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Ever want to be closer to Jesus?

Ever want to be closer to Jesus?

APRIL 3, 2023

/ Programs / Key Life / Ever want to be closer to Jesus?

Steve Brown:
Ever want to be closer to Jesus? We’re here to help, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Welcome to Key Life. I’m Matthew, executive producer of the program. Our host is Steve Brown. He’s an author in seminary, professor who teaches that God’s amazing grace is the key to a life of radical freedom, infectious joy, and surprising faithfulness to Christ.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. And another Matthew, Matt Heard is here with me and he’s here this week from Colorado. Matt is among other things, my close friend, he is a former student, but I take no credit nor blame for anything he says or anything that he is. He is a voice, one of the five voices of Key Life. And you hear him fairly often on this broadcast, but this week is going to be different. And by the way, the ministry, the primary ministry of Matt Heard is called Thrive. And I’m going to be saying more about that as we go along. But it is a world changing ministry and if you want to check it out, you ought to, you can go to ThriveFullyAlive that’s ThriveFullyAlive.com. And if you go to that website, you’re going to see what God is doing through Thrive. It’s amazing, everything from teaching teachers and staff and students in Christian schools, to working with leaders in industry and leaders in government of touching lives, in terms of conferences and books. So, check it out and you’ll rise up and call me blessed for telling you about it. Matt, you do have a busy schedule.

Matt Heard: I do and I feel tired after you just described everything that I’m supposedly doing.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, you are.

Matt Heard: That’s fantastic, I’d like you to record that again and

Steve Brown:
Play it over here just at nights before you go to bed.

Matt Heard: Absolutely, yeah. I’ve got to work on the website cause there, it’s not nearly enough of that stuff in the website. You’ve seen other things, it’s out on there, but yes, they can find out more.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, go there and check it out.

Matt Heard: By the way, I love what you’ve done with the place here.

Steve Brown:
In this, they can’t see it because it’s done for video, for the talk show that we do, Steve Brown Etc. And that’s for years, was on two or 300 radio stations, but now it’s video on a YouTube channel and we’re getting thousands of people that are watching it.

Matt Heard: I love it. I love it.

Steve Brown:
So, I can’t, you know, I have to make sure that I smile. And that I look nice and don’t make an obscene gesture.

Matt Heard: Is that what you’re doing right now? Are you smiling or making obscene gestures? It’s hard for me to tell the difference.

Steve Brown:
So I, let me, let me tell you what we’re going to do this week. Matt and I have decided we’re going to take you on a journey to the Cross. And we’re going to do it through the Gospel of John. We’re going to start at the 15th chapter. And there’s no way we can read all of the chapters to you. So, you’re going to have to open your Bible, unless you’re driving. Open your Bible and sit down with us, and then make a commitment to read that particular chapter before you go to bed tonight. And we’re going to look at some of the major themes in all of those as we move from how to be close to Jesus, to the final Friday, Good Friday, the Cross and the Resurrection. So, go with us this week from the Gospel of John, have your Bible close by or read it later, starting at the 15th chapter of John. And the first, and this 15th chapter of John is an amazing chapter. Jesus says things that we really don’t believe. He says in this chapter

That apart from me, you can do nothing.

And we say, well, we can do some things. And Jesus says, no, apart from me, you can do nothing. But the whole chapter is built around a theme of the vine that we’re attached to it. And one of the problems that every Christian has is that we want to move it from our head to our heart. We want to move it so that we’re close to Jesus. My late friend, Frank Boggs, said he was in a revival that started with a simple song, I Want to See Jesus. And so, that’s what we’re going to do during this broadcast, and we’ll be letting you know as we go along on the other broadcasts. Is that desire pretty universal?

Matt Heard: Yeah. That desire to walk closely with Jesus, that desire absolutely is there. But in terms of us being able to articulate where we go to fulfill those desires as yearnings, you know, C.S. Lewis referred to our sehnsucht, our yearning, our thirst, our ache. We all have the same yearnings for significance and intimacy and belonging. We just go to different places, to see that addressed, but bottom line, and we’re going to see during this week, you know, Jesus says, I’m eternal life, I’ve come to give eternal life. And that eternal life is in essence relating with the Father through Him. And that’s when all of those yearnings are addressed. So yes, people all have a common yearning to be closer to Jesus, they just wouldn’t describe it that way. But we all have a yearning to experience what happens when you do get close to Jesus.

Steve Brown:
You know, people are always talking about how do you get assurance. And there are a lot of ways, you persevere. Reformed people say, dispensational people say, nail down a date when you came to Christ. But I believe the way you can know you’re a Christian is simple. You just look and see if you have a desire to be better than you are. And not only that, a desire to walk in a more profound and deeper way with Jesus himself. And Matt, this chapter has a lot to say about it, doesn’t it?

Matt Heard: Oh, it does. I mean, so often we, in fact we hesitated a little bit to divide it up by chapters cause obviously John didn’t write in chapters. But this is a description of just the last hours of Jesus’ journey leading up to the Cross. And there’s so much relationship packed in here. I mean, think about, this is the, in the middle of the Upper Room discourse, and in chapter 15, you can start that back with chapter 13 and start reading through. But I’d encourage all of our listeners to spend some time each day letting these chapters kind of guide them in that intimacy. And this passage kicks off the week to say, Jesus is saying, Hey, abide in me. The NIV uses the word remain, but the word is, I love the translation abide better. He’s saying, I want you to abide in me, and that’s when you’re going to bear much fruit. So, it’s a relational beckoning that he’s making in his final hours before the Cross. He’s saying, I want you to get close to me. And you see all sorts of themes coming up in the passage in terms of, you know, in there in Psalm 1, Jeremiah 17, that image of us being like a tree planted by the water, but that whole aspect of getting our roots deep in terms of the intimacy that can only come from him.

Steve Brown:
And you know, the interesting thing when you begin to check the Old Testament is that the, one of the symbols of Israel is a tree. And so, when Jesus says, I am the vine and you are the branches, he’s saying, and every Jewish listener, disciple knew that he was saying, I’m the man. I’m the tree. I am the vine. I am, what you have thought of Israel for all these hundreds of years. Okay. How do we abide? I mean, the Greek word if for abide means abide, just hang out with, be close to

Matt Heard: find your home in

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Matt Heard: Find your home.

Steve Brown:
Yeah, your home. Talk to us about how one does that from Jesus.

Matt Heard: Well, I think he’s inviting far more than a religiosity, so often we talk about the spiritual disciplines and saying, okay, then my relationship with Jesus is over here and the rest of the time I live my life. And I think what he’s referring to there is a vine doesn’t abide some of the time and the rest of the time it goes down bears fruit.

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Matt Heard: All the time, you know, that passage about praying without ceasing.

Steve Brown:
Yeah.

Matt Heard: That confuses a lot of folks. You know what? So much of my prayers don’t need an amen to the end of them. In fact, an image that I have is the benefit of our cell phones. You know, you have that end call. Don’t ever press end call in your conversation with Jesus. Don’t ever say, okay, the call’s done.

Steve Brown:
That’s so good.

Matt Heard: Just leave an open line and have that continual interaction with him about whatever is going on and picturing vine and branch, I’m here and I’m not going to be able to do anything of great significance or fulfillment unless I’m attached to, relating with, and finding my home in the vine.

Steve Brown:
And so, it’s not, it’s not a gigantic thing you need a book for, because abide means abide. It means just stay with him, talk to him. When you’re angry, let him know you’re angry. When you’re hurt, let him know you’re hurt. When you have needs, let him know your needs. Let him love you. Walk with him and think about it, and that’ll change your life.

Matt Heard: Absolutely. I mean, you go through this passage and you see obeying, and loving others, and praying, and over and over you’re seeing him emphasize, okay, pray, talk to me, love other people, and submit before me for your fulfillment.

Steve Brown:
Eh, that’ll work. That’s good. And so, as you go through Holy Week on this, the Monday of Holy Week, remember abiding in Christ and when you pray, say, Lord, do it for me. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve and Matt. That was Steve Brown and our friend Matt Heard, hanging out and teaching us about Easter as we travel through the Gospel of John. And as Steve mentioned, this is Holy Week, so we’ll be taking this journey the entire week, Monday through Friday. Very special time, hope you will be here with us throughout. Well, I am very excited to tell you about this. We recently had the Richard Foster join us on Steve Brown Etc. and in that conversation we discussed the virtue of humility. Well, Richard posits that humility may be the most important virtue of our time, and yet it is vanishing. If you’re familiar with Richard Foster, you are going to love this conversation. And if you’re not, then we could not be more pleased to make this introduction. Get that episode on CD for free right now by calling us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for that CD. Or to mail your request, go to Keylife.org/contact for our mailing addresses. Just ask for the free CD featuring Richard Foster. Finally, a question, a request really, would you perfectly consider partnering in the work of Key Life through your giving? You could charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or now you can simply text Key Life to 28950 that’s Key Life, one word, two words. It doesn’t matter. Text that to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.

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