Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Abiding in Christ. True Fruitfulness Over Busyness. Resting in God’s Love. — Highlight Episode 336

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Abiding in Christ. True Fruitfulness Over Busyness. Resting in God’s Love. — Highlight Episode 336 · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:04
  Speaker 1: We want to explore, like, what is the difference between busyness and bearing fruit?
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: And then how do we identify those things in our lives that, though they may be good, really shouldn't be a part of our lives, and then how do we move on from there to bearing fruit for the Lord?
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: So, ray, why don't we start first with well, whatever you want to start with, do you have something you'd like to start with?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, John 14, 21.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he that has my commandments and keeps them, he that loves me and he that loves me, beloved of my Father.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: I too will love him and will reveal myself to him or manifest myself to him.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Fruit grows silently.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: It's not a big deal if you grow love as a Christian.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: And love manifests itself in loving others.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: And loving others means you're going to warn them there's a hell and they need to repent and trust in Jesus because he died on the cross.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: And so there's a busyness.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: That's really good.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I love the therefore in 1 Corinthians 15, 58.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Un.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: What's the therefore?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Therefore, we ask it and we go to the previous verses.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: And if you read the previous verses, they build up to this corruption.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: She'll put an incorruption.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, death, where is your sting Grave?
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Where is your victory?
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: God has destroyed death through the gospel.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: And you see it in the book of Acts.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: They weren't busy doing anything starting businesses, doing buildings or making buildings.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Remember when Jesus took to the Mount of Transfiguration and appeared and Peter says, let's just start a building program.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Remember that he said we'll build tabernacles.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: And it says because he knew not what he was saying, it was out of his mind.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: And sometimes we do have things that get us busy building bigger buildings when Europe's full of big buildings that are empty.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: The church is the people and we've got to remember there's people going to hell and everywhere you look.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: In the book of Acts, the disciples were busy seeking and saving that which is lost, so there's a busyness that's good and that is the proclamation of God's Word.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: We can, though, sometimes be kind of deceived into thinking well, I'm bearing fruit because this is on God's agenda, like I mentioned earlier, but we're neglecting priority.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: We neglect our wife, our children.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: It is easy to think that you're doing the Lord's work because you're doing good things, right?
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: We got to think about that In Luke 10, 38 to 42, we have the story of Mary and Martha.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: Right, martha is busy serving the Lord.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: That's a good spiritual thing.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: So she's busy serving the Lord.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Mary is busy sitting at the feet of the Lord.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: One thing was required and that wasn't going to be taken away from her.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: So here's Mary sitting.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: So there's a time for sitting, there's a time for service.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: And is it possible to be sitting while you're serving, right To be focused at all times?
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: And George Mueller, what was big on this?
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: That when he walked he said I would pray when I lay down, I would pray when I would get clean, I would pray.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: That he was always in a state of prayer.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: You know Jesus is saying I know your works, I know you're busy, I know all the things that you're doing, I know this.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: I see all that is going on.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Right, I know your works, you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead, you're morto.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Reputation is very important to us and we think that our reputation is by all the things that we are getting done and getting accomplished.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: When somebody says, how are you doing, we tend to say all the things that we have been doing, yeah, it's like it's almost like they asked us what are you doing?
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: I remember easy did this to me, correcting me one time, uh, several years ago.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: He asked me how are you doing?
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: And?
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: And I told him what I was doing.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: And easy, you responded.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember this.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: Your response back was oh, I'm sorry, I think you misunderstood the question.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: I didn't ask you what you were doing, I asked how you were doing.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: And if that's a good pause, that's a good question and it's a good rebuke all in the same, because we think that our busyness is attributed to godliness, and that isn't always necessarily the case.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: And that isn't always necessarily the case.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: We often mistake giftedness for fruitfulness, that often we'll look at our spiritual gifts, our gifts and what we are doing with our lives and productivity.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: You know, ministries are growing, people are being blessed I'm involved in church service in this way and that way and we lose sight of the reality that we are not growing in fruitfulness, we're growing in busyness, and I think that the reality is well.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: Adam Mabry says it like this ancient deities demanded the ceaseless work of slaves, the bodies of children, the fires of war to ensure a good harvest.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: In our modern age, we laugh at such primitive beliefs, but we are just as pagan.
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: The God of this world demands slavish work for our bosses, undernourished relationships with our kids and the fires of political fervor to keep the harvest of hope.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: Basically, he says like we are worshiping the same false idols, if you will, and the reality is this.
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: I think the answer is in John 15, because thank you Mark because we think.
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: I think oftentimes busyness comes from like the hope of being fruitful.
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: I want to be fruitful, that's why I'm busy, but if you notice, the aim of John 15 is not actually fruitfulness.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: Watch this it says I am the vine, you are the branches.
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: Watch this it says I am the vine, you are the branches.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: If a man abides in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit.
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: The aim is not fruitfulness, it's abiding in God.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: When we abide in God, fruitfulness develops and we don't settle for simply busy.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not just about the fruit that's being birthed through us, like especially when we're involved in the things of God.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: It's about the fruit that God wants to birth in us.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: So we could be looking to do something and we're focused on that, but our heart isn't right, our attitude isn't right.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, you guys think about 1 Corinthians 13, where we're told about the man who can speak with the tongues of men and of angels.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: He has all wisdom, he can solve all mysteries, but doesn't have love.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: The man who gives all of his goods for the poor.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: The man who gives his body to be burned for other people but doesn't have love.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: So I mean that's an example of doing things that seem to be fruitful.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I mean the guy's selling everything he has and giving it away.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: The guy's willing to die for the sake.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: That's fruit?
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: No, it's not, because it's absent of love.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Mark, wouldn't you say that it ultimately comes down to that right?
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Loving God and loving people in everything we do ends up being true fruitfulness.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: Your best effort without love is as useful as a flat tire, right, and it gets you as far as a flat tire can take you.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: You've been designed by operating with love, so if you are concerned that you may lack the love, well, there's probably love present.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: You know, god's probably doing a work inside of you.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: That's a good sign.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: If you're feeling conviction, it's a good sign that you are born again, or God's doing a work that only he can do in the midst of you, right?
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: And it should be effortless.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Love for the Christian should be effortless.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: 1 Corinthians 15, 5,.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: I am the vine, you are the branches, he that abides in me and I in him.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: The same brings forth much fruit, and that should be effortless.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: If you're a Christian, the fruit should be manifest, and that if we've got love, we should easily love people, because it's the love of God that dwells in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: And then I love the most profound words that Jesus said straight in that same verse for without me you can do nothing.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Isn't that powerful?
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: Because if there's anything I don't want to do with my life, it's nothing, and it makes me always make sure I abide in him and don't do my own thing, because I want to bring forth much fruit and I don't want to bring forth much fruit just so I can say look at me, I'm a fruit-bearing Christian.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: I want that love to motivate me to reach the lost.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, faith, meekness and temperance All those things can be evolved in evangelism.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: We should have patience with the ungodly, meekness with the ungodly, love with the ungodly, because we abide in him and he abides in us.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: It's good to evaluate our motives, but still do the right thing right.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: So if you're struggling with a motive of, oh am I going to save this drowning child because I want to be glorified as a hero or because I want to save the child, deal with your motives right, like later.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: It doesn't mean you stop doing what's right, but it means you take your heart to the Lord so that he would refine it and work on it, you know, and bring you to a place where you know you do it for the right reason.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: And I think a part of that abiding in Christ is acknowledging the Lord.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: In everything you do, your ambition is to do it for His glory.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: That distinguishes it.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Because, back to the whole love analogy, right 1 Corinthians 13, you could seem to be a person who loves God because you do so many spiritual things, but it could be because you want the attention you may give your body to be burned.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: But it may be because in the back of your mind you want to go down as a hero rather than I want to lift up God.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: I want to let my light so shine in my mind that they may see my good works and glorify my Father who's in heaven.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights from the Living Waters podcast.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Friends, we value your time, so we've created a bite-sized version of our podcast for listeners who want to get equipped.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Without the jokes and fellowship.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Be sure to check out the full episode every Thursday where we dive deeper into the topic.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Until then, you can watch the full podcast episode available now on livingwaterstv.