Ep 48 - The 7 I Am's of Jesus -Part 7

Speaker 1 00:00:07 Hi, and welcome to the unveiling. I'm Tim, one of the hosts, and along with Andrey and Mark, we are three guys discussing the one true gospel. We hope you're encouraged by this episode. Let's dive right in. Speaker 1 00:00:23 Welcome back, it's us again, aj, mark, and Tim. And this is the unveiling. This is episode 48, our last episode in the, uh, seven I ams of Jesus that are found in John. And tonight's is I am the vine. This is gonna come from John 15 verse five, but I'm gonna read us in from, uh, John 15 verse one. And I'm gonna read through verse six. Before I do that, I just wanna explain that our last episode, where we covered, uh, I am the way, the truth and the life. This I am the vine comes from the exact same session he was having as the last, uh, I am. This is actually the last chance he got to sit with the disciples, uh, before the events around his crucifixion occurred. You know, the taking, the trying and all of that. So this is kind of his last chance to reach out and break bread and talk with his disciples. Speaker 1 00:01:27 So this is all continuation from the last, uh, the last one we did. So, John 15, one, 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 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. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away in withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. So, uh, a lot, a lot in there as usual. Jesus doesn't say much that doesn't have layers of meaning, <laugh>. And, um, you know, it's, I see some interesting, uh, I'm not personally a gardener. I I, my hand doesn't have a single geek green thumb. In fact, if you, if it hasn't plastic plants that, uh, the chances are I will kill it quickly. Speaker 2 00:02:47 And you probably kill some of the plastic ones too, Speaker 1 00:02:50 Don't you, Tim? I have been known to melt them. Yes, yes. You gotta be careful of me <laugh>. So I'm not gonna dig too much into the gardening aspect of that. And I don't know if either one of of you are gonna do that, but, uh, Speaker 2 00:03:00 No pun intended there, huh? Speaker 1 00:03:02 Yeah, no, thank you, mark. Um, I am, I am full of pun ishk, uh, <laugh>. So ij, why don't you get us started on these verses before I go down the dad joke Road Speaker 3 00:03:14 <laugh>. Yeah, good to see you. Uh, uh, Tim and Mark as always. Um, yeah, you know, in this passage we have, uh, many truths. But I want to zero in on one truth in verse five. I am the wine. You are the branches. Yeah, I'm the wine. You are the branches. I think we can stop there. So there is one doctrinal truth. It has been actually one of the central truths of the Christian doctrine, but, uh, we don't hear it often, especially in the modern church, but it's one of the key doctrinal truths, which is the, our union with our Lord Jesus Christed. So when we see this right, you know, when Lord Jesus Christ gave this pictures, it's not that, you know, he's giving us some examples, but he is telling us of a greater truth. And the doctoral truth here is our union. And again, you know, when we talk about union, you know, it's not like, you know, I'm in the student union, I'm in the labor union, right? Speaker 3 00:04:09 You're a member of an organization. It's not that it's actually as a branch is in the wine. We are united. We are joined to our Lord Christ. And we in Christ and Christ in us. It's not just a saying again, it's not, we are not a body of the organization or a member of an organization, but, uh, Christ literally comes to live in us. And we are literally in Christ, in know our spirit is in Christ. And, uh, Christ Spirit, the Holy Spirit of Lord Jesus Christ is in us. You know, we are joined together. That's what our union is. And in fact, uh, you know, one of my, uh, favorite, uh, teachers is Walter Marshall. He says, there are three mystical unions, uh, that are, uh, in the gospel, revealed in the gospel. The one is a union of the Father, son, and the Holy Spirit, which is a trinity. Speaker 3 00:05:02 And the second mystical union is Christ the man and Christ, the God, the God man, you know, divinity and uh, humanity, united in Christ Jesus. And then the third is us, right? The, our union with our Lord Jesus Christ. We are called the body of Christ. And here we clearly see that, you know, we are joined to our lodges Christ. And there are many pictures that are given in the Bible, and it is the strongest one to show that our union with our logic Christ, I dunno, mark can tell me if you have any <laugh> response to that before going on. Well, Speaker 2 00:05:38 I, I really like the picture not being much of a agriculturist or horticulturist myself, but the branch is getting everything it needs to live by being in the vine. Jesus says, you take the branch off, it withers, and it's good for nothing other than getting thrown on a burn heap. So it just shows the absolute crucial necessity to stay connected to Jesus. He, and he says at the end, you can do nothing apart from me. It's in that connection, in that connection. We can do all things through Christ, but we break the connection. And there are many ways to break that connection. Uh, one is trying to fulfill the law by your own flesh, because, uh, we're told a number of times that the old covenant law is not the ministry of the Spirit. It's the new covenant faith in, uh, by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. So I just, this is so pinpointed here. If, if there's like, if, if you were gonna be a person to get a tattoo, <laugh> remain in me and I will remain in you. Man, that's just so powerful. And it just explains, I believe what the entire Christian life is meant to be. He's the source of all of our joy, of our healing, our strength, our courage, our encouragement. He is life. He's our life. And that life only comes just as a branch is connected to a vine if we are connected to him. Speaker 1 00:07:12 <unk> I don't want to steal your thunder, so maybe I'm going jumping too far ahead in that first, uh, but he says, uh, if you abide, if I, if you abide me an i n you will bear much fruit. And I'm trying to get a picture of what that looks like as a human being instead of a tree. Uh, so what I see is when I accepted Jesus, I am covered by the blood of his crucifixion, his cleansing and his holy spirit comes to live in me. So I am in Jesus with the blood on me, and Jesus is in me with the spirit filling me up. That's, that's how that kind of picture works. And I can only see that as far as a vine or a branches a vi a a branch will shoot out vines or branches and the branch or doesn't do anything. It just, it just becomes, and as it grows, it's being fed by the branch. And, and it's the branch that ultimately feeds the, it's the, I'm getting these mixed up in my head. It's the branch that feeds the vine that ultimately produces the fruit. The branch does nothing of its own. That, yeah, David, did I butcher that well enough? Speaker 2 00:08:25 The vine feeds the branch you meant to say, which Speaker 1 00:08:29 I was trying. That's Speaker 2 00:08:29 To say, okay, no, Speaker 1 00:08:31 You no, he is the vine. Yes, he is the vine. We are the branches. Yep. So Speaker 2 00:08:36 Sorry. The life flows outta him into the branch, which produces fruit. Speaker 1 00:08:41 See, I told you I was no gardener. Speaker 3 00:08:43 <laugh>. Yeah. So I think, uh, that's a great point, Tim. Uh, and I don't think you stole anything from me. Uh, but again, you know, the how do we bear fruit, right? You know, the, the branch doesn't work. The branch doesn't pray. The branch doesn't try to, you know, plead, Hey, you know, I want to bear fruit, right? The simply by abiding in the wine, wine <laugh> the branch, um, bear fruit. So I think here the key is right, the more the branch receives, which our branch receives more sap or more life, that is a branch that bears more fruit. It's not the bra branch that is working really hard. In fact, you know, if the branch tries to work hard, what could happen? It might be kind of trying to do things and, you know, twisting and turning, you know, it'll actually break the flow of sap coming into the branch. Speaker 3 00:09:39 So the more you relax and the more you rest and the more you trust in the wine, then we will bear much fruit again. You know, when we are talking about fruit, I think, Tim, you were, uh, referring to that, right? You said, you know, we already have the spirit in us. So what fruit we are bearing, you know, we bear the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace, goodness, long suffering. You know, the fruit of the spirit is nothing but the nature of Christ. So all we are doing is Christ is now replicating his nature in each one of us. That's what the wine does, right? If a branch of a good wine will bear good fruit and a branch of a bad wine, that bears bad fruit. So the, the quality of the fruit doesn't depend on the branch, it depends on the tree itself, right? If it's a good grape tree, you get good grapes. If it's a bad grape tree, it gets bad grape, uh, grapefruits. So it's not dependent upon the branch at all, but it is dependent upon the vine itself. Speaker 2 00:10:41 So another way of saying that is it's dependent upon the branch, depending on the vine alone. Speaker 3 00:10:48 Exactly, exactly. If the branch tries to do something, you know, that's what we do, right? We are saying, oh, I want to, I mean, the intentions are good, but you know, what are you doing for Christ? I'm doing this for Christ, I'm doing that for Christ. Are you working hard enough for Christ? Even though you're doing things for Christ, you don't need to, right? All you need to do is abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what you saying, if you abide in me, if you rushed in me, if you remind in me, remain in me, you'll bear much fruit. And again, you know, as believers, you know, once we become believers, we already talked about it, right? Our security is eternal here. There are some things, you know, that almost some people interpret as, you know, we are going to lose our salvation. Speaker 3 00:11:28 We can come to you to today or some other time. You know, there are good explanations. But the point is, we will never be, uh, cut off once we are joined to our Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation is eternal. But even though we are in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can pretend like as if we are not like Mark, you were saying that we can go back under the law and try to work out our own righteousness, and then we will, if we try to do that right, the consequence is the same again, we will produce our filthy rags of works. We will not be bearing the fruit of the spirit. So our part is to simply rest and trust in the branch, sorry, trust in the wine, and simply abide in him, or simply reminding him. And then every day, remember that, you know, I'm already in Christ and rested in the fact that I'm in Christ, then we'll bear fruit. Speaker 2 00:12:17 That's an excellent point, an important point too. And it points out the fact that it's always important to interpret scripture as you're reading through the gospel, the message of God's grace. And not through the eyes of the law and the old covenant. Cuz I could see, and I was the same way for many years, I could see believers looking at Christ saying, remain in me and I will remain in you, abide in me, and I abide in you. What does it mean? How do I abide him? I gotta work harder. I gotta read more scripture. I gotta pray more. I gotta give more. I gotta serve more. That's not what abiding in him means. The word you used was great. It's resting in, or like, even the, the word we used, the branch is depending on the vine, it's putting our focus as a w Tozer said, he said that, uh, faith is the gaze of the soul upon its savior. Speaker 2 00:13:14 We turn our gaze on Jesus and leave it there for the rest of our life. That's, and that's not, that's not limiting. It's not, you know, that right there is just the riches <laugh>, you know, as you read scripture, uh, in Christ, as you do that, the spirit is showing you things all the time. I mean, all we ever really talk about on this podcast is the gospel. All things will lead back to the cross. We can talk about that for every podcast for the next millennium and not run out of things to say, not run out of things that the spirit's gonna reveal as we grow. So I just, and I, I just always loved that second, uh, Corinthians three 18 where Paul says, uh, and we all who with unveiled faces, meaning we're getting rid of that law mentality, contemplate the Lord's glory. We fix our mind and we reflect and meditate and speak to him and, and just, uh, as we do that. Speaker 2 00:14:14 And his glory, there's many types. The cross though is probably his greatest glory, um, but, you know, had many types of glory. Um, but as we do that, that's where we're transformed and that's where the fruit comes. And this is just an even simpler way of putting it. Remain in me and I will remain in you. If you don't do that. You can't do anything anyway. So why go about trying to work so hard to accomplish all these things in my name? And I think it's, it's one of the gospels. I think it might be ch um, I can't remember a sixth chapter of maybe John, but where, where Jesus is talking about all these people that on the last day are gonna say, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we drive out demons? Didn't we heal and do miracles? All these pinnacle works. I mean, those are amazing works they did in Jesus' name. And he said, away from me, evil doers, I never knew you. It's, it's about knowing him and remaining in him, abiding in him, making us, making him our sole focus. Speaker 3 00:15:20 Yeah. So, you know, I just observed one thing here, right in verse seven and eight. If you abide in me, in my words abiding you, you'll ask what you desire and shall be done for you by this. My father is glorified that you bear much fruit. So you will be my disciple. See, we hear the word disciple caught me. I did not notice that before. Uh, but you know, when we talk about discipleship, what is the worst many go-to or deny yourself, take up your cross. You know, you must be willing to, uh, sacrifice everything you have. That is a path of discipleship, right? You know, you do, you sacrifice, I think unless you deny yourself, uh, you will not be my disciples unless you hate your family, unless you hate everything. So that is based on us doing stuff. But, but here, you see, right? Speaker 3 00:16:13 You know, how do we become his disciples? It's a actually a result of bearing fruit. He's not saying by doing this and this and this, you become disciples. He's saying, if you go all read all the way from seven to eight, the first step is we abide in him and let his words abide in us. And then when we do that, we ask, when we ask and receive. That is bearing fruit, actually, again, you know, bearing fruit and is not going and doing all kinds of, uh, uh, heroic acts for the Lord, even though we can do that. But simply here in this context, bearing fruit is you ask and we will receive. And when we ask and receive, the Father is glorified. The father is glorified. When we bear much fruit and when we do that, we'll be disciples. So bearing this fruit of the spirit by resting in Christ is what makes us disciples not sacrificing, not doing this. And that, you know, like some people preach because that is based on the law, uh, which we can never do, but based on grace bearing fruit is simply resting in our Lord Jesus Christ. And discipleship is basically bearing fruit according to this verse. Speaker 1 00:17:24 Aj, I, uh, this, those are great points. Uh, I think you, I think I wanna jump back one more verse from where you started back to verse six that says, if you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. So again, no horticulturist, but it sounds to me like if a, if a vine gets picked off and, and dropped or gets broken and dropped or whatnot, it withers it's been taken away from the root from the source. Not that we, we, we won't use root. That's just one more gardening term I don't wanna throw in here, but it's cut off from the source. It can no longer live. So it begins to weather. And as, as the vineyards are cleaned up, I'm sure they pick up re refuse as they go. Speaker 1 00:18:13 And that would be considered refuge re refuse. And it does have kind of a, uh, a foreshadowing of he heaven and hell, cuz the, if you're not in Christ, you will get thrown away and burned. But, uh, it's, this is, there's some real harshness as well as real deep truth about remaining in the vine. And I think that's why people take some of this soda heart and get why it gets misinterpreted, because they really feel like they have to do something here to make sure that's not them. I have to struggle. I have to produce fruit, I have to do this, that and the other. And that's what we've been working against since she was our first episode. We've been talking about how our works don't gain us anything in the kingdom of God. Only those works done through us by the Holy Spirit are of power and are of results. Uh, ours are nothing. And, uh, if we get discouraged and all that and pull ourselves away from the vine and drop off, we're in risk of being tossed away rebuttals. Speaker 3 00:19:22 Yeah, there's no rebuttals. There's no rebuttals. But I think, I just want to make sure that, you know, some people interpret this as, if you don't behave, you will be taken out of the wine and you'll be cashed out. So that is not the, I don't know if you want to go into all that, but we have already done an episode on eternal security. So I just want to make sure, you know, our listeners don't get sidetracked with some of these thinking that they will lose their salvation. But if you are, if you, you're believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a done deal, you know, you will never lose the, uh, your salvation. Speaker 2 00:19:56 That's, that's an awesome point, aj. And I think one of the things is whenever I, there we will read things in the Bible that sometimes just seem very on the surface, very blatantly legalistic. And the point you just said could easily be interpreted in a legalistic way. And if I don't do this, I'm gonna lose my salvation. But whenever I read things in scripture that seem to be legalistic, I say, yes, but how, how do I accomplish this? Jesus was clear, the only way to accomplish it is remain in me. It's not by any works you do, he did it all. It's the finished work of the cross. So when we read 15, one at the beginning of the chapter where Jesus says, 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. Speaker 2 00:20:56 Well, someone could look at that through old covenant law and take it very legalistically, or we can look at it through the gospel, the finished work of the cross, that it's the spirit in us that we could do nothing apart from him. And listen to the next line. He says to them, you are already clean because the word I have spoken to you, I love that I, I don't know that he was thinking this, but it, I could see him almost sensing what I just said. Now could be misinterpreted as being you need to work harder. And he says, wait a minute, now you don't have to do things to make yourself clean, to make yourself more wholly more righteous, to earn yourself into the vine. I've spoken my word to you, your gospel, you've put your faith in me, you're already clean. So I just love how he's saying now, just remain in me. I've already done that for you. And then all these things that I'm teaching you to do, that's the how by remaining in me as simple as that. And it seems too simple to a lot of people. Doesn't it? Like we're just, as humans, we feel like we've gotta do, do, do. That's probably why every world religion is about works. It's about earning and striving and, you know, giving more. You know, Speaker 1 00:22:12 So back to that verse that you just read, uh, 15, one and two, he cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. While every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes. So it'll be even more fruitful. Ajay, we did a, uh, episode on this, I think earlier on, on being rightly saved. So this isn't a, this isn't looking at our behavior or our ability or our effort. What it's looking at is our belief. If we are rightly saved in our, we have put our belief in Christ and we have the Holy Spirit in us, we're not gonna be a branch that doesn't produce fruit. It's not possible. So we won't be, we won't be cut off and thrown away. We might be pruned a little bit to produce even more. And that is God working changes in us, not wor working on us to make changes in ourselves. Is that, is that how you see that verse? Speaker 3 00:23:06 Yeah, that is so true, Tim. Uh, in fact, you know, all we needed to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and we will not be one of these branches. But in fact, you know, there's also a mistranslation. You know, I, long term back, I did, uh, attend a conference, you know, that's where the speaker actually brought this up. And I thought, I was like, wow, my eyes were, that was so cool. So I just want to share that real quick. In fact, I was going to do it later, but uh, since we have been talking about this, you know, this, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, he cuts off. That is a mistranslation. If you go and look at the, um, concordance, I have it right in front of me. It is actually to lift up the word that is in Greek. Speaker 3 00:23:51 I think it's called a hero. I'm not a, not at all by no means I know Greek, but I'm just, I think it's called a hero. And the first translation is to raise, to lift up. So in that sermon, I heard that, you know, when the branch actually, sometimes it does not remain on the trellis, but it falls on the ground. What they do is, you know, if it's on the ground, it can't bear fruit. So the wine dress comes and lifts up the branch, and then he washes it. You know, here the is also not necessarily cutting, which actually washing. So he lift up the branch and washes it and puts it on the trellis Speaker 2 00:24:33 Support. Speaker 3 00:24:33 That's a true interpretation of that. Yeah. And that's why it says, right, you know, he says, you're already clean because the word I spoken. So the second verse is actually talking about cleaning, washing, purging. It's not talking about cutting away. And that's why he says you're already clean because of the word that I've spoken to you. So again, you know, there is one more, um, truth here, right? You know, how do we become clean, right? If we, once we are saved and you go into the world and you feel like dirty, right? You do things, we are always kind of defiled by the things of the world. And the way to get the cleansing is just go back to the gospel, hear the gospel again. You know, because the word of Christ, we are cleansed. I thought I'll just share that it is a misinterpretation. I mean, if you interpret it correctly, you know, see how how liberating it is. You know, I was super excited when <laugh> when I heard that and when I looked it up myself, you can go look up the concurrent. It's like it's lift up. It's not cutting. Speaker 2 00:25:28 Yeah. And I think that's, that's, that's a phenomenal, phenomenal revelation there. Um, because the word prune, we associate with sharp things cutting into us. And we know that that's not the way God teaches us. He gave us his spirit to teach us all things. Christ said, he prunes us through his word, through his spirit, through other Christians. But it's not, it's a lifting up, it's a supporting. Yeah. Uh, the gospel is all we need, you know? Speaker 3 00:25:57 Yeah. The pruning is also here, you know, it's, uh, the translation is washing actually, you know, every, uh, branch that fruit, he prunes right to cleanse of filth and impurity. So again, I think it's the context is just washing the wine, wine dresser, lifting up and washing it. Um, yeah, that is so, I mean, that is so awesome. So sometimes, you know, we just read on the surface, but you know, when we dig deeper, when we listen to, you know, men of God who went before us, you know, that helps us so much. Speaker 1 00:26:34 I was today years old when I learned that that, uh, particular bit of translation. And what's really funny is I get, I put a lot of emphasis on the word of God is above the line in your Bible. The stuff below the line is man's interpretation and issues. But I just noticed in the Bible Iowan music for this, there's a little footnote on prunes, and if I go look at it, it says, the Greek for he prunes also means he cleans. So yeah, that's stuff below the line can be helpful. But remember, we're focused on the word of God. Speaker 3 00:27:06 Yeah. I also want to quickly touch on, you know, before Mark, I think you have one more topic to discuss, but, uh, remaining in me, abiding in me, he actually elaborates a little more, right? If someone is wondering, you know, what do I, what does it mean to remain, you know, remaining means just rushing in the fact that, you know, I'm already in Christ. But he also explains it further in verse nine, as a father allowed me, I also allowed you abide in my love. I think in other translations it says, remain in my love. So remaining in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, just I look at this here, right as a father allowed me, I also have loved you. So the love that Jesus has for us is the same love that God the Father has for Christ. Think about that. You know, that is a thing that we need to rest in God. Speaker 3 00:27:58 Jesus loves me just like his father loves him. So I mean, some of these things are, you know, too much for us to understand, but that is allow that we need to remain in. So that kind of love, if God sent his son to, um, die for us, right? Even though he loved him so much, he sent his son to die for us. In one sense, he allowed us more than his son. Think about that. So that is a kind of love we need to abide in and we need to rest in and not get worried about every small little thing. And, and that love is not dependent on our doing. If God only loved us when I behave, or God love is, God's love is based on my doing, he would never have sent Christ because he already knew we all would fall. We all would sin. So why would he send Christ? So it's not dependent on what we do, it's simply dependent on His love for us. Speaker 2 00:28:55 We'd all probably do well to spend time just meditating on that and chewing on it, and grasping the fact that Jesus loves us the way the Father loves him. And, and the verse that comes in my mind is when the voice of God boomed and said, this is my son in him, I am well pleased to think that Jesus is well pleased in us and not because of the things we do, but because by putting our faith in him, we have become his sons and daughters. He loves us because we're his children, not because we're well-behaved, great workers given a lot of money. And I'm not saying those aren't all good things, but they're not good things. Uh, for reasons for someone to love you, just as the Father loves Jesus, because he's his son. He loves us because we're his children as well. Speaker 1 00:29:48 You know, I just put a blog post up that said something very similar, mark. So, uh, everybody make sure you check out our, our website at www.theunveiledgospel.com. Sorry, shameless plug. Speaker 2 00:30:00 <laugh> <laugh>. That's all right, man. Speaker 3 00:30:02 And not only that, you know, uh, the other amazing thing is it's like a double clad guarantee. Not only that Jesus loves us, like the Father loves him in, uh, John 17, it says in John 17, verse 23, I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that you have sent me. And they have loved them as you have loved me. So not only Jesus loves us as a father loved him, father loves us as he love Jesus. So there is no difference between God's love for Jesus and God's love for us. Think about that too. It's crazy <laugh>. Speaker 2 00:30:43 That's, that's what it means to contemplate is glory. Yeah. You know? Speaker 3 00:30:47 Yeah. Yeah. That's what it means. Yeah. So, yeah, I think we just need to, sometimes it's very hard to grasp. Yeah, yeah, yeah. God loves me. Everybody knows kind of thing. But you know, just think about it. Yeah. Speaker 2 00:30:59 Yeah. Speaker 1 00:31:00 It is sometimes hard to internalize that the creator of the entire universe, the creator of all the humanity that has ever lived, some, I wanna say 15, 18 billion people over the course of history, is still so individual that he knows me, everything about me, good and bad, and that he still loves me. He hasn't, through 18 billion people of history set up bar and said, okay, once you climb over this bar, I'll look at you, check you out and see if you, you belong. He said, Nope, you're alive and well, therefore, you're a child of mine and I love you, and I want you to have a relationship with me. And he doesn't want you to break that relationship. He wants you to join that relationship. It's very individual and it's your mark. It's mind blowing, just like you were saying. Speaker 2 00:31:50 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's the cure for all low self-esteem for people who suffer with that. Just to think on the fact that this holy, majestic, all powerful, all-knowing God knows you, sees everything about you and thinks you're awesome. Speaker 3 00:32:07 Yeah. I was also going to say the, I think it ties very well with the low selfish dream thing, mark. Uh, I think it also frees us from comparing with others. I think it's, uh, human tendency to see, to naturally compare with others, even among Christians, believers and ministers. And sometimes, you know, we might feel like, oh my God, that guy is serving the Lord so much. Oh, he has such a big ministry. You know, maybe God loves him better than me, or, you know, he's well more pleased with him than me. But you know, if you think about it, if God loves me, just like he loves the Lord Jesus Christ and is as pleased as me in as he's pleased with the Lord Jesus Christ, why do I, why do I even care to compare with someone else? And again, I think, uh, God gave each one of us unique. He made us unique. Right? There is no other Aja in this world. You know, whatever God gave me, nobody, nobody can say things the way I do. And similarly, nobody can live a life like you lived him. So it's comparing with others is, in my mind, I think it's a stupidity. And we don't have to do that. Speaker 1 00:33:12 It's one of the reasons why social media can be very harmful to some people. Yeah. Because everybody posts the highlights. That's their highlight reel for the most part. Yeah. And if you're having bad times and tough times and issues, you know, mental or physical, whatever, and you're looking at everybody else's life being so wonderful, you can't help but look at them and say, well, why am why am I doing so poorly? Sorry, mark. That was a funny trail. Let me bring it back to you. Speaker 2 00:33:39 I was just gonna say, when AJ was just talking, he mentioned himself and Tim, but he left me out as people that <laugh>, you know, the point you were making there was that on purpose, aj? Uh, are you saying that I Yeah. One of the exceptions to Speaker 3 00:33:56 See, that's the point I'm making. Don't compare with Tim. Well, whether you that I mentioned you or not, everybody Speaker 2 00:34:03 Fails, doesn't matter. <laugh> <laugh> Speaker 1 00:34:07 Help. I need Toand say, I need to save this. We're we're, uh, we're gonna wrap up now. <laugh> <laugh>. Speaker 3 00:34:15 So I was just saying, you know, uh, if I wait to compare, compare with Lord Jesus Christ, and God says, you're exactly like Christ, just think about it. So that will free us from all comparisons. Why do I need to even compare with, with the human? I'll compare myself with the Lord Jesus Christ and I, and God says I'm exactly like him. So how cool that is. Speaker 1 00:34:37 Well guys, we've got, uh, we've got a short time limit tonight. So what I'm gonna do, uh, this will be a slightly shorter episode than usual, is I'm gonna say, let's wrap this up and give our summaries. Ajay, why don't you kick off first with, uh, your, your summary of I Am the Vine. Speaker 3 00:34:57 Yeah. So as we have seen when we, I think the way we entered into the wine is through faith. Faith in the finished for pathological Christ, faith in his death, burial and resurrection for us, Bible says, you know, just as you have, um, you know, uh, I think I am for as you, just as you have believed, you know, so walk in him, right? So just as we started our journey of faith, you know, we also continue by faith. So now that we are in Christ, all we need to do is just rush in the fact that, you know, I'm in Christ already and rushed in the fact that, you know, uh, God loves me no matter what. So that's how we are buried in Christ. And, uh, and then we bear fruit. There's nothing for us to do, but to simply rushed in the wine and let the wine bear the fruit through us. Speaker 1 00:35:48 Thank you very much, aj. Mark, how about you take the next one? Speaker 2 00:35:53 Uh, I will do that. Uh, I will start by letting the Apostle Paul sum up for us. Fir. First of all, I wanna say I've really enjoyed this series, and I was not that excited going into it, but coming out of it, man, I loved it because as I looked at all these I am statements, it's just focusing everything. I am the bread of life. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the gate. I am the vine. It's all Christ saying to us, it's not about religion, it's not about works. It's about you and me. Our, and I love the way you put it. Uh, aj our union with him, we have been united to him and nothing can ever break that, uh, that unity we have with him. The apostle Paul said this, he said, uh, and I want to just back up back. Speaker 2 00:36:44 Paul had said right before he made this statement that, Hey, if you wanna look at outward things, I, I'm a Jew ba, um, circumcised on the eighth day of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee of Pharisees. According to the law, he had done the law better than just people his own age. He was far surpassing them. But here's what he says. And I think this is a perfect summation of this seven part series. It says, this is Philippians three, seven, whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more? I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. Speaker 2 00:37:52 I just love that Paul is taken all these statements, and he would've known all this, these things Jesus said, and, and this scripture. Uh, and then I wanna tell a quick little story. Years ago I was working at a church as a musical director and one of the, uh, women on my vocal team, really good, her and her husband were, we became really good friends, and we still see them occasionally, but, uh, she became pregnant while she was on the worship team. And I had, I was not married then, and I had no experience with babies or people being pregnant, but sh it, it was found out that she was carrying triplets. So we were all excited about the day she was gonna have these triplets. And when the babies were born, two of them were born dead. And it was just a, you know, it went from this joy and celebration, just a terrible, terrible thing. Speaker 2 00:38:44 And, um, I, I, my, my heart just cried out for 'em. And I wanted to write a song for her to bring her comfort. And, uh, cuz the Sunday, the first Sunday they were in church, everybody, they didn't know what to say, you know, it's horrific. And you know, some people are hugging him, which is probably the best thing they could have done. But I saw one probably well-meaning soul, just lean in and say, second Corinthians 17, four and walk away. And they might have been well-meaning. But, so the bridge that I wrote in the song came off of that, and it says this, and I think it agrees with the seven part series and what Paul just said, but the bridge is, I don't need another chapter in verse. I don't need another trip to church, more precious than gold. But they can never take his place means not an end. They bring us face to face. And it's like, those are all good things, you know, works are good things. Going to church, reading scripture, giving, praying all good things. We're never trying to say they're not good things, but we don't need those things. We need Jesus. We need to remain in him and he'll remain in us. Speaker 1 00:40:03 Mark, that is a beautiful summary, not only to tonight's episode, but this series. So I am not gonna step on that by offering my own what seems suddenly poultry words to the end of this. Instead, I will say thank you very much everybody for listening. We're glad you've been here, and we invite you to come to see our website, listen to the outro, and you'll get all the information you need. Next time we're together, we, uh, the next episode we record will be our Christmas Day, uh, podcast. So we're planning a little something a little different from that. We hope you'll join us then. Thanks again for being here, and we'll talk to you the next time. Speaker 1 00:40:46 Tim, again, thanks for listening today. We hope you were blessed by today's message. If so, we encourage you to subscribe and share our podcast with your friends and family. Our entire catalog of episodes can be found on our website at www.theunveiledgospel.com. Or you can listen and subscribe on most popular podcast apps. If you have any feedback or questions, you can send us an email to the unveiled gospel@yahoo.com. You can reach out to us on our Facebook page, the Unveiling Podcast, or you can leave a question or comment on our listener line at 3 5 2 3 9 8 0 0 8 9. Maybe you'll hear yourself on a future episode. That's it for today. As always, God bless and we will talk to you the next time.