“The strength of your life will depend on your decision to stay, abide.” As we kicked off a brand new year, our friend Priscilla Shirer dropped an amazing word at Passion 2021 about what it takes for us to stay tethered to the true source of strength and life, Jesus.
hey there passion i’m so glad to be able
to have an opportunity to be
back with you i have been waiting for
the opportunity to be back with you
and so despite the the craziness of the
circumstances that we are all in right
now the fact that it has given
opportunity for me to be back with you
in this way feels like a gift
i’m excited about god’s word to continue
what it is
that he’s already been doing in your
heart and in my heart and life
so why don’t we pray and go to god’s
word together lord we thank you for this
privilege that we have to know that you
are speaking to us
and that no matter where in the world we
are right now we can
hear your voice so lord i pray
that you would take this one little
simple message
and you would divide it however many
multiple
thousands of different ways you need to
so that every single person
under the sound of my voice no matter
what culture or
or continent they may be on no matter
what country
lord i pray that every single one of us
right now will know
we have been in the presence of god
in the mighty name of jesus i pray amen
amen well for about 10 years or so my
family and i lived in a fairly rural
part of the dallas fort worth
area we planned it that way when our
children were little i’ve got giants now
my oldest is 18
like six foot three inch tall then i’ve
got a 16 year old he’s about six foot
two inches tall and then i’ve got a 12
year old but he stands the exact same
height
as me so i’m being outgrown very quickly
in my household
and when they were younger we spent 10
years living
about 10 minutes away from the city so
we could get there quickly but we felt
like we were worlds away
we would drive back to our home that was
on a lazy little two-lane road and we
enjoyed it back there because you know
there were things
that three sons need in their lives like
bugs and mud and trees and stuff like
that
anytime the boys would come to me when
they were growing up and say mom
i’m bored i would say no you not you see
that tree out there
go and play with it i don’t care what
you do with the tree you can play tag
with the tree you can eat the tree i
don’t care what you do but you’re not
going to be bored out here
in the country enjoy yourself one of the
things i loved most about living out
there
was that my neighbor who happened to be
one of my closest friends
she has a pond in the front of her
property i cannot tell you how much we
have enjoyed this
pond we would go over and fish as often
as we could we would
go and throw sticks out on the pond her
dog would go out and
swim into the middle of the pond and go
grab the sticks retrieve them and bring
them back i mean my boys had so much fun
growing up by that pond but do you know
it was very interesting as we lived
there one year after the next
one texas summer after the next there
was one summer in particular where i
noticed
that during a drought when the skies
were shut up there was no rain
that rachel’s pond tom and rachel our
neighbors
still had water in it the level was a
little low but there was still water
there
the reason why this was particularly
intriguing to me was because
there were other neighbors throughout
this particular area of the city that
also had ponds when i was jogging or
walking with my children or when i was
driving around i could see
other properties that also had ponds
beside or in front or
even in the back of the property and
during this same summer
when my neighbors across the street
still had water even with low levels in
their pond
i noticed that some of these other ponds
had no water at all
it actually just began to look like a
big hole
that was sitting in front of their
property no rain coming down
no water filling it up there was only
one difference i would learn
between tom and rachel’s pond and some
of those other man-made ponds in the
neighborhood
tom and rachel’s pond was a spring-fed
pond
that meant that down there at the
deepest parts about 15 to 20 feet down
there was this continual bubbling water
supply
an internal water reserve that offered
continued fulfillment and continued
sustenance and continued
nourishment so that regardless of what
the atmosphere was like
regardless what the weather was like it
still could maintain its water levels
different ponds but they’re in the same
environment
experiencing the same deficiency the
exact same lack
the exact same insufficient supply of
precipitation
and yet they have two very different
results
and the difference is one has an
internal supply and the other one
does not oh i wish i was face to face
with you right now
because if i was i would lean over
and look at you eye to eye in fact
if we were sitting with each other just
one-on-one with a cup of coffee between
us
i would lean over and look at you eye to
eye
and tell you something from this vantage
point of life
that i am so glad was emphasized to me
over and over and over again when i was
20
and then at 25 and then at 30 and then
at 35
and at 40 the people that loved me the
most and cared about the nourishment of
my
soul emphasized to me something that i
want to express
to you as clearly as i possibly can in
these few moments
that we have together the older and
older i get
i realize that without an ongoing
effervescent fervent nourishment coming
up
on the inside of you you will not be
able to have the sustained hope
and peace and joy and contentment
and grace and fulfillment that you are
going to require
when the atmosphere of drought swirls
all around you
and if there is one thing that this last
season that all of us have been through
has taught us
you know with all these disappointments
and all this hardship
and all this isolation and all this
division and all this
unrest and all of this sheer
unprecedented drought of recent times
it has shown us this undeniable truth
that we need
something on the inside of us that does
not require
external circumstances in order to keep
it steady
and in order to keep it strong
this is one of the messages that was so
critical and so important that jesus
wanted to express to his disciples
that 24 hours before his crucifixion
this is what he wanted to tell them that
an internal source of fulfillment
was going to be the thing the only thing
that was going to be able to sustain
them through what he knew was coming
next their hopes were about to be dashed
their dreams were about to be squashed
their hearts were about to be broken
in 24 hours or so jesus is about to be
arrested and crucified
all their hopes were pinned on him jesus
knew that this disappointment was coming
and so in one of his final messages
he expresses to them the need to have
something that is
independent and does not rely on
external fulfillment in order to
continue
to sustain and nourish now i want you to
consider how you would feel
if a loved one somebody that you care
about deeply
has some final words that they want to
share with you and they know that their
time is coming to an end
they know that they only have a few
words that they can share with you only
a few more hours
that they are going to have in your
presence if you had that type of
opportunity
wouldn’t you lean in and listen more
closely
wouldn’t your ears be more peaked
because you don’t want to miss
anything that that individual that you
love so dearly and desperately is going
to say to you not
in their final words you don’t want to
miss anything
the disciples are leaning in because
jesus
is carefully and very decidedly and
intentionally
sharing with his 12 most beloved friends
exactly what he wants them to know
before he
is crucified and then of course is
raised from the dead and then
is ascended away from them he has just
finished what would be the last supper
he has just washed their feet
he has just predicted his betrayal he
has just told them
let not your hearts be troubled he has
just reminded them
that in my father’s house there are many
mansions
he has said to them that i’m going to
ask my father to send another helper
to you the holy spirit he has said to
them my peace
i am going to leave with you
and on the heels of this meaningful meal
he leads the disciples away from the
dinner table
and out of the city through the winding
streets of jerusalem up toward the
kidron valley
on the way to the mount of olives the
garden of gethsemane
is within the mount of olives everything
that is about to transpire
next and toward in terms of the
crucifixion is going to begin
in the garden of gethsemane they are on
their way there
toward the mountain mount of olives down
these dirt paths where they would
have passed through the familiar
community that the disciples knew so
well
the flat top roofs that they would have
passed while they were on their way
and as jesus led the disciples they
would have passed by something that
would have been extraordinarily familiar
to them
something that they would have seen day
in and day out on
every regular day when they were passing
through this city
they would have passed well-blazed
trails
tidy rows of carefully
masterful masterfully planned and
manicured
vineyards they would have passed
grapes i want you to consider the
possibility that jesus
paused by one of the many vineyards that
would have dotted along the path that
they would have been traveling towards
the mount of olives olives consider that
he stopped
beside one of these vineyards that
represented joy
and festivity and really did highlight
the abundance of
any community he stops by one of these
working vineyards
and he says these words to them in john
chapter
15 verse four seven words
that if you can absorb it and hear it
and align your life to it and take it
seriously
in your teenage years and then in your
20s and in your 30s in your 40s
your 50s and beyond it can keep you well
nourished even when there’s a drought
outside your window
jesus said abide in me
and i in you
simple yet profound in its implication
he said i’m going to tell you something
that is going to be one of the most
critical messages i leave with you my
beloved disciples
if you don’t do nothing else abide
in me and i promise to
abide in you when the atmosphere around
you dries up
when your health fails when your friends
betray
when the endeavor you’ve worked so hard
on falters
when you’re not appreciated or even
noticed when the road gets tough to
traverse
when your loved one dies when your
ministry flounders when your heart
is broken jesus says there is only one
thing that will give you the continued
sustenance
and nourishment that you need to have a
well of
joy and hope that overrides during time
times like these abide in me
and let me abide richly
in you this word abide was um
very important to this author john who
gives us this gospel
and also gives us three letters first
second and third
john we know it’s important to him
because throughout the gospels
he used the word abide or a rendition of
it
about 40 times in the gospel and then
throughout first second and third john
upwards of 27 times he says abide
abide abide the original word
is meno it means simply
to remain it means to stay
it means to hang out with it implies an
interconnectedness and an intermingled
relationship
it means to be immersed and enmeshed one
with the other
one of the things i love to to do is
drink hot tea i like
jasmine green tea to be specific and i
probably have a mug of it
most every single day and i’m one of
those people that you know i put the tea
bag inside and then i fill it up with
hot water and i let it sit there for a
second maybe put a dollop of honey in or
so
as i go about doing a couple of other
things for a couple minutes in the
kitchen
then i’ll grab my mug tea bag still
inside
and i’ll sit down for just a few moments
and enjoy the cup of tea
the tea bag’s still in there just
abiding
it just remains in the cup
it just hangs out there i noticed one
day when i was at a coffee shop
having a cup of tea with a friend she
also
had a tea bag inside her cup but as we
talked
she was just sitting there dipping it in
in and out
in and out over and over again i was
just kind of watching her as we were
talking a little bit distracted i kept
looking down at her hand going in and
out
picking the tea bag up and putting it
back down i said girl you know you could
just leave the tea bag in there right
she said yeah but but i don’t like to do
that i like to dip it in and out and the
reason is because if i leave it in there
too long
the t will get too strong
the strength of your life depends on
whether or not you will choose to
remain to stay rooted
and steady to not dip in one year and
dip out the next
dip in during one season and dip out the
next dip in when it’s trendy and cool
and you’re applauded and appreciated
and dip out during those secret um hard
years where you’re just plowing
unnoticed and uncelebrated
you’ve got to make a decision right now
in your life and i’ve got to make one in
mind
that we’re going to continue to deepen
our relationship with jesus
every single day every single week
throughout every single season the good
seasons
but also the bad hard seasons
and listen it’s not as complicated as we
make it because it really is just about
this abiding
is about deepening your friendship with
him
it’s about talking to him do you talk to
him
do you take enough time when you were in
prayer talking to him
to actually pause to give margin for him
to talk back to you do you know there’s
some things that your
your friend your brother your lord your
savior
wants to also say with you say to you he
wants to take your roots down deep do
you
make time through the scriptures and
through the holy spirit’s conviction to
actually hear
and sense and listen to what it is that
your god wants to say to you
do you take time to remain with him to
hang out with him
to let your life be immersed with his
and his with yours to deepen your
friendship with him to
obey him to pause
and to heed that conviction of the holy
spirit that’s on the inside of you holy
spirit why is my heart
burning within me where are you leading
me where are you guiding me what
is it that you want me to do or say what
is it that you want me to not do
or say do you take time to talk
to lean in to hear the voice of god
in your life and then to respond in
obedience
the thing is a message like this on a
friendship with jesus on abiding with
jesus this ain’t nothing new
if you’ve been to passion before whether
we were in a physical arena or you were
viewing online like we all are this year
or even if you’re in a
bible teaching church no matter how
small or
large or you have participated in bible
study or even your own
maybe discipleship just one on one with
someone who’s been mentoring you then
likely if you’ve been in a healthy
context like that
then you have heard this sort of
encouragement
before it seems like something that we
keep on hearing
and we keep on coming back to but we can
never
hear it enough because our capacity to
be able to be sustained
over the long haul depends on whether or
not we wrap our minds
and our hearts around what it is that
jesus was teaching to his disciples then
and what it is by his spirit his
teaching to his disciples today
abide in me make your friendship with
jesus
the priority of your life over and above
every other ambition that you may have
every other calling or mission that may
be
good things that you were doing and that
you have been assigned by god in your
life
but never let them circumvent and take
prior
priority over your friendship with jesus
the well you’re gonna need
to keep you filled up when there’s a
drought in the world around you can only
come
from that abiding relationship i’ll
never forget watching an interview once
with michael jordan
the great michael jordan and i remember
him being asked about his success
as an athlete and he said
you know what the minute you get away
from the fundamentals
the bottom will fall out of whatever
you’re doing
he was talking about basketball but the
only thing i heard was something about
my life
a lesson for my life the minute we get
away from the fundamentals
michael jordan was saying listen all of
the tricks that i do
and all of the gravity-defying dunks and
all of the aerodynamic leaps
that makes for good tv but to the extent
that i do all of that but pull away from
the fundamentals
of the game i recognize that that can’t
sustain my success
over the long haul and listen to me
brothers and sisters the spiritual
aerodynamic
leaps and gravity-defying religious
dunks that may seem stunning because
it fills conferences or conference
arenas or it sells millions of books or
it gets us followers on
instagram or on facebook those things
will not sustain us over the long haul
our overriding ambition must be
as paul said to please christ and christ
alone
to abide with him and to have a
relationship with him
a philosopher named sam pascoe
he said something that i can never
forget he said christianity started in
the land of the bible
as a fellowship a relationship
and then it moved on to greece and it
became an institution
a place you go then it moved to rome and
in rome it became a philosophy
a way people think and then from rome it
moved to europe and it became a culture
a way of life
then from europe christianity came to
america
and it became an enterprise a business
now it’s just what we do and
lord help us if this relationship with
jesus becomes a business
it’s what we do but it’s not who we are
jesus would say i am the vine
in verse 1. and you are the branches
and my father is the vine dresser i want
you to see this clearly
if you take time and i hope you will to
read through all of john chapter
15 at the beginning there he paints this
whole landscape and scenario
of a working vineyard and he points to
three players on the landscape of his
illustration
picture the possibility that as he maybe
paused there with the disciples that he
ran his hand
up the thick trunk of a grapevine
and he says i am the vine and then maybe
pause
right at that connecting point where one
of the tendrils the branches
would shoot out from this huge trunk of
the
of the the grapevine he says i am the
vine
and you are the branch the part that
bears fruit
consider that he paused right there at
the tender connecting point
where the branch was enmeshed with and
immersed with the vine
he says this is me all the nutrients the
sap
the moisture the nourishment that is
needed for this branch to be able to
stay
steady and to flourish and to produce
the fruit that it was designed and
planted
to produce all of that is
available to the branch if it will just
concentrate on staying connected
and by the way not superficially
connected
because it was possible for the skin of
a branch to remain connected
to the surface layer the skin of a vine
and yet the
inner veins and the inner workings of
those two
parts of the the vine not to actually be
immersed with each other so
superficially cosmetically they can be
connected
without actually having nutrients being
passed from one to the other
jesus says if you want to be able to
produce fruit you don’t have to strive
for it
you don’t have to work for it you don’t
have to manufacture it you don’t have to
lose sleep over it
all you have to do is concentrate on
abiding and i am going to
pulse to you give to you um offer you
everything that you need to be able to
live a fruitful
productive life that brings me glory
so he says i’m the vine you’re the
branch my father
is the vine dresser the vine dresser is
tending to everything
consciously working day in and day out
to make sure that every branch
in his garden is exactly where it needs
to be to get the right amount of sun and
the right amount of water
to lift it off the ground to post it up
against latticework to make sure it’s
positioned correctly
he points to these three players on the
landscape
the vine does work pulsating nutrients
the vine dresser does work walking
around to position everything correctly
gardening
tending tilling and he points to the
only thing in a working vineyard that
does not work
the branch and he says
that’s you
my father’s doing all the work i’ve done
all the work you
rest in me that is your job
receive from me build a friendship with
me
make sure that the inner workings
between us
remain connected so that you’re not just
artificially grafted in
just on the surface but so that there’s
actually life pulsating between
the two of us you concentrate on this
friendship and i’m gonna yield such a
robust harvest from your life
come to me all ye that labor and are
heavy laden
rest and receive i got your back be
still and know that i am god
everything you need second peter chapter
one pertaining to life and godliness
i’ve got it for you if you’ll just make
sure to remain
connected abide in me
and i will abide in you
i want to tell you that
this day last year
man it was a tough one for me i was
arriving back
at my home this day last year at about
eight a.m
i had been up all night long and
previous nights leading up to that
particular
night i’d been up a lot because we were
taking care of our mother
and on the night before this day about
2 a.m 4 a.m i was laying with my
siblings and my father in our mother’s
mother and dad’s bed and actually she
was literally laying in my lap
as she took her final breaths
and we were there with her as she went
to see jesus and i arrived home later
that day
after the emotional exhaustion of that
just came home to shower and then get
back to my
dad to help him through all the things
that would need to be figured out and
it was my birthday december 31st
the day after losing my mom
i didn’t even really recall that it was
my birthday i was so delirious from the
emotional exhaustion of it all
and in fact losing our mom last year
this time was the end
of um or right in the middle of a string
of very difficult losses to date
over the past two years we have lost
eight family members
talk about a drought one bit of grief
after the other one loss after the other
i’m here to tell you that a well that is
not
dependent upon external resources the
only way that you’re going to be able to
be sustained
and in this last moment can i just tell
you how i know that
i know that because in my mom’s final
days and final weeks
as we sat with her and spent every
waking minute with her and leaned in to
hear
anything she would want to say to us she
told us about the hope she had in jesus
she told us about the joy that she had
in expectation of meeting him
she told us about how she knew beyond
any reasonable doubt
that heaven was real
and she told us never to ignore
and never to put aside cultivating a
relationship with jesus
never to let ministry the pursuit of
ministry
override just the fundamental friendship
that we gotta have with him and in the
end in those last days
my mother died with her heart
and eyes filled with hope and joy
at the expectation of seeing jesus
what kind of internal reserve do you
gotta have
even in the face of death to
still be hope-filled
whatever kind of well that doesn’t run
dry my mama had
that’s the kind of well i want to
and so i invite you jesus
not to just know him for salvation but
to know him
in deep intimate friendship every single
day
until you see him face to face
in jesus name amen
you