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1 John 15:1-5 NIV   //  I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Remain:

Greek = “Me-no”

To abide or dwell.

To hold on for life.

If you do + I will =

Proverbs 18:8 NLT  //  Rumors are dainty morsels that sink deep into one’s heart.

Everything that is said must be true.

Not everything that is true must be said.

Who does gossip hurt?

1. Gossip hurts the person it's spoken about.

Proverbs 16:28 NLT  //  A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends.

2. Gossip hurts the listener.

Proverbs 17:4 NLT  //  Wrongdoers eagerly listen to gossip; liars pay close attention to slander.

3. Gossip hurts the speaker.

Proverbs 25:9-10 NLT  //  When arguing with your neighbor, don’t betray another person’s secret. Others may accuse you of gossip, and you will never regain your good reputation.

How do we control gossip?

1. Guard your ears.

Why are you telling me this?

Have you had a chance to talk to them about this?

Matthew 18:15 NLT  //  If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back.

Proverbs 20:19 NLT  //  A gossip goes around telling secrets, so don’t hang around with chatterers.

2. Close your mouth.

Proverbs 21:23 NLT  //  Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble.

How does God feel about lying?

Proverbs 12:22 NLT  //  The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in those who tell the truth.

Detest: Tow’ ebah

Something disgusting;  an abhorrence, an abomination; something  that makes one nauseous.

Ephesians 4:21-25 NLT  //  Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. So stop telling lies.Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.

John 8:44 NIV  //  ...He [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Getting you to lie.

Get you to lie to yourself.

Get you to live a lie.

1 John 2:4 NIV  //  Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person.

Lying reveals that we don’t fully trust God.

We confess to God for forgiveness.

We confess to people for healing.

1 John 1:9 NIV  //  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

James 5:16 NIV  //  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

Galatians 5:14-15 NLT // For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.

Beware of DESTROYING one another.

Provers 12:18 NLT // Some people make cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing.

Do my words heal or cut?

Ephesians 4:29 NLT // Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

Do my words abuse or encourage?

You have no idea how much one word of CRITICISM can change someone’s life. You have no idea how much one word of ENCOURAGEMENT can change someone’s life.

There are TWO types of people:

Fault Finder

Hope Giver

Romans 14:13 The Passion Translation // So stop being critical and condemning of other believers, but instead determine to never deliberately cause a brother or sister to stumble and fall because of your actions.

Romans 15:13 NIV // May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 4:29 NLT // Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

Is what I’m saying good and helpful?

The world has enough critics, let’s choose to bring HOPE instead.

Luke 6:45 // …the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Proverbs 18:21 // The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Exodus 14:11-12 // They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

Exodus 16:8 // ...“You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD.”

What do you complain about most?

THE GOAL: Shift out focus
from our problems  to the goodness of God.

Philippians 2:14-15 // Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.

Complaining rewires the brain to more complaining. – Dr. Travis Bradberry, Emotional Intelligence 2.0

 

If you can change your circumstances, do something about it.

If you can’t change your circumstances, change your perspective.

Philippians 2:17-18 // But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

Drink Offering – Spendo

Philippians 1:12-13  // Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.

Psalm 103:2-5 NLT // Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things.

God never intended you to live out your calling without the Holy Spirit.

1. Helper

John 14:16 // “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.”

Parakletos - one called alongside to help

Counselor, intercessor, helper, advocate, friend, comforter

2. Teacher

John 14:26 // “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

3. Leader

John 16:13 // “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.

4. Enabler

John 16:7 // “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

Acts 1:8 // “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

God is faithful to His promises, plans, and people!

Isaiah 55:10-11 NIV // As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

DWYSYWD

“Everything about God is great, vast, incomparable. He never forgets, never fails, never falters, never forfeits His word.” - A.W. Pink

Jeremiah 29:11 // “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Sometimes God’s plan is to offer us hope in the middle, not an escape to the end.

Exodus 3:8-10 // “The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

What area(s) in your life have you seen God’s faithfulness?

What area(s) in your life do you need to remind yourself of God’s faithfulness?

2 Kings 4:1 // The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”

When you don’t have what you really want, you find that God is all you really need.

2 Kings 4:2 // Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a little oil.”

When you’re hurting, all you can see if what you don't have.

Stop waiting for what you want and start working with what you have.

2 Kings 4:3-7 // Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.” But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing. “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

Offer God what you have and trust him to give you what you need.

Gospel: Good News

Luke 2:10 // But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.”

Luke 8:1 // After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.

The gospel is good news, not good advice.

Advice = what you must do

News = what has been done

Euangelion

Eu = Good, Pleasant

Angelion = Message

Mark 16:15 // He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

John 3:16 // For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:17 // For God did not send his Son into the world to

condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Peter’s foundation: “I love Jesus.”

John’s foundation: “Jesus loves me.”

John 1:17 NLT // For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.

John 13:23-25 NLT // The disciple Jesus loved was sitting next to Jesus at the table. Simon Peter motioned to him to ask, “Who’s he talking about? So that disciple leaned over to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, who is it?”

Jesus’ Love Makes Me Secure.

When you fail, do you run from Jesus or to Jesus?

Hebrews 4:16 NLT // So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Mercy - Not getting what you deserve

Grace - Getting what you don’t deserve

You don’t have to get it together to get to God. You get to God to get it together.

It’s not earning God’s approval. It’s accepting Jesus’ sacrifice.

Mark 14:27-29 NLT // …Jesus told them, “All of you will desert me. Peter said to him, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I never will.”

John 19:25-27 NLT // Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother,

and his mother’s sister, Mary, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, ‘Dear woman, here is your son.’ And he said to this disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from then on this disciple took her into his home.

Jesus’ Love Makes Me Available.

God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called.

Mark 4:26-29 // Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is like a farmer that scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, while he’s asleep of awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of the wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come.”

What kind of seeds are you planting?

Proverbs 13:12 // Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a promise fulfilled is a tree of life.

Education is action.

You instinctively pass on what you know.

You can’t become an expert quickly. Take your time.

Don’t be a slacktivist.

Rest.

Luke 10:2 // The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.