Foundation of Our Faith

Faithbook or Facebook: Logging into God's Power

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Lomacang (Host), Abraham Jules PhD

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Series Code: FDOF

Program Code: FDOF000016A


00:18 Hello, friends.
00:19 Welcome to the 3ABN Worship Center once again
00:21 for the final message in a series of messages
00:24 brought to us by Pastor Dr. Abraham Jules.
00:30 He has been blessing us for the last three meetings
00:34 and this being his final message
00:35 we are looking forward to the blessing of the Lord
00:37 to continue once again.
00:39 Welcome to Foundation of our Faith,
00:41 one of 3ABN flagship programs for the Dare to Dream network
00:45 under the direction of Dr Yvonne Lewis.
00:48 We appreciate all the work that she does for this network
00:51 and bringing to you messages that are from the word of God
00:55 through the servants of the Lord.
00:57 But if you are tuning in for the first time
00:59 to our Foundation of our Faith,
01:01 the speaker for this meeting
01:03 is going to be Dr. Abraham Julius Jules,
01:06 who is a native of the Caribbean Island of Trinidad.
01:09 If you are from Trinidad,
01:10 you have a reason to thank the Lord today
01:12 for he brought Pastor Jules a long way
01:15 from the streets of Trinidad to the halls of learning
01:19 into the place where now he can stand
01:22 and speak in behalf through the power of the Lord.
01:26 He's a fourth generation Seventh-Day Adventist,
01:29 one who knows the message.
01:30 But now he's not just one who intellectually knows it,
01:32 but he lives the message in his life.
01:35 He has a Masters degree,
01:37 Bachelor's degree and also a D.Min.
01:39 that he received
01:40 from the United Theological Seminary in 1995.
01:44 Now pastor Jules has been married now,
01:46 only for 12 years to Dr. Dominique Jules.
01:51 She is a doctor of dentistry
01:52 and they have two lovely children
01:55 and it's always a blessing to see
01:57 that behind the man stands a woman who's Godly,
02:00 and a family who also stands
02:02 on the same foundation to serve the Lord.
02:05 He's been in ministry for 32 years
02:07 and presently in the North Eastern Conference,
02:09 he's the pastor
02:10 of the Community Worship Center in Queens,
02:14 I know that his congregation is praying for their pastor
02:16 as he rightly divides the word of truth.
02:18 And he's been all over the world,
02:21 including Anchorage, Alaska.
02:23 How does Caribbean get to Anchorage, Alaska?
02:25 I think you fly and I thank the Lord,
02:27 he went there during the summer.
02:29 Thousands of souls have come to the Lord
02:31 through his preaching and his diligent Evangelistic work,
02:34 and we are blessed to have him here today.
02:37 If you were at the General Conference Session in 2010,
02:39 he was one of the featured speakers.
02:41 And as we're coming upon
02:43 the next series of General Conference,
02:44 we look forward to the Lord blessing once again.
02:47 But this international singer, speaker, pastor,
02:50 one that rightly divides the word of Truth,
02:53 is going to be presenting a message today entitled
02:55 Logging into God's power.
02:58 How do you log into the power of God?
03:01 Stay tuned as he brings that message to you today.
03:06 We will also have some wonderful music,
03:08 the song People Need The Lord.
03:10 In fact, it's not just a song title,
03:12 it's the truth of the day and the age in which we live,
03:15 and Mark Udo Williams
03:16 will bring that song in just a moment.
03:18 But before we go any further,
03:20 let's invite the Lord's presence to continue with us.
03:22 Let's pray together.
03:24 Gracious Father in Heaven, we thank You.
03:26 This opportunity is one that is not something
03:28 that can be fulfilled by a human vessel.
03:31 And so Lord, we invite Your Holy Spirit to come.
03:34 Come into the strength and power
03:37 that in days of old you imbued Elijah
03:40 and the prophets of old with the same Holy Spirit.
03:44 Come, Holy Spirit today
03:45 and flow through Pastor Abraham Jules
03:48 and take his words from the page
03:50 and cause it to be the living word.
03:54 And as we seek Lord to lock into,
03:56 to log into your power,
03:59 may it be that our desire is to be used of You
04:01 and not to use You.
04:03 And so speak to Your people that are here,
04:04 presently and may this message resonate around the world.
04:08 We ask in Christ's name and for his glory.
04:11 Amen.
04:13 And Mark is going to bless us.
04:14 After Mark Udo William blesses us
04:16 the next voice that you will hear
04:18 will be that of Dr. Abraham Jules.
04:42 Everyday they pass me by
04:49 I can see it in their eyes
04:55 Empty people filled with cares
05:01 Headed who knows where?
05:08 On they go through private pain
05:15 Living fear to fear
05:21 Laughter hides their silent cries
05:27 Only Jesus hears
05:35 People need the Lord
05:42 People need the Lord
05:48 At the end of broken dreams
05:54 He's the open door
06:02 People need the Lord
06:08 People need the Lord
06:15 When will we realize
06:21 People need the Lord
06:38 We are called to take His light
06:45 To a world where wrong seems right
06:51 What could be so great a cost for sharing life
06:59 With one who's lost
07:04 With His love our hearts can feel
07:10 All the grief they bear
07:17 We must take these Words of Life
07:23 Only we can share
07:31 People need the Lord
07:37 People need the Lord
07:43 At the end of broken dreams
07:50 He's the open door
07:57 People need the Lord
08:03 People need the Lord
08:10 When will we realize
08:16 That we must give our lives
08:22 For people
08:25 Need the Lord
08:37 For people
08:41 Need the Lord
09:17 The song never ceases to bless my heart.
09:22 People need the Lord
09:24 and what a great God we serve.
09:27 Wonderful Savior, marvelous God.
09:30 I wish to thank Mark again for being used by God.
09:35 What a marvelous gift He has given to him.
09:37 And as Mark continues to use this gift,
09:39 we pray that many would come to know
09:41 our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ
09:43 as theirs personal savior from Sin.
09:47 John, again, thank you for your
09:49 very kind words of introduction.
09:51 And to Yvonne Lewis,
09:53 we... I would be remissive if I did not express my thanks
09:57 and appreciation to her for the invitation
09:59 to be here with you for Foundations of our Faith
10:02 and I have been richly blessed being here.
10:05 My soul has been rewarded
10:07 and I praise God for the fellowship
10:09 and certainly for the worship experiences each day.
10:15 There's a word of us today.
10:17 It comes to us out of the Book of John, the 15th Chapter
10:22 and I'll read and you're hearing verses 1-8.
10:29 John 15, Verses 1-8.
10:39 It reads, "I am the true vine,
10:42 and my Father is the husbandman.
10:45 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit
10:48 He taketh away.
10:50 and every branch that beareth fruit,
10:53 He purgeth it,
10:55 that it may bring forth more fruit.
10:58 Now ye are clean through the word
11:00 which I have spoken unto you.
11:03 Abide in me, and I in you.
11:07 As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
11:11 except it abide in the vine, no more can ye,
11:15 except ye abide in me.
11:18 I am the vine, ye are the branches.
11:23 He that abideth in me, and I in him,
11:27 the same bringeth forth much fruit.
11:30 For without me ye can do nothing.
11:34 If a man abide not in me,
11:38 he is cast forth as a branch,
11:40 and is withered, and men gather them,
11:43 and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
11:48 If ye abide in me,
11:50 and my words abide in you,
11:54 ye shall ask what ye will,
11:56 and it shall be done unto you.
11:59 Herein is my Father glorified,
12:02 that ye bear much fruit,
12:05 so shall ye be my disciples."
12:10 Want to bring to you a message,
12:11 Faithbook or Facebook,
12:14 Logging into God's Power.
12:17 Let us pray.
12:19 Gracious God and our Father, we indeed
12:22 thank You for this blessed day You have given to us.
12:26 We thank You for Your holy word,
12:27 we thank You for the truths that are there in.
12:31 We thank You for having been with us
12:33 and blessed us through our lives.
12:35 But in this moment,
12:37 we pray again for Your presence and Your power,
12:41 as we open this word, we ask that You may teach us
12:45 and lead us in the paths of righteousness.
12:48 We pray God that You may remind us
12:50 that we are nothing without You.
12:54 We pray, oh, God,
12:55 for Your blessings to rest upon this preached word
12:58 as it goes forth, may hearts be changed and challenged
13:02 and may lives be rescued from the pit of sin.
13:06 We pray this prayer in the name of Jesus,
13:07 our Lord and our savior, amen, amen.
13:13 Facebook, the...
13:16 ubiquitous Facebook.com is an internet phenomenon
13:22 and it has over 1.35 billion users per month.
13:27 It is by far the most popular
13:30 social networking site in the world.
13:34 And the reason why it is so popular
13:38 is because it fulfills an essential human need,
13:43 the need for connectedness.
13:46 We were created,
13:48 my brothers and sisters, with an innate desire
13:51 to be connected to each other.
13:54 And we are connected through relationships,
13:56 the quality of which impacts,
13:59 really, the quality of our lives.
14:02 When God said to Adam,
14:04 "It is not good for Man to be alone,"
14:07 not only did He affirm Adam's need for companionship,
14:12 but He also described our social or horizontal dimension,
14:17 the dimension exploited by Mr. Zuckerberg
14:20 to the tune of an estimated 100 billion dollars.
14:26 So Facebook helps the world
14:28 to connect in the horizontal dimension.
14:34 Now Faithbook on the other hand,
14:36 helps the Christian to commit and connect
14:41 at the vertical dimension to Jesus Christ.
14:44 As important and as critical
14:47 as the horizontal dimension
14:49 is to our relationships with each other,
14:52 apart from the vertical dimension
14:54 offered only through accepting
14:57 Jesus' friend request on Faithbook,
15:00 we will ultimately be bereft
15:03 of that which forms the essence,
15:05 the substance and the meaning
15:08 of all worthwhile relationships.
15:11 St. Augustine, the great Ante Nicene African Bishop of Hippo,
15:16 said these often quoted and immortal words,
15:19 "Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord,
15:22 and our heart is restless until it finds rest in Thee."
15:29 And what he is telling us is that in every heart,
15:32 there is a God shaped hole that only God can fill.
15:38 Apart from that vertical dimension,
15:42 that commitment and connectedness to God,
15:46 we become the restless victims of dissatisfaction
15:52 because we were created by Him and for Him.
15:56 Ellen White said that the desire
15:59 has been placed in the heart by God,
16:01 so that it might lead to God.
16:06 There is at least, ladies and gentlemen,
16:08 five levels of life that helped to illustrate this point.
16:13 The lowest level is minerals in the ground,
16:16 and one level above minerals is plants,
16:21 and one level above the plants we find animals.
16:24 And one level above the animals are the humans.
16:29 And the highest of all levels is God.
16:33 These are the five levels of life.
16:36 Now let us imagine if the minerals were animated
16:38 and they were talking to each other
16:40 and they were saying,
16:41 "There is no level higher than us.
16:45 Aren't you glad you are minerals?
16:47 You can't get any higher than being a mineral."
16:50 But then all of a sudden,
16:52 somebody plants some flowers in the minerals
16:55 and those roots are lodged in the minerals in the ground.
16:58 And the minerals begin to talk to each other and they say,
17:01 "What's going on here?"
17:03 And the plants reply,
17:05 "I know you have never seen us before,
17:08 but we are plants and we are higher than you.
17:11 And you thought you were high,
17:13 but you minerals can go up a little bit higher
17:16 if you do just one thing and that is surrender.
17:20 And if you surrender,
17:22 we will take you up in our roots
17:23 and you will become a part of something higher."
17:27 And only when the minerals say, "Yes,"
17:29 do they get absorbed into the plant
17:32 and they get transported above.
17:35 And then the plants begin going around bragging,
17:37 "We are beautiful.
17:39 Look at us.
17:41 And there is nothing higher than us."
17:44 But then all of a sudden,
17:46 here's comes the cow and the cow says,
17:48 "I know you plants think that
17:50 there's nothing higher than you,
17:52 but there is a level higher than you,
17:55 if you will just surrender to me, the cow.
17:58 If you allow me to absorb you and you get caught up in me,
18:02 and let me take you plants to another level."
18:04 If the plants surrender,
18:07 then the plants get transformed and become a part of the cow
18:12 and the cow goes around thinking,
18:14 "Nothing is higher than me.
18:16 Nothing is greater than me."
18:18 And then a human being comes along and says,
18:21 "You know something, cow?
18:23 There is something higher than you.
18:25 If you would just submit to McDonald's and to Burger King.
18:31 You can just get absorbed into me
18:33 and become a part of something higher
18:36 than what you are right now."
18:39 And then we human beings walk around like we all that,
18:42 thinking to ourselves,
18:44 "There couldn't be anything higher than us.
18:48 Look at the creativity of our hands
18:49 and look at what we have manufactured and fractured
18:53 and brought to pass in the world.
18:55 Nothing is higher than us."
18:58 And while, ladies and gentlemen,
19:00 we will acknowledge that
19:02 there are three kingdoms lower than us,
19:05 we will not acknowledge
19:06 there is a kingdom higher than us.
19:10 And then God shows up and God says, "Guess what?
19:14 Just as the minerals surrendered to the plants,
19:18 and the plants surrendered to the animals,
19:21 and the animals surrendered to the humans.
19:24 If you humans will surrender to Me,
19:26 I will take your life to another level."
19:30 And what we ought not to miss is
19:33 that those who go to another level
19:35 are simply people
19:37 who have learned how to surrender.
19:41 In fact, there's always a conflict between surrenders.
19:47 Since you as a human
19:48 are between God and the animals.
19:51 There's often a temptation
19:53 drawing you to what the law of nature
19:56 but there's always a higher part of you
19:58 that is calling you to divine purposes.
20:02 Now the belief that there's no level
20:04 higher than the human level is what's called humanism.
20:08 The philosophy that
20:10 knowledge and reason are socially constructed,
20:14 and that there is nothing higher than humans.
20:17 In short, there is no God.
20:20 But through embracing humanism,
20:22 we closed a door of access to the next level
20:26 because the only way to the next level
20:28 is through surrender.
20:30 And if there is no God, then why do we surrender?
20:35 Let me be clear.
20:36 There is a God and we surrender to God
20:39 so that God might surrender to us.
20:43 Listen carefully to this principle,
20:45 whatever is surrendered to your life,
20:48 is what your life is surrendered to.
20:51 Surrender is the basic fabric of life.
20:54 You surrender your body to the pew
20:56 and that pew surrenders comfort and rest.
21:00 If I were to surrender my body to the treadmill,
21:03 that treadmill will surrender lower blood pressure,
21:07 lower cholesterol and a better heart rate to me.
21:11 If you surrender your mind to a book,
21:15 the book will surrender knowledge to you.
21:18 The principle of surrender can result
21:19 in either positive or negative consequences.
21:23 For example,
21:25 people who smoke surrender to cigarettes,
21:27 and the cigarette smoking
21:29 surrenders addiction or infancema to them.
21:33 You will always get an exchange,
21:35 you will reap what you have sown.
21:38 The reward is always inherent in the act.
21:41 So if you surrender to negativity,
21:44 and if you surrender' to feeling sorry for yourself,
21:47 which is always a temptation
21:49 when you're going through something,
21:50 you will no doubt reap the consequences of being paralyzed
21:54 by those unhealthy emotional states.
21:58 Now the apostle John articulates in these words
22:02 we read for our scripture lesson,
22:04 four dimensions of surrender in his gospel.
22:07 The first is the surrender principle.
22:12 Second, we'll talk about the surrender problem.
22:15 Thirdly, we'll talk about the surrender process.
22:18 And fourth, we'll talk about the surrender product.
22:22 First, the surrender principle.
22:24 Jesus uses the metaphor of the vine and the branches.
22:29 It is inconceivable,
22:32 it is not inconceivable, rather,
22:34 that as Jesus speaks with His disciples,
22:37 He is actually in a vineyard.
22:40 As His eyes take in the view of the orchard,
22:42 the metaphor comes to life
22:44 and then Jesus identifies Himself as the true vine.
22:49 He notices the vine and its intersecting branches
22:53 and it draws from His creation,
22:55 a lesson designed to enlighten His disciples
22:58 about the nature of the relationship that He desires
23:02 for them to have.
23:04 And so he says to them, "I am the true vine."
23:08 Jesus does not initially He say that he is the vine,
23:13 but rather He says, "I am the true vine."
23:17 It appears that Jesus wants to draw the attention to the fact,
23:22 that there is much in nature that serves as object lessons
23:26 of greater realities.
23:28 It suggests that inherent in material realities
23:33 there are often deeply embedded truths.
23:36 In verse 5, after they've gotten the point,
23:39 Jesus then says, "I am the vine."
23:42 But in verse 1, He says, "I am the true vine."
23:46 Now the implicit message is that
23:49 something can be real but not true.
23:52 And in uncritically connecting ourselves to false,
23:56 impersonating vines,
23:58 we will inevitably produce contaminated
24:00 or poisonous fruit.
24:02 Jesus equates His Father with the husbandman,
24:07 the gardener.
24:08 So we've got a vineyard,
24:10 we've got a vine and we've got a gardener.
24:14 Having established this graphic,
24:16 Jesus now beings' to focus on the braches,
24:19 and He says, everyone who abides in Him,
24:23 Jesus identifies as a branch.
24:27 Jesus is the vine,
24:29 we are the branches
24:31 and the grapes are the product of a branch
24:33 abiding in the vine.
24:36 Notice however,
24:38 that Jesus talks about two kinds of branches,
24:41 and in verse 2-6, He says,
24:43 "Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit
24:48 is cast forth as a branch."
24:51 Ironically, ladies and gentlemen,
24:53 there are some in the Christian world
24:56 who are well meaning
24:57 but who teach the doctrine of eternal security.
25:00 Once saved, always saved.
25:03 But Jesus' words describe
25:06 that a branch that was once abiding,
25:09 is now being cutoff and cast in the fire
25:14 which is a reference to Hell.
25:17 Now someone may protest,
25:19 the Bible teaches that once you're saved,
25:21 you cannot be cut off.
25:22 You can't go to Hell.
25:24 Well, here it is.
25:26 Jesus says, He will cut off the unfruitful branch.
25:31 You've got to understand something about
25:34 this unfruitful branch.
25:36 This unfruitful branch is masquerading
25:40 as though it is connected to Christ.
25:43 Something can be real but not true.
25:47 We are in the 15th chapter,
25:50 and in the larger context of the 14th chapter,
25:53 the Lord's Supper is recorded.
25:56 And in the 13th chapter,
25:58 Jesus references a branch that has the appearance,
26:02 are being connected
26:04 but one that is connected only in appearance.
26:08 And despite the fact that Jesus is in the company
26:13 of these branches and into fraternity
26:16 of the disciples, and in spite of the fact
26:20 that all of Christ's disciples are there,
26:22 there is one who has not learned to be disciplined
26:26 and disciplined and his name is Judas.
26:30 And Jesus eventually allows Judas' actions
26:35 to expose to who he really was.
26:38 And in spite of the fact that he is connected to Jesus
26:42 through just association,
26:44 he's not connected to Christ through a relationship.
26:48 You are aware that it is possible
26:50 to be around other branches
26:52 and around Jesus, the vine,
26:54 and then not be connected to Jesus.
26:57 Nobody knew that Judas was a traitor
27:00 because Judas sufficiently appeared
27:02 to be like the other disciples.
27:04 He had the right words, he had the right disposition.
27:06 He embodied the right persona, he had the right lingo.
27:10 He had mastered all of the external variables
27:12 and attributes that convinced others
27:15 that he was abiding in the vine.
27:17 Judas looked and talked like every other disciple.
27:21 He was not only convincing,
27:23 but he was downright impressive,
27:26 but he did not abide in the vine.
27:30 So there are two kinds of branches,
27:33 the unfaithful branch.
27:36 The branch that is just hanging around,
27:39 the branch that appears to be fruitful,
27:41 the one which Jesus declares, "Just cut it off."
27:47 And there's the fruitful branch,
27:49 the one to which Jesus refers when He says,
27:52 "And every branch that beareth fruit."
27:56 This is the branch that is connected to the true vine.
28:00 The branch that is not only connected in reality,
28:04 but also connected in truth.
28:07 Notice now what the husbandman does.
28:11 The Bible says, "He purges the fruitful branch
28:15 in order for it to produce more fruit."
28:19 So He cuts off the unfruitful branch,
28:22 but He cuts back the fruitful branch.
28:26 If we are committed to Christ,
28:28 He will inevitably cut back
28:30 and prude away some things from our lives,
28:34 it's called purging.
28:36 And sometimes,
28:38 He purges stuff out of our lives
28:40 that makes absolutely no sense to us.
28:44 And we go around wondering,
28:46 "God, why did You cut that out of my life?
28:49 I really needed it."
28:52 But notice in verse 2 why He purges it.
28:57 He says, "So that it may bringforth more fruit."
29:02 God often gets rids of a good thing in our lives
29:07 in order to bless us with a better thing.
29:10 The God now cuts back the good,
29:13 so that he can bless you with that which is better.
29:17 Now that is what I referred to as the surrender principle.
29:22 That's why we should never doubt God's leading.
29:25 If you are God's child,
29:27 if you have surrendered your life to Him,
29:30 some things that God will do on our behalf
29:33 will be very strange and we'll never be able to understand it.
29:36 It might just be that God is purging us
29:40 and He is not punishing us.
29:43 The surrender principle.
29:45 Then secondly, there is the surrender problem.
29:49 In Romans 7:18-20, Paul writes, "For I know that in me,
29:55 that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing,
29:59 for to will is present with me,
30:03 but how to perform that which is good, I find not.
30:07 For the good that I would I do not,
30:11 but the evil which I would not, that I do.
30:16 Now if I do that which I would not,
30:18 it is no more I that do it,
30:20 but sin that dwelleth in me."
30:23 The surrender problem then is the problem of the flesh.
30:28 It is the problem of living in this world
30:31 under the curse of sin.
30:34 In John 15, Verses 4 and 5,
30:36 Jesus acknowledges our universal challenge
30:40 when He says, "Abide in me, and I in you.
30:46 Without me, you can do nothing."
30:49 That is to say,
30:51 apart from abiding in Him through surrendering to Him,
30:56 we will constantly be afflicted by the surrender problem,
31:01 susceptible to the flesh
31:03 and the resistance of the spirit.
31:05 Now if you are operating in the flesh,
31:08 it goes without saying
31:09 that you have not yet submitted to God.
31:12 And if you are not submitted, you are not connected.
31:16 And if you are not connected,
31:17 you are operating in opposition to the Spirit of God.
31:21 You may have ushered in the flesh,
31:24 you may have sang in the choir in the flesh,
31:28 you may have preached in the flesh,
31:31 you may have worked in the treasury in the flesh,
31:34 you may have even served as an elder
31:36 of the church in the flesh,
31:38 but the anointing of God does not come
31:42 because you do those things.
31:44 It comes when you are submitted to Christ
31:48 and when you are connected to God.
31:50 The works of the flesh,
31:51 those works done without surrender
31:54 and without a connection,
31:56 produce sour fruit or no fruit
31:59 but when I am surrendered, and when I abide in Christ,
32:03 He gives me the anointing and the power
32:05 to do His Will and bringforth much fruit.
32:11 It is amazing
32:13 that there are two ways that you can bear fruit
32:15 and be productive.
32:17 You can do it either through self
32:19 or you can do it through sap.
32:21 Sap is that which runs from the vine to the branch.
32:25 Sap is the fluid,
32:27 chiefly water with dissolved sugars
32:29 and mineral salts that circulates
32:31 in the vascular system of a plant,
32:33 giving it nourishment, energy and a color.
32:37 Whatever is in the vine gets spread to the branches
32:40 and the other extremities.
32:43 And if Jesus is the true vine
32:46 and I am connected to him,
32:48 Jesus is reminding us that everything we have,
32:53 we got it through sap.
32:55 If you are trying to do it in through self,
32:57 it will always lead to two things,
32:59 frustration and failure.
33:03 But if you do it through sap,
33:05 you will find satisfaction in service.
33:08 Have you ever met people
33:09 who are really unhappy at church?
33:14 Serving as an usher and mad to pass out the bulletins?
33:18 Working with the children's department
33:20 and don't like children?
33:25 They are doing it through self
33:27 because when you are doing through sap,
33:28 when Christ abides in you,
33:31 you are not working for people around you,
33:33 you are working for God Almighty
33:36 and there is a satisfaction that comes
33:38 from knowing God for yourself.
33:40 And working for Him is a joy.
33:44 It's not about success, it's about sacrificial service.
33:48 It's not about what you can get from what you do,
33:51 it's about knowing that you are serving God faithfully
33:55 and you are doing it through sap,
33:56 because you are connected through the vine.
34:00 Now some of us are trying to do some stuff,
34:02 but we are laboring in the flesh,
34:05 and so we are frustrated and we are failing.
34:08 Notice if you will,
34:10 that when you become a Christian,
34:11 you go through at least four stages.
34:14 The first stage is, "Oh, this is so easy.
34:19 Just get baptized, and all will be well."
34:23 Then there's a second stage.
34:25 "Oh, this is harder than I thought.
34:28 Hard to stop drinking, hard to stop lying,
34:31 hard to stop shacking up, hard to love my enemies,
34:35 hard to study, hard to pray,
34:37 hard to witness, it's hard.
34:40 Then in the third stage we begin to think,
34:43 "This is impossible.
34:45 I could never be what God wants me to be.
34:48 Not only can I not do it,
34:50 but it can't be done by anyone."
34:53 And then there is a fourth stage
34:55 in which we honestly say,
34:57 "This is exciting
35:00 because we are doing things and being productive,
35:05 and bearing fruit and accomplishing some things
35:09 just a year ago we could not do.
35:11 And how did we do it?
35:13 By abiding in Christ.
35:16 Christ makes it possible.
35:19 I cannot live righteously on my own.
35:21 I cannot become all that God wants me to be on my own.
35:24 I cannot witness effectively on my own.
35:27 I cannot resist temptation on my own.
35:30 But with God, all things are possible."
35:36 All of a sudden,
35:38 the victory seems remarkably possible
35:42 because our failures have finally taught us
35:46 and it has taught us something about surrender.
35:50 How did we move from the unlikely to the possible?
35:54 How did we move from the improbable to the actual?
35:58 How did we move from defeat to victory?
36:01 It was simply that the sap
36:03 that was in the vine got into you
36:06 and things you didn't think
36:07 you would ever accomplish in the past,
36:10 now you are fulfilling because you are connected.
36:13 Connected to the source, connected to the root,
36:17 connected to divine power.
36:20 A few things worse than seeing and meeting believers
36:23 who are all defeated, discouraged and disconnected.
36:28 But when you are connected to the true vine,
36:30 you will find yourself operating in an atmosphere
36:33 that far transcends the disconnected dysfunction
36:38 of the broken branch.
36:40 Remember, my brothers and sisters,
36:42 your boyfriend was not the true vine,
36:45 your girlfriend was not the true vine,
36:48 your boss was not the true vine,
36:50 your new car was not the true vine,
36:52 your degree on the wall was not the true vine.
36:56 As much promise as they all may have held,
37:00 Jesus alone is the true vine.
37:04 You cannot live a holy, joyful,
37:07 victorious life and a happy life
37:10 except you are connected to Christ
37:12 and you abide in Him.
37:15 It is then that the words of the apostle Paul,
37:18 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,"
37:23 will become a living and a true reality
37:25 in your walk with the Lord.
37:29 So first, there's a surrender principle.
37:32 Secondly, there's the surrender problem
37:36 and thirdly, the surrender process.
37:39 Abiding in Christ involves an ongoing process.
37:44 We begin, first of all, by cultivating our roots.
37:49 Jeremiah 17, Verses 7 and 8 says,
37:51 "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord,
37:55 and whose hope the Lord is.
37:57 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters,
38:02 that spreadeth out her roots by the river,
38:05 and shall not see when heat cometh,
38:09 but her leaf shall be green,
38:12 and shall not be in the year of drought,
38:16 neither shall cease from yielding fruit."
38:19 Look at the results
38:21 when one is connected to the source of life.
38:24 "For he shall be like a tree whose roots are planted."
38:29 And when the heat is on, and the pressure is on,
38:34 your leaves will not turn brown.
38:38 In other words, ladies and gentlemen,
38:40 when troubles come your way,
38:43 and when difficulties come your way,
38:46 and when you are living through turbulent times,
38:49 the Lord is saying to you, "Don't worry.
38:53 During those difficult moments, if you are connected to Me,
38:58 your leaves will not turn brown.
39:02 You will still flourish
39:05 when the sun is at its highest peak.
39:09 You will still have green leaves
39:13 when the troubles come your way."
39:15 Even when the heat and the pressure is on.
39:19 Though your leaves should have fallen off a long time ago,
39:22 they remain intact because of the sap.
39:28 The sap in the vine.
39:30 And Jeremiah says,
39:31 "You shall not be careful in the day of drought."
39:36 So even in the midst of recession,
39:38 when everyone is downsizing,
39:39 your bread and your water will still be sure.
39:44 And when I am broke,
39:45 I am still going to make it
39:47 because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
39:51 And our God shall supply all of our needs
39:55 according to His riches and glory.
39:58 God says, even in the day of drought,
40:02 He'll take care of you.
40:04 But only should we cultivate our roots,
40:08 but we should learn to eliminate the weeds.
40:12 We can never get all that God has for us
40:15 if we've got a lot of weeds in our lives.
40:18 Do you know what weeds are?
40:20 Weeds are anybody
40:23 who might be trying to just steal your water.
40:27 You see when it rains,
40:28 if you've got weeds in the garden,
40:30 they will compete with the flowers with the rain.
40:33 The noxious weeds steal the rain
40:35 from the aromatic flowers.
40:37 But when you get rid of the weeds,
40:39 the flowers get all of the water.
40:42 Now the reason why many of us are not producing any fruit
40:46 is because our lives are overspread by weeds.
40:50 Weeds represent a variety of activities that steal
40:54 spiritual nourishment from our lives.
40:57 Weeds can also be people,
40:59 people who do nothing more than
41:01 block the blessings of God from our lives.
41:04 So some of us need
41:05 for the weeds in our lives to be uprooted.
41:08 In other words, we need to de-weed those weeds.
41:12 You know, there are some people if you got rid of them,
41:15 got them out of your lives, kick them out of your lives,
41:17 your lives will be better off.
41:19 Some people are blocking the blessings of God in our lives
41:22 and we believe we need to hold on to them.
41:25 The process of abiding in Christ,
41:27 not only involves cultivating our roots
41:30 and eliminating the weeds,
41:32 but also, thirdly, cooperating with God's pruning.
41:36 God prunes us,
41:38 the God now cuts back the superfluous
41:42 and the unnecessary.
41:43 And when He's cutting back the excess,
41:45 we still need to praise God.
41:48 There is a tendency to mistake pruning for punishing.
41:52 But notice if you will, that there's a difference
41:54 between the pruning and the punishing.
41:56 Please don't think that because God has cut the...
42:00 superfluous and the excess out of our lives,
42:03 that we are being punished or no,
42:06 we are just being pruned.
42:09 And the more we resist the pruning,
42:11 the more it feels like punishment,
42:15 and that's why we must surrender.
42:19 God is so good that sometimes
42:20 He'll get rid of some good stuff
42:23 because He's got some better stuff for us.
42:25 And do you know whom God normally uses to prune us?
42:29 He uses enemies, haters, liars and backbiters.
42:33 God will let them come in
42:35 and cut some things out of our lives
42:37 and we think to ourselves,
42:38 "God, why are You allowing them to get the upper hand on me?"
42:43 But do you know what the Bible says
42:45 about your enemies?
42:46 The Bible says, God will take care of your enemies.
42:48 He'll make your enemies your footstool,
42:50 Same- as the body.
42:52 I don't care what you are going through,
42:54 the pruning that is most effective with your cooperation
42:58 through surrender will only take you higher in Christ.
43:02 And so the process of abiding in Christ involves
43:05 the surrender principle.
43:07 Secondly, the surrender problem.
43:09 Thirdly, the surrender process.
43:11 And finally, the surrender product.
43:14 Verse 8 says, "If you abide in Me."
43:19 If you cultivate your roots, if you eliminate the weeds,
43:22 and if you cooperate with God's pruning,
43:24 then God will make you fruitful
43:26 and God will make you productive.
43:30 God wants you to not just have some fruit,
43:33 He wants you to have much fruit.
43:37 When God's get to prune you as long as you stay connected,
43:40 you will have so much fruit that it will blow your mind
43:44 and it will confuse your enemies.
43:47 And if you are bearing good fruit,
43:49 it shows that you are a disciple
43:51 and that you are saved.
43:54 Don't tell me you are saved and you are not bearing fruit.
43:57 One of the ways you can tell that you are Christian
43:59 is by bearing good fruit.
44:01 If I see apples hanging from a branch,
44:03 I have enough sense to know that the branch
44:07 is the branch of an apple tree because you can identify a tree
44:10 by the fruit it bears.
44:13 God wants your life to be productive
44:16 and Jesus is saying,
44:17 "That the way to productivity is by surrendering to Me."
44:22 He assures us that
44:24 "If you surrender to Me on a daily basis,
44:26 I am going to surrender to you everything you need
44:29 in order to do what I've called you to do."
44:32 Because whatever you need, God's got it.
44:35 And the Devil wants you to think
44:37 that God has forgotten you and that God has abandoned you,
44:40 and that it's all over for you.
44:42 No, no, no.
44:43 It's not over,
44:45 because Jesus says,
44:46 "If you connect with me in the morning,
44:49 and say, 'God,
44:51 I don't want to start this day without You',
44:54 and if You declare, 'God,
44:55 I want You to abide with me all day long,
44:58 I want You in my mind, I want You in my soul,
45:01 I want You to walk with me.'
45:02 "That is how you abide in Christ.
45:06 Then God will cause to be fruitful
45:09 and produce an abundance of good fruit in your life.
45:13 Now if you give your life to Christ on a daily basis
45:16 and say, "God, I surrender all."
45:19 God says, "In return for your surrender,
45:22 I will surrender sap to you."
45:26 Yes, sap.
45:27 I told you about sap.
45:29 Sap is that fluid transported in xylems cells of a tree.
45:34 Xylem sap consists primarily of water
45:37 along with hormones and minerals and nutrients
45:39 and is characterized
45:41 by movement from the roots toward the extremities.
45:44 God says,
45:45 "I'm going to go pour into the root of your life.
45:48 Everything you need in order for you to bring forth
45:51 what you must in My name."
45:54 I'm talking about the unexpected,
45:57 the unanticipated,
45:59 the impossible and the improbable.
46:01 Things that have not yet come to your mind
46:04 and one of the things we must do
46:06 when we are connected to Christ and we are abiding in Him,
46:09 we must anticipate that God will do
46:11 do some outrageous things in our lives,
46:14 things we have never dreamt possible,
46:17 things we have never believed before.
46:19 We must start anticipating
46:21 that God will do some miraculous things in our lives
46:24 because we are connected to Him.
46:28 The Bible says, "You have not,
46:31 because you've asked not."
46:33 If you ask God to do something powerful in your life
46:37 as you abide in Him,
46:39 I can guarantee you He will not fail.
46:41 Paul says, "Now unto him
46:44 that is able to do exceeding abundantly above
46:47 and beyond all that you are able to ask or think."
46:50 God wants do in your life and in my life
46:53 much more than we can even imagine.
46:58 You see, it is no secret what God can do.
47:01 While you are trying to figure it out,
47:03 God has already worked it out.
47:06 Somebody said that sap is the acronym
47:10 for significant appropriation of power.
47:13 Power over drugs, power over alcohol,
47:17 power over fornication, power over adultery,
47:21 power over lying, power over stealing,
47:26 power over pornography, power over cheating,
47:30 power over broken branches and broken power,
47:33 power over disconnectedness.
47:36 If you abide in Christ,
47:39 believe me, my brother, my sister,
47:40 God will give you sap.
47:43 A significant appropriation of power
47:47 and it's power that transforms, power that renews,
47:51 power that inspires, power that amends,
47:54 power that corrects, power that converts,
47:56 power that revives,
47:58 power that flows from the true vine
48:00 and produces good
48:02 and abundant fruit in our lives.
48:08 You know, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco,
48:13 it's a masterpiece of modern engineering.
48:17 It is a 1.7 mile expansive steel,
48:21 wire and rivets
48:23 spanning the gap between the city of San Francisco
48:25 and neighboring Marin County across the bay.
48:29 Apart from the air transit and ferry transport,
48:34 there would be no way
48:36 for the hundreds of thousands of commuters
48:39 to go through and fro from San Francisco to Marin.
48:44 On May 27, 2012, the Golden Gate Bridge
48:47 celebrated its 75th anniversary.
48:50 Taking four years to complete,
48:52 construction began on January 5th, 1933.
48:56 The bridge opened to pedestrians on May 27, 1937,
49:01 and to cars the next day.
49:04 It took 83,000 tons of steel,
49:08 nearly 60,000 strands of wire,
49:11 which if stretched out would measure nearly 80,000 miles.
49:15 And more than 600,000 rivets
49:19 in each of the towers to build that bridge.
49:23 According to Daniel Mohn
49:24 the bridge's former chief engineer
49:27 who co-authored a book about the span,
49:30 one of the bridges original designers said
49:32 on opening day in 1937,
49:34 "I present to you a bridge that will last forever."
49:39 83,000 tons of steel and 80,000 miles of wire
49:45 masterfully engineered to span a gap of 1.7 miles
49:51 is an impressive feat, to say the least.
49:55 But more impressive still, my brothers and sisters,
49:58 is the infinite gap between a Holy God and sinful humanity,
50:04 understanding the dilemma,
50:06 the Heavenly Father of an Earthly Carpenter,
50:10 decided that He would connect the gap with only two boards
50:13 and the three nails.
50:16 So about 2,000 years ago, Jesus climbed Golgotha's hill,
50:22 spread Himself wide
50:24 and bridged the infinite gap between time and eternity,
50:29 so we can be connected to Him,
50:31 so that we can abide in Him and He in us.
50:36 The stars shunned in the sky
50:40 and then the place went black,
50:42 as God literally turned His back on His dying Son.
50:47 But out of that death came life.
50:50 And God has bridged the gap
50:52 between a sinful humanity and a Saving Savior,
50:57 a Loving God, a Mighty Savior.
51:01 He has bridged that gap,
51:03 He now wants to abide in us.
51:07 He says, "I am the vine.
51:09 You are the braches.
51:13 If you only abide in Me and I in you,
51:16 You are going to get some power,
51:18 you will get some sap.
51:20 You will be able to live above your circumstances,
51:22 you will be able to transcend your own weaknesses
51:25 and you will be able to abide in Me."
51:29 The day is coming, my brothers and sisters.
51:32 If we are faithful to God,
51:34 He's promised to come back to this earth,
51:37 take us to live with Him forever.
51:39 He says, "We could only do it.
51:41 We can only live the overcomer's life
51:44 if we abide in Him.
51:47 Every head is bowed, every eye is closed."
51:52 Loving Lord, we pray...
51:56 that You will give us not only overcoming power
51:59 but more importantly, becoming power.
52:02 We want to be like You.
52:06 We want to remain connected to You.
52:09 And everyday our lives are under attack.
52:13 Help us to keep focused,
52:15 help us to remain connected to the true vine
52:20 and give us, Lord,
52:22 the power we need' to live the overcomer's life.
52:26 There might be somebody who has heard this message,
52:28 I pray, Oh God, that You'll help them even now to surrender
52:33 We can only receive Your power
52:35 when we surrender to Your power.
52:39 Bless each life, bless each heart.
52:41 Prepare us to meet You in peace.
52:44 Keep us faithful until that day,
52:46 when we shall see Your lovely face
52:49 and live with You throughout eternity.
52:51 We pray this prayer in the name of the Father
52:53 and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
52:57 Amen.
52:58 Please listen to the words of this song
53:02 to bring this message of the service to a close.
53:13 Our father,
53:22 Which art in heaven
53:30 Hallowed be
53:39 Thy name
53:48 Thy kingdom come,
53:54 Thy will be done
53:58 On Earth
54:02 As it is
54:06 In Heaven
54:27 Give us this day
54:32 Our daily bread
54:37 And forgive us our debts
54:42 As we forgive our debtors
54:52 And lead us not into temptation
54:57 But deliver us from evil
55:04 For thine is the kingdom
55:10 And the power
55:12 And the glory Forever
55:23 Amen
55:36 Amen
55:54 Were you blessed this afternoon?
55:57 What a powerful message,
56:00 plugging into, logging into God's power.
56:05 Now I am a preacher and I have been for 28 years,
56:08 but I was sitting back there taking notes.
56:11 If you remember the four things
56:12 that Pastor Jules shared with you,
56:14 surrender principle, surrender process,
56:17 surrender possibility and surrender product.
56:21 And there are those of you
56:23 that have tuned in for all four parts
56:25 of Foundation of our Faith
56:28 and we thank you for tuning in but remember,
56:30 our desire is not just to bring you good messages,
56:33 but to challenge you to log into God's power
56:37 to be all that the Lord wants you to be.
56:40 And I tell you,
56:42 you never know what you can be
56:44 until you log into the power of God.
56:47 You will be like a tree planted by the waters
56:52 that bringeth forth his fruit in his season,
56:55 his leaf also shall not wither
56:57 and whatsoever he do, it shall prosper.
57:00 I was blessed when Pastor Jules said
57:02 that God sometimes cuts off the unnecessary.
57:06 How did I see it?
57:08 God is cutting out the rest to give you His best.
57:13 And so at Foundation of Faith, of our faith here at 3ABN,
57:17 we pray that you will plug in to the power of God.
57:20 God may remove the rest
57:22 that God will give you His best.
57:24 Until we see you again,
57:26 may you experience the power of God in your life
57:29 that you may be all that God intends for you to be.
57:32 God bless you.


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Revised 2015-11-30