back to index2020-5-17 I AM THE VINE PART 2
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We're going to be finishing up the I Am Statement. 00:00:09.600 |
I didn't get to finish last week, so we're going to finish the part two for this week. 00:00:14.740 |
So please turn your Bibles to John chapter 15 and let me read from verse 1 through 11. 00:00:25.320 |
I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. 00:00:28.000 |
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. 00:00:31.140 |
And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 00:00:36.080 |
You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 00:00:40.200 |
Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the 00:00:45.000 |
vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. 00:00:49.760 |
He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. 00:00:55.900 |
If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather 00:01:00.400 |
them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 00:01:03.680 |
If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done 00:01:08.320 |
My Father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 00:01:14.040 |
Just as the Father has loved me and I have also loved you, abide in my love. 00:01:18.640 |
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's 00:01:25.120 |
These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may 00:01:31.500 |
Gracious Father, we pray for your blessing over this time. 00:01:36.900 |
We pray, Father God, that your Holy Spirit would illumine our hearts, that we may understand 00:01:43.080 |
and that we may be convicted, that we may live lives truly bearing fruit as we abide 00:01:52.360 |
All right, so I think we're in what, seventh or eighth week into our lockdown and I know 00:01:57.500 |
many of you, your life doesn't look much different. 00:02:00.140 |
Maybe you're even busier than before because you're going to work physically and you come 00:02:05.860 |
home and you got to take care of the kids who are not at school and so maybe some of 00:02:09.260 |
you, I know some of you are busier, but there's a lot of us. 00:02:13.060 |
And again, we're home, we're eager for the doors to open and for us to come back to church, 00:02:19.860 |
but you know, being locked down, like sometimes I wake up and I don't know if it's Monday, 00:02:25.580 |
I don't know if it's Saturday, you know, it's kind of like Groundhog Day. 00:02:29.260 |
I don't know if you've ever saw that movie with Bill Murray where he wakes up and same 00:02:32.940 |
thing happens day after day after day and then, you know, sometimes it kind of feels 00:02:39.260 |
Even this morning, I was talking to Pastor Mark this morning, I actually had to go record 00:02:43.380 |
a sermon for a friend's church and usually I know it's Sunday because I preach. 00:02:48.780 |
You know, I wake up in the morning thinking about the sermon. 00:02:50.900 |
So I had to give a sermon yesterday and I went to sleep kind of winding down and then 00:02:56.700 |
I woke up this morning thinking it was Monday and I was just relaxing on my bed thinking 00:03:01.740 |
like what am I going to do and grab some coffee, do my devotions and then it all of a sudden 00:03:08.700 |
And so I kind of had to hurry and get out of the house and I don't know about you, but 00:03:12.300 |
you know, the days are kind of bleeding into the other days and again, I'm eager to have 00:03:17.700 |
the country open back up and us getting back to work and what we need to do. 00:03:23.540 |
You know, bearing fruit that we talked about last week is absolutely important, right? 00:03:31.420 |
Whether it's as a Christian or just regular part of life and if you're doing anything 00:03:35.300 |
and you don't see progress, eventually you're going to lose motivation. 00:03:41.060 |
The text that we're looking at this morning is about bearing fruit and the reason why 00:03:44.900 |
Jesus says this to his disciples before he leaves is because he's preparing them to continue 00:03:53.220 |
That their primary task was to take this gospel message, the hope of his death and resurrection 00:03:58.700 |
and go plant churches and spread the gospel and make sure that the world hears about and 00:04:03.180 |
knows about the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. 00:04:06.260 |
But he wanted to, as he is preparing them, he also wanted to warn them that the only 00:04:10.760 |
way that they're going to really bear fruit is if they abide in Christ. 00:04:16.540 |
That is the only way that they can truly bear fruit. 00:04:20.140 |
In John chapter 15, verse 4, it says, "Abide in me and I in you, and as the branch cannot 00:04:24.940 |
bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide 00:04:31.140 |
So let's stop right there and really understand what he is saying here in verse 4, the magnitude 00:04:38.340 |
He's not saying that you're not going to bear good fruit. 00:04:42.080 |
He's not saying that you're not going to bear much fruit. 00:04:48.640 |
You can't bear any fruit unless you're abiding in me. 00:04:52.480 |
So in other words, from this point on, after I leave, the Holy Spirit is going to come 00:04:57.000 |
and if you do not abide, if you do not continue, you will bear no fruit. 00:05:08.280 |
You will do all of these things, but you will bear no fruit. 00:05:12.760 |
You know, I think one of the biggest lies that the world tells, you know, especially 00:05:19.840 |
the young ones in our culture, is that, you know, you would see a great basketball star 00:05:27.160 |
after he wins the championship and they interviewed him, "What's the secret to your success?" 00:05:31.820 |
And you would hear this cliche that if you believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything. 00:05:38.380 |
I mean, he may believe that, but it is an absolute lie. 00:05:45.040 |
If you believe in yourself that you can fly, you're not going to fly. 00:05:53.340 |
If you're 5'5", 250 pounds or, you know, whatever you may be, you're not going to dunk. 00:06:00.620 |
No matter how much you believe in yourself, there are things that you just cannot do, 00:06:07.460 |
But if you're being trained, like, no, if you believe in yourself, you just put your 00:06:10.860 |
effort in, you know, somebody has a company that's multi-billion dollars. 00:06:15.300 |
If you just believe in yourself, you'll be a billionaire yourself, right? 00:06:20.100 |
Now that may sound like good advice, like you could try harder, but the problem is that 00:06:27.820 |
they can endeavor to do something and not only not achieve that, but in the process 00:06:38.180 |
It doesn't even come close, and then you kind of lose motivation to do anything else. 00:06:44.220 |
There's a lot of Christians who are working hard and laboring and sacrificing, and maybe 00:06:51.480 |
you've done that for many, many years, and you look at your Christian life now, and it 00:06:55.940 |
is nowhere near where you thought you would have been. 00:07:00.180 |
I mean, I could tell you, I'm one of those people, you know, I got saved early, and I 00:07:03.700 |
thought by the time I was 40 years old that I would have had, you know, like I would have 00:07:09.940 |
been a certain level, you know, I would have had the whole Bible memorized, you know, when 00:07:15.500 |
But the ministry that we were a part of was really into Bible memory, and I knew this 00:07:19.740 |
guy who was, even before Pastor Peter Chung, we had a guy in our Bible study who would 00:07:24.420 |
memorize books, you know, we would come with two verses, and he would come with, "Oh, I 00:07:29.300 |
memorized 1 Timothy this week," and then a month later he would say, "Oh, I got 2 Timothy 00:07:35.660 |
So I remember when I was young, being in that Bible study thing, you know what, my memory 00:07:40.700 |
is not as good as him, but by the time I'm 40, right, I'm going to have this, and I'm 00:07:45.020 |
going to have this memorized, and I'm going to have this much of the Bible, I'm going 00:07:47.660 |
to have, you know, have so many people evangelized, so many people discipled. 00:07:52.260 |
Well, I'm over 50, and I'm nowhere near what I was hoping to be when I was 40 years old. 00:08:01.620 |
There's a lot of us who are frustrated, maybe frustrated, because we, it's not because you 00:08:07.140 |
haven't tried, you've tried, and it just didn't turn out the way that you were hoping for. 00:08:16.100 |
He says clearly, "True fruit, true fruit is only going to happen when you abide in the 00:08:28.260 |
That pretty much summarizes everything I'm going to say this morning, okay? 00:08:31.380 |
So if you're going to go to sleep, like, make sure you memorize that, right? 00:08:35.380 |
True fruit can only happen when you abide by the true vine. 00:08:40.980 |
So when you're not abiding by the true vine, whatever fruit that you may think that you 00:08:47.540 |
see may not be real fruit, unless the Bible is lying, right? 00:08:56.340 |
True fruit can only come from abiding by the true vine. 00:09:02.860 |
You can teach the Bible regularly, not abiding in Christ, and really bear no fruit. 00:09:10.460 |
You can go to short-term missions, share the gospel with many people, and not be abiding 00:09:19.420 |
You can have a growing church filled with hundreds, even thousands of people, when we 00:09:29.700 |
Everything that we experience, or what seems to be fruit outside of abiding in Christ, 00:09:38.440 |
And sometimes it's actually more dangerous to be surrounded by what we think is fruit 00:09:45.260 |
when the Bible says, "No, it's not real fruit at all," because He said you cannot bear any 00:09:52.340 |
So how central is this message to the church and to Christianity in general? 00:10:05.580 |
If you missed this, you've missed everything about our Christian faith. 00:10:09.500 |
So our primary pursuit, before we evangelize the world, before we attract people to the 00:10:15.540 |
church, before we even open it back up so that we can have corporate worship, our primary 00:10:25.140 |
Luke 6, 43-44, it says, "For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor, again, does a bad tree 00:10:34.500 |
For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from bramble bush." 00:10:44.380 |
So the central question that we have to ask is, then what does it mean to abide in Christ? 00:10:52.380 |
I remember the first time when I was studying this passage and doing quiet time, I just 00:10:56.300 |
assumed abide basically meant to obey, right? 00:11:01.580 |
As long as you obey, as long as you do what he tells you to do, then we're going to bear 00:11:07.660 |
But the word for abide here is much more nuanced than just simple obedience. 00:11:15.180 |
He's telling his disciples more than just, "Just do what I say," which is part of the 00:11:21.380 |
In fact, I asked you, I think last week, to look up different translations to see how 00:11:25.140 |
this word is translated because this is one of those words that can't be translated with 00:11:30.940 |
So if you speak more than one language, you know that there are certain words that you 00:11:34.980 |
really need to understand the culture to be able to translate and really have a correct 00:11:49.100 |
Some of your translations will say to remain. 00:11:52.300 |
Some of your translations in other parts of the Bible, that same word is translated to 00:11:59.220 |
So what I want to do this morning is, again, to jump into the specific nuanced meaning 00:12:05.460 |
of this word because it's central to us bearing fruit, no matter what we do. 00:12:10.720 |
The first and the most obvious thing that he is saying is to dwell, to dwell in Christ, 00:12:22.020 |
And we talked about that last week, how the Holy Spirit was sent and he dwelt within us 00:12:29.200 |
and so he said the Holy Spirit isn't going to leave us as orphans. 00:12:33.100 |
And so as he dwells in us, he says that you need to also dwell within him to make your 00:12:41.980 |
As like sleeping at a hotel, this is where you sleep versus your home, right? 00:12:48.300 |
Home is you can go out and have the best vacation, but the end of it, you know, you always look 00:12:53.940 |
forward to going home because home is where your bed is. 00:12:58.820 |
Home is where your bathroom, your showers, right? 00:13:06.160 |
And so when you are at home is when you find refuge, when you find your comfort. 00:13:12.020 |
So when he says to make your dwelling in Christ, he's saying make sure that Christ himself 00:13:20.820 |
He's the one that you run to before you run to your friends, before you run to the leaders, 00:13:27.820 |
before you run to see if your bank account has enough money, that Christ himself is our 00:13:35.020 |
You know, as soon as the lockdown happened and you can just see the various responses 00:13:38.760 |
that people have, you know, with this COVID-19 and understandably, you know, a lot of people 00:13:46.500 |
Most of us freaked out because the real threat of death, if you know, they were thrown out 00:13:50.700 |
this just outrageous numbers of millions of people may possibly die. 00:13:56.700 |
And every single one of us is going to know somebody who's going to get it and then die 00:14:01.380 |
And so these crazy numbers were being thrown out. 00:14:03.700 |
And a lot of this lockdown happened because of fear of death. 00:14:08.940 |
But I think in some sense was good for us as Christians, because it caused us to take 00:14:14.580 |
a step back and ask ourselves, do I fear God more than death itself? 00:14:26.460 |
And if I have enough things stored up in my garage that I'm safe, did I get enough toilet 00:14:33.940 |
Is my job going to be safe after all this is over? 00:14:37.940 |
Or if I don't have enough money, is the government going to pass a bill where they're going to 00:14:45.740 |
Well first and foremost, Jesus is saying, I'm going to leave you. 00:14:48.220 |
And he's talking to people who are anxious because he's about to leave them. 00:14:51.500 |
And he says, I'm not going to leave you as orphans. 00:14:54.520 |
As the Holy Spirit is going to be sent and he's going to indwell in you, you need to 00:15:01.980 |
In Psalm 27, 4-5, it says, "One thing I have asked of the Lord that I shall seek, that 00:15:07.300 |
I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." 00:15:10.900 |
When he says one thing that I ask, he's not saying he's one of many things. 00:15:15.140 |
He's saying above all these other things, I ask more than anything else, more than long 00:15:21.100 |
life, more than prosperity, more than safety from this world, more than a good government, 00:15:25.980 |
more than a good king, one thing that I ask that I may dwell in the house of the Lord 00:15:36.300 |
Because beholding his beauty, beholding his glory can't be done when we are away from 00:15:44.200 |
When our hearts are chasing after the things of this world, the greatest consequence of 00:15:48.060 |
drifting away from God is that we no longer behold his glory. 00:15:52.880 |
And that's why he says, "I want to be in the house of the Lord that I may continue to behold 00:15:56.680 |
his glory and to meditate in his temple, in his home. 00:16:01.100 |
For in a day of trouble, he will conceal me in his tabernacle." 00:16:05.060 |
In other words, if Christ is our home, if he is our dwelling, when I am in his temple, 00:16:14.220 |
he will protect me, not the walls of my house, not the economy, not some vaccine, but he 00:16:22.740 |
In the secret place of his tent, he will hide me. 00:16:31.100 |
We can find a vaccine tomorrow and all of a sudden this fear of death goes away, at 00:16:38.060 |
There's a thousand different ways that we can die, but at least this part of it that's 00:16:42.060 |
being hyped up right now, that'll be taken care of. 00:16:45.740 |
But the psalmist says, "That's not where I find my refuge. 00:17:00.620 |
That's what it means to dwell, to remain in Christ. 00:17:04.180 |
In Psalm 84, 10 through 11, he also says, "For a day in your courts is better than 00:17:12.940 |
I would rather stand at the threshold of the household of my God than dwell in the tents 00:17:18.260 |
In other words, he's saying, "I'd rather be in a courtyard of my God's house than 00:17:28.780 |
To be near the Lord is much better, to be in the inner chamber of the world. 00:17:39.180 |
No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly." 00:17:48.220 |
The question that we have to ask ourselves and answer repeatedly, over and over again, 00:17:54.180 |
from time to time, is, "Do you believe this?" 00:17:58.220 |
When Jesus says he is the resurrection and life, that even if you die, you shall live. 00:18:07.740 |
When he asks his disciple, "Who do men say that I am?" 00:18:16.780 |
Peter's response, "You are thus the Christ, the son of the living God." 00:18:24.220 |
And so the question isn't, "What do my pastors believe? 00:18:37.180 |
I remember hearing Chuck Smith, obviously the founder of Calvary Chapel, and he probably 00:18:43.540 |
had one of the biggest spiritual influences, that God used him to bring the Jesus movement 00:18:51.500 |
And he gives a testimony about how, in the earlier part of the church, how he really 00:18:58.580 |
felt like that this is a church that he needed to build. 00:19:01.060 |
And he started a project to build this church, but they eventually ran out of money. 00:19:06.360 |
And he was praying, and they had a certain bill that was coming up, and he was praying 00:19:09.380 |
to God, and he was getting anxious and anxious as the time was coming. 00:19:13.040 |
And all of a sudden, he says, a member, somebody he didn't know that well, called him and said, 00:19:20.100 |
"Pastor, God really convicted me to give you an offering." 00:19:22.780 |
And then he said, "I'm going to be sending you a check." 00:19:26.380 |
And when he said the amount, he said he was floored, because that was exactly the amount 00:19:31.740 |
of money that he needed to get to the next stage. 00:19:36.000 |
And he said that he was rejoicing and thanking God for answering his prayer, and he was so 00:19:46.180 |
But then he says afterwards, he felt a strong rebuke in his heart, because he says, again, 00:19:52.700 |
in his testimony, he said, "He rejoiced more over the promise of that man over the phone 00:19:59.440 |
than the promise that God gave him, that if you seek his kingdom and all his righteousness, 00:20:07.340 |
And he shares in his testimony how it revealed in his heart that he trusted more from what 00:20:13.620 |
that man said on the phone than what his father says in his word. 00:20:19.200 |
And so he shares how God revealed early on in ministry, how even in the context of doing 00:20:25.300 |
God's work, where we use our own effort and our confidence comes from man, if we're not 00:20:33.060 |
And so that's the first understanding of the word. 00:20:41.940 |
The word to remain means to continue, to keep going. 00:20:46.500 |
And again, this was given to the disciples because Jesus was leaving, he's going to be 00:20:51.620 |
crucified, and he also knew that the disciples were going to be scared, and that the leaders 00:20:57.580 |
of Israel, just like they came after Jesus, they're going to come after them. 00:21:01.780 |
So he's telling them that when this happens, Peter, when you deny me three times and you're 00:21:06.940 |
in fear hiding from these people, when you come back to your senses, remember, the safest 00:21:14.820 |
place for you to be is to continue with me, to remain. 00:21:20.420 |
Even if it seems like this is crazy, that if we continue with Jesus, we may actually 00:21:27.540 |
And they were probably thinking, they probably remember Jesus said, "If you want to come 00:21:33.020 |
And maybe they kind of heard it metaphorically because they didn't understand. 00:21:36.860 |
Even when Jesus says, "I'm going to the cross," they didn't understand. 00:21:41.080 |
So maybe when they heard it, they kind of said, "Oh, maybe he meant sacrifice." 00:21:45.380 |
Kind of a lot of the way that we take it, right? 00:21:48.140 |
It means to live, persevere through persecution or make difficult decisions. 00:21:54.260 |
But when Jesus actually went to the cross, I bet you it was kind of going off on their 00:21:58.940 |
heads like, "Oh my gosh, he actually meant it. 00:22:02.700 |
He literally meant he's going to die and you need to die. 00:22:10.260 |
That's exactly what he meant to his disciples. 00:22:13.120 |
If you want to come after me, you need to deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow 00:22:17.860 |
And so he's telling his disciples, when that temptation comes, if I continue to go down 00:22:31.300 |
I may not be able to continue to go down this path. 00:22:33.860 |
And you have people, maybe even other Christians, who are trying to dissuade you from picking 00:22:41.460 |
And Jesus reminded his disciples, he says, "No, you continue. 00:22:47.900 |
You know, 1 John 2, verse 19, John says in his other letter, "They went out from us, 00:22:57.700 |
For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. 00:23:00.540 |
For they went out that it may become plain that they all are not of us." 00:23:06.540 |
Now when John was writing this epistle, 1 John, he was talking to a different group 00:23:10.920 |
of people because significant time has already passed from the time of Jesus' death and resurrection. 00:23:16.660 |
But I bet that Apostle John never forgot about Judas because what he says here is exactly 00:23:25.220 |
what Jesus said about Judas before he went, he gets to chapter 15. 00:23:37.080 |
And so John is saying it's because he did not continue. 00:23:41.460 |
If he was really of us, he would have continued. 00:23:46.460 |
And so now he reminds us of what Jesus said to them. 00:23:57.980 |
Well Hebrews chapter 3, 6, you know we're going to be jumping back into Hebrews pretty 00:24:02.500 |
I'm not going to guarantee it's going to be next week but possibly the week after for 00:24:06.380 |
But we've been studying through the book of Hebrews and the whole book of Hebrews is a 00:24:13.840 |
So you will see that idea repeated over and over again all throughout the book of Hebrews 00:24:18.820 |
because the central theme, central thing that he's warning the recipients of this letter 00:24:26.300 |
That's why he says over and over again, Hebrews 3, 6, "And we are his house if indeed we hold 00:24:31.660 |
fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope." 00:24:45.560 |
It's just that you know when it was a little bit too hard to go this path they would kind 00:24:51.360 |
If it was too difficult to say this and they kind of toned it down said the other way. 00:24:55.920 |
You know a lot of the ways that we avoid hardship in our lives is not to completely reject it. 00:25:06.080 |
You can preach the gospel but don't say that. 00:25:09.120 |
You can tell them about the love of Christ but don't talk about hell. 00:25:12.640 |
You could talk about Jesus being the only way but don't say he's the only way and all 00:25:18.800 |
So we kind of tone it down a little bit you know and we find we try to make the path that 00:25:27.880 |
When he says to hold on, hold fast, is that these truths that you are convicted about 00:25:34.880 |
that you don't compromise, that you hold on to dear life. 00:25:38.480 |
Hebrews 3.14, for we share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the 00:25:46.760 |
That the things that we were convicted about when he opened our eyes to see the glory of 00:25:50.920 |
the gospel of Jesus Christ that ten years later that you've become compromised and you've 00:25:58.520 |
Hebrews 4.14, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, 00:26:07.760 |
Hold fast, not just kind of I got on the boat so we're safe you know. 00:26:12.640 |
A lot of confessing Christians are more than perfectly satisfied that they made a good 00:26:20.800 |
decision sometime way back in life and then now we're just kind of just I'm on the boat 00:26:27.760 |
and wherever this boat takes me and so you know you're the captain so take the boat and 00:26:33.080 |
He said that was the danger of these people, the second, third generation Christians and 00:26:38.000 |
even in the first century they were just beginning to drift and not holding fast. 00:26:43.400 |
Hebrews 6.11, and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize 00:26:54.240 |
You know again there's a lot of people who are absolutely certain of their faith in the 00:26:58.680 |
beginning of their walk with God, five, ten, fifteen, twenty years later they have a lot 00:27:04.000 |
of doubts that crept into their hearts and the reason why is because they weren't holding 00:27:10.360 |
They were drifting and once you are far, far away from Christ, the glory of Christ is just 00:27:18.280 |
It is not a present thing that you are experiencing you know. 00:27:23.120 |
It's something that you saw maybe years ago and you're always trying to look back and 00:27:28.160 |
say oh I remember when he was like that, I remember when I was like that but it is not 00:27:34.200 |
It's not your current state of mind meaning that we've drifted. 00:27:40.680 |
So he says hold fast to show the same diligence to continue to remain. 00:27:45.360 |
Hebrews 10.23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised 00:27:54.160 |
Same Christ that we met when we first met him is the same Christ today. 00:27:58.280 |
The same things that he desired of us when we first met him is the same Christ that desires 00:28:07.960 |
You know years ago I had a friend who was getting married and again this is many, many 00:28:13.160 |
years ago and we decided to take him to white water rafting. 00:28:19.320 |
And so I've never been white water rafting so we thought it would be fun and they made 00:28:23.700 |
us sign a waiver saying that you can drown, you can die, you know you can all this stuff 00:28:31.760 |
I know that we don't normally sign these waivers that we may get hurt or die and that it's 00:28:37.520 |
not your responsibility and it's kind of nerve wracking to get into a boat, a tiny little 00:28:43.320 |
raft but we think if they do this for a living so it can't be too bad. 00:28:48.880 |
But what we didn't realize was right before we got into that boat El Nino happened like 00:28:53.320 |
a month before and so there was a lot of water that wasn't normal that even the instructors 00:29:01.280 |
And so we got into the boat and we were going down the raft and it was crazy to begin with 00:29:07.080 |
and I remember the thought that I had was I can't believe they're letting beginners 00:29:10.880 |
onto this raft because we had pictures where we're literally in the water and all you see 00:29:16.960 |
is water around us because the raft was bent in half you know. 00:29:20.840 |
And so we were about an hour into it and we pulled over to take a break and we were all 00:29:26.080 |
of us who were there to have fun we were a bit terrified you know and we were asking 00:29:36.680 |
And then that's when they explained to us oh yeah this is not normal usually it's pretty 00:29:39.880 |
calm and there's a couple places where it gets kind of hairy but because of El Nino 00:29:46.280 |
the whole place is like that and so you really need to pay attention. 00:29:50.760 |
Well after we took a break we got back onto the raft and then we turned a corner and it 00:29:54.600 |
was a huge rapid and we hit it so hard one of the guys who was sitting next to me he 00:30:00.680 |
flew and he ended up hitting the instructor on the forehead and he ended up breaking his 00:30:05.040 |
nose and then the instructor had stitches so we had to pull over and he had to be taken 00:30:09.920 |
to the hospital and then the instructor had to be changed. 00:30:14.200 |
But they didn't cancel the raft they got a new instructor coming in and so by that time 00:30:19.080 |
we're freaking out you know I was thinking like you know this is before we had kids that 00:30:24.280 |
oh I'm going to bring Esther here you know we're going to have fun doing this but after 00:30:27.400 |
that I said no I'm not bringing Esther here this is not safe right? 00:30:30.760 |
We get back into the boat we have about another 30 minutes and it was just as hairy but by 00:30:41.480 |
But most of the day has gone by we're kind of at the tail end and so we think you know 00:30:46.160 |
we have maybe about 20 more minutes of this and then we're going to be pulled over and 00:30:49.000 |
I said man this was crazy but right before we make this turn our instructor pulls us 00:30:54.560 |
over for no other reason it wasn't a time for break it wasn't a lunch time but no other 00:31:03.760 |
And she said everything that you've experienced up to this point was pretty elementary compared 00:31:09.080 |
to what's coming and we were we were like what? 00:31:13.880 |
Our instructor had to be changed because she had stitches one of our friends broke his 00:31:17.400 |
nose so he had to get out of the boat and you're saying that that compared to what's 00:31:22.080 |
coming you know it was pretty easy so I mean we're starting to get scared what's around 00:31:27.080 |
this corner and I could tell the instructor himself was starting to get anxious so that 00:31:33.800 |
freaked us out even more what's around this corner that this guy does this for a living 00:31:37.600 |
and he's like there's some fear in his eyes so he said when we turn this corner we hit 00:31:43.200 |
this raft the waters are going to be pretty high and once we get into it there's no way 00:31:47.440 |
to pull over so if you fall into the water typically their plan is they're going to throw 00:31:54.120 |
a line and they're going to try to pull you back in or the next boat that comes will come 00:31:58.560 |
and grab you and bring you back in but he said when we get into this it's going to be 00:32:04.800 |
so rough if you fall into the water we're not going to be able to get you you're going 00:32:09.560 |
to have to ride this out you know and you're going to end up drinking some water and we'll 00:32:13.920 |
see you at the end when it comes calm then we'll bring you back into the water so in 00:32:17.040 |
other words don't fall in right and he said the only way that you're going to we're going 00:32:23.240 |
to be okay is if you do exactly what I tell you and when I tell you to throw the oar into 00:32:29.080 |
the water you guys do it because the only leverage that we have like you know again 00:32:33.520 |
I need this this has become longer than I originally planned but he said that on the 00:32:38.360 |
raft if you've ever gone white water rafting they don't have anything to bind you into 00:32:42.280 |
this boat just in case the boat flips and you're going to drown so the only way that 00:32:46.240 |
you have any kind of leverage is through the oar into the water and that's the only way 00:32:49.440 |
you can grab onto it so he said when I tell you to dig you just dig and you stay in right 00:32:55.920 |
so we are all hyped up we're ready to go and we turned a corner and the water was so high 00:33:01.240 |
we couldn't see on the other side of that so we're freaking out she's freaking I mean 00:33:06.120 |
the our instructor is freaking out we're going okay okay we're ready and right before we 00:33:10.480 |
hit the raft well the water one of our friends we turn around just slips into the water so 00:33:20.040 |
we're looking at each other like oh my god we didn't we're not in the water yet so do 00:33:23.640 |
we bring him back in so we're looking at each other we're looking at the instructor what 00:33:26.680 |
should we do but as we're looking at each other we're headed to this water so you can 00:33:31.320 |
tell she's kind of hesitating and then she says forget him because if we try to bring 00:33:37.320 |
him in and we hit the raft we're all going to go in she said let him be and get dig yourself 00:33:43.920 |
into the water right so as soon as he said that we were ready and we were ready to turn 00:33:48.360 |
around we hit we hit the water and when we hit the water the went our boat went completely 00:33:52.960 |
vertical and so half of our friends went into the water I happen to be in the very top and 00:33:59.720 |
I just yanked in I hugged hugged the water with my oar and that's how I was able to stay 00:34:04.600 |
in but once we got into it she I mean he was right we couldn't bring them back in we were 00:34:09.760 |
so busy just us trying to stay in the water we had no way to bring them back in okay again 00:34:16.680 |
there's this story goes on and on right so they they were in the water the next raft 00:34:21.280 |
that was coming behind they couldn't pay any attention so they for about I forgot me it 00:34:25.640 |
felt like a good minute that we were going down this raft and and we couldn't pull them 00:34:29.360 |
back into the water until we were done we couldn't even see where they were because 00:34:32.280 |
the raft was so high right the reason why I share this story is because all of this 00:34:37.120 |
is related to what Jesus is saying to his disciples so whatever hardship that you felt 00:34:42.800 |
up to this point whatever trouble or anxiousness or fear that you felt I'm about to I'm about 00:34:48.680 |
to go to the cross there's real danger for your life that's coming around this corner 00:34:54.800 |
and if you don't pay attention to what I say if you don't remain in me you're not going 00:35:00.120 |
to make it so as much as this is an instruction of how to bear fruit he's telling them that 00:35:06.760 |
this only way that you're going to survive is if you continue to remain in me the biggest 00:35:15.920 |
danger of where you and I are is not burnout is not burnout you know we use that word so 00:35:21.800 |
commonly when you get tired and I don't want to teach anymore I don't want to serve anymore 00:35:25.600 |
I don't want to do this anymore you say I'm burned out the biggest problem where we you 00:35:32.320 |
and I live is not burnout it's being rusted out from lack of work from lack of diligence 00:35:38.800 |
for lack of exercising our spiritual muscles lack of holding fast the confession that we 00:35:43.840 |
had at first and so we get busy like everybody else does not necessarily like we're deep 00:35:50.320 |
into sin but just busy with life just like everybody else the next thing we know we're 00:35:56.480 |
not we're not grounded we're not anchored in Christ but you don't need to be anchored 00:36:03.080 |
when there's no storm you don't need to be anchored when the waves are calm because you 00:36:07.840 |
kind of sit there you know and you're not you don't feel any real danger then all of 00:36:14.000 |
a sudden the storm comes and you lift your eyes and you realize you're nowhere near the 00:36:18.360 |
shore see if we're not anchored in Christ we don't feel a sense of urgency until something 00:36:25.440 |
happens COVID-19 happens the world gets shut down there's real fear and then persecution 00:36:32.800 |
comes I don't know about you but the spiritual environment that we are in now versus even 00:36:39.840 |
just 30 or 40 years ago it's night and day the hostility that is coming from even government 00:36:45.600 |
officials toward Christianity and churches have grown exponentially just in the last 00:36:50.480 |
10 years persecution if it's not already here it's coming and we don't realize how far we 00:36:59.800 |
are until the storm comes see Jesus was telling them Jesus is telling them it's coming be 00:37:07.000 |
ready and the only way that you're going to survive is if you hold fast you know what's 00:37:11.780 |
really interesting I was looking up to see you know in BBC in England they did a study 00:37:18.560 |
in Europe to see how many people die simply from lack of activity they said every year 00:37:25.120 |
676,000 people die from lack of activity lack of activity that is related to heart disease 00:37:34.280 |
right diabetes whatever it is that come from lack of active just being sedentary life he 00:37:39.680 |
said 676,000 people die from that every year and this is just a study from BBC of Europe 00:37:46.080 |
so if you multiply that all throughout the world it's got a minimum at least double that 00:37:50.360 |
number so over a million people die from lack of activity right now we're living in fear 00:37:56.160 |
because of COVID-19 legitimately this is a dangerous disease that we need to be careful 00:38:01.800 |
about but 311,000 people around the whole world has died because of this see the greatest 00:38:09.340 |
danger in our world usually are not things that you can see clearly usually the things 00:38:16.640 |
that destroy us and is most dangerous are things that we are not aware of that we just 00:38:23.240 |
kind of are relaxed and just kind of let it flow and just kind of drift the next thing 00:38:26.880 |
you know when the storm comes you're not anchored and the boat flips and you drown that's why 00:38:32.440 |
when it is in times of peace when we don't feel the sense of urgency is when we need 00:38:36.960 |
to hold fast and that's what Jesus is saying remain remain and continue third and finally 00:38:47.420 |
it means to depend if we dwell on all of these ideas are connected but again the specific 00:38:53.480 |
nuance of this is to dwell with him to continue with him and to ultimately depend on him whenever 00:39:02.840 |
we face troubles or trials whether it's financial or spiritual our natural tendencies to rely 00:39:07.840 |
on man whether it's other men or ourselves let's strategize let's have a meeting let's 00:39:15.240 |
identify what the problem is let's implement some new ideas let's organize a little bit 00:39:20.200 |
differently let's get some right people in the right place to do the right things and 00:39:24.680 |
if we do it right it'll fix the problem that's usually our tendency when Jesus says if you 00:39:30.560 |
don't abide in me you cannot bear fruit human problems may be fixed with human ingenuity 00:39:40.080 |
but the warfare that you are and I are in is not against flesh and blood he makes it 00:39:43.960 |
very clear it is a spiritual battle so the only way that you and I can have success in 00:39:49.200 |
a spiritual battle is to engage spiritually and so he says you must depend on me you must 00:39:56.600 |
depend on me before we strategize before we implement before we get the right people in 00:40:02.880 |
the right place to do the right thing do we come to Christ is he our ultimate answer see 00:40:10.320 |
in Colossians chapter 129 Paul describes his ministry this way for this purpose I also 00:40:15.480 |
I labor and strive right now if you stop right there Paul was a hard worker he persevered 00:40:23.680 |
he was whooped he was shipwrecked you know and yet he personally he is a man who was 00:40:29.120 |
so committed we need to be committed which is all true but if you miss what the second 00:40:35.280 |
part of what he says you can completely pervert what he's trying to say for this purpose also 00:40:41.600 |
I labor striving according to his power which mightily works within me Paul is saying he's 00:40:49.580 |
able to do what he's doing because Christ is already working in him because you cannot 00:40:56.920 |
bear fruit unless we are abiding in him Paul is able to do what he is doing because God 00:41:02.480 |
is doing what he is doing with him ministry and preaching leading small groups sharing 00:41:10.920 |
the gospel even just living our Christian life isn't simply applying and regurgitating 00:41:16.920 |
things that we heard you know I can give a sermon and I could whatever the sermon is 00:41:23.200 |
you say oh I really like that I was really challenged by that and then that's where it 00:41:28.520 |
ends that's where it ends you heard something new it made you think but it has no power 00:41:36.000 |
to change you it has no power to bear fruit because true fruit comes from true connection 00:41:43.180 |
to the true vine Paul says even as he is striving he says I'm able to strive because of the 00:41:50.120 |
work that he's doing in me Philippians 2 12 to 13 so then my beloved just as you have 00:41:55.960 |
always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your 00:42:01.440 |
salvation we're with fear and trembling again Paul says you need to not only am I striving 00:42:08.380 |
but you need to work out your salvation with fear and trembling and I get so many questions 00:42:14.060 |
about that what does it mean to work out your salvation what does it mean to have fear and 00:42:18.700 |
trembling am I supposed to live day to day in fear of God's judgment am I supposed to 00:42:24.660 |
strive and like like really work it out that's that sounds really burdensome you know especially 00:42:32.520 |
if you've been walking with God for a while and you're you're faithfully attending Bible 00:42:37.460 |
study and you're sacrificing you're giving and you're doing what you're supposed to do 00:42:42.560 |
and then he says work out your salvation with fear and trembling am I supposed to like look 00:42:46.540 |
at his judgment and live in what does that mean again if you don't if you again when 00:42:52.800 |
you study the Bible if you don't study it in the context of everything that he's saying 00:42:57.180 |
you can easily pervert the meaning of what he's saying right work out your salvation 00:43:01.380 |
with fear and trembling verse 13 he says for it is God who works work for it is God who 00:43:07.860 |
is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure you notice how he says 00:43:14.720 |
work at your salvation with fear and trembling because the reason why you're able to do that 00:43:19.680 |
is because God is working in you God is already working in you for his own good pleasure in 00:43:27.300 |
other words he's not telling you something like you know get your act together and do 00:43:31.300 |
the right thing he says no he said allow the Holy Spirit to continue to do what he was 00:43:36.660 |
given to do don't quench the Holy Spirit that's why Ephesians 5 18 is it be filled with the 00:43:42.240 |
Holy Spirit right do not be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit now why 00:43:47.620 |
does he compare being drunk with being filled with the Holy Spirit he said do not be drunk 00:43:53.580 |
with wine instead be filled with the Holy Spirit so he's making a correlation between 00:43:58.340 |
these two ideas because being drunk right I have no idea what that feels like right 00:44:04.520 |
some of you guys do if you're if you've ever been drunk right from what I've been told 00:44:10.560 |
you can believe you're not yourself right the alcohol gets into your system and you 00:44:16.620 |
say things and do things that you wouldn't normally in other words the alcohol controls 00:44:20.580 |
you and it's not oh that's not him no it's it's you it's but it's the alcohol in you 00:44:26.140 |
influencing you and you can somebody who's normally quiet can become very loud somebody 00:44:31.260 |
who's very loud become very quiet somebody who doesn't normally share all of a sudden 00:44:34.820 |
they share all these things and that's why a lot of social settings people drink first 00:44:39.660 |
so that they can be loose there's a reason why he's comparing do not be drunk with wine 00:44:46.380 |
and he's not just talking about wine anything else outside of the influence of the Holy 00:44:51.700 |
Spirit is like being drunk with wine if you are influenced by the world and world's ideologies 00:44:58.700 |
and principles if you are chasing after money and the lust of money if you're chasing after 00:45:03.740 |
influence if you're chasing after acknowledgement whatever it is that is not God it's like being 00:45:12.140 |
drunk with wine and the wine is influencing your thoughts it's influencing what is right 00:45:18.460 |
influencing your words he says do not be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit 00:45:24.180 |
you know what's interesting about being filled the word filled pleuru is in the present passive 00:45:32.640 |
imperative what's interesting about that imperative means it's a command right so he says sit 00:45:39.500 |
down it means you take your body and you put it onto the chair sit down but it's in the 00:45:45.820 |
passive voice passive voice basically means to let yourself you receive the action so 00:45:55.660 |
oftentimes when you hear the word imperative you would think he's telling you to do you 00:46:00.020 |
actively do something but because it's in the passive voice he's saying you actively 00:46:06.660 |
receive the action of the Holy Spirit that's what that means right in other words to sum 00:46:13.500 |
it up he's saying that the Holy Spirit has already been given you so that you would not 00:46:18.540 |
be an orphan he made his indwelling in you he was given to you as a seal as a guarantee 00:46:27.140 |
as a deposit guaranteeing your salvation and then he said the Holy Spirit was given to 00:46:32.920 |
you so that he may intercede and groan with words that you cannot understand so that he 00:46:38.780 |
may continue to intercede on your behalf so the Holy Spirit is actively working in you 00:46:43.920 |
there is no Christian where the Holy Spirit isn't working if the Holy Spirit is not indwelling 00:46:49.040 |
in you you are not a Christian so when he says to be filled present passive imperative 00:46:55.760 |
he's saying live in such a way that the Holy Spirit can take full control over your life 00:47:01.420 |
that's what that means it's not to like okay raise your hand a certain way or if you sing 00:47:06.300 |
louder or if you sing you know more emotional music or if you do certain things the Holy 00:47:11.280 |
Spirit is going to come and fill you from top to bottom he says no the Holy Spirit is 00:47:15.260 |
already working don't resist and that's why the Bible talks about not to quench the Spirit 00:47:23.080 |
not to quench the Spirit in other words the Holy Spirit is already working in you do not 00:47:29.400 |
do and go and do certain things that the Holy Spirit is being resisted and it's in the present 00:47:34.880 |
tense meaning to continue it is not something that happens at justification alone but is 00:47:39.640 |
an ongoing constant work of allowing the Holy Spirit to influence you that's why again to 00:47:48.720 |
remain in Christ is to completely depend upon Christ that's why he says act 1 8 but you 00:47:56.060 |
will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you not when you have memorized enough 00:48:04.440 |
scripture although all of these things are a good thing not because you know all the 00:48:07.820 |
theology not because you had the proper training not because you're older and you have a lot 00:48:13.060 |
of experience not because you read a lot of books he says the power is going to come upon 00:48:19.280 |
you when the Holy Spirit comes upon you humanly speaking if we had if the task was given to 00:48:27.240 |
us Jesus Christ was crucified he's resurrected and this is the most important message that 00:48:33.480 |
the world will ever hear the consequence of the word not going out is people are going 00:48:41.980 |
to go to hell people's destinies changes there's there's no greater task than the task that 00:48:49.140 |
was given to the disciples but imagine if that task was given to us you know and saying 00:48:53.600 |
hey you guys figure this out I Jesus says I've done my part now you guys figure this 00:48:58.420 |
out right I would imagine there would be a great Bible conference that takes place with 00:49:05.340 |
all the top theologians all the professors all the people who wrote the best systematic 00:49:11.100 |
theology books all the people who have the largest churches they would get together and 00:49:16.540 |
they would have a huge meeting how should we do this well we need to have the right 00:49:22.660 |
people like who has the influence we have a senator who's among us maybe we can use 00:49:26.580 |
him you know we have a multi-billionaire you know and we can use his influence and get 00:49:31.540 |
his money to back our mission work and we would have all of these things and none of 00:49:35.100 |
it in and of itself may be wrong see but Jesus was not asking the disciples to do that Jesus 00:49:45.020 |
didn't call these fishermen tax collectors these guys were easily divided saying I want 00:49:50.940 |
to be better than this guy these guys these guys are gonna fail you but but I won't they 00:49:56.060 |
were not the cream of the crop they were not the most educated they were not the most influential 00:50:01.380 |
in fact they just failed miserably the biggest test in their life and you're gonna instruct 00:50:07.660 |
them to go make disciples come on now I know you're sovereign but clearly you don't see 00:50:13.740 |
what we see he didn't entrust it to his disciples he did it he entrusted to the Holy Spirit 00:50:23.060 |
through the disciples that's the difference because the point that Jesus was trying to 00:50:28.740 |
make is the same point that God has been trying to make through history he can use donkeys 00:50:33.500 |
if he wanted to when the Pharisees said hey stop them from yelling out Hosanna Hosanna 00:50:41.020 |
he says if they don't yell out the rocks will cry out in other words the key is not 00:50:48.820 |
in them that they would look at these untrained men on uneducated men and that when they see 00:50:57.380 |
the power coming through them through their preaching and through their working that people 00:51:01.220 |
may look at them and say these were uneducated men these were just fishermen but they were 00:51:05.180 |
clearly with the Lord in other words they were clearly remaining in Christ they depend 00:51:13.140 |
on Christ that's why he says before he sends him out wait because when the Holy Spirit 00:51:18.060 |
comes upon you you will be my disciple you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem Judea Samaria 00:51:24.820 |
to the remotest part of the world he doesn't say try hard he's when the Holy Spirit comes 00:51:30.540 |
this is going to happen so he wasn't entrusting it to them he was entrusting it to the Holy 00:51:34.660 |
Spirit and he tells us to remain in the Spirit to continue in the Spirit again in Psalm 37 00:51:43.780 |
for delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart commit 00:51:47.820 |
your way to the Lord trust also in him and he will do it he will do it he will bring 00:51:54.260 |
forth your righteousness as a light and your judgment as the noon day so let me wrap up 00:52:00.980 |
this morning with this at the end of all of this at the end of all these instructions 00:52:07.140 |
about continuing the promise of the Holy Spirit and bearing fruit by remaining he says the 00:52:12.500 |
reason why you need to do all of this John 15 7 if you abide in me and my words abide 00:52:19.780 |
in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you when you are abiding in me right 00:52:28.460 |
Christ says the reason why you're going to bear fruit is because you're going to be able 00:52:33.540 |
to pray more effectively John 15 16 you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed 00:52:39.820 |
you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit will remain so that whatever you 00:52:45.180 |
ask of the Father in my name he may give to you in other words why do you need to bear 00:52:49.900 |
fruit so that you may be able to pray more effectively again finally John 16 23 to 24 00:52:57.380 |
and that day you will not question me about anything truly truly I say to you if you ask 00:53:01.260 |
the Father for anything in my name he will give it to you until now you have asked for 00:53:07.500 |
nothing in my name ask and you will receive so that your joy may be made full in other 00:53:14.900 |
words the primary gift that God has given us for the purpose of bearing fruit is himself 00:53:24.500 |
and the benefit of bearing fruit and abiding in him is that we may have effective prayer 00:53:30.500 |
have more of him right isn't that crazy and that's why he says in verse 2 right in verse 00:53:38.780 |
2 he says every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away in every branch that 00:53:42.880 |
bears fruit he prunes that so that it may bear more fruit so you notice here he says 00:53:47.940 |
bear fruit that you may bear more fruit that ultimately you may bear much fruit and that's 00:53:53.600 |
exactly how a living plant is described the fourth seed that he multiplies his fruit 30 00:54:02.900 |
60 a hundredfold how much of our joy comes from knowing and experiencing this fruit in 00:54:10.060 |
our lives because we are we have learned the secret of being content is to remain in Christ 00:54:18.700 |
think about all the things that we are concerned about today all the problems that we need 00:54:23.060 |
to fix whether it's relational whether it's whether it's financial whatever it may be 00:54:30.820 |
think about how easily we run to human means and thinking that you know we get that done 00:54:37.220 |
then we can we can do some prayer but I don't have time to pray until I've done my part 00:54:41.460 |
no he said you can't do your part until we first learn to abide in Christ so again my 00:54:48.800 |
prayer is that this unique period of time that God has given us that before we run to 00:54:54.660 |
anything else that we carefully examine where we're at are we truly remaining in Christ 00:55:02.220 |
are we dwelling in Christ are we continuing in Christ and are we depending in Christ and 00:55:07.980 |
I pray that as we pursue Christ with all our hearts that we may truly bear fruit 30 60