We are so glad that you joined us today at North Main Street Church of God. At North Main, we exist to develop completely committed followers of Christ who...

Know Christ intimately,

Grow in Christ continually, and

Go for Christ daily

CHILD DEDICATION SERVICE
Our church commits to partnering with you as you strive to raise your children in the ways of the Lord & teach them to know, love, & serve Jesus. Sign up to be a part of the next child dedication service coming up on November 2 Registration is required so make sure to go to Welcome Center or WWW.NORTHMAINCOG.ORG/DEDICATION to sign up!


NORTH MAIN SERVES BUTLER
Coming up on October 18th our church will be helping to meet the needs of our community partners and of the city of Butler by GO ing to their locations and painting, cleaning, building, organizing, gardening, and more! This goes beyond serving; it is a chance to show the love of Christ to the community that God has given us to care for. Please sign up on our website: NorthMainCOG.ORG/EVENTS or visit the Welcome Center.

Attending to Attaching
2025 Theme: Faithfulness
Series Title: A Return to Disciple-Making
Scripture: Matthew 22:34-40
October 5th, 2025

Something to think about:

How well do you love? It’s a question I need to ask myself on a regular basis. And, if I’m being honest, I have to admit I don’t always love well. My emotions all too often get the best of me, and my selfish tendencies override my sense of compassion and willingness to overlook people’s idiosyncrasies. Like Paul said about himself in his letter to the Roman church, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate” (Romans 7:15, NLT). How can both love and hate exist within the same person? It’s truly madness. Paul’s conclusion to this dilemma is this:

Romans 7:21-25a (NLT), 21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So, the solution to the problems that exist in my life is Christ, and the solution that Christ gives me is to love. Let’s take a closer look at Jesus’ command this morning:

Key Point: “From attending to attaching, the goal of discipleship is to lead people into loving relationships with GOD and others.”

How each of us does this varies. However, we must be intentional about leading people into the presence of GOD through a relationship with Jesus Christ that fosters healthy attachments to Him and others in the act of agape love.

Jeff Vanderstelt, in his book “One Eighty: A Return to Disciple-Making,” clarifies that loving the way GOD loves requires us to be aware of the various spaces in which we function. He explains that there are five such spaces that we must learn to engage, as well as help others to engage, in spiritual practices within each of these relational spaces in order to grow in loving attachments to GOD and others.[1] They are as follows:


[1] Jeff Vanderstelt, One Eighty: A Return to Disciple-Making, (Exponential Resources; 2023), 106.

2. _____________________ Space.

3. _____________________ Space.

4. _____________________ Space.

5. _____________________ Space.

Something to take home:

In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, “Do not waste your time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor, act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.”

In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he writes, “The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith” (1 Timothy 1:5, NLT).

Encouraging his young protégé, Paul tells Timothy that the sole purpose of his instruction is that believers would be filled with love! Is that your sole purpose? How do you love? In all the spaces that you dwell, how well do you love those around you? As a disciple-maker, how well do you instruct people to love GOD and love others?

Key Point: “From attending to attaching, the goal of discipleship is to lead people into loving relationships with GOD and others.”

We can’t meaningfully engage in any of these disciple-making spaces without being attached to Jesus—spending time with him and becoming like him. Our love for God and for others flows from God’s love for us through Jesus. In John 15, Jesus describes what a life attached to him looks like. Read John 15:1–14.

In this passage, Jesus gives the image of a vine and branches to describe his relationship with his followers. Everyone who trusts Jesus with their life depends on him for all things just as the branches depend on the vine for all things. There is no life for the branch apart from the vine. What else stands out to you about Jesus’s metaphor of the vine and the branches? In which area of your life do you feel most dependent on Jesus? Why?

Jesus says that he is the “true vine” in John 15:1. Plenty of false “vines” make themselves available to us for comfort or provision outside of Jesus. Like Jeff mentioned, we will be unable to love God and others as mature disciple-makers without attaching to Jesus above all else. Attaching to other things may look like devoting too much attention to what someone else thinks of you rather than what God thinks of you. Or caring about your job performance without regard for your personal or spiritual growth. What most competes with your attachment to Jesus? How could attaching more deeply to Jesus impact those competing interests in your life?

The fruit of the branch determines whether God prunes it or disposes of it. In John 15:2, Jesus says that the goal of a fruit-producing branch—a maturing disciple of Jesus—is to produce even more fruit. Producing more fruit doesn’t necessarily mean making more disciples through evangelism, but it concerns growth in character, service of others, or any evidence of a love for God and others. What evidence of a love for God and others do you see in your closest Christian friends? Which of those examples would you most like to integrate into your own life? How could you cultivate that evidence of love?

To make way for this new evidence of love for God and others, God “prunes”—kathairo in Greek—the branches. This word carries with it tones of cutting something back to clear the way for new growth. However, kathairo also can mean cleaning something to make it useful or presentable. Both senses are likely in play in John 15:2 because Jesus says in 15:3 that we are “already clean (katharos in Greek) because of the word I have spoken.” God prunes and cleans those who can produce more fruit. When have you experienced God’s cutting away of things in your life? How was your relationship to him and to others changed as a result?

The key word throughout John 15 is “remain.” Other translations may use the word “abide” (ESV, NRSV) or “live” (MSG) to translate the Greek word meno. This word means to remain in a certain activity or state, as opposed to stopping that activity or being in that state. In short, Jesus tells us that we are to keep on attaching ourselves in deep relationship with him—to not let up. What activities or habits most encourage you to continue deepening your relationship with Jesus? With what regularity do you participate in those practices? With whom can you share your intention to start or strengthen a spiritual practice that deepens your relationship with Jesus? Make a plan to talk to them this week.

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