Episode 1645: The Story Abides

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Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,645 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

John Finkelde: Hi, I am John Finkelde. I wanna challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to get your heart and mind set on God is key and one way to to be inspired to do that is to listen to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.

Scott Maderer: To claim deeper truths and new applications and to stretch us beyond what we even believe we can do because it's not us doing it. It's God through us. Yes, but it's not us doing it. It is allowing us to live the story, not just tell the story of the loving Christ.

Welcome and

[00:01:00] thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself. Invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about John Chapter 14, verses 15 through 31. I talk about how the farewell discourse is a powerful message on how we are called to be disciples, and I also share how the spirit pushes us forward. John chapter 14, verses 15 through 31 says. If you love me, keep my commands and I will ask the Father and he will give you another [00:02:00] advocate to help you and be with you forever.

The spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you before long. The world will not see me anymore, but you will see me because I live. You also will live.

On that day, you will realize that I am in my father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. Then Judas, not Judas, ISRA said, but Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?

Jesus replied, anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them and will. And we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my [00:03:00] own. They belong to the Father who sent me all this. I have spoken while still with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I've said to you.

Peace. I live, I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. You heard me say I'm going away and I'm coming back to you. If you loved me, you would be glad that I'm going to The Father. For the father is greater than I.

I have told you now before it happens. So that when it does happen, you will believe, I will not say much more to you for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the father and do exactly what my father has commanded me. This portion of John is what's called the farewell discourse.

And we treat these words often as followers of [00:04:00] Jesus, as as instructional words. And they are, they're sort of like a professor attempting to prepare the students for the upcoming final exam. And Jesus seems to want to make sure that his followers have everything they need for what comes next. And I don't know about you, but I'm, I'm grateful for that.

These words have been lived through for centuries since they were first spoken and written. Through that we try to learn how to be the church, how to be disciples, how to see all the people, and invite them into a deeper relationship with the Christ, which we've come to know these words in a mirror to the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew.

Give us a picture of what the church should be at. Its best. It's a vision, a target, a picture to live into. And it seems simple when you first read it, but if you really look [00:05:00] at it, it's much, much more difficult to live into. It's, it's simple, but it's not easy. It takes a lifetime to move in this direction.

But there's also something going on here beyond just instruction. There's something more intimate, a a binding, a gathering up where Jesus is sharing his heart and his future with those that are closest to him. Those that have been following him, and he's offering them a, a legacy, a, a continuation, a thing to glass beyond him through the disciples.

It's a message to what we need to do as disciples. It's a continuation of his mission in us, and let's face it, the disciples back then and us now are an imperfect lot, but this is still [00:06:00] the group that he's leaning into. This seems to be the plan. This is the next step on this transformational journey. He talks about abiding, but he also talks about how on that day you will know that I am in my father and you, in me, and I and you.

There's a story here. They're part of that story, an important part. They live out the story. They're witnesses, but they're also living hope. That there's something beyond our vision. There's something there for faith. That's the gift that's being offered. That's the promise, and the spirit is a promise of presence.

His presence through the spirit. The spirit is something that we can hold onto that's well beyond our grasp. It's how we can make sense out of the [00:07:00] story and the experience and the relationship. With this one, we call Lord. The Spirit gives us utterance. The spirit abides with us and becomes part of us, and we become part of the story.

We become the hands and feet of the gospel, the, the living out of the gospel and the spirit. Is often confusing. It's often something that we don't fully understand. But what Jesus is saying here is there is something we can count on and know when it comes to the spirit. We have access to our awareness of the Spirit, but it comes as a function of faith.

It comes as a, a relationship with Christ. The world cannot receive it, but in relationship with Christ, we can and it's not because the world isn't [00:08:00] worthy, it's not because they're outsiders. It's simply because they don't yet have that relationship and that command, and they aren't living out the love that opens the door to the spirit.

It's certainly possible to have an experience of God without a relationship with Jesus. But to be known by the spirit takes something different, something deeper. It says, I am giving myself over to this, and Jesus says, I won't leave you alone. There's a connection through me and through the spirit, and to the Father that is there, and the Spirit is there with you to teach you to remind you.

We sometimes call the Holy Spirit, the advocate, or the helper, or the comforter, or the counselor. This presence is there to connect us and give us a sense of who we are and who we're supposed to be. It's to remind us what [00:09:00] we actually already know on the inside. It's to remind us of all those teachings that we learned as children, but we forget or set aside and say, oh, these don't really apply to the adult life.

It's the spirit that comes and whispers in our ears and reminds us, you're better than that. You can make better choices than that. It's the spirit that comes when we're in the dark night of the soul and reminds us you are not alone, that you are loved and lovable, even when you feel at your most unlovable.

And we're pushed further by the spirit, we're pushed to go further and climb higher and reach new levels of understanding and experience. The Spirit works with our spirit to claim deeper truths and new applications and to stretch us beyond what we even believe we can [00:10:00] do because it's not us doing it.

It's God through us. Yes, but it's not us doing it. It's allowing us to live the story, not just tell the story of the loving Christ. Thanks for listening.

Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast.

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