Followed By Mercy

Abiding in the Vine: Finding Rest in Your True Identity

• W. Austin Gardner • Season 2 • Episode 23

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Freedom dawns when you finally grasp who you are in Christ. In this episode of Followed by Mercy, Robert Canfield, David Gardner, and I talk about what it means to live from your true identity instead of striving through religious performance.

We examine Ephesians 1 and celebrate the breathtaking truth that believers are holy, blameless, and spotless, not because of what we do, but because of what Jesus has already done. Many Christians live as if they have two competing natures, but the gospel tells us our old nature was cut away. The struggle now isn’t with a sinful identity but with old ways of thinking that haven’t yet caught up to the new life we’ve been given.

From there, we turn to John 15 and Jesus’ teaching on abiding. Abiding isn’t another task to perform. It’s simply staying close to Him. Like a branch drawing life from the vine, transformation flows naturally when we rest in our relationship with Christ. This shift takes us out of the exhausting “try harder” mentality and into the peace of “rest deeper.”

We also expose how rule-based religion often burdens people with guilt and hidden shame. True love for God grows out of a relationship, not regulation. When you live in Christ, pleasing Him is no longer about obligation. It becomes the natural response of a heart captured by love.

If you’ve been weighed down by performance-based Christianity or frustrated by cycles of self-effort, this conversation will encourage you to step into the freedom of your new identity. Abiding in Christ is where transformation begins.

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

AustinGardner:

This is followed by Mercy, your podcast, and we know that we are being surely, goodness and mercy, are following me all the days of our life, pursuing us. And we're excited, we're in Ephesians chapter one, and I have been sharing with you your identity. And uh we have done uh Robert Canfield and I the whole week. I hope it's been a blessing to you. Today we're joined by Robert Canfield and David Gardner. I'm so excited to have them here, and we're going to talk about living out who you are. Uh, I want to kind of jump it over in a bit. We'll go to John 15 about living uh abiding. It means to abide in Christ. But you know, you know who you are, and so you want to learn to live that way. So uh, David, you want to start us off there with any comments about what's going on and why three things happened. You haven't been on in a couple of weeks.

DavidGardner:

Uh sure. Uh we are heading to Peru at the beginning of October, going to uh be hosting our 26th annual pastors conference and leadership conference. And so y'all can be praying for us with that. We have pastors and and leaders coming in from all over South America, and we're hoping to be a real blessing uh to them.

AustinGardner:

I'm gonna I'm gonna go to that. Uh yeah, we don't know how the altitude might affect me yet.

DavidGardner:

Yeah, we're going together, but hopefully it'll all work out. And uh could be preaching in Lima the weekend before the conference, and so uh y'all gonna be praying for us during that time. I'm guessing that by the time they hear this, it'll be right around that time that we're there. Yeah. So you're gonna be praying for us this week.

AustinGardner:

So thank you so much for being there. I'm so glad to have David here. He had such depth, he preached a wonderful message out of Galatians last night in the Spanish church that uh Pastor Jimmy Sonko has. We'll have a blast. And then Robert Canfield's here with us again. Uh, and we're very happy that Robert has uh consented to be as a part of this as much as he has. And so uh you want to say a word and get us started up, Robert? What, a week since you've been on?

RobertCanfield:

Yeah, hello, everybody. Uh I didn't understand that last question.

AustinGardner:

These are all recorded, they're pre-recorded. I understand that.

RobertCanfield:

Well, uh, hey everybody out there. Uh, it's been wonderful to be here on this podcast with you. Um, guys working mightily in the ministry. I'm glad to be here with my friends, and uh, I'm excited to get into this this study here on abiding in Christ.

AustinGardner:

Okay, in Ephesians chapter one, we have learned a whole lot about who we are. Uh we are saints and faithful in Christ Jesus. Well, no, sorry.

DavidGardner:

We're chosen, beloved, we're accepted. Accepted. Are we talking about only Ephesians?

AustinGardner:

Well, you can add more. It doesn't matter where it comes from.

DavidGardner:

Holy, blameless, spotless.

AustinGardner:

Yeah, we're not, how about that? Holy, how can you say whole where do you how can it say holy, blameless, and spotless?

DavidGardner:

Oh, that's what Colossians says, Colossians 1.

AustinGardner:

Yeah, how did we get to be holy, blameless, and spotless? Well, we were I don't think anybody listens doing that good.

DavidGardner:

Well, we were uh enemies uh in our minds and our hearts against the Lord, and so he reconciled us, and he's the one that's made us holy, blameless, and spotless. So it's an identity thing, right? It's it's not necessarily based on our behavior, but it's an identity.

AustinGardner:

It's not it's not based on your behavior, based on what he says about you. Go ahead.

DavidGardner:

Um, yeah, I mean, we're complete in him, Colossians chapter two. We're circumcised.

AustinGardner:

Nothing lacking. Did you hear that way?

DavidGardner:

Yeah, we're complete, nothing lacking. We're circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, which that one's just an amazing one to me. Like it seems like a very awkward passage to preach, but um, you know, when it it talks about uh circumcision and how important circumcision was in the Old Testament, you know, one commentator said it is God's command to Abraham to cut away at the most intimate and sensitive part of an of a man, of his identity, and it's cutting away that old man and it's making him a new man. And so in Colossians 2, when it talks about, you know, that we're circumcised with a circumcision without hands, you know, you're talking about the fact that God is going into the deepest part of our souls. He is cut out the old man, the old man is dead, the flesh, the old man, has been has been add Adam, our old nature has been cut off, it has been taken away, it has been thrown away, and it is separated from us, which you know, when you speak about Romans chapter six and other passages. Right. And and all these passages where we're dead, we're dead to sin, we're alive to Christ, and you know, so there's this always this struggle of, well, you know, the flesh and the and you know, you you hear these illustrations of, you know, you've got two dogs inside that are fighting. You got you know, the flesh and the spirit, and whichever one you feed more is the one that's gonna win. But, you know, Colossians 2, I mean, the the the spiritual foreskin has been thrown in the trash. Like it's not even he's dead, gone, buried, and that destroyed.

AustinGardner:

I mean, that's what everybody thoughts like.

DavidGardner:

Yeah.

AustinGardner:

That's not that's all we're not in Adam anymore. We want to say I'm gonna feed Adam more, I'm gonna feed Christ more.

DavidGardner:

But I remember reading one commentary.

AustinGardner:

I preached it. Nobody's been worse than it than me.

DavidGardner:

I remember reading one commentary on Romans 6 where where the the guy just went on and on and on about all of the things that we are in Christ now. And basically at the end of chapter 6, going into chapter 7, he goes, but we all know that that's not necessarily true, that we still struggle with sin, and uh and you know, we still we still have the flesh.

AustinGardner:

You have to conform to performance-based religion.

DavidGardner:

Yeah, we have to have an excuse for our sin, and it's the fact that our flesh is true.

AustinGardner:

But I'm telling you, as preachers, we need a way to manipulate people.

DavidGardner:

Yeah.

AustinGardner:

We need a way to enforce behavior.

DavidGardner:

Yep. So um I find it very interesting that that if you know we are dead, buried, the body of sin has been destroyed, uh, we've been circumcised from the old man, and we've been buried and raised to walk in newness of life, then that means our full identity is a spiritual man. Romans 8 says it, right? That we walk in the spirit. We don't walk, uh, we don't walk in the flesh, we walk in the spirit.

AustinGardner:

Um yeah, if you're saved, you don't walk in the flesh. Right. Which can't can Robert, we talked about, remember, we talked about the two our inheritance, whether or not you're in Adam or whether or not you're in Jesus. And when you walk in in the flesh means walking in Adam. And what go ahead, David? We can't do that because we're not in Adam.

DavidGardner:

Right. And so, you know, even uh in Romans 8, you know, when it starts in in verse 1, it says there's no condemnation uh to them that are Christ Jesus. Don't walk according to the flesh, but walk according to the spirit. You know, I've heard people preach and say that, you know, that's conditional. There's no there's no condemnation for the people that don't walk in the flesh. So if you walk in the flesh, you're under condemnation. But you just have to keep reading the verses.

AustinGardner:

Verse 11 says you we don't do that.

DavidGardner:

Yeah, you keep reading the verses, it says you are not, that's not who you are.

AustinGardner:

Thank you.

DavidGardner:

That's not who you are. You don't, if you have the spirit of Christ, if you have the spirit of the Lord, you don't walk according to the flesh.

AustinGardner:

You are not in the flesh. Yeah. But in the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God dwell in you.

DavidGardner:

So if God's spirit dwells in me, it is impossible for me to be able to do that.

RobertCanfield:

Well, you just use a term, you just use a term that people don't. Some people might know. How does the spirit dwell in us? You said if you're saved. But like, if you put your faith and you have this inheritance, which is being in Christ, then you have the Holy Spirit where now we are sealed. Isn't that what he says in Ephesians chapter 1?

AustinGardner:

Yes, he does.

RobertCanfield:

And so, like, we like I just want to make sure that the listeners out there, you he said the word saved. Saved is nothing more than just uh I'm trying to not use Christianity. Well, please stop. I'm just joking. But faith, faith puts us in Christ.

AustinGardner:

Really it comes down to right walking in who you are, and and and we're talking about who you are, and all these things David just mentioned actually, David is on in repeating what the Holy Spirit said about you. Everybody listen, you get a hold of that. David didn't say it about you, because it wouldn't matter if whatever David Austin and Robert say no words, but the Holy Spirit of God said about you. And God said that about you.

DavidGardner:

Yeah, so I mean, our our identity is completely in him, and so that it's not Yeah, but he's the one that gives you your identity. Yeah, and I I think that when you when you when you tell people, no, we still have the flesh, I still have which is it is a little like it is a little bit confusing, it's confusing and it's difficult because even in in Galatians 5, you know, he talks about how the spirit and the flesh they war against each other. But you know, when you take it into consideration with with all of the rest of the passages, like I think it's it's actually detrimental to a Christian when you tell them, well, you actually do have two natures. You actually do have your your sin, you still have your sinful nature. You still walk in the flesh. Like it's an excuse. It's like, oh, okay, so so I guess just my sinful nature is just a lot stronger than somebody else's because I'm still struggling with this. Yeah, it's not my fault. Like that, it's just man, I I I've just got that sinful nature. And I've I mean I've grown up hearing it, you know. And no, not not from you. I'm just saying, like, but I've talked to other people, and when they've said, you know, oh well, I mean, I just have a sinful nature, and that's why, or man, my my sinful nature, and it's like, well, actually, I think you have a whole lot more victory over your sinful uh behaviors if you realize that you're completely free uh from sin's power and dominion over you, and that you don't have a nature you have to give into. Because nature is basically instinct, right? Like nature is is you what you instinctively do.

AustinGardner:

Well, it see that's Ephesians 1 11, Robert, and we talked about it last week. Inheritance. You do what your family does. Like father, like son, or the Spanish, how's the Spanish gonna go translated? The chip off the old block.

DavidGardner:

Right, the the talotalastilla.

AustinGardner:

So, but how do you say it in English?

DavidGardner:

Um I think you'd say Yeah, chip off the old block, or the apple doesn't far fall far from the tree.

AustinGardner:

And and it doesn't say that's true. That's why, but you're not in the old block anymore. And you're not part of that. You're you're not in Adam anymore. And so I want you to I want you to get a hold of that. We're we're talking about your inheritance that you have in Christ. Robert, you want to say anything about uh see, I want to talk about living out your identity. Robert, Chris, David, excuse me.

DavidGardner:

Go ahead. No, you got it. I'm thinking. Um, I am too.

AustinGardner:

I want to thank you, I want to give you some of the things that I have been thinking about.

RobertCanfield:

I I'll go back to you. So if you're saying living out your identity identity, it's something that Christ has done in you, and it's correct me if I'm wrong. So you guys please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm worried more about listening to him than I am anything else. So something that just popped in my brain and my my thoughts. So Jesus is preaching in Mark 4 about the parables of the sower, and he sows the seed, and he goes and he puts it all these four different grounds, right? And or Jesus brings up four different grounds. That doesn't have any regular I don't know. I don't know. I'm just that that thing that it brings to my mind because Jesus, the whole point of the the parables of the soil was Jesus, like, listen to me, listen to me, listen to me, hearken to me, hear me. He says it so many times in that chapter that most people don't even pick it up. The whole thing was just listen to me. It's not like which soil am I? The the point of it, the matter the thing was is listen to the person that listen listen to God, listen to Jesus and his word. And I think in rules-based religion, people are more like listen to the man, listen to these rules, listen to this. And when we are I when we have a new identity, we have a new dad, we have a new master, and we are to listen to him, and he is working in us, and he uses his spirit to create something in us. We have a new father, and we're supposed to be listening to him. We got we're not drawn away by our own lusts and enticed. I don't know.

DavidGardner:

So I'm written. The question was how to abide in Christ, right?

AustinGardner:

That's what I want to use that because I want some practical we've learned who we are. We've learned, thank you. I I was worried about my preacher that day because I told so much about uh you're you're a chosen and you're you're predestined to be adopted. I went through all that, and I think people would be sitting there going, so what do I do? Yeah, what do I do with that? And so I I want to so I think that Jesus' teaching in John 15 about abiding really jumps that because abiding doesn't mean so it's not about effort, it's about resting actually. Abiding is not abiding is not re it's not working, it's resting. If if I call you and I say, Come abide in my house, that means come spend the night, come live in my house, come settle into my house, come to be here. And so you're in Christ. And that's where what Robert said kind of makes sense because when you're in Christ, you want to listen to Christ.

DavidGardner:

Well, David. Yeah, I think um I think first first things first is that we need to recognize that anything and everything that is good in my life and any any change that is going to happen in my life is thanks to the work of the Spirit in me. And so, you know, I think that when we talk about abiding in Christ, the the first reaction is like, all right, I'm gonna abide, I'm gonna abide, I'm gonna find ways to abide, I'm gonna do things to abide. Preachers, I have preached that. We have changed the works. But Christian, I mean, I think whether from the pulpit or in our own life, I think, you know, our our own our own uh culture and nature, like we work for anything that we want, right? And so we think that we have to produce, and especially in our spiritual walk. And so I think like first things first is realizing, okay, it's the Holy Spirit that does his work in his way and at his time, right?

AustinGardner:

And so, like, one of the things one of the things by the way, at his time means he may work in you in one area faster than he works in Robert in one area.

DavidGardner:

Yeah. It's really not about you. I remember I remember a a young man that I shared the gospel with and he got saved. And man, I immediately went into all right, right after he got saved, you know, personally, I'm in my own mind, I'm thinking, all right, he needs to start attending church. Here's the list. He he needs to start attending church faithfully, he needs to start giving, he needs to uh, you know, stop smoking, he needs to, and I had about a list of five things. And, you know, it was very interesting because he was one of the first people that I ever, you know, discipled long term. And I remember seeing his life, and none of the things on my list got taken care of. But I started seeing that he was forgiving, you know, people that had hurt him. I started seeing that he was growing in love. I started that that he was growing in his love for the Lord and his passion for the word of God. I mean, it was just things that that the Lord worked in that that I wasn't expecting. So, yeah, it's the Holy Spirit working in his way and his time and producing his fruit. So, one of the conclusions in Galatians 5, you know, because what what the Judaizers are doing in Galatians is that they're trying to add this list of things that will grow them spiritually, that will make them more spiritual, uh closer to God.

AustinGardner:

It's always about what I do.

DavidGardner:

Right. And so that might be keeping the Sabbath, that might be circumcision, that might be uh not eating pork and dietary laws. And if I do these things, then I'm gonna be more spiritual. And Paul basically says, look, the works of the flesh are the following. So any self-effort that that we produce is gonna end up in in deathly sins.

AustinGardner:

And so can can I just throw it in Matthew 11, 28 then? Any work you do, you don't want you to continue that thought, but it makes us loaded down, burdened down. Jesus, I'm not gonna be all you that lay in regulation. I'll give you rest. They come to me as a preacher. I'm like, I got some work for you.

DavidGardner:

And and I'll be honest with you, I I maybe this is just my opinion, but it seems very interesting to me that that the more legalistic a culture is, the more hidden sinful practices and patterns you find. Because the works of the flesh, the the I add on all of these things that I have to do, they just produce death. They just produce sinful behaviors. And so, you know, we can clean up on the outside, but our hearts not being clean. And so, you know, Galatians 5, Paul says, you know, uh, abide in the spirit or or I'm sorry, um, I'm trying to look it up real quick, but he says that if you are walking in the spirit, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And so really, it's not even about it is, you know, running from temptation, sin. But if I'm walking in the spirit, if I'm obeying the spirit, if I'm listening to the spirit, if I'm being guided by the spirit, then I'm not going to be sinning. I'm not going to be, you know, falling by the wayside. He says, walk in the spirit, and you will shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So legalistic patterns, legalistic cultures, a lot of times, it's all of a list of all the things that you're not allowed to do. But Jesus is nowhere near that.

AustinGardner:

Which is the opposite of what we we don't understand this. It's like this. When that young girl gets married and she is deeply in love with her husband, she doesn't work and avoiding uh temptation. She doesn't think of them. Doesn't even think about it. Because she's still sticking to love.

RobertCanfield:

She's got her attention and focus on something else. And so when you focus on him. So when you're abiding and you're dwelling and you're continuing in him, he produces fruit.

AustinGardner:

Yeah. But the whole deal is we have put so much emphasis on avoid, avoid, avoid, when Jesus was more like, hey, just hang out, abide.

RobertCanfield:

It's it's it's a different uh paradigm, it's a different way of thinking. Yeah. We think that if I abstain, then that is fruit produced. And Jesus is more like, you just dwell on me, you sweat and stay in me.

AustinGardner:

If you dwell on him, you can have a couple of things.

DavidGardner:

And so the the works of the flesh, which works, is kind of like a factory. It only produces things that don't reproduce. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. It says against such things there is no law. And so there's no excess, there's no excess to amount of love that you can have, amount of meekness you can have. There's no law against that. There's no law against that. And and the more, the closer you stick to the spirit, the the the more fruit, which fruit reproduces and and is given to others, and others can eat of that fruit.

AustinGardner:

And it's him doing.

DavidGardner:

It's him, it's the spirit.

AustinGardner:

It's really nothing more than the Holy Spirit saying, Watch me live.

DavidGardner:

Yep.

AustinGardner:

And that's Talisians 2 20. I'm crucified Christ. I I'm not alive, but I am alive.

DavidGardner:

Yeah. I heard I heard a pastor, I'm sorry, um, I keep interrupting, but I heard a pastor give this illustration. And so if you if you hear it from him, just know that I I'm admitting to stealing it from him. But he talked about how, you know, I've he says, I've got kids. He said, when I travel and I'm gonna travel internationally, uh, I don't tell the kids, you know, well, we're gonna get to the airport, and I don't want you to go here, and I don't want you to go here, I don't want you to do this, I don't want you to do that. I don't want you to check. He said, I don't want you to go anywhere, avoid these people, avoid these things, avoid this, avoid that. He said, I don't have to tell them that. The only thing that I need to tell them is, I'm your dad, I care for you, just stay close to me, and you're gonna be okay. And that is one of the greatest illustrations of what's a keep illustration in Psalm 23, isn't it? And he says, that's the this pastor says, that's what worship is, that's what holiness is. It's sticking close to the Father. And so the closer we stay to the Father, I don't have to worry about all of the right. I don't have to worry about all the prohibitions, I don't have to worry about all the things that that you know, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. No, but if you stay close to the Father, you're not gonna do those. You're gonna avoid those places. If you if you follow the shepherd, yeah.

AustinGardner:

And so He'll lead you to the right places.

DavidGardner:

I think that, you know, just remembering that it's the Spirit that produces this in us, and that there's nothing that we can do in our own effort is, you know, step number one of abiding is we got to realize it's not, it's not, man, if I I if I just abide really hard, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna get a lot of a lot of fruit out of this. It's just it's resting in him.

RobertCanfield:

It's remaining. Now I I know the people that probably are listening to this, they're like, well, if you read in the passage, he says, if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love. Like he says that a little bit further down in verse 10. And that abide is the same abide that he talks about and abide in me in verse 4. Um, I'm just interested when he talks about his commandment just further down. You know what his commandment is? He says, Uh, this is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you. And so the commandments he's talking about, because I could see people in rules-based religion saying it, well, Jesus says you have to, the way you abide in love is by keeping his commandments. And his commandment is nothing more than just too many other places.

AustinGardner:

There's no scripture that can contradict there's no condemnation. So you never put being in his love. And he loves you when he were not doing what you were. So God's all love the Lord that gave him his only begotten son. We love him because he first was used. So you didn't earn your way into love. Oh, yeah. And you can't send your way out of love.

RobertCanfield:

Well, it's talking about just continuing in his love and the keeping of the commandment is nothing more than this. Me loving others as he's loved us. He says it twice. These things I command you that you love one another. Well, let's go back. We talked about that in a previous podcast about loving others. And the reason why we love others is because we have faith. And that faith worketh, and clearly in Galatians chapter 5, it worketh out love. It works by love. So when we believe, then it generates a love in us. And we just continue in that, and that that fulfills the commandments, not some morally restrained heart saying I have to keep, but rather a heart that says I've been supernaturally changed, which we said several podcasts ago, that we love God, and that as we love God, we love others.

AustinGardner:

I want to take you to the John chapter 15. Did you want to say something? Go ahead. John 15, 4. The Bible says, Abide in me and I in you. So to live with me in you and you in me. And I want to give you a comparison, he says. It's like the branch can't bear fruit of itself. You gotta understand. If you look at the vine of a pick of a wine of grapes, or if you're looking at a tree and a limb, the limb can't do it by itself. It has to be hooked up to the tree. And y'all can't do it either. You need me, so you just live in me, just live in me. And then in Colossians 1 27, he said, uh, I'm gonna get that verse for you. He said, To whom God have made done the riches of his glory. This is a mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So you are in Christ, and that's the truth. And we we live in union with him, and that is not based on what you do. Well, Robert, you won't say something.

RobertCanfield:

No, you just said you said something that made me a verse that that that made me think about this was Ephesians chapter 3, verse 17. It says, that Christ may dwell in your hearts. And he says this by faith. Christ dwells in my heart by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love. And so it goes back to all the stuff that Jesus is talking about in this passage is a continuance, uh grounded, a rootedness, a dwelling with Christ. Now, how do you get that? It was by faith. And when that faith's there, you know what it produces? It produces love. And that's what he's saying in that passage. And we talk about like the inheritance and the stuff that we've gained and earned and things that we need to think about in our life. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Thank you. No, no, no, no, no, no.

DavidGardner:

You've got using Christianity. Saved, yeah. Thank you.

RobertCanfield:

So we didn't earn. Well, he earned it on well, he isn't, and he gave it to us that he gave to us. Is that that love and that that that faith? And we're talking about things that that should be in our life. And so, what is it that we focus in on? We just focus in on him and trusting in him, and he produces love. And as you think about him and you dwell on him, and you're and you're abiding in him, and you're talking with him and you're loving him, then he just it just like bubbles out of you.

AustinGardner:

I want to I want to just jump in. It's never based on what you do. Honestly, abide here is more like the word that you just live there. That's what abiding is. Uh uh abiding. What what is Jesus preparing? He's preparing us a place in John chapter 14, a mansion. In in the in the Greek language, that's a place to stay. God's going to fix us a place to stay. And so what when he says abide, he's saying stay. So what we're doing is we're staying in him. And look at it and my children living in my house and saying, Stay in my house. It's like you don't have to command them that. Jesus just looking at his people and saying, guys, just live your life in me. Just stay in me. I'm in you, and you're in me, and that's the only way we can go forward. All right. If y'all want to say something there, because I'm gonna move with my next point.

DavidGardner:

Well, I mean, I was just gonna say about, I mean, maybe we can talk, I don't know what your points are. Go ahead. Uh just talking about like spiritual disciplines. Um, I heard, you know, I heard one or read a book where the guy said, you know, we know that it's God's grace that works in us. It's his spirit that, you know, transforms us. And it's almost like, you know, if if if there were a big old tractor trailer full of grace and the Holy Spirit's work and riding down the highway, the closer we get close to that road, the more likelihood we're gonna have of getting run over by that, you know, by that truck, by that brace, by that spirit. He says, so basically we know it's the spirit, but we get in the way uh like get in the path of where he works. And so meaning that, you know, the Holy Spirit works through his word, he works through prayer, he works through and we believe in all that in his church, etc.

AustinGardner:

Some of that. Okay. Can I just real quickly tell you, I don't like that illustration that God gave. Okay, one, you're getting chased down by surely goodness and mercy. Yeah, surely goodness and mercy does follow, chase, pursue you all the days of your life. So you're not having you know what, you don't have to go looking for the shepherd. The shepherd came looking for you. And even when you ran away, the shepherd came for you. And I know that's the point you're making. Go ahead. I want to tell you, I do want to say this you all you want to meditate in the word of God. Now, not a rule, not a rule. I want you to think about a young, you know, Benny I've been married 52 years now. I often think back to what I think I carry pictures of them when we were recently married on my phone and that's the screen I can look at. And I just want you to know I gave her any rules. Did did you give did you give them any rules, Robert, to your wife?

RobertCanfield:

Yeah, and I'm still adding to the list.

DavidGardner:

And Dave, did you give any rules? Not that I know of. She gave me some.

AustinGardner:

You know what? Betty has worked at pleasing me. I have worked at pleasing her. And when you're in Christ and you just live there, that's what you want to do. And so the Bible says in John 15 7 the Bible says that if you abide me and my words abiding you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done. And sometimes we turn that into more than it means. You think what wouldn't wouldn't All you when you're hearing the word of God and you're thinking the word of God and you meditate on the word of God and it's living in you, it's going to transform you. You don't need a list of rules to follow. You don't need to stay away from this person, stay away from that person. Jesus associated with people we would have almost every Christian would have said, What are you doing?

RobertCanfield:

Well, when people have a list, doesn't it show that you're not really trusting in him?

AustinGardner:

Well, Benny doesn't have a list. Well, you you you said that like 52 years where's your list? Why do people have lists? You know, I don't have a list. There's no rules about me coming home, but I can't wait to get home.

RobertCanfield:

But why but I'm you you think about you're using your illustration, but I'm um the the point of like, why is it that people need to put rules? Why is it that people need to make lists? Because they feel like people have to be presented and they have to be, they have to be told, and they have to be reminded of the truth. And it's like either I'm God in your life over your life, or the God of the creation is in your life, and he's telling you. In my mind, I'm looking at people and I'm like, they're led by the Spirit. They got the same spirit that I have. He's working in them just like he's worked in me. And that's where we gotta get. We gotta just get where we just abide. And that's what that's what abide. It's like a trust, it's like a rest. And it's just like I can trust God to take care of his people. And these people just need to be presented with the fact of there's a loving God out there, and he wants to abide with you, and he wants to dwell with you, and he did all this stuff. That should cause people to want in their heart to say, Yeah, I want to be with you.

AustinGardner:

Well, when you love God, you're listening to his words. Like, that's like you remember David's guys that went and got into twice on one from the well in Bethlehem. All they didn't was hear him. When you have when you abide in his house, his words are in you. And you're listening to him because you're close to him. You want to be around him, and and you're thinking about him because he does love you, and then and that's gonna open all sorts of you. But I I want everybody to listen, and and well, we've gone a long time again, but I want everybody to listen to realize abiding is like staying and resting. It's just resting. It's like what I remember when I came home from our little honeymoon, which is one night away and a holiday in, and I never felt so accepted, so welcomed, so mutt. It was the most wonderful feeling I think I've had in my entire life. Benny and I were home. We were just kids, 18, 19 years old, and I was okay. And you know what God's saying to you, I love you, you got my inheritance. It's okay. I I just I want you to listen to think about that. That's what abiding is. So you remember all these promises you've been listening to in Ephesians 1? They're all true. The ones David brought to you out of college, they're all true. Jealous, relax, and enjoy. You say, Well, will my life change? You gotta change. You change means you want to change. Because it's burning you to change. All right, anything else for you guys? Not on this one. Well, I think I think it's I think you've gotten a lot today, and I just want you to know when you figure out who you are, just accept who you are and live in who you are, and be who you are. That's why, you know, when Betty got married and had to change her last name, and uh, she didn't have to, she wanted to, and that's who she is. That's her new identity, and that's who you are in Christ. Well, I want to thank you, Robert and and David. Thank you all for listening. I hope that this is uh a blessing to you. If it is, I hope you'll share it with others, and I look forward to talking to you the next time. God bless you.

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Austin Gardner

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