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Preachers Collective- North England Conference of SDA

Troy Smith

We Need to Talk

In January this year, not long after I left Manchester, as Brett informed you or reminded you about, I was saving up money to go to Newbolds.

Now, I was also looking for a job, so I was in this phase of what we call in-between jobs.

I didn't quite want to say I was unemployed but everyone knew I wasn't working.

Now I don't like to sit at home and have nothing to do and just to be there sitting around all day in my pajamas eating all the food in the house.

So I, or my mum would argue differently, but at that time, at that moment, early this year, we were having some work done on our house and my uncle, who's a plumber, he was the 1 who was helping to fit and just redo our radiators.

Now I must admit that line of work is far from what I'm used to.

I'm used to you know laptops, speaking to people, writing and talking.

I'm not good at working with my hands so if there's any plumbing emergency or physical emergency in your house, don't call me because I will mess up the situation.

But as I was helping my uncle, as I was trying to work with him to lighten his load, There was a few radiators that we had, it seemed like we had finished, that I was actually quite proud of my work.

You know, I helped cut the copper pipes to the correct proportion, although he set up everything for me so there wasn't much for me to mess up, but I had done my part and I was feeling good you know I could say you know I you know I can change a car tire I've fitted furniture together and I can help put a radiator on on its right place but now as everything looked completed you know the the skirting boards they've been sanded off the the the brass has been polished so it's all looking good It was time for me to turn the water back on.

Now, as I turned the valve back, I just heard the shout from my uncle to turn it off quickly because water was just pouring out just gushing all from the radiator.

The issue is although everything looks fine everything looks good it looks perfect it wasn't fully connected.

Because it wasn't fully connected where it came time for the radiator to be filled, for it to be used for its purpose, it just created a mess everywhere simply because it wasn't fully connected.

If we read John chapter 15 verse 4 and verse 5 again.

Jesus says, Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine.

In verse 5, I am the vine and you are the branches.

He that abides in me and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

You see, Jesus using the illustration of a vine and a branch, I imagine him as he's walking with his disciples on the way to Gethsemane, that maybe they walk through a vineyard or walk through a garden, and he has a message on his heart that he's been willing to share with his disciples.

And he sees the vine and the branch as this perfect illustration of the connection that he wants to have, not just with them in that day, but you and I in 2016.

That it's not just a superficial connection that Jesus wants with us, It's a deeper connection, a connection that runs right into our innermost being, a connection that is vital for our spiritual survival.

I'm learning that there's different levels of communication which we can have.

Being in a relationship for these last few years, it's taught me about these different levels of communication.

I'm sure that what I'm about to say, that many of the guys here would have experienced a similar thing.

See when I'm busy with assignments or coursework or just general life, I tend to close everything off or shut everything off because I'm focused on the task at hand.

I have an assignment due for Monday, I need to do that.

Everything else gets cut off or I have some reading to do, so nothing else matters but the task at hand.

Now, sometimes that can branch into days, into a whole week.

So maybe rather than being on the phone and speaking to my girlfriend, I would just shoot a few WhatsApp messages, you know, hi, how are you, how's your day, blah, blah, blah, that sort of thing.

So in my head we've spoke, we've been communicating and now maybe it's 2, 3 days have gone by and then I'd call her and then I'd be met with a, oh so you're alive?

And I'm like well yeah I've spoke to you this week of course I'm alive.

It's like no no we haven't spoke all week.

I'm like no no we spoke I go through my whatsapp message like yeah yeah I've spoke to you each day.

It took multiple times for me to get my head around it that we've spoken.

Some of you are sitting next to your wives and your girlfriends so you're shaking your head saying no.

I can see the look in your faces, especially Eddie.

Now, as I'm working through this, I'm trying to work out how in her mind that we haven't spoken but yet, you know, I've sent some WhatsApp messages, I've sent some text messages.

The issue wasn't whether I've said hello or, you know, these things.

It's that the conversation which was had, it wasn't as deep or as meaningful as a phone conversation, a conversation we'd have face to face.

See, I may have said hi, hello, how are you, but I don't know what her day was like at work or how her boss was or the things that have affected her, the things that have been on her mind, the highs and lows of her day, they haven't come through in the few text messages, in the few WhatsApp messages.

I imagine that Jesus too, he's, as we speak to him, we're saying, okay, Lord, I need X, Y, and Z from you.

I'm praying to you, I'm doing all these things, but Jesus is like, Troy, we haven't spoken.

But like, no, no, Lord, I've said my grace.

No, but Lord, I invited my friend to church.

Okay, but Lord, you say you haven't spoken, but I even gave my neighbor a glow track.

See, sometimes when we're busy, when we're caught up in our own thing, we may think that, you know, we can shoot a quick prayer to Jesus in the morning and our connection with him is fine or our connection with him is constant.

We may think that doing little things here and there that we're abiding in Christ but even with this word abide it gives an air of something that is constant, not a form of communication or connection that happens just once in a while, like when you need to charge your phone because the battery is about to die.

I imagine that some of us who drive here that we can fall into this trap as well of only putting in petrol into our car just when we need it.

You know, we see the dial go down from full to halfway, then the red light starts flashing and we think, you know what, I know this car, I can get at least 10 more miles out of it.

But your car needs something more, it doesn't need to be pushed to the edge to its limits, it would prefer to be full for a bit longer.

So Jesus, he desires a deeper connection, something more than just surface level, something more than just superficial, something more than just a one-time event.

I think we may have all even experienced this before.

Maybe We've been to camp meetings, we've been to GYC, we've been to these great things.

We've been convicted by the message, we've gone for the appeal.

We say, okay, Lord's change is happening now.

And then because the connection was just a one-time thing, maybe we, maybe we got caught up in that moment.

Could slip back into the same things which we were doing before that appeal.

Jesus says that without me, without abiding in me, without staying connected to me, without a meaningful connection, You can do nothing.

So in my prioritizing and working out, okay, what things can I do to communicate with my girlfriend better, I learned that I had to put some things that weren't quite so important to the side?

I had to maybe watch football a bit less because in all honesty I said I was busy but Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, South Evenings, when the match of the day were on, Sunday, I would be watching football all these times.

In reality I would have time for other things, but I just told myself that I was busy.

I believe that even when we're busy, we make time for things that are important to us.

We may be caught up with paying our mortgages, with our studies, with everything that life is throwing at us, but if we prioritize God, if God is truly important to us, if our living connection with God is of great importance, we will make time where time needs to be made.

If you carry on reading and if we go down to John chapter 15 and verse 7.

Jesus says, if you abide in me and my words and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it will be done to you.

Now, many of the time, well, all the time we have different requests from God.

There's different things we want God to do for us.

There's areas in our life that maybe we're fed up of slipping up, we're fed up of the mistakes of being sometimes Christians and we're asking God, okay Lord I need help in these areas of my life.

I need to stop eating so much food to the point where my stomach's just bloated, or I need to be more caring, more kind, more loving to people.

But the success of these requests is dependent on a living connection with God.

Says you shall ask what you will, and it will be done to you.

But previously, and don't miss this point, but previously, Jesus has said that without me, you can do nothing.

But now he's promising that with him, he will do everything.

Because whilst we're fighting against ourselves and while we're seeking to overcome different things, whilst we are looking forward to victory, maybe initially we're trying to do everything by ourselves.

Maybe initially we think, okay, If I just read this blog about the 7 ways to have self-control, then, you know, I'll be just fine, I can do this.

Or if I just follow these tips or these steps that my friend has given me, then I can have success in these areas.

But Jesus is looking on saying, without me, You can't do anything.

He's calling us, asking us, wanting, longing for this connection so that he can step in and do what we are unable to do for ourselves.

You see, it's not that Jesus, when we're connected with him, when we're living for him, that he just takes over every single thing and we sit back and do nothing.

But it's in the moments, in the times when our strength is gone, when we've learned that we cannot depend on ourselves, that Jesus will happily step in.

You know, I think to the times when I've gone to the gym with, and I'm trying to find Kendrain, but he's somewhere on the balcony, I think.

When I've gone to the gym with Kendra and all 4, some of my friends, and if you know Kendra, he's a big guy, he's completed the gym, that's why he looks like this.

There's no other reason for him to go back, he's finished, he's done.

But now, so he can lift, he can move more weight than me.

So there's times when he's, he may be saying, okay, Troy, you need to do exactly what I've just done.

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We Need to Talk

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