And you know
that yourself. If you've been trying to make
it through your life today without Jesus Christ,
you are like a ship without a sail and you are
being tossed wherever the waves of life will
toss you. into the storms of life, into the rocky
cliffs, into whatever is around. That's what
you'll be tossed into. But with Jesus Christ,
he'll be like a sail on a boat. He'll guide you
where you need to go. He'll take you to a place
of safety. With Jesus today, you can make it.
If your dependency is on Jesus Christ and his...
crucifixion and resurrection and his sacrifice
for you, if you know today that he loves you
and that he wants to forgive your sins, if you
would just trust him and put your faith in him
today, with Jesus you can do all things. But
Jesus tells us in this verse that without him
you can do nothing. Let's pray. God, we come
to you today and we thank you for these words.
God, maybe there are some of us today that are
doing pretty good. Maybe we start every day out
trusting you and seeking you first and foremost,
and that's a great thing, dear Lord. Maybe there
are some that do that, and I praise you for that.
Maybe there are others that don't, God. Maybe
there are some of us that when we get up and
we start our day and we really don't think twice
about you, not only when we start today, but
when we go through the day, dear Lord. We become
so dependent on these other things that we think
we can't live without, dear Lord. I pray, God,
that you would open our eyes to see that the
only thing that we cannot live without is Jesus
Christ. So I pray, dear Lord, that we would not
put too much trust in the things of this world.
That our joy would not be dependent on our ball
teams and on our bank accounts. Anything else,
dear Lord, there's a whole list of things. God,
you know what's in our heart. And honestly, we
probably do too. You already convicted us of
the things that we know shouldn't be there. And
so, God, I pray that if there are some today
that have been trying to live without you, without
Jesus Christ, that today that they would repent
of their sinfulness. That they would know the
truth of the words of Jesus today. That without
Him, they can do nothing, dear Lord. Without
Him, we're doomed to die in our sin. But with
Jesus Christ, our sin can be forgiven. So God,
I pray that if there's anybody that doesn't know
Jesus Christ, that now that they would ask for
forgiveness of their sins. That they would ask
Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. That they
would trust Him this morning. God, maybe there
are some today that are yours and they know Jesus
Christ, but maybe we've just gotten caught into
the trap, the trap of being too dependent on
the things of the world, trusting in them, trying
to find joy in them, and I pray, God, that you
would help us to lay some of these things aside,
that you would help us to find our joy in Jesus
Christ because there is no other source. And
I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.