Live Free with Josh Howerton - Remain In Me | Ep. 155 | Friday, September 8, 2023

Episode Date: September 8, 2023

What does it truly mean to remain in Jesus? In today’s episode, Pastor Mike focuses on three life-changing words: “Abide in Me.” If we are the branches and Jesus is the vine, we can do nothing without remaining firmly attached to Him. No life, nutrients, or growth can happen apart from staying with the Sustainer of life. Spend a few moments of your day reflecting on this Biblical truth. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Mike Bro, and we spend just a few minutes together each weekday diving into God's Word. It doesn't matter if you've been reading the Bible for most of your life, or if this podcast is your first introduction to it. We're in this together, and God promises

to meet us wherever we happen to be. And man, I'm so thankful for all of y'all. And we're in week two of a 21-day experience where we're seeking after God, just trying to slow down to talk to him. We're living in the awareness of his presence with us. throughout the day. We're praying for each other. We're incorporating things like fasting, solitude, serving, worship, meditating on God's Word into our personal experience. And this week, I want to spend some time in the words of Jesus written down in John 15. Now, by the way, if you're just jumping into the Bible, John would be a great place to start. It's all about Jesus, what he said, who he touched, how he moved, how he loved. It's written from the

perspective of Jesus' closest friend, a guy named John, and it is such an awesome read. You know, sometimes it only takes a few words to make a lasting impact. Now, you might hear an amazing, you know, 18-minute TED Talk or a 30-minute podcast, or you might read an incredible 500-page novel or see a thought-provoking 140-character tweet, and it completely changes your perspective on something. But sometimes all it takes is just three words. There's power in some three-word phrases like, except this rose.

It's a yes. I love you. I was wrong. I am sorry. Please forgive me. Three words like, you just flunked, or you just passed. You're cancer-free. The chemo worked.

One year sober. God is good. Don't call me. I'll call you. You've been blocked. We are pregnant. We're having triplets. We are broke.

I mean, sometimes just three words can make a lasting impact. But none quite like these three words from the lips. of Jesus when he said, remain in me. When Jesus spoke those three words, he used the imagery of a vine and branches, which were prevalent in Israel at the time, vineyards all over the valleys and hillsides. A fact, the nation of Israel was known to the people of Jesus' day as the vine. And Jesus tells us, guys, things are changing. I am the true vine. Actually, always have been, but now a place is being replaced by a person. And then he gives him these three words. He says this, remain in me and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it's severed from the vine, and you cannot be

fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing. So Jesus is saying, If you want to live with power, if you want to live with a sense of completeness, purpose, and deep satisfaction, if you want to produce the kind of fruit that leaves a legacy, if you want to live life to the full, then here's three words that will change everything for you. Remain in me. Now, the word, remain in the original language, meant to stay, abide, dwell, live, or establish a permanent residence. So to remain in him is to stay, abide, dwell, and live in the one who is stronger than we are.

than we are, more loving, more courageous, more powerful than we are. He is the life-giving vine, and we are the branches. And the job of the branch is to stay connected. And a whole lot of great fruit is guaranteed to every branch that just does that singular job. Now, when Jesus talks about bearing fruit, his point is not that human beings are incapable of doing anything worthwhile, without living, abiding, or remaining in Him, because everybody's created in the image of God, which means we all are capable of doing some good things. But simply burying the image of our Creator

is not the same as remaining in Him. See, John 15 is all about living in unexplainable life. It's about doing what we cannot do on our own. It's about becoming who we can never be on our own. To become God's best version of me, to produce the kind of fruit that lasts, I have to remain intimately connected to divine Jesus. My wife Debbie responded of saying our problem is not weakness, it's independence.

I mean, as Americans, we are fiercely independent, right? We prefer to do things on our own terms and our own way, and Jesus is saying, listen, that's what got you in trouble in the first place. Depend on me. Stay connected to me. Draw life from my life. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Now, I am in no way a horticulturist or a botanist.

I know very little about plants, vines, and trees. But you know it's weird how you remember certain terms from tests, like you took decades ago? Now, I can't tell you what they all mean, but I can actually remember a few botany terms from my high school and college science classes, terms like photosynthesis, chlorophyll, germination, deciduous, epidermis, fistal, dormancy, weeds, strangely enough, I remember the terms xylem and phloem, and I actually know what they do. They are part of the vascular system of a tree or a plant,

like we have artery and veins. They carry vital nutrients up and down the trunk to the branches, to the leaves, to the fruit. They are contained in the sap. And the reason I remember their function is because I studied for a test one time in high school, I memorized it this way. Zile them up,

and flow them down. That's got a goofy, I know. But hey, I remember it 40 years later, but the xylem carries the watery sap containing mineral nutrients upward, and the floam carries sap generally downward, full of the all-important sugars that the tree manufacturers during photosynthesis. So it's xylem up and flow them down. And the only way this works is for there to be a connection. A severed branch has none of that. I like the way my buddy Steve Carter puts it. You have to keep the remain thing, the main thing. You have to keep the remain thing, the main thing.

So Jesus says, remain in me. Let your roots grow down into the soil of my marvelous love. Let me move up and down in you, filling you with life-giving nutrients you need in order to produce lasting fruit with your life. So with all the xylem, flolum, branches, vine, stuff, I thought I would take the word sap to teach out some key words in this whole steak,

connected to divine principle. And remember, keep the remain thing, the main thing. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.combe.combe.combe.com slash daily drive.