Uncomplicate Your Faith | Jud Wilhite

Well, what an incredible time of worship with our central family. Just so thankful for that time and our experience each week. But right now we wanna welcome everybody watching online from wherever they're watching from. We're so glad that you're here with us. Yes, guys, I wanna give a big shout out to all the men and women watching with our partnership with God Behind Bars. Can we clap it up for them? We love you guys and we are so thankful that you're joining us. Well, if you wanna follow along with the teaching notes, you can find all of that in our Central Church app. Yes, well, right now it's time to welcome up Pastor Judd as he continues in our series, Uncomplicated. All right, all right. Hey, good to see you guys. Good to see you today. I wanna say a big shout out and welcome to Central Summerlin and Aliante, Kingman Sunrise Mountain. Good to have you guys with us. Hope you guys are doing well. What an amazing month we've had this year at Central. I just wanna say how proud I am of our amazing team. Pastor Nick did an amazing job over the last several weeks. Pastor Brandon gave his first message at Central and killed it, did a great job.

Man, Hosanna Wong and Ryan Leak, they were all just so good and so rich. And what a joy for me to be back this weekend and be part of Kickstart and see these kids getting school supplies and medical checks and haircuts. And it was just awesome. There's no place like Central. It's so good to be home. And I wanna share with you today a message that really I think is one of the most important concepts that you and I can grasp as followers of Jesus. In fact, that's what I'm gonna share today. I think the principle behind Jesus' words that we're gonna look at are some of the most important, powerful principles that you can experience in your life as a follower of Jesus. This stuff I'm gonna share today will change your life. It's simple. It's not false marketing. You ever been sort of marketed into something? You remember this guy right here? This is Vince. We'll bring him up, the ShamWow guy. Anybody remember the ShamWow guy from way back in the day? Man, this dude, he could sell all kinds of things. But I mean, you would watch one of his commercials and you'd be like, I need a ShamWow. I mean, it's just like a towel, but you're like, I gotta have this. This is what it's gonna take to make my life complete.

And you know, like he could market anything. And we live in a world of great marketing. And I can tell you just a few weeks ago, I fell for some marketing, for some advertising. And Lori's been laughing at me about it for weeks now. Basically, it was an Instagram ad and it came up and it said, is your dog chronically dehydrated? And I'm like, my dog never drinks. Anybody have a dog like this? She's really not interested in water. She's interested in her own poo, but she's not interested in water, if you know what I'm saying. It's like, is your dog chronically dehydrated? I'm like, yes. And then it's like, if your dog's chronically dehydrated, then they're gonna die much younger and they're not gonna live as long as they could. But you know, dogs in Japan live like decades longer. I'm like, wow, really? And they live this long because they drink running water from a stream. And they know they go up to it, the water's running and bubbling and they know it's good water and so they drink it so they're super hydrated, so they live much longer. Your dog is gonna die young because it's dehydrated. But it's okay because we have this, I don't know what you call it, just water bowl that you could purchase right now, two clicks on Instagram.

And you can have this. And this is a little water bowl that you plug in and the water comes out this little spout and comes down into the water. And so the whole idea of the ad is, your dog is gonna walk up to this thing and instinctively, I guess it's Japanese roots, it's gonna know like, this is running water, like my ancestors drink. And then your dog is gonna drink this running water, 30-something percent more water, it says, your dog is gonna drink. Which means they're gonna live 30-something percent longer or something like this. I don't know, but the whole time I'm like, yeah, yeah, I think we really do need this. You know, I'm in. And so click, click, I get the thing, it comes, I'm like, Lori, you know, I got this. She's laughing at me, she's like, you fell for an Instagram ad, Judd. She just, she loved it. So I opened the thing up, we get it all, Lori gets it all set up and the little water comes out of the spigot, it's running water now, just like a Japanese river. And you know, here we go, Stella's gonna walk up to it and she's gonna get the vibes of the water and be like, yes, I need to drink. No, we took the dog right up to it and my dog,

she's never drank out of it once. She looked at it, turned her nose up, smelled, turned around and walked away. She's not interested at all. Not only that, about a week later, my credit card was on a fraud alert. Come on, somebody. I had to cancel the card, it was a whole deal. Then they tried to get me on reoccurring charges for water filters that I didn't even know I ordered, right? False advertising, does not work. Don't worry, it's still sitting over there in the corner running, she just won't drink it. Now I have normal water just sitting there as well for her to kind of drink. But here's the thing, my dog is chronically dehydrated. I believe that, I just haven't found a way to get her to drink water yet. And I think a lot of us as followers of Jesus, if we're not careful, we can get dehydrated, spiritually dehydrated, where we're sort of walking around and we start feeling dry, we start feeling disconnected from God, we start feeling disconnected from our faith. Maybe we don't really know what's even happening, we just know like we used to be kind of into it and now we don't feel like we're into it anymore. We used to have the feelings and now we don't really have the feelings that used to play the music at church and we'd be like, yeah, I'm all in, that's awesome. And now we're just like, I don't know,

I think something died inside me. And I think part of the issue is it's so easy as followers of Jesus to get distracted, to get pulled away, to get drawn into a million things and pretty soon we find ourselves spiritually dehydrated, spiritually dehydrated. And what Jesus is gonna share with us today in John chapter 15 is the simple principle of how we can reconnect, remain in him and be filled by him spiritually, which I think can affect every other area of our lives. We're not gonna get it from ShamWow, you're not gonna get it from my Instagram dog whatever bowl, but we do get it from the presence of Jesus. Now, Hosanna started us in a teaching series last week called Uncomplicated, it's based on her latest book, which is amazing by the way, which is all about uncomplicating our faith and helping us reconnect with God. And I encourage you, if you're a book person, if you're a reader, if you listen to audio books, any of that, check it out, it's fantastic. But she basically did research where she talked to a thousand different people to determine what were the barriers people had in experiencing God. And then she worked very hard to try and write this book to remove some of those barriers to help people grow and connect with God. She did a great job kicking it off last week,

check that out online, but let's go to John 15 now and let's look at Jesus and what he teaches here. We're gonna begin in verse five when we get to the red word, if you'll say this out loud with me. But Jesus says this, he says, "'Yes, I am the vine, you are the branches. "'Those who,' what? "'Remain in me, and I in them will produce much fruit. "'For apart from me, you can do nothing.'" Now, Jesus is talking to his followers here. It's actually his last conversation with all of them before he's betrayed and crucified. So their whole life is about to get incredibly complicated. But in this moment, he makes it really simple. Do you notice that? He kind of uncomplicates it and he's like, "'There's only one thing that really matters. "'Remain in me. "'You remain in me, I remain in you, "'and you're gonna bear fruit.'" What does that mean? That means good things are gonna come out of your life, things that glorify God, things that you really want. In fact, the Bible says in Galatians five, "'The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, "'peace, patience, kindness.'" These are the things that we spend our money on. These are the things that we look after. These are the things that we chase after.

Jesus in the Bible are saying, "'Hey, this is available to you now, but you can't buy it. "'You can't click and purchase it.'" It comes through a relationship with Jesus, the fruit of God's Spirit being born out in your life. All you have to do is remain in me. So I have good news for you today. If you're feeling a little dry, a little burned out, because I think the message of Jesus is not to add a million more things to your plate, it's to actually say it's a lot simpler than that. Just one thing matters, remain in Him. Remain in Him, abide in Him. So if you wanna uncomplicate your faith today, here's what I would say. Faithfulness in Jesus literally leads to fruitfulness from Jesus. You just stay faithful to be in Him and near Him, and then He will provide the fruit that then comes out of your life. So the first thing is simply this, remain in Jesus. Remain in Jesus. And that's so simple, but it's so easy to get distracted. You know, a few weeks ago, I was backing out of my father and mother-in-law's house, and I was backing out, and I noticed that there were these kids down the street on their bikes, and I got distracted. And I'm watching these kids on their bikes as I'm sort of backing out,

and I never once looked in my rear view mirror. And I backed right into a parked car, just sitting there on the street. I mean, what kind of dummy backs into a parked car? I haven't had a wreck in. 30 years, and the one I do have, I backed right into a parked car. I just, when it happened, I was so shocked. I looked up, I'm like, oh, you, Judd, what? And then I had to go find this guy that was the owner of the car. Thankfully, he was very nice. I did a number on his fender. It was a whole deal. Luckily for me, I was in our old Honda CR-V. Come on, somebody, what's another dent? I'm like, insurance is like, are we gonna get, I'm like, no, no, no, don't even, my car is not part of this equation. Do not bill me for that, right? So the thing is, though, it's so easy to take our eyes off where our eyes should be. And when you do, you get into a lot of trouble. And this is what I think happens to a lot of followers of Jesus. We love God, we're connected to him, we believe in him, but man, life is busy, family is busy. Dishes, laundry, kids, work, projects, hobbies, all the things that are always coming at us. Sports teams, you name it, entertainment,

all these things creeping in. And pretty soon, we just start taking our eyes off what matters most. I mean, Hosanna found in her research that the number one thing that sort of people felt like kept them from really staying connected to God was just busyness, busyness. It's not like most people wake up and say, I'm gonna drift in my faith, right? I don't think most people wake up and say, I'm just gonna check out on God. I think most of us, it just happens, right? You know, we skip a weekend, we got too much going on, then we skip another weekend at church because there's a million things happening. And we used to kind of wake up early and do our devotional time or late at night, whenever we did it, but now we're tired. So we skip a day and then we skip another day. And then before you know it, it's a week that's gone by and then pretty soon it's a month and then it's three months and then it's six months. Like we don't do it on purpose, but all of a sudden you kind of wake up and you realize, man, I'm not feeling the fruit of God's spirit in my life. Love, joy, peace. What I'm experiencing is stress, anger, frustration. And I think what's going on is you're dehydrated spiritually. You got to get back to the main thing, which is Jesus.

You got to remain in him, got to connect with him. In fact, Jesus, when he shares these words with his disciples in this section in John 15, known as the final discourse. John 15, verse one, some scholars actually think that he's leaving the area where they had the last supper, okay? And that he could be possibly, we don't know this for sure, but he possibly could be walking with his disciples to the garden of Gethsemane where he would be betrayed. This is like the next scene in Jesus' life. And if that is the case, he would have walked past an area near the temple where there was a sculpture of a vine and these grapes that were there. They would have been like five or six feet high, this sculpture. And just speculation, but it would be interesting if he was walking right by it at that moment when he says these words. John 15 beginning in verse one. Help me out when we get to the red word. Jesus speaking here, he says, I am the what? I'm the true grapevine. Now just so you can imagine if he's walking with his disciples and here's this grapevine, which is the imagery of God as the vine and the people of Israel are the branches

that were to bear fruit, right? But Jesus says, I'm the true grapevine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. And he says, remain in me, here it is again, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. So that fruit that we want, that thing that we all want, Jesus saying, it's all connected to simply remaining in me, staying connected to me. Now let's do a little visual here. It's pretty basic and straightforward, but if you've ever driven past like, you know, a vineyard and you've seen a vine and it looks something like what we have here on the screen, you've got the vine coming up from the ground and then, you know, not only do you have the vine, then you have the fruit here out on the edge, you know, the grapes, the nutrients, you know, the things, but then what connects the vine to the fruit is the branch, right? And the branch is this simple thing that's just, look, the branch isn't bringing the nutrients, It's just allowing the nutrients that the vine brings up

from the earth, right? It's just connected. The nutrients are flowing through it, and therefore it's bearing fruit. And so when Jesus says like, I'm the vine and you're the branches, he's saying, look, I'm doing all the heavy lifting. I'm bringing the nutrients. You're completely dependent on me. You trust me, follow me, believe in me, lean on me, allow me to work. And what will happen is through your life, I will actually bear good fruit, the things that you want. It will happen. What I love about this is, Jesus doesn't say like, you know, I'm the true vine. And then he said, you know, perform for me. He doesn't say like, I'm the true vine, work really hard and be as good as you can for me. He doesn't say I'm the true vine, jump through all the right religious hoops. No, he says, I'm the vine, you're the branches, just remain in me. Stay connected to me and you will bear much fruit. You get it? Like the fruit isn't about your work, it's about God's work. The fruit isn't about your effort, it's about God's effort. The fruit isn't about your accomplishment, it's about what God does through you. All you gotta do is remain in him.

In fact, there's a lot of things coming at a lot of us right now. School's about to start back up. There's a million things to get done. There's a lot of things coming at us. And here's what I would say. The number one thing we've gotta keep our eyes on is, look, if I just will remain in Jesus through faith, connect with him, dwell with him, believe in him, meditate on him, pray to him, everything else is gonna take care of itself in my life. The fruit will come, the love, the joy, the peace will come, the provision will come, the relationships will come, the love will come. It's all gonna flow through because it flows through God. It's not dependent on us. So everybody just take a deep breath for me right now. We just take. All Jesus is saying is, remain in me. Everything else will flow through your life. Just remain in me. Trust me. See, that's what a branch does. A branch just hangs on. Right? Just hang on. Hang onto Jesus when you get good news and hang on to Jesus when you get bad news. Look, hang onto Jesus when things are going your way and hang onto Jesus when you cannot see a way,

hang onto Jesus when you got all the feels and hang on to Jesus when you're not even sure what you're feeling right now, hang onto Jesus when you're confident and hang onto Jesus when you're filled with doubt, hang onto Jesus when things are going well at work and hang onto Jesus when work is going crazy because the long view is. You stay connected to the vine. God ultimately will bring the fruit through your life. That's the long view. Now I want you to notice, Jesus talked about something else too, didn't he? He talked about pruning. He says, you know, the father prunes. So some of you, if you have like a green thumb, if you're a gardener or whatever, you know, pruning is like, you take what kind of may even look like a good branch or whatever, but it gets cut back, right? It gets pruned back so that the plant can grow more healthy and ultimately bear more fruit. And Jesus is saying, this is what God does in our life. And a lot of us don't factor this in when we're dealing with our own experience. Some of you right now might be in a season of pruning. You might be in a season where some things are getting cut back, right? Maybe there's some friendships or relationships in your life that you don't really understand why

that have distanced themselves and it's frustrating. Maybe you feel like you're being accused at work or in a family situation for something you didn't do and you don't understand it. Maybe you're in a situation where, man, it just feels like things are coming against you and you're not sure why. And it may not be that God's punishing you at all. He may simply be pruning you. Peeling back the things in your life that we can't always see that ultimately get in the way. I can tell you, I've been through some seasons of pruning in my life where I felt like God was just cutting away things that maybe I was putting my confidence in other than Him. Things that I was maybe putting my trust in other than Him. Just pruning it away, cutting it away. Because listen, it's in the pruning season where we learn that it's not about our performance, but it's about God's grace. It's in the pruning season that we learn it's not about us and what we can do, but about God and what He has already done. In the pruning season, we learn to depend on God. In the pruning season, we learn to be humble. In the pruning season, we learn to hold onto Him with all that we are, right? Some of you right now, you can't understand what's going on. your life, but can I suggest God may be pruning you.

He may be cutting away smaller things in your life so that he can ultimately grow you into something greater. You'll bear more fruit. And this is the analogy Jesus uses, like the Father will, I don't like the pruning, you know what I'm saying? Anybody feel me here? I just want like the easy downhill life. But that's rarely how God prepares us for the blessing that we ultimately hope to receive and live in in our life as we follow him. Faithfulness in Jesus leads to fruitfulness from Jesus, so remain in Jesus. You wanna uncomplicate your faith, here's another idea, and that is to just then reproduce good fruit in your life. You reproduce good fruit in your life. And when you think about fruit and this whole idea of imagery of like fruit and fruitfulness, I think another word for it is just blessed or blessing or bless we see in the Bible. Everybody wants to experience God's blessing in their life. Sometimes people can kind of cheapen this, like I saw this on social media a long time ago, I captured it, somebody said, found seven chicken nuggets in my six-piece order, hashtag blessed. Hey, God can bless you in simple ways. Sure, here's another one. Caught a piece of bacon falling out of my sandwich right before it hit the ground, hashtag blessed.

But can I suggest that what God is really doing in our lives when he's wanting to bless us, when he's wanting us to be fruitful is way more than a chicken nugget order, and it's way more than bacon before it hits the ground. God wants to grow you and shape you and form you into the image of his son, Jesus Christ, so that he can use you to bear greater fruit in your life, in your family. And can I tell you, this is what our families need. They need men of God and women of God who bear the fruit of being connected to God in their families. Listen, this is what our country needs. You know, like, I don't know about you, but sometimes I look around and it's like, is anybody honest, left anymore? Is a single person honest, right? You know, like, is anybody telling the truth anymore? But here's what I can tell you. When a person is connected to Jesus, when a person is connected to the true vine, you know what, truth is what's gonna flow out of them. Honesty is what's gonna flow out of them. Goodness is what's gonna flow out of them, and good fruit is what ultimately will be born in their life. Jesus says this in John chapter 15, beginning of verse six. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers.

Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. This is just what happens in gardening. He's like, but if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want and it will be granted. When you produce much, what, fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. Now, a couple things I think it's worth saying here. First of all, I don't think Jesus here is talking about how your salvation is fluctuating back and forth on how you're doing spiritually in the moment. I don't think he's really talking about eternal salvation in this moment as much as he's talking about the fruit that you bear when you are connected to God. I think he's giving a gardening analogy that's pretty straightforward. And then he says this. He says, you remain in me and my words remain in you. You may ask for anything you want and it will be granted. Somebody's like, that's what I heard. That's what I'm talking about. I got a long list of things I want. Come on, God. But I think here's the deal. When you remain in him and you're connected to him, your desires start to change. God's not like a genie.

You just come and kind of rub and ask for what you want and poof, you get it. The very thing you're asking for may be the thing that destroys you. Hello. But God is a good Father who's gonna give you what you're ready for when you're ready for it to accomplish his will and his purpose and for you to accomplish what he's created in advance for you to do. And so you can come as your heart aligns with him, as your purposes align with his purposes and ask and pray and God moves and works in your life in a powerful way. So how do we reproduce good fruit? Well, here's a couple simple things that I think we can do to just stay connected to God. These are just things I wrote down when I thought, what does it look like practically to remain in God, to reproduce that fruit in my own life? And the first thing I just wrote down was this, to connect with God every day. If you wanna stay connected, you gotta connect with him every day. And that looks different for all of us. This is why we're doing this series, Uncomplicated. This, for some of you, could look like if you're a nature person, when you get out in nature,

you sense the presence of God, you feel God in your life, Man, make sure every day you try to just get outside for a minute. Just go for a walk around the parking lot at work, if that's what it is. Go for a hike, get out, get in your backyard. Just take a minute to connect and give thanks to God in that moment. If you're a music person and a worship person, man, put some music on in the car, on the way to work. Put it on when you get back home, whatever. Like, just have a moment where you connect with God. Certainly, I'm a big believer in the Bible app because it's got this simple program for people called the verse of the day. You can just open it up every day and right there is the verse of the day. You can go deeper if you have more time. There's commentary and explanation and even a prayer guide if you want it each day. It's all laid out for you. But whether it's in the morning or at evening, however you're wired up, just for you, connect with God. For me, you guys know this. I've said it a million times, but I'm just trying to just tell you through my own life. Every day, the first thing I do, because I'm a morning person and I know that's not everybody in the room

and my wife does not do this this way, okay? Because she's not a morning person. Somebody told me that their wife was making the bed at 6.30 in the morning and kicking the bed, like, come on, get up, because they were making the bed with him still in it. And I said, yeah, that's something my wife has never done in 30 years, okay? So she's not a morning person. But I'm a morning person, so the first thing I do is I make a beeline to the coffee machine. Hello, somebody. I get coffee and then every day I sit down, I open up the Bible app and I pray through a different psalm every day. So I start with psalm one and then the next day, psalm two, then the next day, psalm three. And it's like the prayer and praise book of Israel. I'm not suggesting you do this. I'm just telling you this is what works for me. And I pray a little, I read a little, I pray a little, and what I read inspires me to pray, right? And I go through all 150 psalms and then I start over. I've done this for years and years and years and years. You'd think I'd have the whole psalm book memorized by now, but I come across, I'm like, oh, it's like the first time I've read it. Hello, you know? You gotta find what works for you. But the most powerful thing that you can do

is sort of Monday through Friday in the normal week of your life, find ways every day to just connect with God. Those touch points are huge. Jesus says, remain in me, you will bear much fruit in your life. Here's another thought, lean into Christian community. Lean into Christian community. When I think about my own life, one of the things I love so much about the church community is the power that it has to bring hope and encouragement to all of us when we need it, to help point us in the right direction, to help pray for us and help us. And it's not just something we do when we gather on the weekends across our locations. It's something that happens all week long in different environments. And there are so many amazing people that would pray for you, encourage you, walk with you if you'd just get to know them. And I would just say, if you're feeling lonely right now, if you don't feel very connected to other people, and please just jump in in any way, take a step. You know, listen, I would say, if you're feeling lonely, but you show up to church five minutes late, and then you're the first one out the door when service is over, that's on you. That's on you. Hang, come early, hang out in the lobby.

Talk to somebody in the, you know, ask them how they're doing, where they're from. Stay late, get to know some people. Just walk around and you're gonna find there are people all over the place that are amazing human beings that care and that will pray for you and walk with you and do whatever they can to help you grow spiritually. If you wanna stay connected to Jesus, man, connect with God every day. Remain in him and stay connected to others relationally. It's so powerful. And then the third thing that I've found in my own life that I try to do on a daily basis that I actually feel like helps me kind of remain in Jesus, and it is to give thanks continually, to give thanks continually. And that may sound, I don't know how that sounds, but when I think about it in my own life, that's giving thanks every day, like connects me to God. Because sometimes I'm going through things I'm not thankful for. Come on, somebody. Sometimes I'm going through stuff that I don't understand. Sometimes people who are amazing can drive you crazy. You know what I'm saying? And you wake up and you're just like, man, God, I don't know what's going on, but if I start to give thanks for what God has done in my life,

for the salvation I've received, for the grace I have, for the friends I have in my life, for our church family, for the fact that I have air conditioning, hello, for, you know, like when I start to give thanks for the simple things in my life, changes my, I feel more connected to God. And it helps give me perspective on all the other things. So those are some simple ways that you can stay connected to God, but you just have one job. I just have one job. Remain in me, Jesus says. Just remain in me. I'll take care of everything else. You remain in me. I'll bear the fruit. You remain in me. I'll bring the good things. And that fruit could be external fruit in our lives. It could be seeing the impact that our faith journey has on other people. It could be the way our faith may lead other people to come to faith. It could be the way what God has done in us impacts and starts to shape family members or friends. It could be internal love, joy, peace. All of that is the fruit of God's spirit working in our life. Just remain in me. And that's important this time of year.

Because I think right now is a time of year when a lot of us have very long to-do lists. Anybody got a to-do list going on right now? On your phone, right? Written down somewhere, a million things. All the stuff you gotta shop for, for your kids before school. Who's gonna do drop off and pick up? Where does it, when does it start? When do we need to leave? When do we need to get there? Right? You know, all the things related to work. Like in the to-do list, if you're like me, it gets longer and longer and longer right now, this time of year. You know, like, man, there's a lot of to-dos. But I don't feel like when I read John 15 and Jesus is speaking to his disciples for the last time, he's not giving them a to-do list. He gives them one thing, remain in me. Just one thing. Spiritually, all you need to do is remain in him. And he'll take care of everything else. I think what we need is maybe an it's done list. Because one of the things Jesus says in verse seven of John 15 is he says, remain in me. And you know, that's what he's repeated again and again and again, remain in me. And then he says, as my words remain in you.

So his words are to remain in us. His words are to shape us. And I don't know about you, but my thought life is one of the most challenging things in my life. Man, if I get, I'm like everybody else. I can get depressed. I can get anxious. I can wrestle with fear. I can be confused. I can doubt. All of those things are happening in my thought world, right? The Bible says to take every thought captive. But the only way you can do that is with the word of God in your life, with the word of Jesus stored in your heart and in your mind. And I have to fight that battle just like everybody else does. But when I lean into Jesus' words, I'm reminded that it's done. All the things that really matter have been done for me. I may have a lot of things on my to-do list, but ultimately I have an it's done list. And so you may have a list that says, hey, do the laundry, drop the kids at school, study, volunteer, graduate, get promoted, buy a house, raise kids, save, retire, leave a legacy. Demands all your energy, all your attention. It can hold all your value and self-worth hostage.

But because of God and his grace, we have something far more important. Turn to the person next to you and say, it's done. It's done. Listen, God loved us and provided his son for us. He sent Jesus to die in our place. He raised Jesus from the dead, where he now sits at the right hand of the father as Lord of Lord and King of kings. Somebody say, it's done. It's done. Look, he forgave our sins. He justifies us. He declares us righteous. He redeemed us from the curse and from captivity to sin. He reconciled us to himself. He adopted us as his children. He made us as new creations. He sealed us with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee. Somebody say, it's done. It's done. Look, he transferred us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his son. He seated us with Christ in the heavenly places. He gave us the gift of eternal life. He prepared good works in advance for us to do. He made a way to heaven where all those who have died in Christ await us. He created a place where no eye has seen and no mind has imagined,

where awaits those who remain in him. Somebody say, it's done. Your worth is settled. You're forgiven in Jesus Christ. You're free in him. Your future is favored. His face is turned towards you. His arm is upraised in protection for you. His word lights the way. His will is unshakable. His love is faithful. His power is perfect. It's done. Believe it. Receive it. And then simply remain in it. Remain in it. And inevitably, fruit will be born through your life. The things that you really want, love, joy, peace, will start to be born in your life. The things that money can't buy start to come out in your life. The things that you've been praying for will start to show up in your life because God, you're connected to the vine and therefore as the branch, he's bearing the fruit and he's doing it through you. You, Jesus could have said a lot to his disciples in his final moments with them, but he said one thing, remain in me.

And that's why I started this message by saying I think this principle may be the most important principle of any principle you could ever learn as a follower of Jesus. Because it all really just comes down to Jesus and staying connected to him. And then the good things flow through your life. You will bear much fruit. Faithfulness in Jesus leads to fruitfulness from Jesus. And maybe you're here today and maybe you've never crossed that line of faith. And I wanna give you that opportunity just to reach out to God, to trust him, to ask him to move and work in your life. He loves you, he cares for you. He wants to forgive and heal and restore. And if you will open your heart to him, he can do amazing things in your life, just like he's done in mine, just like he's done in so many of our lives. So I wanna give all of you an opportunity. Would you just bow your heads and close your eyes? If you'd like to become a follower of Jesus today, you can begin that journey by just repeating a simple prayer after me, either out loud or in your own heart. Just say, dear God, I thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Jesus into the world. I believe he died on the cross for my sins.

I believe he rose again. Forgive me for my sins. Give me the gift of eternal life. Help me face the challenges that I'm up against. God, I surrender my life to you in Christ's name. And friends, with every head bowed and every eye closed, if that's your prayer, if it's your commitment, I'm gonna ask you to just slip your hand in the air, just to acknowledge you're gonna trust him, you're gonna follow him, you're believing in him today. And for all those reaching out to him, I believe you're gonna start to bear the good fruit that comes when you are connected. God, I thank you for each one of these people, moving in their lives, fill them with hope and purpose and meaning. We give you praise for them and we give you thanks now. In Christ's name, amen. Amen, let's put our hands together for those who made spiritual commitments in their life. Amen. Listen, if you made a spiritual commitment, we wanna connect with you right after service, please head to one of our lobby locations, or if you're watching online, please let us know online. We'd love to get some resources to you that'll help you as you continue to grow on the spiritual journey. Well, let's give it up now for our location pastors as they come close out our experience.