What Are You Remaining In?

"How do we stay connected?" That is the question Pastor Joseph Rangel set out to answer. Since the Village Church launched, the teaching team of Pastor Brady, Pastor Lindsay, and Pastor Joseph has been taking its time through the entire Gospel of John. This message acts as a part two to Pastor Brady's sermon last week on John 15, where Jesus says he is the vine and we are the branches.

Pastor Joseph took notes as Pastor Brady preached, and he read two lines back: "It's our responsibility to stay connected to the vine." And: "When I say that we must stay connected, let me tell you, it will be the fight of your life." Staying connected to Jesus is hard work, he said. It costs you something.

"Most of us want to stay connected to Jesus, right?" he said. "But how do we do that when staying connected to him is so hard when our schedules are full?" Some have kids waking them up at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 a.m. when work starts at 6. Some are caring for people they love, and some are carrying grief.

Pastor Joseph Rangel prayed:

Then he called out the notetakers and gave the title as a question: "What are you remaining in?"

You Are Loved. Period. Full Stop.

Before reading, Pastor Joseph set the scene. Jesus has just told his disciples he is about to leave them physically, and where he is going they cannot come. They spent over three years following him, eating with him, sleeping where he sleeps, so their hearts are troubled. Echoing Pastor Brady, he compared it to families sending kids off to college: Do they know what they need to know? Have I told them?

John 15:9 says, "As the father has loved me, so I loved you. Now remain in my love." His first point: this is where it starts with Jesus. You're invited to be loved by him.

He then told his own story. He did not grow up in a home where Jesus was introduced to him. One side of his family had a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses, and the other side was Catholic and went to church on Christmas and Easter. "CEOs. Yeah, CEOs. Have you heard that term before? I've heard Chreasters. Have you heard this before, too? Is that too much this morning?"

His home was unstable. He raised his two younger sisters for about five years, because his parents worked really hard and were not home a lot. Around the beginning of high school, his mother started struggling with substance abuse, and his dad struggled with affairs. "So, I know what it's like when life feels uneven."

"Asking God, is this really like what we signed up for? Is this as good as it could be? Because that was the question ringing in my mind."

Then the good news: his parents are still together. "Yeah. Whoop whoop. Come on. Let me hear you."

They were in the room, and they just celebrated 40 years. "I share this because Jesus does that. Jesus can do that."

He was burying his emotions in football and taking out his anger on other guys. "I know you're trying. I can't picture that. Don't worry about it. It's fine. I'm fast. Okay. It's a velocity thing."

On July 4th, 2002, he was in a chapel that was forced for them at a Christian camp. There were recruiters there, and he did have some friends that went on to play at USC and UCLA, but he was just there tagging along, getting away from home because it was unstable. At that last chapel, Pastor Gene read a verse where Jesus tells a disciple, "What is it to you that I decide this about someone else's life? You follow me."

God was telling him he needed to decide if he was going to follow him. He could no longer blame the instability of his house or his anger, and that day he received Jesus. "I said, 'Jesus, come into my life.'"

Knowing God doesn't start with working for his love. It starts with recognizing you are loved. Period. Full stop.

American and Western culture loves to measure things by their usefulness, he said: "You are worth this much if you are this useful. But the Bible tells us that God does not do that. He does not measure us by our usefulness."

Remain Means Stable, Predictable, Steadfast

Verse 10 brings more tension: "If you keep my commands, you will, and say it with me, remain in my love just as I have kept my father's commands and remain in his love." The key word is remain, and Pastor Joseph defined it: stable, predictable, steadfast. "What makes you feel stable? what makes you feel like you could take on the world because Jesus right now is saying that should come from him."

Pointing back to Pastor Brady's earlier words about the election and the economy, he said, "we know things are unstable. Amen. But we have a kingdom that is unshakable, right?" God's kingdom transcends our little earthly kingdoms. Hebrews 12:28 says, "Since we are receiving a kingdom that is unshakable." And then it tells us what to do: "Let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe."

If following Jesus were easy, everybody would do it. "Like not that Jesus is limited to this, so hear me out."

"But if Jesus was just the get out of hell free card and you didn't have to do truly anything ever always. Who wouldn't do that? Just in case."

Out in Banning Lewis Ranch, where he lives, fast electric scooters are everywhere. "So I aged myself. I went to one of my kids, my one of my daughters, and I said, 'How does that, you know, work? Is it just like a flip thing?'"

They answered, "Yeah, you charge it. You get on it and you go." And he said, "Isn't that how sometimes we wish following Jesus was? Just charge it, right?"

But the Bible's metaphor is apprenticing. Plumbers, pilots, and roofers learn a ton under someone, but what is the point of learning to fly if you never fly the plane? That is what Jesus is getting at, he said, when he says "If you keep my commands."

He rattled off three points. We should not use the truth that God loves us to dismiss what he asks of us. We don't earn his love, but remaining in him means doing what he teaches, and that takes effort. And the why: God wants to shape how we think, what we want, and how we respond so we could become more like Jesus.

Remaining in Jesus Looks a Lot Like Training With Jesus

When he and his wife moved here from San Diego about seven years ago, he couldn't find Pop Warner football almost anywhere. At age nine he signed up for pee-wee football, where players weighed from about 60 to 120 pounds. They had to put fishing weights in his cleats to make weight. "My parents will attest to this. This is true."

Then he got hit at full speed. "Is this what I signed up for?" He took a week and moped a little: "Man, I don't know if I want to play football anymore. It's so dumb."

"I'm like only people who and I was just trying to make myself feel better. But another part of me kind of came out at the end of the week where I started to just feel this competitiveness." He went to his coach and asked what it takes to start. The coach said he couldn't even make weight and wasn't that good, then told him, "Train for it."

So the whole week he was doing push-ups around the house. "I was that scrawny kid just doing as many as I could. My parents coming home like, 'What the heck is happening right now?'" He watched NFL Films to study how players tackled and blocked.

"But I got to tell you, by the grace of God, eight days later, I was a starter." On the offensive line. "I swear."

When we hear "if you keep my commands," we can hear pressure and fear of failing. But when you mess up while giving Jesus your best, he does not detach himself from you. "That is a lie from the enemy. He wants you to think that the moment you don't have it together, you're out. But Jesus isn't like that."

Desire, interest, and enthusiasm only get us so far, he said. We need a plan for our growth. "He's not threatening me. He's talking about me putting things into practice."

Kids become like the crowd they hang out with, and spending time with Jesus allows you to become more like Jesus. In church world, he warned, you can come on Sunday, support the church, and serve, "and not become like Jesus." In your time with him and the fullness he gives you, the change comes, and out of that you do. "You don't just do and hope you change."

He asked, "What would your life look like if you changed that perspective a little bit today and you said, 'Okay, God, I will spend a little bit more time with you. I want to absorb more of your character, your likeness, hear from you and as that changes me, all of my doing will come out of that place instead of looking for approval, instead of feeling like, oh, you know, God loves me best when I do these things.' Because we already heard and we established today at the top that you are loved."

Remaining in Jesus looks a lot like training with Jesus.

He turned to 1 Corinthians 9:24. The church in Corinth was struggling with self-control, using their freedoms for their own desires and taking advantage of the poor. Paul wrote: "Do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into what? Strict training." He continued: "They who run do it to get a crown that will not last. But we followers of Jesus do it to get a crown that will last how long? Forever." Then: "Therefore, I do not run like someone running what? Aimlessly."

The Corinthians knew athletes from their version of the Olympics, and none of them just showed up hoping to win. He asked everyone to highlight running aimlessly, in an analog Bible or a digital one. "I remember being like, what is running aimlessly look like? Are we talking like Chariots of Fire?"

Then he played a video he found on "the glorious internet, which I don't always recommend" of someone running aimlessly. That, he said, is what following Jesus without a plan and without training looks like.

Following Jesus is two invitations that belong together. One: "come to me, I will give you rest," which we call salvation. The other: "deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me." Early on, he lived as if he could just do all the things he liked and still be following Jesus.

He has a hard time sitting in silence, he admitted, because he loves the feeling of achieving something. When a mentor asked about his quiet time with Jesus, he answered: "Why is it, ah, it's not really my personality, it's not really, you know, what I feel led to do." He admitted he loves to make it sound super spiritual, and he was grateful that in love, the mentor called him out.

"Well, but God wants you to do that." "Yeah, but I'm just not wired for that." "Then deny yourself." Pastor Joseph said, "And that was it. It was that simple."

He said, "And there's nothing wrong with doing the things you like." Then he asked, "Can I kindly implore you today that maybe the breakthrough or the things you're looking for in your life are because you need to deny yourself a little bit more training with Jesus."

You Won't Meet the Big Moment Without the Small Moments

He has been a pastor for about 20 years, and San Diego has military all over, so he felt right at home here. He asked the church to honor those who serve or served in the military, and told them: "I have never served personally, but I respect what you do. I've heard your stories and can only imagine, I think I'm only barely grasping maybe the price you've paid or the price you're currently paying to serve."

Then he told of meeting someone who worked in what is essentially a nuclear division, ready if a nuclear war happens. She told him, "If I ever had to actually do my job, it would be the worst day in America."

She went to work five, six days a week, sometimes seven, "paying the price to know what to do," so that if it ever happened, she would be on autopilot. "Training, training, training, training," he said. Then came the point he asked the church to write down.

I tell you this because I think as Christians, it's hard to remember this, and this could be a struggle, that you won't meet the big moment if you don't train in the small moments.

"The big moment could be really exciting and maybe you're like, 'Oh, I'm going to achieve it. Achieve it.' But if you've ever done that and it's just outside of your capacity, usually you might get it once or twice and then you fall on your face again, right?"

Maybe there are things you look at that you shouldn't be looking at, and God is telling you to stop. Maybe you have anger issues. What if we trained in the small moments so we are ready when the big temptation comes?

He gave three things to do today to remain in Jesus. First, prioritize your energies to be with Jesus: give him your best time.

Someone told him getting up at 4:00 a.m. is glorious. "And I tried it and it was horrible. So hard. And if that's you, I see you. Okay." So he experimented to find when he is most alert and ready to receive.

Second, schedule habits that give God time with you, to change you, whether reading the Bible, praying, or listening on a drive. Third, intentionally pursue God's community.

"Last week, Pastor Brady challenged all of us, and Pastor Lindsay and I couldn't agree more to challenge folks this next, you know, calendar year to attend church 40 times." Do that math: how many weekends off do you get? 12.

Hebrews 10:24 gives the why: "Let us all of us consider how we may spur one another on toward what? Love and good deeds. not giving up meeting together as some are in the what habit of doing but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day approaching."

When his parents made him go to church on Christmas and Easter and people said to give to the church and go, he thought, "of course you would say that." Then he asked, "Is anyone else like that in the room? Come on. There we go. There's a few of you there being bold. I love that."

But "you being here is a blessing to us. But our job together is to be a blessing to each other." Training together feeds itself.

The promise: if you are remaining in him, you are guaranteed to grow. That is a big if. In John 15:5, "If you remain in me and I in you," the word right before bear is will. "Doesn't say might. Doesn't say should. Maybe on some days when you're, you know, maybe well rested."

"But let me ask you today, do you bear much fruit? Maybe in some ways you do. Fantastic. Maybe in other ways you're like, 'Ah, I feel like God's reminding me this morning of something that he wants from me, wants me to grow in.'"

If you don't feel like you're becoming more like Jesus, growth can be really slow. He remembered reading a book, "and it was by a famous Christian so sociologist I can't say that word so sociologist thank you." The author said the slowest of all human movements is character change. Then Pastor Joseph asked if anyone had seen the sloth in Zootopia: "It's slower than that."

If you've drifted, come back to Jesus, and if things are going well, train in the next thing.

He ended with John 15:11: "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." That comes right after "if you keep my commands." Jesus is connecting doing what he teaches with sharing in his joy.

"I think we hear training and it's really easy for us to think about what it's going to cost us. And that's not bad. But Jesus wants us to see what we're growing into and motivate us as we follow him."

"So I want to ask you one last time, what are you remaining in? Imagine becoming less controlled by anger, more able to forgive, more present with people you love, more generous, more like Jesus. There's a joy in becoming that kind of person." Then he asked if he could pray over the church.

Pastor Joseph Rangel prayed:

Remaining at the Table

Before communion, the veterans in the room, those on active duty, and their spouses and families stood to be honored ahead of Veterans Day on Wednesday. "Happy Veterans Day." Pam's father served 26 years in the Air Force reserves, "And so it's a special day for us as we honor his service."

Over the bread, Pastor Brady prayed:

Over the cup, he prayed:

Pastor Lindsay closed the service: "Can we give one more round of applause to Pastor Joseph? Thank you for an incredible message today. That was the most awkward hug we've ever done." She added, "Isn't it cool that we made a hotel the house of God this morning?"

She thanked the kids ministry and said the Village Church holds space for differences, from those who like to feel the bass in their chest to those who need the quiet room. "The point is is that we don't create a church that is only for one type of person." On November 22nd after church, the team will talk about communities and take questions. "Have an amazing week this week. Be the village and we'll see you next week."

Questions for the Week: What Are You Remaining In?

1. What are you remaining in? What makes you feel stable, like you could take on the world?
2. Have you used the truth that God loves you to dismiss what he asks of you?
3. In what other ways could you deny yourself and train more with Jesus?
4. When are you most alert and most ready to receive from Jesus, and are you giving him that time?
5. What small moments can you train in now so you are ready when the big temptation comes?
6. How can you be a blessing to the people you gather with this week?

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