Life Light Love Part 9

Spending time with Jesus/Focusing on Jesus

Doesn’t typically interest us - feels/sounds boring - but we don’t like that either

Have you ever wondered why you chase things more than Jesus?

Long hours at work/short hours prayer

Long hours at play/short hours at study

Plans don’t revolve around church or gathering activities

Because there are better things to do

Hangout with friends

Hang out with family

Do good things for your community

Volunteer

Spiritual formation doesn’t wait until after this life.

maybe you don’t think there is a after life - If i new what you knew and experienced what you have - I would probably agree with you...

The idea of abiding with Jesus sounds like something that we should put off until eternity/whatever. But John is adamant…ABIDE! So let’s find out what’s up with that...

Abiding - To remain.

Abiding

Abiding - to feel at home in me.

ILL - coming home after I moved out verses coming home after being married for 5 years

maybe you don’t think there is a after life - If i new what you knew and experienced what you have - I would probably agree with you...

So John wants us to abide, but to do so until it feels at home with us…and here is why...

Here is why this is so important for us

We wan

Formation follow focus

Be rich

Be rich

Be successful

Be known

Be stong

Be followed

Be praised

Be noticed

At the end of the day what we focus on is what we form into…you can see it in your life and you can definitely see it in your own life.

If we focus on Jesus - if we take time to make him at feel like a welcomed friend in our life - we will find that we will begin to form more and more into what He is like

Even if you are not a religious person chances are if you’ve read anything Jesus said or did you would rather more people were becoming more like Jesus than they were like money, fortune, fame, or power...

Because Jesus’ ethic challenges us more deeply than any religious dogma ever could.

And this isn’t something that is that difficult to do - it’s just like spending time with a friend - God gave us to incredibly practical ways to do this and they are exactly like what you do with other people every single day

Pray - Talk

Read - Listen

Prayer is just talking to God - not asking him for stuff - how good can a relationship really be if you only ever ask the other person for money, power, fame, fortune?

Reading is about us checking off our scheduled reading…it’s about listening to someone tell you about them and how they want to relate with you…how good can a relationship be if you never listen to what they other person has to say - how well can you know them?

And the reason we do this is what John addresses next for us in the passage as a benefit in feeling at home with Jesus in our lives…there is a promise given to those who abide/remain/become at home with Jesus…they find eternal life - because Jesus is life...

Now you might push back at that, but this is John’s conclusion after he saw him resurrected three days after he saw him die a horrible, brutal, not to be returned from crucifixion...

At any rate this statement pokes at something deep in all of us when it comes to why we run after things in lieu of Jesus…this pokes us right in the eye of why we think this abiding stuff can wait and probably should wait until we are done with this life...

We think that eternal life is the goal…

I mean isn’t that what everybody makes a big deal about? Isn’t that the whole sales pitch of religious people…get God so you don’t get hell…get God so you can live forever...

in fact, that might be the reason you stepped into church for the last time…because it was Jesus or else…the interesting thing is that is never the appeal of Jesus...

Jesus’ appeal wasn’t a get our of hell free card…it wasn’t believe so you can avoid hell…it wasn’t believe and all your wildest dreams will come true - that was Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite - you just thought it was God.

Jesus’ appeal for believing in him was Him. He is the prize He is the goal - He is the reward - and He is available now - His life is available now!

Eternal life is not the goal it is the promise.

If eternal life is the goal we will do everything we can to earn it, but if relationship is the goal then we will do everything we can to enjoy it.

And that is what I think John had in mind…I think that is what Jesus had in mind.

John 10:10 ESV

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.