Make a Lasting Impact
TALK IT OVER
When you look at Mother Teresa's life she gave her ALL to loving, caring and mothering the poorest of poor on the streets of India. She never had natural children of her own, but she revealed the Father & Mother heart of God to so many. Mother Theresa developed a life of Lasting ImpACT.. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, God developed a life of lasting impact in and through Mother Teresa for the benefit of many due to her willingness to ACT on His direction.
Discussion Questions
What does the above quote mean to you?
Can you recall someone in your life who had a profound impact upon you. Who was it? What did they do?
What does it mean to abide?
Ps Kev challenged us through his message to abide in Christ. How do you think choosing to abide in Him brings lasting impact to your life?
What are some things that you do in your own life to ensure that you are staying connected to the vine as outlined in John 15:1-17?
How do we help the next generation develop a support network to see them through all the different seasons of this life?
Ps Kev suggested that we must teach them to build Fruit That Will Last by:
Abiding in Christ / Remaining in Him
Cultivating an Intimate Relationship With God
Cooperate with The Father's Pruning
Which one of these areas comes naturally to you? and which one do you need to work hard to do?
Message
We can't all do great things, but we can all do small things with great love. And I thought, wow, what amazing statement. We can't all do great things, but we can all do small things with great love. And as you look at Mother Teresa's life, it was so spectacular. She poured out her all for the poorest of poor on the streets of Calcutta.
She never had natural children of her home, but she developed a mothering heart and a fathering side at times because you get on the wrong side of this little lady. She can be quite feisty. You know, like when she'd get up into people's politicians' faces about stuff. But the thing was, she was being driven by the mother and father, heart of God.
Now people go, oh, that's a bit weird, isn't it? Well, no, go back to the beginning. God creates the male and female, puts a man and a woman together. Out of that comes offspring, comes a child. That's the best reflection of the Godhead that you can see within this earth. So there's the mothering side and there is the fathering side.
So Mother Teresa, she developed a life of lasting impact. Lasting impact. Now, the question is, did she develop a life of lasting impact or did God develop something of lasting impact in and through her for the benefit of others, just simply because she was willing to act on what he asked her to do. I bet you, I bet you could remember like me growing up and you've had kids in school with you and you, and you look at those kids and you go, these are the most talented people in the world.
These guys are gonna grow up and they're gonna do the most amazing things. They're gonna be so much impact from these lives. And then you look back now and you go, wow, they were a big letdown. They got distracted. They made poor choices. Things just got in the way. And they didn't make a lasting impact. I remember quite a few of my friends that I, I sometimes go look at my old, um, school photos just to see if I've got any better looking.
It's not working,
but, but I go back and I look at them and I look at some of the guys that were around. They were so impressive guys and girls. And now I've kept in contact with someone. Some of them are complete disasters. And what was the difference? There was just they made poor choices. They were connected to the wrong, the wrong thing.
So the question is, and mothers understand this, how do you create lasting impact in your kids? How do you do that in kids even? How do you get them to do that? Well, moms know you gotta teach them how to act. So they react well to all circumstances of life. So we're not the first people to struggle with this.
So I'm gonna look at a portion of scripture outta the book of John. Now if you haven't, uh, don't have much knowledge about the Bible, you know, like what is John? Well, John was one of the disciples, one of the, one of the big three, Peter, James, and John. I'm sure the other disciples were really overjoyed about that cuz it was always Peter, James and John.
But he was one of the big three and they all wrote. And they wrote these letters to the churches to try and help people understand this relationship with Jesus and what actually transpired. So when you think about these, think about this. Don't think about it as a book. It's not a book. It's more of a library of ancient documents and John wrote one of 'em, so we're gonna have a look at it.
So when you look at it, understand that, cuz some people go, this is a weird book man. It's all over the place. Yes, cuz it's, it's a library of ancient documents that were put together. They're written over a 1500 year period by 40 different authors, several different continents, and it's imperfect unity and harmony with itself.
Just to give you an idea,
I work with a number of other ladies in that office over there. We're all alive at the same time. We're less than six meters apart and we can't get on the same page. So there's something supernatural about the way this has been put together. Ancient Israel understood this. The, what I'm gonna share outta this out of, um, the Book of John, they understood this because all through their writings, They would use things like fruit and grapes and things like that to denote Israel's faithfulness to God as they were outworking what God wanted to do for them in and through them.
So some things I want you to know about this before we start it there is the vine. The vine is Christ, the branches of those who are tapped into the vine and the father is the gardener. So let's have a look and just walk through. This portion of scripture starts with. I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener.
So first thing you gotta understand, if Jesus says there's a true vine, that means there's what? There's a fake one. That's right. If you tap into this world or anything to do with the systems or structures of this world, you will end up in destruction because it is bound to decay. It teaches us it is growing old, it is wearing out.
It is dying. So you gotta make sure you tap into the true vine, which is in Christ. And then you've got the father. He's the gardener in there. This is, this is where he gets interesting. Now watch this. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. Pause. The branch that gets cut off the bears, no fruit.
Where is it currently?
It's in him. So he says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, Ooh, this is, this is not nice. He cuts off every branch that doesn't bear fruit while he prunes back the other branches, so they become more fruitful. So the reality is either way, you're getting cut. If you don't have fruit, you get cut off.
If you do have some fruit, you get cut back. You get cut back. Sometimes we think about fruitfulness and we think about that and in relation to, we need to add something. It's not adding, sometimes being fruitful in your life, and moms understand this. You gotta prune some things back. It means to subtract some things.
Now I'm told that if a tree has a bad branch on it, that's exactly what will happen. If the branch is diseased or something like that, they will trim it back right to the vinyl of the trunk so that it doesn't infect. The vine. So he goes on from here and then he says, you are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
So he's now shifting away from the agriculture example that he's doing. He's talking about them. He says, you're clean because I've got some wipe some on my word in you. It's there. You got it. You're, you are in your part. But hey listen, just cuz you're in there, you better bear fruit because if you don't Mm.
Snip snip. And he goes on. 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'll bear much fruit apart from me. You can do nothing.
Why would he make a statement on that?
Apart from me, you can do nothing because he knows. The only other vine you've got to tap into is the vine of this world, and it will lead to destruction. It is dying. It is decaying. It is falling away. It is going. So you've gotta tap into the vine that actually gives fruit and you've gotta remain in it.
He says, if you remain you, if you don't remain, you're like a branch that's gonna be cast off and thrown away and thrown into the fire. You know, anytime you see things being thrown into fire, it's not a good thing. This is not a good thing. But he says, if you remain in me, my words remain in you. There's the words again.
Now his words gotta remain in us. Then you'll ask whatever you wish. So some things about this portion of scriptures is you've gotta learn to abide it in Christ. That's what, that's what Robin was talking about when she said we had no idea how to raise our kids and we fell to our knees and said, God, you have got to help us.
So she's learning to abide. And abide is not, it's not a, people think of abiding as like, like I'll just be a monk and sit under a tree and do nothing. It's not like that at all. There's a stillness component of being connected into the vine, but there's also an active component of allowing the life force of the vine to move in and through you to bear fruit.
That's where answers to prayer have come from.
That's what leads to a productive life. He goes on and says this, this is to my father's glory, that you bear much fruit. So it brings glory to the father if you bear lots of fruit and you also show that you're my disciples. So that's what people recognize.
It is the fruit that comes out of you and I that people recognize and either go, you are a disciple of Jesus, or you feel more like a disciple of this world. You've got some ulterior motives. And then he goes on and switches gear again, starts off with agriculture, and now he's really getting down and he says, as the fathers love me, so I've loved you, now remain in my love.
So how am I gonna remain in his love?
Tapped into the vine. He goes on and says, if you keep my commandments, if you keep my commandments, you remain in my love. He's talking about the teachings. If you keep my teaching, the teaching that I gave you, I'm instructing you. If you keep that, you'll remain in me just as I've kept the father's commands.
It's amazing, and then he goes on and says this, my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete. What on earth does that mean? He's saying you gotta stay connected to that vine if you stay connected to, to the vine by the teachings of Jesus, which is why we use the number one thing we use as a soap journal plan, we call it.
It's to help you read the scriptures so you can apply them. It's part of how you stay connected. Enter Divine. That's the way the connection takes place. Then he says something really weird that has been distorted and taken outta context since forever. He goes on and says, greater love has no one than this, that they lay down one's life for their friends.
Now, whenever we think of that, Hollywood's taken that and we really know what that means. Greater love lay down your life for your friends. This is the guy that if in a battle, leaps on the grenade and blows himself up, this is the one that's in part of the president's detail. And someone yells out gun and this guy throws himself in front of the president, takes the bullet.
That's what it does. It's sort of evokes in us, but no, no, no. He's saying, great. Greater love is known than this. They lay down their life. What he's saying is, you know who that is? That's the person that submits to the pruning. So that the life force of God can come through them to become a blessing to others.
It's got nothing to do with all that other heroic stuff that we see in Hollywood. He's saying the greatest thing is this greater love is for you to sacrifice yourself, which is to let go of some of those things that are hindering the process of you growing. Then he goes on, talks about, you are my friends.
And then lets them know it's all about relationship. And then he goes on and says, you didn't choose me but I chose you. I pointed you to go bear fruit. Fruit that will remain. This is amazing, this teaching of Jesus to these people. And they really, really resonated because they grew up in a agricultural, that was their setting.
They knew. They knew all about it. Now, I don't know about you, but fruit that will last, I get up every morning in our house. And the fruit's not good. Through the night one rebels and these little flies start flying around and Anita has all these weird things that'll get rid of him, but none of it works.
None of it works. It's a load of rubbish.
You, you just gotta throw the fruit out, you know, like, so what? What's he talking about? Fruit that will last, huh? Well, fruit that has a lasting impact. Fruit that will last comes from when you abide in him. When you abide in him and he in you and that life force is flown through you, you have to, our energy goes into cultivating that relationship with Christ through se Devo, soap, devotions in a small group with a village in these kind of environments where you stay tapped into the vine.
A life that will last un lasting impact. It cooperates with the father's pruning when God comes and points his finger and says, Hey, you know what? I don't think you should do that anymore. And he go, I think you are wrong. No. And he say, no. No. Are you willing to let that go? No, I'm not gonna let that go.
Okay. So you are, you're not willing to lay down your life for your friends. That's awkward, isn't it? Had to put that part in there, didn't you? That's why our family values out there. Robin alluded to them. They're not words on a wall. They're, they're actually things that we live by, we hold each other accountable to.
They become the video ref to let us know when we are drifting off. Course mothers understand this. Anyone had a, my mom had this thing called the chair. And if you happen to sit on the chair, it was, it was terrible, terrible thing. Like we would walk around the kitchen bar and go, everyone would go, don't sit on the chair.
Whatever you do, don't sit on the chair. And as soon as you sat on the chair, something happened. It was like this, like force field came out of her eyes and then she started told you everything bad about yourself, which you already knew. And then you got a lecture and if you sat on that chair, you could be there for hours.
Hello Mom. You're doing well. She knows about, we laugh about it all the time. Everyone just said, just don't sit on the chair. But then we couldn't help ourselves and we sit on the chair. I don't know what's the matter with it. It's why, because we know they're things. There's things in us that we need to address, and we know that somehow this mother thing knows what's going on and what we should do, and God uses her to help us saying, yeah, you probably should change that.
And then the real fruit starts to flow. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, journalist, faithfulness, self-control. Wow. All this kind of stuff starts to move. It becomes an eternal thing. Those things are eternal, that fruit. And that is what's trying to come through us. And when it does, you then become like this big bunch of grapes that nourishes and blesses people and people can come and see you and go, man, I'm feeling really bad.
You know what? I gotta go and see Shane. Cuz if he can just get to Shane, man, he is just got something just exuding outta me so happy. He's so encouraging. He's always smiling. He does some weird things, but it's still fun, you know? Why? Because there's fruit. There is the fruit there, and they realize that hey, he's doing his best to love God by loving people and people are drawn to it.
See, the thing is that we don't produce the fruit. I've seen so many people, you forget, you're, you're a branch and you're run around trying to make the fruit. In this world, that's not your job. You're gonna say attached to the vine, the fruit. Is the father's fruit coming through you. That's why he's the one that's doing the gardening.
He's the one that's doing all the trimming so you can relax, stay still in this world. Don't get swayed by everything that's going on and allow the fruit of the father to come through and you wait and see what happens around you. People just like being around you. They just love being around you, and they don't even know why we got this guy that comes here.
His name's Jeremy. He just, every day he comes in, he comes in here and he hasn't made his decision to follow Christ, but he preaches better than most preachers. I know. He's like this revelation. He comes, I've got this revelation. You know, I think that this is happening, and I think that could be God. I said, yeah, when you wanna do something about that, I'm not sure yet.
But he's still working it out
and he's working it out. He's on his journey, but it's amazing. But he, he, he walks out and he comes up to Ruth and he goes, you know what? This place is amazing. He said, I don't even think you could duplicate this anywhere else. He said it's a combination of the food and the decor and whatever's going on in you, and that's, it's just amazing.
He said it's like getting a big warm hug every time we come in. And they, and he's, he's now telling that to the baby sensory ladies, and they're passing it on to those guys as well. And they're going, yeah, we do feel like that. What is that? What is that? It's not something we can prefabricate, cuz I've had pastors come in and look and say, oh, oh, we're just gonna build this and do that.
I said, you can do that. But I said, unless you change the hearts of the people to love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then love their neighbors, it's not going anywhere. You gotta be comfortable again. And that's the journey that we've been on. Being comfortable, being able to sit, wait for this with the tax collectors and sins, that's where Jesus was.
And we gotta be comfortable to do that. So we gotta, we gotta learn to abide. Now the question is, what are you gonna do about what I've just shared? You can do nothing. Do a little bit, do some, I don't know what, what are you gonna do? But the thing to know is this. Knowing about it is not gonna change anything.
You could go home and be so inspired. I'm so inspired for that. I'm gonna go and sing a song and we'll sing about it. I'm gonna get all my friends on the coast and we're gonna go have a big prayer meeting and we're gonna pray about it. And it's not gonna do squat. What? You have to obey it. You have to.
Nike got it right. Just do it. Just do it. You should do it. People look at this and they go, oh, I need to go and I'm gonna go and debate these scriptures with people, and then we're gonna have a long talk about it, and then we'll have a massive prayer meeting, sing a few songs for maybe several hours, and then we'll go home and, uh, I don't know, get drunk.
I don't know what they're gonna do. This is not, it's not there. Most of this is not in there for you to think about or talk about, or. Philosophies or debate about, it's there for you to apply. Jesus didn't write these things down. Say, oh, Jess, I hope they'll really talk about that a lot. No, he's, he's hoping you'll apply it because if you apply it, that's where the change comes.
So you are gonna have to apply, you're gonna have to act. If you want lasting impact, you've gotta act. And the act is staying connected into the vine. Surrendering to the father's work in your heart and remembering. It's always good to remember that refusal to cooperate. Refusal to cooperate results in removal.
That's what he said. And there are quite a number of things that he's talked about like that, and it's about mission. That's what it's about. God's left you here not because you're good looking. But because there are people around here that don't have a clue who God is and, and so I'm sorry. A lot of times we haven't represented him well as Christ's followers.
And so people are confused and they're just hanging out. They're trying to find somewhere like a spiritual home and where it's authentic, whether it's real, and they can experience this God and his love for them. And it's like, oh, is that all there is? Yes. And all you're gotta do is stay abiding in that vine.
Like for moms and dads, you know, mothering and fathering is an awesome job. What a responsibility to get to love your kids and help them and steward them before God. Oh, wow. That is just amazing. But here's the deal. Let me, let me let you off the hook. It's not your job to make them famous. It's not your job to make 'em a superstar in this world in any way, shape, or form.
Now that's gonna save you a lot of money right there, if you remember to catch it. It's not your job to do that. This world is passing away. It is dying. It is eventual. There's nothing in there. It's all going. It's all a tear down. Your job is to make sure. That you model for your K kids being tapped into the vine, living out of the life and the love of Christ.
So they experience security and they experience life and they experience this active relationship of what a relationship with God should look like. It shouldn't be weird. And it shouldn't be just on Sunday when we come together and sing some songs and pray. No, no. It should be how you live all the time and the life and the fruit of Christ should just be flowing out through always, man, I long for this day because you know.
There are so many people I bump into that just have no idea. They have no idea. And they've, and they come and they just pour at their hearts. And this happened and that, ha I find myself apologizing to people nearly every week for the way people who profess to say they love God have behaved. And I go, I'm really sorry.
That's not really what our Heavenly Fathers like at all. And then I have to help them go through the process and, and, and come to a place of healing because we've. We've kind of just, we've adopted too many things of the world and too many things of the law and too many corporate things, and we've just hurt people.
When all Jesus said, go and love them, just go love them. Ask them this story, what's going on? Then share your story. And then there are times, share Jesus story with him. It's like it's not hard, and I long for the time when that is the life force of the kingdom flowing in and out through of us always. So no matter what happens, And it does happen right now.
I can tell you, I get calls from, I get calls from employers from some of you to say, what on earth? Why are your people so different to everybody else I have there? Why do I ask them to stay back for an extra two hours and they don't hit me up for even money? They go, no, it's fine. I'll just do that. What is that?
Well, they display their love for God by loving you. And that's how it is. And it, it's happening more and more. And I, I, I'm accelerated because I think then the family would, once again, if we can get this tap back here, the family becomes the nurturing place again. And then we don't have so much domestic violence issues.
We don't have youth running around the streets. We don't have all of this criminal behavior going on. Why? Because the home is the place it should be, where the life of the father is flowing down. Ian and through us, and this fruit is there and it's so attractive to people. The religious people hated Jesus.
The normal people loved him. Why?
Because he had this fruit about him. That was eternal, lasting impact. You moms are doing a great job and those, those of you that are mothering, As well. Some of you guys are looking down. We, we do multi-generational around here. So we say you look after the next generation. Look, after the next generation. Some of the, some of our teenagers are mothering these little ones.
It's amazing. It's amazing. Where's it coming from? And it's so instinctive in them. It's coming from their relationship with Christ. That's where it comes from and that's what we need to remember. Because sometimes when we think we gotta take responsibility in our life, we think we gotta make it happen.
And when you start trying to make your life happen, it usually goes south. It goes into all sorts of weird places. But when you stay tapped into him and you just let his life flow through you, they see it and they come and they feed and they go, wow, this is amazing. Maybe. Maybe like Jeremy, maybe there is a God out there and they get to discover God for themselves.
Let's pray together. Father, I just thank you for all the mothering and fathering figures within our community and, and the reason that they're so effective is not because of our personalities or because of our giftedness, but it's it's because we stay connected to the fine vine of Christ. We don't ever want to stray away from the basics, Lord, of loving you with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and allowing you to speak into us into areas where we need to be pruned back.
Because it's the things that need to be prune, banked, that we don't let go of that stop the life force of the kingdom from bearing fruit in our lives. Lord, I pray for our young ones that they would recognize that there is a false vine out there that they can take into and it will deliver death and a of a pain and heartache.
But give them the courage to resist, resist the evil one and the plans, and then just decide that their life will have a lasting impact. Father, let love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control be evident in all of our families. Lord, time is way too short. It's way too short for us to not be loving the way that you have loved us, and I'm so grateful to you, Jesus, that you took 613 commands and brought 'em down into one thing.
Love one another as I have loved you.
So would you teach us how to do that, Lord, in Jesus' name, we're gonna stand and sing in a moment, but let's go back to Mother Teresa. We can't all do great things, but we can all do small things with great love friends. That's the fruit that remains. That's the fruit that people love.
That's the fruit. Fruit that people are dying to consume. They're trying to find a place where they'll be loved, cared, and accepted for who they are, and then loved back to health. But for us to do that, we've gotta make a commitment. And I do this most days when I get up, cuz I know that my life's not perfect.
And I have to say, Lord, if there's anything else in me that's not right, if there's anything that's hindering you being seen and your fruit being seen, then it's time to let it go. So I'm gonna invite you to stand with me and as the team just leads us, uh, in song, uh, I would say to you, what do you need to allow God to prune out of your life so that you can be more effective for the kingdom?
And just allow him to begin that process today in Jesus' name.