[Sermon Summary]
Jesus was really good at reading other people's minds! If you're a disciple of Jesus, it's important to remember that you can learn to read other people's minds just like Jesus did!
We can't change ourselves or others, but we can try our best to understand each other. We can try to understand others better and be there for them in their experiences.
We all want others to look us in the face with love and respect. When someone looks at you with love and respect, they are accepting you for who you are, and that makes you feel like you matter.
Jesus knew his disciples so well that he could speak to them in words of truth about their problems. And God gave the Holy Spirit to the group of believers! God proved his love for us in that while we were still sinners, he gave his own Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our salvation.
For a believer to live as a disciple of Jesus means to be rooted and nourished in the love of Jesus Christ. The believer grows with the growth of the community and grows into a life of speaking truth in love.
It is my heartfelt prayer for each and every believer in WorshipFrontier to become a disciple of Jesus. I truly believe that when we do this, we will be able to look deeply into others, see ourselves, and experience the renewal of God's love for us all. And may we demonstrate by our lives that the love of our God is not just a feeling, not just a slogan, but a transformative love.
[Sermon Notes]
Title: "Are You a Disciple of Jesus?" (2) (Discipleship)
Text: John 15:4-9
10 Expectation: waiting for God's transformative love to happen in surprising ways.
20 Focus: maintaining perfect equanimity and balance to be open to our neighbors and the world.
30 Transformation: transforming ourselves, our neighbors, and our surroundings with lives that reflect God's love.
Scripture Texts
(John 15:4-9) "4 "Remain in me," he said, "and I in you, and you in me. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains attached to the vine, so you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.「5」 I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit, for I remain in him. Apart from me you can do nothing.6 "If a man does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a useless branch and dries up. If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, whatever you ask for, it will be done for you.7 "If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, it will be done for you.8 "If you bear much fruit and remain My disciples, My Father will be glorified by this.9 "As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love."
[Sermon manuscript]
0. [Greeting]
Good afternoon, everyone. What are you thankful for this week?
1. [Last week's review].
Since last week, we have been hearing from God about "discipleship" or "discipleship".
A disciple is a learner. (A disciple learns from a teacher.) The attitude of a disciple is one of interest, focus, and expectation. (A disciple has a birdwatcher's attitude.) The expectation is of the teacher himself. (Abide in me, if my words abide in you., abide in my love - follow the teacher wholeheartedly with a wonderful expectation of the teacher.)
This is what discipleship looks like.
[Question] So, believers in this room, are you disciples of Jesus?
- "What is it that Christ is trying to give me through this person or this gathering?"
-"What is it that Jesus Christ is truly giving me here and now?"
10. Expectation: "Waiting for God's transformative love to happen in surprising ways."
Today is the second part of our study on discipleship. Let's think more deeply about it together.Read the subheading topic sentences with "disciple" or "believer" in the subject position.
"A disciple waits for God's transforming love to happen in surprising ways." "A believer waits in expectation for God's transforming love to be shown in abundance."
*In whom is it manifested? To yourself, to your neighbor, to your surroundings...
11. A disciple is someone who expects God's transformative love.
- Today's text is from the Apostle John.
- The Apostle John often uses the expression that there is a door in a person's heart. John says, "For a person to believe in someone is for a person to open the door of his heart to receive the other person." So the word Abide in John 15 means that a person has opened his heart to be with the Lord, and his heart is full of the Lord's word and the Lord's love.
- When a believer's heart is filled with the Lord's word and the Lord's love, that person is sure to be transformed.
This is the transforming love of God, but our reality is that we don't easily experience that transformation. Why?
12. How is a person changed?
The first thing we need to look at is how people are changed. People can't fundamentally change others or themselves. People can't change people because people don't have the ability to truly look at others (themselves) and they're not very good at reading other people's minds.
13. the ability to truly look at others!
You can ask yourself this question. "How good are you at reading other people's minds?"
- William Ickes notes that only about 20% of the time do we accurately read the other person in a conversation between strangers. Even with close friends and family, he found that it's only 35% of the time.
14. [empathic accuracy / empathic accuracy]
Empathic accuracy is a measure of how good you are at reading other people's minds on a scale of 0 to 100.
- In the study, there was one person who scored a 0 empathic accuracy, meaning they had just met and talked to someone for the first time and didn't know what the person they were talking to was actually thinking - and another who scored a 55.
- Most interesting of all, the longer couples have been married, the less accurate they are at reading each other's minds. (The reason: they tend not to change their initial judgments of their spouse, so they become increasingly ignorant of what's going on in the other person's mind.)
15. [Our experience].
How many times have you felt like the other person wasn't really listening to you or was treating you like an invisible person?
- And conversely, can you say with certainty that you don't do that to others?
16. [Know someone exactly].
It's impossible to know someone exactly.
Psychotherapist Mary Piper once said, "Even the most brilliant writers and thinkers have no idea how people think and behave, and that's why it's the most important thing in the world to try to truly understand other people, to experience what they experience."
We can't claim to know everyone; we can only strive to understand each other, to be with each other, to share experiences, and to encourage each other.
16-1. [The ability to understand what another person is going through].
- We all long for others to look us in the face with love and respect, to accept us as we are, and to have the experience of someone looking deeply into our hearts and making us feel that we are important.
But these experiences and fulfillment are not easy to come by.
In fact, it has been said that when we make someone feel that someone is looking deeply at them, not only does it make them feel valued, but it is also the ultimate gift to us, the giver of that gaze (because we have seen a reflection of ourselves in that person's eyes that makes them come alive again).
- Have you ever experienced the satisfaction of feeling that another person looks at you and understands you?
17. [What is God like? What is Jesus like?]
God is different from humans. God looks different from me and you.
Through the person of Jesus, we get to know God's character, heart, and power. Jesus knows what's in people's hearts. God sees to the center of people's hearts.
Jesus performs his first miracle in John 2. When the wedding party runs out of wine, Jesus takes water and makes wine, and he performs many other miracles.
17-1.Read John 2:23-25.
(John 2:23-25) [23] [23] While Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, many people saw the signs he was doing and believed in his name.[24] But Jesus knew everyone, so he did not entrust himself to them,[25] because he did not need anyone's testimony about anyone. He knew even what was in people's hearts.
- Jesus knew what was in the hearts of men. Jesus knows what is in my heart and yours.
17-2. Read 1 Samuel 16:7.
(1 Sam 16:7) But the LORD said to Samuel. "You must not look only at his compliant appearance and his great stature; he is not the man I have set up. I do not judge as man judges. For man judges according to the outward appearance, but I look at the heart."
- Man judges according to the outward appearance, but God sees the heart of a person.
17-3. Let's look at Luke 9:46-48.
(Luke 9:46-48) [46] A dispute arose among the disciples about who was the greatest among them. [47] Jesus, knowing the thoughts in their hearts, took a child, set him beside him, [48] and said to them, "Whoever takes this child in my name will be the greatest among them. "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him, and whoever receives him receives the one who sent me. Whoever is least among you is the greatest."
- Jesus knew his disciples' hearts and spoke the words of truth they needed.
18. Let's look at Acts 15:8.
Now, since God knows the inward parts of men's hearts, what will he give them?
(Acts 15:8) And God, who knows the hearts of men, gave them the Holy Spirit, just as he has given us, to recognize them.
- God, who knows the hearts of men, gives us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, Himself.
18-1 [The One Who Knows the Believer Exactly]
Jesus is the one who knows me and you exactly. He is the one who knows what is in my heart and in yours. And it is Jesus who knows and can give me and you what you need most and what is important to you.And it is Jesus who has an amazing plan and love for believers.
That's why He gives His disciples the Holy Spirit.
18-2 [Only Jesus can change a believer].
Jesus is the one who puts his word into us. Jesus is the one who gives the Holy Spirit to believers.
He puts God's amazing love into us so that we can live a new life in that love.
-The believer is rooted and grounded in God's love, nourished by spiritual food from God's Word, and comes to know the heart of God the Father through the Holy Spirit. (Growing in love, Word, and Spirit.)
(Eph. 3:17-19) [17] May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith. May you be rooted and grounded in love,[18] so that you, together with all the saints, may be able to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love,[19] and to know what is the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
(Romans 5:8) But while we were still sinners, Christ died for us; in this way God demonstrates His own love for us.
Therefore, my friends, expect God's transformative love to be manifested in your lives.
18-3. [Through Community]
The believer also grows up through the community of the church, the body of Christ, into him who is the head, Jesus Christ.
(Eph. 4:15-16) [15] We are to speak and live the truth in love, growing up in every way into him, until we reach him as the head.[16] The whole body belongs to Christ, who is the head, and is joined and knit together by every part of it. As each member does its part, the body grows and builds itself up in love.
Blessings to you as love grows and truth grows through the church community of the Watchfront, through your house church, the Ranch.
19. [Let me see, let me know]
God, let me see myself, let me know myself.
Let me see my neighbor, and let me know my neighbor.
Let me see God, let me know God