The Lord's Prayer ~ Our Father...

Have you ever prayed the Lord’s Prayer and not really thought about the words you were saying? Have you ever been praying the Lord’s Prayer and while the words were coming out your mouth – you mind was thinking about something else? If you have had those experiences, don’t worry – you are not alone. Most of us have experienced the same thing. Without a doubt the Lord’s Prayer is the most familiar prayer we pray and since many of us learned it as children, we have been saying it our entire lives and when something becomes so familiar we often take it for granted. We can pray this prayer without even thinking about it, which is often the problem, we pray this prayer without really thinking about it, so what I want us to do over the next six weeks is to take some time to think about it. What are we saying when we pray this prayer? What confession of faith are we making? What are we saying about God? What are we saying about ourselves? What commitments are we making to God about how we will order and live our lives?


The reason we pray the Lord’s Prayer as much as we do is because this is the only prayer that Jesus ever gave us. In Luke 11, Jesus disciples come to him and ask him to teach them how to pray and in response Jesus gives them a shortened version of the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer became so important in the life of the early church that by the end of the first century, Christians were told to pray this prayer 3 times a day: morning, noon and night. The Lord’s Prayer also became a central part of the worship life of the early church being included in all baptisms and times of communion and it has remained a central part of worship for over 2000 years.

One of the interesting things to notice about the Lord’s Prayer is that in many ways it is structured like the 10 Commandments. Last summer when we looked at the 10 Commandments we saw that the first 4 all have to do with our relationship with God and the last 6 have to do with ourselves and others. In many ways the Lord’s Prayer is set up the same way. The first thing the prayer does is center our hearts on God. We call God our heavenly father, we lift up his name and we ask for his kingdom and his will to be done. So just like the 10 Commandments, we start with God and then move to ourselves and others by asking God for food, forgiveness and the deliverance from evil. So the movement in the Lord’s Prayer is from God to us, the same way the movement in the 10 Commandments is from God to us, but it all starts with God.

So the prayer begins, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Let’s just start with the first word – OUR. What is important for us to see in the Lord’s Prayer is that it is never a personal prayer. It is not my Father, it is our father, it is not my daily bread or forgive me for my sins, it is our bread and forgive us our sins. The Lord’s Prayer is always plural which means it is to be prayed together and it reminds us that our faith is supposed to be lived out together and it has always been this way.

When God created Adam he realized it wasn’t good for him to be alone so he gave him a partner which then produced a family. When God called Abram it wasn’t to make him a great leader, it was to make him the father of many nations. When God called David it was to be the king of a nation, when Jesus chose disciples it was to form a team and when the Holy Spirit filled the followers of Jesus on the day of Pentecost it didn’t send them off to live life on their own – it drew them together to live life as one body in the church. God’s desire is for us to live in community with one another and the Lord’s Prayer reflects that at every turn by showing us that this is not a personal prayer but a prayer of the people. That is one reason why we pray it together in worship because it is supposed to be prayed together.

The other thing that the word OUR tells us is that God is ours. He is our Father, but this is not an exclusive claim, he is ours and no one else’s, it is an inclusive claim, God is the father of all. In Malachi 2:10 it says, Have we not all one Father? Did not one God created us? And in 1 Corinthians 8:6 it says there is but one God, the Father from whom all things came and for whom we live. So when we call God OUR father we are not only placing ourselves in the larger community of the church but we are acknowledging that the God of the universe, the One who created this world is the father of all. While not all may call God their father, God is the father of all. He is our father he belongs to us and we belong to him.

So let’s look at what it means to call God our father. The important thing here is not gender but the qualities of being a good parent. Throughout the Bible God is described as the perfect parent who not only gives life to his children, but is also the one who nurtures them and cares for them and protects them and provides for them all through life. The Bible is full of images of how God as a loving parent cares for his children. There is a list of scriptures in the next steps that you can use this week to explore some of the ways God is seen as this perfect parent, but let’s just look at one, Deuteronomy 1:31. God is seen here as the father, or mother, who picks up their child and carries them in life when they grow tired or weary or when they are in need some help or support.

When we call God our father, we not only acknowledge that God is the one who created us but we are proclaiming that God is the one we turn to when we need this kind of help, support, encouragement, love, direction, grace and mercy. When we call God our father we are also saying that as his children we want to reflect his name and character in this world. I have had the honor of speaking at the funerals of many faithful and loving parents and one of the things I often say is that the best way to honor them, the best way to honor a father or mother isn’t in words that are spoken at a funeral, but in how we live our lives and when we call God our father it doesn’t just mean we turn to God for help but it means we want to honor God by living the way God has taught us and the way God has shown us. We’ll look at that more a little bit next week when we ask God for his kingdom to come in this world.

Now let me just say a quick word about the gender issue and why throughout the Bible God is most often described as a father and not a mother. It is not because men are better than women or fathers more important than mothers. The people of Israel lived in a culture that was dominated by pagan fertility cults where images and idols of women and mothers were often worshipped so it could be that simply in order to avoid any confusion that Israel was worshipping these pagan gods that talking about God as a mother just wasn’t used very often, but there are a few images in the Bible and they are powerful. Again I would encourage you use your next steps and look up Isaiah 49:14-15 and reflect on the beautiful and powerful image of God as a mother. Again the reality is that when we call God father it is not a gender issue, it’s to remind us that God is that parent, that faithful and loving parent who created us and cares for us and desires to have an ongoing loving and intimate relationship with us.

So we call God our father, but he is not an earthly father, God is a father who is in heaven. The word heaven here means air or sky which means that God is not off in some faraway place or in some other world unable to hear us and help us, it means that God is right here surrounding us, as close as the air we breathe and as constant and ever present as the sky we see. This idea of God’s ever present nature is what the psalmist writes about in Psalm 139:7-12. God is everywhere which means that God is always with us. We don’t have to ask God to be with us – He is. We don’t have to ask God to go with us – He will. In fact God is already there. So when we talk about a God in heaven we aren’t talking about a distant God but a God who not only is everywhere we look and everywhere we are, but a God who also dwells deep within us. God is the air we breathe which means that God dwells deep within our hearts and lives.

By calling God our father in heaven we also are saying that God is above and beyond the powers of this world which means that God can actually do something to solve the problems of this world. God is larger than our personal problems. God is larger than our community problems and national problems and political problems and global problems. God is larger and more powerful than it all, which means that we can pray to God for big things. We can ask God for world peace and for an end to hunger and poverty and injustice because we know that God is able to bring this about because he is not a God who is limited to this world, he is a God in heaven. But we need to be careful if we are going to pray to God for big things because the way God might want to solve these problems will be through us living life a different way by taking a bold stand or making a faithful statement. Again, we’ll look at this more next week.

And then the last part of the opening phrase has to do with the name of God. Hallowed be thy name. The word hallowed means to make holy, which means we honor or lift up and glorify God’s name. Once again, we see here a similarity to the 10 Commandments where one of the commandments is to not take God’s name in vain. Another way of stating that commandment would be to honor God’s name and use it wisely. Before we ask ourselves if we are doing that, let’s just look at the name of God. What is God’s name?

The name God gives himself is I AM, which means that God is eternal, powerful and that God transcends all time and space. By calling himself I AM, God is stating that he is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, all forgiving, all providing, all protecting, all everything and because of his greatness and his goodness we need to honor his name and make it holy and there are two ways we do this, by what we say and by how we live.

Let’s start by looking at what we say and how we use God’s name. When we looked at the 10 Commandments last summer we learned that many times we use God’s name without really thinking about it. We often say “O God” as an expression of surprise or even frustration without even thinking about it, and that’s the problem, we use God’s name without thinking about it. We need to think about how we use God’s name and make sure when we do use it we are doing it in a way that honor God and reflects God’s true character. It can be a challenge to change old habits of speech, but when we do, those changes honor and glorify God, they hallow his name.

More difficult than changing our words, however, is changing our lives and making God’s name holy means that we stop trying to glorify our name, or live just for ourselves and start living in such a way that God’s name and character are lifted up and seen by those around us. Through Jesus, God has shown us an example of what it looks like to honor God’s name – it looks like a life of humility and service. It looks like a life of worship and prayer. It looks like a life of joy and peace that comes when we are connected to God. Do our lives reflect the name of God? When people look at us – do they see Jesus? When they do, we know we are truly hallowing God’s name.

When we begin this prayer, Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, we are proclaiming that God is the one who created us and gives us life, and that God is the one who calls us to live this life together with others and that God is present with us to help us tackle the big problems in life and it begins to lay out this idea that our lives need to reflect the name or the character and nature of God and God’s kingdom. These are powerful words that we can’t take for granted, we need to pray them with faith and trust, we need to pray them with humility and gratitude, and we need to pray them with the courage to live them out in our lives each and every day.

Will you prayer them with me now.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
AMEN.



Next Steps ~ The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name…

OUR Father: All language in the Lord’s Prayer is plural which means we need to:
• Pray Together: this week pray the Lord’s prayer with others: Family, Sunday School Class, Small Group, Friends
• Grow Together: find ways to connect with others in the church: join a class or Bible study, volunteer to serve with others, join a ministry like the choir / bell choir, join us for lunch after worship today.

Our FATHER: what do these scriptures tell us about God as our father:
 Malachi 2:10,
 I Corinthians 8:6,
 Ephesians 4:6,
 Deuteronomy 32:6 and 1:31,
 Matthew 6:25-34 and 7:1-4,
 Isaiah 49:14-15,
 Psalm 131:2
• What “parental” quality of God do you appreciate the most?
• What quality do you need to experience the most?

Who art in HEAVEN: (auromos, which means air or sky)
• Our God is EVERYWHERE:
How do you need to personally experience God this week?
• Our God is BIG and POWERFUL:
What big thing can you pray for this week?

Hallowed by Thy NAME:
• This week focus on only using God’s name in ways that honor Him and reflect His power and love.
• What two changes can you make this week to reflect more of God’s nature and character?

Remember what these stones mean

As many of you know, Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day because it started when family and friends wanted to remember and honor those who had died during the Civil War by decorating their gravestones with flowers and flags and every stone that was decorated told a story. Today every stone that is decorated with flags and flowers also tells a story. Some stones remind us of dedication and service like the gravestone of Dr. Reuben Hunter in Boalsburg. Dr. Hunter was a surgeon with the 54th Pennsylvania regiment and he died of typhoid fever that he contracted while helping wounded soldiers on the front lines. It was his grave that was decorated by his family in what many of us believe began our Memorial Day tradition. His gravestone reminds us of the importance of service and sacrifice and caring for those in need. This stone, however, tells another story.

This is the gravestone of Pvt. Amos Myers of the 148th PA Volunteer Infantry who was killed in action at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863 and this was one of the other stones that was first decorated in Boalsburg. This stone tells the story of courage and valor as young Amos fought for freedom and the preservation of the union in the battle of Gettysburg. Both stones, like all the gravestones we will remember and decorate this weekend, are symbols of sacrifice and service, but each stone has a unique story to tell.

These stones  tell a very different story. This picture is from the National Cemetery in Fredericksburg VA that I was able to visit last weekend and it is the resting place for over 10,000 Union soldiers who died during the battle of Fredericksburg. The battle of Fredericksburg is known for 3 amazing facts. It featured the first opposed river crossing in American military history as Union troops bombarded the town of Fredericksburg from the opposite side of the Rappahannock River as soldiers built a pontoon bridge in order to move their troops into the city. It then featured the first urban combat in US military history as Union and Confederate soldiers fought hand to hand in the streets of Fredericksburg, and then as the battle moved just outside of town 200,000 men were engaged in combat which makes the battle of Fredericksburg the largest concentration of soldiers in any battle during the Civil War.

If you don’t remember your civil war history, it was just outside of the main town of Fredericksburg that the Union Army under the direction of Gen Ambrose Burnside faced off against the Confederate Troops under the leadership of Gen. Robert E. Lee. The main battle was fought in a field where Gen. Burnside sent in wave after wave of soldiers to attack the Confederate troops who held the much higher ground of what is known as Marye’s heights, which was a hill that was protected by what was known as the Sunken Road. Even though the Confederate Army’s defensive position on top of the hill and along the well protected road was very strong, Burnside sent seven divisions of Union soldiers across an open field to attack the South, and not one soldier ever reached the Confederate line. During the course of the day over 13,300 Union soldiers were killed or injured. Most of the men simply lay in the open field during the night with their cries for help filling the air and literally tormenting the soldiers on both sides of the conflict. It was one of the worst losses for the Union Army during the Civil War, and for a piece of local trivia here, it was Andrew Curtin, born in Bellefonte, who visited the battlefield and then went to the white house and told President Lincoln that Fredericksburg “was not a battle, it was butchery.”

As I stood along the Sunken Road at the bottom of Marye’s heights and looked out over the field where over 10,000 men were killed in the course of a day, I asked our guide from the park service what they did with all the bodies. She said that after the battle many were quickly buried in graves throughout the town, but then in 1865 after the end of the Civil War, they were all gathered into the Fredericksburg National Cemetery where today over 15,000 soldiers are buried, 80% of them are unknown and almost all of them union soldiers from the battle of Fredericksburg.

The National Cemetery is an interesting place. There is row upon row of gravestones that simply have numbers on them.

The top number is just an ID number but the bottom number tells you how many unknown soldiers are buried in that plot. The stones in this graveyard also tell a story. They remind us of the sheer number of men who died that day. They remind us of the courage and passion that both sides fought with, but the battle of Fredericksburg was such a poorly fought battle with such devastating losses that it was the victorious Confederate General, Robert E. Lee who said after the battle, "it is well that war is so terrible, or we would grow too fond of it." The battle of Fredericksburg was so physically and emotionally devastating for both sides that the stones in this cemetery remind us that war is ugly and tragic for everyone involved.

The stones we will decorate this weekend all tell a story. They tell a story of individual dedication and sacrifice and a willingness to service. Some remind us that war is ugly and that it robs our families and communities of our young men and women too soon. These stones tell us that life is short and precious but that sometimes freedom is worth fighting for. These stones tell us stories that we need to remember. It is good for us to have a day to remember what these stones tell us because we tend to forget things much too easily. God knows we are prone to forget which is why the number one command in the Bible is to Remember.

Throughout the Bible God calls us to remember his presence and power and his goodness and grace, and at times he even used stones to help the people remember. In 1 Samuel 7 the people of Israel were fighting a battle with their ongoing enemy the Philistines. Samuel was their leader at this time and he called the people not to fight harder but to turn back to God and seek his help. So all the Israelites gathered at a place called Mizpah and they rededicated themselves to faithfully serving God. When the Philistines heard that all of Israel had gathered together in one place they thought this was the perfect time for a sneak attack… this is where we pick the story up in 1 Samuel 7:10-14.

This is the story that we sang about this morning in the song come thou fount of every blessing. I like that we haven’t changed the words because when we sing, here I raise my Ebenezer, it forces us to ask, what’s an Ebenezer? It’s not the first name of Scrooge, well it is, but that is not what we are talking about here. The word Ebenezer means stone of help. Samuel literally set up a stone that told the story of how God helped his people during a battle and how it was God’s hand that delivered the people. Every time the people saw that stone it reminded them that God was there to help them. Every stone has a story.

I wonder if Samuel got the idea to raise an Ebenezer from Joshua. It was Joshua who finally led the people of Israel into the Promised Land and the last leg of their journey was to cross over the Jordan River. When the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the covenant touched the water of the river, the waters stopped flowing and Joshua commanded 12 men, one from each tribe to pick up a stone from the middle of the river and carry it into the Promised Land. Joshua 4:5-7.

Those stones told a story. For generations to come when people saw those stones gathered together they told the story of how God delivered his people from Egypt, and how God cared for them for 40 years in the wilderness, patiently forgiving them when they failed and feeding them when they were hungry and even making water flow from a rock when they were thirsty. And those stones told the story of how God made both the Red Sea and the Jordan River turn to dry ground so that the people could cross over and live in freedom. Those stones told a story, the story of God’s power and faithfulness and love.

Actually, while God was the one who directed Joshua to set up those stones, the idea of stones telling the story of God’s presence goes all the way back to Jacob. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham and he had tricked his brother Esau out of a blessing and because his brother was mad and wanted to kill him, he was now fleeing for his life. As Jacob was travelling he laid down to sleep one night and used a rock as a pillow and during the night he had a dream where God comes and blesses him, Genesis 28:15-18. So Jacob was maybe the first person to build a stone memorial and that stone told a story. It told the story of God’s presence in a time of need and told the story of God’s faithfulness to his promise.

It seems like every stone in the Bible has a story. Even in the New Testament every stone has a story. I want you to picture a dusty road
with Jesus and his disciples standing alone with a woman lying on the ground and all around them are stones. Large stones, small stones, but dozens and dozens and dozens of stones and each stone tells a story because just moments before those stones were being held in angry hands. The woman at the feet of Jesus had been caught in adultery and thrown to the ground because the people were ready to kill her. They had stones in their hands and they were ready to throw them at her when Jesus knelt down and began to write in the dust of the road. What he wrote, we don’t know, but one by one people dropped their stones and walked away until the woman is alone in front of Jesus and all around them are stones. Those stones tell a story, a story of forgiveness and a story of grace. Those stones tell the story of God’s power to change hearts and maybe convict people of sin but to also bring forgiveness. Every stone told a story.

And then the final stone to think about is a stone that on Saturday sealed a tomb, but on Sunday had been rolled away.

This stone told Jesus disciples and that stone tells the world that death and the grave do not have the final say. That stone tells us that the power of God and the power of God’s kingdom is greater than any force of evil, any force of darkness, any force of wickedness seen or experienced in this world. The stone that was rolled away from the tomb tells us that there in nothing in our lives that God can not overcome. That stone tells us the story of God’s victory over every force of darkness in the world and every sin in our lives.

So every stone tells a story. Some of the stones we will decorate with flags and flowers this weekend tell us the story of courage and service and sacrifice. Some will remind us of the pain and the deep losses we face due to war. As we look at those stones and think about those stories, I hope we will also remember what these stones mean and the stories they tell. Like Jacob, these stones remind us of God’s presence with us and that God is faithful to his promise. These stones remind us that God will lead us through all the challenges of life and that through his grace and mercy he will lead us into his kingdom. These stones tell us the story that God is here to be our help – that God can be our Ebenezer. These stones tell us that while God convicts us of sin – he is also the one who forgives. These stones also tell us that God is victorious over all things even death and so they remind us of what Paul said in Romans 8:31-39.

Every stone tells us a story and today we need to not only remember these stones and the stories they tell

but these 'biblical stones" and the stories and the truth of God they tell. May we hear and trust and stand upon these stones – and ultimately may we trust and stand upon THE STONE, the corner stone – Jesus Christ.




Next Steps: Remember

Take time during this holiday weekend to remember those who have served our nation:

• Attend a Memorial Day Service.
• With your family, thank God for those who have served.
• Pray for wounded and recovering soldiers.
• Pray for families grieving the loss of loved ones due to war.
• Pray for peace.

Find ways to remember those who have served or are serving in our military. Check out organizations like the USO (http://www.uso.org/) and the Wounded Warrior Project (www.woundedwarriorproject.org) as well as contacting local units to see how to support our local friends and neighbors who are serving in the military.

 Take time during this holiday to remember:

•  A time you experienced God’s presence
•  A time you experienced God’s provision
•  A time you experienced God’s power and help
•  A time you experienced God’s forgiveness

Remember these experiences with a stone and share these stories with others.

Jesus is the Vine

Sometimes understanding the context of Jesus’ teaching makes all the difference in how we interpret what he has to say and today’s passage from John is just such a case. When Jesus talked about being the Vine and his followers being the branches and how important it is for them to abide in him or stay connected him it was immediately after the last supper, and yet before Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. It could be that all of the teaching found in John 14, 15 and 16 took place as Jesus and his disciples walked from the upper room across the Kidron valley to Gethsemane, which means they were most likely walking along a vineyard when Jesus said, I am the vine and you are the branches.


By choosing that moment, Jesus would have been using the vineyard as an object lesson to teach his disciples that just as branches need to stay connected to the vine if they are going to survive and bear good fruit so his followers were going to need to stay connected to him, to abide in him, if they were going to both survive and bear good fruit. Jesus knew that some difficult days were coming for his disciples and so he tells them that above everything else what they needed to do was remain in him, to rely upon him and to trust him for all that they need.

But what’s interesting to think about is that when Jesus shared this teaching as they left the upper room, one of his disciples was not there. One of Jesus followers had already been cut off. Judas had already made the decision to turn away from Jesus which tells us that he wasn’t really abiding in him at all. Although Judas had been there for all the teaching, all the miracles, all the sharing of faith and power and glory, although Judas just moments earlier had shared in the Passover meal and even had his feet washed by Jesus, he never really abided in Jesus at all. So as Jesus and his disciples walk along the road that night he tells them the importance of staying faithful and connected to him because one of their group had already been cut off. One had already shown that he didn’t really abide in Jesus which means, according to verse 6, that he had been gathered up and thrown into the fire.

Seeing this teaching in its larger context of Judas betrayal shows us that we can attend church our entire lives, but that doesn’t mean we are abiding in Jesus. We can attend worship services and Sunday school every week and go on mission trips every year, but that doesn’t mean we are abiding in Jesus. Judas had done everything right, he attended all the right events and served in all the right ways, in fact he held an office in this new little faith community of disciples; he was their treasurer, but he never really abided in Jesus because we see that in the end he had his heart set on something else.

So the question we have to ask ourselves is: what vine are we abiding in? Where is our heart? Maybe for Judas the vine was wealth or power or maybe it was control – but it wasn’t Jesus. What are the priorities in our life? Is the vine we aide in God or is it our hunger for wealth, power or control? Is the Vine our family, friends or our job? Is the priority that drives us in life simply doing good works, gaining lots of knowledge or amassing the most number of friends we can on facebook? If we are abiding in any vine other than Jesus, if our first priority doesn’t include God than in time we become like Judas, we get cut off from God and then we don’t bear any fruit, or experience any of the fullness of life God offers. So the goal for us is to make sure we are abiding in Jesus.

But what does it mean to abide in Jesus? The word abide means to remain or stay. To abide in Jesus means we endure and wait and live in Him. To abide means we find our strength and our life’s vision and our security in God alone. A great image of what it means to abide comes from Psalm 91:1-2.

We see here that to abide in God means that we find our security in the shelter of God’s presence or under the shadow of God’s wing. Think of the protective wing of a mother bird. It shelters her children, keeps them safe from harm and allows them to grow until they can fly on their own. To abide in Christ means that Jesus is our refuge when we are week and our strength in times of need and a fortress when all around us looks like it is about to give way. To abide in Christ means to trust Jesus and depend upon him for all that we need. It means we place our feet on solid ground when all around us is shifting or sinking sand. It means when nothing in our lives is going right – we still turn to God because we know he is still there to love us, forgive us and just help us to the next day.

Now the challenge for us as we talk about what it means to abide in Jesus is that we can’t turn it into a list of things we should do, because remember, Judas did all the right things but he still wasn’t abiding in Jesus. In college a friend and I talked at length about this passage because I always wanted to figure out HOW to abide in Jesus. I wanted the fruit, I wanted the love, joy and peace, I wanted the assurance that I was with Jesus and that the fullness of life he offered was going to come my way so I kept trying to figure out HOW to do it, and my friend kept telling me that the key wasn’t to do but to abide, to rest in Jesus, to trust that God was working in me. Remember, he would say, the branch doesn’t really do anything; the fruit is simply produced as the branch stays connected to the vine. The key isn’t for us to be doing all the right things; the key is to stay connected to and trust in Jesus. I have to say this is hard for me because I always want to be doing something to grow in my faith, but at times we just need to rest and trust in Jesus.

While all of that is true, I’m a pretty practical person, so on a practical level it’s helpful for me to know how to order my lives in such a way that I am able to draw what I need in life from Jesus. Trust comes as we grow in our relationships, so how do we grow in our relationship with Jesus? How do we stay connected to the vine? How do we abide in Christ? Well if to abide means to stay connected than anything that we do to help us stay connected to Jesus or anything that opens our hearts and minds and lives to the presence of God is going to be helpful. For example, worship is a helpful tool for us if we want to draw our strength and power from God. But by worship we aren’t talking about sitting in the pews and taking up space on a Sunday morning. What we are talking about is an open heart to receive the love and the power God has for us. Worship means opening our ears and minds to hear God’s voice and to be shaped by God’s message for our world. Worship means surrendering ourselves to God so he can shape our motives and our desires.

This was what Judas didn’t do. Judas just sat in church, he listened to the teaching of Jesus but he didn’t allow it to shape him. He heard Jesus pray and even served others the way Jesus taught him, but he didn’t allow the love and grace and message of God to shape his heart. So just being in worship doesn’t mean we are abiding in Jesus, but it is one intentional way we can connect ourselves to God because it is here that we place our selves in the presence of God. The key is for us to allow God to speak to us and shape us and have his way with us during this time.

Actually, any activity through the church can be a way to abide in Christ: worship, small group learning, serving together in Jesus name and prayer are all ways to stay connected to God and to allow God to shape us, but ultimately it is not the activity that connects us, it is the open heart and the surrendered life. The same is true with any personal disciples of faith like prayer, devotions and even fasting and tithing – they can help us get connected or stay connected, but they do not guarantee that we are abiding because abiding isn’t what we do - it is an attitude and state of our heart.

Sometimes it is hard to know if we are abiding in Jesus, but there is one sure way we can determine if we are, we can look at our attitudes and actions and see if we can identify the good fruit that comes when we stay connected to the Vine. Jesus said that if we abide in him we will bear much fruit – good fruit – and this fruit is outlined for us in Galatians 5:22-23. So the good fruit that God produces in us when we are connected to him is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. When we experience this fruit in our lives we know that we are connected to God. When we grow in this fruit, when we feel ourselves become more gentle and patient, more filled with love and joy then we know that we are abiding in Jesus.

But this isn’t the only good fruit we produce, look at Colossians 3:12-17. So compassion and humility are also fruit that is produced as we abide in Jesus. Being willing to forgive others is a sign that we are abiding in Jesus. So there are lots of ways we can evaluate whether or not we are abiding in Jesus, it just takes some honest self reflection, or inviting others to speak to what they see and experience in us.

Now if we aren’t seeing the kind of fruit we want when we evaluate our lives, then our hearts and lives might need to be pruned in order to bear fruit. Now pruning is the act of taking off of a plant the branches that are wasteful or extra. We prune back many plants in our gardens so that they will grow stronger and be healthier in the long run, even if the process itself is painful. The same is true with us. Jesus said that all of us who bear fruit – God will prune (John 15:2). So God will work in all of us to deepen our faith and strengthen our dependence upon him, but the process of God’s pruning is not an easy one, look at James 1:2-4.

The trials we go through and the testing of our faith is part of the pruning process because it is during the difficult times that we learn to trust God more. I had a friend who used to say, Jesus won’t be all you need, until Jesus is all you have. We may not be able to abide in Jesus until every other vine we naturally turn to and trust in has been taken away and while that process can be difficult and painful, if the end result is that we are more firmly abiding in Jesus, more faithfully trusting in him, then we are in a much better place.

Because Jesus chose the walk from the upper room to the garden of Gethsemane to give us the teaching, he shows us what abiding in him looks like and what it doesn’t look like. It doesn’t look like Judas, who although he went through all the right motions, had motives that were far from God. He didn’t bear any good fruit and was cut off from God. Abiding in Jesus does looks like the disciples who in the next few hours went through the most difficult trials of their lives as they watched Jesus arrested and crucified. While they struggled to be faithful and at times failed miserably, they never stopped abiding, because they never stopped trusting. Even during their failure, their hearts never stopped looking to Jesus and through those trials they got stronger and in the end – they produced much good fruit. That’s what abiding looks. We struggle at times, we even fail, but if our hearts keep looking to Jesus and if we keep ordering our lives in a way to stay connected to God – we will grow stronger and in the end we will produce and taste much good fruit.

We are all in different places today as we think about what it means for us to abide in Jesus. Some of us need to stop trying to DO so much and just rest in Jesus. Some of us need to order our lives around God’s presence and word so that we are able to more intentionally draw from the life giving spirit of God. And some of us, in the midst of our trails and failures, need to just turn our eyes to Jesus knowing that He is there.

No… we need to turn our eyes to Jesus knowing that He is HERE. So let us abide in Jesus and find life.



Next Steps

Jesus is the Vine.

What Vine are you abiding in? What are the priorities in your life?
God, Family, Job, TV, Sports, Friends
Good works, Knowledge, Social Media

What 3 practices currently help you abide in Jesus?
1.
2.
3.

What new practices can help you more fully abide in Jesus this week?
1.
2.

To abide in Christ often requires pruning (the cutting away of that which is wasteful or not productive). What needs to be pruned from your life so you can more effectively abide in Christ and bear fruit?

We abide in Christ to bear fruit (see Galatians 5:22-23,
1 Corinthians 13, Colossians 3:12-17).
Which fruit do you experience most often in your life?
Which fruit do you most want God to produce?

Jesus Is The Door

The last couple of weeks we have been taking about the vision God gives us for our lives. The story of the disciple Thomas who struggled to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead showed us that God gives each of us a vision that is personal, powerful and purpose-full and then last week see saw that God shapes this vision through ordinary moments of life and everyday moments of life in the church. God also shapes this vision through the opportunities he gives us to serve those in need and I know that in different ways God shaped the lives of the over 100 people who served yesterday in our first Annual day of service. Today I want us to keep thinking about God’s vision for our lives and how God works to refine and clarify that vision by looking at a teaching of Jesus found in the gospel of John. John 10:1-10.


One of the most familiar images for God used in the Bible is that of a shepherd. Psalm 23, King David says, the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want, and then David goes on to talk about all the ways God as a shepherd leads and guides his people. Here Jesus builds on that idea and talks about himself being the shepherd who not only guides God’s people but who at times acts as a gate or a door for the sheep.

In Jesus day, there were two places that shepherds could take their sheep for the night. If they were near a town they would take the sheep to a common pen in the village that all shepherds would use and the sheep would be all mixed together for the night. 

A watchman would stand guard at the gate to make sure no one entered to steal the sheep while the shepherds slept and then in the morning, each shepherd would come to the gatekeeper who would let them in. Once inside the pen, the shepherd would call out to their sheep and the sheep would recognize that voice and follow their shepherd out of the pen. Through this process, all the sheep would be separated into their own flocks and the shepherd would lead them out to find food and water.

Now if a shepherd was not close to a town and so had to keep the sheep out in the fields through the night they would find one of many small stoned pens that dotted the countryside where they could keep their sheep safe for the night.

As you can see , the problem with these pens was that there was no gate, so the shepherd would literally become the gate, or door, by lying down across the entrance to the pen. The presence of the shepherd would keep the sheep inside the pen through the night by becoming a physical barrier that would keep them from just wandering off. The shepherd’s presence also helped keep the wild animals away. So the shepherd literally become a door that closed off the dangers of the night and then in the morning when the shepherd got up the door would be open for the sheep to go out and find food and water for the day. As a good shepherd, Jesus is the door who shuts out the dangers of the past and open up to us the potential of the future and it is this opening and closing that refines God’s vision for our lives.

As we think about Jesus being this door in our lives, let’s start with how Jesus is the door who shuts out the dangers of the past. None of us has to look too far into our past to find some problem that can keep us from moving forward in life or in faith. For Thomas it was his struggle to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. For Peter it was wondering if Jesus could ever forgive him for denying that he was one of his followers. For the apostle Paul it was the pain of a life spent persecuting the followers of Jesus and seeking to put an end to both their ministry and their lives. For us it might be a failed relationship that keeps us from being able to trust or love anyone – including God. It might be the guilt of having been the one who failed in the relationship and broken vows made in marriage. It might be the pain of losing a loved one, or the pain of losing a job, or a house or our savings. The problems of our past might just be the reality of our own sin because every day we are reminded how we fall short of God’s glory.

Our lives, all of our lives, are filled with sin and failure, brokenness and pain, shame and guilt and if we can’t shut the door to these problems we will never be able to move forward. If we spend all our time looking behind us reliving the past, we can never really move ahead in life. Have you ever noticed in a car how small the rearview mirror is compared to the windshield? There’s a lesson for us in that – we need to spend more time looking forward than we do looking back and the only way we can really do this is to ask Jesus to be the door that shuts out the problems of our past pain and problems and sin.

But asking Jesus to be the closed door to our past doesn’t mean we just ignore our problems or pretend like they aren’t real. That’s called denial and usually those problems come back to disrupt our lives. Asking Jesus to be the closed door means asking Jesus to bring real forgiveness, healing, hope or understanding which brings closure and freedom so we can move forward. If what we need is Jesus to be the closed door to the reality of our sin than we need to understand the reality of God’s forgiveness which does close the door to the guilt and shame that comes with sin. Jesus is always willing and wanting to do just that, to be the door which removes our sin from us.

When a woman was caught in the very act of adultery, the very act of her sin, Jesus didn’t ignore her problem or pretend like she never sinned – he forgave her and in that forgiveness closed the door to her past. Jesus said to the woman, neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more. Jesus forgave her and his forgiveness shut the door to her past so that she was free to live a new life, to really be able to go and sin no more. If what we struggle with is closing the door to our past sin, then we need to come to terms with the reality of God’s forgiveness. In Psalm 103:12 it says, as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our sin from us. God’s forgiveness is not God looking the other way, it is God wiping the slate clean, and it is God wiping our hearts clean. In this forgiveness, Jesus becomes the closed door to our sin and all the guilt and shame that comes with it, which allows us to experience the freedom of new life.

If what we need is for Jesus to be the closed door to our past pain and loss, then what we need from Jesus is healing and hope which is exactly what Jesus offered people during his lifetime. To those who only knew the reality of disease and the loss that comes with it (like the lepers, blind and lame) – Jesus brought healing. To those who felt shunned by society and unworthy of love and acceptance (like the sinners and outcast), Jesus brought a sense of self worth and dignity that filled them with hope which gave them life. Again, Jesus didn’t pretend like their problems weren’t real – he faced them head on and brought about real changes in people’s lives. In the midst of our own pain and loss – God still is able to bring healing and hope. God affirms us when we need it, he offers encouragement and direction and love when we need it - which all becomes the closed door to our past pain and loss.

So Jesus is the door who helps us shut out the problems of our past but there is another purpose of a door and that is to open up for us new opportunities so we can move forward. Sheep couldn’t be kept in a pen forever because they would run out of grass to eat, and there was no water for them, so the door had to be opened if they were going to experience the fullness of life and the same is true us. We need Jesus to be the open door for us to grow in faith and experience abundant life, and that is exactly what Jesus does.

When Jesus called people to follow him, the reason they did was because they saw in and through Jesus new possibilities for their lives. When Jesus looked at Peter, Andrew, James and John he didn’t see fishermen – he saw skilled, hard working, organized leaders who had passion and faith and who in time could teach, preach and love others enough to change the world. Jesus saw this and in time these fisherman came to see the same thing. Jesus was the door to a new life for them. What I love about Jesus is that he never sees us for who we are in this moment – he sees the new creation we can become when we are willing to trust in Him to be that open door.

In 2 Corinthians 5:12 Paul writes, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see everything has become new? And all of this is from God. In other words, Jesus is the closed door to the past and the open door to new life so when we are in Jesus, we are trusting in Jesus, we can step out and experience the abundant life Jesus offers.

But here is the most important thing to remember about a door, it is only good if we use it. A door is only good if we use it, and the way we use this door is simple, we trust in Jesus. If Jesus is the door then to find freedom from our past and hope for our future, we need to learn how to trust Him. We need to learn how to trust the forgiveness God offers us through Christ. We need to trust Jesus to truly take away our sin, to remove it completely from us. To trust Jesus as the door means trusting Him to heal our pain and fill up the areas of loss in our lives that we sometimes we don’t want to let go of. Trusting Jesus to be the closed door in our lives means trusting Jesus to forgive us and heal us and love us.

Trusting Jesus to be the open door in our lives means trusting Him to love us enough to provide new opportunities for us that might stretch us but will not break us. Sometimes trusting Jesus to walk in new ways is hard because change is hard and trying new things is hard and taking a risk a hard – but if we trust God to love us – then walking with Jesus into new opportunities won’t be a terror but an adventure.

The process of Jesus being closed doors to our past and open doors to our future is part of how God refines and clarifies His vision in our lives because every closed door brings an end to one direction and every open door brings a new direction and as we walk with Jesus, God guides us and leads us to where he wants us to be. Sometimes this process is long and slow and painful – sometimes it is quick and simple and full of joy but the end result is always the same – we end up where God wants us and doing what it is God wants us to do. We also end up with a clearer Vision of what God wants for our lives.

Jesus is the door in your life today. He is the door who brings closure to the pain of yesterday and he is the door to the exciting potential and purpose of tomorrow. So today, let us trust Jesus to be the door who through his closing and opening brings abundant life.
 

Next Steps
Jesus is the door.

What door does Jesus want to close in your life?
The door to past sin? Guilt? Shame? Pain? Loss? Failure?

• Identify past problems and ask God to bring the healing, hope and forgiveness you need to close that door.

• Use Psalm 103:8-14 and 2 Corinthians 5:16-20 as tools to bring about needed closure.


What door does Jesus want to open in your life?
The door to new opportunities? Relationships? Faith? Power?

• Name one door God has opened for you in the past that you walked through with success. Celebrate that victory.

• Name one door you sense God has open before you today.

• What will it take for you to walk through that door? Who can help you take the necessary step?



Opening and closing doors is a way God refines VISION.
Make a list of doors God has closed and opened in our life in the past few years and begin to look for God’s vision through these doors.
Opened:

Closed:

God’s vision: