Episode 2 – Basics For The Abundant Life

Kimberly Faith: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. We seek to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love. 

Welcome to Episode 2, which is the basics for the abundant life. I have, again, with me here, my lovely guests, John and Lynn McLarty, my parents too, so welcome today.

Lynn McLarty: Thank you.

John McLarty: Hello Kim.

Kimberly Faith: And what we’re doing is we’re laying a foundation with these first two podcasts of what a satisfying life, what an abundant life looks like according to the truth that is in God’s word as experienced through the lives of real people. And so today’s goal in discussing the basics for the abundant life, is to give an overview. And the reason we’re doing this in the second podcast is because everything else that we will build in the podcasts that follow, will spring from the foundation of the first podcast, which is salvation, and then the second podcast, which is the basics for living the abundant life. So, without further ado, let’s jump in and discuss, in a nutshell, if you were to name the top three things that make up the foundation for an abundant life based on God’s word, what would you say those are, dad?

John McLarty: Well, it’s interesting you said 3 because, I think of being born again, we were born again.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: That’s what salvation brings. So you’re new babes in Christ. So new babes need to grow. New babies need nutrition. They need to be in the right environment, and they need exercise to grow.

Kimberly Faith: And exercise can include communication.

John McLarty: Communication yes, interaction and communication.

Kimberly Faith: So as that translates to God’s word, would it be fair to say, maybe the top 3, prayer, studying the word, and a church community.

John McLarty: Prayer, studying the word, and a church community, especially in the idea of exercising your faith. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: Interacting with others.

Kimberly Faith: There’s obviously a lot of things that are going to spring from each category, and we’re not trying to limit the Bible or draw lines in the sand. But I think it’s good just to give people an idea of these are the things we’re going to talk about, and this is going to be very foundational in where we go in all these podcasts because it’s kind of like, one of my favorite preachers is Lon Solomon. And one of his things he always says at the end, like, maybe the halfway point of his message is, well, so what? You know? Why does that matter to me when I’m driving on the beltway? Right? And so kind of, laying this foundation is kind of answering the why it’s relevant. And I want to talk about this in the context of both of your experiences in your own spiritual growth.

So first of all, let’s just take prayer. I mean, if that’s okay. Mom, you’re known as the local prayer warrior in our family. And, what are your thoughts on how prayer gives you an abundant life?

Lynn McLarty: Well, first of all, you’re speaking to the creator, and you’re hearing from the creator. That’s like, I mean, people might think that getting a call from the president’s great, but I get talks with the creator.

Kimberly Faith: I just want to say something. Mic drop.

Lynn McLarty: So, to me, that’s just, a foundation is our relationship and our communication with God and hearing from God.

Kimberly Faith: And this is interesting that the first lesson First Thessalonians 5:17 says, pray without ceasing. And that’s what you’re talking about. 

Lynn McLarty: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith:  What it is, I always liken things to the army. You know, if a person’s out in an aircraft flying in enemy territory, he needs to have great comms with the command, you know, with the command. He has to be in constant communication.

Lynn McLarty: Yeah. Like, listening through your day, listening to your commander in chief. And, I mean, when I leave the house, I have a list of all things I need to do, and I think, oh, well, this makes sense. But I get in my car, and if I’m listening to God, He may see somebody needs to hear about him over here. And I was going right, and he said no. Go left.

Kimberly Faith: You know, that kind of changes your to do list into an eternal, difference making excursion.

Lynn McLarty: Yes. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: And it’s kind of like, you know, if you’re like our you know, your grandson, my son flies, a helicopter, an attack helicopter. He’s got to be listening, and he’s got to be communicating.

Lynn McLarty: Yes.

Kimberly Faith: You know? And both of those things make prayer very powerful because like you said, this is the creator of everything. He’s already in the future. He’s been in the past. He knows the heart of every person. Why wouldn’t we want to listen to him?

Lynn McLarty: He knows what’s around the corner. We have no idea what’s around the corner.

Kimberly Faith: Exactly.

Lynn McLarty: We can’t see around the corner.

Kimberly Faith: And do you think and, dad, you weigh on this. Do you think that prayer is probably one of the most, heavily attacked items in our arsenal?

Lynn McLarty: Oh, yes. I do. Because if I’m not praying, it’s just like I’ve lost communication with the unit.  And so, yeah, it’s vital.

Kimberly Faith: I think, definitely, I’ll just tell you. I’ll confess this on this podcast. One of my new year’s resolutions every year, the last couple years seems to be to spend 20 minutes praying out loud with God every day. And I, you know, and I don’t know why that’s so difficult. But I do spend time throughout the day like you’re talking about, but there’s something so powerful about being alone with the creator and engaging your, because when you talk, you have to engage your entire focus.  And I know that is just the enemies, you know, who are saying, oh, no. Don’t do that. We don’t really want you to have that great communication with him. Right?

John McLarty: I would say and go ahead.

Lynn McLarty: I remember when I was first saved, driving down the street, talking to the Lord and out loud because that is important, I think. And that’s why it’s kind of hard for you know, it’s hard when you’re in a family because you need to get alone with God to be able to talk out loud, kind of unhindered

Kimberly Faith:  Right.

Lynn McLarty:  By who’s listening. 

Kimberly faith: Right.

Lynn McLarty:  Because it’s between you and God. But I remember thinking, well, people must think, who is driving next to me? Who is she talking to? But I remember what sweet moments those were, just talking to God, listening to him. I mean, that great communication.

Kimberly Faith: That reminds me of Susanna Wesley. You know? She had these kids. And because she could never get alone, she put the apron over her head, and the kids knew that when the apron was over her head, she was praying and  they needed to leave her alone. So she created her own little prayer room  under her apron. Dad, what were you going to say?

John McLarty: Just an indication that there’s an attack on prayer is just to attempt prayer, try prayer, and notice how easy it is for your mind to wander.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. And that’s especially true in our culture where our attention is being snapped back and forth in all these sound bites by every platform of social media. You know, how many times you sit there and you’re praying, all of a sudden you think, I should pray for this person. Oh, I wonder what they’re doing. Then you’re on Facebook trying to figure out what they’re doing. And then suddenly, you’ve watched 15 reels. You know? So, yeah, it’s true.

John McLarty: I would say that Lynn really, as we learned in the first podcast, her first prayer was answered, and that was that I would be saved. So, Lynn really developed that habit of prayer early in her Christian life. And it was a real, real key, strong point.

Kimberly Faith: You know, it is very empowering to see your prayers answered. And I’ll just give another example. And it’s in my testimony on the website. But when I was at the bottom, and I couldn’t pray, I didn’t feel like I could pray because I had sinned so much. You know, God knew what was in my heart.

And in my heart, I was sitting there, you know,  it was right after I had, you know, right in the middle of my divorce and I was sitting in this little apartment building  and I was thinking, I wasn’t praying, I was thinking, I wish I had 5 acres with a nice view, on a paved road close to my office. That was just my thought. And God took that thought and he revealed his answer and his love. That’s why we call this truth and love. Because God didn’t come back and say you have to start obeying all my commandments in order to have this prayer answer.

No. That is not the way God operates. He gave me not 5 acres, but 45 acres with the most beautiful view in the county on a paved road and 2 minutes from my office. And that’s when I knew that I had been seeking a lesser God my entire life. I had been worshiping at the altar of some other God when this omniscient, omnipotent, amazing, words can’t even describe. God was saying, if you just would just ask me.

John McLarty: God’s goodness led you to him.

Kimberly Faith: Repentance. Yeah. That’s when everything turned around in my office and that repentance, that like, wow, I’m going to see God. So prayer is indisputably, you know, one of the most powerful tools that we have. So dad, you want to kind of take the lead on this fundamental practice of studying God’s word or the importance of God’s word?

John McLarty: Well, that’s really interesting because Lynn focused a lot on prayer, which, and there’s not a one size fits all for our whole Christian life. 

Kimberly Faith:Right.

John McLarty:  Because here I am, you know, after 40 years of Christian life, I’ve retired maybe 45 years. Well, no. It’d be for about 40 years of living the Christian life. I retired from a day job, and my prayer life began to improve just because I had more time and  a desire to do it. And I just had a more relaxed. I didn’t have to be at work at 8 o’clock in the morning.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: But in my early Christian life, I really got into studying the word. And that was through a church relationship. Our pastor was teaching us an incredible series of Bible studies called the concepts, which we’ll build with later podcasts. But it just got me into the word and how the word connected to itself and to our lives and explained so much. So it really, that series of studies got me into the word, and the word is alive and would speak to me. So I really got into bible reading and then outlines and, you know, doing reference verses and getting, you know, just deeper into the word.  And that really fulfilled me even though I’d say my prayer life was lacking. But that drew me into learning the word and then teaching others, and it’s very fulfilling for me.

Kimberly Faith: You know, I think there was something said in the last podcast about how when you’re born again, God’s word changes from just an intellectual pursuit to a, we get to be in on him discerning the thoughts and intents of our heart and transforming us through his word, which is Jesus. Jesus working in this mysterious way. You know, it’s always interesting to me if you’re standing in a mall and you read a verse from God’s word, people will look at you like you’re crazy, or people who are born again will say, oh, yeah. I connect with that. If you read a verse from, you know, the Quran or from a recipe book, nobody’s really going to; it’s not going to  be controversial.

But God’s word, that’s because it’s him, you know, and he is empowering his word. I think about the promise, you know, everybody listening to this podcast wants peace. Everyone listening to this podcast would like to live a long time, you know. And Proverbs chapter 3, verses 1 and 2 says, my son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands. For length of days and long life and peace will they add to you.

And then, you connect that with 2nd Timothy 2:15 that says, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You know, when I think about those 2 verses in the context of the military, you know, if you’re in basic training and you don’t learn the basic doctrine of the army, you know, the basic rules of operation, then you will not know how to operate when you’re under fire. And your days are going to be pretty short because you’re going to set yourself in the enemy’s path, and you’re going to be an easy kill. Right? But it’s the same.

I mean, if we trained our churches with even just the basic training, the army used, you know, 8 weeks basic depending on which branch you’re in or, you know, whatever it is now. If every church trained the believers that were part of their church with just that. And not just, you know, in basic training, you don’t just learn doctrine. You practice it. You are taking your weapon. You’re cleaning your weapon. You’re learning to shoot your weapon. You’re learning to shoot and move. You’re learning to be defensive. You’re learning to breach areas. You’re learning all kinds of things. Right?

And so if we’re taking the word and doing this training like you were talking about, you know, churches need to be taking people into outreach, taking people into, you know, when I teach a concept study, one of the things I start doing about the second time through with a person is, now you teach it back to me. And, you know, you said it’s so rewarding as a teacher to see your student, saying, you know, I had this guy I was talking to the other day, and he had some version of truth, and I said, well, how is that satisfying you? And, you know, because we want, if your truth doesn’t satisfy you, then that’s basic concepts number one, poles of influence. Right? Where do you get your truth from? 

So this truth is so foundational because it gives us not only the operating system we need to run by, but it also satisfies us because it is what Jesus said. He said he was the bread of life. His word is food. He is the living water, and it teaches us to grow. You know, a basic trainee on day 1 is much different than a basic trainee, on day 40 or 50. Right? And in the Christian walk, I think we have to evaluate. Are we seeing that in the church? Which brings about the next one. I mean, is there anything else? I’m sorry. About the word.

John McLarty: Just a tie in between what Lynn said that when we pray, we’re praying to the creator. When we read the word, this is the word of God. It’s not just some book of a list  of doctrines, some religious studies. It’s the word of God. So it’s alive and powerful and it’s speaking directly to our soul. So prayer and the word are both from God directly. So it’s that direct input from the mind of God into our mind just as prayer is.

Kimberly Faith: Right. So that kind of brings us to our 3rd broad category, which is the church and the church community. And, you know, we were in church yesterday and heard a remarkable example of what this looks like from one of the messages by Brad Jones, and he used the example of the sequoia root system. And I didn’t know this, but it is such a great example of the way a church community should look.

And, you know, the sequoias grow taller than any tree in the world. They are heavier than any tree in the world. Some of them get as heavy as a freightliner, and there’s several of them that are older than 2000 years. They think maybe even 3000 years. And the question is, how do they survive fires and wind and disease and, you know, all the things that kill trees? And it goes back to their root system. The roots grow together in a way that not only do they actually connect, the roots actually grow into each other, but they feed each other. And they’re only 5 or 6 feet at the most deep, but there’s thousands of them interconnected. And I don’t know what y’all thought, but I thought that was a great analogy for the church.

John McLarty:  It’s incredible.

Lynn McLarty: Well,  I was thinking of something about the church. You have prayer. You have getting into God’s word, and this happened to us, salvation first, then learning to pray. Like I said, my first prayer was answered. Studying God’s word.

All of that was in our life, but we were still wandering around 

Kimberly Faith: Junebugin. 

Lynn McLarty: Junebugin, looking for a place to settle, you might say. We didn’t even know what was next. But when we found the church we’re going to now, Mission Boulevard, what happened to us then was we became grounded. We found a home where we could grow, and our pastor immediately got us into a concept study, which was the basics of the Bible.

I did not know Matthew from Isaiah. I had no idea there was even an Old Testament or a New Testament. I mean, I kind of started reading God’s word, but it kind of didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. But when we found the church and the church started teaching us the basic bible concepts, Like, it’s kind of like an overview  and how it all connects, kind of like those sequoias. They all connected. And when we started studying, God’s word started jumping out at me.

Kimberly Faith: Making sense.

Lynn McLarty: Making total sense. And, I mean, not being raised to know anything about God’s word, it was such an incredible enlightening time in my life to, kind of cross the t’s and dot the i’s, you know, just everything just started making the word just became alive to me.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and the concepts, you know, which we have 7 of them on our website, but, god willing, dad and I are going to do that whole study on our podcast.

John McLarty: Great.

Kimberly Faith: What that does for so many people is, you know, when you go to learn a subject that you have no idea what it’s about, you kind of like to know the why. You know? Why am I learning this? How does this make a difference in my life? And what is this going to teach me that will make my life better?

I feel like that’s what the concept does. Because you start with what is truth, who am I, who is God, what is salvation, you know, what is spiritual warfare, and what is the church? I mean, you start and then you go to the overview, and it’s like, okay. Now when I read contextually, I can understand God’s word. Does that sum it up?

John McLarty: That sums it up well. Something else I’ll add in addition to that is we weren’t just learning the concepts from a book we bought at a Christian bookstore. The man who became our pastor was coming out to teach us. And then through the church we joined, we were interconnected with a lot of people that were doing the same thing.

But Brian Disney, the pastor of our church, would come out. We were about a 45 minute drive from Fayetteville, and 30 minutes of that was  up a dirt road to Sugar Mountain. And he came out every week just to teach us. So his care for us impressed us. So it was learning the word, learning the concepts, and seeing his concern just for our growth. And then when we joined the church, it was just like a lot of people 

Kimberly Faith: Doing the same thing.

John McLarty: Doing the same thing.

Kimberly Faith: It’s kind of like those sequoia trees all growing up together, their roots interconnecting. They have a community of roots.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: And, you know, it’s interesting about your testimony too. I remember you saying this at one point. You know, Brother Brian was teaching this study. And  you finally just asked him, so do you have a church? He wasn’t putting pressure on you to join his church.

John McLarty: Right.

Kimberly Faith: He was just loving you. And he was giving you the truth in obvious love because he was sacrificing. You know? Everything from his car being a rattled trap to just his time. You know? Two hours on the road or whatever to come out to you all. He didn’t even know you. And that is just a remarkable example of how you know, it’s interesting. In the great commission, Jesus said and this was directed to the church. Go ye therefore and teach.

Isn’t that interesting? That’s the first word he used teach. You know, teach doesn’t just mean teaching the people in the church. Teaching means you have a colleague at work say, how come you have so much joy? Why do you have joy? I want to know where do you get your peace from? Hey. I’d love to have coffee with you and explain that. You know? And that’s exactly what should be happening to us every day as a church. Right? But that’ll be another podcast.

John McLarty: But one point is we were feeling cared for or loved by Brian. And so, you know, by this shall all men know your disciples that you love one another. As we love one another and show concern for another, that’s attractive.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: It’s attractive to experience it. But then as others see that love among the brethren  and then the love to the community, you know, in just various ways, you know, caring for people. That’s attractive.

Kimberly Faith: It should be attractive. The  church should be attractive to desperately longing souls who do not experience love, joy, peace, the fruits of the spirit. Right?

Lynn McLarty: And God’s love through us, we can’t fake that. Because you’re loving somebody and you run into a kind of an ordinary person. All of a sudden, your love can change real quick. 

Kimberly Faith: If it’s yours.

Lynn McLarty: If it’s yours. But if it’s God’s love, you don’t get offended. You realize that you’re just giving what God has, and God loves this person, and you’re going to continue to love him. And God’s love through us is different. There are  a lot of people who act loving in the world.

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

Lynn McLarty: Until 

Kimberly Faith: Something happens.

Lynn McLarty: Something happens.

Kimberly Faith: You know, I’ll never forget I was in a study with a group and one of the ladies said, well, I try really hard when I’m out at Walmart to have the joy and the love and the compassion for people, but it is almost impossible. And as I said to her, I said, it’s so good that you understand that it’s impossible because if it’s yours, it’s not going to work. It has to be that wide open faucet of the well of God spirit flowing through you because then you’re giving away what you have and you have it in such abundance. You don’t need it back. You don’t need it in return because you don’t have room for anybody. I mean, you have so much to give.

I want to just compare, you know, Ephesians Chapter 4 talks about the church, and I kind of want to talk about this in the context of the sequoia root system. Okay? The apostle Paul says that he gave himself, meaning Jesus, gave some, sorry, to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him who is the head,  Christ from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

You know, you hear all these people say, well, I can do church on my own, but you’re missing out. 

Lynn McLarty: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: You know, if the sequoia tree was in the desert by itself, it wouldn’t last. Its root system isn’t deep enough. But the forest is what gives the strength to each tree. And that’s just a remarkable

John McLarty: The connected system.

Kimberly Faith: The connected. And, you know, in the concept study in the section on the church, we have these one another commands. And, dad, you’ve taught the concepts way more than I have, but do you want to kind of give us a brief overview of these one another commands, as we kind of wrap up on the church here?

John McLarty: Well, you can just look through the New Testament, especially, and there’s all these commands to love one another, prefer one another, greet one another, serve one another, forgive one another, consider one another, all  the one another’s. And those can only be done with other people. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

John McLarty: You can’t just be out living in the woods in a log cabin being a hermit and do all these one another’s.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: So these are all only possible in in a local assembly of believers

Kimberly Faith: Right.

John McLarty: That are interconnected with each other.

Kimberly Faith: You know, I want to bring up the bear one another’s burdens out of Galatians 6:2. The other thing that we heard in the sermon yesterday that was so remarkable was the story of, Brad Jones, and Michelle Jones. Their 19. Was Greg 19 when he died? He was young.

John McLarty: Yeah. Yeah.  Might have been 19.

Kimberly Faith: He was given a testimony about how when his son was dying of, did he have cancer?

John McLarty: Cancer.

Kimberly Faith: Cancer. How there’s no way he could have walked through that by himself. But the whole church community surrounded him in such a way. I don’t know, mom. How would you describe the way he described that?

Lynn McLarty: Well, I experienced just being around Brad and Michelle, and they went through it like the Lord had them in his hands, and was carrying them through it. But it was the brethren that were there supporting them in prayer and love and compassion. And their son I’ll tell you what. Their son, Greg, was a born again believer, saved, and he was ministering to his mom and dad. He was ministering to the brethren.

John McLarty: Like the nurse staff, hospital staff.

Lynn McLarty:  The nurse staff and whoever he was around.

Kimberly Faith: That kind of goes back to that root system. You know? The body of Christ was there, feeding them with love, with joy, with peace, and Greg had peace.

Lynn McLarty: And Greg had peace.

Kimberly Faith: He knew exactly, when he drew his last breath on earth, he was going to be drawing his first breath in heaven.

Lynn McLarty: That’s right.

Kimberly Faith: And he knew that. And, you know, again, back to kind of the first podcast, there’s nothing that is more convincing that God’s word is the truth, in my opinion, than a transformed life. You know, we follow people who know where they’re going.  And when Christians are strengthened in the body of Christ, there’s just nothing to really substitute that for.

When you’re strengthening God’s word and prayer in the body of Christ, then the things that result and I want to cover some just a few things that we as Christians, should be producing and doing if these three things are in our life. We should be serving. We should be serving whether that is serving through prayer because maybe we’re homebound, bringing people meals, teaching bible studies. We should be in service. Love,  God is love. Love is selflessness. Selflessness translates into service.

Lynn McLarty: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Right?

John McLarty: That’s right.

Kimberly Faith: And we should be sharing and teaching. We each have the great commission as our personal responsibility, and each one of us can teach something. Matter of fact, we will teach something. We’ll either teach complacency, you know, slothfulness, or we’ll teach passionate service for Christ. I’m not saying there’s only 2 things, but you get the point.

What else do you think will be resulting from the evidence of the first 3, the prayer, the studying the word, and the church community? What other things?

John McLarty: I’ll just go back to the title of this podcast, the basics for the abundant life. I would say Lynn and I have been blessed with an abundant life, just full, fulfilling, exciting, and there’s been tough times, but God’s been with us through them. And we’ve experienced abundant life because of a prayer life, studying God’s word, trying to be in God’s word and because of the church community that we’re a part of. So it produced the abundant and fruitful life, very satisfying. We don’t know the word boring, it does not exist in our experience.

Kimberly Faith: And, you know, I’ll just say this about the church community too because I think one of the breakthroughs in my thinking about the church was that everybody has a community that they build. And if you don’t, it’s a very sad life for people who don’t. I think about when I used to be a big CrossFitter. Okay? I mean, those were my people. You know? We had a goal. We were going to be fit. We were going to go to the CrossFit games. We were going to, you know, do all these things and all centered around physical athleticism.

And we were tight. That was where we liked to go. We wanted to go to the gym and hang out. We wanted to go, another community. It was my volleyball community and my softball community. We would travel, like, to tournaments and eat together and be stinky and sweaty together, and we just loved it. Right? Well, the church community should be our number one community. And what does that mean? That means we’re side by side.

We’re sweating on the court together. You know? We are praying fervently over people together. It’s like we have a recognition of the warfare that we’re in and that we need to be tightly knit together. We need to be forgiving each other. We need to be forbearing each other. And we all have stinky habits. You know, some people’s b o stinks worse than others. Right? And we have to come to grips with the fact that we are a family and we will not,  we will not leave anyone behind. Right?

Lynn McLarty:  Right. 

Kimberly Faith: And, what that does is that unfetters the Holy Spirit and that allows us to have that truth that flows on the wings of love. Right? I mean, when we go places, we can’t keep Jesus a secret because he’s the first thing people see. You know? The first thing people should see is our peace. Right? Our love. And that comes from Christ, mom.

Lynn McLarty: I was thinking too, and we can’t quit, I mean, just think about an army unit out on the field in Afghanistan or some place. What if one of those guys offends the other one, and he says, well, I’m going home.

John McLarty: Right.

Lynn McLarty: I’m leaving this unit.

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Lynn McLarty:  Well, man, if he was the gunner and he just decides he’s going to quit, just think about the big hole that leaves

Kimberly Faith: The fallout.

Lynn McLarty: The fallout for that whole unit now is lacking this gunner. 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

Lynn McLarty: So, you know, when we’re in a group or a family, just say a family.  I mean and one of our kids just goes crazy. Well, they’re still part of your family. You know? You still have to support them. You still have to love them, and you have to be a unit. You can’t just leave

Kimberly Faith:  Right.

Lynn McLarty:  And go your own way. I mean, that’s like, what if me as a mother just decided, well, I’m just going to go shopping. It’s time for dinner, and, well, good luck, family. I’m leaving.

John McLarty: That would be disastrous. 

Lynn McLarty:  Yeah. Hannah’s experienced that with dad making oatmeal.

Kimberly Faith: Well, and I think this is a really great way to kind of wrap up today because what we’ve been talking about is some very basics that if we’ll just apply these, we can live the abundant life. And as a unit, not just as individuals, but it’s

Lynn McLarty: As a unit.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. As a unit, and then that unit has an effect on the neighborhood, on the community. You know, just like when you go in as a peacekeeper in a place where there’s war, you’re going to have an effect on those villages. Right? That’s what we’re supposed to be doing as part of our abundant life.

And so, this is a great foundation. I appreciate both of you and what you’ve shared today, because the next sequence of podcasts are actually going to be on a very foundational set of truths that Jesus taught us, in the Sermon on the Mount, and that is the beatitudes. I am going to just introduce this by saying, it has been one of the most pivotal growth factors in my life to study the beatitudes of Jesus, and, and what he is telling us need to be our beatitudes. The attitudes for us as Christians that should be manifested in us as kingdom citizens. So, anything y’all want to add? We’re kind of getting a little bit long here. That’s okay. But anything y’all want to add to wrap this up?

John McLarty: I’ll just add all these things, kind of all equate to our part of abiding in the vine. The prayer, the reading the word, the being in the community of believers are getting us closer to Jesus. And that’s abiding in the vine out of John Chapter 15. But we abide in him through these mechanisms directly to him in prayer and the word and then with the brethren, and that produces the fruitful life.  And we’ve experienced that firsthand.

Kimberly Faith: Well, I think that’s a great way to end this podcast is with that verse out of John. And I, why don’t you just read that to us, dad, and we’ll

John McLarty: I will. It’s John 15:4 and 5. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine. Ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing.

Kimberly Faith: Well, that’s just wonderful. That is just wonderful. And what a great way to segue into the attitudes that Jesus told us to develop in order to be kingdom citizens. Thank you both for joining us today, and, hope everyone enjoyed this episode.

You have been listening to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. To discover more answers to the big questions in life, visit us at gofaithstrong.com.