All right, good morning. We're going to be finishing up the I Am Statement. That's on chapter 15, the part two. I didn't get to finish last week, so we're going to finish the part two for this week. So please turn your Bibles to John chapter 15 and let me read from verse 1 through 11.

Okay, John chapter 15, verses 1 through 11. I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. 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 are 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 and you are the branches. He who 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 and 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 the Father has loved me and I have also loved you, abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. Let's pray. Gracious Father, we pray for your blessing over this time. We pray, Father God, that your Holy Spirit would illumine our hearts, that we may understand and that we may be convicted, that we may live lives truly bearing fruit as we abide in Christ.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, so I think we're in what, seventh or eighth week into our lockdown and I know many of you, your life doesn't look much different. Maybe you're even busier than before because you're going to work physically and you come home and you got to take care of the kids who are not at school and so maybe some of you, I know some of you are busier, but there's a lot of us.

And again, we're home, we're eager for the doors to open and for us to come back to church, but you know, being locked down, like sometimes I wake up and I don't know if it's Monday, I don't know if it's Saturday, you know, it's kind of like Groundhog Day.

I don't know if you've ever saw that movie with Bill Murray where he wakes up and same thing happens day after day after day and then, you know, sometimes it kind of feels like that, right? Even this morning, I was talking to Pastor Mark this morning, I actually had to go record a sermon for a friend's church and usually I know it's Sunday because I preach.

You know, I wake up in the morning thinking about the sermon. So I had to give a sermon yesterday and I went to sleep kind of winding down and then I woke up this morning thinking it was Monday and I was just relaxing on my bed thinking like what am I going to do and grab some coffee, do my devotions and then it all of a sudden hit me, it's like, oh shoot, it's Sunday.

And so I kind of had to hurry and get out of the house and I don't know about you, but you know, the days are kind of bleeding into the other days and again, I'm eager to have the country open back up and us getting back to work and what we need to do.

You know, bearing fruit that we talked about last week is absolutely important, right? Whether it's as a Christian or just regular part of life and if you're doing anything and you don't see progress, eventually you're going to lose motivation. The text that we're looking at this morning is about bearing fruit and the reason why Jesus says this to his disciples before he leaves is because he's preparing them to continue the work that he started after he leaves.

That their primary task was to take this gospel message, the hope of his death and resurrection and go plant churches and spread the gospel and make sure that the world hears about and knows about the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. But he wanted to, as he is preparing them, he also wanted to warn them that the only way that they're going to really bear fruit is if they abide in Christ.

That is the only way that they can truly bear fruit. In John chapter 15, verse 4, it says, "Abide in me and I in you, and as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me." So let's stop right there and really understand what he is saying here in verse 4, the magnitude of what he's saying.

He's not saying that you're not going to bear good fruit. He's not saying that you're not going to bear much fruit. He says you cannot bear any fruit. You can't bear any fruit unless you're abiding in me. So in other words, from this point on, after I leave, the Holy Spirit is going to come and if you do not abide, if you do not continue, you will bear no fruit.

You will work hard. You will be persecuted. You will plant church. You will do all of these things, but you will bear no fruit. You know, I think one of the biggest lies that the world tells, you know, especially the young ones in our culture, is that, you know, you would see a great basketball star after he wins the championship and they interviewed him, "What's the secret to your success?" And you would hear this cliche that if you believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything.

I mean, he may believe that, but it is an absolute lie. That's a lie. If you believe in yourself that you can fly, you're not going to fly. You know what I mean? You can believe in yourself. If you're 5'5", 250 pounds or, you know, whatever you may be, you're not going to dunk.

No matter how much you believe in yourself, there are things that you just cannot do, right? But if you're being trained, like, no, if you believe in yourself, you just put your effort in, you know, somebody has a company that's multi-billion dollars. If you just believe in yourself, you'll be a billionaire yourself, right?

Now that may sound like good advice, like you could try harder, but the problem is that they can endeavor to do something and not only not achieve that, but in the process just being utterly broken. It doesn't even come close, and then you kind of lose motivation to do anything else.

There's a lot of Christians who are working hard and laboring and sacrificing, and maybe you've done that for many, many years, and you look at your Christian life now, and it is nowhere near where you thought you would have been. I mean, I could tell you, I'm one of those people, you know, I got saved early, and I thought by the time I was 40 years old that I would have had, you know, like I would have been a certain level, you know, I would have had the whole Bible memorized, you know, when I was younger.

But the ministry that we were a part of was really into Bible memory, and I knew this guy who was, even before Pastor Peter Chung, we had a guy in our Bible study who would memorize books, you know, we would come with two verses, and he would come with, "Oh, I memorized 1 Timothy this week," and then a month later he would say, "Oh, I got 2 Timothy done," and he would just memorize it.

So I remember when I was young, being in that Bible study thing, you know what, my memory is not as good as him, but by the time I'm 40, right, I'm going to have this, and I'm going to have this memorized, and I'm going to have this much of the Bible, I'm going to have, you know, have so many people evangelized, so many people discipled.

Well, I'm over 50, and I'm nowhere near what I was hoping to be when I was 40 years old. There's a lot of us who are frustrated, maybe frustrated, because we, it's not because you haven't tried, you've tried, and it just didn't turn out the way that you were hoping for.

He says clearly, "True fruit, true fruit is only going to happen when you abide in the true vine," right? That pretty much summarizes everything I'm going to say this morning, okay? So if you're going to go to sleep, like, make sure you memorize that, right? True fruit can only happen when you abide by the true vine.

So when you're not abiding by the true vine, whatever fruit that you may think that you see may not be real fruit, unless the Bible is lying, right? True fruit can only come from abiding by the true vine. You can teach the Bible regularly, not abiding in Christ, and really bear no fruit.

You can go to short-term missions, share the gospel with many people, and not be abiding in Him and bear no fruit. You can have a growing church filled with hundreds, even thousands of people, when we are not abiding in Christ isn't true fruit. Everything that we experience, or what seems to be fruit outside of abiding in Christ, may not be real fruit at all.

And sometimes it's actually more dangerous to be surrounded by what we think is fruit when the Bible says, "No, it's not real fruit at all," because He said you cannot bear any fruit unless you are abiding in Christ. So how central is this message to the church and to Christianity in general?

In everything that we do, how central? This is the core, right? If you missed this, you've missed everything about our Christian faith. So our primary pursuit, before we evangelize the world, before we attract people to the church, before we even open it back up so that we can have corporate worship, our primary pursuit has to be, are we abiding in Christ?

Luke 6, 43-44, it says, "For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor, again, does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from bramble bush." It says you cannot bear fruit.

So the central question that we have to ask is, then what does it mean to abide in Christ? What does it mean to abide in Christ? I remember the first time when I was studying this passage and doing quiet time, I just assumed abide basically meant to obey, right?

Obey Christ. As long as you obey, as long as you do what he tells you to do, then we're going to bear fruit. But the word for abide here is much more nuanced than just simple obedience. He's telling his disciples more than just, "Just do what I say," which is part of the meaning.

In fact, I asked you, I think last week, to look up different translations to see how this word is translated because this is one of those words that can't be translated with one English word. So if you speak more than one language, you know that there are certain words that you really need to understand the culture to be able to translate and really have a correct and precise understanding of that word.

Well, this is one of those words. In the Greek, it's meno. So some of your translations will say abide. Some of your translations will say to remain. Some of your translations in other parts of the Bible, that same word is translated to dwell. So what I want to do this morning is, again, to jump into the specific nuanced meaning of this word because it's central to us bearing fruit, no matter what we do.

The first and the most obvious thing that he is saying is to dwell, to dwell in Christ, to dwell in Christ. In other words, to make your home in Christ. And we talked about that last week, how the Holy Spirit was sent and he dwelt within us and so he said the Holy Spirit isn't going to leave us as orphans.

And so as he dwells in us, he says that you need to also dwell within him to make your home. And there's a big difference, right? As like sleeping at a hotel, this is where you sleep versus your home, right? And you know what your home is. Home is you can go out and have the best vacation, but the end of it, you know, you always look forward to going home because home is where your bed is.

Home is where your fridge is. Home is where your bathroom, your showers, right? And your comfortable stuff is. And home is ultimately where your family is. And so when you are at home is when you find refuge, when you find your comfort. So when he says to make your dwelling in Christ, he's saying make sure that Christ himself is your refuge.

He's your home. He's the one that you run to before you run to your friends, before you run to the leaders, before you run to see if your bank account has enough money, that Christ himself is our home. You know, as soon as the lockdown happened and you can just see the various responses that people have, you know, with this COVID-19 and understandably, you know, a lot of people freaked out.

Most of us freaked out because the real threat of death, if you know, they were thrown out this just outrageous numbers of millions of people may possibly die. And every single one of us is going to know somebody who's going to get it and then die from it. And so these crazy numbers were being thrown out.

And a lot of this lockdown happened because of fear of death. But I think in some sense was good for us as Christians, because it caused us to take a step back and ask ourselves, do I fear God more than death itself? Or do I fear like the rest of the world?

What do I run to? Do I run to the supermarket? And if I have enough things stored up in my garage that I'm safe, did I get enough toilet paper? Did I get enough hand sanitizers? Is my job going to be safe after all this is over? Is that going to happen?

Or if I don't have enough money, is the government going to pass a bill where they're going to help me for a while? Where is our refuge? Well first and foremost, Jesus is saying, I'm going to leave you. And he's talking to people who are anxious because he's about to leave them.

And he says, I'm not going to leave you as orphans. As the Holy Spirit is going to be sent and he's going to indwell in you, you need to also continue to dwell with him. In Psalm 27, 4-5, it says, "One thing I have asked of the Lord that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." When he says one thing that I ask, he's not saying he's one of many things.

He's saying above all these other things, I ask more than anything else, more than long life, more than prosperity, more than safety from this world, more than a good government, more than a good king, one thing that I ask that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

To behold his beauty. Because beholding his beauty, beholding his glory can't be done when we are away from him. When our hearts are chasing after the things of this world, the greatest consequence of drifting away from God is that we no longer behold his glory. And that's why he says, "I want to be in the house of the Lord that I may continue to behold his glory and to meditate in his temple, in his home.

For in a day of trouble, he will conceal me in his tabernacle." In other words, if Christ is our home, if he is our dwelling, when I am in his temple, he will protect me, not the walls of my house, not the economy, not some vaccine, but he will concede me.

In the secret place of his tent, he will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock. In other words, he's my foundation. We can find a vaccine tomorrow and all of a sudden this fear of death goes away, at least this small part of it. There's a thousand different ways that we can die, but at least this part of it that's being hyped up right now, that'll be taken care of.

But the psalmist says, "That's not where I find my refuge. That is not where I find my rock." He says, "It is in his temple. It is in his house. He conceals me. He hides me. He's the one who lifts me up on a rock." That's what it means to dwell, to remain in Christ.

In Psalm 84, 10 through 11, he also says, "For a day in your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the household of my God than dwell in the tents of the wickedness." In other words, he's saying, "I'd rather be in a courtyard of my God's house than to be in the inner room." In other words, in its comfort.

That's what he means. To be near the Lord is much better, to be in the inner chamber of the world. "For the Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly." Well, so how do we make this dwelling?

The question that we have to ask ourselves and answer repeatedly, over and over again, from time to time, is, "Do you believe this?" When Jesus says he is the resurrection and life, that even if you die, you shall live. And he asks them, "Do you believe this?" When he asks his disciple, "Who do men say that I am?" You're the prophet, you're Elijah.

He said, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter's response, "You are thus the Christ, the son of the living God." And so the question isn't, "What do my pastors believe? What does the church believe? What does my denomination believe?" What do you believe? Is he truly your refuge?

I remember hearing Chuck Smith, obviously the founder of Calvary Chapel, and he probably had one of the biggest spiritual influences, that God used him to bring the Jesus movement in the 1970s. And he gives a testimony about how, in the earlier part of the church, how he really felt like that this is a church that he needed to build.

And he started a project to build this church, but they eventually ran out of money. And he was praying, and they had a certain bill that was coming up, and he was praying to God, and he was getting anxious and anxious as the time was coming. And all of a sudden, he says, a member, somebody he didn't know that well, called him and said, "Pastor, God really convicted me to give you an offering." And then he said, "I'm going to be sending you a check." And when he said the amount, he said he was floored, because that was exactly the amount of money that he needed to get to the next stage.

And he said that he was rejoicing and thanking God for answering his prayer, and he was so happy about that phone call. But then he says afterwards, he felt a strong rebuke in his heart, because he says, again, in his testimony, he said, "He rejoiced more over the promise of that man over the phone than the promise that God gave him, that if you seek his kingdom and all his righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you." And he shares in his testimony how it revealed in his heart that he trusted more from what that man said on the phone than what his father says in his word.

And so he shares how God revealed early on in ministry, how even in the context of doing God's work, where we use our own effort and our confidence comes from man, if we're not careful. And so that's the first understanding of the word. Are we dwelling in Christ? Is he our refuge?

Is he the one that we run to? Second meaning, to remain. The word to remain means to continue, to keep going. And again, this was given to the disciples because Jesus was leaving, he's going to be crucified, and he also knew that the disciples were going to be scared, and that the leaders of Israel, just like they came after Jesus, they're going to come after them.

So he's telling them that when this happens, Peter, when you deny me three times and you're in fear hiding from these people, when you come back to your senses, remember, the safest place for you to be is to continue with me, to remain. Even if it seems like this is crazy, that if we continue with Jesus, we may actually go to the cross.

And they were probably thinking, they probably remember Jesus said, "If you want to come after me, you must pick up the cross." And maybe they kind of heard it metaphorically because they didn't understand. Even when Jesus says, "I'm going to the cross," they didn't understand. So maybe when they heard it, they kind of said, "Oh, maybe he meant sacrifice." Kind of a lot of the way that we take it, right?

It means to live, persevere through persecution or make difficult decisions. But when Jesus actually went to the cross, I bet you it was kind of going off on their heads like, "Oh my gosh, he actually meant it. He literally meant he's going to die and you need to die.

He actually meant it physically. That's exactly what he meant to his disciples. If you want to come after me, you need to deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me." And so he's telling his disciples, when that temptation comes, if I continue to go down this path, there's uncertainty.

There's death, persecution. I may lose my job. I may not be able to pay my bills. I may not be able to continue to go down this path. And you have people, maybe even other Christians, who are trying to dissuade you from picking up your cross. And Jesus reminded his disciples, he says, "No, you continue.

You continue. You continue to remain." You know, 1 John 2, verse 19, John says in his other letter, "They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. For they went out that it may become plain that they all are not of us." Now when John was writing this epistle, 1 John, he was talking to a different group of people because significant time has already passed from the time of Jesus' death and resurrection.

But I bet that Apostle John never forgot about Judas because what he says here is exactly what Jesus said about Judas before he went, he gets to chapter 15. He warned them, "Judas is going to leave us. He's going to betray me." And he's saying, "You released him to go." And so John is saying it's because he did not continue.

If he was really of us, he would have continued. He would have remained with Christ. And so now he reminds us of what Jesus said to them. If you want to continue, you must remain. But what does it mean to remain in Christ? Well Hebrews chapter 3, 6, you know we're going to be jumping back into Hebrews pretty soon.

I'm not going to guarantee it's going to be next week but possibly the week after for sure. But we've been studying through the book of Hebrews and the whole book of Hebrews is a warning and encouragement to not to drift. So you will see that idea repeated over and over again all throughout the book of Hebrews because the central theme, central thing that he's warning the recipients of this letter is not to drift.

That's why he says over and over again, Hebrews 3, 6, "And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope." You know why he's telling them to hold fast? It's because they were holding on loosely. They weren't rejecting Christ. They weren't pursuing idolatry.

It's just that you know when it was a little bit too hard to go this path they would kind of you know go the easier path. If it was too difficult to say this and they kind of toned it down said the other way. You know a lot of the ways that we avoid hardship in our lives is not to completely reject it.

We just kind of tone it down a little bit. Don't be crazy. Don't say it like that. You can preach the gospel but don't say that. You can tell them about the love of Christ but don't talk about hell. You could talk about Jesus being the only way but don't say he's the only way and all the other ways are wrong.

So we kind of tone it down a little bit you know and we find we try to make the path that we're on as easy as possible. When he says to hold on, hold fast, is that these truths that you are convicted about that you don't compromise, that you hold on to dear life.

Hebrews 3.14, for we share in Christ if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. That the things that we were convicted about when he opened our eyes to see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ that ten years later that you've become compromised and you've drifted.

Hebrews 4.14, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. Hold fast, not just kind of I got on the boat so we're safe you know. A lot of confessing Christians are more than perfectly satisfied that they made a good decision sometime way back in life and then now we're just kind of just I'm on the boat and wherever this boat takes me and so you know you're the captain so take the boat and I'm just on it.

He said that was the danger of these people, the second, third generation Christians and even in the first century they were just beginning to drift and not holding fast. Hebrews 6.11, and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end.

You know again there's a lot of people who are absolutely certain of their faith in the beginning of their walk with God, five, ten, fifteen, twenty years later they have a lot of doubts that crept into their hearts and the reason why is because they weren't holding fast. They were drifting and once you are far, far away from Christ, the glory of Christ is just a memory.

It is not a present thing that you are experiencing you know. It's something that you saw maybe years ago and you're always trying to look back and say oh I remember when he was like that, I remember when I was like that but it is not a current testimony.

It's not your current state of mind meaning that we've drifted. So he says hold fast to show the same diligence to continue to remain. Hebrews 10.23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. Hold fast because God does not change.

Same Christ that we met when we first met him is the same Christ today. The same things that he desired of us when we first met him is the same Christ that desires the same thing of us today. He says to hold fast. You know years ago I had a friend who was getting married and again this is many, many years ago and we decided to take him to white water rafting.

And so I've never been white water rafting so we thought it would be fun and they made us sign a waiver saying that you can drown, you can die, you know you can all this stuff and it's like how dangerous could it be? I know that we don't normally sign these waivers that we may get hurt or die and that it's not your responsibility and it's kind of nerve wracking to get into a boat, a tiny little raft but we think if they do this for a living so it can't be too bad.

But what we didn't realize was right before we got into that boat El Nino happened like a month before and so there was a lot of water that wasn't normal that even the instructors were not used to. And so we got into the boat and we were going down the raft and it was crazy to begin with and I remember the thought that I had was I can't believe they're letting beginners onto this raft because we had pictures where we're literally in the water and all you see is water around us because the raft was bent in half you know.

And so we were about an hour into it and we pulled over to take a break and we were all of us who were there to have fun we were a bit terrified you know and we were asking ourselves this is for beginners? And then that's when they explained to us oh yeah this is not normal usually it's pretty calm and there's a couple places where it gets kind of hairy but because of El Nino the whole place is like that and so you really need to pay attention.

Well after we took a break we got back onto the raft and then we turned a corner and it was a huge rapid and we hit it so hard one of the guys who was sitting next to me he flew and he ended up hitting the instructor on the forehead and he ended up breaking his nose and then the instructor had stitches so we had to pull over and he had to be taken to the hospital and then the instructor had to be changed.

But they didn't cancel the raft they got a new instructor coming in and so by that time we're freaking out you know I was thinking like you know this is before we had kids that oh I'm going to bring Esther here you know we're going to have fun doing this but after that I said no I'm not bringing Esther here this is not safe right?

We get back into the boat we have about another 30 minutes and it was just as hairy but by then we are like full alert right? But most of the day has gone by we're kind of at the tail end and so we think you know we have maybe about 20 more minutes of this and then we're going to be pulled over and I said man this was crazy but right before we make this turn our instructor pulls us over for no other reason it wasn't a time for break it wasn't a lunch time but no other reason other than to get us ready right?

And she said everything that you've experienced up to this point was pretty elementary compared to what's coming and we were we were like what? Our instructor had to be changed because she had stitches one of our friends broke his nose so he had to get out of the boat and you're saying that that compared to what's coming you know it was pretty easy so I mean we're starting to get scared what's around this corner and I could tell the instructor himself was starting to get anxious so that freaked us out even more what's around this corner that this guy does this for a living and he's like there's some fear in his eyes so he said when we turn this corner we hit this raft the waters are going to be pretty high and once we get into it there's no way to pull over so if you fall into the water typically their plan is they're going to throw a line and they're going to try to pull you back in or the next boat that comes will come and grab you and bring you back in but he said when we get into this it's going to be so rough if you fall into the water we're not going to be able to get you you're going to have to ride this out you know and you're going to end up drinking some water and we'll see you at the end when it comes calm then we'll bring you back into the water so in other words don't fall in right and he said the only way that you're going to we're going to be okay is if you do exactly what I tell you and when I tell you to throw the oar into the water you guys do it because the only leverage that we have like you know again I need this this has become longer than I originally planned but he said that on the raft if you've ever gone white water rafting they don't have anything to bind you into this boat just in case the boat flips and you're going to drown so the only way that you have any kind of leverage is through the oar into the water and that's the only way you can grab onto it so he said when I tell you to dig you just dig and you stay in right so we are all hyped up we're ready to go and we turned a corner and the water was so high we couldn't see on the other side of that so we're freaking out she's freaking I mean the our instructor is freaking out we're going okay okay we're ready and right before we hit the raft well the water one of our friends we turn around just slips into the water so we're looking at each other like oh my god we didn't we're not in the water yet so do we bring him back in so we're looking at each other we're looking at the instructor what should we do but as we're looking at each other we're headed to this water so you can tell she's kind of hesitating and then she says forget him because if we try to bring him in and we hit the raft we're all going to go in she said let him be and get dig yourself into the water right so as soon as he said that we were ready and we were ready to turn around we hit we hit the water and when we hit the water the went our boat went completely vertical and so half of our friends went into the water I happen to be in the very top and I just yanked in I hugged hugged the water with my oar and that's how I was able to stay in but once we got into it she I mean he was right we couldn't bring them back in we were so busy just us trying to stay in the water we had no way to bring them back in okay again there's this story goes on and on right so they they were in the water the next raft that was coming behind they couldn't pay any attention so they for about I forgot me it felt like a good minute that we were going down this raft and and we couldn't pull them back into the water until we were done we couldn't even see where they were because the raft was so high right the reason why I share this story is because all of this is related to what Jesus is saying to his disciples so whatever hardship that you felt up to this point whatever trouble or anxiousness or fear that you felt I'm about to I'm about to go to the cross there's real danger for your life that's coming around this corner and if you don't pay attention to what I say if you don't remain in me you're not going to make it so as much as this is an instruction of how to bear fruit he's telling them that this only way that you're going to survive is if you continue to remain in me the biggest danger of where you and I are is not burnout is not burnout you know we use that word so commonly when you get tired and I don't want to teach anymore I don't want to serve anymore I don't want to do this anymore you say I'm burned out the biggest problem where we you and I live is not burnout it's being rusted out from lack of work from lack of diligence for lack of exercising our spiritual muscles lack of holding fast the confession that we had at first and so we get busy like everybody else does not necessarily like we're deep into sin but just busy with life just like everybody else the next thing we know we're not we're not grounded we're not anchored in Christ but you don't need to be anchored when there's no storm you don't need to be anchored when the waves are calm because you kind of sit there you know and you're not you don't feel any real danger then all of a sudden the storm comes and you lift your eyes and you realize you're nowhere near the shore see if we're not anchored in Christ we don't feel a sense of urgency until something happens COVID-19 happens the world gets shut down there's real fear and then persecution comes I don't know about you but the spiritual environment that we are in now versus even just 30 or 40 years ago it's night and day the hostility that is coming from even government officials toward Christianity and churches have grown exponentially just in the last 10 years persecution if it's not already here it's coming and we don't realize how far we are until the storm comes see Jesus was telling them Jesus is telling them it's coming be ready and the only way that you're going to survive is if you hold fast you know what's really interesting I was looking up to see you know in BBC in England they did a study in Europe to see how many people die simply from lack of activity they said every year 676,000 people die from lack of activity lack of activity that is related to heart disease right diabetes whatever it is that come from lack of active just being sedentary life he said 676,000 people die from that every year and this is just a study from BBC of Europe so if you multiply that all throughout the world it's got a minimum at least double that number so over a million people die from lack of activity right now we're living in fear because of COVID-19 legitimately this is a dangerous disease that we need to be careful about but 311,000 people around the whole world has died because of this see the greatest danger in our world usually are not things that you can see clearly usually the things that destroy us and is most dangerous are things that we are not aware of that we just kind of are relaxed and just kind of let it flow and just kind of drift the next thing you know when the storm comes you're not anchored and the boat flips and you drown that's why when it is in times of peace when we don't feel the sense of urgency is when we need to hold fast and that's what Jesus is saying remain remain and continue third and finally it means to depend if we dwell on all of these ideas are connected but again the specific nuance of this is to dwell with him to continue with him and to ultimately depend on him whenever we face troubles or trials whether it's financial or spiritual our natural tendencies to rely on man whether it's other men or ourselves let's strategize let's have a meeting let's identify what the problem is let's implement some new ideas let's organize a little bit differently let's get some right people in the right place to do the right things and if we do it right it'll fix the problem that's usually our tendency when Jesus says if you don't abide in me you cannot bear fruit human problems may be fixed with human ingenuity but the warfare that you are and I are in is not against flesh and blood he makes it very clear it is a spiritual battle so the only way that you and I can have success in a spiritual battle is to engage spiritually and so he says you must depend on me you must depend on me before we strategize before we implement before we get the right people in the right place to do the right thing do we come to Christ is he our ultimate answer see in Colossians chapter 129 Paul describes his ministry this way for this purpose I also I labor and strive right now if you stop right there Paul was a hard worker he persevered he was whooped he was shipwrecked you know and yet he personally he is a man who was so committed we need to be committed which is all true but if you miss what the second part of what he says you can completely pervert what he's trying to say for this purpose also I labor striving according to his power which mightily works within me Paul is saying he's able to do what he's doing because Christ is already working in him because you cannot bear fruit unless we are abiding in him Paul is able to do what he is doing because God is doing what he is doing with him ministry and preaching leading small groups sharing the gospel even just living our Christian life isn't simply applying and regurgitating things that we heard you know I can give a sermon and I could whatever the sermon is you say oh I really like that I was really challenged by that and then that's where it ends that's where it ends you heard something new it made you think but it has no power to change you it has no power to bear fruit because true fruit comes from true connection to the true vine Paul says even as he is striving he says I'm able to strive because of the work that he's doing in me Philippians 2 12 to 13 so then my beloved just as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your salvation we're with fear and trembling again Paul says you need to not only am I striving but you need to work out your salvation with fear and trembling and I get so many questions about that what does it mean to work out your salvation what does it mean to have fear and trembling am I supposed to live day to day in fear of God's judgment am I supposed to strive and like like really work it out that's that sounds really burdensome you know especially if you've been walking with God for a while and you're you're faithfully attending Bible study and you're sacrificing you're giving and you're doing what you're supposed to do and then he says work out your salvation with fear and trembling am I supposed to like look at his judgment and live in what does that mean again if you don't if you again when you study the Bible if you don't study it in the context of everything that he's saying you can easily pervert the meaning of what he's saying right work out your salvation with fear and trembling verse 13 he says for it is God who works work for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure you notice how he says work at your salvation with fear and trembling because the reason why you're able to do that is because God is working in you God is already working in you for his own good pleasure in other words he's not telling you something like you know get your act together and do the right thing he says no he said allow the Holy Spirit to continue to do what he was given to do don't quench the Holy Spirit that's why Ephesians 5 18 is it be filled with the Holy Spirit right do not be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit now why does he compare being drunk with being filled with the Holy Spirit he said do not be drunk with wine instead be filled with the Holy Spirit so he's making a correlation between these two ideas because being drunk right I have no idea what that feels like right some of you guys do if you're if you've ever been drunk right from what I've been told you can believe you're not yourself right the alcohol gets into your system and you say things and do things that you wouldn't normally in other words the alcohol controls 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 influencing you and you can somebody who's normally quiet can become very loud somebody who's very loud become very quiet somebody who doesn't normally share all of a sudden they share all these things and that's why a lot of social settings people drink first so that they can be loose there's a reason why he's comparing do not be drunk with wine and he's not just talking about wine anything else outside of the influence of the Holy Spirit is like being drunk with wine if you are influenced by the world and world's ideologies and principles if you are chasing after money and the lust of money if you're chasing after influence if you're chasing after acknowledgement whatever it is that is not God it's like being drunk with wine and the wine is influencing your thoughts it's influencing what is right influencing your words he says do not be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit you know what's interesting about being filled the word filled pleuru is in the present passive imperative what's interesting about that imperative means it's a command right so he says sit down it means you take your body and you put it onto the chair sit down but it's in the passive voice passive voice basically means to let yourself you receive the action so oftentimes when you hear the word imperative you would think he's telling you to do you actively do something but because it's in the passive voice he's saying you actively receive the action of the Holy Spirit that's what that means right in other words to sum it up he's saying that the Holy Spirit has already been given you so that you would not be an orphan he made his indwelling in you he was given to you as a seal as a guarantee as a deposit guaranteeing your salvation and then he said the Holy Spirit was given to you so that he may intercede and groan with words that you cannot understand so that he may continue to intercede on your behalf so the Holy Spirit is actively working in you there is no Christian where the Holy Spirit isn't working if the Holy Spirit is not indwelling in you you are not a Christian so when he says to be filled present passive imperative he's saying live in such a way that the Holy Spirit can take full control over your life that's what that means it's not to like okay raise your hand a certain way or if you sing louder or if you sing you know more emotional music or if you do certain things the Holy Spirit is going to come and fill you from top to bottom he says no the Holy Spirit is already working don't resist and that's why the Bible talks about not to quench the Spirit not to quench the Spirit in other words the Holy Spirit is already working in you do not do and go and do certain things that the Holy Spirit is being resisted and it's in the present tense meaning to continue it is not something that happens at justification alone but is an ongoing constant work of allowing the Holy Spirit to influence you that's why again to remain in Christ is to completely depend upon Christ that's why he says act 1 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you not when you have memorized enough scripture although all of these things are a good thing not because you know all the theology not because you had the proper training not because you're older and you have a lot of experience not because you read a lot of books he says the power is going to come upon you when the Holy Spirit comes upon you humanly speaking if we had if the task was given to us Jesus Christ was crucified he's resurrected and this is the most important message that the world will ever hear the consequence of the word not going out is people are going to go to hell people's destinies changes there's there's no greater task than the task that was given to the disciples but imagine if that task was given to us you know and saying hey you guys figure this out I Jesus says I've done my part now you guys figure this out right I would imagine there would be a great Bible conference that takes place with all the top theologians all the professors all the people who wrote the best systematic theology books all the people who have the largest churches they would get together and they would have a huge meeting how should we do this well we need to have the right people like who has the influence we have a senator who's among us maybe we can use him you know we have a multi-billionaire you know and we can use his influence and get his money to back our mission work and we would have all of these things and none of it in and of itself may be wrong see but Jesus was not asking the disciples to do that Jesus didn't call these fishermen tax collectors these guys were easily divided saying I want to be better than this guy these guys these guys are gonna fail you but but I won't they were not the cream of the crop they were not the most educated they were not the most influential in fact they just failed miserably the biggest test in their life and you're gonna instruct them to go make disciples come on now I know you're sovereign but clearly you don't see what we see he didn't entrust it to his disciples he did it he entrusted to the Holy Spirit through the disciples that's the difference because the point that Jesus was trying to make is the same point that God has been trying to make through history he can use donkeys if he wanted to when the Pharisees said hey stop them from yelling out Hosanna Hosanna he says if they don't yell out the rocks will cry out in other words the key is not in them that they would look at these untrained men on uneducated men and that when they see the power coming through them through their preaching and through their working that people may look at them and say these were uneducated men these were just fishermen but they were clearly with the Lord in other words they were clearly remaining in Christ they depend on Christ that's why he says before he sends him out wait because when the Holy Spirit comes upon you you will be my disciple you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem Judea Samaria to the remotest part of the world he doesn't say try hard he's when the Holy Spirit comes this is going to happen so he wasn't entrusting it to them he was entrusting it to the Holy Spirit and he tells us to remain in the Spirit to continue in the Spirit again in Psalm 37 for delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart commit your way to the Lord trust also in him and he will do it he will do it he will bring forth your righteousness as a light and your judgment as the noon day so let me wrap up this morning with this at the end of all of this at the end of all these instructions about continuing the promise of the Holy Spirit and bearing fruit by remaining he says the reason why you need to do all of this John 15 7 if you abide in me and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you when you are abiding in me right Christ says the reason why you're going to bear fruit is because you're going to be able to pray more effectively John 15 16 you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit will remain so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name he may give to you in other words why do you need to bear fruit so that you may be able to pray more effectively again finally John 16 23 to 24 and that day you will not question me about anything truly truly I say to you if you ask the Father for anything in my name he will give it to you until now you have asked for nothing in my name ask and you will receive so that your joy may be made full in other words the primary gift that God has given us for the purpose of bearing fruit is himself and the benefit of bearing fruit and abiding in him is that we may have effective prayer have more of him right isn't that crazy and that's why he says in verse 2 right in verse 2 he says every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away in every branch that bears fruit he prunes that so that it may bear more fruit so you notice here he says bear fruit that you may bear more fruit that ultimately you may bear much fruit and that's exactly how a living plant is described the fourth seed that he multiplies his fruit 30 60 a hundredfold how much of our joy comes from knowing and experiencing this fruit in our lives because we are we have learned the secret of being content is to remain in Christ think about all the things that we are concerned about today all the problems that we need to fix whether it's relational whether it's whether it's financial whatever it may be think about how easily we run to human means and thinking that you know we get that done then we can we can do some prayer but I don't have time to pray until I've done my part no he said you can't do your part until we first learn to abide in Christ so again my prayer is that this unique period of time that God has given us that before we run to anything else that we carefully examine where we're at are we truly remaining in Christ are we dwelling in Christ are we continuing in Christ and are we depending in Christ and I pray that as we pursue Christ with all our hearts that we may truly bear fruit 30 60 a hundredfold let's pray