John 15-16:4, What’s It Look Like?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

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John 15-16:4 What’s It Look Like?

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Be reading from John chapter 15 verse 1 to chapter 16 verse 4
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Hear the word of the Lord I Am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser
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Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away and every branch that does bear fruit.
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He prunes that it may bear more fruit Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you
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Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine
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Neither can you unless you abide in me? I am the vine You are the branches whoever abides in me and I and him he it is that bears much fruit
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For apart from me you can do nothing if anyone does not abide in me
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He is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered thrown into the fire and burned
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If you abide in me and my words abide in you I ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you by this
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My father is glorified that you may bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples as the father has loved me
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So have I loved you? Abide in my love if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love
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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
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This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you Greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends
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You are my friends if you do what I command you no longer Do I call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends
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For all that I have heard from my father I have made known to you You did not choose me but I chose you and Appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide
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So that whatever you ask the father in my name, he may give it to you These things
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I command you so that you will love one another If the world hates you know that it has hated me before it hated you if you were of the world
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The world would love you as its own but because you are not of the world But I chose you out of the world.
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Therefore the world hates you Remember the word that I've said to you a servant is not greater than his master if they persecuted me
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They will also persecute you if they kept my word. They will also keep yours
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But all these things they will do to you on account of my name Because they do not know him who sent me if I had not come and spoken to them
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They would not have been guilty of sin But now they have no excuse for their sin Whoever hates me hates my father also if I had not done among them the works that no one else did
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They would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my father
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But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled They hated me without a cause
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But when the helper comes Whom I will send to you from the father the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father
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He will bear witness about me and you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning
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I've said these things to you to keep you from falling away They will put you out of the synagogues
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Indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is doing service to God and they will do these things
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Because they have not known the father nor me But I have said these things to you that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you
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May the Lord had his blessings the reading of his word. I Remember the first time
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I showed Mary email she had heard of it for a while But she was amazed the first time she saw how easy it was, you know, just click send
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There's no return address there's no stamp you want to take it in the put in an envelope and take it out to the mailbox
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That's it She said when she first saw the first email sent When you've only heard of something
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Never seen it before just heard of it. You might be surprised When you first see it, maybe surprised what it looks like many people have heard of a family
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But the family they've grown up in is so broken. They don't know what a real one is No, a family is not where the father is always away even if he's around he hardly pays any attention and probably drunk and The mother is out looking for another man or is always high and if she does speak to you
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It's to scream or pretend that the problems don't exist Covering them up with sweet talk and flattery all the time discipline is either missing or abusive and likely both
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People raised in families like that don't know what a real family is and want to flee the one they have flee to some
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Relationship the problem is they don't know what that is either and so they'll get involved in sexual immorality at a young age
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Thinking that's what a relationship is And if they're a girl, there'll be a prime target for an abuser and then they'll perpetuate the cycle of dysfunctional families absentee fathers kids raising themselves in front of TVs and if you tell them what you need is a healthy family and a stable relationship
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They don't have any idea what that is. Maybe I go. Yeah But they don't know what one looks like I Think in this area.
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There's a lot of people who think they know what the church looks like Without any real idea of what it's supposed to look like first They think it's a building and it certainly doesn't look like this a gym then as for the people
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They probably won't even notice that most of them are segregated by race It wouldn't occur to them that the church is not supposed to look like that If they're traditional they have strong ideas of what is supposed to look like men, especially the preacher
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They call him should be an always in a course in a suit and tie I came dressed right today reading from a four hundred year old translation
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Singing hymns and everybody says I'm in and they do some small talk after the service and then they out the door
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If they're more contemporary they think it looks like a show It's like a theater with lights and a band and a speaker wearing jeans and an untucked shirt
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Talking about how cool Jesus is both will talk a lot about how many decisions they've created and that's the one thing they agree on The church is supposed to look like a respectable winning machine
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Whatever it looks like they both agree. It looks good to the world
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Then of course, we have some people who drop out of church altogether Cynically criticizing all the churches for being part of big religion
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Organized religion is always bad believing to the bottom of their heart. That is totally unnecessary for following in Jesus That's what they're interested in They say not all this mess and this politics and this uncomfortableness of other people and disappointments they get in the church
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You know, sometimes those overly long really boring sermons and then comes the rubbing of elbows with those other church people
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It's just Jesus and me Really all about me but living together.
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They think it's what the Christian life Looks like them by themselves at home
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What does the Christian life look like? That's why Jesus describes here in John chapter 15
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It looks a lot different than many have thought and we see that here in four parts First what constitutes the
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Christian life second? What is its root third? What is its fruit and finally its dispute?
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First what constitutes the Christian life? What's it? What's it made of in other words? Well first he says it's it's a garden
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It's constituted of life and growth and fruit
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Now remember Jesus has apparently left the upper room of for Gethsemane Remember the upper room where the
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Lord's Supper was first instituted and now is on his way to Gethsemane as he said at the end of chapter 14 We read last week.
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He says rise Let us go and all that we have here in chapter 15 is apparently what the he said
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While they're on their way apparently while they're walking together Probably the Gethsemane and if so, that's the case
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They may have passed in front of the temple where there was a large carving there above the gate of a grapevine
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You're carved at a stone Harkening back to the days when Moses sent a team remember that and to the promised land and they came back with his vine
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With a bunch of grapes so large It took at least two men to carry it with a pole between them
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You know on their shoulders since then Israel was often pictured and the Old Testament is God's is God's vine or vineyard
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And so it doesn't say that but perhaps they saw that carving as they walked together
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You know, there's the carving and Jesus says to them. I am the true vine and And so this now marks the seventh and the last of the seven
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I am statements Jesus gives in the Gospel of John the final one
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I am the true vine in contrast to the false vines the nation the natural people who did not bear the fruit they were supposed to In contrast to that Jesus is he's the true vine bearing the good fruit bearing the fruit glorifying
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God Doing his works Loving his people to the end
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So he's the true one What constitutes the Christian life? Well, here's a picture of it
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It's a garden in Which Jesus himself is divine and he repeats that in verse 5
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I am the true vine and he adds to the picture. We are the fruit Jesus is the vine
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We're the fruit coming out of the vine where the branches we're produced by his life
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And so we're no more capable of producing our own life our own fruit than a bunch of that than a branch
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From a grapevine is capable of making grapes if you cut it off What happens to a grapevine if you cut it off from the vine?
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What number branch it dies and that's us if we're cut off and then to add to the picture that the father is divine dresser
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He's the farmer in this vineyard he does two things the vine dresser does two things in verse 2 he cuts away the lifeless and He cultivates the living
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Now if a branch that appears to be a attached to him appears to be attached to him. I was claims to be a
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Christian Maybe the kind that goes to church Or maybe claims he doesn't need to go to church
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He thinks he knows better already just full of his opinions doesn't think he needs to go like those other poor people do he's
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All right. It's just Jesus and him sitting home either way Says he or she is attached to Christ calls himself a believer
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Professor's been saved But he or she bears no fruit His or her life.
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Is it any different from the people around him from the culture around him? just as materialistic, you know just as much living for money or just as racist or Just as sexually messed up as the average person around him
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He doesn't support the mission of Christ to make more people attached to the true vine in such a person
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It's cut out. He's not bearing fruit. He's cut out Something happens in his life
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Maybe some offense provokes him like the music is like the musics to contemporary or stupid traditional
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It's for some perceived slight didn't recognize me like I was or they dressed to Shabbily, or they meet in a gym or they just do nicely and makes me uncomfortable
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Whatever, maybe the gospel finally annoys him or her too much makes him convicted of their sins
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Maybe he's drawn away to chase dollars Instead of worship or pursued sexual immorality rather than to keep up this fiction of being a
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Christian so he drops out Maybe doesn't even claim to be a Christian anymore Now that's sad
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Just like it's sad to have a branch of a vine that doesn't bear fruit. It has to be cut out But it's better to cut it off then pretend that it's still part of the vine pretend that it's
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People might say today. Well, it's a it's a carnal branch. That's why it's not bearing any fruit It's a carnal branch and maybe one day it will decide to make the vine
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Lord and then start to bear fruit and until then We should just let it stay attached No Unfaithful branches are cut off If a branch has no fruit father lops it off and Then it's taken away.
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The branch is taken away and thrown in the fire in verse 6 So anyone who doesn't abide means to remain in Christ.
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Does it stay attached to him gaining life from him is He says thrown away and burned hints of help
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Now the idea that everyone who professed to be a Christian This is a common idea among people around us today anyone who professes to be a
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Christian That is one just because they say they are that idea and because they're because they say they're a
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Christian They don't they don't deny the essential doctrines of the gospel there
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They are one and so they will be spared judgment no matter what kind of life they've lived because that's so -called grace that idea
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Here is exposed as wrong in John chapter 15 If you are really saved by grace, then you are attached to Jesus the vine who gives you life
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To produce good fruit So we'll know that you're attached if you produce good fruit
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What does the Christian life look like it's fruitful and If you do bear good fruit that is in some ways your life now is more like Christ becoming more so over time
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You're more loving and you're more patient and kind you're not perfect But you're getting better You have a passion for Christ.
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You're learning self -control. You aren't swept away into immorality You're seeking first the kingdom of God not dollars.
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You want to be used to see God's kingdom spread on earth however, you can whatever gift you have you want it to be used for the kingdom of God to bear fruit and You're doing that not because You have such good moral judgment.
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You're being disciplined. You're gonna make yourself produce that fruit No, Jesus is a verse 5 apart from me.
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You can do nothing Your fruitfulness is only because you are part of him your fruitfulness comes from him
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And so if you do these things You're bearing good fruit. That's a sign. You are a part of him
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The fruit doesn't make you part of him. The fruit comes from being a part of him
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So if you do that You're buried fruit. You're attached good great
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But you will be pruned You won't be cut off But you will be cut
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That's what good gardeners do to their vines Or their rose bushes or their crepe myrtles or whatever
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They need to be pruned so they'll flourish even more in the future now one difference this analogy
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With plants plants are pruned. So they'll be more fruitful in the future plants don't have a central nervous system
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So pruning doesn't hurt them. They don't really care if you prune them we do and So we are we are hurt pruning often is painful
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Indeed, sometimes it is the pain itself that causes the new fruitfulness That causes us to grow
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Hardly ever to be become more fruitful Because of the good times the easy successes the money's flowing in and that makes me more
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Christlike probably not The popularity grows The pleasures you get that's probably not going to help your fruitfulness most often is because something has cut off from us something we were too attached to a
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Relationship we were depending on the wealth. We wanted too much The success it puffed up our ego
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So the father pruned us Cut a little off here and there After we got a little too wild Will to attach to that thing whatever it was
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He pruned us before the winter so that come next spring Then we'll bear more fruit
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That's what the Christian life looks like sometimes it looks like losing something dear to you something you wanted so much and You it's cut off from you and that hurts and now you'll have to recover for a while through a long hard cold winter
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But come spring You'll bear good fruit Apart from him we can do nothing with him
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If we are a part of him We can bear fruit how do we get a
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Part of him. How did we get life from Jesus? Well, he tells us in verse 3 already The words of you will be pruned already speaking of these disciples you are cleaned the word they're cleaned or pruned
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It's a variation of the same word is pruned in verse 2 So he's in English it doesn't appear to be the same but in original
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Greek it's variation of the same word already. You are pruned Father's the vine dresser.
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He's pruning the branches and already you have been pruned He's telling them they are clean or pruned because of the word that I have spoken to you
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The Word of God disciplines us and corrects us it prunes us Paul calls it the washing of water with the word it cleanses us
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And that's part of why we're here for to do For you to hear the word me to hear the word to and us to be pruned to be cleansed to be washed by it
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That's why we need to give it directly to you if it addresses your sins Some people think the preachers should never mention things the people in the congregation might be doing
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They may may be sinning or might be struggling with no, that's the exact opposite. You need to hear that word. So you're pruned
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So you're trimmed so you're washed That washing of water here.
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Jesus says that these disciples are clean or pruned Because his words have pruned them.
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He's been speaking to them So here's a picture of the Christian life Jesus is divine
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We're the branches. The father is a careful gardener With his shears
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We get our life our ability to bear fruit from Jesus but how
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You know the word Jesus uses over and over again there probably notice it was abide or remain
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You remain attached to Christ Now something that's is entirely passive We just kind of sit back, you know throw up our hands tell
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God and I'm abiding Don't strive just abide some people's advice
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But that's not the case here notice the verse 7 how we abide Implication if you abide in me
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Jesus speaking if you abide you remain you stay in me and my words
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Abide they remain in you so there's a Connection there.
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It's a reflection one is just like the other how we remain or dwell in him is how his words should remain in us which is
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Continually It's not something we just kind of occasionally expose ourselves to You know,
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I basted your turkey in butter just brush on How often do you do it every hour or half hour or something like that?
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It brush a little butter on so before it gets too dry We read a verse or chapter every day listen to a sermon maybe once a week before we get too dry
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I know it's more like boiling or deep -frying. We stay absorbed in the word Reminding ourselves of it
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Saturating ourselves in it You meditate on it Memorize it Sing it singing is a great way to keep yourself in in the word
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This could be pleasant to do listen to it like you're doing right now. We live constantly in the word like a fish abides in water fish fishes abide in water
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So we need to abide in his word Then notice also in verse 7 we ask
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God that is we pray we immerse ourselves in the word and we pray That's how we abide
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Remember Paul in Thessalonians pray continually. You're just breathing out prayer all day long
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And if we do that, we add we can then ask for whatever we wish does that mean now?
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Finally, we can ask for that Cadillac. I've always wanted. Yeah that wealth That newest gadget that apples come out with that stuff that we've always wanted
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Hmm now do you think After you saturated yourself, you've abided in his word
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And his word tells you to seek first the kingdom of God To beware of all kinds of greed to set your affection on things above You've abided in all that you've saturated in all that then after that you'll still want first and foremost that Cadillac the big bucks the newest gadget from Apple No, of course not
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If you have the word abide in you What you want is Transformed ask for whatever you want now what you want is different because you've been abiding in him you want
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God's glory You want his kingdom to come in your life. So we wish above all to abide in Jesus and so That's what you pray for For more of Jesus in your life, and that's what you'll get
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Now sometimes it may take some time But it will be done for you
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So what does the Christian life look like second its root Where does this life come from in other words what anchors it what is it duty?
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Is that it? You've got to be religious people got to keep our keep our obligations do our duty
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We're God's slaves is that we have to do what he says So it's about obligations and and rule -keeping and grimly making ourselves do
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Some things we really don't want to do like go to that boring church in the gym Is that what is the root?
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Well, it has three the Christian life our life has three interwoven Inner mingled inseparable roots from verses 8 to 11.
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They are glory love and joy Those are the roots
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By this and verse 8 is my father glorified a root of our Christian lives is that we yearn to glorify
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God That is we want to show him to be Valuable to be the weightiest thing in life original
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Hebrew now Old Testament written in Greek But the Hebrew the Old Testament written in Hebrew the word in the Old Testament for glory was
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Kabbalah means literally means heavy The angels were saying when Isaiah saw the
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Lord in the temple, holy, holy Holy the whole earth is full of his glory his heaviness
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So to glorify is to show something is weighty. It's heavy It's the heaviest the weightiest the most important thing in your life in in the universe
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And people show that by the time the attention the money they give to something. What is weighty? What's really important?
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What's life about and we glorify
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God by showing that he is that one? So we have come to church
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So we can be seen as the big man is the weighty one through our weight around But so that Jesus would be
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We want his word his kingdom to triumph We want other people to want
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God more than they want cash or Relationships or thrills we want them to show that God is the weightiest thing in their life by wanting that We glorify
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God we show him to be weighty It's a root of the Christian life. The root of the
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Christian life is his love We're all kind of intermingled here. The true Christian loves
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God That's why he or she wants to glorify God here. She loves God because God has loved
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Him or her first We love God because he's loved us first here in verse 9.
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Jesus says that he loved us as that is in the same way The father has loved me
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Think of that statement in verse 9 I've loved you as in the same way.
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The father has loved me. That's astounding It means that the same love it's an amazing love we sang about the same love that the father eternally had for the
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Son From before the universe was created The son who was perfect who had nothing about him not to love who was
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God himself It was perfectly fit for love the same love
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That the father had for the son That same love He had for us
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The son has for us Jesus has for us for us We who are not eternal who were created at a certain time.
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We who are not perfect. We have a lot about us not to love
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Who are unfit for love yet still? The son has that same eternal love the father had for him for us
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He graciously decided to love us anyway and loved us in the same way that the father loved him
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Then there's another abide versus abide in him abide in his word and then here
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Jesus says abide that is remain in my love That is bask in it
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You like you may lay out of the Sun on a warm spring day sing about it like we've already done
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Let it immerse you saturate your life That the son has loved you in the same way that the father loved the son from eternity past notice verse 10
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But and we do that we show that we Enjoy his love by keeping his commandments and again, this strikes us as weird today when we're told that love and commands are incompatible
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You know If you love you don't give commands and if you're really loving you don't have to follow laws and commands
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Well, they're not that's not true. If you love God because he first loved you you will
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Keep his commands and by doing that You stay in the father's love by keeping his commands you abide in his love
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Love is a root of the Christian life. So is joy It's not driven. The Christian life is not driven by grim duties
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Make yourself do because you fear the consequences if you don't you're threatened with hell or whatever you do it for the joy you have in it
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Because you enjoy it Notice verse 11. This is the night
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Jesus was betrayed. Remember the context of all this This is the night Jesus was betrayed. He's already sent
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Judas on his way what you do go and do quickly He knows the wheels of the conspiracy against him are already in motion
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That this these soldiers are already getting together about to go and capture him and that will lead to his crucifixion
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He knows he's facing betrayal and a horrendous experience of beatings and crucifixion yet Still he says all this now he's troubled by it all remember he said he said my soul is deeply troubled
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While he tells us don't let our hearts be troubled He's about to sweat so much it flows like blood
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As he prays father if it be your will because this is so horrendous He's about to go through if it be your will let this cup pass from me
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Hebrew says he despised The shame the shame of the cross he despised it
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But he went through it in Hebrews chapter 12 for the joy Set before him
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The joy at the end of this and it overcomes the shame he despised
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Here that joy came from giving us joy Notice verse 11 these things
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I've spoken to you all that we've heard so far But glorifying the father showing he's the weightiest thing in your life abiding in love by keeping his commandments
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He says he said these things that that is the purpose by saying these things
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The purpose is it my joy Joy, so great it overcomes the despising of the shame of the crucifixion that joy may be in you
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He is even right now as he's saying this walking to the place of his betrayal and what does he want
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What is he talking about? What is he after? for us To share his joy
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Our joy Was on his mind that night He wants us to have his joy and May our joy he says at the end of verse 11 may it be full
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You look at your life and Sure, you were you were pruned from time to time you were cut you weren't cut off, but you were cut
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But you're overwhelmed that you had so much good what joy
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Those are the roots of the Christian life glory love and joy
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The third The third way the thing thing that it looks like what constitutes the
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Christian life is its fruit We had a bear much fruit in verse 8 To prove we are disciples
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Now, what is it? What what fruit is it starting verse 12? love Love for God is a root love for each other
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Each other is a fruit and he gives us again the command to to love each other love one another
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To do it as I was in the same way. I have loved you Sacrificially Willing to lay our down our lives for our friends.
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There's no great exam greater example of love than to give your life for someone It's the soldier who falls in a grenade
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So his friends can live but more commonly It's the wife and the mother who gives up her career to raise children
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It's the father who sacrifices some advancement to be with a family more who gives up making a little more money
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So he can be involved in church. It's the friend who gives sacrificing expensive vacations
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So his or her friends in church can have what they need that's love
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Here Jesus is now laying down his life for his friends. He calls us friends in verse 15
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If we do what he commands We're his friends. We don't know then we're not We're not just slaves who do what we're told
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We're his friends. We're working with him to bear much fruit. He's we know about his mission.
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He's given it to us He's described it for us or his partners in it. Now. We're minor partners, but we're his partners again
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The root is his prior love for us We love because he first loved us here. We did not choose him at least not first anyway
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Our choice for him did choose him but our choice for him is not the cause of his choice for us
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It's the other way around If we think that we're now his friends because we made the right decision You know, we were kind of estranged and then we made the right decision
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We made this decision to be reconciled and so we were it all depended on us
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Now that we don't realize that his decision came first he decided this one's gonna be my friend and He befriended us and then we change we keep his commands
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We bear fruit because of his decision his decision causes ours. He first chose to befriend and to call us when we heard that call then
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Our chains fell off. Our heart was free. We rose went forth and followed thee
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Now he did that he chose us first to appoint us to to go and bear fruit
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Here one fruit is to go Go and bear fruit go find other people to abide in Christ go on a mission
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Go to Yancey Ville or North Hills apartments go to friends go to your own children
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Maybe get your children to hear the gospel call other people to love him to keep his commandments to bear fruit to and this fruit this fruit that these people that we go to Should abide
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As they remain believers, not just some confession they made and then they don't come they don't abide in it
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They don't stay anymore. They'll come to church anymore. They went down the aisle once they said a prayer and then you don't see them Anymore again, he made a confession they got baptized maybe and then they disappear.
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No, that's not that's not the kind of fruit they Abide they remain and they bear fruit and you bear this fruit in order that that's the purpose of verse 16
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The reason of going and bearing fruit that lasts whatever you ask the Father in my name
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That's for his sake for his glory because we love him to fulfill his mission
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He will give it to us Jesus wants us asking the Father in getting what we ask to do that We first have to bear much fruit.
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We bear much fruit We go make disciples and we pray for that disciples and we any we ask for more disciples we ask for more fruit and We get it.
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He told us that already in the beginning. He repeats it again in verse 17. We bear the fruit of loving one another
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Now does the one who drops out of church because they're they say whatever excuse there are too many hypocrites Because of church politics or they got their feelings hurt
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They get the ego is bruised because they didn't get the recognition They thought they deserved or or they just want to make a little more money
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And so they work on Sunday mornings instead of worship. Does he or she love? One another is such a person
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Keeping the command to love one another Is he or she loving other believers by refusing to spend time with him giving to them taking their fair share of the ministry?
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No, of course not Christian life doesn't look like Sitting at home on the couch watching your favorite preacher on the
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Internet Detached from the church. The only kind of people who are detached are those who aren't abiding who have been cut off What's the
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Christian life look like Just one more piece of the picture To see what the Christian life really looks like and it's not all sweetness and harmony, you know the church in the
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Wildwood Nestled peacefully with nature by gently flowing streams a happy home for everyone
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Kind of at peace with the world No There's a dispute the
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Christian life is at war with the world Now recently Jesus is being sold on TV including at the
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Super Bowl as he gets us You know, he's accepting Jesus is accepting like us and of course that ad is hoping to get people to like Jesus and us
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Still despite all that trying to be so winsome and charming Still a congresswoman said that the ads are are trying to quote make fascism look benign
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Yeah, and that about Jesus is about fascism, you know, whatever they still reject Jesus no matter how
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How much you try to charm them now today many assume that if you're like Jesus you should be liked by everyone
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You should have popularity should win friends and influence people and that's a sign
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They think You know that you're doing something right you're getting the crowds you're getting the people to like you but starting verse 18
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Jesus teaches the opposite What does the Christian life look like? fourth
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It looks like a dispute like a war The world will hate you and that's okay he says in verse 18 it will hate you because It hated me first This is one of the last things
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Jesus teaches his disciples don't be surprised when the world hates you it hated me, too
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It's weird today The way we claim to follow a crucified Rejected Lord and yet we're shocked
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When we're not loved and accepted when we're not popular when they call us fascist in fact if we are widely loved
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That's a sign of a problem in verse 20 if you were of the world those UK if you came from the world
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The world would love you as its own you would be accepted. So it's precisely because we are chosen out of the world
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That the world hates us because they're not chosen by him today. It will call us bigots and haters and fascist
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Because we won't go along with their sin If it doesn't matter how nicely we try to put it they still hate us for the truth
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Doesn't matter how nicely you put the truth as long as you're saying the truth. They're gonna hate you for it That's what they did to Jesus himself
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Remember, he told us already that we're not greater than our master and so we can expect the same rejection that Jesus got
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There will be some who believe who don't reject us. That will be good fruit They will bear who keep the
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Word of God they will abide in him. They'll they'll be a part of us But the world as a whole generally
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Will reject us Just as I rejected Jesus Now they won't say that and this culture they'll say that is because we're not like Jesus.
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That's the reason they hate us Of course, they have a fictional Jesus in their minds the one they made up to suit themselves the one who gets us
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The idol of Jesus they created in their imaginations who approves of their sins who never rebukes them
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Who does it prune them who doesn't cut anybody off whose commands they don't have to obey they think you can just flout his commands and live as they want and They'll be accepted still in the end they think who tells them that they're saved because they prayed a prayer sometime back that they were manipulated into as a kid and and It left him unchanged and fruitless.
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That's the Jesus they want and if we don't give them that one They'll say something's wrong with us
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There were occult. We're legalistic. We're fascist but the truth is that they reject us on account of in verse 21 and it's because of his name because we're associated with Jesus because They don't know the father and they don't know
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Jesus They know what they want They want their sins. They want a sense of assurance that they're okay in their sins without repenting.
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They want a religion But they don't want God Jesus came
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God and human flesh Gave them the Word of God gave them the truth Told him the truth will set you free and they show what humanity will do to God if they can get their hands on him
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Jesus has shown the world. It's sin and they hate him for it so they hate
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God and God then fulfills his word by exposing them
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Like the Pharisees who could not believe back in chapter 12 and so they they
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Fulfilled God's Word by not believing and Judas who betrayed him in chapter 13 who fulfilled
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God's Word by betraying him Now the world hates him without cause because scripture must be fulfilled.
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They keep God's Word verse 25 By doing what they they do bearing bad fruit, but that puts us in a horrible position you think about it
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He told us to go bear fruit find people who want to be attached to him We're told to go we're supposed to bear the fruit of bringing others to love him
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But they naturally hate him Imagine trying to sell Chinese food to people who ate Chinese food.
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It's kind of hard to do Well, that's part of what it looks like being a Christian trying to win a hostile world
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But we have a helper in verse 26 again the Holy Spirit And Jesus promises to send the
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Holy Spirit and he's done that already of course for us So we have now already we have this Holy Spirit.
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We have the Spirit of truth who's out there testifying for us Who's out there changing hearts?
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You know hearts that right now maybe they hate him. They hate God. They may not admit it, but they really do and The Holy Spirit can change their hearts soften their hearts.
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Give them a new heart take out the heart of stone Give them a heart of flesh that now loves him
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So when we hear the Spirit testifying to us
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We can believe and keep his word when they hear the Spirit testifying to them. He softens their hearts.
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He prepares them and Now we can bear fruit Because he's at work the helper.
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We need to help her He won't do that for everyone though. He doesn't soften every heart. We'll still get some rejection
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We'll still be called fascist The believers in the early church were expelled from the synagogues a
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Jesus said they would be here Some were killed a Jesus said they would be here He notified them ahead of time and their killers like Paul Watching the cloaks who there were stoning of those who were stoning
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Stephen thought that they were serving God thought it was a good work Today we might be ostracized forbidden to share on campus labeled haters not hired not published banned
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Jesus warned us that it would happen in chapter 16 verse 1. So when it does
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We're not discouraged don't be discouraged don't fall away You know you got rejected
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Don't give up evangelism If you're not a great success, no, don't do that He's told you what it would look like You it looks like come against hostility opposition a dispute with the world it doesn't know the father or Jesus That's what it looks like To live the
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Christian life So there's the picture It's a garden and you're a branch
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Attached to the vine attached to Jesus from which you get your life The father's the gardener
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He's pruning you some Cleansing you challenging you
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Cutting you with his word Are you remaining in it? Well, if so, we'll see in your life.
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The fruit is love. You love the other people Did Jesus love just like he was loved by the father you love the church now?
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Sure, you know you have to endure sometimes hatred rejection insults Jesus did but it's a small price to pay
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Compared to the price that was paid for you. The hatred of the world is a small taste of bitterness
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Compared to the great sweetness of the love of God that you now feast on So your question is not
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You know, why is this happening to me? This this pruning or this persecution.
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Why is this happening to me? No When you taste again the glory and the love and the joy that Jesus gives you your question then is
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How can it be that you my God should die for me?
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That's what the Christian life looks like. Is that what your life looks like?