Well, good morning, everyone. It is so good to see you this morning. If we haven't met, my name is Billy, and I get to share guys' word with you this morning. When I was in college and working with masters and all the schoolwork type stuff, I was taking some classes in counseling and doing like criminal counseling and marriage counseling.
And one of the things they talked about in the classes, and I really have yet to see, but one of the things they're talking about in this classes is marriages where spouses just sort of do life apart. Where it's, you know, they said I do, and then they sort of in a sense go almost their separate ways, right? They vacation apart, they work apart, their friend groups are sort of apart, they're just sort of come up and have a partnership under this roof. And it's no surprise as we were talking about this, that often these spouses end up living basically separate lives.
Now, some of us treat our relationship with God in the same manner. And so today we are going to take a look at John, chapter 15, verses one through 17, and we're going to see that abiding with Jesus is the God appointed way to encounter the Lord as we experience the Father's love. We hear his voice, we bear lasting fruit, and we live in Christ's joy. So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to John, chapter 15, which is one of 17.
It's also going to be up on the screen, but I'm going to ask you to do something. In this moment, I'm going to ask everyone just to close your eyes. I know for some of you that are visual learners are already like, are you kidding me? I've got to listen to you.
Now I have to close my eyes, stop it. Just bear with me. But what I want you to do is I want everyone to close your eyes, I'm going to read scripture. And I want you just to let scripture just wash over you and just listen to what the Lord is saying to you.
So let's close our eyes and here we go. I am the true vine, and my Father is a vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Abide in me and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.
For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch in withers and the branches are gathered and thrown into fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this, my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so proved be my disciples.
As a Father has loved me, so have I loved you, abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment that you love one of the, as I have loved you.
Great love has no one than this. That someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants for the servant, does not know what his Master is doing, but I have called you friends.
For all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another. So as you are thinking about was just read, what is something or some things, maybe a word or phrase that stood out that you heard again and again?
What's that? Abide. Abide. It's constant.
It's again and again in the section, Jesus is calling us out to abide. Now the context where we find this section in scripture is during the last supper. So this is going on during the whole last supper in the book of John. And this is sort of like Jesus' last lecture series.
Now I don't know if I've talked about last lecture series here before, but when I was leading the college ministry, we would do a last lecture series every couple of years. And what I would do is I would invite people in the church community or whatever to come in and I would say, hey listen, if this was your last night on earth, this was the last thing that you could say to these college students, what would you say to them? About faith about life. This is your last lecture, go for it.
This is sort of what's going on here. Jesus is getting ready to be crucified. He's going to be killed this next day. And so he's just like coming in with a ton of stuff in his last lecture series.
There's things in here that he's doing, he's talking about washing the disciples feet, right? He goes, he watches the disciples feet and he says, I do this because I came here to serve, not to be served, right? So this is important. He's talking about that he is the way, the truth and the life.
But no one comes with the Father except through him. This is in this sort of context in this series. He talks about how the Holy Spirit is going to be coming and how great he is and it's so much better. So this is the context of where we see this section about abiding.
Now the word abide in Greek, it carries the sense of remaining, of staying, of continuing, like a continual dwelling with, right? It's this idea of an ongoing relational dependence. It's not a one and done. It's not just sort of stop in, say hi, see you later, but that you're relationally connected for a while.
And I love that he uses this vine branch metaphor because, you know, not that my opinion really matters, but it's perfect, right? I mean, you're Jesus is like, I'm going to do this. And I'm like, hey, good job, Jesus. I'm really proud of you.
No, no, no, no, no. This is perfect metaphor, right? Like we have, at my parents' house, we have these big giant oak trees, these big giant trees and they have branches on them that are huge. They're ginormous.
Well, when we cut a branch off and we set it in the dirt, guess what? As big and as amazing and strong powerful it is and even if it's set in the dirt, it dies. This is what Jesus is talking about here. He is the vine.
And if we are apart as the branch, apart from him, there is death. So now with that happy thing, let's jump into our fillings. All right, let's go to this first one. All right, number one, the first fill in is this.
A abiding begins with union, not effort. A abiding begins with union, not effort. And we see this as we read in chapter five. It says, I am the vine.
You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. Now I love this part.
Jesus says here, apart from me equals nothing. Apart from me is nothing. Now you might be thinking, wait a minute, Jesus, hold on. I know people that are apart from you and they're doing stuff.
Like it's not that they're just sitting there, right? They're doing things. So what is Jesus talking about here? What Jesus is saying is that nothing is going on.
Is that you're not doing anything that really lasts. You're not doing anything that touches eternity. There's no staying power in what's going on here. See, Jesus is telling us here that spiritual life starts with the connection to Christ.
Spiritual life starts with the connection to Christ. It doesn't start with self improvement. It doesn't start with just cleaning yourself up and getting rid of a few things and saying, okay, now I'm ready and I'm clean and I've got this, right? This is not where spiritual life comes from.
It doesn't come from religious busyness. It doesn't come from just doing religious things, religiously reading scripture and it's a checklist or whatever type of religious activity or tradition that you've attached yourself to. That's not the beginning of spiritual life. It's not spiritual performance, right?
It's union, not effort. And so in our next fill-in we see that we encounter God most deeply when we rest in Christ. We encounter God most deeply when we rest in Christ. When we stop trying to source life from ourselves or from things around us that are not Him.
Instead we need to rest in Christ. And it's hard for some of us. I was at Winter Camp this last year and there was this young man who we were talking in cabin time and he just could not, it was like blowing his mind. He was like, you guys, as we're talking to God, we're talking to all these things.
He's like, you guys, we just need to rest in what Jesus did. We need to rest in Him. He just kept saying this over and his mind was blown by this. And you know what, to be honest, it blows my mind too because I wanna do, I wanna fix it.
I wanna clean myself up. But we encounter God most deeply when we rest in Christ. Matthew 11, 28 through 30 says this. Comes to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn for me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Does everyone know what a yoke is? So we're not a farming community.
So if you don't understand, it's fine. All right, a yoke is that thing that attaches to animals together, specifically to oxen or to whatever, to bull. I literally, I don't know how to farm. I was a dew farm with bulls.
I don't know, I don't know. I know what a yoke is though. But it's a connecting point. It is implying a relational aspect in and of itself, where one goes, the other goes.
And so we're called in our union to rest with Jesus. Next villain, abiding lets God's word dwell in us. Abiding lets God's word dwell in us. We see this in seven, it says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
I love this because Jesus here is connecting these two things. He's connecting abiding and he's connecting his word is abiding in us. In order for this to happen, we have to humbly listen to his voice. What do I mean by that?
Well, as many of you know, we've got two, almost three-year-olds. And as this is William, our son, our two, almost three-year-old is going on in life. He's trying to discover that he can just sort of do things on his own. He can just, he's like, I think I'm going to walk over here and I'm going to go out to this type of stuff.
And he's like, he's playing over here. And there are times when we're like, hey, son, William, hey, hey buddy, buddy, hey, woo, and I'll say a phrase. I'll say William, can you put on your listening ears? And it signals to him and he stops and he goes, oh yeah.
And he starts to listen more closely to what I'm saying. So we need to, in a sense, put on our listening ears and to tune in to what God is saying in his word. Because as we do, as we really listen to the scripture, as it starts to dwell within us, we let scripture actually reshape us. It reshapes our desires.
You realize that it reshapes the things that you want. As we allow scripture to dwell within us, we can do things like pray from his promises. And the word, as we do these things, becomes more than just information. How beautiful is that?
It becomes more than just rules to follow. It becomes more than just a checklist that we want to make sure we're following. But it becomes living, becomes breathing, becomes sharper than a two-edged sword. And this is hopefully what we want.
See, as we abide and his word abides in us, which is relational language, we become, according to Jesus, his friends, he says in verse 14, that we become his friends. That is relationship. That's a beautiful thing. I love my friends.
I want to be with my friends. And this is what Jesus says, we become with him. As we abide with him, and as his word abides in us, what happens is that we encounter God, this is our next villain, we encounter God as he shapes us from the inside out. We encounter God as he shapes us from the inside out, and this is through his word that abides in us.
Check out 2 Timothy 3, 16 to 17. It says, all scriptures breathe out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness. That the man and woman of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Who doesn't want to be equipped for every good work that God has planned out for you?
Does anyone here want to be? Yeah. I think so. So as we abide in him, we let his word abide in us.
Next, the next villain, which our mind is number five, but I don't think you have numbers on yours. Abiding invites the father's pruning. Abiding invites the father's pruning. Verse 2 says this, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away in every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
Now, for me growing up, I grew up in Northern California. I grew up in the forest. We had our section of whatever, the almost a quarter to half anchor, whatever we had trees, growing up, and stuff. As I was growing up, I was convinced the best way to let things grow is just to let them grow, like just let it go.
The forest is going to be fine. It's going to take care of it. The trees are going to get big and things are going to get watered and there's all going to be amazing. All this type of stuff, nature is the best way.
I have learned, as I've grown up, that that's not necessarily the best way, that it's much better when we care for the plants and we care for the world around us. It's much better than we carefully prune things. We don't just let it grow into chaos. When you prune a tree, a bush, or whatever it is, and you prune that the right way, it brings health to the tree.
This, interestingly, ties back to Genesis. We've got places in the garden and he said to do what? To take care, right? To be good stewards of everything.
If we don't, chaos ensues. I love the forest, but I've learned that if you just let it go, chaos ensues. It's actually not healthy. It's not good.
So how does abiding invite pruning into our lives? What happens when you hang out with somebody? A lot. I've been hanging out with Pastor J a lot for the past couple of years, and you know what?
I've changed a bit. In great ways. I become a little more like Pastor Jason, in my humor, in the ways I think about things, in my love for Star Wars. I mean, right?
All these things. As we hang out with people, it changes us. As we abide with different people, it changes. Sometimes it cuts off things that don't need to be there.
As we abide with the Father, it changes us. It prunes us in these different ways. Now the Father prunes fruitful branches so that they may bear more fruit. It can be painful.
It can be costly. Even, right? But why does he do it? So that we bear more fruit.
Yes. Yes. What's for that? Excellent.
Good job. Right. He does that for our good. He does that for our benefits.
It cleanses. It refines. It deepens our fruitfulness. God often strips away the things we trust so that we more fully rely on Christ alone.
And that's what we want. So we should want. And so, the next thing filling is this. We encounter God's loving hand more fully in the pruning.
We encounter God's loving hand more fully in the pruning. Proverbs 3, 11 through 12 says this. My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof. For the Lord reproofs him who he loves.
As a Father, the Son in whom he delights. The pruning happens because he loves you, because he delights in you, because he wants what's good for you. Next, abiding deepens love and joy. Abiding deepens love and joy.
9 through 11 says this. As a Father, his love me so have I love you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.
Just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Now, Jesus says to abide in my love. And attached to that is this idea of keeping his commandments.
In the same way that he kept his Father's commandments. So question, how did Jesus keep the Father's commandments? What's that? By abiding with him.
By abiding with being near him, by being close to him. And as he did that, he didn't keep his commandments begrudgingly. Oh, OK, God, Father, I guess I'll go over and share with these people. Here's some fish, whatever.
I don't know. Oh, he did so with joy, right? He did so with zeal. He did so in full trust.
You see, Jesus didn't simply comply with a set of regulations that the Father had given him. He had whole heart to commit it to a way of life. That's what we're called to do. That's how we're called to live.
How do we do this? So how do we do this? Again, going back to the front, do we just will ourselves? And just go, oh, I'm going to keep this even better.
I'm going to do it. No, no, no, no. We don't. We do it by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
If you name the name of Christ as your own, you have within you the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit. I brought you this back from the dead, who conquered death. Conquered death. Sometimes we hear something so often that we lose the power of it.
The Holy Spirit beat death. That's amazing. And he dwells in you, if you name the name of Christ as your own. The Holy Spirit does what?
He convicts and corrects. He guides us to truth. He provides the power to obey. He transforms our desires.
Now, Jesus also ties this in, this whole aspect. He says that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. This is so crucial because abiding is not just about duty. It's about living inside Christ's love, sharing in his joy.
Has anyone ever watched a TV show by themselves and enjoyed it? Some people, yes, yes. Okay, okay. I know of you, but I've got some friends that are near and dear to my heart.
And like, I'll watch something. I'll watch a show or whatever, Parks and Records, I'm like that. And I'm like, it's good. But I get together with my friends.
And we watch this show, we watch this movie. And it goes from, that's good. So, oh my God, don't you say that. Oh my goodness gracious, I'm gonna be my pan.
It's so good. Like when you invite someone into these moments, that joy is full. It's great to watch the show by yourself. It's great to do that.
But when you invite people in, you're talking about having a full joy. This is what Jesus is talking about. Then when we do this together with Him, that joy is full. It is beautiful.
You guys are peeing your pants with excitement for the Lord. Quote me. Come on, pee my pants with excitement for the Lord. Jason's up here just shaking his head.
He's like, I didn't teach him that. That's not abiding with me. That's not. All right, but this is this idea, this idea that he's painting and really the idea and the picture he's painting is that it's about relationship.
It's relational picture. Abiding is not just religious motion, but it's ongoing, dependence on the Holy Spirit, ongoing connection with a nearness to Christ. And right again, it's tied back to the very beginning. We talked about, it's not just saying a prayer, you know, 25 years ago and being like, okay Lord, I said it and I'll see you later, right?
It's not just going to a wedding ceremony, saying your idea is and then you go your separate ways. It's being together. It's connecting. Your joy is full, not because you simply imitate Jesus.
I grew up in the WJD era. I had the bracelets and all that stuff. That was rad and I totally love it. But one of the big problems is what would Jesus do?
Or I'm just imitating him? So it's not this idea of just because we imitate Jesus, but because Jesus is in our life that we're connected to him. He is present with you and our joy is full. So it's about a relationship with him, not just imitation of him.
What God desires for his creation, what the whole story is about is Emmanuel, God with us. And the reverse of that is us with God. That's what the whole thing points to. God moved heaven and earth to bring his creation back into relationships with him because sin separated us.
That's the picture. That's the story. That's his heart to forgive, to love, to draw. And so the next villain says this, we encounter the heart of God as we share in his love and joy.
We encounter the heart of God as we share in his love and joy. Exodus 34, 6, 3, 7 says this. This is when Moses asked to see the Lord. This is the Lord passed before him to proclaim the Lord.
The Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding instead of fast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But who, by no means, clear the guilty. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, the children, the children to the third and the fourth generation. Man, this is who God is.
A God who forgives who loves. A God who took the sin and the punishment of sin upon himself for you and for me. We can start our last couple of villains. Is this abiding produces visible fruit?
A abiding produces visible fruit. Where Satan says, by this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. I had a buddy who was pastor and years ago, and he was a pastor in a church through a transition. It was very difficult.
And I would call and check in with him every once in a while and ask how things are going. And if you have ever been part of church transitions and trying to change cultures of church, you understand? It's slow and it's difficult and it's hard. And so my buddy, when I call him up, I say, hey, how are things going?
He would say, oh man, it's great. We're making invisible progress. Jesus says here that the branch that buys will bear much fruit and the father is glorified by that fruit. And the fruit is visible.
It's visible. If you go to a store and you ask for their apples and they take you to a bin and it's completely empty, you're not going to believe that they have apples, correct? You're probably going to move on to another store and say, crazy people work there. I don't know.
But fruit is visible. There's no fruit at the store. There's going to be no sale. But we have to ask a question, I think.
What is fruit? What is the fruit that is visible? For the longest time, I was convinced that the only fruit that was visible, the only fruit that you had as a Christian, was evangelizing and bringing people to Christ. And I'm going to tell you guys, you guys probably know this by now, it's just having a listen to me for 20 minutes.
It's not my strong suit. It's just not my giftedness. I don't enjoy going door to door. I struggle with those conversations.
That's not my thing. And so for the longest time, I thought as a Christian, I was failing. But I had no fruit because I wasn't just bringing people into the Lord left and right. I've come to learn that his fruit is more than just that.
Is it that? Yes, but it's more than just that. So what is the type of visible fruit that we're to be showing? What includes things like growing in Christ-like character?
Are you growing in your humility? Are you growing your compassion and your forgiveness? Are you growing in your love for your enemies? Are you growing in kindness?
Are you growing in generosity? It's also things like being obedient to God. Are you trusting Him more? Are you taking those steps in faith as He calls you out into water that is deeper as the song says?
Are you living in that obedience more and more? It seems like serving others with your gifts. Everybody in here has time, talents, and treasures. Are you growing and using that to serve those around you?
Right? These are the things that are visible fruit that God is calling us to. He's trying to grow in us. Right?
These are things that are about eternal things, the lasting impact, the stuff that really counts. Are you growing? Are you just taking even just a tiny step more in that direction? That's what we're doing.
That's what we're called to be doing. And again, I just want to put this reminder. I literally have it in here. A reminder, the branch doesn't manufacture fruit on its own.
You have to be connected to the vine. You have to be connected to the vine. True encounter doesn't end in private experience. It overflows to a transformed life.
True encounter doesn't end in private experience. It overflows into a transformed life. First Corinthians 6, 9 through 11, Paul's talking to the Corinthians and he says this, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.
Neither sexually immoral, nor idolatrous, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers. I almost can't say that word. Nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you.
But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by spirit of our God. There was visible fruit.
They were something and they are now something completely different. This is what God is calling us to. I'm going to invite the band to come on up as we close out with this last sort of closing part. Our job, our job, your job and my job as followers of Jesus is to abide.
We're to dwell with him. We're to stay connected with him. We're to be consistently around him. We want to be in his word.
Let his word dwell in us to let it transform us. We want to rest in his love. We want to be filled with his joy. You guys, I promise as we do this, we will encounter life-changing God.
And he will move us in life-changing ways.