What Changes When Your Only Job Is To Stay With Jesus

We move from chili trophies and Super Bowl chatter into John 15, asking how abiding in Jesus changes our pace, our priorities, and our peace. We trade fruit-checking for staying close to the vine and explore pruning as God’s path to deeper joy.

• upcoming trivia night details and sign-up info
• student ministry events and summer camp updates
• reading John 15 on vines, branches, and fruit
• abiding as remaining, dwelling, staying close
• prayer, Scripture, worship, and community as practices
• pruning as purpose, not punishment
• real fruit vs taped-on fruit and burnout
• Christ living through us and reshaped desires
• listener suggestion box and Morning Rush questions

Write us some questions or the box
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www.rushchurch.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Rush Hour, a Rush Church podcast. I'm here with Brittany and Ashley again, and we're going to be talking about upcoming events at Rush Church. We're going to talk about some little Bible today. We're going to be in John chapter 15, a good

Warm Welcome And Chili Winners

SPEAKER_00 0:16

chapter to read. So if you're listening and you want to kind of follow along, maybe you can get your Bible out if you have one. If you don't have one, you need to get one.

SPEAKER_04 0:25

Stop by. Rush Church will give you one.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

We'll give you a Bible. I have lots. So before anything else happens on the podcast, I just want to say that we have to recognize Ashley because she won the chili contest Sunday night at the church. She got first place, got a big trophy. I voted for your chili.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

It was too spicy for me. I didn't get a bowl of it.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

That I ruined some people's taste buds.

SPEAKER_04 0:47

It wasn't that nice.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

I mean, it had nice food to it.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Larry said I ruined his taste buds.

SPEAKER_04 0:52

Oh, my dad. He did recover and eat more chili.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

I love the sweetness of it. I like I like a sweet chili. Yeah. And it had some it got a good flavor, sweet, and it was had heat though. Too much heat for me, but I appreciated it because it is what it's supposed to be. So I didn't congratulations. So you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

You didn't vote?

SPEAKER_04 1:11

No. I thought it was bad because I knew too many of the that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

I knew you being taking the high risk. I cannot be unbiased. I shall abstain from voting.

SPEAKER_04 1:23

Also, because by the time I took three bites of chili, I was off doing something else. And I was like, I didn't get to eat my chili.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

And your wife won the pie contest, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 1:33

That was the trophy, the rolling pin trophy is up in our kitchen right now. Nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

I didn't even know it was her pie. Like I had no idea who made it.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Anybody it was her pop. No, you didn't bother and sat it there and put a number by it.

SPEAKER_03 1:44

Not that I would have like voted or not voted for it. I but I oh Erica made this, never made it.

SPEAKER_04 1:50

Or I don't even care what it tastes like. I'm voting for it.

SPEAKER_03 1:54

No, it was more's pie.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

It was really good.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

And I s'more's my favorite, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

It tastes it was it was fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 2:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

But and then Serena's blueberry pie.

SPEAKER_04 2:04

That was the most beautiful pie.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

I told the other judges, I'm like, I don't even eat fruit pie. But this was in this was amazing.

SPEAKER_04 2:10

She said that there's oh pretend I don't bake pies, but orange custard or something that was like homemade and like I don't know. She was giving me everything that was done to it, but it was beautiful. Yeah, it just looked beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

Yeah, if it if we had like a trophy for like the appearance, you know, this we could add more trophies. That would have hands down won it.

SPEAKER_04 2:35

Ruin your taste buds. Number one, ruin your trophies.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

Too hot chili. Is I've we've done the same thing every year, either red or white, you know, but it's always the same flavor. And I was like, Levi, what do you like? Like what kind of just randomly, what kind of chili do you like? And he's like, I like sweet and spicy. And I'm like, okay, I've never done that. I'll try it. Let's see if something something new helps out. But when I had it at home and tasted it, it was so sweet. I was like, this is ridiculous. Like it's so sweet. I'm like, this isn't chili. So I just kept adding spices.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

And I'm like, So you can never recreate this.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

Oh no. Like I kept tasting, I'm like, it's still not spicy. Like I could taste the sweet, but the spicy wasn't there yet. Well, my husband said, just add a little bit. And I think I added a little bit too much because the longer chili sits, the more the spice comes out. That's thinking about it.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

You gotta let it sit for it.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

Yeah, and I didn't do that. So I think by the time it sat, and then we tasted it, that fire behind the suite was like, Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Yeah. So Ashley and her flamethrower chili contest. Erica won the pie contest, and then Super Bowl was pretty boring, the game itself.

SPEAKER_04 3:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

I won the contest, by the way.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

You did?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:45

What was the score?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

The score was 29 to 13. Is that the odd?

Super Bowl Banter And Friendly Bets

SPEAKER_00 3:50

No, I guess 31 to 20, but I was the closest out of anybody else.

SPEAKER_03 3:53

So Brittany had to take you to coffee?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Uh you don't have to. I don't care.

SPEAKER_04 3:56

I'll just we'll buy you coffee as soon as we get back to the church.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But uh make you a fresh pot. Not as many people entered the contest, so there's only five of us in the contest. Um gotcha. Um, yeah, but I'm not gonna make you guys buy me coffee.

SPEAKER_04 4:10

The bet's a bet, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Yeah, so that was that. We had a good time. The chili and pie cook off, and there was a boring football game on. The announcements that are coming up, things that are going on. We have a trivia night on its way. What is that? March 14th. More competition. More competition. We love to convince it.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

Another another trophy in our future. Yeah, March 14th. Saturday. Yep, Saturday, 6 p.m.

Upcoming Trivia Night Details

SPEAKER_03 4:33

Child care is provided. So if you need child care, bring your kids. Just they need to sign up. Tables of six. Uh so you can have teams of six.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

And you just sign up at the welcome desktop. If you want to come and don't have a team, we can put you on a team, can't you?

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Correct. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'll have extra tables ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Be stuck with me or other random things.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

True. You might get stuck with people who don't know what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

But it'd be fun. It no matter you win or lose, it's gonna be great.

SPEAKER_03 4:58

And it's a potluck, so everybody brings it.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah, bring sure. Yeah, if you if you want to come bring food.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

If you don't, then bring your chili that you didn't enter in the contest.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Okay, so we have trivia night. It's always fun. We did it last year. Are you gonna have like door prizes or things to give away?

SPEAKER_03 5:13

Um, I don't think we're gonna have door prizes here. That kind of took a little bit too long.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Okay, who brought it up? Yeah, focus on just trivia. Just show up with your knowledge and be ready to answer difficult questions.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

Yeah, I'm super excited this year. We have a new round. I'm not gonna reveal it. Oh. But it's really fun.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Well, make sure you show up to that if you're into trivia nights or just want to have a good time with Rush Church people. What else is coming up? We have a couple teenage events coming up. Uh, paintball camp signups are open, and that's this summer. More information about that you'll see around on posters and stuff. Ohio Teens for Christ is April 3rd and 4th. So all 7th through 12th grade things. That's a one-day conference in Columbus. And then also girls camp this summer in July. Erica, my wife, runs that, and uh, she has a lot of good volunteers that go down to the same camp that we go to paintball camp at. And it's just for girls 6 through 12th, I believe, is the ages for that one. So all these things coming up in student ministry. Anything else? Superstart done?

SPEAKER_03 6:12

Superstart, yeah. We're we're pretty full for that. All right. Yep, ready to go for that one.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Good deal. I don't think there's anything else coming up. So, do you want to jump into some little bit of Bible before we get off here?

SPEAKER_03 6:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Sounds great. John 15 is where we're looking. And so we're trying to figure out what to talk about this time. Ashley sent some ideas, and she one of the ideas of on her list was

Why John 15 Is On Our Hearts

SPEAKER_00 6:36

John 15, and what does it mean to abide in Christ? And I just so happened to have that on my mind yesterday. So it was interesting that she texted that one. And so I picked that one off. Do what?

SPEAKER_04 6:48

Ain't that God?

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Ain't that ain't that just uh what God does.

Student Ministry Events Preview

SPEAKER_00 6:54

We need to get rid of these southern accents. Yes, we do today. But so yeah, we're just talking about a little bit out a little bit about John 15. It's uh just the first part of the chapter about vines and branches and gardening. And so Jesus tells these stories, or he he gives these analogies because it's what people knew back in the day in ancient times. He did a lot of farming analogies and parables, he did a lot of like gardening and plant things because you know the people knew about these things, and so it makes sense to them. So we're gonna break it down a little bit today. Most of us live our lives, we're kind of conditioned to. I'm gonna say, this this passage is about producing fruit, and so we're kind of like made to be fruit checkers. We always want to check our fruit and see what we're producing and stuff like that, but usually in the wrong kind of way. So we wake up in the morning and immediately check our production value of what's going on in our lives, you could say, like our productivity, check our social media likes, who's messaged me, who's seen what I've posted, and you know, all these different things, engagement or our progress at our job, and like we start the day by seeing how things are going with our projects or in our lives, or so we're checking on our value, our stuff, I guess you'd say. And constant fruit checking like that leads to what do you think? If you live your life that way, constantly checking on your progress in all these different areas.

SPEAKER_04 8:22

Well, we'll fall into probably worldly Oh shoot.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

What are how do most people feel?

SPEAKER_04 8:30

Like comparison to others and that gives you what kind of feelings?

SPEAKER_03 8:34

Sad depression.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Sad depression, like stress. Yeah, anxious about stuff. If the fruit is small, we feel like failures. If we don't produce enough of the good things, then we feel like we're not doing enough, or I need to do more, or I'm not good enough for this. If the fruit is very large, then we live in fear of losing it. So it's this like lose-lose situation of like trying to keep up with the world and trying to produce these good things. And so we'll talk a little bit about what this means in scripture today. Abiding. So let's just start with that, because it talks a lot about abiding in this passage. What do you hear when you hear the word abide?

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Like in it. Like I'm in, you know, I'm inside of it.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

Connected to. Yeah. But the true meaning is to remain, to stay connected or to dwell continuously.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Okay. Do you have the Bible open? Can you just read the first part of John 15? Maybe until you feel like Yep.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

John 15, starting in one, it says, I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit, he removes, and he prunes every branch

Reading John 15: The Vine And Branches

SPEAKER_03 9:47

that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. Which I thought that was really cool. Thinking that the more you know, the more fruit that we have, the more he will prune from us because that fruit is needed, and then we grow more fruit. Yeah. Like it just it's it keeps coming. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself, unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. The one who remains in me, and I in him, produces much fruit because you can do nothing without me. Verse 6 says, Uh, if anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he with and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. Verse 7 If you remain in me and my war is remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. My father is glorified by this, that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Okay. Awesome. So we get this idea of image of being connected to a vine. We got branches, we got fruit, we got all this stuff that's happening here. And so Jesus is telling us if you want to produce the things that you're supposed to produce in your life, the good fruits in your life, then you need to be connected to the vine, which is him.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Total dependence.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Total dependence. That's what I think. And so what does it look like to be connected to Jesus all the time?

SPEAKER_04 11:29

Definitely prayer, which I know we've talked about before. That's probably the way that I can do it all the time because reading scripture or being in a study like we were today, I feel really connected, but I can't do that all the time as much as I would like to. So prayer is probably the only way that I can be all the time.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

I think it's constant just thinking about him. You know, whether when I'm driving in the car or doing dishes, I'm just constantly thinking about how good he is, how thankful I am for the things in my life. Worship music plays in my car or home at all times. It's just yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Sounds good. Abide to remain in. So that keyword for me always in this passage is remain in him. So it's uh you you gotta stay with Jesus.

Abiding Defined And Daily Practices

SPEAKER_00 12:27

You have to make sure that you're connected to him, remain in him, remain close to him. And not just the one-time thing of I'm close to Jesus now and we're doing this. It says stay that way. And that kind of is a day-by-day kind of thing to choose to stay connected to who he is and what he wants from us. So that word always stands out to me when I'm reading this passage is remain in me, stay here with me. Do you have anything else off the top of your head I just want to say? I'm gonna bring up this thing. I heard a quote I was scrolling on my phone, as people do sometimes. So I don't remember who it was or what video I saw, but I heard this quote just yesterday morning before I actually sent this text about this passage, and it says, Our job is not to produce good fruit, our job is to abide in Jesus. Our job is not to produce the good fruits or the good works, our job is just to remain connected to Him. And so that's kind of where I started this whole thing of like, well, we wake up and we check our fruits and we check our works and we check on how our things are doing. And so if they're not, if we don't get good return, we feel bad, if we get a lot, then we try to keep it all. And so this idea of what if we realize that our our job, what we're supposed to be doing, isn't to produce all these good things, isn't to produce the fruit, but our job is to say, I'm gonna stay with Jesus, and then the fruit will come. He will produce the fruit that is supposed to be happening, he's gonna produce the good works, the good things. And so, what are your thoughts on that statement, I guess?

SPEAKER_04 14:02

I mean, it sounds it's it's not easy, it sounds easier, like instead of worrying about all these different aspects of my life to just focus on one thing Jesus, that sounds a lot easier to do. I don't always do that.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

And I think this is a reminder, like Jesus talks about this a lot. He'll go within the gospels, you'll see he's like, Don't worry about things of tomorrow, just focus on today's worries. He's like, God takes care of this, God's gonna take care of you, don't be anxious. He says these things, and he tells this story. He's like, you know, produce good fruit. I want you to do the things, and how we do that, stay with me, right? I'll take care of it. And so I think over and over Jesus reminds us that we make this life a lot more complicated and add worry and stuff that doesn't need to be there. And so he knows we're going to do that, so he tells us these things to try to help us battle back against that, those thoughts and feelings. So yeah, it is pretty difficult to do the things. And so sometimes Jesus asks us to do things and we're like, that sounds pretty easy. Just stay connected to him. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds and then you live life and you're like, it's so hard not to, you know.

SPEAKER_04 15:14

There's a lot of times when like I'm just if I'm just focused on the fruit, because like let's just say that I mean, I have children. So let's just say like I'm not being very patient, you know, like that's something my name. Obviously, I'm going to I don't know if we want to say during my pruning. There's gonna be more examples in my life of things I need to be patient about. And then when I am not patient, I almost kind of picture it like that. Jesus is right next to me why I'm not being patient. And he's like, hey, Brittany, do you want to stop for just a second?

SPEAKER_03 15:59

Do you want to close your mouth and let me know?

SPEAKER_04 16:01

Yeah, you know, or I could do this.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

We hear abiding and or we hear remain connected, and we think that's pretty passive. Like we can just do that, and it's just something you just like, I have to stay connected. So like I'm gonna stay connected. It sounds like it's not like an action word. Like we hear like the fruits of the spirit, like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and like be kind. I can well I can see I can do that. Right, I can be patient, I can try to be more patient and do all these things. Abide, you're like, well, how do I how do I abide? How do I how do I do

Stop Fruit Checking Start Abiding

SPEAKER_00 16:36

that? And so let's turn it into an action word. So it's like this this example I have is a phone and a charger. The phone doesn't work hard to get battery life, right? The phone doesn't really work hard to get battery life, it simply stays plugged into the source. If it unplugs to go do more work, it usually dies. Right? Your phone will die eventually if you don't plug it back in. It's doing a lot of things, it's doing all the stuff that it's supposed to do and things like that, but you've got to go back to the source of the power. Right.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Gotta get recharged.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Gotta go recharge. And so sometimes I think we like treat our relationship with Jesus as like a charger and we connect to him and then we disconnect and try to go do all the things that we're supposed to do.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

And yeah, that's what I have. I've written abiding is a closeness. We're not just attending church on Sundays. Like if you're only connecting on the Sunday morning, you're not, you don't have a closeness. You need to have that charge every single day.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Yeah. And and that's kind of the I like that a lot of we we come to Jesus for a little while and then we'll kind of disconnect and go do our own thing. What if we just had like a my phone, my charger is broken on my phone? Yeah, I can't plug into anything, the port doesn't work. Okay, and so now I can only charge wirelessly. And I have a battery pack now that I just put on here. I just take it with me. And I think Jesus is like a battery pack to put on the back of the phone. Nice, charge wherever you go. It's I'm charging all the time. Right. So but yeah, take, you know, don't just come to church as your charger and then disconnect and go do your own thing for the week. If you take it and remain in him, remain close to him, that's what we're talking about here. Abiding is the work of keeping the connection. When we're told to abide in him, that's that's that's our job, is to do the things that it takes to stay connected to the vine, like prayer, like quiet time, like study, talking about this stuff with other people. Whatever it takes to stay close to Jesus, that's that is what we're supposed to be doing. Jesus says, Abide in me, stay connected in me. So you might be thinking, like, if I don't focus on the results, won't I just become lazy and just expect it just to just happen? Like, produce these good fruits. Well, if all I have to do is just stay connected to Jesus, I don't have to worry about doing anything else besides that, will that create an idea of laziness? That's kind of what I thought when I heard this quote a little bit. I was like, Well, yeah, that sounds good. Like, don't worry about the works part, just stay connected to Jesus. A healthy branch on a healthy vine cannot help produce fruit, it just does.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

You know, if you're connected, the fruit is going to come. If you're truly connected to Jesus and you you that's what your goal is, the works are just gonna start to come out of that. They can't help it. If an apple tree grows and it has a branch attached to the thing, it's going to give you apples. That's just how it is. When we stop obsessing over the fruit, the fruit actually becomes higher quality because it isn't forced. So I think because that's when I think about sometimes we're like, I have to be like Jesus, I have to do all these, I have to produce these good works, I have to do these things, and you look at the things we're supposed to produce: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. Have you ever tried to force yourself to be patient? Like it you're like it takes a lot of effort to try to force yourself to do these things, and you're like, I gotta be kind to this person. This person doesn't

Charger Analogy And Staying Close

SPEAKER_00 20:02

deserve the kindness, but I'm gonna be kind anyway, and it takes a lot of effort. And what I'm trying to say is like if you got the the foundation, if you're attached to Jesus, the vine, then these things are gonna start to become more natural and it's become better quality fruit, better things coming straight from the source instead of you trying to put your own fruit on it, right? Be like, well, this is mine, I'm gonna put it here.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

Right, yeah. You can't tape an apple up on the apple tree. You can or a pear tree. You can you can, but it's gonna fall off.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Take an apple branch and you cut it off and you put it in the ground like that, it's gonna have apples and leaves on it. It'll look like a real apple tree for a couple days. Right. You come back to it, it's gonna be wilted and it's gonna be dead because it's not connected to the vine. And so you can force your own fruit on there for a while, or you could tape, you know, wax fruit and make it look like it. But if you're not actually connected to Jesus, then it doesn't matter. It's gonna eventually be found out that it's not the best fruit, it's not even real fruit sometimes. So your relationship with Jesus needs to be genuine, needs to be real, it needs to be you abiding, you remaining in him and doing all the things that it takes to whatever it takes, stay connected to that to that branch or to that vine, so you can be a healthy branch. Because he's serious, saw what happens to the branches that aren't healthy and they fall off and wither and die, and they get rid of them. Right.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

And so get used for the fire. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

And so think about this in your own lives. Where in your life are you trying to glue fruit onto a dead branch? Like what are you trying to you don't have to answer that. I'm just you know, are you trying to produce your own fruit? And sometimes I think we just need to stop and focus on Jesus more and then let it naturally just start to flow out of our lives instead of Forcing it or trying to look like we actually have the fruit that we don't.

SPEAKER_04 22:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 22:07

I think also like when you when you do get that feeling when you're truly connected, like okay, I'm not I'm not focused on the fruit, I'm focused on Jesus, I feel like that's where my focus is. You can feel when you start to slip the other way. Like you can you start to be able, at first you might not be able to, but with lots of practice, then you start to feel like, okay, something's wrong. What's wrong? Why am I feeling this way? Why am I now starting to like it'll just be it'll creep up, you know. I'm starting to worry about this, or I'm starting to lose fruit here. What what's happened?

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Right.

SPEAKER_04 22:49

Because I don't think it's like a one and oh, I'm connected to Jesus and I know what that's like. I mean, I do think it's a daily practice that you have to keep up with, but it'll kind of sneak up on you like I need to reconnect, I think.

SPEAKER_03 23:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:04

And listen.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

I've that I experienced that recently. I mean, within the last few months, I just I keep asking God to give me joy. Like I've been lacking joy in my life. And not in a sense of I'm not happy. I love life. But I wanna I wanna be oozing joy. Yeah. I don't want my kids to be like, mom, check your face. Yeah. Because it's not joyful. Right. So yeah, that's just been something I've been trying to work on. And I think pruning things out of my life that didn't need to be there any longer will eventually help help that joy come back.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Definitely. Pruning sometimes like, oh, I don't want to be it's like a negative thing. I don't want to be pruned, I want to think cut off. Like, you know, he cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. While every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

You know, even when we are abiding and producing fruit, life can get painful. But pruning, it's not a punishment. Don't think of it as a punishment. Right. It's God making room for better things in your life. So you gotta be able to let go of things. If God wants to cut a branch off because he knows it's not good for you, then you better let him.

SPEAKER_04 24:12

If you hang on to it, it's just gonna Oh, I've definitely held on before on too much.

Does Abiding Make Us Lazy

SPEAKER_00 24:18

It's not punishment, it's it's helping you be who you're supposed to be. Right. Like you keep picking up you might not like it.

SPEAKER_04 24:25

Right. You keep picking something back up. You're like, man, why can't I hold on to this? And then you realize, like, God's literally knocking it out of your hand every time you pick it up. You're like, oh, sorry, I'll I'll let it go. So sorry.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

I want that, though. Don't eat that.

SPEAKER_04 24:37

Don't do it, don't touch that.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

And then sometimes he's like, All right, put it back on. See what happens.

SPEAKER_04 24:42

Go ahead. Like, oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

I should not have put this. He's like, what the hell?

SPEAKER_04 24:48

I tried to tell you, right? Literally, yeah, a lot of times, and you just kept picking it back up.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

But it's not a punishment, it's for your own good, it's for what's best. And then things that are producing fruit, maybe he'll like prune them up, and then you'd be even better. And so, you know, he's like, You worked really hard to get this fruit, but I'm gonna prune it a little bit, and next time let me through you and give you better fruit, better quality fruit, I guess you'd say. A couple other things I wanted to mention. Galatians 2.20 ties into this pretty well. It says, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. It's no longer us that's living. We're supposed to let Christ live through who we are. Supposed to be him. We're supposed to let him come through our actions, through our talks, whatever it is in our life. And so going from I need to work harder to produce these good fruits, to I'm letting someone else live through me now. And and if Christ is the one living through you, the fruit is his responsibility. Your job is just to stay out of the way and stay connected to who he is. And sometimes I think we get in our own way as Christians by like, I gotta do this. And you're like, no, Jesus can do it. He's perfectly capable of living through us who we are if we let him. That's the whole thing comes down to being connected to him, knowing who he is, knowing what he wants, and then letting it appear, letting him produce the things.

SPEAKER_04 26:18

I mean, I've definitely fought this for a long time. Yeah, there's been things in my life that I have fought for years, years, and finally was like, wait, who is in charge right now? Like, because you do feel like I feel not that my feelings matter. My feelings don't matter. It doesn't make them real. But when I am frustrated or I've created a situation in my life, like I feel responsible to clean it up. Like I do you feel that that you want to be the one that's like, okay, I can I can handle it, I can fix it. This is what I've been put in charge over, this is my role. I want to fix it. And then you're like, man, I cannot fix this. Right. Turns out I can't.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

What else do you have to anybody else have anything to? You got notes over there. Did you leave anything out? I pretty much said all I wanted to say about the passage.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

So I

Real Fruit Vs Taped-On Fruit

SPEAKER_03 27:21

did I did mention, or I didn't mention, sorry, that uh like when we abide, it also affects and changes the way we actually treat others too. Like we, you know, the people around us when we truly abide in Christ, even those people who make us uh really crazy, it changes the way we act and you know treat them.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Uh it's just awful. The fruits of the spirit, you know, it's in Galatians 5, 22 through 23, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

That's how we interact with people with all those things.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Right.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

So if you're trying to for like I said before, if you tried to force yourself to do one of these things, force yourself to be peaceful while you're stressed out, it doesn't really work.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Yeah, it doesn't work.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

Peace isn't a task, it's a result of who you're hanging out with. Are you hanging out with Jesus? Are you close to Jesus? Are you wanting to be is that your number one priority is being like him? Don't think of these as tasks. These fruits can't become tasks that you have to do. They'll become who you are if you're hanging out with Jesus and you're spending time with him and you know who he is.

SPEAKER_03 28:26

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

I think that's kind of that makes sense. Is that what we're trying to tell you?

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Yeah, yeah. My last note here it says abiding doesn't give us everything we want, it reshapes what we want. Which I thought was really cool. Because when we abide in Christ, it changes our heart to what he wants for us.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

Yeah, it's it's sure that's what it's gonna do. If you're truly giving up your who you are for him, and you're coming, you're connected to him, and everything that you're producing is from where you're connected to, then yeah. What did you say? What was that quote?

SPEAKER_03 29:00

Like it abiding doesn't give us everything that we want. Yeah. When I go into my relationship with God, I'd be like, I want this and I want that, and no, God changes my heart to what he wants.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

That's the pruning. Right. You're gonna prune it, and it's gonna take away what you want sometimes, and it's be like, I want this, and be like, no, he's like, I'm pruning you again. Let's try again, you know. Kind of that same way we were talking about. So, yeah, it that's the Christian, that's that's the heart of Christianity, is not me but him. Right. And everything. Right. I think that's really cool. So I'll leave you with this question to ask yourself as you go. How would your stress level change tomorrow if you decided your only job was to stay connected to the vine? Would your stress level go down?

SPEAKER_03 29:41

Oh yes.

SPEAKER_00 29:42

If if you told yourself all I have to do is stay connected to Jesus and know who he is, and that's all. And then let it happen. Like if we could just start living more like that, I think it would be beneficial to us. It's hard, like we talked about at the very beginning. It's difficult to just all I have to do is stay with Jesus, stay connected to him. But I think that's what this passage is telling us to do at the heart of it, and all the things that all the producing the good works and the fruits and being like him, it comes from being in him, remaining him, abide in him. So um, yeah. Yeah. We will work on that. Yeah, don't worry about anything this week.

SPEAKER_04 30:24

Just worry about anything, just on it.

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Already started just abide, but it doesn't mean we're not doing anything because we still have to do things so we can stay connected to him.

SPEAKER_04 30:34

Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Remain in him means you gotta, you know, listen. Listen to him, uh obey. We've talked about this the last few weeks.

SPEAKER_04 30:42

Yeah, we've talked about that.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Remaining in Christ. It it doesn't mean you have nothing to do.

SPEAKER_04 30:47

It just means it might mean you have more to do.

SPEAKER_00 30:49

Might mean you have more to do, but it it reduces the rest of the the idea of I have to do this or my value comes from what I'm producing. And then you think about it as well, Jesus is gonna give me the fruit if I just stay with him through prayer and study and community, community, people that you surround yourself with. Those are the three main things. So yeah. Good job, good talk. Thanks, Ashley, for the topic. I was thanks, Ashley.

SPEAKER_03 31:16

If you have a topic for us, let us know.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

Yeah, write us some questions or the box.

SPEAKER_04 31:23

Are you allowed to say that?

SPEAKER_00 31:24

Yes. Brittany is gonna are you gonna have that this week?

SPEAKER_04 31:28

Yeah, I'm gonna try to make it this week. We'll probably have it in the foyer, but we want your suggestions. We've been starting this new thing on social media too, called Morning Rush. Yep. Which is

Feeling Drift And Reconnecting

SPEAKER_04 31:41

right now just John and Cody answering the questions that we have.

SPEAKER_03 31:45

Right.

SPEAKER_04 31:45

So you can that box, you'll be able to put questions in there that you might want asked on Morning Rush. Or topics for the podcast. But it'll just be like a little little suggestion. Yeah, a little suggestion box.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

So Brittany's gonna give you more of a box, so you can I am gonna whittle a box. Wait.

SPEAKER_04 32:04

It'll probably be made of cardboard. Uh it is Valentine's box, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

Creatings the season.

SPEAKER_04 32:10

But look for it somewhere in the foyer. Worst case scenario, it'll be a cup with some scrap pieces of paper, and then I'll make the box later.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

But you'll know it when you see it.

SPEAKER_04 32:20

Right. You'll know.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

So if you have questions or suggestions for anything that we're doing, yeah, just feel free to drop it in there and we'll be cool. We'll decided to we don't promise that we'll answer it, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

I mean, there is uh some questions that might not get answered. And if you want to leave it anonymous, you can, or you can put your name on it. And if you want to shout higher minds decide that maybe that's a question better answered in person, then they'll come find you and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

There's some things that you should just we'd rather not talk about on a podcast like this because there's no interaction back and forth, but there's a lot of things we can't answer and a lot of things we can talk about. So all right. Let's pray. Okay, and then we'll sign off. Lord, thanks for this day. Thanks for who you are. Uh, thanks for Brittany and Ashley and their conversations and their thoughts and their desire to know you more uh as we talk about things on this podcast. And just thank you for everyone listening and whatever's going on in people's lives this week. I ask that you show up and you be there. And uh give us ways that we can connect to you, help us to r remember to stay connected to you, and that it's not about what we do, but it's about what you can do through us. And that's exciting, and that's sometimes more difficult, and we have to let things go. But help us with all those things in Jesus' name. We pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

All right, that's all for this episode of Rush Hour. Until next time, you guys have a good week.