Blake Hickman: Alright, good morning, Harvest. Hope you're all doing well today. my name is Blake. If you're new or visiting around here, I'd love to meet you afterwards. I am not one of the pastors here, but know a lot of people here, and my wife, Amber, and I have the joy of being members here and serving as a lay elder for many years. And you know, when when you get the opportunity to preach somewhere, I hope you know that that you prepare for that and and you put a lot of time and effort into that and you craft a really great intro and it's wonderful, and it's there. like draw everybody in. And then you sit and you're in a service and you have a prayer time and the little things happen. You feel these little nudges from the Lord in your heart to say, yeah, that intro. You don't need to go to that intro anymore. And just so you know, I've been raised Baptist my entire life and so those Holy Spirit nudges are not something that I naturally lean into. It's kind of like is it revealed in the word? Did I read it in a verse? Can I really trust this is what this is saying? But real quick as we begin, I I do want to just highlight Highlight a couple of things. Number one, you are a very blessed church, and I really want you to know that. these two men that have the privilege of leading you, even Wes Ficken, who you guys have are are gonna be installing as a lay elder. I I can say this not because it's just something that you're supposed to say if you're the guest that's preaching at a church and you were invited by these guys, but like I really mean this to be true. I've known all three of these men for many, many, many, many years. For Mike, I've known him since good grief, like maybe 2006, 2007, somewhere around in that range. Matthew, I've known since 2018, and we did life and ministry together in deep, deep ways. I've known for as long as I have known Mike. And so that is a considerable amount of time. And it's considerable amount of time seeing the hearts of these men, seeing the way that they love every single individual. That they serve, seeing the way that they love and they cherish their families. And you are a blessed church, and I want you to know that. And it's a joy of mine to consider all three of them to be friends, to be partners in ministry in some way, shape, or form. And I'm so pleased that you guys have the opportunity to be able to honor them that way. Second thing is just even this morning being here, as Mike was sharing when we were having our pre service prayer time. Just about how he was beginning the service with those verses from Psalm 95, which are echoed again in the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews, writer of Hebrews echoing those out all throughout that letter, about what it looks like to truly be of one heart and one mind devoted to the Lord, not letting the things we do for the Lord cause our hearts to grow cold and to grow callous for him, but but but staying humble and staying laid out and staying tender, malleable, mold. Before Him. And our text this morning is all about this. Jesus in John 15 is going to talk to us about what it looks like to abide, what it looks like to fight our flesh, and every tendency that it has to want to lean in all the things that we do and to understand that there's nothing that we can do apart from his grace. And it's when we start to lean into those things that we think we can do, that whether it's gifting, whether it's natural strength. whether it's things we know that make other people happy, whatever that may be, that it is those times when we start to pull ourselves away from abiding. And if we're honest, those are the times when we kind of start to freak out and we don't feel the peace that a life with Jesus is supposed to bring to us. Mike shared in the in the call to worship today about how the children of Israel, for generation after generation after generation after generation after generation, they saw the mighty works of God in ways that we have never seen. Miracle after miracle, provision after provision, protection after protection, bailout after bailout. Magnificent things they saw. And yet they rejected him. And yet they turned their hearts away from him. Their hearts grew cold to him. And I hope our text today is an encouragement for us to not let that happen to us. But every single one of us in this room, we are just as vulnerable. We are just as weak. We are just as willing to allow that to happen to us if we don't heed Jesus' kind words that he has for us in John 15 today. I think all of us would say we are people that like to be at home, right? I hope your home is a safe place. I think for most people that's why we say what you were taught probably before you ever watched The Wizard of Oz. There's no place like home. You don't even need to click your heels and have ruby slippers to believe that to be true. There's no place like home. There's something about home that brings us a level of comfort. It it relaxes us, it puts us at ease. I I know for me, and I love to Travel. I love seeing new places. It's fun. It's very enjoyable. I don't sleep well and I don't rest well when I'm not in my home. And it's not even being in my particular bed. It's just being in my home and the things that my home brings to me. It's been very interesting for our sons that have three of our five that have gone out of our house. When they're in our houses, they're approaching the time when it's time to leave our house. They're like, I can't wait to leave this house. And then they leave this house and Like, I can't wait to be back in the house. It's really weird. And I don't understand why it works that way. Amber and I find great comfort and delight in that, though. But every single one of them, as they come home, there's something about them being home that just allows them to rest and allows them to be at ease. And in this passage today, Jesus is telling us what it looks like to find our home in him. And what it looks like to be at rest and at peace in him. He's going to help us understand the way that we have been designed to find that rest is to find it in him. And if we're finding it in anything other than him, we'll never have that rest. We'll never have that peace. We'll never have that comfort. And these can be really good things that we we things that we believe are even God honoring and God glorifying things. But if we are looking in those things to provide us the ultimate rest that only He can, there's no rest. It's just restlessness. And so as we look into our text today, I I pray that this is what God is going to allow us to see. We're going to see two primary things in our text today. We're going to see what it looks like when we are abiding and what it looks like we when we are obeying. And by the end, I pray that we see that those things go together. Because abiding is obeying, and obeying is abiding. They're they're deeply, deeply connected. And so let's pray, and then after we pray, let's look into this word together. Father, thank you so much for your grace. Thank you so much for all the ways that we have seen it, said it, and sung it together this morning. Thank you for allowing us to be reminded of your majesty and your holiness. Thank you for reminding us in our sin, how set apart from. You we are. Thank you for reminding us of the beauty and the hope of the gospel that says in our being set apart from you, that through Jesus and his sacrifice to save sinners like all of us, that we can be brought near to you. And now in you, we are not set apart from you, we are set apart for you to do good works, to do works which will bring you glory, which will bring us joy. And so, Father, as we look into your text this morning, I pray that you would allow us to see this. Would you open our eyes? Would you open our ears? Would you open our hearts? Would you open our minds? Would you help us to see and hear and know and understand you? Would you work through weakness in me? Would you work through weakness in all of us here? And we ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. So turn in your Bibles to John chapter 15. and we are going to start by reading verses 1 through 11. And in these verses, we are going to look at abiding. This is what Jesus tells us starting in verse 1. He says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you, abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be full. Context is always important. It's very, very important. And we're in a section in the book of John right now where it's this Jesus' final discourse. This is the last conversation that he is having with his disciples before he is going to lay down his life for them. And there's a series of these interactions that he has with them. And they kind of move very stream of consciousness. But there's a considerable amount of time, and they're very separate settings that are happening here. And if you go to Eugene. Jump right into John 15, and Jesus says, I am the true vine. You're like, Well, what preceded this? Well, at the end of John 14, he says, Rise, let us get up and go from here. So you've got to understand more context than that about what Jesus has been saying here. But he dives right into helping us understand what it looks like to abide. And at first he wants us to understand the nature of abiding. And this is where he begins in verse one. And he tells us that we have a farmer, that we have a vine, and that we have branches. And Jesus in here is saying that he is the vine. And then later he'll say, I am the true vine. This is the last of seven I am statements in the book of John that Jesus makes about himself, identifying himself as the Messiah, as the one who has come, that was promised from of old, who will take away the sins and the reproach of the people and grant them life forever with God. And Jesus wants us to see as he lays this out, before he talks about abiding and the three points of how to, or what do I need to do? Do I need more mindful minutes on my Fitbit app? Do I need another thing that's going to allow me to like decentralize and tune out all the distractions of the world? Before he gets to any of that. He wants us to understand that all of this work of abiding rests on the farmer and it rests on the vine. And it doesn't rest on the branch. Now, as we go through this text, absolutely part of abiding and part of obeying, there is work that we have to do. I would be dishonest if I told you that all we have to do is sit back and let him do everything. No, there is work that we have to do, but it's only when we understand that he's really the one doing all the work. And Jesus from the very beginning here wants us to get this right, and he doesn't want us to miss this. Jesus is the true vine, and his father is the vine dresser. Now, in the Greek there, the word there is gardener or farmer, which is very different from vine dresser. I think sometimes, and by the way, I love the ESV. It's my favorite translation of the Bible, but sometimes I think we use words that cause us to miss the point. I think we hear vine dresser, and if you're of a certain age in here, you think Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kidch chopping up his bonsai trees. Like you think it's this really hobby-like work that you're just sitting there, that branch is out of place. Let me trim that off. No, he it it's the picture of a farmer. Who has an elaborate vineyard? And there are vines there. And his work is to make sure that that vine is producing fruit. And those vines have branches, and the branches are enormous, and they are running everywhere. And the farmer is there to tend the vine. And we don't ever have to worry about the vine because the vine isn't a bad vine. The vine is the best vine. There's nothing wrong with the vine. The vine is perfect. Perfect. It's the branches that need work. And Jesus here wants us to understand that. Father is the farmer, that Jesus is the vine, and that we are the branches. And he doesn't want us to hear that and to know that and understand that so that we feel like we're less than. That's not what he wants at all. But he does want us to see that and know that and understand that so that we know our place. Not putting us in our place. He's going to remind us in this text that he came to put himself in our place. It's not what this is. But he is wanting us to know our place. We can't do anything apart from him. And he shows us the nature of this project. He tells us that the farmer, as he tends to the vine, that there is work that he has to do, and there are branches that have to be tended to, and there are dead branches that have to be thrown away. And there are live branches, live branches, healthy branches, but they have to be pruned. He takes away dead branches and he trims back healthy ones. He doesn't trim back the healthy ones because he's sadistic and vindictive and he enlighten and he likes to inflict pain upon people. No, he trims back the healthy ones so that they can be even healthier. And from here out, the rest of this section, these 11 verses, it's all about the pruning process. And pruning is tough work. And it's tough work because you're cutting back live things, not dead ones. Dead ones break off easily. Live ones you have to work and wrestle with. Think about if you ever had to trim a tree. You really don't have to do much for the dead branches. Just have a really nice strong wind. Go out there and pick them up off the ground. They fall off on their own. But if you have a tree, even a healthy tree, but it is getting a little too healthy, a little too unkempt, a little too wild. You go in there having to try to trim those things and that they can wrap together. They can bend in weird shapes. You have to wrestle with those things. You pray as you're moving one that the other one doesn't flop and hit you in the face and knock you backward and you fall off 10 feet. Like it's hard work because you're dealing with something that is alive, not something that is dead. Dead things break off and you don't feel it. Living things, when they're broken, they hurt. Pruning is a process that not many people enjoy. It can be difficult, it can be long, it can be confusing. I mean, these are living branches that are producing fruit. They are producing fruit. And we're told that they're intentionally being trimmed back. Sometimes in our lives, it will be things that give us life. Please hear me when I say this. It will be the things that give you life or the very things that need to be trimmed back. And that is why Jesus tells us about the process before he tells us about the result. He's not playing games with us here. He's not going to sit there and talk about more fruit, more fruit, more fruit, more fruit, more fruit, and then be like, and by the way, I think I'm gonna have to prune you. No, he's like, there's pruning. You're going to be cut. There's going to be pain. Life is going to be difficult. But it's so that more fruit will come. And this is what he wants us to see here. One commentator said that pruning was necessary not because the branch wasn't growing, but because of how it was growing. The larger a branch becomes, the more energy goes to creating more wood for the branch to grow larger than it does producing fruit that is of quality. See, it's not about how big we can grow. It's not about how massive we can be. It's not about how successful we can be. It's not about a great name that we can make for ourselves. That's not what God is in this for as it relates to us. This is not about that. It's about how much fruit we can produce for the kingdom so that he can receive maximum glory. And this is what he wants in our lives. And there are interesting words here that I helped that I think help make verse 3 make more sense more sense. In the Greek, the word for prune is the word clean. He doesn't say prune, he says trim clean or cut clean or clean. This leads into verse 3 when he says, Already you are clean because of the word that I've spoken to you. Sometimes when we read those verses together, it doesn't make sense. What do pruning and cleaning mean? Well, it means the exact same things, what it means. He says that he is going to do this work. It's a cleaning work. And then he tells them that they are already clean. Jesus is telling the disciples here that they have already been pruned, and now it is time for them to bear fruit. And again, context matters. Jesus is hours away from his crucifixion. One branch of their group has already been taken away, a dead branch, Judas Iscariot. These disciples are being pruned right now as Jesus is talking to them. And he's letting them know that they are his. They are in him. They just need to remain in him. This is reassurance from Jesus. This is going to be difficult. It is going to be hard. But he's saying to them, hang in, remain in me, abide in me. And Jesus wants us to know that it's not just that he wants us to bear fruit, he wants us to bear much fruit. He doesn't trim you back and prune you to produce a little yield. He trims you back and prunes you to produce much yield. If there's an area in your life where pruning is taking place right now, rest assured, friend, that pruning is taking place not to leave you weak, but to cause you to multiply. He's not drawing you back to leave you back. He's drawing you back to string you forward. Jesus makes it clear here that this is the natural rhythm of life that is abiding in him. And I want to be clear, this isn't about rewards or prosperity. That's not what this is. This isn't about praying to the sky genie, thinking that he's going to bless you with all your material wishes and dreams. That's not what this is. This is about fruit and fruit that will last. This is about something so much more than material possession. Jesus wants us to see the natural rhythm of a life that abides in him. And he wants to make it clear that he wants us to be very fruitful. And if that wasn't enough, he tells us in verse 8 that the Father is glorified by our bearing much fruit. So it's not even the entire Godhead wants to see you, your absolute most fruitful. Jesus tells us how we do this in verse 5. He says we must abide in him. Then we must abide in him. The word abide is interesting. It means to dwell, to remain, to live in. But I also think this is where we get things messed up in our kind of earthly westernized thinking. It's not just talking about someplace where you go and you set up shop. That's not what it's talking about. The idea here is that we make life in Jesus as our life. That we come to live in Him. He is the vine. He is the vine. And He really wants us to understand that we cannot, we cannot have life apart from Him. I I know I if especially if you have grown up in and around the church and grown up in and around Christian things, all of these things sound like Christian ease and it's things that you know that can flow right out of you. Have you ever stopped to consider what Jesus is saying here? What it means to have life in him, in the vine. Not life around him. Not even just life with him. No, life in him. Have we ever paused? Have we ever stopped? Have we ever tried to consider what that means? He goes on to tell us here that he is our source of life, and so for us to abide, we have to be in him. And then he tells us that there will be no fruitless branches in his vine. It's not possible. There's no fruitless branches. Jesus tells us this in verse 6, the implication being that if we are abiding, we will be bearing fruit, and if we are not abiding, we will be a dead branch. Now I want to stop here for a moment. I I I I want to stop here, I want to make sure that we understand something. Jesus is gonna go into more detail about this as we move into the next section, but he is not talking about us needing to be perfect here. Like the vine is perfect, the farmer is perfect, the branches are not. That's why they have to be pruned. The vine, fine. Farmer, great. Branches, not so much. He alone is perfect, and that is why he is the vine. We're just Branches, and I want you to know this is not like we're not talking about moment by moment abiding here. We'll get to that in a minute. This is that we are categorically abiding in Him as our source of life. What's the difference between the two? Because at any given moment, you or I are not abiding. And if it were dependent on our immediate, momentary abiding, at any moment any of us might be cut off. That's not what he's getting at here. At any moment I promise you you could catch me. And there's not much abiding going on. And here's a really stupid example. So last Saturday night in the Hickman house, we're watching the Alabama-Georgia game. I'm not at my best. I'm just not. Not happy. It has nothing to do with referees and penalties and things like that. You have a third and ten, stop the guy and get the ball back. Like it's not a problem. But I'm I'm not my best. And people, it it's not good. The entire house is not at its best. And Amber gently that night, as we're drifting off to sleep, reminds me that I was not at my best. I didn't need her to remind me by the way, I already knew, but she reminded me and it was good. And I woke up on Sunday morning, it's like New Morning, New Merseys, it's just a loss, who cares? It's just football. It's stupid. And that was great. And all week long I deceived myself that my heart had been changed. And then yesterday, I dared to hope again. Dared to hope again. But this time, so very different. Telling the entire family positive vibes only, no negativity. I won't say cuss words. We're gonna be good. Life's gonna be great. It's gonna be a good day. Even as I'm watching a disaster unfold before my eyes, positive vibes only, positive vibes only, positive vibes only. And then the game gets over, and I'm like, Jesus, you are the only hope. That I have in the world. Everything in life disappoints me. You really are it. There is nothing in this world that brings me joy but you, and you had to give me football to remind me of this. This is so stupid. And yet, is this not how we are in every area of our life? And not just the silly things, but the serious things as well. It's any given moment our hearts are woefully not abiding in who he is. But categorically, are you abiding in who he is? Listen, the only hope that does get me through those moments, and even things that are far more serious, is the fact that I am abiding in him. When Jesus is here talking about dead branches, he's not talking about our momentary lapses where we're going to fall into sin, because every single one of us in here is going to do that. He's talking about a life that has cut itself off from life in the vine and says, I don't need my life in that anymore. That's what he means when he's talking about a dead branch here. And so, a couple of questions that we do have to ask as we look at this. Because dead branches don't feel the cut of being made clean. But a couple of things to ask first, for you, every single one of us, each individually right now, how is your heart right now? Individually, where you're sitting in this room right now, how is your heart right now? And by that I mean this. How sensitive are you to the pruning shears of the Spirit? How sensitive are you? The areas of sin in your life, do you feel the spirit cutting those away? Is your heart sensitive to the spirit in the sinful areas of your life? Do you feel conviction of sin when you sin? If you don't feel it when you sin, do you feel conviction when somebody that you know that loves you reminds you of sin? Do you feel conviction there? Do you even feel that you sin? And I think this one is even far more damaging and dangerous. Because I do believe, and Mike referenced this earlier, that there's a hardening that can form on every human heart that allows you to believe that you are so self-righteous that you don't even do anything anymore that displeases the Holy God. If that is where we are. That branch is deadening quick. And the beauty and the hope of the gospel is that there is life in that vine that is ready to flood back into you so that you just have to be pruned and you don't get cut off. Jesus here is showing us so much grace. How we answer any of those is an indicator of the health of our branch. And the good news is that the vine is still full of life and nourishment. And it is ready to flood anything. We'll cause it to bear much fruit, but you have to be in the vine. Every person in here has a sin problem. Are we trusting in the vine? Are we trusting that only the vine can handle that for us? That is the question. This is not about our perfect obedience. Is it about it is about the perfect obedience of the vine being applied to our branch? Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. He was the only one. What he is telling the disciples here the night before his crucifixion, remember, this is before he goes and dies for them. He's letting them know this is why I have to go and die for you. Because I'm the only perfect one. I'm the only one that can do it. You can't do it in your strength. You can't do it through your effort. You can't do it through your control. You can't do it through your white knuckling. You can't, you can't. He had to do it for us. And when we understand the perfect obedience of the vine applied to us, it leads to freedom and joy, as we will see in a moment. And Jesus tells us that abiding in him leads to a freedom that allows us to ask for anything, trusting that it will be done. Now, when I was here a few weeks back in John 14, we addressed this. Does anything really mean anything? Yes and no. You can ask for anything, yes, but Jesus is clear here, and he's clear again in John 14, again why context matters, but it has to be according to God's word, aligning with his will, with the aim being his glory. That is the litmus test. God be it according to your word, be it according to your will, be it for your glory. If that is your heart and that is the aim of your prayer, trust in knowing that that is a prayer that God delights in. According to his word, in alignment with his will, with the aim being for him to receive maximum glory. In our praying, what are we hoping for? What are we seeking? What are we truly wanting to see God do? And Jesus helps us with great encouragement in the next two verses. He tells us, if you're a believer here today, you need to know that the Father wants you to bear much fruit. He doesn't want your life to be drab and joyless and tedious and He wants it to be fruitful and not just a little fruit, no more fruit than you can imagine. And we know this not because this is how the Father, we know this, because this is how the Father is glorified. But it's also because of how much the Father loves us. Jesus tells us there that as the Father loves Jesus, Jesus loves us. Now understand, this is not Jesus saying that we only have the love of Jesus. No. He's saying there's a farmer, there's a vine, there are branches. And what he's saying is, if we have Jesus' love, we have the Father's love because Jesus has the Father's love. in my Bible class that I teach my juniors and seniors at grace, I tell them often, and I truly believe this, that the greatest struggle that we have in life, and this is people of any age, is truly believing how much the Father loves us if we are in Christ. Like I really believe this is this is the single greatest struggle that we have as human beings. Truly believing that he loves us. And truly believing that he loves us with a love that we can't even begin to comprehend, and I think that's some of the problem. It's hard for us to comprehend the love that He has for us. And I also think some of it is circumstantial. There are people in our fallen world and fallen culture that they've never known the love of a Father here on this earth. And so let's be real. That that that complicates it when we talk about God as Father. Because the only thing they think of is something that that's messed up and broken and horrible here. Well, how can I trust that if I can't trust it here? For some people, it's not just specifically to a fathers that they've never felt like they've had the love of any human being. So how can we talk about love at all, let alone about father love, when every experience that I've had with people has not been one that is loving? But for most people, and I think this is where it really gets closer, and I'm not saying that people use those first two as excuses all the time, but but they do. We we play the victim far more than we want to admit or believe that we do. But the last one, and and I think this is something that's a little more true for everybody, is that there's something deep down inside every single one of us, that there's something in here rolling around each of us that we just don't believe we're worthy of being loved. We know that love is real. We know that he is real. We know that he wants to pour that love on us, but we don't believe that we're worthy of it. We don't believe we're deserving of it. We don't believe that we're the kind of people that that kind of being should show that kind of love to. Because we know who we are. We know our struggles. We know our unlovable parts. We struggle to believe that anyone, let alone the God of the universe, could love us that deeply. And friend, I want you to hear me. If you are here today and you were struggling with that truth, I can only tell you to trust God and take God at His word. Don't believe what I say. Don't believe what I say, but do believe what God says about himself. In Exodus 34, when God identifies himself to Moses, when Moses is wanting to see God, this is what God says: God himself says this to Moses. It says, the Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. And this is exactly what Jesus is saying here in John 15. Same thing. That is who he is, and that love that he has for Jesus, we can trust that he has for us. We go on through here, and Jesus is telling us to abide in this love, and he wants us to know that the love that the Father has for us draws us in to abide in this love. And the result is verse 11, where he says he wants our joy to be full, or he wants our joy to be in him, and that our joy would be full. Now remember the context here. They're hours away from seeing the person that they are trusting most with everything, loving most with everything. He's about to die. And the context of Jesus telling them to abide is not a happy occasion. They're not sitting around at a picnic or a birthday party where everything is awesome. No, this situation that they're in is fraught with despair, agony, and confusion. But Jesus is telling them to abide and to find fullness of joy in him. So how do we do this? I think the Apostle Paul gives us a good example. And Tim, I'm just going to reference these, but you can put them up on the screen if you want to. In Philippians 4, which I think it's great that the men here are going to be studying the book of Philippians, that this book is all about joy, and it is all about life, and it is all about delighting in Jesus and what this looks like. In Paul and Philippians 4, 4 through 13, he lays out some verses and it culminates with verse 13: I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength, a verse that we take woefully out of context and we mangle around to suit all of our human needs. And that's not what Paul is talking about here. This entire letter, one of the reasons why it is so encouraging, is Paul is at his most soul vulnerable and suffering in this letter. Not physical threat anymore, but inner turmoil. He's convinced he's about to lose his life because of what he's been doing by proclaiming the gospel. He's not. He's under house arrest, which isn't as bad as the arrest that he will be under before when he's writing 2 Timothy. He's actually in a healthy spot physically, but internally he's in turmoil, and yet this letter overflows with joy. Why? Because he's learned how to abide. He's learned how to abide. in in plenty in want in need in overflow in suffering in stability I'm content I'm good Paul tells us this again in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 He gives a story of an encounter that he had with God, and he doesn't identify himself because it's one that he's afraid if he identifies that it's him that had this encounter, it's going to make him prideful and boastful, and he doesn't want to be that way. And this is the passage where Paul talks about how three times he was afflicted with something, and three times he pleaded with God to take it away, and God would not take it away. Wouldn't take it away. Friend, that is how pruning feels. And yet Paul gets to the point where he has ultimate joy because he knows that God's grace is sufficient for him, because God's power is made perfect in our weakness. Not just a little fruit, maximum fruit. And for us, this is what Jesus is saying. Abiding doesn't mean that always that all will always be well from a human perspective, but it does mean that joy is available to us if we will abide. Real quick. This transitions to the last thing. I'm going to fly through this. We get to obedience, because it's not just abiding that Jesus is teaching us and telling us about here. It's about obedience. Look at verses twelve through seventeen. He says, This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than someone lays down his life for his friends, and you are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn't know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my father I have made known to you. You did not Not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another. This last section is all about obeying, and it's the overflow of what happens when we abide. Jesus moves to our obedience here. And he's already told us to obey this command of abiding, but now he makes it clear, and what he's telling us is that abiding is obeying. Now I want us to understand with those verses, this is not obedience out of obligation. This is not what Jesus is talking about here. This is obedience that is overflow. When we know the love that God has for us and has shown to us in Jesus, why would we not want to obey? We are going to want to obey. When we have experienced the love the Father has for us as his children, when we see the love that Jesus showed us by laying down his life for his friends, us as his friends, that that's going to make you want to overflow with obedience. It should be our joy to obey, our honor to obey, our delight to obey. Imperfect obedience, yes, but obedience nonetheless. And Jesus isn't heaping on guilt here, he is comforting us by his grace. And real quick, these aren't on the screen. You can write these down if you want to. There's three things that obedience produces that Jesus tells us here. The first is it produces a love for people. This is my commandment that you have loved one, that you love one another as I have loved you. And the whole context here of Jesus saying an overflow of an abiding life in him is a radical love for people. You're going to love people. You're not going to push against them. You're going to wrap your arms around them. There's a love for people. The second thing, there's a death to self. Jesus there says, greater love has no one than this, then someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. But nowhere here is Jesus saying, the way for you to abide in me is you have to physically lay down your life for a friend. That's not what he's saying there. What he's saying there is this is what I'm doing for you. Because you can't do this for yourself. And what you need, you can't provide. I have to do it for you. But you know what you can do in response to me laying down my life for you is you can lay down your life for me by dying to yourself every day. Paul and Colossians 3, put to death there for what is earthly in you. And then he gives a whole list of things. It it's it's us putting our flesh to death. It's us laying down our sinful tendencies and taking them before the Lord in confession. It's letting the pruning shears do their work so that maximum fruit can grow. And the last thing there is it leads to a fruit-bearing life. Obedience leads to a fruit-bearing life. This is what Jesus gets to there at the end when he says, We didn't choose him, but he chose us. So that we could go and bear fruit, and that our fruit should abide. And he says, These things I command you so that you will love one another. Obedience leads to a fruit-bearing life. In John 14, Jesus told us that he was going away to make a home for us. A home that we would get to enjoy forever with him someday. And then later in John 14, Jesus promised the Spirit who would be our comforter while we wait for that day. And here in John 15, Jesus is telling us that we get to experience that dwelling now as well. Not as fully as we will someday, but enough now to enjoy him when times are good and when times are tough. Jesus wants our home not just to be someday. He wants our home to be with him now, and he wants us to know that we can find it. But we can only find it by abiding in him. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for these words of Jesus here for us in John chapter 15. Thank you for how he clearly shows us what life in you is supposed to look like and how he provides that for us by his death on the cross. Thank you that he showed the greatest love that is possible by laying down his life for those that would be his. Father, I pray for those of us in this room today that may be afflicted with sin or struggle. I pray through the light of this text that you would move in our hearts to confess that and lay that before you so that we can abide in you. I pray for those that are weary with the fight and the struggle of being pruned, that you would give them fresh grace and life, Jesus, from you as the vine today, that helps them know that greater fruit is coming. And God, I just pray for all of us today that we would rejoice. That we rejoice in knowing how you have moved and how you have worked. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.