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Okay. We uh yeah, I wanted to it would I was gonna tell you guys one last thing we didn't talk about with VBS, which was hilarious. Uh we had all these games outside. One of the ones we really wanted to step up this year was the mystery food competition. So for any of you that watched Fair Factor back in the day, just think kind of like kids level Fair Factor, right? And every day it was the same thing. Kids would come up to me and be like, Jeremy, what are we playing today? What is it? And I'd be like, I don't know, I can't tell you. You know, what is it? Well, they figured out pretty quick when they saw those black buckets out there in the parking lot with the little slit in the top for only a five-year-old to get their hand through. And they were like, Oh, mystery food day, huh? Hey, I don't eat bugs or anything like that. I'm like, no, no, I don't do that. Okay. And then over and over we'd have one kid after another tell us, you know, hey, all the, you know, of course they'll eat cookies and donuts and candy bars and all that, but they ain't gonna eat anything weird or fishy. Well, that's exactly what we had planned for them. So they would get up there and this year uh Zav decided, you know, hey, let's get some. I'm kind of throwing him under the bus there by saying that, but um I loved his idea, so I'm I'm with him under the bus as well. Uh he he was like, hey man, let's do like, you know, millworms and crickets and ants and stuff. And I said, yes. Absolutely. So that's what we had. Uh they were cooked. So any of you who are wondering, like, was it live crickets? No, it wasn't. Was it live millworms? No. But it was like they were like flavored, and so you had your like cotton candy crickets, which I'd be honest, they didn't taste like cotton candy. I ate a bunch of them. And it didn't. And and then they had like your, I'm not kidding, there was lemon meringue millworms. I don't know who comes up with this stuff. It uh anyway, uh, yeah, it did not taste like a lemon merine pie, I'll tell you that. But those kids had so much fun, and what was hilarious about it was how so many would say, I'm not doing that, and I'm not doing that, you can't get me to, and then they see their friend do it, and they're like, Oh, I want to try, I want to try. And we had kids like running around, I want more crickets, give me more crickets. So I apologize to your parents who now have an extra item on your shopping list to go by the pet store and get live crickets. I don't know what to tell you. Anyway, if you have any complaints about what we did at BBS, you can send your emails to zav at uh the story. So there you go. All right, let's get into it. We've been talking about discipleship, and before we actually, before we get into it, um let me just pray over the word and just ask the Lord to bless us. And Father, we just again want to lift this up to you and ask that Lord you will bless this word. And as we've been talking about discipleship and what it means to follow after you, Father, that God, you would help us to count the cost and really um be your disciples in this day and age. In Jesus' name. Amen. And I know I already kind of prayed, but there you go. That's what happens. Okay, discipleship. The last five weeks we've been in discipleship, we've had like uh the first week we talked about training ourselves for godliness and the importance of what it means to train yourself personally in godliness, what it means to uh pursue that. And uh Zav talked about 1 Timothy 4 7 and and just in Hebrews 12:1, how we have to lay away aside those weights in our lives in order to run that race that God has for us. And so week two, we went into the call, the command, and the cost, and what it means to uh be called by God, uh to follow his command, and to count the cost as a disciple. And that's really important because so often I think in our culture, in the church, we do tend to forget about what all those mean to us personally, what it means, uh God's call on your life personally, what it means that God's commanded you uh to do something or to obey him in a certain area, or uniquely, you know, what the cost is involved for you. Everybody, there's a different cost for each person in this room who calls himself a disciple of Jesus. And in week three, we talked about that there was only 11 disciples in the inn. That Judas, who had been with Jesus, who had gotten the best Bible teaching that anyone could get, who saw the miracles, who sat through it all, still betrayed Christ. And he didn't repent. He felt sorry for what he did, but he didn't repent. And then in week four, we talked about what it meant to hear from the Lord, to trust the Lord, to obey the Lord. And lastly, last week, how to make disciples and what that means and the importance of multiplication and how God has called us in the Great Commission to make disciples. So all these different areas are super important to what that means to be a disciple, and it's just not one thing. And so, while, yes, the gospel is that we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and we repent and we turn to Him, that is our salvation, but there is works that follow from that, and so as the Bible says, you know, faith without works is dead. Uh though, so though just getting back to the basics of the importance of like in the gospels, what it looks like to follow Jesus, what and I I often like I found in my own walk how I have like just really enjoyed meditating and thinking through just how Jesus lived his life more and more. You know, to the point where I used to, it was more like a, oh, I gotta love God, you know, I gotta watch my mouth, I gotta, you know, walk, you know, I got the straight and narrow that I gotta do. And then as time went on, I realized that, you know, I really like Jesus. I know that sounds kind of weird, but I mean, seriously, I really enjoy the way that he loves people, how he talks to people, his perspective. And it's just really great to continue to walk with him year after year and learn new things about just the Messiah, the Lord, the Savior, the friend, the shepherd, he is to each and every one of us. Um, with that, I want to dive into uh what I'm gonna be teaching on today, which is another aspect to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, and that is abiding in the word. Uh, if you'll turn with me to John chapter 8, verse 31 through 32. So if you have your Bible, I'm gonna be thumbing through my Bible today, um, or you have your phone. Uh I do not have the notes for today's teaching on the Bible app, so I apologize for that. And then if you're someone in this room that does not have a Bible, feel free to, after the service or even now, you can go to the back of the connect table, and there's free Bibles there, and you feel free to take one home from us as a gift. All right, John chapter 8, verses 31 to 32. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. So, one of the other ways we know that we are a disciple of Jesus is that we abide in his word. But what does that mean? What does it mean when he makes that statement that if we abide in his word, then truly we're his disciples? Um, with that, I'd like to share a little bit of my story of my journey. Uh, as a child, I grew up in a Christian home. In fact, I was I grew up in this little hick town. That's why I like to refer it refer to it, so I won't tell you what town that was. But don't worry, it was in California, that place. Anyway, this little hick town, and we went to what I would call a megachurch. Of course, when you're a kid, you don't know any of that. You know, you don't know what mega church is, you don't care what a mega church is. Anyway, there's a bunch of people that went there. And for me, uh it was aunts and uncles, cousins, kids down the street, teachers. I mean, like the the guy at the gas station went to my church, you know, so it was, but I didn't know any different. So every Sunday, just felt like the whole town had to, you know, they went to the same church. And it was great. I loved it. Felt like, at least looking back, felt like heaven. And so um as I got older though, I watched a lot of my friends like totally walk away from God. Like, you know, we did the whole like get on the bus and Christmas Carol, the youth camps, the you know, VBSs. We did all that together. And then it just seemed like almost overnight, over and over and over, I kept having a friend that I'd known for my whole life to say, Hey, yeah, I don't, I don't believe in that Jesus, I don't believe in Christianity, I don't, I'm not into all that. And it just really left me kind of my head spinning, wondering what was going on. And then I started asking, you know, the big questions, because that's what the question tells you to do. And so I start asking questions to a lot of the Christian adults in my life, and you know, important questions like, you know, hey, how do we have the Bible? Like, where did this come from? You know? Um, why do we do things the way that we do? Why do we give money to God? Is God poor? You know, things like that. Like, I'm not kidding. We did there was this whole campaign at the time, uh, the church was trying to get out of debt. And so I was like, why are we in debt? Is God in debt? Like, what's happening here? And unfortunately, and nothing against, and I'm not here to bash them, but they just didn't have really good answers. And I felt like their faith was like a blind faith. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't rooted in reality, it wasn't rooted in the the scriptures, and and so I was kind of left lost and felt like, you know what, I think I'm gonna kind of what we call today kind of like deconstruct from Christianity. So I just realized I'm still wearing my metal and I feel silly. You want me to keep wearing it? Okay. That's to you, Zaf. Anyway, all right. So, needless to say, I'm I'm sitting there and I'm like, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna look into different religions. I'm not gonna get involved with them, but I'm gonna do research and I wanna know like why do all these other people believe these other things? Which, of course, there's like millions of other religions. But I took like kind of the top shelf 10, you know, and started looking at them and going, hey, you know, is what they believe right? I mean, I'm just believing what's right because that's what my folks told me. That's what I grew up in. But they grew up in that, and for them, that's that's right. So that's where kind of my journey started. And then I met a guy, and uh it was a guy at work, and there was something just about him immediately that was like, oh man, you're this guy is different. I mean, he comes up to me, we're talking for a couple minutes, I'd never talked to this guy before, and he kind of lights up like a light bulb, and he's like, You a Christian? And I'm like, Yeah. He's like, I knew it, I knew it, bro. You got the Holy Spirit in you, I can see it. And I'm like, Okay, sure. But the truth was that inside, I actually too was like felt a connection to him, oddly enough, but I didn't really know, honestly, I didn't even know who the Holy Spirit really was. I was kind of freaked out by the guy, to be honest. Needless to say, he became like one of my best friends, and we ended up going to uh him taking me to his church, and I walked in, and this is really where it ties into the word, and then we'll get into what that looks like as a disciple. I go into this church, and there's this pastor up there, and I'm sitting, it's an evening service back when we used to do those, and I have my Bible open, and the pastor starts talking about this pastor of scripture, and according to them, they go verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through the Bible. And the pastor gives like some historical backdrop to the text, he interprets the original language of the text, and I'm thinking in my head initially, like, wow, he's really fancy, you know. Um, and then he gives, you know, like cultural significance of the time, and he's just painting this picture, you know, of like what he's gonna be teaching on, and then he teaches the the whole passage and then gives like really great application. And I'm like sitting there for the first time in my entire life, and I'm like, okay, this is something Zab would say. It was fire. I was like, what? And I really did like feel like the word of God for the first time in my life had become it was alive. You know, there it was. I I didn't understand how this book had been in my possession all these years, and I didn't know it said all the things this pastor was saying it said, and that it related to me. I was like, what is this evening possible? And I'm like, this is only a little bit of it, and there's a lot of it uh that I haven't read, and uh, and in fact, I didn't really read much at all back then. I just figured it was pretty uh boring to read. But needless to say, I was absolutely astonished, and it was in that moment that I decided that, hey, you know what, there's something different here. This isn't like all those other religions I have been looking at and studying. You know, this there's something there's something I want to explore here that I never knew was there all the years I grew up in church. So that's began my journey there. And now I want to look at uh I want to just shift gears and look at this word, the word. Uh, because that is what Jesus says. We are to abide in his word. Um, of course, for me, this has always been a little, it was always a little confusing for me at first because the word, what is the word? Uh let's turn to Genesis chapter one, if you will. We're gonna flip some pages and go through some scriptures, but Genesis chapter one, verse one. And in Genesis chapter one, verse one, it says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters, and God said, Let there be light. And there was light. If you haven't spent any time thinking about that, and it was many years before I did, it's an amazing fact that God spoke creation into existence with his word. That is just really cool, and I can't wait to hopefully see the footage on that. But God, with his word, created the heavens and the earth. And so right away we see in the Bible that God's word uh is able to create out of nothing. And then if you'll turn to Exodus chapter 19, that's after Genesis. Exodus chapter 19, verse 10, here God has come to Moses, and he's like, Okay, we're gonna meet. I want to meet up with all the kids, the children of Israel. And if you know the story, these guys had just, you know, had escaped Egypt. God had divided that Red Sea, they walked through, and then He the Egyptians tried to do it, and they that didn't work out too well for them. God just like let the Red Sea collapse on them and they floated to the top. But the the Israelites are in the wilderness, and they're traveling around and they're like, hey, trying to figure it out, questioning God, all that, griping, complaining stuff. You can read that for yourself. But in Exodus chapter 19, verse 10, the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people, and you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot, whether beast or man, he shall not live. And when the trumpet sounds, a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain. So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments, and he said to the people, Be ready for the third day, do not go near a woman. On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. And then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain, and now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended on it in fire, and the smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And if you'll jump over to a couple verses here in chapter 20, in verse 18, it says, Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashings of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, You speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die. In Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 5. Moses says to the children of Israel, While I stood between the Lord and you at the time to declare to you the word of the Lord, for you were afraid because of the fire, you did not go up into the mountain. So why do I read all that? Because here again, like God shows up, he's like, He's gonna meet his kids and the children of Israel get all cleaned up and ready for their date with God, and then they start heading towards the mountain, and he shows up and they're freaked out. And then God speaks, and they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, yo, Mo, you talk to God. We don't want to talk to God, you talk to God. And it just again speaks to God's uh power and authority in his word, you know? And so often we forget about that, I think, because we haven't had that kind of experience with God yet. I'm sure it's coming, but we haven't yet. So far, we have this, the Bible, and it can be pretty quiet, and usually doesn't descend on mountains like smoke and thunders and lightnings and earthquakes. So that's good. The other way we see the word in scripture is in John chapter 1, 1 through 5. So if you'll flip there with me, in John chapter 1, verses 1 through 5, John writes and says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. This is where my mind like starts to go. Jesus is the word. So, and the fact not only is Jesus the word, but it says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. So we have the word now made flesh. There's a whole study you could do on that alone, but I won't bore you today. Actually, it's not boring at all. Forgive me, Lord. All right, Colossians. Let's head over to Colossians chapter 1. There's a lot of chapter 1s that we're gonna go through. We're gonna hit a couple more scriptures here, and then we'll make a point. Colossians chapter 1. Verse 15. This is speaking of Jesus again. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or powers, all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. So here we see the word of God, right? He's Jesus, and that all things were made by him, and that all things were made through him and for him. And in first John chapter 1, which is almost to the end of the Bible, it's right after Hebrews and 2 Peter. In 1 John chapter 1, John the apostle writes, That which was from the beginning, speaking of Jesus again, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest, we have seen it, and testify it and proclaim it to you, that eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. Here we see Jesus is the word of life. This is Jesus who walked with the disciples. This is Jesus who was a man, fully man and fully God, for 33 years. The word of God was a man. In Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, I told you it was a lot of chapter 1s. But this is important because I think it really ties everything together. In Hebrews chapter 1, it says, long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, those are the days we're in, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. So Jesus here it speaks of him, of course, being the exact imprint of God. But what's interesting is that it says that the Father has spoken to us by his son in verse 2. And actually, what that in the original language reads, it reads, The Father has spoken to us son. So the way that you and I may speak English or another language to one another, God's language is son. It's a son, Jesus. It's heaven's language, it's how we communicate. And so God has used the word as the lane for language. In Luke chapter 24, you don't need to necessarily turn there, but we most of us remember the familiar story of the road to Emmaus. And the road to Emmaus, these guys after the crucifixion of Jesus, and they don't really, they don't know it at the time, but the resurrection of Jesus as well. These guys are walking along, and Jesus catches up to them and is like, hey, what's going on, guys? And they're like, What do you mean? Don't you know what's going on? And everybody knows what's going on. And anyway, he starts to talk to them and finds out that um, starts to explain to them uh in verse 27, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And when you jump forward to verse 32, it says, They said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures. The whole word, the Bible, this is all speaking of Jesus. It's all painting the picture of Jesus over and over and over again. So from Genesis to Revelation, we see that the word of God is seen in the commandments, the law that God gave the children of Israel. We see it in his voice, his audible voice that creates out of nothing. We see God's word in the written scriptures, which we're holding in our hands. We see the word in the Son of God, our Lord and Savior. We see that our Father in heaven speaks Son. It's the language of heaven. And that the Word of God is the word of life, it's our sustenance. You remember the time when the disciples came back to Jesus at the well after he met with the Samaritan and they had food, and they're like, Aren't you hungry? And he's like, No, I have food that you don't know of. You know, his food was to do the will of the Father. So the Word of God is that as well. It's what sustains us, it's what drives us, it's what fills us and satisfies us. So I told you about my journey, and one of the things that was really cool about my journey and learning about the Bible and learning about what it meant to be a Christian and be a disciple of Jesus was some of the things I came across in my studies that kind of like just kind of blew the lid off of everything. And for me, it was it's it's again like one of those things that's very convincing, right? It's why, it's how I'm able to build my faith on what Jesus has said, that it is truth, and that I can I can build on that firm foundation. So some of those things are the Bible itself, the Word of God, was written over a span of 1600 years from 40 authors on three continents written in three different languages. And that may not sound like a big deal, but when you study such things, you find out really quickly, mathematically, to have this the way it is is impossible for that to have happened, except that God was involved. It's a supernatural work. This is not just a book on your library shelf, this is God's word to you. Also, that this year marks the 500th year actually of having the New Testament in English. Before that, we didn't have it in English. Uh, in fact, William Tyndale uh was the person who translated it in 1526, and then it was found uh oftentimes they would burn it at the St. Paul's Cathedral. Tyndale stood in the gap. If you don't know his story, it's a great story uh to learn and to know because we it's because of him we have the Bible and other men and women like him. Um but he he laid his life down. In fact, they imprisoned him in 1536 uh for 450 days. They condemned him as a heretic, they degraded him from the priesthood, and they handed him over to secular authorities for punishment, which was burning at the stake. So that's what William Tyndale did. He spent his life translating the scriptures into English so you and I could have it. Pretty cool stuff. Um, can't wait to meet that guy. It's also the undisputed most published book of all time. There's an estimated five to seven billion copies circulating right now, which blows me away. Um I I like to write, and I just hope that my book sells five copies, so we'll see how that goes. Which will probably be my wife and my kids. Uh, and and my kids won't read it. They'll just be like, I bought it, Dad, it made you feel better. I hope you're happy. Thanks, kids. Um, and then there's genealogies. I think we got a um a clip for genealogies to go up there, but you know, sometimes you get to these passages of scripture in the Bible and you're like, Why am I reading this? What does this have to do with me? What does this have to do with anything? And then you find out something like this, which this is from Luke chapter 3, and there's a hidden message. And so you have, you know, Adam, his name means man, Seth appointed, and so you read it as man appointed, mortal, sorrow. The blessed God shall come down, teaching. His death shall bring the despairing comfort and rest. Like, okay, you can't make that stuff up. That's the gospel, people. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I don't have time to go into it all, but uh in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by a shepherd looking for a lost sheep. And if you don't know what the Dead Sea Scrolls are, and you're a Christian, like that's your homework right now. Like, I'm giving you homework by next week, and I'll ask you too. Did you do it? Um, but check it out. I mean, it is mind-boggling what God has made evident in our world today to prove the existence of him and his word. The fulfilled prophecies. Oh, actually, let me back up. We have one more. Uh I wanted to talk about the imagery, some of the imagery in the Old Testament in Psalms 22, verse 6, it talks about the Toloth, the worm. He says, Jesus, it's a prophecy of Jesus. Says, I am a worm, I am no man. That worm translated, it's Toloth. Now, Toloth is an actual worm. And what does this worm do? Why is that significant? Well, it's interesting. It's in the feminine pronoun, and so uh you take it, uh, and the mother of the Toloth worm goes crawling up a tree. And then to give birth, it attaches itself to the tree, it gives birth to its eggs, they hatch, and they stay, and the mother becomes like this hardened shell. They hatch and they feed off the flesh of the mother. When she dies, what's left is a crimson stain on the tree. And it just it's the gospel of Jesus Christ over and over and over again. And these things are right there in the word. David wrote that hundreds of years before the crucifixion, and it's right there. It's so cool. Um, yeah, and like I said, and there's other verses that talk about it, but like in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16 through 17, it talks about how you know this book is, you know, not a book just written by it's not written by men, it's written by God. It's supernatural, and so we should handle it as such. All right. I got a few quotes that I want to share, some favorite Bible quotes, and then we're gonna get into tying this thing up and what it means to abide in the word as a disciple of Jesus Christ. But here's some quotes if you want to jot them down. The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself. And that's really true. I love listening to other people teach on the word, and I I love reading commentaries. But the truth of the matter is that the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself. And that just speaks to the truth and the importance of us spending one-on-one time, relational time with Jesus Christ at his feet. Another one is when you see a worn-out Bible, you see a Christian who isn't. And last service I spoke of, uh a gentleman who uh was coming to the Bible study last year. And I mean, he he brought a Bible that looked like this thing had been his Bible since middle school, you know? It was like all tathered, psalms would fall out on the floor, you'd have to pick it up and give it to him. Every word was like, I was like, bro, I think every word is highlighted in your Bible. Like, I think you highlighted every word. He's like, I think I did. I'm like, okay. Anyway, he wouldn't let go of this thing, and and when he passed away last year, you know, it that was his last Bible. And you gotta love that because when you see a worn-out Bible, you see a Christian who isn't. This book, speaking of the Bible, will keep you from sin, and sin will keep you from this book. And that's a good saying. I used to remember I was really bad at like reading my Bible, and I was like, Oh, it's because I'm sinning. Yeah, sometimes when you're sinning, you're like, Yeah, I don't really want to read about what I should be doing. Also, kind of cheesy, but basic instructions before leaving earth. That's a good one, and it really is. It is those things within the word of God that we need to keep us on the straight and narrow path. And that's why it's important to be abiding in the word, and that's how it makes us a disciple. Um you know, abide means really speaks to a close and intimate relationship with Jesus. It speaks to remaining in Christ no matter what's happening. And here's the thing, right? Because the culture around us, the world around us, is always trying to change us, change the way we think, change the way we live. Our adversary, the devil, is doing the same thing. He is doing everything he can to distract us and keep us from God. There would be nothing greater than to get a room full of Christians to not spend time with the Lord. That would be his favorite thing. And then we have our nature, and that's like you know, that other guy or gal that you used to be. I usually go, it goes something like this. I have to take Jeremy first thing in the morning. We get out of bed. I say we because there's, you know, Jesus in me. So we get out of bed, and I gotta take that guy, and I gotta just throw him to the ground. I gotta start beating on him and kicking his butt and suffocating him until he's dead. And then sometimes somehow he still survives, and I gotta do it again at like two in the afternoon, and then 3:30, and it's over and over, but it's a constant battle that we all go through. And Jesus said, to be his disciple, we have to take up our cross and deny ourselves. That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It's not pretty, it's not easy. The cross isn't just some nice ornament that we wear around our necks, you know. The cross isn't just something that sits on the steeple of the church. The cross is the most brutal executional device ever created by man. The Old Testament says that Jesus didn't even look like a man when they put him on the cross. They that he had gone through more suffering than anyone would ever, had ever gone through. And he did that for us, you and me. And that's love. Abiding in John chapter 15. I'm gonna turn there. It's one of the last verses I'll turn to, and we'll be closing up here. But in John chapter 15, Jesus says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Jumping to verse 4 Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. I just want to say that, you know, it's like one of those things like I used to think this was all on me, you know. I used to think like, man, I I would, I, I'd fail. You know, I try to obey God and I'd fail. And I'd try to stop doing this and I'd fail. And I'd try to, and it went on and on. I remember my uh mentor of 20 years, he's passed away now, but um, he would often say to me, He'd say, Jeremy, you know, what's gonna change all this for you? And I'd be like worn out. It'd be like seven in the morning, I'd already be out of breath from all the sin I was trying to keep myself out of. He says, The moment you realize how much you are loved by your Father in heaven. And it is crazy how when we really start to get the revelation of who God is and how much he loves us and all that he's done to save us, to redeem us, to give us eternal life, to give us a future and hope, to give us abundant life. It's a lot easier to give up sin when you have all that. And that's why it's important to abide in the word and to be continually reminded of what that means. Okay, I have to say this one. I'm skipping a couple things just because of time, but you know, it's like one of those things that often I felt like uh when my kids were growing up, I'd tell them, you know, if they had their younger sister uh who was like 10 at the time, I'd say, you know, because I would like talk encourage them to read their Bibles, you know. I'm like, you gotta know what God wants you to know. And they'd be like, yeah, but it's boring. And I'd be like, that's what I used to say. But I tried to give them an analogy of like their sister who is like 10. I'd be like, but you wouldn't want me tossing the keys to the family car to her and asking her to go to the grocery store, would you? And I'm like, well, no, why would you do that? I'm like, but that's kind of like what you're saying, you know, that's what we're saying when we don't read the word, where we're not walking with the Lord, is that we're gonna jump in a car that we don't know how to drive. And you can only imagine. Of course, I've heard some stories of like kids getting in cars and taking their parents' car and getting all the way across town without hitting anything. I don't know how that happens, but needless to say, I was like, you know, we need to study, we need to discipline ourselves, we need to understand what it means, uh, what God desires, what God calls us to, when it means being his disciple. You can't just expect to just jump in something and then go. But oftentimes that's what we do. We'll kind of neglect being in the word, we'll neglect, you know, being in prayer with the Lord, and then we'll expect to be able to drive our Christian car. But this isn't about like, oh man, I knew it, I was gonna come to church today, and I haven't read my Bible in three weeks, and shoot, man, now I gotta read that chapter, and now I'm gonna do a one-year plan again for the fifth time, and I never get past the first month, and that's true, at least for me. I did. I think I I think I committed like 15 one-year plans, and I've never completed the one-year plan through the Bible, so there it is. There, there's a few applications, guys, and here at the end of the day, if you hear anything here, that it's it's an invitation. Discipleship starts with the invitation, it starts with God asking you to come and follow him. He came after you. You never sought him out. The Bible says that. The first application I would say is to abide in the word means to sit with the word. Um, Martha and Mary, Martha invited Jesus over and she was all frustrated because her sister sat there and listened to Jesus, and that wasn't cool. The house needed to be cleaned up. But Jesus told Martha she had made the right choice to sit with the Lord. And if it's been a while that you've sat with the Lord, this doesn't mean just opening up your Bible. You know, sometimes it's on the Rogue River in a raft, looking up, daydreaming. It's going on a walk, it's spending time with your kid, or whatever that looks like. Being in Christ is so much broader than I think we've made it. Being in Christ, we can Jesus goes everywhere with us. He wants to do everything with us. Wants to do it with you. Um, second point to abide in the word is to walk in the word. There's action involved. And so we must walk in the word. And in order to walk in the word, we have to be in the word, you know? And we have to be around other Christians. And we have to be sharing and sharing meals together and sharing life together and being a family and being a community. And that's what that means. We see that in the early book of um, we see that in the book of Acts in the early church. And it's one of the reasons we've launched a discipleship ministry here called Trellis. Um, and we'd love for any of you that can be a part of that in the AM or the PM on Mondays. Uh, that is where we just want to dig into our heels into what that looks like to be a disciple of Jesus. What does that mean? Really? Is it bigger and broader than what it means to be a Christian? I don't know. Come find out. The last point I'll make is to abide in the word is to stand on the word. You know, all too often to be a disciple of Jesus means there is a cost involved. Um, I know there was for me. There's a lot of things you have to give up and be willing to do differently because you're following Jesus, but Jesus never asks those things of us because he wants to hurt us. Or he wants to, you know, life not to be as fun as it used to be. It's nothing like that. And the more we press into the Word of God, the more we see that and understand how much we are loved by Him and the plan and purpose that He has for your life specifically. And it's a beautiful thing. With that, I'm gonna go ahead and close this in prayer. Um, I just want to say that, you know, as we go through, and we have some more weeks as we go through this whole series on discipleship. Um, I encourage you, go back if you've missed some of these. I I keep going back to them and listening to them, and uh, it's just a really important exercise to do as a Christian is to understand that it is a very high calling that God has called us into, but it's one that is the most fulfilling, most satisfying life you could ever live. With that, let me pray. Father, Lord, thank you so much for new life. Lord, as I stand up here, I just think about all the places that you've brought me, all the junk you've brought me through, all the darkness, and and God, over and over again, how often I thought there was nothing worth living for. And that's sad. But I am so thankful, Lord, that by your Holy Spirit that you've illuminated my mind and helped me see through your word what there is, and that it's for everyone, and that there's no partiality with you, God, that each and every one of us in this room is loved unconditionally by you, and that you sent your son, the word, made flesh, to come, to go on that cross, and to pay the full penalty of each and every one of our sins. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, Lord Jesus. We love you. Help us to abide in your word and help us understand what that truly means in our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen.