{"id":1776,"date":"2021-06-18T09:13:30","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T13:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/?p=1776"},"modified":"2021-06-18T12:43:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T16:43:39","slug":"that-guy-from-penn-state-at-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/?p=1776","title":{"rendered":"That Guy from Penn State at Council…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Penn State grad spoke at the C&MA General Council.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He referenced John 15:4: 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.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I took some time to type some of the words that stood out to me.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus said we discern the pedigree of our tree by evaluating its fruit. So can we have some honest evaluation. It\u2019s not a question of whether we\u2019re bearing fruit, but what\u2019s the fruit we\u2019re bearing?<\/p>

\u2026I hear us, so often, when we\u2019re doing things that are divisive and distracting and aggressive to one another, I hear Christians say with a straight face, \u201cWell – well, I\u2019m just turning over tables like Jesus.\u201d Listen Braveheart \u2013 you\u2019re not cleansing temples. You\u2019re being a jerk. Alright?<\/p>

So what\u2019s being evidenced in us in these days?<\/p>

You know, if what people encounter in us is divisiveness or arrogance or patterns of narcissism, what have we been abiding in?<\/p>

If what people encounter in us is bitterness and conspiracy, then what have we been abiding in?<\/p>

If what people hear in us sounds like a noisy gong to them, then what have we been abiding in?<\/p>

If our lives smell like America first rather than kingdom first, then what have we been abiding in?<\/p>

If what people taste when they encounter us is the protection of power and platforms rather than the gentle and lowly way of Jesus, then what have we been abiding in?<\/p>

And I\u2019m saying, \u201cwe\u201d because I am part of this. Right? But I am calling attention to what the world is seeing in the church today. It\u2019s not just the world, it\u2019s what we see in one another\u2026<\/p>

Jesus wants us to be rooted in the sacred power of his presence. <\/p>

William Blake wrote that we become what we behold. <\/p>

So let me put this through the lens of the Great Commandment. I believe that abiding \u2013 abiding in Christ \u2013 is beholding Jesus with all of our hearts, our souls, our mind, and our strength. That\u2019s what abiding is. It\u2019s the ongoing gaze of the soul upon the glory and the grace and the goodness of Jesus. It\u2019s the one thing \u2013 before any other thing \u2013 for us as followers of Jesus to behold him so that we can become like him.<\/p>

That\u2019s what Paul prays for in Ephesians. He prays in Ephesians three\u2026<\/p>

I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God\u2019s love, and to know Christ\u2019s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Eph 3:16\u201319). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.)<\/em><\/p>

We need to be a people who are rooted and established in the love of Jesus. The problem is that we tend to be rooted and established in politics and ideologies that masquerade as the way of Jesus.<\/p>

We\u2019re rooted and established in traditions and interpretations that we masquerade as the truth of Jesus.<\/p>

We\u2019re rooted and established in power and platforms that we masquerade as the love of Jesus.<\/p>

But we\u2019re made to be rooted and established in a greater love – a love that we cannot produce ourselves. It\u2019s a love that, because if we simply allow ourselves to be shaped by our own capacity to love it always turns inward. Right? It always becomes love with expectation. It\u2019s always driven by our own ambition. It\u2019s always eventually revealed in how we treat one another.<\/p>

But not so. Not so with the love of Jesus.<\/p>

Do you remember how Jesus loves you?<\/p>

\u2026Jesus loved us so powerfully and perfectly. Right? <\/p>

His love\u2019s not self-seeking. There\u2019s no strings attached. His love\u2019s humble enough to value others above himself. He loves at a great cost to himself. And even though he\u2019s equal to God his love did not hold onto power or privilege\u2026. His love led him to empty himself – to become a servant. His love led him to all humility to the point of death on the cross. His love was demonstrated in that while we were yet sinners, he died for us. His love conquered death so that we could be raised up in newness of life. <\/p>

That\u2019s the love we need. <\/p>

That\u2019s the fertile soil that we need to put our roots in so that we may be filled with the fullness of God. That\u2019s the love that Jesus called us to. That\u2019s the holy, sacred way of Jesus. <\/p>

That\u2019s the love the shapes us to be the faithful presence of Christ in our time.<\/p>Spencer Sweeting at The Christian and Missionary Alliance General Council, June 4. 2021
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You can see the entire message here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Penn State grad spoke at the C&MA General Council. I took some time to type some of the words that stood out to me. Jesus said we discern the pedigree of our tree by evaluating its fruit. So can … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[141],"class_list":["post-1776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-formation","tag-council-2021"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XvLb-sE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1776"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1782,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions\/1782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curwensvillealliance.org\/pastorsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}