Hi, this is Pastor Diego. Welcome to the daily five. Thank you for joining us today. This podcast is designed to give you a short daily Five-minute word of encouragement to inspire you to think and act on God's word Hey everyone.
Welcome to today's podcast today's podcast is called the branch life and you'll understand why once I get towards the end of this Episode, but let me start by asking you a question. Are you a people pleaser? Like are you always trying to make other people happy? I'm not sure about you But there was a time and a season in my life when all I did was try to please the people around me and it was exhausting I finally figured out that it was also a waste of time and not just exhausting because it left me feeling and emptiness that comes from trying to find Myself worth and doing good deeds Every one of us as human beings has a desire to matter It's a part of who we are and how we're made and sometimes wanting to matter causes us to think that we have to work hard Not just for people to like and accept us, but also to get God to love us Many people try to perform for God and they believe that at the end of their lives if the good things They did outweigh the bad things then God will be satisfied with them and let them into heaven All kinds of people think this way not just religious church people Maybe right now you're wondering if God still loves you or if he ever loves you because you doubt that God could ever love someone Who has messed up as much as you so most people think that God wants them to perform and earn his love And that is the farthest thing from the truth God's love is performance free But it still allows us to do good deeds as a response to his love not in order to gain his love And there's a big difference listen It's not about what you can do for God It's about being with God in an abiding relationship with Jesus This is what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 11 verse 28 listen to the invitation he makes he says come to me All of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest So the question is who are the weary and the burdened?
These are people who can be worn out by sickness or a bad marriage or seasons of unemployment or all other kinds of bad things But this is not the primary group of people that Jesus is inviting here Jesus is not speaking in general to those who I've just been beaten down by life Jesus has a very specific audience in mind The people that he was referring to and he was calling to him were those moral religious people who didn't see anything wrong with their lives These are religious people who were trying to do their best to do the right thing and then refused to repent and acknowledge that there was anything wrong with them In turn to Jesus as their only hope of being saved only the cross can change your heart Nothing that you do in the name of God or Christ can change your heart So who is Jesus primary audience? You know who he was really calling here Jesus is calling the weary worn out people who have spent their lives trying to be good But noticed little change These are the people that Jesus invites to come to him not just people going through difficult times in their lives Trying to win or gains God's love for things you do is like being on a treadmill. You can never do enough How much money do you have to donate to charity for your conscience to be clean? How many church services you have to attend to feel good about yourself?
The answer is that nothing you do will ever be good enough And that's why Jesus invites the good moral people to stop performing for him and to start abiding in him What does Jesus want? He wants for you to do things for him? No, he just wants you to be with him to spend time with him getting to know him and his purpose for your life That's what makes you acceptable to God in John chapter 15 verse 4 And this is where I got the title of this episode Jesus has the following abide in me and I in you as the branch Cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me another? Maybe easier version to understand is the message Bible and this is the way it says this verse live in me Make your home in me just as I do in you in the same way that a branch can bear grapes by itself But only by being joined to the vine you can't bear fruit unless you're joined with me being accepted by God doesn't happen by doing More for him.
It happens by abiding more in him by coming to Jesus and resting in a relationship with him. God bless you. See you tomorrow