Abide in Every Moment

Abide in Every Moment |

Me: Importance of Vision and bringing greater clarity

As we journey into the new year, this is when traditionally we have as a community unpack what the elders of Mosaic believe God is calling us into together.

Because the reality is while we would all love to be incredible at everything, and grow in every single area, we know that is not realistic or the way the world works.

For example, New Years resolutions… there are two ways to ensure that you don’t complete a New Years resolution. #1 Don’t set any. #2 Set all of them.

We as humans need a compelling vision, something to desire and long for.

This is why in Proverbs the author wrote, “Where there is no vision the people perish.”

But I would argue that on the other hand where there is too much vision the people just get confused.

So traditionally this is when we begin to unpack a new vision, but if you have been around Mosaic for any length of time we can sometimes get Vision ADD, where we are like Every Moment, Gospel Presence and Gospel Voice, Prayer and Evangelism, Love One Another, Make Jesus Beautiful, Redeeming Unredeemed Spaces. And that can honestly be a little confusing.

So as we have been praying through God what is your vision for Mosaic for 2020, we began to look at what Jesus vision was for His followers.

You: What is Jesus’ vision for His people? Love God, Love People, Make Disciples, Being a Gospel Voice, Love One another, enter into spaces of redeeming the darkness…

He had a lot to say, and all of it is incredible.

We can try to do any or all of those things and end up burnt out… so if we were to distill the vision of Jesus, His Kingdom ideal to the roots of this power what is that vision?

What we discovered is not a vision for 2020, it’s not a vision for just Mosaic, it is Jesus great desire for all of us who follow Him.

Main Idea: Abide in Every Moment

God: The night of Jesus arrest, He was giving final instructions to His disciples because He knew His time was short. He explained who He was, the Messiah who came to unlock the way back into relationship with God, the One who came to bring life light and freedom. And then in , Jesus begins to explain the importance of His followers being desperate for Him.

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Jesus obviously cares about abiding. Over 11 times in this passage, He uses this word. To Abide is To remain, continue, stay. To have one’s abode, dwell, reside. He uses the imagery of a branch staying connected to a vine.

That the Father is the farmer, who tends to the branches. He calls Himself the vine, the source of nutrients and vitality. He calls His followers the branches.

Branches cannot grow fruit when they are not connected to the vine. I googled it to verify. You don’t see branches on the ground just spontaneously sprouting fruit.

But it is in the connection of the branch to the vine that it receives life and nutrients. It is in the process of abiding.

For those of us who follow Jesus, we are called to remain in Him. To continue with Him. To stay near Him. To live life with Him.

So the vision really is that simple, that we would grow as a community to Abide, but when?

Like we go to Church on Sundays? Like we come to events? Like we read our Bibles or listen to worship music in our car sometimes?

What we see from Jesus is a continually unceasing connection that goes beyond living our lives our way 90% of the time but then doing some Jesus stuff when its convenient or helpful. Jesus desires His followers to remain connected to Him.

In our cultural context, to be a follower of someone requires very little commitment, it is as simple as a tap on Insta or Facebook or Tiktok. If someone posts something that we disagree with or are frustrated by all we have to do is press another button.

But in Jesus cultural context, to be a follower meant a radical life changing commitment, it was the commitment of an apprentice or disciple to the master of a trade. In Jesus specific line of work as a Rabbi, it meant inviting a wholehearted commitment.

Following a Rabbi meant following the way he lived, believing the truth he proclaimed, and living His life.

So when we talk about following the way of our Rabbi, Jesus it means abiding in every moment. Following the way He lived, believing the truth He proclaimed, and living a life that looks more and more like His.

Following in Way of Jesus

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When we read passages like this it can appear like our focus should be on following the rules. But this is actually all about abiding in the way of a God who desires good for us.

There are two ways to do life, the way of God’s divine ideal, which is the way we were crafted to exist within… it is a way filled with love, potential, trust, and hope. Or the way of the world, which humanity chose when in Genesis Adam and Eve chose to pursue a way where they got to define good and evil on their terms, which we have all experienced… it is an infected way, polluted by competing interests and mistrust.

But Jesus came to restore us back to His divine ideal. That way of love. The way of life, light, and freedom.

It is meant to restore us to Abide in Every Moment of our lives.

Abiding in Intimacy with God

We see this demonstrated with Jesus as He was willing to forsake time with everyone else to pursue intimacy with His Father. If Jesus needed to Abide in Him, then shouldn’t we?

We abide in intimacy with God as we engage in spiritual disciplines like Sabbath rest, prayer, fasting, celebrating, expressing gratitude, silence and solitude to name a few.

Abiding in Biblical Community

Jesus also engaged in Biblical Community. He surrounded Himself with not only His disciples, but with others who desires to pursue this restored way. They desired to draw near to God and point one another to their Rabbi.

We cannot live out the Way of Jesus without Biblical Community, Jesus never left us another option. Instead, He explained that the world would know that we are following in His way if we love one another. He was well aware that Christians can sometimes be the worst, but they are the worst because they are us. Human beings who naturally desire to revert back to our own way.

But as we Abide in Jesus within Biblical Community we experience more of His love and grace than we could ever imagine on our own.

Abiding in Missional Living

Jesus came to flip the way of the world upside down, He healed the sick, He fought for true justice, He loved the discarded, and He invited all who would come to Him to follow in His way.

He lived out this epic mission to love God, love people, and serve the world. As we abide in Him in Missional Living, we will enter into spaces of darkness, spaces that seem too far gone. Lost causes. Break rooms that are filled with such negativity and you have no clue how to be redemptive. Nations where sex trafficking is the norm and the traffickers have the politicians and courts bought off. With family that is so frustrating and misunderstands everything you say and they make bad decision after bad decision and you cannot imagine them ever responding to the Gospel.

The good news is in all these spaces we become more and more aware of how powerless we are on our own. And that’s the point. We CANNOT bear fruit on our own! We are just branches. Jesus is the vine, our call is simply to Abide in Every Moment.

To follow in His Way.

Believing the Truth of Jesus

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In our cultural moment, truth is often seen as personal and subjective. What is true for me may not be true for you.

But when we abide in Jesus. When we follow in the Way of our Rabbi, according to Jesus we must also Abide in the truths He proclaimed.

It is a little crazy right to say I believe the things that Jesus said that I naturally agree with but disregard the stuff that I just cannot accept.

Reality is we can all do that from time to time, but when you do that who are you saying is the Rabbi and the Master of your life, Jesus or yourself?

As we abide in His words, as we read, study, meditate and memorize Scripture we learn more about the character of God, we learn of the Father’s love for His adopted Kids, and we learn more about ourselves.

The Creator of the Cosmos desires for us to know Him, to know about Him, to draw near to Him, to Abide in Every Moment.

Abide in the Life of Jesus

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If we Abide in Every Moment. If our hope and desire is draw near to Jesus, and continually be connected to Him both by following His Way and also by believing His truth, something incredible happens we begin to bear the same kind of fruit that He bore!

We begin to live a life that is led by the Spirit of God, because we live in constant awareness of our desperate need for Him. We, as Paul wrote, sow to the Spirit. We are investing in Eternal Fruit that never expires, never molds but is always in season and is sweet and fragrent. This is the life of Jesus.

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A life that is filled with the Fruit of the Spirit. But our goal will have changed. We aren’t focused on being more peaceful or patient or kind or self-controlled. Our focus is on Abiding in Jesus.

But the most incredible thing happens as we continually day by day draw near to Jesus, we become more like Him!

You remember when you had that group of friends when you were younger who were just bad influences on you? Like they got you to do things you wouldn’t have imagined? The way you acted, dressed, spoke, and even thought were all being changed by their influence? (That was me in High School, except I was the bad influencer)

Jesus is like the best version of that. As we spend time with Him and remain near to Him, we talk like Him, we act like Him, we feel like Him, and we think like Him.

This is what it means to Abide in Every Moment

Caution:

For some of us, you might do all the right religious stuff (pray, meditate, read spritiual books) but put all your hope in doing enough of the right stuff to earn something from God.

For some of us, you could know Scripture backwards and forwards, you have memorized the Bible and you are a walking theological textbook. But you put all your hope in knowing all the right stuff.

Or you could put all your hope in living a “moral life.” You would consider yourself a good person (you don’t usually cut people off on the road, and you try to be there for others when they are struggling) and you might even digest self-help resources, and you might even see some growth. But you put all your hope in your ability to do all the right stuff.

But what did Jesus say?

Apart from me, you can do NOTHING.

We cannot bear eternal fruit apart from Him. Our hope cannot be in what we do or what we know. Our only true and lasting hope is found in WHO we know.

That only in drawing near to our Rabbi Jesus can we find the hope all our hearts long for.

This was why our Creative team came up with this concept where you stand from a specific point and these individual frames all come together to make one image.

This is called the multiplane effect. But I better let someone else who knows a bit more do the explanation for me.

Multiplane Video

The beauty of the multiplane effect is that it creates a depth and completeness that none of the layers on its own can really make sense of.

Each of these frames alone makes the image incomplete and odd looking.

The real beauty comes as we overlap the layers of the Following in the Way, Believing the Truth, and ultimately living out the Life of Jesus.

You: That is our vision for 2020 and beyond. That we would be a community that would be sold out on one concept… to Abide in Every Moment.

That we would be radically focused on drawing near to Jesus. That decisions that would be made about Discipleship, Equipping Classes, Events, Serving Teams would all be rooted in Abiding in Jesus.

Now practically there are a few resources I would love to inform you about especially as this New Year begins that may be helpful in helping you Abide in Jesus.

1) Spiritual Disciplines for the Christians Life by Donald Whitney (Abiding in Intimacy with Him)

2) Read Scripture App by Bible Project (Believing in His Truth)

3) Christian Beliefs by Wayne & Elliot Grudem (Believing in His Truth)

Us: As we have been praying through and working to refine and bring clarity to this vision over the last few months, all I can think about is the impact Jesus would have at Walt Disney World if we were a community sold out to Abiding in Him. Not because we were the coolest community, not because we were more strategic, but because we had been transformed by His radical love. And that love would be a spark of hope that would set this world on fire.