John 15:5 • I Am the Vine
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
As the choir was singing "Create in Me a Clean Heart," I found myself praying those words.
What a wonderful preparation for the communion service that we have: that we would be asking the Lord to create in us a clean heart and renew our spirit, the very thing He promises to do as we seek Him.
That's the message of our passage this morning.
Let me ask that you would look in your bibles at John chapter 15 as we will look at the first 11 verses.
For the last two months, we have been looking at the "I Am" passages in the gospel of John as Jesus is helping us know Him by telling us His identity in these wonderful "I Am" statements.
This is the last of the "I Am" statements in the gospel of John.
It is not only the last: It is summary and maybe even more so climax as Jesus is bringing together all that He is in order to tell us all that He provides in our behalf.
Let's stand together as we look at John chapter 15, the first 11 verses, as Jesus is declaring Himself the True Vine.
John 15:1, "'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 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, unlet--, it, 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, 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 that your joy may be full.'"
Let's pray together.
>>> Heavenly Father, thank You for these wonderful words: that the intent that You had when You sent Jesus for us is that His joy would be in us and our joy would be full.
But we are in a world that combats that joy as our hearts seek to go astray and as trials sometimes rob us of the joy You have for us.
So teach what us mean, teach us what it means to be connected to this vine that is Jesus, that we being connected might know His power and His strength and hope and the joy that You intend.
This we ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
These past couple of weeks, I suppose I've been tempted to wonder if we were not overburdening our Lord.
Just as I look back over the last couple of weeks, both my daughters in law went through very serious medical procedures for health issues and issues that relate to their ability to have children and have families in their future.
My first daughter-in-law married to my oldest son had serious complications of that surgery and for days was not able to hold food down.
She and my oldest son were in Minneapolis at the Mayo Clinic trying to find out what was wrong and get that corrected and didn't correct quickly.
In fact, till yesterday she was not able to hold food down.
So my wife is with that family in Memphis.
Just a couple of weeks ago, my parents, now in their 80s, did the move that maybe should have happened a decade ago.
And that was they decided it was time to downsize and move to a smaller home.
But the rigors of that put my father in the hospital with congestive heart failure.
We, at the same time, here in the church were going through the rolling out of the comprehensive calling.
And, as you know, many meetings and explanations and things for us as a church, much to pray about.
I'm on the board of another organization that was going through a very difficult time and had a very difficult board meeting and had a role in that particular process.
My family was at the same time trying to help a couple that is close to us, a married couple that has serious financial as wear as, well as medical issues.
And we were working with that as well.
And, in the midst of all of that, of course, life just goes on.
And so we're praying.
And in my mind's eye as, you know, we're praying to God about all of our issues in our family and all those family members are praying about all their issues and all of you are praying about your issues, I had the sense that, you know, we're all dialing up to God trying, you know, kind of get connected.
But so many lines are going at the same time and so many repeated calls and so much is going on.
It's kind of in my mind's eye like one of those power kiosks at the airport during a crisis, you know, where everybody's trying to pull in, and you get this spaghetti, rat's nest of all kinds of cords and wires.
And you just wonder: Is there enough power there?
Are we really going to be able to get through?
And, of course, the message of John 15 when Jesus says, "I'm the vine and you are the branches," is that He's summarizing everything He said about Himself previously: that He is the bread of life and the light of the world and the good Shepherd and the Son of God and the resurrection and the way to it all.
And, finally, He says, having declared all these things that He is: "You can connect to Me and all that I am can be a part of you, can fill your life.
And you can be full of the joy of the reality of who I am."
And I desperately want to know that in weeks like the last couple.
I want to know that I can connect, and I want you to know that you can too.
But what does it mean?
If Jesus is this powerful hope and joy and sustenance in the difficulties that we face, what would it mean to be connected to Him?
What would we experience?
The passage is telling us.
Verse 5 is perhaps the heart of this analysis that Jesus is giving.
He says in verse 5 of John 15, "'I am the vine; you are the branches.
Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.'"
If we are connected to Jesus, we should expect fruitfulness in our lives.
But what does that mean?
I mean, what fruitfulness are we talking about?
If you'll let your eyes go down to verse 8 there, you'll see that Jesus is saying that those who are fruitful prove that they are His disciples.
Whatever this fruitfulness is, it's proof of His working in us, of our being His disciples.
But then we still have the question: Well, what do disciples do that's proving that Jesus is in them and they in Him?
You have to go pretty much to the end of this long discourse that Jesus has where He finally is praying for His disciples about all that He is offering them.
I'm going to ask that you turn over a couple of pages in your Bible to John 15, excuse me, John 17.
John 17 and look at verse 18.
Here is Jesus' prayer for all that He's been promising His disciples.
And as He is praying at this point, He is asking God for some very specific things for His disciples' fruitfulness.
In John 17:18 He says to the Father, "'As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them,'" these disciples, "'into the world.'"
What, whatever this discipleship is, it's about being sent by Christ for a purpose.
What is that purpose?
Verse 20.
He says, "'I do not ask I do not ask for these disciples only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.'"
There's a multiplication effect.
As these disciples go into the world, as they touch other lives, those who are touched are expected also to spread the word.
There's a multiplication that happens.
Verse 22 says what happens through that multiplication.
"'The glory,'" Jesus says to the Father, "'that you have given me I have given to them, that they,'" these disciples, "'may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.'"
I know the language gets complicated.
In my own mind's eye, it's something like one of those Russian nesting dolls where one doll sits in another doll sits in another.
And Jesus is saying, "I'm in them and they're in Me and You're in Me."
And you're getting this nesting effect.
But the very last thing is that God would be in.
You go to the very bottom, and it's the biggest thing.
It's God Himself on display by the love that His disciples radiate.
What is the fruitfulness of the disciples?
That the world might know who He is by the love that His disciples express toward one another.
I mean, it's really a wonderful message for communion Sunday.
We have communion Sunday, which is not just communing with God individually; it's communing with one another as we are uniting in love in our worship and fellowship before God.
But it's precisely what Jesus was saying: that the world would take notice if we were one.
If the love of God was somehow being shown and created in us, it would be something the world would recognize was unusual and strange.
It would be a witness to the work of Christ among us.
I have a friend who expressed it this way when he wrote about his own conversion.
He says this: "I first met Jesus in college through a group of people who cared for and loved one another in a way that I didn't know was possible.
Jocks and jesters, nerds and rebels: I found them to be a weird community of true friendship and affection for one another.
They were held together by their common ideal of being Christians.
It was weird.
They were weird.
But I was intrigued.
They called themselves the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Actually, only a few were athletes.
And you didn't even have to be a Christian to come.
Nevertheless, I realized Jesus was real to this diverse group.
It, not in a creepy surface way but something deeper, like whatever they shared made them better people and more peaceful and more kind and more full of joy.
The life of Jesus just seemed to be in them, and I gradually absorbed that life into me from them."
It's really a wonderful thought: that the love that would be being shared by God's people would not just be something we are experiencing: that it is actually the testimony of disciples.
We confuse ourselves at times.
We think, "I'm supposed to be a disciple.
Alright, tell me what plan I'm supposed to memorize.
How many verses, how many?"
And I'm not denying the importance of all that, but when you get down to the very bottom of what Jesus is saying is going to make fruitfulness among disciples is the ability to love one another across our differences, being able to forgive as He has forgiven us, being able to love people very unlike us.
So amazing is that witness that when Paul talks about it in Ephesians 3 and verse 10, Paul says that even the angels take note at the manifold glory of God that is revealed in the love that's in the oneness of the church.
That word that he talks about, this manifold glory of God, is actually the same word used to describe Joseph's multicolored coat in the Old Testament.
That the manifold wisdom of God, having all kinds of different people, different backgrounds, ages, all those differences somehow put together in a church where people love one another is a testimony not just to others.
In Ephesians 3:10, Paul says it's actually a testimony to the heavenly host, as if the angels are kind of sitting around and going, "My, isn't God smart that He can put together those people!"
[Laughter]
That the changes in us are so radical even heaven takes note.
But, of course, the word you see is the world takes note, too.
That Christians being able to love one another truly makes a profound difference in the world that's searching for some acceptance, somebody who can make a difference, somebody who actually shows the reality of Christ.
It takes away a sense of discipleship.
It's not a mystery.
Okay?
It's caring for people unlike yourself, people very undeserving at times, sometimes people who've hurt us.
But loving across all of those chasms.
At the same time, it is not a mystery; it is a wonderful expression of what God is willing and daring to do.
He is saying to the world, "I'm not done with you yet."
As inexplicable as it may be, the very world that crucified Christ, God says He's still concerned for.
And He's reaching out to it and reaching to people who are broken and sinful and weak and disturbed in all kinds of ways and saying, "I'm not done with you yet.
And I have given a witness of My heart for you, and it's in evident among a body of believers who will love each other across their own differences."
Fruit is born when disciples are disciples who love each other as God calls us to do.
It's not the end of our expectation.
Fruitfulness is certainly one of the things that we expect if we are connected to the vine.
Something that also we should expect if we are connected to the vine is back over in John 15.
It was right there in the second verse.
Jesus says there, "'Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes.'"
Hey, if you're fruitful, if you're connected to the vine, what should you expect will happen?
I know it's not a pleasant thought.
But He actually says, "If you bear fruit, He will prune you."
Why does it say, "He will prune you," the end of verse 2?
Why?
So that you would bear more fruit.
Now, listen, I don't know a lot about grape vines.
I mean, you know, I can go to my grandparents' or I go to my aunt's, and I know they have raised fruit vines and among them grape vines.
And I recognize that one of the characteristics of a grape vine is it tends to attach to the wrong things.
Or grow in wrong directions.
And so those who want to make it fruitful, that it might be fruitful, prune it.
The wonderful thing that Jesus is saying to you and me here is that pruning is not punishment.
It is preparation.
I would prune you that you might be more fruitful.
And that helps us at times when we're being pruned and we don't understand the difficulties that we are facing.
I mentioned that my daughter just two days ago learned that a mission trip that she's been planning, actually more than mission trip: She planned on being on the mission field most of this next year in Bogota, Columbia.
And she heard just two days ago that the mission team that's been there, because of various instabilities in that country, is being withdrawn from Columbia.
And so everything that she's been planning for and saving for and praying about is being undone.
And I so praise God for the mission leader, a young man who spoke to her and said, "Katie, this is not what you wanted; it's not what we wanted.
But we believe in a sovereign God.
And if He's not got this for you, He has something better."
Why would I trust that?
That in the pruning, God's preparation is for something better?
Because of where the passage began, verse 1.
Jesus said, "'I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser.'"
The reason that we continue to believe that the pruning is preparation and not punishment is that the Father who loves us, who sent His Son for us, who is providing for us daily what we need for our spiritual as well as our physical needs: That Father God is the one who is preparing us for better and further things.
Somebody who's actually sitting in this congregation at this point was a member of a church in my very early ministry.
And we went through a period in that church of just one awful tragedy after another after another after another.
And in a time that I was very discouraged, I actually overheard, I wasn't, it wasn't directed at me: I overhead this person speaking to someone else words that have come back to me over and over again through the decades.
As we had gone through so many trials and tragedies, this wonderful Christian woman said to another, "What do you imagine God is preparing Bryan for that he has to go through all of this now?"
There've been other things I've faced in life, hard things, but those words have come back to me as I have faced the hard things, sometimes very discouraged, and then heard the echo, "What are you being prepared for that God intends to be the better thing, more fruitful down the road?"
It's true for some of you: that you have known heartache and difficulty in this world and can't explain it.
But if you can find a heart for God, a trust in the eternal things, hope in the midst of the tragedy, then you have a message this world needs for fruitfulness, something that God is preparing you for to be fruit beyond your understanding, beyond your fathoming.
That God is saying, "If you're My disciple, I intend for you to bear much fruit."
But truly to bear fruit, you can't be too attached to the things of this world.
Sometimes even the pleasures, even the good things, sometimes they would attract you too much, hold you back too much.
And so God prunes.
But for greater fruitfulness, that our lives might be a glory to Him and an eternal difference to others.
What if we're not connected, then what should we expect?
We know that if we are connected we should expect fruitfulness and pruning.
But what if we're not connected at all?
Just the fear of the pruning drives us away.
I don't want to be connected to that kind of a God.
What should we expect then?
Well, it's at the end of verse 5, isn't it?
Verse 5 is first the promise: "'I'm the vine; you're the vanch--, branches.
Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.'"
But what if you're not connected?
The end of verse 5: "'Apart from me you can do nothing.'"
If you're not connected to Christ, what should you expect?
Nothing.
I mean, nothing of eternal significance.
Nothing even of real difference in your own life.
Why would we ever be tempted to pull away from the vine?
When Tony Merida was here a few weeks ago, he said, you know, "The main reason that people do not abide in Christ is that they are depending upon their own wisdom or their own strength."
Isn't that interesting?
God has given you these great gifts of wisdom and strength.
But we begin to depend on them.
And I think what it is: It's, you know, it's like the cell phones again.
I mean, you know, there is amazing technology in this thing.
You know, it has amazing capability and strengths.
But if you pull apart from the power and ultimately this things just win--, it's, you know, it's just a paperweight.
It can't do anything.
And Jesus is saying to us in all reality, "Despite your gifts, despite your strengths, if you pull apart from Me, the reality is you can do nothing."
I mean, not really.
And, of course you can survive for a while in your own strengths and your wisdom.
But the spiritual fulfillment that God intends for His people: You're getting removed from that.
What are the marks that we've kind of pulled apart from the source to our strength and knowledge and power?
Verse 7 is reminding us.
Jesus says, "'If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.'"
One of the great signs that we are not abiding in the vine, that we've pulled apart, is prayerlessness.
We are not seeking Him in regular, for regular help and sustenance.
We're trying to do it in our own power and strength.
And He's saying here, "If my words abide in you, you ask whatever you will, and you will receive it."
Now, listen, this is not just saying you get the new fire truck and you get the new bicycle.
I--, no.
If my words abide in you, if my words are your priorities, if everything that I'm about, a world that needs to know me, if you are committing yourself to the priorities of God, then He's saying, "I'm going to fulfill those priorities in your life.
That is my intention."
But to pull apart, not to pray at all is.
Are you like me?
We get so busy sometimes doing the things of God that we forget to seek God.
And He's saying, "You actually need Me."
We've been talking a lot in recent weeks here about the Conference of Calling at Grace Church, all the things that we pray God will help us with as we seek to be His disciples in this world.
And I've thought in light of this passage what two great tragedies might come to us.
One is that we might not succeed in those goals because of prayerlessness.
We've thought a lot about it; we've worked hard at it; we've got plans pulled up; we presented them.
Look at all the things we've done.
And not recognize that the greatest power is going to be on our knees.
God, You have to help us; apart from You, we can do nothing.
You know what the other tragedy might be, maybe even a greater tragedy?
It is to succeed without prayer, so that whatever is built is just hollow, just kind of without spiritual solidity and solidness in it.
We build something that has earthly appearance of greatness or something.
But it's not of God.
Wouldn't that be terrible?
That what we most desire is the reality of Jesus Christ in and among us, that that's where we know our hope is and our strength is and all that we face.
We have to have Him.
Wouldn't it be terrible to have more people and not have Him?
And so He's reminding us of our need to come to Him as part of the sustenance, the way of connecting into Him.
If we do not connect to Him, what should we expect?
Nothing.
What's the other thing we should expect if we're not connected to Him?
Removal.
This is tough stuff.
It's the end of verse 2.
Jesus says in verse 2, "'Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he,'" that is God, "'takes away.'"
That's said even more fully in verse 6.
"'If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.'"
Now, how do I say this to you?
These are some of the most controversial bur--, verses in all the Bible.
Because if you take verse 2, it says He's taking away the branch that doesn't bear fruit.
And then verse 6 says it's actually burned.
You know, when we start thinking of that which is removed and burned, our minds naturally go to hell.
Is He talking about people losing their salvation?
They were once connected to the vine, but now they're not bearing enough fruit; they're not doing good enough.
And so He takes the vine away, and you lose your salvation; you're destined for hell.
Now, do you know that's not what I'm going to say?
[Laughter]
But you have, there's some explanation's needed here right?
Well, first let's just say as we're interpreting scripture, always we say more clear passages interpret less clear, not the other way around.
More clear passages interpret less clear passages.
Verse 3 of this chapter's already given us some hint of the context of these words.
In John 15:3, Jesus says to His disciples, "'Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.'"
Alright.
You are made pure.
You are made right with God, not by your works but by the word that I have spoken.
What is the word that He has spoken to you?
Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.
This is the word of the declaration of the grace of God as the basis for our eternity.
And He's saying, "You're made clean not because you're depending upon your works but because you're depending upon My grace."
And that word is not now unfamiliar to His disciples, because He's been saying this over and over again in these great "I Am" passages of the book of John.
Do you remember some of them?
John 6, Jesus says there, "'All the Father has given me will come to me, and those who come to me, I will never cast out.'"
John 10, the Good Shepherd passage: "'My sheep hear me and follow me, and no one can snatch them out of my hand, and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand, because he is stronger than all."
The apostle Paul, taking all that message together, about the security of those who are in Christ Jesus by His grace, says words that are very familiar to you, but we don't often think of it in terms of the security that believers have, is Romans 8:28.
Remember that?
All things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.
Now, listen.
If you just think: God is promising for His people all things work together for good.
Listen, if God knows that tomorrow or next week or two months from now you are going to sin in such a way or become so uncommitted to the truths of the gospel in such a way that you are going to be on a path to hell, what will be best for you?
If God knows that you are going to sin in such a way that you are destined for hell, what would God do that would be best for you?
Right now, today.
If God knows you're going to sin tomorrow, a hell sin, what would be the best thing for Him to do for you today?
Take you to heaven now.
That would be what would be most good, right?
God will not allow you to draw one breath beyond belief that would not be for your eternal good.
And so here He is saying, "You are secure in Me."
So what do these words mean about being cast aside if you're not being fruitful enough?
Does that really mean, well, you know, if you don't have so many disciples, so many converts I'm just going to get rid of you?
I don't think it means that.
By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
So what do you lose if you are not fruitful?
You lose your place of fruitfulness.
You have to say in these difficult passages what are people hearing who are listening to Jesus in His own context?
The disciples who were listening to Jesus are Jewish in background.
And they recognize when Jesus says the very opening words of John 15, some very mysterious words.
Jesus doesn't just say, "I am the vine."
Do you see there verse 1?
He says, "I am the," what vine?
The true vine.
Implication there is another vine that's not being true.
Who would that be?
If you were a Jewish, well-schooled person, you would recognize passages like Isaiah 5 and Psalm 80 have long identified the nation of the Jews as the vine or the vineyard.
And every time that God talks about His people not fulfilling His purposes in the Old Testament, He talks about them being cast into the fire.
But it's not the fire of hell.
It's the fire of discipline.
It's the fire of punishment.
It's the fire of being brought back to His purposes.
Remember, He says in Romans 11 the plans of God for the Jewish people are irrevocable.
He is not dispensing with the nation, but He is saying, "There are those who are being true to My purposes and those are not they.
You, my disciples, are connecting to the true vine, the message about Me."
I mean, I think of it.
We can talk about things this way.
Some of you who are in the Front Porch Class were teasing me a few weeks ago about whether I was going to be as bold with this church as Andy Stanley has been with his.
And here was the quote that you wanted me to think about saying.
Andy Stanley apparently at some point in the past said to the people in the church, "If you will not financially support this church, please leave.
We need your seat for somebody who will."
[Laughter]
Well, we still got some empty seats, so I can't say that yet.
[Laughter]
But, not, he's not saying, "If you won't support the church, you're destined for hell."
He's saying, "You should not have a place in the useful purposes of God.
You need to make room for somebody who's going to do the work of God."
Maybe a way a little truer to my personality that I did say to a lot of you was when we were talking about the Conference of Calling and our need as the people of God to be reaching out in our community to people unlike ourselves, to people who are different from us.
And simply saying as our culture and community are changing, if we as a church do not reach them, God will find somebody who will.
We have had a tremendous fruitfulness, a tradith--, traditional place of great privilege in this community.
But if we will not do the work of God, He will find somebody who will.
I would rather be fruitful.
I would rather be used of Him.
And we are used of Him as we say, "If it means abiding in Him, how do I do that?"
And Jesus is going to say that too.
If abiding in Him is the way that we experience the fruitfulness and not just nothingness, what does it mean to abide in Him?
The strongest statement about abiding is verse 4 of chapter 15.
Jesus just says it as a command: "'Abide in me, and I in you.'"
The really sweet part of verse 4 is that it follows verse 3.
Verse 3, just to remind you, says, "'You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.'"
Now, it's such a strange side comment.
We're talking about vines and branches and abiding and all that.
And then suddenly we get this statement, "You're already clean."
What does that have to do with branches abiding in a vine?
It may help you to know that the word "abide," though in some of your translations it says things like "remain" or "continue," is actually just a word that means dwell.
I want you to live in Me.
I want you to dwell in Me.
And I in you.
But for Christ to be in us, for our hearts to be His home, He who is holy and pure and altogether righteous: For Him to abide in us means that we have to be clean.
How does that happen?
He says, "You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you."
What was that word?
"If you believe in Me, though you would die, you will be right with Me, because I make you right with Me."
It's not a word that means abracadabra, nothing magical.
It's the message of the gospel.
I have made you clean by the word that I have spoken to you.
I who am the word of God's love for you, the gospel of grace sent into the world in your behalf, not by your doing but by My doing.
Now He says, "Abide in that."
Let that sink in to you.
You sink into it.
Let the reality of who Jesus is clean you.
And when you are clean and He can live in you, that's when real spiritual life begins to occur.
Why start with the word "clean"?
I think of an account that I heard earlier this week.
Fourteen year old named Jesse, six foot six and special needs: A great target for all kinds of hazing and making fun of.
His parents time and again tried to take him out of school because he was being bullied despite his big size.
And he didn't want to get out of school.
Until the day that he came home from school with his tore, with his clothes torn and cafeteria food all over him from being thrown at.
When he went to the bathroom and took his life.
And I was listening to his father being interviewed.
And his father said, you know, "We wanted to take him out, but he wouldn't get out of school.
He wouldn't, he didn't want to take out.
And so the last thing that my son ever saw was a toilet," but he didn't use the word toilet.
And then he said, "The grief never goes away.
And the guilt never goes away."
But the word that Jesus has said to us takes it away.
Whoever believes in Me, though he were dead, though the effects of the sin are actually killing him in grief and pain and guilt, I take it away.
And if that's what's dwelling in us, the reality of the sweetness and the goodness and the hope of the gospel that says those who are gone from us are with Him and we will see them again, and the reason we can see them again is God has taken our guilt away as far as the east is from the west.
That that reality is that in which we live and abide.
And when that happens, despite what the world brings upon us, we can know, it sounds impossible but we can: We can know joy.
It's really what Jesus is saying here.
You can know things the world does not even understand.
So He says, "Let My word abide in you."
That's not just talking about memorizing more verses.
I'm not saying it's a bad thing.
But it's not really the point.
Let my word take home in you, dwell in you, have life in you.
It's that by which you're living.
Let my word abide in you, have its home and place and life in you.
Verse 10, let His word guide you.
If it's really the love of God that has given these commands, if the path that God is showing you is a reflection of His character and care, then He's saying you need to be guided in the path that I am giving you so you can know the goodness I intend for you.
Don't go into waywardness.
You won't know My joy there; you won't know the care that's there.
But if My word dwells in you and guides you in your thought and path in life, then in ways more profound than we can express, the reality of the living Lord dwells in you.
And that means you're never alone again, cause your heart house is clean.
And He lives there and gives you His strength and His help and His hope, regardless of what you face.
My oldest son was with his wife at the Mayo Clinic this past week.
And after the surgery and the procedures, they were discharged.
But after being discharged, she began to be so nauseous she could hold nothing down for days.
Dehydrating, they went to the emergency room in Minneapolis.
They live in Memphis, but they were there at the Mayo Clinic to be treated there.
And that's when we started getting the texts and the phone calls.
We don't know what's wrong.
They can't stop the vomiting.
We can't help her.
She's in so much pain from the surgery even still.
We're in a whole foreign city.
We don't have much money.
And I can remember just at some point texting my son and say, "Do you need us to come?
We'll come."
And, "Do you need us to help in any way?
We will do it.
But my son, you are not alone.
Jesus is with you."
And the text that came back said, "I'm still processing all of that, but it's enough.
Jesus is with me."
Our joy may be full, though our hearts hurt.
Because the God of all creation said, "I am the vine, and if you're connected to Me, I will nourish you and help you, strengthen you, give you hope, not because of what's in you but because of Christ in you, the hope of glory."
>>> Father, would You again give us fresh insight into the beauty of Your Word that promises us something beyond the physical here, a deeper, more solid spiritual reality that is Christ in us, the hope of glory who nourishes us by His Spirit that we may face whatever we need.
Do this we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.