The Power of Abiding

John fifteen, verse seven, John fifteen, verse seven, and some

of you are like one verse, huh, we're doing one verse. Well,

to make up for it, We're gonna start.

Isaiah next week. Huh.

All right, plenty of verses, plenty of verses, but yeah,

this morning, and just a little bit tongue in cheek.

Of course, every.

Word of God is living and active. We can do

one verse, even though in preaching seminars I tell people

don't just preach one verse. People need a sense, give

them a paragraph at least get a flow of thought going. Man,

we need to read more carefully than just like yank

out a verse of our daily bread and just kind

of like I'm doing it anyway. I'm doing it anyway

because I think we can in fact meditate on this

verse in a way that brings the whole context in.

And I want to do that because I want to

take something that we're actually I think many of us

very familiar with.

And fill it out a little bit. I'd like to take.

John fifteen to seven and just sort of swirl it

around in our mouths a little bit and get a

sense for the richness the ingredients that are there. Because

I think in many ways we treat it pretty thinly.

Let me read the verse John fifteen, verse seven. If

you abide in me my words, abide in you, ask

whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

It's amazing verse in an amazing group of verses several

chapters that many call the Farewell Discourse in the Gospel

of John. This is before Christ is about to be crucified,

and he conveys so much to his apostles, and the

gospel writer conveys this now to us, and John does

it in a.

Very, very, very John like way.

If you are familiar with John as an author, you

know that.

He takes themes and he just kind of says.

The same thing over and over again, or the same

four or five things over and over again, in different ways,

so that we can get a full sense of it.

And in fact, I call First John the letter of

First John.

I call it a candy cane because it's just three

stripes and it goes all the way out. But one

of the concepts that John returns to over and over

again in this discourse is the concept of spiritual power.

Power in this case, in this particular verse regarding the

power of prayer, but throughout the discourse that power shows

up in a variety of ways, with a variety of facets.

This spiritual power that.

Christ is calling us, as his believers, as his disciples,

as his.

People to live in.

And I gotta say, I'm a little nervous when I

start to talk about living a life of spiritual power,

because it's so often that whole idea is us so

often abused.

In the secular realm, you'll.

Have all kinds of motivational speakers who try to convince

you that there's a life of power that's available to you.

You can create whatever reality you want to. You can

have the success and the money and the popularity and

the accomplishments. They're all out there for the taking if

you will just buy the next book or the next course.

But even in religious settings, this idea of a promise

of life of spiritual power is also abused by faith

healers who will say, you know, if you just have faith.

And cooperate with.

Our ministry organization in this and this and that way,

then you can create the reality you want. You can

create the life you want.

And one of the things.

That's clear from study of the Bible, if you actually

put your nose in.

It is that.

Although Christ is definitely calling us to a life of

spiritual power, it isn't that.

In fact, it's way better than that. It's so much

greater than that.

But I believe that one of the reasons why these

kinds of abuses get such a wide hearing is because

people can look at their own hearts and minds and

lives and say, my life should be more, and it should.

They are right.

Christ is calling you to a life of spiritual power.

We're gonna get into that by going through this verse

sort of backwards. First we'll deal with the spiritual.

Power piece right.

Christ says, ask whatever you wish and it will be

done for you. And that's just one facet of this

life of spiritual power that Christ is calling us to.

So we'll talk about that first.

That's heading number.

One is Christ calling us to a life of spiritual power.

Heading number two.

Is the next piece up in the verse, Christ's words

abiding in you, all right, That's what Christ says. This

is where this power comes from. Christ's words abiding in you,

and then third you abiding in Him. So those will

be our three headings, kind of working backwards through this verse,

starting with this life of spiritual power.

Okay, is Christ.

Really calling us to a life of tremendous spiritual power?

The answer is yes.

But to understand the yes, I think we need to

get two things about this life of power, this life

of power that Christ is calling you to. I think

we need to get two things about it. The first

one is this, we need to get a sense of it.

We need to get a sense of it. I already

gave you two negative examples of sort of like the

secular manifesting whatever reality you want, your successes, your accomplishments,

your fame and fortune, and sort of the religious version

of that as well. That is not the sense of

the life that Christ is calling you to. But he

is calling you to a life of power. In fact,

right here he says, if you abide in me and

my words, abide in you, ask whatever.

You wish, and it will be done for you.

He says something similar in chapter fourteen, verse thirteen, ask

whatever in my name.

That he says a.

Later in verse seven, verse sixteen of chapter fifteen, ask

in my name. So we're definitely talking about some power here.

Yet we're not talking about approaching God has a genie.

Or as a boss even.

Who earns way right where You're not an employee who

earns wages from a boss. You are a child who

comes asking for good things from a father who knows

how to give good gifts to his children. And so

what Christ is saying is that as you are shaped

by his name, his mission, his presence, his priorities, you

will bring fervent prayer to the Father, and you will

see answers.

You will bear much fruit.

Which is exactly the next thing that I wanted to

talk about in terms of this life of power?

What is it?

Can we get a sense of it? One sense of it?

Not only is power and prayer, but also fruitfulness in

life and minyas.

Spiritual fruit.

Christ says regularly throughout the first verses of chapter fifteen,

you will bear much fruit. Abide in me, you'll bear

much fruit. Apart for me, you can do nothing, or,

as my South American father likes to say, big fat

zero baby sounds exactly like that big fat zero baby,

apart from me, you can do nothing. But if you

abide in me, you will bear fruit. You will bear

much fruit. You will bear much fruit that remains. And

by this my father will be glorified. In other words,

fruitfulness is to be desired. Power and prayer, fruitfulness in

life and ministry, glory for God. We already teased it

that a little bit. That's another ingredient to this life

of power that Christ is calling us to is to

glorify God Chapter fourteen, verse thirteen. Chapter fifteen, verse eight.

To see God and to see Christ. God and Christ

made visible to our souls. Christ speaks of in verse

seven and twenty one of chapter fourteen. Now that's a

life of power. I want Christ visible to my heart

and soul with Christ. The ESB translators put it this way,

manifest myself to them. What's another ingredient to this life

of power? Well, Chapter fifteen, verse eleven. Joy, Christ's joy

in us and our joy to be full peace.

Fourteen, verse twenty seven. To really live.

Chapter fourteen, verse nineteen Joy, peace, really living.

That's the sense of it.

Power and prayer, fruitfulness in life and ministry, seeing God

and that having his joy, peace and real life. That's

the sense of it. That's a life of power. And

because I think once we've gotten a sense of it,

we also need to address the satisfaction of it. That's

where we're gonna go next. That's the second thing we

gotta get. We gotta get the sense of it, but

we also gotta get the satisfaction of it. Because some

people are hearing what I'm describing as the life of

power that Christ calls us to, and you're thinking, Yeah,

that doesn't sound like the life of power I want.

I was more interested in the motivational speaker and the

faith healer stuff that you were talking about. How about money, fame,

and accomplishments. I'm looking to get into those things. Well,

I mean, it's it's almost a cliche to tell you,

but I'm going to tell you anyway. Money won't buy happiness.

Some of the most famous people are the most miserable,

and accomplishments won't amount to much.

There's a whole book of the Bible called.

Ecclesiastes that includes a major theme, thank you, includes a

major theme that these things just don't actually set up. Rather,

it is this life that the human heart was made

to enjoy and be satisfied with. It is this life

of prayer and fruitfulness and God's joy and peace and

fellowship that the human heart was made to be satisfied by.

Like baby ducks were made for water. As Jonathan Edwards

put it, God is the highest good of the reasonable creature.

The enjoyment of Him is the only happiness with which

our souls can be satisfied. This is actually the life

of power you want.

This is where satisfaction is to be found.

But it's not a it's not a bored satisfaction.

Get that.

This isn't like a I'm satisfied so.

I just sit there.

No, this is a satisfaction that has an appetite and

ambition in all the right ways. As you can see,

this satisfaction prays away. It is peace and joy with

an appetite for God's glory. Peace and joy and satisfaction

with an appetite for fruitfulness, abiding fruitfulness, much fruitfulness, praying away.

That's the kind of satisfaction I actually want to I

don't want to be satisfied and bored. I want to

be satisfied and ambitious in.

All the right ways. And I think actually that we sometimes.

Disguise our prayerless unbelief by calling it spiritual satisfaction.

Why don't we pray?

Well, we tell ourselves, well, I'm content, Why I pray

I'm satisfied? That is not a trait that we find

from this life of power. Not that kind of contentment.

That's unbelief, that's bored. It reminds me of King AHAs

Old Testament king unbelieving King. Prophet of God comes to

King a Has and says, God is going to deliver.

Ask him for a sign, ask whatever you want, and

a Has says unbelieving. A Has says, no, I don't

want to put God to the test. I'm not going

to ask for anything that would that would be impudent.

And the prophets like you are you satisfied? You're not

satisfied to to mock men? You have to mock God

when he says ask and God is saying to you, ask,

and you, disguising your bored unbelief as spiritual contentment, say,

I don't want.

To trouble the Lord.

But this life, this life, praise away, this life is

ready to bother God. In the middle of the night,

you know, the parable, the friend comes. Oh wow, Aaron,

I'm so sorry. Don't slip and fall on that. I'm

gonna pray that violently too. Hey, I need something, what

is it an emergency?

No?

I just need some food because a guest came and

we're looking to have a good time.

It's the middle of the night. I'm in bed, my

kids are in bed. I'm not gonna give you any thing.

It would be really great.

It's not an emergency yet, Jesus says, I tell you,

he will get up and give him whatever he's asking for,

not because of his emergency, not because he's his friend,

but because of his.

Insistence, his shamelessness.

This life of prayer asks away, as the writer of

Hebrews says regarding Christ, who cried with, who prayed with

loud cries and tears, and shaped by the name of Christ,

and the mission of Christ, and the presence of Christ, receives, receives. Well,

what enables this kind of power? What enables this kind

of power? Well, that brings us to our next heading,

which is Christ's words abiding in us. But I have

to say that what enables this kind of power is

actually a double condition.

It's a coin with two.

Sides, the coin we call abiding, and we will just

deal with each side of it one at a time.

But you have to understand, we can discuss it logically

as two pieces, but experientially it's one thing. It's abiding

But here's the first side of the coin. Christ's words

abiding in us. Well, how do we understand this? How

do we do this? Christ's words abiding in us? Is

that like we just open up the Bible, we find

all the red letters and we just take those and

I don't know, paste them on our mirror or something. Well,

let me just start by saying, this is not a

red letter endeavor. This isn't just about the words that

are captured for us in the Gospels that Jesus spoke. Actually,

the Gospels not only capture what he spoke, but also

what he meant and the mission he was on, and

what his life was about. So not only do we

have to take what he said, but we have to

take the Gospels as a whole. And furthermore, the New

Testament is the teaching of Christ conveyed to us by

the Apostles, so we have to take the New test

them as well. And what did Christ say about the

Old Testament? Well, he said that Moses and the Prophets

and the Psalms all spoke of me. So and Christians

understand the scriptures to all be authored by Christ. This

isn't a red letter endeavor. This is a whole word endeavor.

But what do we do with the word that it

would abide in us? Here's my best sentence at it,

Trusting as authoritative and essential.

To examine and be examined by like nothing else.

Trusting as authoritative and essential to examine and be examined.

By like nothing else.

That we would take the word and trust as authoritative

and essential. It's prescriptions for us. As Christ said throughout

his discourse, here keep my commands. If you love me,

you will keep my commands. If you're abiding in me,

you will keep my commands. Trusting his prescriptions like a doctor,

Like a doctor whose advice and judgment you trust, not reluctantly,

not begrudgingly, not well. The Bible says, I've made friends

with a doctor here recently doctrine training.

I guess he's.

Not ready to give me any prescriptions, but I already

trust his training, and I trust his judgment, and I

trust his style. Like he As we've talked about certain

treatment options, I'm like, okay, I'm tracking with you. I'd

love for you to be my cardiologist one day. And

this is the kind of trust that we want to have.

In God's word.

We're trusting it as authoritative and essential as the one

who made and designed us, who not only gave us life,

but gave us new life, and then gives us these

prescriptions and says this is.

The way of life and health.

Like I'm trusting that, and not only his prescriptions, but

also his promises, his promises that we can our hopes

and our dreams that we find promised for us in

his word, the things that we desire from God. And

God says, this is my promise to you, and this

is the way in which I'm going to fulfill it.

To take it to the bank, because it's from him.

You know.

I get mailers all the time that say, you know,

we have ten thousand dollars waiting for you. You know,

it's just, it's just it's a scammy advertisement. I don't

even get to the end of the postcard.

IM just like whatever. Don't trust that promise.

But if my mom and dad were to send me

like a little card and said, hey, you know, been

divvying some things up, got ten thousand dollars waiting for you,

I'm on the phone.

Same promise, different person.

For the word to be abiding in us, I think

one of the best ways to think about it is

that we would be growing in an expositional way of life.

We would be rowing in an expositional way of life,

taking what scripture teaches, not adding anything in, not taking

anything out, but clinging to scripture and being open handed

with everything else in our life. Clinging to scripture and

my opinions. Yeah, maybe, clinging to scripture and your opinions,

yeah maybe, and the and whatever anybody wants to say

on YouTube maybe or whatever I read in history class,

Yeah maybe, and whatever they're saying on the news.

Maybe. But this.

Is my soil, the soil for my soul, the soil

for my conscience. Lett, my conscience be deformed by anything else.

I just give me the pure scriptures, an expositional community.

That's what I pray that Crossway would be a community

of people who are formed in soul and in conscience

and in fellowship by what the scriptures have to teach.

That these words would be abiding in us. As Jeremiah said,

your words were found, and I ate them, and they

became to me a joy and a delight, as the

Psalm says that they are sweeter than honey, than honey

from the combe, as God himself says, is my word

not like fire and like a hammer that breaks the

rock in pieces? His words abiding in you, growing in

an expositional way of life. This is what enables spiritual power,

especially power in prayer.

Or at least.

It's one side of the coin that we call abiding.

But Christ poses this other side together in this abiding condition,

and this other side our last heading for this morning,

is you abiding in Christ. You see, these two sides

have to be together if we're going to be talking

about the real thing. Real abiding means his word abiding

in us and us abiding in him.

Well, what does it mean for you to abide in Christ?

Can we swirl that around in our mouths a little bit,

try to discern.

The ingredients of that.

Well, In Chapter fourteen, verse six, it seems to me

it's about knowing him. In Chapter fourteen, verses one and

ten and eleven and twelve, it certainly has to do.

With believing him.

In Chapter fourteen, verse fifteen, and Chapter fifteen, verse nine,

it certainly has to do with loving him and remaining

in his love. So John gives us both sides of

this coin to make clear that abiding isn't a matter

of mere cold head knowledge, but affectionate faith, knowledge. Right,

there is a way that you can be near the

things of Christ and not abiding in Christ, like branches

near the vine, fruitless, dry, brown and brittle, near, but

not in.

It would be like the Pharisees.

Who knew the scriptures better than anyone of their time,

and yet because they did not recognize him or believe him,

or know him or love him. Christ said, you know

neither the scriptures nor the power of God. Abiding is

the opposite of those Pharisees. Abiding is the opposite of

the kinds of observances that we see, Like in Isaiah

chapter one, as people gathered to be near the things

of God. Oh, we want to be near the things

of God, but their hearts were far from him.

And God said, I hate this stuff.

As the Puritans said, mere observance without abiding is like

a painted fire. And you can paint it as large

and as bright and as orange and as yellow as

you want, but it gives no heat. Yet, understand the

word abiding in you and you abiding in Christ. These

two things are not pitted against.

Each other, as if one is cold.

And the other one is hot, and together you get warm. No,

the word is the means of knowing Christ by faith.

It is when the Word goes from being the means

of knowing Christ, the means of knowing the Living Christ,

to being a replacement for knowing the Living Christ, that

it becomes all firewood and no fire. You can have

a lot of firewood and no fire. You can't have

a big fire with no firewood. But to know the

Living Christ by faith is to know the King who

is always ready to forgive. Is to know the shepherd

who is always providing and protecting, to know the friend

that sticks closer than her brother. To know the Living

Christ by faith is to know the Master whose commands

always lead to life, the teacher whose way is easy.

And whose burden is light. To know him, to know.

Him, to know him by faith, to abide in him.

This is the place of spiritual power. This is the

place of peace and joy and communion with God with

an appetite for God's glory and fruitfulness. We can take

some tests. Let's take two or three tests. Is your

prayer life like what the author of Hebrews describes of Christ,

bringing prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears, or

is your prayer life more like a has unbelief disguised

as a spiritualized contentment. Let's test ourselves. Are you growing

in an expositional way of life, examining and being examined

by the Word in soul and in conscience? Has your

knowledge of Christ become a painted fire? All observance, no abiding.

If your answers aren't what you'd like them to be,

let me remind you. Number one, Christ says, I am

the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes

to the Father but by Me. So life with Christ

has become a painted fire. Just realize there is no

merit or perfection that you can claim, but just humbly

come to Him, accepting the merit and the perfection of

Christ as your ticket.

He is your past.

If you're trusting in Christ's work, in repentance and faith,

then nothing is stopping you from coming.

To God to abide. But secondly, this.

God says, if you seek me, you will find me,

if you seek Me with all your heart. When was

the last time you got on your knees to seek

the Lord? When was the last time you set aside

other things, maybe a meal or three, to seek His face.

With all your heart?

Now I'm not I'm not saying that that that that's

just one move right, it's a life of seeking him.

But we can start with that. We could start today.

You could get on your knees this afternoon, as we're

about to pray all together here this moment. You could

begin seeking him in that, in this song that we're

about to sing, which maybe may be new for many

of us, but part of the part of the refrain

is teach me to abide. Lord, teach me to abide.

That can be your prayer right now, and you can

go from that song to your knees, to tomorrow morning.

To a fast this week.

I don't know, but the Lord says, you will find

me if you seek me with all your heart. Let's pray, Father,

thank you for your promises. Thank you for your promises.

We don't have to wonder do we merit communion or

fellowship with the Living God. The answer is we don't,

and we don't have to. But rather that your son,

in his merit and his perfection, has earned our fellowship

in our communion. He has earned our forgiveness by his blood.

All we need to do is come in humble faith.

So Lord, we come right now. Lord, there are many

here this morning, who are raising their prayer with me

at this very moment, Lord, I want to seek you

with everything I've got. Lord, give me more to give

in seeking you. Lord, deepen my cries, wet my eyes,

bend my knee, soften my heart. We're asking that, we

would ask all the more. Lord, Would you meet with us?

Would you teach us how to bide in Jesus name.

Let's sing