March 23, 2026 • 28 mins
In part 7 of the Encouragement for the Way series, I’m breaking down my takeaways from John chapters 11-16. In these jam-packed accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus we come face to face with the topics of love, humility, prayer, sanctification and the power of the Holy Spirit. Guys, when we live connected to Christ and growing in the things He taught, we will become people He will use to impact the world!
Get all the Scripture references mentioned in this episode: https://jennyzentz.com/podcast135
And please don’t forget to subscribe, share, rate, and review. Together we can help more women discover practical ways to apply the power of God’s Word to our everyday stuff!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I love this because that's that sanctification process.
Literally, He's saying I have a lot of things I could say a lot
of things you need to know, maybe a lot of things you need
to work on, but you're not able to take it all right now.
And the Holy Spirit works with us little by little to that
process of sanctification. Thank the Lord He doesn't show
us all of our problems at once. Welcome to the Intertwined Life
(00:27):
podcast. I'm your host, Jenny Zenz.
I am a wife and a mom on a mission.
I've got a passion to help womendiscover practical ways to apply
the power of God's word to our everyday stuff.
I truly believe that our walks with the Lord should be
seamlessly intertwined with our everyday lives.
It should affect every move we make and every breath we take.
(00:49):
So come on, let's do life together.
You've got this because he's gotyou.
Hey friends, welcome back to theIntertwined Life podcast and to
the series we are calling Encouragement for the way.
And we've been looking through and going through the book of
John and, and some of you I knowfinished it in January because
(01:13):
we made it a point to say in January, there are 21 chapters
you can do 1A day, you can get through in 21 days.
But I also know that some peoplehave not gotten that far yet.
And that's completely OK. I do hope that you are spending
time every single day and maybe in your life season that looks
(01:34):
like you read a verse that you've written down because you
want to remember it. And you write it on your
bathroom mirror with a dry erasemarker.
And you have a card in your car and next to your coffee pot.
And you just read it every time you see it so that it becomes
ingrained in you. And as you read that scripture,
you pray, you know, Lord, open the eyes of my heart.
(01:54):
Show me more things out of Your Word.
Make this take root for me and help me know what you want me to
know. Like that is a powerful way to
begin inviting the Holy Spirit to work through His word in your
everyday life, even if you don'thave a practice set up of every
single day, getting up in the morning and having three hours
of prayer. I do not do that, by the way.
(02:16):
I get up every morning first thing is my coffee and my Bible,
but it does not last three hoursand I am not on my knees in
prayer every morning. A lot of mornings I'm curled up
with my coffee saying good morning, God, you know, are we
doing today or just telling him all the concerns and issues I
have on my heart and seeing where he leads.
But he's faithful to do that. James, 48, says when we draw
(02:37):
near to him, he draws near to us.
So I want to be sure that you are making it a point that you
have found your spot. You know where your spot is.
You know that time of day that works for you.
I truly have believed the mornings are powerful and
there's reason for that. But maybe for you it's not until
(02:57):
everyone's in bed and the evening is done and you feel
like the day has come to a closeand you can take a breath and
process and sit with the Lord and think clearly.
For me, I am exhausted by then. I am done.
But a lot of people, maybe that's your time.
That's OK. But then decide what time of the
day are you at your best, able to share with the Lord and
(03:21):
receive from Him? What time of the day can you
most likely take some deep breaths, invite the Lord to
speak to your heart, share what's on your heart, and sit
still in His presence. And where is your spot?
Where in your home? Maybe it's your car, maybe it's
(03:42):
going for a walk. Sometimes that active out in
nature, whatever that is, where is it?
And that's going to be a triggerto your mind and to your spirit
and to your soul this time of day in this place.
This is when we commune with Godand that'll help.
Now again, this is not a one anddone check a box.
We are to be conversing and talking with the Lord all day
(04:04):
long as we breathe in and as we breathe out, as we leave and as
we come home. As we see things, let it spark
us to pray. As thoughts arise in our mind,
let it remind us to pray. As we see things that are we are
so thankful for, that are so beautiful, let it remind us to
rejoice and give thanks. So this is something we want to
continually be doing on an ongoing, never ending type of
(04:27):
basis. But man, that one spot and that
one time each day to really makethat our only focus is very
powerful. So let's pick up in John,
Chapter 11. The last couple times that we've
gone through John, we have been reading through, we've gone
through chapter 10. And like I said before, this is
not this deep theological study of the scripture.
(04:51):
This is me showing you how when you come to the Word, you open
it up, you ask the Lord to show you what he wants to show you.
And then just start writing downthings that jump out.
Take them to the Lord in prayer.The questions that you have,
write those down, Talk to the Lord about those. e-mail a
friend, talk to a pastor, like dig in there, find answers, do
(05:13):
the best you can, but mostly just sit and receive what he has
for you. So I write down notes of, hey,
this is what jumped out to me for you.
It might be different. This is just giving you a little
peek into the window of how I study and what the Lord speaks
to my heart as I do so. Looking at John Chapter 11, we
see the death of Lazarus and he was a good friend of Jesus.
(05:34):
What we see is that Jesus was told days before Lazarus died
that he was sick. And this is Jesus who had healed
the sick many, many times. And yet what we see here is
Jesus waited. He stayed where he was, and then
he didn't come until Lazarus hadalready passed.
(05:55):
And Jesus knew all this because he's also God.
And when he came and he saw the hearts of the people, he cried.
This is that shortest verse in the Bible.
Jesus wept, and yet he knew all things.
He also knew he was going to raise him from the dead.
But don't ever take for granted the fact that Jesus knows what
(06:20):
it is like to be human. He knows what hurt is, He knows
what loss is, He knows pain, he knows disappointment, he knows
sorrow. And so he sees all of that.
And then he also knows what a relationship with him and the
power of our Almighty God can work in our lives.
(06:42):
So it's so many levels here to unpack.
So it's an amazing story, but one thing just that always jumps
out at me is to know when God allows trials and tragedies and
when he seems late to the game, He always has a purpose.
In verses 14 and 15, you see that He said for your sake so
(07:04):
that you may believe. He does things to increase our
faith, things that may not make sense in the moment, things that
are hard in the moment, but because the greater purpose is
that we know Him and make Him know.
And he wants that solid, powerful relationship with a
relationship with us. And sometimes it takes these
hard things to help us truly seehis glory.
(07:25):
In verses 32, Martha's the one who came to him, and he says on
the record as resurrection life,she says, I know.
OK, so when Mary reached the place, because Mary didn't even
come out to greet Him. And so when Mary came out,
that's when first thing she said, she fell at his feet.
And she said, Lord, if you had been here, he would not have
died. Tragedies when we know God, you
(07:50):
could have stopped it. Those are hard.
They happen and they're hard. And this is what Mary is
experiencing here. Jesus knew he was there.
Even he was saddened by the hurtof his friends that they'd
experienced. He feels are hurt.
He has compassion on us and eventhough he knows the greater
plan, like I think about sometimes when my son was 2 and
(08:14):
he was having blood drawn because he was going through
some health issues that we had to get to the bottom of and it
was so sad and so painful and hedidn't know why mommy was there
with him and letting someone hurt him.
I mean, that's the perspective of this precious 2 year old and
it's heartbreaking for mommy. So you know what?
Mommy wept. I cried too, but I knew there
(08:36):
was a greater purpose and a greater plan, even though I
allowed this to happen. So.
So these are just things that wecan learn in our everyday life.
When we look at scripture and wesee how Christ acted and we see
these examples, they can teach us so much about life and the
character of God and that we arenever alone even in the midst of
those hard times. What one thing I really want to
(08:57):
point out is verse 44, after Jesus had raised Lazarus from
the dead and Lazarus comes out of the tomb, he's still bound in
the grave clothes which you know, kind of like a mummy, you
know, like all wrapped up. Jesus tells the people there,
the friends, the family, those gathered you loose him and set
(09:18):
him free. Jesus had just raised the man
from the dead. I'm sure he could have made
those grave clothes fall off without anyone else's help, but
he chose to use others to help Lazar to fully be free.
And that is a beautiful example of Christian community.
Jesus wants us to walk in community.
(09:38):
He wants to use us in each other's lives to help each other
truly be free. He is the one who saves.
He's the one who speaks life into dead things.
But he wants us to walk togetherin community.
So I just think that's beautiful.
In chapter 12, we see Mary positioned at his feet.
This is actually the position ofa disciple sitting at the feet
(10:01):
of a teacher was only reserved for men who were highly educated
and being discipled by this rabbi and who had been chosen by
this wise rabbi. And here Mary is sitting at the
feet of Jesus. The people were upset for many
reasons, but one of the reasons all the all the religious people
at this dinner were upset, Mary literally as a woman was sitting
(10:23):
at the feet in the position of adisciple before the Lord.
So this is a glimpse into how Christ truly doesn't see man and
woman. He sees us all as my children,
my brothers and sisters, my friends, that I want to share my
life with you and I want you to know me.
Jesus was unlike any rabbi in the fact that he encouraged
(10:46):
women to study scripture and to know God.
Whoever knows Jesus knows God the Father.
This is verse 44 and 46 in chapter 12.
I love that word because as we see, we can study the Gospels
and in doing so learn more and more about Jesus.
And as we do, as we know Jesus, we know God the Father.
(11:09):
So the word is powerful in so many ways.
Chapter 13. Jesus full well knew who he was.
These scriptures reiterate that how to show the full extent of
Jesus's humility and how much more should we serve each other,
even those who betray us? Christ washed the feet of Judas.
(11:32):
He didn't just wash the feet of the ones who truly loved him.
He washed the feet of Judas. And he knew Judas would betray
him, and him being God himself, knowing what he was about to do,
took a towel, wrapped it around his waist and knelt down in
front of the stinky mud and other stuff, caked feet of his
(11:55):
disciples and washed them and served them and made this
incredible act of humility and love as his example to us.
Verse 21 it says Jesus heart wastroubled in 1427.
Jesus said do not let your heartbe troubled.
(12:15):
And then in verse 21 of chapter 13 we see his heart was
troubled. What is interesting is this is
actually a different Greek word.So I spent some time looking
this up and I've given you guys a few of the tools like the
enduring Word app. It is in strong concordance.
It's very helpful for helping usunderstand the original language
because the Bible was not written in English.
And so the translation, sometimes we need to study a
(12:38):
little bit deeper to pull back more layers.
Jesus's heart was was stirred upand heavy, but he's telling us
not to let our hearts be completely without hope.
So that's just something you candig more into that, but that's
just kind of a little window into what's happening there. 34
and 35, he tells us to love one another in the same way that he
(12:59):
loves us. And in John 15, he told us that
he loves us the way that God loves him, that we're supposed
to love others the way that God loves Jesus.
What I mean, wow, what an example, what a powerful thing.
And he's telling this commandment that the world will
(13:20):
know that you are my disciples by the way that you love others.
And he's saying this right afterhe has washed their feet.
It can feel a little overwhelming to see that Christ
is telling us how we're supposedto love and that the world will
know Him in us by how we love each other.
And then we look at the state ofthe world and the nations and
(13:44):
the churches today and we think,Oh my gosh, we're so far from
that. How is there any hope?
And how overwhelming does that call feel?
Go back to abiding in Him. And actually we're about to get
to chapter 15. Abide in Him when we abide in
Him. When we stay in Him, we stay
close to Him and His love and His word abides in us.
(14:06):
We will have peace, we will havejoy and all we can focus on is
what we can do. What we can do is we can show
His love to the world. We should focus on walking with
Him daily and sharing Him. I know it is exhausting and
overwhelming and troubling to see how off base the world is
(14:27):
and to wonder how in the world can I make any impact.
You cannot change the whole world, but the love of Christ in
you can have an eternal impact on those around you.
You stay close, stay united, stay in the Word, stay close in
prayer, knowing that as you loveothers from the overflow of that
(14:50):
love of Christ within you, the world will see that.
And that's how they will know that we are His disciples and
that He truly is loved by the love we show.
Chapter 14 he's talking about prayer and he says whatever you
ask in my name. And I used to get really
(15:11):
struggling with this scripture because it's like whatever you
ask for. Well, I can ask for anything and
say in Jesus name. And then if I don't get it,
well, right. But what he's saying there, when
you ask in the name of someone, it is in keeping with who they
are in alignment with their willand their desire.
When you ask in alignment with his character, His will, his
(15:32):
desire. Jesus, don't get off track here
because sometimes people are like, oh, if you pray for
healing and someone's not healed, then you have a lack of
faith. There are times when God allows
things for a greater purpose, and Jesus himself is an example
of this. Jesus in the Garden of
Gethsemane, Pray, Lord, take this cup from me.
(15:55):
We're talking about the cross. If there's any other way, I
don't want to have to do this. And then Jesus himself said,
nevertheless your will be done. And I believe that is how we
come in prayer. We ask the Lord for what we
want, for what we desire, knowing with no lack at all of
faith that He can do anything and everything.
(16:16):
There is nothing outside of his hand in his control.
However, He knows the absolute best.
SO the faith that Christ models is that never the less type of
faith may we come to a point where we can come to him and
say, God, I know you can do this, I ask you to do this.
I believe you can do absolutely anything, but never the less
(16:39):
your will be done. Christ himself did not get
deliverance from that cup and Heasked for it.
So you cannot say Jesus didn't have enough faith to be
delivered from the cross. It was His faith and his love
and his knowledge of the plan ofGod and his love for us that
helped him choose the cross regardless of any other option.
(17:02):
And I love verse 16 of chapter 14.
It says, and I was Jesus. He's talking, He says, and I
will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate to
help you to 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 where he lives with you and will
be in you. Jesus is promising the coming of
(17:25):
the Holy Spirit to all those whofollow him.
His Holy Spirit is now in us if we are faith is in Jesus and I
love we continue on. This is some of my favorite
scripture because he tells us inverse 26 what the Holy Spirit
does for us. He's the advocate and he will
teach us all things and he will remind us of everything that
(17:46):
Christ has said. And this is where I always like
to say the Holy Spirit's not going to remind us of things we
have not given mine to. So we need to be in the Word.
We need to be learning. We need to be digging and
memorizing and studying and applying.
But it is his job to make it make sense.
It's his job to teach it to us. It's his job to explain it to
(18:07):
us, and it's His job to remind us of it.
Our job is just to show up, be in the Word.
The Holy Spirit takes over the rest.
And then once again we see Jesussaying peace, I leave with you
my peace. I give to you.
I don't give you peace as the world gives like the world, it
doesn't stay. The world type of peace is very
(18:28):
fleeting. It's very situational and
circumstantial. But he says do not let your
hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid.
All right. And then moving on to chapter
15, it's all about the abiding, the abiding and the vine.
I've touched on this already, but if you want really good
reading deeper about this portion of Scripture and about
(18:51):
what it means to abide in the vine from a vineyard
perspective, like what those of that day would have understood
in Jesus parallel of our relationship with him being like
abiding a branch, abiding in thevine.
The book by Beth Moore called Chasing Vines is so cool.
She goes to Italy, she experiences a vineyard.
(19:12):
She learns about what it means that a branch abides and that
those who are pruned off and those who don't bear food are
pulled out. I mean, it's awesome.
Read that book or listen to it. If you have the Hoopla app.
HOOPLA, it's an app you can get that can connect to many local
(19:32):
libraries. I know here in Brevard County it
does. All you have to have is a
library number for your local library, Public Library.
Put that number in and there areso many free audio books and I
believe it is one on there for free you could listen to and
it's so, so good. So I encourage you to do that
knowing that he says abide in me.
The word abide means to dwell and make your home, not come
(19:55):
visit me, you know, in the morning and say hi, but abide,
dwell, make your home in Christ and he will abide, dwell, make
his home in US. Abiding is what brings about
that sanctification. We've already been made clean.
We accept him and for the forgiveness of our sins, that's
salvation. But that continual abiding, that
(20:16):
continual staying in him, that'sthe growth.
That's the sanctification, that's the becoming more and
more like Christ. Good verse 8.
He talks about us remaining in Him and if we do, we will bear
fruit. If we look at Galatians 5, we
know that the fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace,
(20:36):
patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and
self-control. Wow.
If we abide in him, if we stay close to him, not if we accept
him and going out of our lives and then want to know why we
don't have any fruit. If we are abiding and staying
connected, we begin to bear fruit.
And this fruit he tells us in verse 8 of chapter 15 of John is
(21:00):
that this is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit,
showing yourselves to be my disciples, not to become my
disciple. We don't bear fruit.
We don't do works to get to be his disciple, to get to be
saved, to get to be connected with Jesus and part of God's
family, but it is to his glory, meaning it shows awesomeness of
(21:22):
who God is to everyone around uswhen we bear fruit.
And it's by bearing this fruit, by staying connected to him that
we bear this fruit. And this fruit is the evidence
of what's happened on the insideof us.
The we can say we believe in Jesus and that's awesome.
And that's what it takes, faith in Jesus to receive the
salvation and forgiveness. But it's only by staying
(21:45):
connected to him, growing in him, actually walking with him,
that we begin to bear the fruit.And the fruit of being connected
with him is what shows the worldwho we follow and who we truly
are. And I want to show you again
where Jesus talks about us loving each other.
I want to show you again where Igot this crazy idea that we're
supposed to love people the way God loves Jesus.
(22:07):
It says in verse 9, chapter 15, Jesus says as my Father has
loved me, so I have loved you. And then when you go to chapter
verse 12, he says my commandmentis this, that you love each
other as I have loved you. So if you just go back to what
he just said, he just said he has loved us the way that God
loves him and he wants us to love others the way he loves us.
(22:30):
So we're supposed to love othersthe way God loves Jesus.
Oh my gosh, we all have some growth to do in that area, I'm
sure. But wow, what a commandment,
what a powerful it is. It's a command.
He says, this is my command. And he tells us if you love me,
you obey me. And wow, how we show this love,
(22:55):
how we reflect that to the world.
It's powerful, it's challenging.Don't think of it as something
that is just might as well give up because there's no way you'll
ever get there because I know it's that's a lot that's hard.
We are human. He knows we are human.
We're told so many times the scripture to be renewed in our
minds, to set our minds on things above and keep them set.
(23:16):
It's something we have to keep doing.
But man, if we can keep His words before us and keep them
close to the surface, keep them near to our hearts, how much
more will we remember and think and show that love out of the
overflow of that time we're spending with Him?
And I think that's the other thing.
It seems impossible because it actually is.
(23:38):
With man, it's impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. So it's only with His help that
we can do what He's called us todo.
But the beauty of that is that He never caused us to do
something He doesn't help us andenable us to do with His help.
So thank you, Lord for that. And if we look chapter 16, verse
(23:59):
seven, he tells us it's to his advantage that he goes, that we
may have the Holy Spirit. He's talking specifically to his
disciples like, I'm going to die, I'm going to leave, but
it's good for you that I'm leaving because then the Holy
Spirit's going to come. So Jesus consistently promised
the Holy Spirit coming, which isa beautiful, wonderful thing
because that's that Spirit of God himself in us that reveals
(24:22):
Scripture that guides our lives,that draws us into that close
relationship and helps us fully experience the love and the
power of God within our souls. So verse 12 of chapter 16, I
want to show that really quickly.
It says I have much more to say to you, more than you can now
bear. But when the Spirit of truth
(24:43):
comes, He will guide you into all truth.
I love this because when the Holy Spirit comes, that's that
sanctification process. Literally, He's saying, I have a
lot of things I could say, a lotof things you need to know,
maybe a lot of things you need to work on, but you're not able
to take it all right now. And the Holy Spirit works with
us little by little to that process of sanctification.
(25:05):
Thank the Lord He doesn't show us all of our problems at once.
OK. That is why sometimes when we
begin walking closely with the Lord, we start thinking, Oh my
gosh, I'm worse than I thought Iwas.
And it seems like the more time I spend with the Lord, the worse
of a person I am. It's not that.
It's that things that are hiddenin darkness, when they are
exposed to the light, start to show up.
(25:25):
And the things in us that are kind of hidden and that are kind
of yucky and kind of dark, the closer we walk to the light,
which is Christ, the more they're going to show up.
But they're not showing up for us to feel condemned.
They're showing up layer by layer, piece by piece so that he
can say, hey, let's pull that out so you can become more like
me. Let's pull that out so you can
become more like me. And he shows us little by
(25:46):
little, That's the process of sanctification.
It's all over Scripture because thank you, Lord.
He doesn't show all the issues at one time.
I don't think any of us could handle that.
And then one more myth I want tobust before we wrap up this one,
chapter 16, verse 33. It's one of my favorite verses
in Scripture because Jesus is soreal with us.
(26:08):
And sometimes people want to say, well, if your faith was
stronger, you wouldn't have problems or Christians aren't
supposed to have problems. And once you become a Christian,
everything's great. And that's just not true.
Life is still hard. We all still go through stuff,
but we go through it differently.
And this is the perfect example of that verse 33.
(26:30):
Jesus said, I have told you all these things so that in me you
may have peace in this world, you will have trouble, but take
heart, I have overcome this world.
And so we know that when we facetrouble just like everyone else,
we can face it differently because we know the one who's in
control. We know that in the end we win.
(26:52):
We know that nothing has true power, nothing can touch our
spirit, nothing can take away the promise of life given to us
by Christ. And this world, this life in
this world is just a tiny portion of life.
All right, I'm gonna wrap up there.
(27:12):
I love you guys. We will be back with some other
another interview coming up before too long and then we'll
wrap up the book of John and maybe pretty close to be done
with this series. We'll just kind of see how
things go. But hope everybody has a great
week and I will see you soon. Hey friend, if you enjoyed this
(27:35):
episode and you got some good stuff out of it, there's a few
options. You have 1, you could click that
little subscribe button. And also, if you would review
this podcast, Oh my gosh, if youlike what you heard, get on
there. Give it a five star review.
If you didn't like what you heard, just pretend it never
happened, OK? But if you would do a review for
me, just take a couple seconds and do that.
(27:56):
Not only would I be crazy excited, but also it would just
be a great way for us to partnertogether, for you to help this
podcast be seen by more women out there.
And you could be a part of helping more women discover
these practical ways to apply God's Word to just everyday
stuff. So I would love it, love it,
love it if you could help me outin one of those two ways.
I love this because that's that sanctification process.
Literally, He's saying I have a lot of things I could say a lot
of things you need to know, maybe a lot of things you need
to work on, but you're not able to take it all right now.
And the Holy Spirit works with us little by little to that
process of sanctification. Thank the Lord He doesn't show
us all of our problems at once. Welcome to the Intertwined Life
(00:27):
podcast. I'm your host, Jenny Zenz.
I am a wife and a mom on a mission.
I've got a passion to help womendiscover practical ways to apply
the power of God's word to our everyday stuff.
I truly believe that our walks with the Lord should be
seamlessly intertwined with our everyday lives.
It should affect every move we make and every breath we take.
(00:49):
So come on, let's do life together.
You've got this because he's gotyou.
Hey friends, welcome back to theIntertwined Life podcast and to
the series we are calling Encouragement for the way.
And we've been looking through and going through the book of
John and, and some of you I knowfinished it in January because
(01:13):
we made it a point to say in January, there are 21 chapters
you can do 1A day, you can get through in 21 days.
But I also know that some peoplehave not gotten that far yet.
And that's completely OK. I do hope that you are spending
time every single day and maybe in your life season that looks
(01:34):
like you read a verse that you've written down because you
want to remember it. And you write it on your
bathroom mirror with a dry erasemarker.
And you have a card in your car and next to your coffee pot.
And you just read it every time you see it so that it becomes
ingrained in you. And as you read that scripture,
you pray, you know, Lord, open the eyes of my heart.
(01:54):
Show me more things out of Your Word.
Make this take root for me and help me know what you want me to
know. Like that is a powerful way to
begin inviting the Holy Spirit to work through His word in your
everyday life, even if you don'thave a practice set up of every
single day, getting up in the morning and having three hours
of prayer. I do not do that, by the way.
(02:16):
I get up every morning first thing is my coffee and my Bible,
but it does not last three hoursand I am not on my knees in
prayer every morning. A lot of mornings I'm curled up
with my coffee saying good morning, God, you know, are we
doing today or just telling him all the concerns and issues I
have on my heart and seeing where he leads.
But he's faithful to do that. James, 48, says when we draw
(02:37):
near to him, he draws near to us.
So I want to be sure that you are making it a point that you
have found your spot. You know where your spot is.
You know that time of day that works for you.
I truly have believed the mornings are powerful and
there's reason for that. But maybe for you it's not until
(02:57):
everyone's in bed and the evening is done and you feel
like the day has come to a closeand you can take a breath and
process and sit with the Lord and think clearly.
For me, I am exhausted by then. I am done.
But a lot of people, maybe that's your time.
That's OK. But then decide what time of the
day are you at your best, able to share with the Lord and
(03:21):
receive from Him? What time of the day can you
most likely take some deep breaths, invite the Lord to
speak to your heart, share what's on your heart, and sit
still in His presence. And where is your spot?
Where in your home? Maybe it's your car, maybe it's
(03:42):
going for a walk. Sometimes that active out in
nature, whatever that is, where is it?
And that's going to be a triggerto your mind and to your spirit
and to your soul this time of day in this place.
This is when we commune with Godand that'll help.
Now again, this is not a one anddone check a box.
We are to be conversing and talking with the Lord all day
(04:04):
long as we breathe in and as we breathe out, as we leave and as
we come home. As we see things, let it spark
us to pray. As thoughts arise in our mind,
let it remind us to pray. As we see things that are we are
so thankful for, that are so beautiful, let it remind us to
rejoice and give thanks. So this is something we want to
continually be doing on an ongoing, never ending type of
(04:27):
basis. But man, that one spot and that
one time each day to really makethat our only focus is very
powerful. So let's pick up in John,
Chapter 11. The last couple times that we've
gone through John, we have been reading through, we've gone
through chapter 10. And like I said before, this is
not this deep theological study of the scripture.
(04:51):
This is me showing you how when you come to the Word, you open
it up, you ask the Lord to show you what he wants to show you.
And then just start writing downthings that jump out.
Take them to the Lord in prayer.The questions that you have,
write those down, Talk to the Lord about those. e-mail a
friend, talk to a pastor, like dig in there, find answers, do
(05:13):
the best you can, but mostly just sit and receive what he has
for you. So I write down notes of, hey,
this is what jumped out to me for you.
It might be different. This is just giving you a little
peek into the window of how I study and what the Lord speaks
to my heart as I do so. Looking at John Chapter 11, we
see the death of Lazarus and he was a good friend of Jesus.
(05:34):
What we see is that Jesus was told days before Lazarus died
that he was sick. And this is Jesus who had healed
the sick many, many times. And yet what we see here is
Jesus waited. He stayed where he was, and then
he didn't come until Lazarus hadalready passed.
(05:55):
And Jesus knew all this because he's also God.
And when he came and he saw the hearts of the people, he cried.
This is that shortest verse in the Bible.
Jesus wept, and yet he knew all things.
He also knew he was going to raise him from the dead.
But don't ever take for granted the fact that Jesus knows what
(06:20):
it is like to be human. He knows what hurt is, He knows
what loss is, He knows pain, he knows disappointment, he knows
sorrow. And so he sees all of that.
And then he also knows what a relationship with him and the
power of our Almighty God can work in our lives.
(06:42):
So it's so many levels here to unpack.
So it's an amazing story, but one thing just that always jumps
out at me is to know when God allows trials and tragedies and
when he seems late to the game, He always has a purpose.
In verses 14 and 15, you see that He said for your sake so
(07:04):
that you may believe. He does things to increase our
faith, things that may not make sense in the moment, things that
are hard in the moment, but because the greater purpose is
that we know Him and make Him know.
And he wants that solid, powerful relationship with a
relationship with us. And sometimes it takes these
hard things to help us truly seehis glory.
(07:25):
In verses 32, Martha's the one who came to him, and he says on
the record as resurrection life,she says, I know.
OK, so when Mary reached the place, because Mary didn't even
come out to greet Him. And so when Mary came out,
that's when first thing she said, she fell at his feet.
And she said, Lord, if you had been here, he would not have
died. Tragedies when we know God, you
(07:50):
could have stopped it. Those are hard.
They happen and they're hard. And this is what Mary is
experiencing here. Jesus knew he was there.
Even he was saddened by the hurtof his friends that they'd
experienced. He feels are hurt.
He has compassion on us and eventhough he knows the greater
plan, like I think about sometimes when my son was 2 and
(08:14):
he was having blood drawn because he was going through
some health issues that we had to get to the bottom of and it
was so sad and so painful and hedidn't know why mommy was there
with him and letting someone hurt him.
I mean, that's the perspective of this precious 2 year old and
it's heartbreaking for mommy. So you know what?
Mommy wept. I cried too, but I knew there
(08:36):
was a greater purpose and a greater plan, even though I
allowed this to happen. So.
So these are just things that wecan learn in our everyday life.
When we look at scripture and wesee how Christ acted and we see
these examples, they can teach us so much about life and the
character of God and that we arenever alone even in the midst of
those hard times. What one thing I really want to
(08:57):
point out is verse 44, after Jesus had raised Lazarus from
the dead and Lazarus comes out of the tomb, he's still bound in
the grave clothes which you know, kind of like a mummy, you
know, like all wrapped up. Jesus tells the people there,
the friends, the family, those gathered you loose him and set
(09:18):
him free. Jesus had just raised the man
from the dead. I'm sure he could have made
those grave clothes fall off without anyone else's help, but
he chose to use others to help Lazar to fully be free.
And that is a beautiful example of Christian community.
Jesus wants us to walk in community.
(09:38):
He wants to use us in each other's lives to help each other
truly be free. He is the one who saves.
He's the one who speaks life into dead things.
But he wants us to walk togetherin community.
So I just think that's beautiful.
In chapter 12, we see Mary positioned at his feet.
This is actually the position ofa disciple sitting at the feet
(10:01):
of a teacher was only reserved for men who were highly educated
and being discipled by this rabbi and who had been chosen by
this wise rabbi. And here Mary is sitting at the
feet of Jesus. The people were upset for many
reasons, but one of the reasons all the all the religious people
at this dinner were upset, Mary literally as a woman was sitting
(10:23):
at the feet in the position of adisciple before the Lord.
So this is a glimpse into how Christ truly doesn't see man and
woman. He sees us all as my children,
my brothers and sisters, my friends, that I want to share my
life with you and I want you to know me.
Jesus was unlike any rabbi in the fact that he encouraged
(10:46):
women to study scripture and to know God.
Whoever knows Jesus knows God the Father.
This is verse 44 and 46 in chapter 12.
I love that word because as we see, we can study the Gospels
and in doing so learn more and more about Jesus.
And as we do, as we know Jesus, we know God the Father.
(11:09):
So the word is powerful in so many ways.
Chapter 13. Jesus full well knew who he was.
These scriptures reiterate that how to show the full extent of
Jesus's humility and how much more should we serve each other,
even those who betray us? Christ washed the feet of Judas.
(11:32):
He didn't just wash the feet of the ones who truly loved him.
He washed the feet of Judas. And he knew Judas would betray
him, and him being God himself, knowing what he was about to do,
took a towel, wrapped it around his waist and knelt down in
front of the stinky mud and other stuff, caked feet of his
(11:55):
disciples and washed them and served them and made this
incredible act of humility and love as his example to us.
Verse 21 it says Jesus heart wastroubled in 1427.
Jesus said do not let your heartbe troubled.
(12:15):
And then in verse 21 of chapter 13 we see his heart was
troubled. What is interesting is this is
actually a different Greek word.So I spent some time looking
this up and I've given you guys a few of the tools like the
enduring Word app. It is in strong concordance.
It's very helpful for helping usunderstand the original language
because the Bible was not written in English.
And so the translation, sometimes we need to study a
(12:38):
little bit deeper to pull back more layers.
Jesus's heart was was stirred upand heavy, but he's telling us
not to let our hearts be completely without hope.
So that's just something you candig more into that, but that's
just kind of a little window into what's happening there. 34
and 35, he tells us to love one another in the same way that he
(12:59):
loves us. And in John 15, he told us that
he loves us the way that God loves him, that we're supposed
to love others the way that God loves Jesus.
What I mean, wow, what an example, what a powerful thing.
And he's telling this commandment that the world will
(13:20):
know that you are my disciples by the way that you love others.
And he's saying this right afterhe has washed their feet.
It can feel a little overwhelming to see that Christ
is telling us how we're supposedto love and that the world will
know Him in us by how we love each other.
And then we look at the state ofthe world and the nations and
(13:44):
the churches today and we think,Oh my gosh, we're so far from
that. How is there any hope?
And how overwhelming does that call feel?
Go back to abiding in Him. And actually we're about to get
to chapter 15. Abide in Him when we abide in
Him. When we stay in Him, we stay
close to Him and His love and His word abides in us.
(14:06):
We will have peace, we will havejoy and all we can focus on is
what we can do. What we can do is we can show
His love to the world. We should focus on walking with
Him daily and sharing Him. I know it is exhausting and
overwhelming and troubling to see how off base the world is
(14:27):
and to wonder how in the world can I make any impact.
You cannot change the whole world, but the love of Christ in
you can have an eternal impact on those around you.
You stay close, stay united, stay in the Word, stay close in
prayer, knowing that as you loveothers from the overflow of that
(14:50):
love of Christ within you, the world will see that.
And that's how they will know that we are His disciples and
that He truly is loved by the love we show.
Chapter 14 he's talking about prayer and he says whatever you
ask in my name. And I used to get really
(15:11):
struggling with this scripture because it's like whatever you
ask for. Well, I can ask for anything and
say in Jesus name. And then if I don't get it,
well, right. But what he's saying there, when
you ask in the name of someone, it is in keeping with who they
are in alignment with their willand their desire.
When you ask in alignment with his character, His will, his
(15:32):
desire. Jesus, don't get off track here
because sometimes people are like, oh, if you pray for
healing and someone's not healed, then you have a lack of
faith. There are times when God allows
things for a greater purpose, and Jesus himself is an example
of this. Jesus in the Garden of
Gethsemane, Pray, Lord, take this cup from me.
(15:55):
We're talking about the cross. If there's any other way, I
don't want to have to do this. And then Jesus himself said,
nevertheless your will be done. And I believe that is how we
come in prayer. We ask the Lord for what we
want, for what we desire, knowing with no lack at all of
faith that He can do anything and everything.
(16:16):
There is nothing outside of his hand in his control.
However, He knows the absolute best.
SO the faith that Christ models is that never the less type of
faith may we come to a point where we can come to him and
say, God, I know you can do this, I ask you to do this.
I believe you can do absolutely anything, but never the less
(16:39):
your will be done. Christ himself did not get
deliverance from that cup and Heasked for it.
So you cannot say Jesus didn't have enough faith to be
delivered from the cross. It was His faith and his love
and his knowledge of the plan ofGod and his love for us that
helped him choose the cross regardless of any other option.
(17:02):
And I love verse 16 of chapter 14.
It says, and I was Jesus. He's talking, He says, and I
will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate to
help you to 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 where he lives with you and will
be in you. Jesus is promising the coming of
(17:25):
the Holy Spirit to all those whofollow him.
His Holy Spirit is now in us if we are faith is in Jesus and I
love we continue on. This is some of my favorite
scripture because he tells us inverse 26 what the Holy Spirit
does for us. He's the advocate and he will
teach us all things and he will remind us of everything that
(17:46):
Christ has said. And this is where I always like
to say the Holy Spirit's not going to remind us of things we
have not given mine to. So we need to be in the Word.
We need to be learning. We need to be digging and
memorizing and studying and applying.
But it is his job to make it make sense.
It's his job to teach it to us. It's his job to explain it to
(18:07):
us, and it's His job to remind us of it.
Our job is just to show up, be in the Word.
The Holy Spirit takes over the rest.
And then once again we see Jesussaying peace, I leave with you
my peace. I give to you.
I don't give you peace as the world gives like the world, it
doesn't stay. The world type of peace is very
(18:28):
fleeting. It's very situational and
circumstantial. But he says do not let your
hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid.
All right. And then moving on to chapter
15, it's all about the abiding, the abiding and the vine.
I've touched on this already, but if you want really good
reading deeper about this portion of Scripture and about
(18:51):
what it means to abide in the vine from a vineyard
perspective, like what those of that day would have understood
in Jesus parallel of our relationship with him being like
abiding a branch, abiding in thevine.
The book by Beth Moore called Chasing Vines is so cool.
She goes to Italy, she experiences a vineyard.
(19:12):
She learns about what it means that a branch abides and that
those who are pruned off and those who don't bear food are
pulled out. I mean, it's awesome.
Read that book or listen to it. If you have the Hoopla app.
HOOPLA, it's an app you can get that can connect to many local
(19:32):
libraries. I know here in Brevard County it
does. All you have to have is a
library number for your local library, Public Library.
Put that number in and there areso many free audio books and I
believe it is one on there for free you could listen to and
it's so, so good. So I encourage you to do that
knowing that he says abide in me.
The word abide means to dwell and make your home, not come
(19:55):
visit me, you know, in the morning and say hi, but abide,
dwell, make your home in Christ and he will abide, dwell, make
his home in US. Abiding is what brings about
that sanctification. We've already been made clean.
We accept him and for the forgiveness of our sins, that's
salvation. But that continual abiding, that
(20:16):
continual staying in him, that'sthe growth.
That's the sanctification, that's the becoming more and
more like Christ. Good verse 8.
He talks about us remaining in Him and if we do, we will bear
fruit. If we look at Galatians 5, we
know that the fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace,
(20:36):
patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and
self-control. Wow.
If we abide in him, if we stay close to him, not if we accept
him and going out of our lives and then want to know why we
don't have any fruit. If we are abiding and staying
connected, we begin to bear fruit.
And this fruit he tells us in verse 8 of chapter 15 of John is
(21:00):
that this is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit,
showing yourselves to be my disciples, not to become my
disciple. We don't bear fruit.
We don't do works to get to be his disciple, to get to be
saved, to get to be connected with Jesus and part of God's
family, but it is to his glory, meaning it shows awesomeness of
(21:22):
who God is to everyone around uswhen we bear fruit.
And it's by bearing this fruit, by staying connected to him that
we bear this fruit. And this fruit is the evidence
of what's happened on the insideof us.
The we can say we believe in Jesus and that's awesome.
And that's what it takes, faith in Jesus to receive the
salvation and forgiveness. But it's only by staying
(21:45):
connected to him, growing in him, actually walking with him,
that we begin to bear the fruit.And the fruit of being connected
with him is what shows the worldwho we follow and who we truly
are. And I want to show you again
where Jesus talks about us loving each other.
I want to show you again where Igot this crazy idea that we're
supposed to love people the way God loves Jesus.
(22:07):
It says in verse 9, chapter 15, Jesus says as my Father has
loved me, so I have loved you. And then when you go to chapter
verse 12, he says my commandmentis this, that you love each
other as I have loved you. So if you just go back to what
he just said, he just said he has loved us the way that God
loves him and he wants us to love others the way he loves us.
(22:30):
So we're supposed to love othersthe way God loves Jesus.
Oh my gosh, we all have some growth to do in that area, I'm
sure. But wow, what a commandment,
what a powerful it is. It's a command.
He says, this is my command. And he tells us if you love me,
you obey me. And wow, how we show this love,
(22:55):
how we reflect that to the world.
It's powerful, it's challenging.Don't think of it as something
that is just might as well give up because there's no way you'll
ever get there because I know it's that's a lot that's hard.
We are human. He knows we are human.
We're told so many times the scripture to be renewed in our
minds, to set our minds on things above and keep them set.
(23:16):
It's something we have to keep doing.
But man, if we can keep His words before us and keep them
close to the surface, keep them near to our hearts, how much
more will we remember and think and show that love out of the
overflow of that time we're spending with Him?
And I think that's the other thing.
It seems impossible because it actually is.
(23:38):
With man, it's impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. So it's only with His help that
we can do what He's called us todo.
But the beauty of that is that He never caused us to do
something He doesn't help us andenable us to do with His help.
So thank you, Lord for that. And if we look chapter 16, verse
(23:59):
seven, he tells us it's to his advantage that he goes, that we
may have the Holy Spirit. He's talking specifically to his
disciples like, I'm going to die, I'm going to leave, but
it's good for you that I'm leaving because then the Holy
Spirit's going to come. So Jesus consistently promised
the Holy Spirit coming, which isa beautiful, wonderful thing
because that's that Spirit of God himself in us that reveals
(24:22):
Scripture that guides our lives,that draws us into that close
relationship and helps us fully experience the love and the
power of God within our souls. So verse 12 of chapter 16, I
want to show that really quickly.
It says I have much more to say to you, more than you can now
bear. But when the Spirit of truth
(24:43):
comes, He will guide you into all truth.
I love this because when the Holy Spirit comes, that's that
sanctification process. Literally, He's saying, I have a
lot of things I could say, a lotof things you need to know,
maybe a lot of things you need to work on, but you're not able
to take it all right now. And the Holy Spirit works with
us little by little to that process of sanctification.
(25:05):
Thank the Lord He doesn't show us all of our problems at once.
OK. That is why sometimes when we
begin walking closely with the Lord, we start thinking, Oh my
gosh, I'm worse than I thought Iwas.
And it seems like the more time I spend with the Lord, the worse
of a person I am. It's not that.
It's that things that are hiddenin darkness, when they are
exposed to the light, start to show up.
(25:25):
And the things in us that are kind of hidden and that are kind
of yucky and kind of dark, the closer we walk to the light,
which is Christ, the more they're going to show up.
But they're not showing up for us to feel condemned.
They're showing up layer by layer, piece by piece so that he
can say, hey, let's pull that out so you can become more like
me. Let's pull that out so you can
become more like me. And he shows us little by
(25:46):
little, That's the process of sanctification.
It's all over Scripture because thank you, Lord.
He doesn't show all the issues at one time.
I don't think any of us could handle that.
And then one more myth I want tobust before we wrap up this one,
chapter 16, verse 33. It's one of my favorite verses
in Scripture because Jesus is soreal with us.
(26:08):
And sometimes people want to say, well, if your faith was
stronger, you wouldn't have problems or Christians aren't
supposed to have problems. And once you become a Christian,
everything's great. And that's just not true.
Life is still hard. We all still go through stuff,
but we go through it differently.
And this is the perfect example of that verse 33.
(26:30):
Jesus said, I have told you all these things so that in me you
may have peace in this world, you will have trouble, but take
heart, I have overcome this world.
And so we know that when we facetrouble just like everyone else,
we can face it differently because we know the one who's in
control. We know that in the end we win.
(26:52):
We know that nothing has true power, nothing can touch our
spirit, nothing can take away the promise of life given to us
by Christ. And this world, this life in
this world is just a tiny portion of life.
All right, I'm gonna wrap up there.
(27:12):
I love you guys. We will be back with some other
another interview coming up before too long and then we'll
wrap up the book of John and maybe pretty close to be done
with this series. We'll just kind of see how
things go. But hope everybody has a great
week and I will see you soon. Hey friend, if you enjoyed this
(27:35):
episode and you got some good stuff out of it, there's a few
options. You have 1, you could click that
little subscribe button. And also, if you would review
this podcast, Oh my gosh, if youlike what you heard, get on
there. Give it a five star review.
If you didn't like what you heard, just pretend it never
happened, OK? But if you would do a review for
me, just take a couple seconds and do that.
(27:56):
Not only would I be crazy excited, but also it would just
be a great way for us to partnertogether, for you to help this
podcast be seen by more women out there.
And you could be a part of helping more women discover
these practical ways to apply God's Word to just everyday
stuff. So I would love it, love it,
love it if you could help me outin one of those two ways.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!