Jesus has the words of life and that's where we go on.
When the way gets tough,
and we get circumstances that make us question God,
we lose everything, you know,
remember we're following him and we're his disciples.
Amen.
And we're abiding in him.
God promises in Joel 2, 28,
to pour out his spirit on all humanity.
Welcome to Global Outpouring,
where we contend for that promise outpouring,
we equip for that outpouring,
so that we may engage in that very outpouring.
I'm Philip Bus.
And I'm Sharon Bus.
Welcome to the podcast today.
We're so delighted that you're with us.
You know, God has given Philip a download for this episode.
So I'm gonna toss the ball to him to introduce it.
Well, this was a word that was coming to me.
It started last week, but it all came together this morning.
You could title this,
Come and see, follow me,
abide in me and send me.
Amen.
It's four things you do when you really follow the Lord.
We're so glad that you are with us on this podcast today.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Before we get started with this interesting study,
I want to encourage you, if you haven't already done so,
that you make sure that you've gone to our website,
globaloutpouring.net,
and that you have subscribed to our email lists
so that we can stay in touch with you.
It's really important that, you know,
these days things are uncertain on the internet
and it's just a good way to stay in touch.
So that's one thing.
And then the other thing is we want to make sure
that you are making plans to come to convention 2025
in St. Louis, Missouri.
We're going to have this marvelous time
of getting immersed in the presence of God
in this convention.
It's going to be family camp, bring the whole family.
It's for every age.
We've got something special
and it's about connecting people.
If you're hungry for God,
and sometimes when you're hungry for God,
you can't find anybody else that's hungry for God.
Maybe you have one or two, bring those one or two.
Maybe you've got a group of 10, bring that group of 10
because this is an opportunity for you to come
into a deeper place in God
where God is moving in a unique, unique way.
It's not like any convention you've ever been to
or conference.
This is going to be something very, very special.
Pastor Tony Kemp is going to be one of our speakers
and Dean Braxton will be one of our speakers.
I'll be a speaker there.
We've got another one or two up our sleeve
that we'll introduce as soon as we have confirmation on them
and it's going to be a time that is going to be
very, very special where we go deep in worship,
deep in intercession,
deep in the things of God, deep in the word.
It's going to be life-changing.
So we want to really encourage you May 21st through 24th, 2025,
be there with us at the St. Louis Airport Marriott Hotel.
Very easy to get to by either plane or car.
Very easy to get to a lovely, lovely place
and it'll be a place where we join together
and you'll build relationships that'll go on for eternity.
It's just marvelous.
So just please make sure that you've got that.
And also, if you have any feedback for us,
we'd love to hear from you.
You can send an email to feedback at globaloutpouring.org
or you can fill out the feedback form
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and it's all going to come to us by email.
We'll email you back as soon as we have an opportunity to.
So we'd just love to hear from you.
And if you want to participate
in helping us keep this podcast going,
I just did the numbers last night
and I'm overwhelmed with how much it costs.
But like I said in the last episode or in a recent episode,
I don't like to talk about money
and I don't like to beg for money,
but I'm asking you to hear the Holy Spirit
and the Holy Spirit speaks to you to help us out with this
so that we can pay it forward and keep going on this podcast,
especially if it's being life-changing for you.
We want to encourage you to hear from the Lord
about helping us to produce this podcast.
So Phillip, tell us about what the Holy Spirit
has been giving you in your heart that's speaking to you
and let it speak to us as well.
You know, in our walk with the Lord, you know,
we go back and we think about the pit,
maybe that we had dug for ourselves.
Oh yeah, and they're done that.
And how God got us out of the pit.
But a lot of times his circumstances were not,
you know, the way of doing it were not to our liking.
Oh yeah.
Because he just has a, God has a unique way
of taking things away that would hamper your following him.
Yeah, it's true.
Kind of like a mother bird pulls the feathers
out of the nest when it's time for the babies
to start to fly.
Yeah, and on the way down is when you do it.
And so when you feel like we're on the way down,
like you've been booted out,
it's just, if you flap your wings and just cry,
cry out and you know, Jesus is there.
It's like the painting you see with the footsteps.
Yeah.
You know, you see two sets of footsteps and only one,
you know, and the person asks,
where did the other footsteps go?
And the Lord said, that's when I was carrying you.
Yeah.
Because you couldn't do it by yourself.
Yeah.
You know, there's so much.
When you're going through the hardest time,
that's when he carries you.
That's when you really need the carrying.
So I just want to look, look a little bit
into the life of the disciples,
how they first started out, Jesus first followers.
And you know, his ministry started,
he did a 40 day fast.
Oh yeah.
In the wilderness, tempted to the devil.
Yep.
You know, and it says, and the devil tempted him.
You know, can go back and read that in two of the gospels.
So he's getting harassed.
How much day or night, we don't know.
You know, and then the devil challenges his authority.
And you know, then he comes out of the desert
and ministry is ready to start, you know.
And you had a little taste of it when he was 12 years old.
When he was in the temple and all the,
all the scribes and Pharisees are getting blown away
for the wisdom that is in this 12 year old child.
Like, how do you know that?
You know?
Where did you come from?
Where did you go to school?
You know, Nazareth, you're from Nazareth.
What kind of rabbi do you have there that knows these things?
So anyway, let's just take a look.
So one of the first statements that Jesus says
to his disciples is, come and see.
So in the gospel of John chapter one,
and I'm gonna start verse 29, and this is John the Baptist.
And this is the second day, you know,
Jesus has showed up again and two of his disciples are there.
So he says to them, the very next day,
John saw Jesus coming to him to be baptized.
And John cried out, look, there he is, God's lamb.
He will take away the sins of the world.
Hallelujah.
Yeah, because you know, back at this time,
the only way you got your sins taken away
was through a sacrificial lamb, a natural lamb,
you know, which was done in the temple.
Right.
Which you had to take that long journey on.
Yep.
You know, and that nice, you don't have to take
a long journey for salvation.
It's just instant, you know?
And he says, I told you that a mighty one would come
who is far greater than I am,
because he existed long before I was born.
My baptism was for the preparation of his appearing
to Israel, even though I've yet to experience him.
He knew him in the Spirit.
Yeah.
You know, cause even when Mary visited Elizabeth,
John, who was in Elizabeth's womb,
he jumped in her womb, you know,
and he was filled with the Holy Spirit, you know,
right there, you know.
So they knew each other by the Spirit,
even though they had never met for all those years
that we know of.
Yeah.
I wonder if they maybe saw each other
when they were kids.
Yeah, going up to the temple.
Yeah, going to the feasts.
Maybe they did.
But at some point, John ended up in the wilderness.
Yeah.
So anyway, the very next day, John was there again.
I'm reading, this is verse 35.
The very next day, John was there again
with two of his disciples as Jesus was walking
right past them.
John, gazing upon him, pointed to Jesus and said,
look, there's God's lamb.
And as soon as John's two disciples heard this,
they immediately left John and began to follow
a short distance behind Jesus.
Wouldn't that give you a complex, you think?
Two of your disciples, you know,
all of a sudden they're not following you anymore.
Says, hey, where you going?
You know, and they're following Jesus afar off.
Yeah.
Because it's just like the Holy Spirit is working.
They're not filled, you know,
the infilling hasn't been poured out yet, you know,
on them.
It has on Jesus, you know, but not on them.
But there's this unction to follow them.
Yeah.
This unction, what does this man have to do with us?
Kind of like you've had that feeling.
I've had that feeling.
Like those ladies that smuggled Bibles
behind the Aaron curtain,
there's something about them
that has something to do with me.
I was hooked.
Yeah, and I wanted to stay away from them.
I didn't want to go to jail smuggling Bibles.
I did, I was willing.
Self preservation.
It was kind of working early there.
So anyway, so Jesus turns around
and saw that they were following him and asked,
what do you want?
They responded, Rabbi, you know,
which means master or teacher, where are you staying?
Jesus answered, come and discover for yourselves.
Ooh.
I thought that's a real neat statement.
That's the passion, right?
This is the passion, TPT, the passion.
And in the King James, it's, you know, come and see.
And in the Amplified, it's come and you will see.
Come and you will see.
Now, doesn't that sound?
Yeah, that gives it another feel to it.
And little did they know what they were getting into.
Yeah, right.
So come and discover for yourselves.
So they went with him and saw where he was staying.
And since it was late in the afternoon,
they spent the rest of the day with Jesus.
And I'm sure, you know, during all this time
that he was probably reading their mail somewhat.
Probably.
You know, cause this is what happened to Nathaniel,
a few disciples later here.
Yeah.
I remember the first time we met Dean Braxton.
Yeah.
Yeah, we were up at the church at the cornfield
with Pastor Young, the wild Korean lady
that you hear talked about.
Yeah.
River Destiny Church.
So we're in a shopping mall where the meetings are going on.
It's during COVID.
No stores are open around it.
We didn't wear our masks till we got in the door of the mall
then took them off when we got inside.
But hardly anybody had a mask on in there.
But when the presence of God moves like that, you know.
Yeah.
And so we met Dean.
And when the event was over and we're leaving that morning,
he said, I got some books for you.
And I'm sitting there holding this box of books.
And he talked for about an hour,
just talking about things of heaven, things pertaining us.
Yeah.
Reading our mail.
Reading our mail and I put the box down.
After an hour.
Yeah.
And he talked for about another hour.
I mean, I didn't mind.
I was getting sunburn on my neck.
You know, we were really getting,
you know, we were just blown away.
And this is someone you want to follow.
You know, it's just like, wow, he really has it.
It's just like your antenna goes up.
Ding ding.
If your frequency has been found, you know, and you're.
And God told him that he wanted us to be friends with him.
Yeah.
And that's amazing.
Yeah.
We were blown away by that.
I remember on our next trip, we met him.
He gave us each this little horn, you know,
put in leather, leather, sewed around it for anointing oil.
Yeah.
You know, and that's what-
That was when he first came here.
Okay. Yeah.
And that's what Samuel did to David.
So he anointed Saul with a vial of oil,
but anointed David with a horn of oil.
Big difference there.
There's a lot more oil in that horn.
One would think so.
You know, so it was just like amazing.
I thought, wow, you know, it's tremendous connect.
So here are the disciples and he starts calling them out.
And I'm in Luke's gospel right now and I'm in chapter five.
And this is in the King James.
And it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him
to hear the word of God,
he stood by the lake of Gennesaret,
which is the sea of Galilee,
and saw two ships standing by the lake,
but the fishermen were gone out of them
and were washing their nets.
And it's like what you do when you fish,
even, you know, like trout fishing, you catch a fish,
you get the fish out of the water,
you put the nets in the water and you wash them all out.
So it won't have all that fishy stuff on it.
Fishy goo.
Fishy goo, yeah.
And he entered into one of the ships.
I mean, just went up and walked in,
went on the pier and stepped in, which was Simon's boat,
and prayed that he would thrust them out
a little from the land.
And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship.
Now that's just kind of neat.
You got an audience.
He's starting to get an audience.
Disciples weren't the first one he revealed himself to.
You know, he was doing the work of the Lord.
He was in Nazareth.
He made his declaration, Isaiah 61,
the spirit of the Lord is upon me.
And that's kind of where it all started.
So he's starting to get known.
We don't know the exact timeline of how much time
between that and the disciples.
You know, it takes a while to walk from one to the other.
Now, when he had quit speaking, he said unto Simon,
just go out into the deeper waters
and just let your nets down for a haul.
Yeah.
Yeah, sure, okay.
It sounds like an advertisement for a new lure.
You're really gonna catch on this, you know?
And Simon answering, sent on to him,
Master, we have toiled all night.
I mean, I've been there, I fished, you know,
I did stuff like this and have taken nothing.
Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net.
Now what's interesting, he says net, not nets.
So he only put one net down.
We always thought, well, he was really disobedient.
He didn't say nets.
But what would have happened if he would have had two nets?
The boat may have just sank immediately instead of one.
He would have had twice as many fish.
Never thought of it like that.
But I did look it up in the Greek and it is singular.
I will let down the net.
Okay.
When Jesus had said, let down your nets.
Okay, and I've heard someone say,
maybe it was Sister Glenn before,
that the net he may have let down
was not one that he just finished washing.
It might have been another one in the boat
that was just older.
Maybe.
And kind of brittle and all that.
We don't know for sure.
So when this was done, they enclosed a great hall
of fish and their net break.
Oh no.
Hit bro.
But there's so many of them.
And they called on to their partners,
which were in the other ship,
and they should come and help them.
And they came and filled both the ships.
I mean, they're pulling this.
I mean, they just hit the lottery big time here.
You know, the fish lottery.
The fish lottery.
You know, this is, you know,
there wasn't any limit on fish back then probably.
Sure.
You know, like we have today.
So they make this massive catch,
breaks the net, and so they begin to sink.
There's so much weight in the boat.
You know. Wow.
And when Simon Peter saw it,
he fell down at Jesus' knees saying,
depart from me.
I'm a sinful man.
For he was astonished and all that were with him
at the hall of the fish, which they had just got.
So also was James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners on the Simon.
And Jesus said on the Simon,
fear not, from henceforth, you're gonna catch men.
Yes.
You know, and when they had brought their ships to land,
they forced it all and followed him.
So they just handed the fish over to somebody else.
Here, you deal with this.
Here, Dad.
See you later. Yeah, here, Dad.
Yeah.
Because they were the sons of Zebedee.
Because they said that his father was there,
you know, in the other gospel.
And they just left.
Took off.
Maybe they had other brothers, who knows.
Yeah, and didn't give a week's notice or anything.
They just took off.
So this was the start, you know,
of the walk of the disciples.
You know, and let's drop down to verse 27.
And after these things, this is Jesus,
as he was, and he healed the one that had the epilepsy.
And he's walking by and he sees a publican
whose name was Levi.
So what's a publican?
A publican is one that collects taxes.
Yeah, it's public money.
Public money.
That's why they're called a publican.
And why would this man, Levi,
whose name would change to Matthew,
so if he's a Levi, why would a Levi
called to be a part of Levi works in the temple,
part of the priesthood, collecting taxes?
You ever think about that?
No.
I thought about that when I was getting this this morning.
Interesting.
So Levi is the tribe of Levi.
You know, one of the tribal Levi called
to be the priesthood, you know, from early on,
collecting money from everybody else.
Wouldn't his family want to disown him for that?
It's good money, maybe, you know,
though he's getting a percentage.
You know, Rome is getting him a percentage
of what he is getting.
Interesting.
Very interesting, you know.
So let's go on.
So he sees Levi sitting at the receipt of custom
and said unto him, follow me.
So this is the next statement in a life
when you're gonna, you know, follow Jesus,
is to follow him.
So he rose up.
What happened in Levi at that instant?
He left all, got up, rose up and followed him.
And Levi made a great feast in his own house.
And there was a great company of publicans and others
that were sitting down with him, you know,
and this great controversy going on after this happens
that Jesus is there.
He's sitting and eating with other publicans,
other tax collectors.
Yeah.
I mean, okay, think about this.
How much time happened between Jesus meeting him
and this feast?
Good question.
Yeah, how do you pull a feast together?
Yeah, don't pull your phone out and email everybody.
You got all your favorites on your phone, you know.
That doesn't work back then.
So maybe a little time passed between this.
Yeah, or you know, word can spread pretty quickly.
So he has this feast, you know, while he's with them all.
So Levi, whose name now is Matthew,
who wrote the Gospel of Matthew.
Yes, and the name Matthew, by the way,
means gift of Jehovah.
Ooh.
Matityahu.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, so it's interesting.
You know, he really was a gift.
I mean, look at the gift that he gave to us
in the Gospel that he wrote.
Stunning.
Yeah, that really is.
So the other disciples are called one by one,
or maybe two by two, some of them.
And some of them, you can't find history
where they really came from.
All of a sudden we have 12 disciples.
So there was a group that had been following him
from place to place.
So he could see, you know, by the Spirit, you know,
who was going to be the next disciple.
Right.
Follow me.
But over in Luke chapter nine and verse 23,
and this was after the multiplication
of the loaves and fishes,
which happened, you know, a couple of times.
Then Jesus says to the disciples,
when this was all said and done,
who do the people say that I am?
They answered saying, John the Baptist.
Some say Elias or Elijah.
Others say it's one of the old prophets risen again.
So he says to the 12, who do you say that I am?
Yes.
Peter answering said, the Christ of God.
The Messiah.
That would be, yeah, Messiah.
So then he straightly charged them
and commanded them to tell no man that this was.
And he was saying, the son of man,
you know, must suffer many things,
be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes
and be slain and be raised up the third day.
Do you still want to follow me?
I mean, this is after this massive miracle.
Did they even get that message?
No, I don't believe they really got it.
And then he said unto him, if any will follow after me,
and man is put in italics.
That's anybody.
Man, woman, woman, child, you know.
And he said, if any will come after me,
let him deny himself, take up his cross daily
and follow me.
Wow.
Ooh, okay.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it,
but whosoever will lose his life for my sake,
the same shall save it.
Wow.
For what is a man advantage if he gains the whole world
and lose himself or be cast away?
For whosoever shall be ashamed of me in my words of him
shall the son of man be ashamed.
And he shall come in his own glory and in his father's
and of the holy angels.
But I tell you of a truth, there shall be some standing here
which shall not taste of death
till they shall see the kingdom of God.
And we know that was John, you know, possibly John,
Isle of Patmos, you know.
They tried to boil him in oil, you know.
And so this is the second step that you take.
That's follow me.
But it's taking up the cross daily, follow me.
What prevents you from taking up a cross and following him?
I mean, this isn't a normal message you hear
on a Sunday morning.
Because, you know, what happens if revival breaks out
and the Super Bowl starts this afternoon?
Oh.
We were in Texas at a meeting and it was Super Bowl Sunday
and there weren't very many men in there.
Yeah.
Where were they?
I mean, the Super Bowl doesn't start too late.
Yeah.
They took Sunday off.
I thought, oh wow, what if Jesus came Sunday morning
and you weren't really looking for him?
You know, so we have to hear from the Holy Spirit.
If you're supposed to be somewhere at a specific time
and listening to his voice and that,
but the only way we can do that is if we are with him daily.
You know, daily we pick up our cross,
starting first thing in the morning.
It's a good thing to do.
You know, Lord, what do you have for us today?
You know, it's not what I want to do.
And it's about denying yourself.
Yeah.
Really.
It's about surrendering every day,
surrendering to him, surrendering to his way,
surrendering to his will and listening for what that is.
Yeah.
I've been reading one of Bruce Allen's books
and he mentions, it's just like 90% of your soul
is taking over 10% of your spirit
because of all the stuff that you're dealing with.
Wow.
I thought, you know, 90% of flesh,
which is your soul, that's a soulless part of you.
And you have to reverse that.
Yeah.
That's one of the hardest things you'll ever do.
But to follow him daily.
Yeah.
And it's the hardest thing you ever do
all day long every day.
Yeah. And a little side note here.
We, you know, when I got my ham radio license,
they gave me my call sign.
You know, you do your test, the FCC gives you a call sign.
It was KJ5FHD.
And to help me remember it,
it was John who works on our staff.
He gave me a little lingo and said,
KJ5, King Jesus Five, follow him daily.
Yeah, that's true.
I thought, and so I remembered that.
And then I shortened it to find him daily
because it's shorter when you're trying to think of it.
Because when you're calling somebody on ham radio specific,
you give their call sign and then you give yours, you know?
And then they answer, you give yours
and then you talk to them.
It's a very neat protocol and all that, you know?
So follow him daily.
Yeah.
And which is, you know, what we all try to do.
And sometimes things just happen.
Maybe you got up late and you weren't,
didn't get your full devotions, you know?
And things like that happen, but there's grace for that.
You know, you don't have to be bound by tradition
that if I didn't do this, this isn't gonna happen, you know?
I had an incident that happened
that I'd been speaking at the World Mission Alliance
Conference some years ago.
And they have two speakers in every session.
So I was in the same session with Gary McSpadden,
who is brother-in-law to Dino Kartzanakis,
the amazing piano player.
And he used to travel with Catherine Kuhlman.
Yes.
He was her pianist.
Yes.
So Dino was there to encourage his brother-in-law
and I was the other speaker of the session.
So, you know, you don't just walk out on the next speaker.
You be polite.
So they were there when I think Gary spoke first.
Yeah, he did.
And then I don't remember what I spoke about,
but in the middle of it, I just felt led to break into song.
And I sang this song about being beautifully broken.
And by the way, if anybody knows where to find that author
of that song, I would love to connect
because it's a really deeply moving song
about letting God break you.
And it's a beautiful thing.
It's, the picture on the album was a little chick
that's just broken out of an egg.
You know?
So anyway, so I broke into song and I, you know,
the anointing was on it and then the conference was over
and we were spending the night with our friend,
frenzy level and both of our alarm clocks
didn't go off that morning.
It was, that was the most amazing thing.
We, you know, and we have a habit of getting up
and having a prayer time.
You know, most days we have a worship time as well
before we even get ready for the day.
Well, Francine, it comes either knocking or just shouting,
you know, breakfast is ready
and we hadn't gotten out of bed yet.
And I'm thinking, oh no.
What about our morning routine?
You know, and so Sharon said, I don't think we can make it.
And I thought, I feel we're supposed to be there.
Yeah, we were gonna go to Gary McSpadden's church.
We're going for the church for that Sunday.
We had no obligation to be there, but I just felt,
so I encouraged her, you know,
cause you eat, put your, put makeup on and all that.
It was time to do that.
Yeah.
But there wasn't time to have a devotional time.
Yeah.
So we went to the service
and they sat us on the front row.
And I'm thinking, oh, okay.
And then, you know, after their worship service,
worship part of the service,
Pastor Gary starts talking and he comes down
with the microphone into the congregation
and he walks over to me and he says,
Sharon Buss, what's the Lord saying?
And I'm thinking, I didn't have my devotions this morning.
What is the Lord saying?
And in that moment, the Holy Spirit gave me something.
I don't remember what it was, it's some years ago,
but you know, whatever it was, it came out.
It was anointed.
It was beautiful.
It was, it was God, you know, the Holy Spirit spoke.
Yes. It's out there on YouTube somewhere.
Somewhere.
I don't know how to find it, but maybe we could find it.
If we find it, we'll put it in the show notes.
Anyway, then he, when I got finished with that,
he says, would you sing for us?
And at that moment, Dino stood up and he came running over
and he said, the Holy Spirit just spoke to me
that she's supposed to sing
and I'm supposed to accompany her.
So he comes over, he grabs my hand.
We're walking up onto the platform.
He says, what do you know?
I said, I don't know.
I said, make it something old.
Cause I didn't know what he knew.
You know, I had no idea.
And so, you know, he suggests something.
I said, no, he's, and then, then he suggested,
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.
I said, yeah, let's do that one.
So he starts out playing.
Flamboyantly.
Oh yes.
He's just so amazing with his skills.
And he starts playing and I just belted it out.
It was amazing how I belt.
And you know, it was anointed by the Holy Spirit.
That's what I'm saying.
It wasn't that I was so amazing,
but what the Holy Spirit did through me was amazing.
And it was, it was just tremendous.
And we found out later that he doesn't do that for anybody.
But it was the Holy Spirit that led.
But the point of this is that sometimes
you don't have time to do your routine.
Sometimes you, you know, the thing that you depend on
to have the anointing in your life doesn't happen,
but the Holy Spirit is already there.
He's living inside you.
You're inside of him because you're following him.
Yeah.
You're following him and you're dwelling with him.
Yeah. If you're following him daily.
It's there.
Yeah. It's there when you need it.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So point number three, we're going to say,
and this is abide.
These chapters in John 13, 14, 15, 16,
17 are my discourse of the Upper Room.
And, you know, I'll just start from the beginning here.
I am the true vine and my father is the husband.
Every branch in me that bears not fruit,
he takes it away and every branch that bears fruit,
he purges it that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now you are clean through the word
which I have spoken to you.
Abide in me and I in you.
Amen.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except that abide in the vine,
no more can ye except ye abide in me.
And what you had just said, you know,
in the Passion Translation, it says dwell in me.
And you had just mentioned that.
Yes.
Have to dwell in me, you know.
And I looked abide up in the Greek and the Strongs.
It's number 3306.
And it means to remain, to sojourn,
not to depart, to continue to be present, you know.
And that's like, oh wow.
So it's just there all the time.
We're really abiding all the time.
And when we're listening to the Holy Spirit, that happens.
Because that's why the Holy Spirit was sent on earth,
was to be the comforter and our guide.
Yes.
So this is abiding in him.
Yes.
I am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abides in me and I in him,
the same brings much more fruit.
For without me, you can do nothing.
Amen.
Well, we found that out.
I haven't we though.
If a man abide not in me, he's cast forth as a branch,
he's withered.
And men gather them, cast them in the fire,
and they are burned.
But if you abide in me and my words abide in you,
ask which he will and it shall be done unto you.
Amen.
Wow, that's a great faith scripture.
But if we're not walking where we should be,
God's under no obligation to fulfill this.
That's true.
Because if we're desiring the things of the world
and what we're asking,
Asking amiss.
He can ask amiss, he can give it to you,
but in the scripture somewhere there,
it'll bring leanness to your soul.
That's true.
So things you ask for may be not what God
is the best for you.
Because too many things can steer you away.
So it's abiding in the vine.
It reminds me of Psalm 91,
he that dwells in the secret place of the most high
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Yeah.
So I'm gonna go on now to the fourth point,
and that is send me.
And in John chapter 20, I think you,
Sharon, you had something.
So in John chapter 20, on the day that Jesus was resurrected
and Mary Magdalene saw him and John and Peter
went running to look in the tomb and found it empty.
Then he shows up while they're gathered in this upper room
and everything's closed and he just appears.
Some folks say that he went through the walls,
but I don't know whether he went through the walls
or he just appeared.
Just appeared, yeah.
He just came.
He said to them in verse 21,
he said to them, peace be to you.
Shalom.
Shalom, he's saying shalom.
I mean, that's what you always say in Hebrew
when you greet someone, shalom.
Just as the father has sent me forth, so am I sending you.
And there's a song that says,
so send I you to labor unrewarded,
to serve unpaid, unloved, unsought, unknown.
We sang that when I was in the children's choir,
I was in third grade.
Wow.
Children's choir in the First Baptist Church.
And that song got into me.
And it was like, I felt this calling of God on my life
at that point.
And I knew that God wanted me to serve him.
And every time, like on a Sunday evening,
we'd go to church Sunday night and sometimes they would say,
okay, let's do favorites.
And I would always call for that song.
I was a kid, I was a little kid.
Wow, little did you know.
Little did I know.
And we're still serving unpaid.
We live by faith.
So it was a part of my calling.
It was, I mean, I was born on the mission field.
I was born in India.
My parents were called to missions
and they didn't go back for whatever reason.
I won't go into that.
But my dad wanted us to understand missions
and for our family devotions, he would alternate.
One day he would read from the scripture
and the next day he would read from a missionary story.
We grew up on missionary stories.
And it was like, this is what I want.
I knew from a young age
that I was supposed to be a missionary.
So anyway, that's my little story from So Send I You.
Wow, yeah.
And Isaiah chapter six, this is an amazing,
Isaiah's just so, it's one of my favorite books.
And he spans four kings,
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah,
and it was Manasseh's, I think Sodom and Half.
Oh really?
That's what I have a footnote here.
Oh wow, I didn't realize that.
And that in Hebrews 11, 37 is where,
I guess he was sawn asunder.
You know, I didn't say Isaiah,
but the saints were sawn asunder
when they're given the roll call of the saints.
Yeah, the hall of fame.
The hall of fame, yeah.
So in Isaiah chapter six,
in the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up and his train
or his glory filled the temple.
Above it stood the seraphims.
One had six wings and with two he covered his face,
with two covered his feet and two he did fly.
And one cried unto another and said,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
Amen.
That's in the Psalms too.
The earth shall be filled with the knowledge
of the glory of the Lord.
Amen.
The glory is all around us.
Yes.
It's when it's revealed.
Right.
You know, this thin veil between us and the spirit realm.
And the posts of the door,
this would be at the temple, you know, in heaven.
As you see in this,
they moved at the voice of them cried
and the house was filled with smoke.
Then I said, what was me?
I am undone because I'm a man of unclean lips.
I dwell in the midst of people that are unclean.
Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of glory.
Yes.
And one of the seraphims came unto me
with a live coal in his hand,
which he took with tongs from off the coal of the altar
and put it on my mouth and said,
this has touched thy lips
and thine iniquity is taken away.
Hallelujah.
And I sin purged because of the fire.
Yes.
Because of the fire.
This wasn't a sacrifice in the temple, you know,
where you get your sins, you know,
cleaned by sacrifice and animal.
This was fire from off the altar of God, purged him.
And that's why people fall in the presence of God.
Right.
Because it just overwhelms you.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
who will go for us?
You know, who shall I send?
And I said, here I am, send me.
Hineni. Hineni.
I was thinking of that.
We heard on our Friday Night Live Worship a week ago,
Jean Little was speaking and Hineni, here I am, send me.
And it's all through the different parts of the scripture.
Yeah, we'll put a link to it in the show notes.
Yeah.
And in the Passion Translation,
it says, go tell the people is what it says.
Yeah, in verse nine here in King James,
he says, go and tell this people.
But in the Passion, it says,
go tell the people.
So that's his command.
And when we have gone through these steps,
we have seen, we've had the Holy Spirit move on us,
you know, to get the salvation, you know.
Yeah, come and see.
Come and see his precious blood.
And so we follow him.
But it's kind of like the seed, you know,
the parable of the soils that was thrown out.
Some grew for this, some got eaten,
I'm some guy burnt by the sun.
But those that matured, you know,
were just being mighty used of God.
And so for those that don't drop off,
when he says, follow me, you know,
come and see, now follow me, you know.
Yes.
And so we take up our cross daily.
Of course, many don't, you know,
they're happy for Sunday morning, you know.
But to the disciples, you know,
this is the cream of the crop.
Now the 12, abide in me.
This is what you have to do.
Even when he's told them,
will you not follow me after he gave the revelation
of eat my body and drink his blood.
You know, many, all the others that were following him,
all of a sudden they're gone.
And he says to the 12, will you still follow me?
And Peter says, where else will we go?
You have the words of life.
So Jesus has the words of life.
And that's how we go on.
When the way gets tough,
and we get circumstances that make us question God,
we lose everything, you know.
Remember, we're following him and we're his disciples.
And we're abiding in him.
So when we abide in him,
and he gives us all these revelations,
that's how we get to know him in a deeper level.
And then the next step, send me.
Here I am Lord, send me.
So go and tell the people.
Beautiful.
So that's what I got, finishing it up in my devotions,
you know, yesterday morning, this morning.
And I thought this is a tremendous pattern,
but there's a price to pay in following.
Taking up your cross, it's a price to pay.
Every single day.
Hallelujah.
So Father, we just thank you for this message.
And we ask you to abide in us,
help us to abide in you,
that we will go through these steps of coming to see.
Every time you give us something new to do,
help us to come and see what that is.
And then help us to follow you as you're leading us
into whatever it is that you're calling us to do
in any given day, Lord.
And that we would keep mindful of your presence, Lord,
that your presence will be the thing that we follow,
the thing that we're aware of, that will abide in you.
Will abide in your presence,
will have that constant fellowship with you.
And Lord, that out of that, we will be sent.
That we'll say, yes, Lord, Hineni, here I am.
Here I am, send me.
Just like you sent Jesus, Lord, you're sending us.
That we will be faithful to do the thing
that you've called us to do every single day.
Amen.
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Until next time, this is Sharon Buss.
And I'm Philip Buss.
God bless you with this overwhelming loving presence.
God bless you.