All right, good morning. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers who are participating today. I know especially with the quarantine and all the kids being homeschooled, you're working overtime and so we're praying for you, we're thankful for you. And you know, typically when we think about God's agape love, the closest thing that most people can think of is the love that they receive from their mothers.

And so again, obviously even the mother's love cannot compare to the love that we receive from God the Father. But as people, you know, the closest that we typically experience is usually from our mothers. So again, we want to thank you for all the hard work that you're putting in, especially now as you're homeschooling, you know, taking care of the home and just working overtime right now more than any other period.

We do have a special video to celebrate Mother's Day, but we're not going to be watching it online. It's going to be put up on Facebook. It's a little bit longer than I think normal. So after the service or whenever you have time today or even tomorrow, you can just go and just watch that on your own time.

But again, we do have a special video that our media team created for us. Okay, if you can turn your Bibles to John chapter 15, and we're actually going to be floating around John chapter, you know, latter part of 14, 15, and then the beginning part of chapter 16.

But again, we're going to be, there's a lot to cover and I'm not going to be able to cover all of it today. This text is so rich with so many good things that Christ was trying to teach them before he left. And so, but the main text that we're going to be looking at is starting from verse 1 through 11.

So let's read that before we pray and then jump into the sermon. I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

You're already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. So neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches.

He abides in me and I in him. He bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

If you abide in me, my words abide in you. Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. My father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Just as a father has loved me, I have also loved you.

Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you abide in my love. Just as I have kept my father's commandment and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. Let's pray.

Gracious and loving father, we pray for your anointing over this time. We pray father God that your living word that you invested and poured your very breath into that we may be the beneficiary of this, of your word this morning. We pray for your Holy Spirit to illumine us, open our eyes Lord God, that we may understand and that our hearts may be moldable as you are the potter and we are the clay and we desire to be molded by your word this morning.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. If you had maybe, you know, six hours, you know, or seven hours and you knew that you were going to depart from your loved ones, what are the final words that you would say? What are some instructions that you would give? And if you're parents, like what would you say to your children?

Whatever it may be, my guess is you're not going to be frivolous. That every word that you say is going to have meaning. You're going to think through all the things that you have learned, all the things that you wish that your children would understand. And most likely you're going to give them some instructions, whether they understand it or not, you're going to give some instructions to them.

My guess is that you're not going to be telling a joke for your last thing that you want to say, right? You know, this week we, our brother Lee, his father passed away last week and had a funeral on Monday. And we were, a few of us, the pastors and a few people were able to participate from a distance, obviously because of all that was going on.

And one of the things that he said was that his father, before he passed away, was in the state of mind where he was able to write a letter to each one of his children and his loved one and just telling them that he loves them and then just giving them fatherly advice, last fatherly advice.

And when I heard that, I said, wow, that's really, you know, awesome. And each one of those letters are probably something that each of their children and loved ones are going to cherish for the rest of their lives. And I was just kind of curious what he wrote because, you know, whatever he writes there, it's going to be very weighty.

It's going to take a lot, he probably took a lot of time thinking about this, you know, 80 plus, 87 years or so of his life that he's accumulated through all the sufferings and through the Korean War, immigration and the hardship and, you know, living as a faithful Christian man for so many decades.

It's all of that accumulated in that one letter instructing their children that make sure that you understand this. Well, the text that we're looking at this morning in a way is Jesus's last teaching that he's leaving to his disciples. You know, what he says here is taking place right after he has the Lord's Supper.

And then he's instructed them that one of them are going to betray them. And so Judas takes off to go get the temple guards so that they can come in the middle of the night to take him away. And so it was in between that time before they go to the Garden of Gethsemane where he wrestles in prayer and then he gets arrested after that and then he heads to the cross.

So really this is the last thing that he says to his disciples until after he resurrects and then he commissions them to the Great Commission. So you can imagine how important these words are because this was not given to the public. This was given specifically to his disciples as instructions that after I leave you make sure that you do this.

Now this is the seventh, the last of the I Am statements, the seven I Am statements that we went through. And if you look at it superficially you may say, "Wow, you know, there's so many profound and great things that Jesus says in the I Am statements." And I would think that maybe a good way to leave and the last thing that he would say to his disciples is, "I am the resurrection and the life." You know, because he's about to go to the cross, he's about to die and to leave them with that, "I am the resurrection and the life." Or maybe even what he said last week, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one goes to the Father but through me." But those were the fifth and sixth and then the seventh, the last one, "I am divine." And this was the last thing that he says to them. This is the last thing that he wanted to make sure he clarifies to his disciples before he goes to the cross.

I mean, it almost sounds mundane superficially if you don't really understand what he is saying. He's not simply saying that, "I am divine. You need to be connected to me if you want to bear fruit." And again, as important as that is, the reason why he says that is because he's preparing them to leave.

He's preparing to leave them and he wanted them to make sure that they understood. My guess is that if you were to write a last letter that you're going to write to your children, you're going to have a lot of maybe life wisdom to teach them how to be successful in life.

Work hard. Make sure you're good to people. Make sure you're kind. Whatever it is, life instructions, you're probably going to leave behind things that you think are going to help your children to be successful. Well, chapter 15 is all about bearing fruit. He just told them that he's about to leave, but he's also instructing them that after I leave, if you want to continue to bear fruit, this is what you need to do.

And so the whole chapter 15 is about Christians bearing fruit. After he leaves, he wanted them to continue to do the work that he started, to continue to spread the gospel, build churches. But he's telling them that you cannot bear this fruit on your own. As Christians, and not even just as Christians, in anything that we do, if you start a business and it doesn't do well, you're not bearing fruit.

You're not going to do that for too long. If you have a relationship that doesn't bear fruit, meaning that it's not reciprocated, it's just completely one-sided, you're not going to endure it for too long. If you go to school and you put in your time and you go to school and you're staying up at night and trying to do your paper, and at the end of it, you're not making any progress, you're not passing your classes, and it's like, "Maybe this is not for me." Whatever it is that you do, whether it's sports, business, relationship, or school, whatever you do, if you don't see tangible fruit, eventually you'll lose interest, and you'll probably pack up your bags and try to do something else.

And it is no different with our faith. If at some point in our endeavor, memorizing scripture and trying to pray, coming to church, if we don't begin to see some progress in the things that we are doing, eventually we lose interest. We may not physically walk out of the church, but internally, we have no expectations.

We just kind of do it, hopefully we can just make it, and we just become very nominal Christians without any goals, without any purpose, and no expectations to ever bear fruit, and we kind of use cliche things like, "God loves us exactly the way we are." All of these things may be true, but we kind of revert back to that in order to excuse a life that is fruitless.

And so internally, we don't have any excitement. Maybe that died way back in college, or maybe when you were younger, maybe before you had kids, maybe before you started, had a full-time job, whatever it might be, this vision, this idea that we're going to bear fruit, we're going to expand or get the kingdom of God all over the world, for whatever the reason, many Christians fall away from that, and then they just kind of learn to go through the motion.

I just do my part, and I just make it to next year, and then outside of just going to church on Sunday and then participating in events, there really isn't this striving after God. What Jesus is saying here is not a distinguishing mark between a good Christian and a bad Christian.

That's the first thing that we need to understand. He's making a distinguishing mark between a Christian and a non-Christian, because he doesn't say, "If you want to bear fruit, you should do these things, and hopefully you can do a good job and bear more fruit." John 15, 2, it says, "Every branch of me that does not bear fruit, he takes away," meaning it gets chopped down.

"And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit." Again in chapter 15, verse 16, "If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." Again, many people misunderstand this text as in God is giving wise instructions as to Christians so that we can bear more fruit, which is also true.

But fundamentally what Jesus is telling his disciples, the distinguishing mark between a Christian and a non-Christian is that a Christian bears fruit, and a non-Christian bears no fruit. There is no evidence of their faith in their life. So what he is saying to his disciples are the identifying mark of a true believer.

So again, it's very, very important that we understand what he is saying. But as important as bearing fruit is, as an identifying mark of a Christian, the imperative in this passage is not bear fruit. Meaning God's ultimate command is not "Go bear fruit." Because if you're not a fruit tree, and you're trying to bear fruit, how are you going to feel?

What kind of success are you going to have? Zero. You don't plant a grape vine, or a peach tree, or an apple tree, and then expect pineapples to come out. You're going to be frustrated when only pineapples come out, or maybe no fruits come out. The imperative in this passage is not "Go bear fruit." The imperative in this passage is "How do we bear fruit?" So that's why he says, "I am the true vine." He's telling them how to bear fruit.

That after I leave, up to now, you've been just doing whatever I told you to do. If I went to Jerusalem, you came with me. If I healed the sick, you helped me. If I fed the people who were hungry, you carried it and you did my work. But now I'm going to leave." And they're all freaking out, like, "Where are you going?" So he's answering that question, "Why can't we go with you?" The disciples are distraught.

"What's going to happen to us after you leave? How are we going to continue the work?" So he's telling them that in order to bear fruit, you must remain in me. That's the "I am" statement that he's making to his disciples, that "I am the vine." If you want to bear fruit, you must abide in me.

In fact, John himself uses the word "meno," which is translated for "abide" in this passage, 50 times in his letters, 50 times. So John repeats it in his letters over and over and over again, that if we want to bear fruit, we must abide in Christ. That's in this text alone, in chapter 15, he uses the word "meno" to abide 11 separate times.

So if you were to read chapter 11 and you have a highlighter, go every time he uses the word "abide," highlight it. Because it'll tell you every time you flip that chapter, chapter 15, the highlighter will tell you, "Oh, he's talking about abiding in Christ." It's not necessarily, "Go bear fruit." It's like, "No, you can't bear fruit unless you abide." So this word "abide" is a very key word because Jesus is saying that distinguishing mark between a Christian and a non-Christian is abiding.

For you to be able to bear fruit and continue to do the work that I am sending you to do, you must abide. In order for you to have any success in your Christian walk with God, you must abide. So this word "abide" is a key word in our walk with God.

Just like the word "love," right? We have "agape" and in the Bible it's very precise. So you have family love, you have romantic love, right? You have different familial love, right? But the love that God gives us is the "agape," unconditional love. So it's a very precise word. So if you've been a Christian for a while, you probably already have heard many times the word "agape" because it's crucial.

It's foundation to our understanding of our relationship with God. He "agape" us. This word "meno" is just as crucial because we are children of God because He "agape" us and then the instruction that He leaves with the disciples, "If you do not meno" with me, you cannot bear fruit.

You cannot walk with God. There is no assurance of salvation. So how important is this word "meno"? In fact, just like the word "agape," you know, in English we say "love," whether it's family, chocolate, or you know, God's love, we use the same word. So we have to explain the word, right?

Well this word, again, it's a rich word that really can't be translated with one word. So in the NASB, it's translated "abide." In some of the other translations, it's translated "to remain." Then in other parts of the Bible, in other translations, it'll say "to dwell." In some other translations, it'll say "to continue." You'll see about five or six or even seven different translations of this word, and some of them are very similar and some of them are very different.

But the reason why it's so different, and whenever you study the Bible and you look at the different translations and the word that is translated sounds very different, that already indicates to you that that Greek word doesn't have a precise translation in the English, and that's why they did their best for whatever context that they used to use that word.

Well, this word "meno" is translated five or six different ways in different translations. So it is a very rich word that connects us to God, connects us to Christ, that causes us to bear fruit. So we're going to be talking about, again, three, you know, just to kind of give you an outline, we're going to give you three insights.

The most important part of it is the first one, but under each of these, there's going to be sub-points, so just kind of stay with me. If you look at the children's outline, it'll show you what the outline is. The first thing that I want to point out is that Jesus is divine, so we must abide in him, and he says, "I am the true vine," right?

The last of the seven "I am" statements. But the immediate question that the disciples probably would have asked is, "You just told us that you're going to leave, and we cannot follow you." And then when we said, "Well, why can't we follow you? What about us?" And you answer, "You have to abide in me.

You have to stay with me. You have to continue with me. You have to dwell with me. You have to remain with me." Well, how do we do that if you're going to leave? Why are you teasing us? If you're leaving, we can't abide in you. See, it's that question that he's trying to answer.

What does it mean to abide in Christ in the context of him leaving? So again, if you didn't get a lot of sleep last night, and you're kind of coming in and out, and you missed this, I'm telling you right now, you're going to miss the whole sermon. Not only are you going to miss the whole sermon, I told you this word "meno" is key to your walk with God.

And so you're not going to understand. You could possibly, and again, I don't mean to over-exaggerate, but if you don't understand this, you can possibly spend all your life trying to bear fruit by your own power and be frustrated, which is where many of you might be today. I'm trying so hard, but I don't feel like I'm going anywhere.

Why is this? Well, Jesus is going to answer that. What does it mean to abide in Christ to bear fruit? If he's the true vine, and I need to connect with him. Well, if you've ever studied the Gospel of John, you may already know that chapter 14, 15, and 16 of the Gospel of John has one of the most extensive and the clearest teaching of the role of the Holy Spirit.

Typically, when we think of the Holy Spirit, we think of him as an "it," like some power source, like the electricity. But we already know, if you've been a Christian for a while, that he is the third person of the Trinity. He is a being, like Christ is a being, like God the Father is a being.

But we take a glimpse of, usually the Holy Spirit is kind of mentioned in the background, doing the work, and so we kind of see him as electricity. But again, the clearest teaching about the personhood of the Holy Spirit that's condensed is in chapter 14, 15, and 16. The reason why I say this is because Jesus is connecting the dwelling that he is telling them to dwell with him with the fulfillment in the Holy Spirit.

Let me say this again. He is going to leave, but someone else is going to come who's going to dwell in you that you must dwell. So you're going to dwell in me by dwelling with him. Hopefully you caught that. So if you missed that part, the rest of it is going to be confusing.

Not confusing, but it'll be harder than normal. So again, stay with me. This is what he says. "I am the true vine," and then in verse 14 he explains, knowing that the disciples may be asking, "How are we going to abide in you? How are we going to stay with you if you're leaving?" He says, verse 16, chapter 14 of John, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever." Now why does he say that?

Because he said he's going to leave. If you leave, how are we going to abide? Another one's going to come, but that other one who's going to come isn't going to ever leave you. I have to leave you, but he comes and he's going to stay with you forever.

That is the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because this does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you, and I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. So notice what he says here.

He says, first of all, he says, "I am leaving. You need to abide in me if you want to bear fruit." So, well, how are we going to do that? Well, God's going to send another helper. When he comes, he's going to stay with you forever, so even though I may leave, what does he say?

"I will be with you." In other words, when he says to abide in him, he's introducing the Holy Spirit that they may abide with him, and by abiding with him, you will be abiding with me. Did you catch that? So he's using the presence of the Holy Spirit and his presence interchangeably.

Okay, so this is a very important text about the Holy Spirit, so let me highlight three things that he says about the Holy Spirit here. First of all, the word that he uses when he says, "He will give you another helper." In the Greek, there are two words that can be translated "another." First word is the word "alos," which is the word that is used here, and it means "another" of the same kind.

Let's say, as an example, if a police officer is on the scene, and that police officer has to go, and he says, "Well, I need to go, but another police officer is going to come, and he's going to continue to help you." That's the word "alos." There's another word of another kind, in quality, and that's "heteros." Both words can be translated "another," but the word that he uses here is "alos." So if the other one that is coming is different than him, then he would have used the word "heteros." But by using the word "alos," he's saying, as he is equal to the Father, another equal to me, who is just like me, is coming to continue the work that I started with you.

So in other words, Jesus was equating the Holy Spirit with him, and he equated himself with the Father, so he is saying, in a sense, "I am not leaving you." Just as the Father didn't abandon you and sent me, I am not abandoning you, and I will send the Holy Spirit.

His role, the Holy Spirit's role, is not different from Jesus. In other words, I am not abandoning you. In John 16, 7, "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away." Think about that if you're disciples and you're hearing him. This is the Messiah.

This is the guy who raises people from the dead. This is the guy who walks on waters and then calms the storms, just by his word. And he says, "I am going, you cannot follow me, but in fact, it's better for you if I go, because until I go, he will not come." So in other words, what he's saying is, the coming of the Holy Spirit is actually more beneficial for you than if I have stayed.

How often have you thought, "Man, it would have been awesome, you know, it would have been awesome to be on earth when Jesus was walking this earth, right? It would have been great to be in Jerusalem when he was at the temple, if I was there and I ate the miraculous bread and the fish, right?" I mean, we probably all have thought that, and that's why so many people will pay lots of money to go to Jerusalem and walk on the streets that he walked on and look at the trees and the scenery that he enjoyed.

But Jesus says, "It's better for you," meaning better for all of us that he left. Our current situation is better than the situation that the disciples were in when Jesus was saying this to them. That's a pretty radical statement. In other words, the Holy Spirit that's going to come is going to do mightier things in us than if when Jesus was here in person.

That's pretty radical. Well what is, when he comes, what does he do? What is his primary work? John, right? In John chapter 114, he says, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us," right? Talking about Jesus. Well, the Word dwelt here, and again, like I said, if you are tired, you may have already gone over your head, right?

But I'm trying to give you the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the transition that Jesus is making to the disciples and how important this is, right? Because this is the center of what Jesus came to do. He said, "Christ came and he dwelt among us." The word dwelt here is not meno.

Even the word meno has the idea of dwelling, right? But the word dwelt here is the word literally to pitch a tent. So when Christ came, he came into our campground, he took on our flesh, and he lived among us, right? He lived among us. But of the Holy Spirit, he says in John chapter 14, 17, "This is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you." The distinction between Jesus' dwelling and the dwelling of the Holy Spirit is Jesus came and he pitched a tent among us.

In other words, he came and was in the campground with us. He walked with us, he lived with us, he ate with us. But the Holy Spirit, he's going to come and he's going to indwell in us. He didn't just pitch a tent. Our union with the Holy Spirit is that he indwells in us.

Do you understand the distinction? And that's why Jesus was saying, "It is better for you that I leave because I'm only here to pitch a tent with you, but I'm going so that the Holy Spirit can come and actually pitch a tent in you, that the Holy Spirit is in you." So let me wrap this up, what Jesus is saying.

What Jesus is saying is he came and he dwelt among us, among us, so that he can prepare us so that the Holy Spirit can dwell in us. Do you get that? In Mark chapter 2, 21, Jesus tells the disciples, right? He tells the tax collectors and he's telling the story about, you know, about the Holy Spirit and he says, "No one puts new wine into old wineskin." If you put new wine into old wineskin, what happens to the old wineskin?

It bursts, right? So in order for you to put the new wine into the bag, you need to make sure that you need to have a new bag. So you put the new wine into the new wineskin. What is he talking about? Is he talking about getting drunk? Right, he's like, "Next time we have a wedding, make sure that the wineskin is new." What is he saying?

I believe what Jesus was saying in that text is related to what he's saying here. His whole purpose of why he went to the cross and he said, remember he said, "I'm going to the Father's house and prepare a house for you." It is not that the heaven is not ready.

He's preparing us to be in heaven. Well how is he going to do that? He made us into new wineskin. Do you understand that? By washing us with his blood, by forgiving us our sins, atoning for our sins, he made the old wineskin into new wineskin. He said, "Whoever is in Christ," what does he say?

"The old has passed, behold the new has come." Talking about us. Now why did we have to be made new? So that the new wine can come in. And what is the new wine he's referring to? The Holy Spirit. And that's exactly what happens after the resurrection in Acts chapter 2.

The Holy Spirit comes and he's not, he doesn't pitch a tent among us, he makes it indwelling in us. And so now the Holy Spirit is in us. And that's why he says because he's indwelling in us, if you want to bear fruit, you're not going to be the one bearing the fruit.

The Holy Spirit is going to be bearing fruit through you. So because Jesus is divine, and the Holy Spirit is coming, you must, as he dwells in you, you must also dwell in him. So the key to our walk with God, key to bearing fruit, is walking in the Spirit, praying in the Spirit, fellowshipping in the Spirit, studying in the Spirit.

That our whole life is connected with the Spirit because we cannot by our own strength. That's what he means. So that was probably the most difficult. If you didn't catch all of that, I strongly encourage you to go back and listen to that again. Maybe I didn't do a good job connecting this, but this is key to our walk with God.

Because he says if you do not meno with him, you cannot bear fruit. And if you do not bear fruit, if there's no evidence of any fruit, that means there is no connection with him. And if you don't have any connection with him, what does he say? It gets chopped down to be burned.

In other words, you are probably not a Christian. So the key to our walk with God, key to our identity in God, is the Holy Spirit in us. Second thing that he says, he says the helper is going to come, but he says he will not leave you as orphans.

Now the word orphan itself, right? Do we call somebody who's 30 years old and his mother and father passed away early, do we call them orphans? Normally we don't. If they're grown up adults, they say you were orphaned when you were young. But we don't typically call somebody in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, you know, and I'm 52 years old and say, you know, I'm orphaned because my parents died.

We don't usually use that for older people. Usually when we say somebody's orphaned, it means that when they were young children, they were helpless. They needed parents to guide them, shelter them, and take care of them, and the parents, for whatever reason, wasn't there, right? So when he says, I will not leave you as orphans, by him saying that, he's telling them that you are helpless, and I'm not going to leave you that way.

So the Holy Spirit is coming, not to simply assist you, it's so that he may not leave you as orphans, as helpless. In fact, the word for the Holy Spirit here, paracletus, in our translation, it's translated helper. Again, this is another word that can't be translated with one single word.

So if you look at your different translations, it'll say helper, counselor, advocate, or comforter. The word literally means the one who's called to one side. In other words, if you're headed toward a path, somebody is given to you to stay with you the whole way. And that's how the Holy Spirit is described for us in the Bible, that he is a helper, a counselor, an advocate, a comforter, whatever it is that you need for you to continue this journey.

The Holy Spirit is going to come, he's going to guide us and lead us. Well, what does he guide us and lead us to? John chapter 14, verse 26, "But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." Now, I want you to really hone in on what he says here, because when we think of the Holy Spirit, a lot of people think of the Holy Spirit as some supernatural power or some feeling that we get when we are in the middle of worship or we're praying and there's some outside force that keeps coming in, touching us, and then leaving us when we're done.

That's not how the Bible describes the Holy Spirit. He said that the Holy Spirit, the helper, the counselor, the advocate, the comforter, he's going to stay with you, right, the whole time. He doesn't come and go. There is no two baptism of the Holy Spirit, there are no three baptism.

There is no Christian who doesn't have the Holy Spirit in them constantly, right? He said he's going to come, he's going to stay with you, and the primary thing that he's come to do is to remind you of the things that I have already said to you. In other words, he's going to take the Word of God and he's going to make it effective in our lives.

And you know that there's a huge difference between just studying the Bible and being illuminated by the Bible, where the Word of God is being used to judge the thoughts and intentions of other people's hearts, versus the Word of God being judging the thoughts and intentions of your heart.

While you can hear the same gospel for years and years and years, and for whatever the reason, the Holy Spirit opens your eyes and the same Word makes complete sense. And you repent and you give your life to follow Christ. That's the difference between studying the Word of God and having the Word of God illuminate you by the Holy Spirit.

And he says the Holy Spirit is going to come and do that. He says he's going to cause you to remember, to think about all the Word, the gospel that has been preached, and make it effective for you. John chapter 16, verse 13, "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will disclose to you what is to come." So the role of the Holy Spirit, just like Jesus, he says, "I do not speak on my own initiative, I say whatever the Father told me." And then the Holy Spirit says the same thing.

The Holy Spirit comes to remind us and to make the Word of Christ effective in us. And so the primary way that the Holy Spirit comes alongside is through his Word. Through his Word. So without a clear hearing of his voice, you cannot be abiding in Christ. You cannot be abiding by the Holy Spirit.

Let me say that again. Without a clear hearing of the voice of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit automatically gets quenched. Because that was the primary reason why the Holy Spirit was to come. To come alongside, to help, to counsel, to advocate, and to comfort us through his Word.

Romans chapter 8, verse 26, he says, "In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses." He helps our weaknesses in our comfort. He reminds us of the truth that we already know. I think many of you have gone through a lot of trials, even just the last couple of months.

Whether it's through a job or sickness or a loved one who you may have lost. Some difficult things that are happening in your life. And how did the Holy Spirit come and comfort you? Reminded you of the truth that you already know. That our God is sovereign. That we're only here temporarily.

That God hears our prayers. That he walks among us. And so the Holy Spirit comes and he comforts us in our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we should. You know what's really interesting to me is, Paul, through the Holy Spirit, tells us, "You're not going to be good at praying." In some sense, it's weirdly encouraging.

Because most Christians will say their weakest part of their walk with God is prayer. Now, this is not an excuse that we shouldn't pray. We are challenged. We are told to be devoted to prayer. But Paul himself says, "God knows that you're going to be struggling in prayer. That you're going to have a hard time knowing even what to pray for." But the Spirit himself intercedes.

In other words, him knowing our weakness has given us the Holy Spirit. Because what you are not effective in doing, God will do through the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit intercedes for us, not just with any prayer, but with groanings too deep for words. I think if you've lived long enough as a Christian, you've probably groaned in your prayers before yourself.

You don't have words to express, but it expresses your emotions and your thoughts. And you can't articulate with words, but it's like, "Oh my God. My God, my God." He says that the prayers of the Holy Spirit are deep. It is weighty. Because it is groaning on behalf of our weakness.

He said, "We're not going to succeed. We're not going to bear fruit because we're trying harder. We're more disciplined, or we're better. We're more moral. Or we're better educated. Or we had the proper training." He said, "No, you're going to bear fruit because the Holy Spirit has been deposited in you so that you may bear fruit as He dwells in you, that you continue to dwell with Him." And thirdly, he says, this Holy Spirit, not only does He come to help, not only does He not leave us as orphans, and helps us in our weakness, He says, "This is forever." Jesus came physically for a period of time, for 33 years, for three years in ministry.

And then He did many miracles, but then He had to physically go. So physically, He's up in heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father. But He said, "When the Holy Spirit comes, this helper," He says, "is going to be forever." Ephesians 1, 13 to 14, "In Him you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed." You are, in other words, you are marked to be genuine believers in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.

In other words, the distinguishing mark between a Christian and non-Christian is the Holy Spirit. Has the Holy Spirit opened your eyes? Is there an indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Is there evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in your life? Who is given as a pledge? Some of your translations, the word pledge is deposit, right?

And I don't know if people still do that today. If you go into a store and you see, I don't know, you see a iPhone, I don't know what you would buy at a store, you know, or pants, you know what I mean? I don't know. A long time ago when I would go to a store and I couldn't afford the pants, I would put $5 deposit because I don't want that pants being sold because as you can see, I don't have a normal body.

So it's very difficult to find pants that fit. So if I find one, I need to make sure that I put a deposit, that nobody else, like me, which probably doesn't exist, but that they're going to, if he does come, they're going to want that pants. So I would put the deposit down and then even if I come put $5 every week, at some point I'm going to pick up the pants, right?

That's how they used to do it, right? I don't know if they'd still do that today, right? No, it doesn't exist. Okay. It's only for the people that are older, okay? But that's what deposit means. Deposit is guaranteeing that the person who put the deposit, that from that moment on, even though it is not complete, they didn't pick it up yet, that they have every intention to pick it up and when the time comes, they're going to come and pick it up and no one else can claim that for themselves.

Well, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a pledge, as a deposit. For what purpose? As an assurance of our redemption. He didn't just leave it up to us. You figure it out. You know, I've given you all the things that you need.

I gave you the church. I gave you leaders, you know, and I gave you spiritual gifts and I'm going to leave you and I'm going to wait on the other side, hope you make it. That's not what he did because he knew we couldn't make it. He knew that we were going to have a hard time even praying.

So the Holy Spirit is deposited in us as a pledge, guaranteeing that what he started, he will complete. That's why he said, Paul says, he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion. He doesn't say, he who started a good work in you, hopefully you can finish the job.

Doesn't say that. What he started, he will continue to bring to completion. Now, how does he do that? He said, by the Holy Spirit deposited in us. So when he says, I am the vine, he says, as the Holy Spirit dwells in you, you must also dwell in him.

And this is forever. This is not just until we get to heaven. Because if it just goes, if the dwelling of the Holy Spirit is just to get to heaven, it wouldn't be forever. Right? It would be until I come. No, but he says, no, Holy Spirit will be indwelling forever.

Our union with Christ and his death and resurrection isn't just so that we can cross the bridge. And that's why he doesn't say that Christianity isn't simply about erasing the consequence of sin. The Bible describes us as new creatures. The old is gone. Whatever we were before, the Holy Spirit made an indwelling in us, is gone.

We may have bad habits. Because we still live in this flesh, we may have things that we remember of the past, a lot of habits that we still have. But at the core of who we are, the Holy Spirit completely changed us. We have been made into new wineskin.

That's why people often ask, Adam and Eve fell at the Garden of Eden. And oftentimes the heaven is described as a new heaven, new Garden of Eden. Well Adam and Eve fell at the Garden of Eden, so what guarantees us that when we get to heaven that this is going to happen again and this whole cycle is going to begin again?

The answer is simple. The Holy Spirit is indwelling in us. So the state that we will be in eternity will be much better than Adam and Eve was from the beginning. So the recreation of what was lost at the fall is not only going to be recreated to what it was, but it's going to be far above that.

That we have become co-heirs with Christ. And that's what the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit has made an indwelling in us. And so therefore we are called to continue with Him. Does that make sense? I mean this is heavy. I mean it's really heavy. So if any of you fell asleep for five minutes even at home, I know your couch is really comfortable.

All the messages, all the I Am statements are crucial. But I encourage you if any part of this went over your head, go back and listen to it again. And then if my English isn't good enough, then go to the commentaries and read it for yourselves. This is that important.

Jesus leaving, Holy Spirit coming, indwelling, that He is going to help us, He's going to stay with us, He's not going to leave us as orphans. And this is going to be eternal. Is at the core of who we are. And He says until you do that, until you understand that, you cannot bear fruit.

Until the fig tree who has dried up and cursed, God completely transforms us into a peach tree, you will not bear peach fruit. So let me stop a minute right here. There's a lot of people who are in the church who came in and never really met Christ. Never really met Christ.

So you've heard the talk of the Holy Spirit, you've done Bible study, maybe you might even be leading things. But the only experience that you have in your walk with God is frustration. Because you have all these standards that have been set for you that Jesus is holy, so we ought to be holy, God is holy, the temple is holy, we ought to strive for holiness, we need to love unconditionally.

And so the more we hear the imperatives of what it means to be a Christian, it doesn't free you. It doesn't cause joy in your life. Because Christianity just sounds like a lot of rules. What you do enjoy is friendship, purpose, community, that when we die I don't have to be afraid of death.

So those things are very beneficial. But the actual walk with God is tremendously burdensome. Because you may be a fig tree trying to bear peaches. So you naturally gravitate toward the world. But then you live physically in the church. And so you're constantly torn. So you understand it mentally, you understand it logically, and you can regurgitate information that you have heard, especially if you've been at a church for a long time, you know all the systematic theology, but you never understood when Jesus said, "I have come to give life and give this life abundantly." What does that mean?

What does that mean? My sheep will hear my voice and they will follow me. See the danger of living in a post-Christian culture is that a lot of non-Christians who have many Christian friends are peer pressured to act like Christians when they've never met the Lord. Jesus says you cannot bear fruit unless you abide in him, remain with him, dwell with him, continue with him.

Do you know this Lord? I'm not talking about some charismatic experience where you have some overwhelming experience or emotions that overwhelm, you can't help but uncontrollably cry. But do you understand what it means to have life, to have this life abundantly? You know, I'm not going to be able to finish this sermon this morning because I don't want to go longer than I should, especially online.

But when we abide in Christ, he says, again for the last part, I'm going to revisit the second part and we're going to skip to the last part. When we abide in Christ and we bear fruit, he says four things happen in verse 8. It glorifies God. This is the way we give glory to God.

It's not coming to church and raising your hands and just doing the right things. He says, no, when we abide in Christ and that causes us to bear much fruit, he said fruit is what brings glory to God. A Christian who is constantly living in this cycle of sin and never really understanding what it means to bear fruit and never really reproducing and therefore God is not glorified.

No matter how much we try to glorify God, it's kind of like pushing a dead car that doesn't have gasoline. You know, it's just dead weight that you have to push, but you're not going anywhere. Until we abide in Christ, you cannot bear fruit. And when we bear fruit, it brings glory to God.

Verse 8, it says, and it proves that we are his disciples. Proofs of salvation isn't simply somebody telling you, don't doubt, don't doubt. We live in a generation where, you know, doubting for any reason is unhealthy. It's not good. Don't ever doubt. Don't ever question your faith. When the Bible is filled with examine yourself.

Is your faith genuine? What you see in scripture of what a genuine believer looks like and what he bears fruit, does that look like you? Is that you? You're not talking about some external standard of like, am I doing this and am I doing that? Just at the core of it, do you know this Christ?

Have you met this Christ? Have you truly seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ? In the end, he says, when God is glorified, and because we bear fruit and we abide in Christ, it will give us assurance of who we are, that we're his disciples. And then verse 9 and 10, it says, then we abide in his love.

In his love, that we have assurance of this love. It's confirmed. That is not just wishful thinking. It's not just some empty words that are given to people because they're having a hard time in life. God loves you unconditionally. And the love of God is spread so generously to everybody without context.

And so you have Christians and non-Christians who are absolutely assured. Well, God loves me unconditionally. So God is not calling me to repent of sins because he loves me unconditionally. He says, no, when we are bearing fruit, when we are abiding in Christ, when God is glorified and that we are his disciples, that that is confirmed, then he says his love is assured.

Then we abide in his love and his love abides in us. And then in verse 11, he says, finally, the reason why he says all of this is not to bring a burden upon the church. He says so that my joy may be in you and that the joy may be full in you is ultimately bring joy.

So for a true believer who has met Christ, righteousness is a joy. Holiness produces joy. Pursuit of Christ we pursue not simply because it's our duty, but that's where we find life. Abiding in Christ is where we drink the living water. Abiding in Christ is where we eat the bread that we do not thirst and we are no longer hungry.

And so the challenge for us as we look at this, and again, as I said, what Jesus says here is the key to Christian life. Am I genuinely abiding in Christ? Is God glorified? Do I have assurance? Do I have confidence in his love? And am I living this abundant life that he promised?

Or do I find life somewhere else? And then when I come to church, I find duty. My prayer is, again, as you know, we don't know exactly when the church is going to open up. You know, it may be a few weeks, maybe, hopefully it won't be more than that.

But this divine appointed time that God has given us to be home and take some time to reflect, and that when we come back together physically as a church, that we do not just come back and just go through the motions. That we don't just do what we normally did in the past and we're going to worship again because that's what we did before.

We're going to be joining small groups and studying inductive bibles because that's what we did before. That we would examine ourselves so that when we come to church, that we would truly build a church that will worship him in spirit and in truth. That the fruit that we bear is not just harder work, you know, just simply because we just figured out how to do this better, but because we are genuinely abiding in Christ.

So let me pray for us. And again, just to kind of remind you, there's going to be a sign up after maybe within an hour or so. So please go there as soon as you can so that we can know which services are full and we can kind of direct that hopefully by the end of this week.

Okay, let me pray for us.