Latest / Wesley at FSU & TSC / "The Other Half" | Sunday Service | March 23, 2025

Transcript

"The Other Half" | Sunday Service | March 23, 2025 · Wesley at FSU & TSC

• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: I want to give a message for us this morning that I'm calling the other half.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to warn you this morning.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the easiest scripture passage.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the easiest to hear.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: It uh is probably not even one you're super familiar with.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: You may be familiar with a portion of it.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I just need you to buckle in.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Is that cool?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Can we just buckle in this morning?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want to take us to Luke's gospel.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is the 13th chapter.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we're in Lent in the Methodist Church.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is a little bit of a Eli, if you could just pull that volume down just a little bit.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'd take that ring out of there.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're in Lent, and that's a hard season for us because we're leading up to Easter.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're leading up to Easter.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And just like with Christmas, you gotta have some preparation time before you get to the celebration about the resurrection.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And believe me, we're going to celebrate Easter Sunday, which is April 20th this year.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to have Easter Fest, which will be very exciting.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: But we got to get there first.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Are you with me?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so here we are, and uh, and we haven't been in Lent the last couple weeks because we've been on spring break, but we are back.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to show you this passage in Luke 13.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Some who were present on that occasion told Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's a way to wake you up in the morning.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: He replied, Do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves that they were more sinful than all the other Galileans?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: No, I tell you, this is still Jesus talking, that's why it's read.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: But unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Another uplifting statement.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: What about those 18 people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that they were more guilty of wrongdoing than everyone else who lives in Jerusalem?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, I tell you.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: But unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus told this parable.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: He often does this.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: When he's trying to explain something that's difficult, the very next thing he does is he tells a story.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I just love that because preachers do that too.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: We do it worse than he did.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: But it's the same thing, right?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're trying to explain something, so let me give you an illustration.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then he tells this story.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus told this parable.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: He came looking for fruit on it, and he found none.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: He said to the gardener, his gardener, look, I've come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years, and I've never found any.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Cut it down.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why should it continue depleting the soil's nutrients?
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: The gardener responded, Lord, give it one more year, and I will dig around and give it fertilizer.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it'll produce fruit next year.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: And if not, then you can cut it down.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray over the preaching of God's word.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh God, your word is a lamp into our feet.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's a light into our path.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: We just asked this morning that it would speak to us, that it would speak through us for the establishment of your kingdom and your kingdom alone on this earth.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: God, as we gather together, as we hear your word, as we hear it proclaimed, I ask that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight and in your sight alone, O God.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: You are a rock.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: You are a redeemer.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we love you because you first loved us.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: We pray this in your holy and precious name.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: I told you I was gonna start hard.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: I told you that I was gonna start in a difficult place, and I'm gonna hold true to that, but I need you to buckle in.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Are you with me?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: At 8 46 a.m.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: on September 11th, 2001, the first plane hit the building.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was in ninth grade, most of you weren't alive.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was sitting in band class, and uh a lady came in from the administrative office, and she said, uh, you know, she whispered something to the band director, and the band director just kind of pointed at us like, tell them, like, I don't want to tell that news, you tell them.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so she kind of did that sort of thing.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: She looks at the class of 40, 45 of us or so, uh, and she says, ladies and gentlemen, you might as well put your instruments away.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh our nation is under attack.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: The second plane hit at 9.03.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've watched any of the footage in the past, it happened on live television.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, uh, you know, obviously when a plane hits the World Trade Center, uh, that was big news, uh, but it could have been an accident, right?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things that could have been.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so the news cameras, and they were not like they are today, where we got cameras everywhere.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: They had helicopters that were trying to fly around, but obviously they're a little worried about what just happened.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then on live television, you can watch it on NBC, ABC, CNN, you can watch it on any network of your choosing.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: There is plenty of footage on YouTube.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: The second tower hit, or the second plane hit a second tower at 9.03.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was United's 175.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Then we started hearing rumors over the course of the next 30 minutes or so, 34 minutes to be exact, that the third plane hit the Pentagon in DC.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you don't know anything about this, because I know I recognize that most of you were born after, this is in New York, and the Pentagon's in D.C.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're in two different major American cities, and we have a third plane that's hit.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: The United States is no longer wondering if this was some little Cessna that just happened to hit the building.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: This this is the United States saying we're under attack.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's when the lady came to our room.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: That was American 77.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: You may have heard the story about United 93, that, as far as we know, the best of our knowledge, was wrestled to the uh ground by the passengers who tried to take over for the terrorists who had stolen the plane.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know where that was going.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Was it going to the U.S.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Capitol?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Was it going to the White House?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: It was probably headed in that direction, but it went down in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: It killed everyone on board, but no one else on the ground.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Man, what a hard time.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: That was September 11th, 2001.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And on September 13th, the founder and president of the largest Christian university in the world went on the most famous Christian television show called the 700 Club and started giving his thoughts.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want to warn you, I hate these thoughts that he gave.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so they are a little hard to hear.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: But this is part of your history.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's part of your story, whether you know it or not, and I wanted you to see it.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: So this is Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson on two days after the attacks.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh what we saw on Tuesday as terrible as it is.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Could be minuscule if, in fact, if in fact God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I know I'll hear from them for this, but uh throwing God off successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools, uh, the abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because uh God will not be mocked, and when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: I I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU people for the American way, all of them who tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, You helped this happen.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I totally concur.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: All of them who tried to secularize America, I point the finger in their face and say, You helped make this happen.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: We know that those attacks, as evil as they were, were the fault of terrorists.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, the guy who leads the largest Christian university, and then his son got to lead it later until he was ousted after a whole affair.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: All of them who tried to secularize America, I point to the finger in your face and say, you helped make this happen.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: The truth is, after a tragedy, we always try to blame someone, don't we?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a little unclear at first who this was.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: We often blame people we don't like.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because we don't like them.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to, I don't know if you're familiar with American society.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to have a lot of logic behind it.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: We just say it.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like we just say it because we know that it's true.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: We like to look for reasons to explain things that are hard to explain.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: It might be because we love gossip, that might be our thing.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: It probably is, it probably is a trauma response.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's just something we naturally do in the face of trauma.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is, when a tragedy comes, we look for someone else to blame.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you may have missed the tragedy that happened in this scripture passage, and so I want to go back to Luke 13 for a second to show you this.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So this is people coming to Jesus.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is verse 1 of chapter 13.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Some who were present on that occasion told Jesus about the Galileans, whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now stop for a second.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: This Pilate, go back.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Pilate is uh a guy who's gonna be very involved in Jesus' own death.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be a part of the story.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Famously washes his hands uh in this, and they're telling him about how bad he had been.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: He had killed Galileans, people from Jesus' area, whom Pilate had killed while they were offering sacrifices.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Some translations say they mixed the blood of the Galileans and the people from the other things of sacrifices.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is a disgusting hard act, and they're telling Jesus about it.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think in some realm, they're gossiping a little bit, like it's a little bit like, did you hear what happened?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: Did you hear what happened to those Galileans?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say this is because Jesus says next, verse two.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: He replied, Do you think the suffering of these Galileans proves they were more sinful than all the other Galileans?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's like he's three steps ahead of them.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, hey, hey, hey, do you think that the reason that that happens because they're more broken, that they're more sinful, that they did more bad things?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think the reason that is?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then clearly he answers his own question, he says, no.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Say no.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, I tell you.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: But unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: We have all been in a situation where something bad happened to somebody else.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we like them, maybe we don't.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we're all a little bit guilty of thinking and sometimes verbalizing, depends on your personality.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Things like, oh, didn't they deserve that?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you reap what you sow, you get what you get.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have if you're saying to yourself, I've never done that, I would encourage you to talk to the Lord because you're lying to yourself right now.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's a big tragedy in these Galileans.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus, as he often does, doubles down.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, What about those 18 people who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is fresh in their minds.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: They would have known this story, 18 people would have been a lot more of a percentage, by the way, back then.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: But even now this would be a big story if 18 people were killed when something fell on them.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: What about those 18 people who were killed when the tower of Soloam fell on them?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that they were more guilty of wrongdoing than everyone else who lives in Jerusalem?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then he explains it again, he says, No, I tell you.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the same warning, unless you change your hearts and lives, you will die just as they did.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think they deserved it?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't really answer that.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: He just says, No, they're not more broken than you, and you're gonna get that same sort of thing.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is a really interesting passage.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard for us to understand, I think, sometimes.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, do they deserve it?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do they get what they get?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: Is it a result of their own sin, of their brokenness?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Why is this?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Why do bad things happen to people?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Not even good people, bad people.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Why do bad things happen to people?
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: We've asked that question before in our minds.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I just got back to thinking as I was reading about this.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Abo Jerry Falwell's statement.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you listen to what he said, I mean, he does a lot of blaming of other groups.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he does.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's political, he's not supposed to be, but he is.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what they did.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: They just blamed other groups.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: He blamed groups he didn't like, he blamed things that he said, okay, whatever.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: I can get on board with the fact that he's doing that.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't love what he did, I don't love the groups that he blamed, I don't love any of that, but I like, I get it.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's wrestling with the question and he actually mentions it in it.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: He says, We get what we deserve.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he said.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we get what we deserve.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And in some ways, I'm thinking, well, that's kind of what Jesus did.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is kind of going through that same thing.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, listen, he didn't say, like, oh, that was just an accident, or oh, it's, you know, we'll pass that off.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And like, that's just happened.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, no, no, no, no, no.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: You think that that bad thing happened to them.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: It could happen to you too, because of your brokenness.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't repent, it'll happen to you too.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he's saying.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's going ham after this.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: He's not trying to pull back and just trying to explain it with some sort of logic.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's actually going in and he's saying the brokenness that we all have together might be a cause of part of this.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: He does say that.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is that Jerry Falwell and many people who went after him, they only tell the first half of the story.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's the question he's asking.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're what what?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we get what we deserve.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: But he missed the story.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't I tell you when we were reading this?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus tried to explain something, he often goes into a story.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: We call them parables, but there are ways for him to explain something in an illustrative way that our feeble minds as human beings will understand.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what he goes into.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he tells this parable.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: A man owned a fig tree planted in his vineyard.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: He came looking for fruit on it and he found none.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: He said to his gardener, Look, I've come looking for fruit on this fig tree for the past three years and have never found any.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Cut it down.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Why should it continue depleting the soil's nutrients?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do away with it.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: We get what we deserve.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the gardener responded, Lord, just give it one more year.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll dig around it and I'll give it fertilizer.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, this use of the term Lord, go back in a second.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: This use of the term Lord is not talking about Yahweh, Lord, this is just talking about master, Lord, like the boss kind of guy.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, give it one more year and I'll dig around it and give it fertilizer.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it'll produce fruit next year.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: If not, then you can cut it down.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: When something happens in our lives, something we can't explain, something is difficult, what do we do?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: We blame, we judge, we choose groups to blame it on, we choose things that are illogical to just make reference to.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: We do all of that sort of thing, and we do a very good job at that.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: All of us, even those who think we don't, we do a really good job of it.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because we want to be better than them, or we understand whatever, we have a better view of it, whatever.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: What Jesus does is he gives that warning to repentance.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Hey, we're all a part of this, we're all gonna be at fault here.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: But can I tell you a second half of a story?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's a story about a tree.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: A tree that's supposed to bear fruit.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's its purpose in the world, but it just doesn't.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Just hasn't been bearing fruit.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times when something in our life is supposed to bear fruit and it doesn't, we just ah, just cut it out.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, just quit that.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've known many, many, many, many, many college students who have gone from major to major to major to major to major.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Simply because ah, this just wasn't working out the way it was, and this wasn't working out the way I wanted to be, and this wasn't working out the way I want to be, so I just cut it out and move on.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: We sometimes we do that with relationships.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us are better about that than others, but we'll something's just like not bearing fruit in that relationship, I'm out.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Something bearing not bearing fruit in that relationship, I'm out, something's not bearing fruit in that relationship, I'm out.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is, is that means that we often forget the other half of the story.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the other half of the story is not something to be forgotten.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because that part of the story is about the grace of God.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of God would we be talking about?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of God would we be describing?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of God would we be narrating if we only told the story of the God who just wanted to wreak havoc on us, who just wanted us to die when we were sinful and broken?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of God would we be narrating?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: We'd be narrating not the God of the scriptures, we'd be narrating some other God, the God where somehow like everything that we have gets held against us.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is the entire Christian story, the entire Christian narrative is told about a man who gave you forgiveness through a cross and a resurrection.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he gives you that not only 2,000 years ago, but he gives you that every single day.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you aren't bearing fruit, he says, Man, give it another year.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let me dig around a little bit.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let me plant, let me water it a little bit, let me give it something.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it'll bear fruit next year.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Christians, even though this is our story, man, we suck at this.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: We suck so bad at this.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because we love the gossip, we love the judgment, we love the blame.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: It stirs something in our souls.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe if we lead the largest Christian university.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is, man, that narrative is of a God who's going to water.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: A God who's going to sink his entire investment and life into you.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: A God who is so graceful and merciful, it's gonna change and transform your life.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's the God of this story.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: Man, water it.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Water it.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Water it.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Dig it around.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Water it some more.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Give it another year.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: When I was in grad school, some of you have heard me tell this story.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: When I was in grad school, I was working for uh the Wesley Foundation there, Wesley Fellowship there.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Called it.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we had a moment that I'll never forget.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: It was a Wednesday night.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: We had a Eucharist service, that's communion, it's a fancy word for communion.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: We'd had a Eucharist service every Wednesday night, and we would come into the basement of the Duke Chapel, and we would all kind of sit around, somebody would preach, and we'd have communion just like the early disciples.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was a really kind of uh amazing time.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh one, we always just kind of chilling there before we started, you know, everybody's kind of gathering, coming from class, and all this sort of thing.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so we'd all be just kind of chilling there, and we're we're throwing things, you know, like we do, throwing things at each other across the room and like making jokes or whatever.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh one of these, one of our leaders, she uh man, she was she was not in a good space.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you could tell from the moment she walked in.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you know, when somebody walks in, you can kind of see it on their face.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's something bad going on right here, right?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happened.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: So she she walks in and she just falls down into the center of the room, and she just starts bawling.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was like she was trying to hold it in until she got there and she got to this safe place, which is where we were, and she just falls on the ground and she starts bawling.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we couldn't figure out exactly what was wrong because those are awkward moments, right?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like, uh, what what?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, who's gonna say something?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: What can I get for you, right?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh, and so she's just laying there.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually we find out over the course of the next 10 minutes or so that she had been dating two different men.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: And right before Eucharist, they found out about each other.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty bad place to be in.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in that place now, male, female, does not matter.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I encourage you to get out of it.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: And she fell down in the middle.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I will tell you, it was a beautiful sign, because once we all figured out what was going on, everybody just kind of gathered around her.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: We prayed over her, we gave her hugs, we just kind of sat with her, you know, because when you're in that kind of pain, when you've been your sin has been found out, like that's a really painful thing.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: But what was really telling, that was that was beautiful, but what was really telling was the next morning.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because as leadership we met, and uh several people, more people than I was comfortable with, in the room, decided to um just we they wanted to get rid of her.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted to kind of expel her from the group.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I was very uncomfortable in that moment, as you probably might be.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: But they just they wanted to expel her from a group.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I don't even know Methodists did that, you know.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: We don't.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, okay.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: One of them said her leadership, meaning her life, is not bearing fruit anymore.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: That has stuck with me ever since.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because my friends, as broken people, no matter what role we're in, if I don't bear fruit, I sure hope there's a gardener fighting for me.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: If I don't bear fruit, I sure hope there's somebody who's saying, can I just dig around a little bit more?
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Can I just throw in just a little bit more?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Can I just water it a little bit more?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Can I wait to see what God will do with that?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: I wish I could tell you that I was the voice that said that in that space.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: I was not.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: But my pastor was.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: And she was the one who said, it may not be bearing fruit, but it might next year.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's an ultimate story of grace.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, God holds us accountable for our brokenness.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, God wants us to live holy lives.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, God does not want us to just continue living in sin.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says this time and time and time and time again.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: They are very, and it's very important that we try to live as best holy lives as we can.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: All of that's true, but at the end of the day, whether we bear fruit or not, doesn't matter because the gardener, the Lord, is saying to us, hey, I'm just gonna dig around a little more, I'm gonna pour a little bit more in.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: You've had people in your life that have poured into you in that way.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: You've had people who have dug around and poured into your life in that way.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: That is the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, giving you chance after chance after chance, time after time after time, saying, I know, I know they're not bearing fruit right now, but can you just give it another more year?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Can you just give it one more time?
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's when the work of grace happens.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's when the work of forgiveness happens.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's the God we should narrate.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's the God.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: My friends, I want to invite you if you've never been in a relationship with that God, a God who forgives you over and over and over again.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: A God who wants to give, grant you grace after grace after grace.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you've never been in that relationship, I'd want you to not leave this morning without talking to me.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want to pray over you.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: I want you, I want you to know that God.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to know that truth.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: You may be in a place where you like feel really overwhelmed by your own brokenness.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: You feel like maybe I'm not bearing fruit.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: If that's you right now, I want you to not leave this room until we've had a prayer over that.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because the truth is that the God of the scriptures is a God who loves you, a God who forgives you, a God who forgives me, whether we bear fruit or not.