Lake Murray BC Podcast

In this passage, Jesus wants to build on the vine and branches metaphor by teaching his disciples more specifically about the kind of fruit that is revealed in a life that has truly been united to Christ.  What does that fruit look like? How do we evaluate our lives for it?

Union with Christ is the heartbeat of the Christian life. We are united to him by faith, filled with his Spirit, raised to new life in him, and commissioned to proclaim his glory in our worship and our work through obedience to his commands. As we move on to John 15 in our Take Heart series, we see that Jesus is helping his disciples to understand what it means to be united to him.

In these last few verses of John 14, Jesus' words serve to encourage the believer in the face of fear.

This morning in John 14:15-24, we see that Jesus is about to depart from his disciples. As he does, he gives them promises to reassure them, that they might love him and keep his word.

In John 13, Jesus foretells the very troubling events that will occur in the coming hours.  In John 14, he then commands his disciples to "let not their hearts be troubled."  This seemingly paradoxical command points us to the heart of the gospel.  Because Jesus was troubled, his disciples, both then and now, don’t need to be.  He has born our anxieties, fears, cares, and worries on himself at the cross.

Today we begin a new series in a selection of the Gospel of John known as the "Farewell Discourse".  In these chapters,  Jesus predicts his impending death and resurrection, promises to send the Holy Spirit, and prays that his disciples would be unified in love for God and one another.  John 13 is an important chapter in the Farewell Discourse, not just because it sets the context of Jesus’ teaching in 14-17, but because of the monumental events that occur within this chapter.

The Great Commission, the call to make disciples, was not just given to a select few, but to every disciple. Today we'll consider the Great Commission from the gospel of Luke. It was always God’s plan for salvation to go to all people through the person and work of Jesus—and we have a continuing part to play in that work.

Today we'll look at our second core value: Commit.  What does a church committed to Christ look like? What do they value?  We'll study Paul's letter to the Romans to see how the gospel forms and shapes the church.

In Mark 12, Jesus gives the Great Commandment, declaring that the most important thing in the Christian life is to love God and love others.  This is why our first value at LMBC is connection—both  with God and with those he's placed around us.

Each year, we take a few Sundays to be reminded about who we are as a church in a series that we call "Vision & Values".  We'll begin our 2023 edition of this series in John 6 by answering the questions:  What is the foundation of our church?  What is the fruit of faith?  What is the greatest danger to our mission?