Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Whose Side Are You On - Luke 11:14-28

We've been in a series called Luke The Orderly Account

of Truth. We had a lot of verses to get

through today and so I'm just gonna jump right into it.

But we've been in this series. It's been awesome.

We're going verse by verse through the whole book of Luke.

Luke investigated and wrote an orderly account of what happened

when Jesus walked the earth. And the reason he wrote

that is so that we can have or so that

we can know with certainty or know the exact truth

about the things that we've been taught about Jesus.

Right, yes, Amen, sing it loud.

We can know the exact truth about what Jesus taught

because of Luke's orderly investigated account. And last week Jesus

taught his disciples how to pray, and we learn that

God is a good father and he answers his children.

He's a good father who answers his children. He knows

what we need before we ask. In fact, he meets

our greatest needs by giving us the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

And it's because of this that we can approach him

with persistence and boldness or to follow the ANIV translation

that we were read from with shameless audacity.

We can come to Jesus.

And this week we get to see God in the flesh,

Jesus Christ, and just how much authority and power that

he has. We believe in the Trinity right one God,

three persons of God, the Father, God, the Son, Jesus,

and God the Holy Spirit.

That's the Trinity.

In today's text, we're going to see the second person

of the trinity, Jesus Christ, God the Son, exercise his

authority over a demon, and then he's going to help

that people see that there are only two sides in

this battle. It isn't like hunger games, but twelve districts, right,

twelve people all fighting against each other. No, there's only

two sides in this battle. You're either with.

Jesus or you're against him. And he doesn't lose.

Jesus doesn't lose, and those who are with him on

the side of God's kingdom, their end, the end of

them is better off, not worse off. So today we're

gonna be continuing in Luke chapter eleven. So if you

give our bibles you can start turning there. We're gonna

be in verses fourteen through twenty eight. And if you

don't have a bible. We have some on the resource

desk out there in the lobby, so please grab them.

We want you to have a bible to keep and read.

It's very important that we have God's word. So we're

gonna read the text together, and then I'm gonna pray.

So let's read through verses fourteen through twenty eight. Jesus

was driving out a demon that was mute. When the

demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and

the crowd was amazed. But some of them said, by Beelzeble,

the prince of demons, he is driving out demons. Others

tested him by asking for a sign from heaven. Jesus

knew their thoughts and said to them, any kingdom divided

against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against

itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how

can his kingdom stand? Say this because you claim that

I drive out demons by Beelzible. Now if I drive

out demons by Beelzible, by whom do your followers drive

them out? So then they will be your judges. But

if I drive out demons by the finger of God,

then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When

a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his

possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him,

he takes away the armor in which the man trusted

and divides up his plunder. Whoever is not with me

is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it

goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.

Then it says, I will return to the house I left.

When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and

put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other

spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and

live there. And the final condition of that person is

worse than the first. As Jesus was saying these things,

a woman in the crowd called out, blessed is the

mother who.

Gave you birth and nursed you.

He replied, blessed, rather are those who hear the word

of God and obey it. So we got a big

chunk of text. Let's pray before we go any further. God,

we thank you for this moment. We thank you for

your word and our chance to go through it and

learn what you have for us today. God, give us

hearts that are open and minds that are open to

see and understand what you're teaching today. Let us hold

it close to us and let us apply it to

our lives, so that actually moves us and changes us

and transforms us more into the image of Jesus. So God,

we thank you for your revelation and scripture and the

fact that we can freely go through it. So God,

we just submit this whole service to you and ask

for the Holy Spirit, You, the Holy Spirit, to guide

our understanding of your text today. And Jesus name, everybody

said a men who here remembers playing tug of war

when they're a kid, Tug a war we used to

play in g class, or if you went to like

a youth camp, that was always one of the games

you'd played.

Tug of war.

Two teams are pitted against each other. Right, they're each

pulling on a rope, trying to pull the other team

toward them. If you're playing a boring game of tug

of war, you had a flag tied in the middle,

right and you just had to pull it past a

certain line. That's the boring version. If you're playing the

cool and exciting version. There was a giant mudpit in

the middle. That's the way more exciting. But who, like,

who wants to be standing in the front of the

rope staring at that mudpit?

Right?

That was where I was always at In case you

were wondering, I was never the anchor person.

Yeah, let's go. You don't stare in at this mudpit.

That's the exciting game because those stakes are higher, right

than just moving a flag. The last thing you wanted

was to be standing in the front of that line

staring at the mudpit, about to be pulled in.

But who do you guys?

Remember what you did when it came time to pick teams.

And we did this with everything we do with flag football,

we do with red rover when we were younger, you

do with basketball. You would pick team captains, right, and

you'd usually pick two people you didn't want on the

same team because it wasn't fair if they're on the

same team. Yeah, So you'd pick your team captains, you'd

split them up and they would take turns picking people

to their team. All right, you're the team captain. Now

look at me, Look at me, you're the captain. Now

any movie watchers totally gets that reference. If you don't,

it's all good. Okay, you're the team captain games tug

of war. Who are you picking first? Who are you

picking on your team?

First?

You're gonna pick the biggest kid on the playground, right,

the biggest one in the room, the strongest person in

the group.

That's what you're gonna pick.

Right. You're gonna pick whoever you think is gonna help

you win. They're gonna pick someone for your team that's

gonna help guarantee that you win. So go ahead and

raise your hand if you pick Jordan first on your team.

So did I one hundred percent? Jordan's our anchor because

we're gonna win. Sorry, Caleb, you're my second choice. I'm

just saying, Chase is another solid guy up there. We're

gonna pick the biggest person in the room, the strongest

person in the group, because we want to win.

Right.

You want to be on the team with the person

who's going to win. No one wants to be on

the losing team. None of us do. Or, to make

things a little bit more extreme, it's not good to

be on the side who loses the war. It's not

good to be on the side that loses the war.

There's only two sides in this spiritual war. You're either

with Jesus or you're against him. So my question for you,

and also the title of today's message is this, whose

side are you on? Whose side are you on in

this great cosmic conflict? Whose side are you on? Are

you with Jesus or are you against Jesus? And I

think that the main point of today's message as we

read through the tax is this the Lord delivers, but

only those who gather to him will be blessed and

better off. It's one of the challenges we have as

preaching pastors is coming up with a way to fully

put a nice bow on all of the text passages

that we're reading today. I will gladly admit this was

the hardest message I've ever put together when it comes

to coming to the main point.

I don't know why.

Maybe God was stretching me in some way, but this

one was hard for me to tie that line all

the way through to help prove if I'm gonna say

we're landing on a point, I got to prove to

you guys how we got there and without bending scripture.

So the Lord took me through one this week.

But I believe that the main point of today's text

is the Lord delivers, but only those who gathered to

him will be blessed and better off.

It's those who are on his side or those who gather.

To him that experience blessing in the end, the experience

blessings that in the end are better and not worse.

That we're better off, not worse off. You guys ready

to break down this text? Okay, we're gonna look at

the first few verses and Jesus is gonna show his

authority over demons. Verses fourteen through sixteen, Jesus was driving

out a demon that was mute. When the demon left,

the man who had been mute spoke and the crowd

was amazed. But some of them said, by Beelzeble, the

prince of demons, he is driving out demons. Others tested

him by asking for a sign from heaven. This whole

passage starts out with Jesus driving out a demon, but

the point of the passage is not about demon possession.

You guys see that even though Jesus is talking about it,

he's using this moment or this casting out of a

demon to show the people something. He's showing his power,

He's showing his authority over Satan and his demons. He's

also showing that he has love and compassion for the people,

showing that he had compassion on the mute man and

commanded the demon to leave. And you know what, the

mute demon obeyed. Didn't have a choice, it had to lead.

It left the man, and the man began to speak.

I mean, just imagine if you were unable to speak

for any length of time, the moment your tongue was loosed,

you probably would have a lot to say, right, you know,

I found out recently that men arrive in heaven thirty

minutes before women.

Do you guys are know this?

I actually says in Revelation eight to one. When he

opened the seventh Seal, there was silence in heaven for

about a half an hour.

Because women love.

Talking, right, I'm kidding. It's totally a joke. Blame Jordany

said it to me this week and I had to

put it in there. Completely, completely a joke, and that

was a little funny. Please don't hate me and ignore

me for the whole rest of the service. That is

not a correct understanding of that Revelations text. For the record, Yeah,

but Jesus casts out this demon of the mute man,

and the mute man began to speak, and the crowd

is amazed. That makes sense because something amazing just happened, right,

makes perfect sense that they would be amazed.

But not everybody was amazed. That's not the text said,

did it.

No, the text said that some of them, which to

me doesn't make sense, responded oddly. Let's read it again,

Verses fifteen and sixteen. But some of them said by beelsible,

the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.

Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.

Jesus had some haters, and it's not just then, but

he also has some haters now, right, and he reminds

his disciples, which is also should be a reminder for

us that if the world hates us, or the world

hates the disciples, to remember the world hated Jesus first,

and it's actually a good thing because that means we

are not of this world. That means we're of the

Kingdom of God. Because if we were of the Kingdom

of the world and the world would love us. Someone

just I want to get this on a T shirt

because I saw it recently. It said make pastors uncool again,

because there's like this whole thing about like we got

to be the cool people, you know, just the trendy

guys or whatever. But it's not very popular to say

what Jesus said, right, Jesus has some haters, so we

should expect that there's going to be some haters as well.

If we were of the world, and the world would

love us at its own as its own and that's

from John fifteen.

But these people hate Jesus.

So much that they accused him of working with his

enemy Beelsible. And what is beelsible? What does this word

even mean? Or beels above If you have another translation,

it's you know, but the Prince of demons?

What is that?

That's just a Jewish name for the ruler of the demons,

the lord of flies. You guys have heard of that before, right,

It's a name another name for Satan or the devil.

They just said that the amazing and loving things that

Jesus had just done and was doing, the incredible blessing

of deliverance from a demon, they were saying that was

the work of Satan. They were accusing Jesus of working

for that's like saying Batman works for the Joker. It's

just ridiculous. It's not gonna happen, right, Batman's awesome. He's

the guy going around saving everybody, and so he's going

to be working for the guy who's trying to wipe

everybody out.

That doesn't make any sense.

They're trying to associate Jesus and his work with the

worst name they can think of possible, and that would

be picking the literal adversary of God. But still others,

they don't believe what he was doing, what he was saying,

and they want to proof, so they tested him and

asking a sign for a sign from heaven. And we

won't talk about the implications of that because that's literally

the message for next week the pastor Duncan's going to preach,

But for now, just understand that they refuse to believe Jesus,

They refuse to believe who he was who he said

he was, and they demanded that he performed a miracle

right in front of him. But I mean, what more

do they want. He's been performing miracles the whole time

he's been doing his ministry, really trying not to talk

about the implications with that, because it's so good, and

I know that Pastor Duncan's gonna do an awesome job

next week. But they didn't believe him, and they demanded

a sign. So Jesus responds to these absurdities, and he

actually brings a very logical illustration in verses seventeen and eighteen.

Let's look at that.

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, any kingdom

divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided

against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself,

how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you

claim that I drive out demons by beelzable. So Jesus

is reading minds again. He knows their thoughts. God knows

our thoughts. They're not a secret to him. He knows everything.

Psalm one thirty nine says, you perceive my thoughts from

Afar that before the words even leave our mouths, he

knows them completely. He knows every word that would leave

our li before it's left our mouth completely. And in

that knowing, Jesus is answering these people, this crowd around him,

and he's not making some statement about the strength of

the kingdom of Satan. That's not actually the point he's making.

He's giving an example of the kingdom of a house divided.

Why why is he giving this example, Well, second part

of verse eighteen. I say this because you claim that

I drive out demons by beelsible. This is why he's

talking about his kingdom divided. It's not about the strength

of this kingdom of Satan. It's because they're claiming that

he's driving out demons by beelsible. He's pointing out how

illogical their thought process was.

What you're saying doesn't make sense.

You guys, how can Satan's how stand of his own

people are working against him? Doesn't make sense? How could

it stand? Which doesn't make logical sense? Go back to

our tug of war example from the beginning. Half the

people on the team. Instead of pulling on the rope,

we're trying to push it. How's that gonna go. It's

not gonna work, right, It just isn't gonna work. The

whole team fails if you aren't all working towards the

same goal. Satan's kingdom can't stand if there's someone in

the ranks who's working against him. It just can't stand.

But do you see how blinded these people were by

their hate of Jesus. See how blinded they were. Logic

and common sense went right out the window. And you

actually see that all the time today, even logic and

common sense goes out the window, all because you hate

someone so much. So, Jesus continued in verses nineteen and twenty. Now,

if I drive out demons by beelzable, by whom do

your followers drive them out?

So then they will be your judges.

But if I drive out demons by the finger of God,

then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. Now

I think Jesus is dropping some bars. He says, look

at your own followers, the people that you're leading. Look

at your own followers. When they drive out demons by

whose name are they doing that? By whose name? By

whose name are they doing the miracles of God? They

can't say by Satan or else. They're leading people to

literally follow the devil. They can't say that, so they

must say by God. Remember, there's only two sides here,

the side of the finger of God and everybody else.

And it's I think such an awesome flex here by Jesus,

do you remember when we just preached it a little

bit ago in Luke chapter eight, when Jesus went to

the other side of the Sea of Galilee and met

the demon possessed man, the one that was full of

all the demons, Legion.

Does that make sense? Does you guys remember that?

Well, if you didn't, there's a guy who was full

of a lot of demons, and it was Legion. Was

the name so many demons that when they went out

of the man, when they were cast out of the

man and went into an entire herd of pigs, and

the pigs ran down the slope and drowned themselves.

Right.

Well, if you read that account in the Book of

Market tells us it was like two thousand pigs.

It's a lot of bacon, two thousand pigs.

And Jesus says, if I drive out demons by the

finger of God, then the Kingdom of God has come

upon you.

Right.

All it took to drive two thousand demons out into

pigs was the finger of God. He didn't even have

to try. That isn't difficult for him. The finger of God.

The power that's in just the finger of God. The

magnitude of how powerful God is is ungraspable.

That's a word. It's unfathomable. There's a real word.

You can't even comprehend how powerful God is. Just his

the finger of God is the one that casts out

all these demons. He doesn't even have to try. And

that finger of God means what Jesus saying here is

that the Kingdom of God has come upon you. So

the Kingdom of God is here. And the king of

that kingdom was standing right in front of him, the

King of all kings, the Lord of all lords, Jesus.

They had been waiting for their king, and they just

refused to believe that Jesus was him, no matter what

he said and no matter what he did, which by

the way, was prophesied the whole time by the prophets

of the Old Testament. They've been waiting for him, and

they refused to believe that Jesus was him.

They outright rejected him.

But even this rejection of Jesus, and this is like

a kind of a side note that I didn't want

to mention, this rejection of Jesus was all part of

God's plan to bring about his kingdom. It was their rejection.

It was through the rejection of Jesus that God brought

about his plan of salvation not only to save the Jews,

but also to say the gentile else, thank you God

that you did that.

Amen. And for more about that, read Romans ten and eleven.

Fantastic chapter is to read read all of Romans, but

ten eleven will get you those answers. So Jesus tells

the people that the Kingdom of God has come upon them,

and then he gives an illustration to help us understand

what happens to those who are not with him and

who are not with the Kingdom of God.

And that starts in verse twenty one.

When a strong man fully armed, guards his own house,

his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and

overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the

man trusted and divides up his plunder. Whoever is not

with me is against me, and whoever does not gather

with me scatters.

And it is the basic illustration it makes.

It's pretty straightforward, makes sense, right that there's a strong

man guarding a house, everything remains in his possession.

It's only if someone.

Stronger than him attacks him and overpowers him that he

loses everything. Right, There isn't anything you can do to

stop someone who's stronger than you. If they chose to

do something, or if they've decided to do something, it's

going to happen. And that's the point that Jesus just made.

But then he goes into to define who's who in

this illustration? Who is each person in this illustration? He says,

whoever's not with me is against me, and whoever does

not gather to me scatters.

So who's the strong man? A strong man here?

He just casts out demons. A strong man is Satan

and he's trying to guard his house. He's trying to

keep hold of what he possesses. Okay, so the strong

man Satan. Then who is the someone stronger that shows

up in overpowers? Who just showed up and cast out

the demons.

Jesus did.

Jesus is the someone stronger. He is the stronger one

who shows up. He takes away the armor or protection

of the enemy. He divides the plunder. Jesus says that

he is the stronger one, and those who are not

with him are against him. Matthew, Chapter ten, Jesus tells

that he didn't come to bring peace, but a sword.

He didn't come to bring peace, but he came to

bring a sword, And as loving as he is, he

still takes that sword and draws a line in the sand,

those who are with me on one side, and those

who are against me on the other. It's those who

are of the Kingdom of God who are on one side,

and everyone else is on the other. Those who don't

gather to Jesus will scatter like darkness scatters when light

is shone. And I love the imagery between light and darkness.

The Bible uses it all over the place. But what

happens when you're standing in a dark room and someone

turns on the light. What happens to the darkness? It

goes away, It disappears, it vanishes, There's no more darkness.

The enemies of Jesus can't stand before him any more

than darkness can remain. And the light is turned on,

the enemies of Jesus can't stand before him any more

than darkness can remain when the lights are turned on.

So why do the demons tremble in fear before Jesus?

Why do they tremble in fear? It's because they know

who the stronger one is. They know who the stronger

one is. They know the authority and power that Jesus has.

They know the end to which they are headed. You know,

the demons know scripture right, They quote it back to people.

You see that in scripture. They quote it back.

Satan quoted it to Jesus. They know the end to

which they are headed.

But thinking about that story, when Jesus cast the demons

out and they went into the pigs, what did one

of the demons who got cast in the pigs say?

He said, what do you want with me, Jesus, Son

of the Most High God?

I beg you don't torture me.

And he continued to beg Jesus and said, ask them

not to order them to go into the abyss, because

if Jesus orders it, they must obey.

They have to do it.

Jesus has all authority, Jesus has all power. All of

it belongs to Jesus. He is the stronger one. He

will overpower all who are not standing with him. He

will cause everyone who does not gather to him to scatter.

Ever seen a bunch of teenage boys lighting off fireworks,

all huddle together, the fuses in one hand, the lighters

in the other. What happens when they light the fuse,

They scatter like cockroaches. When you turn the light on right,

they all run. They fear what happens if they don't move.

Why because they understand the power of what they just lit.

They run, They scatter. They scatter before the power in

front of them, just as the enemies of Jesus will

scatter before him, because there is no denying as power.

At his name.

Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus

Christ's Lord. The next part of our text today's it

kind of seems like Jesus is going back and explaining

more about what was going on when he just drove

this mute demon out of the man. So let's look

at the next few verses twenty four through twenty six.

When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it

goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it,

then says, I'll return to the house I left. When

it arrives, it finds a house swept clean and put

in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits

more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there.

And the final condition of that person is worse than

the first. That man who had just had the demon

driven out of him, his house had been swept clean

and put in order.

But when the impure.

Spirit comes back, he sees the houses left wide open

for him. In seven of his impure spirit friends, these

wicked spirits come back. It's like all those movies you

see of high schoolers when their parents go out of town.

Where are you going to this?

They think that, Hey, I'm just gonna invite a few

friends over to hang out, right, But then the bad

kid at school catches wind that there's no parents at

this house, and so they make up flyers, pass them

out to everybody at school and says, it's a big rager.

Everyone's invited, right, And then next thing you know is

three hundred kids showing up and destroying the house. They

are way worse off than when they first started.

It's kind of like that.

That's what I think these demons are doing, punching out

flyers and sending their demon friends and inviting all their

demons over. But what point is Jesus actually making here? Like,

what point is he trying to make? Why is he

talking about people being delivered by demons only to be

worse off than before.

Why would he bring this up?

And in order to understand this, we have to put

all the pieces of the puzzle together. If Jesus is

the one who is stronger, stronger than the Satan and

his kingdom, and he drives out demons by the finger

of God, and if demons, after they're driven out, come

back with a vengeance, then what is the logical conclusion

based on the text that Jesus is saying, we.

Must gather to Jesus. Gather to Jesus.

How can demons come back when the one who is

stronger is standing guard.

They can't. They can't come back.

And last week when Jesus taught us how to pray,

what does God, our Father give us? He meets our

greatest need? Right, But what was the last thing he said?

He gives us the Holy Spirit God, the Holy Spirit.

If we're filled with the Holy Spirit, there isn't any

room for the demons to move into.

That's the gift. That's what God gives us, the Holy Spirit.

This man who is just delivered his blessing of deliverance

only lasts if he gathers to Jesus. This blessing of

deliverance only lasts if he gathers to Jesus, otherwise he

will be worse off. And I kind of wrote it

down like this, This is how I like to say it.

Temporary blessings mean nothing if our eternity is damnation. What's

the point of this man being delivered from a demon

if his eternal destination is to be in the lake

of fire next to Satan and his demons. For the

non believer, the one who doesn't gather to Jesus, which

what I'm saying is, doesn't repent of their sin and

believe in Jesus, their days, no matter how good or bad,

are only followed by an eternal worse. Even if they

receive all the earthly blessings that you can imagine in

your head, their days still end in eternal ruin. The

final condition of that person is worse than the first.

You guys, seeing that in the text, does that make sense?

What's the point of having the most beautiful music on

the planet if you go death.

But for the believer, the one who.

Has gathered to Jesus, our days, no matter how good

or bad, are only followed by an eternal better, followed

by an eternal best. We get to look forward to

being face to face with Jesus, no more distance, no

more separation for all eternity.

And that is something to praise God and.

Thank him for himn Can I have the band come

up or whoever's gonna play?

Please and thank you? Yeah?

So how does this man stay delivered? He gathers to Jesus.

He gathers to the one who is stronger. In the

last two verses today seem to me seem like an

interruption when Jesus is speaking, but he still gets through

and makes his point. Let's look at verses twenty seven.

And twenty eight.

As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the

crowd called out, blessed is the mother who gave you

birth and nursed you. He replied, blessed rather are those

who hear the word of God and obey it. Blessed

rather are those who hear the word of God and

obey it. Yes, Mary was incredibly blessed to have been

chosen by God to birth the savior.

Of the world.

But Jesus said, the one who is actually blessed is

the one who hears God's word and obeys. And God

has been saying this to his people ever since he

created him. Right, we know, we see this all throughout scripture.

Obey me and things.

Will go well for you.

But he's also very clear that lack of obedience leads

to ruin. He has a particular order in which he

set things up to work, and when we don't align

with that order, things don't work. And he's basically said

that on repeat for the entire Old Testament to the

children of Israel. But I think this is Jesus's way

of explaining to us how to gather to him, how

to be with him rather than be against him, and

is to hear the word of.

God and obey it.

The way the mute man stays demon free is to

gather to the one who is stronger than Satan and

all his demons. And the way he gathers to the

one who is stronger is by hearing God's word and obeying.

And isn't that the same message that we have. It's

the same message to us. We've been delivered from our sin, Amen,

thank you God. And it's those who've been delivered who

will gather to Jesus. Why And John ten he says,

my sheep know my voice.

They will remain in him.

He died and rose again, defeating the power of sin

and death.

And everyone who comes to him, everyone.

Who gathers to him and believes, they will receive forgiveness

of their sins, and they will be raised in the

last days to everlasting life. But the biggest encouragement slash

challenge I think I want for us today is actually

found in John fifteen. It's a cool parallel to the

points that Jesus is making here. If Jesus is telling

us to gather to him to be on his side,

then let's look at what John fifteen says. I am

the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He

cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. Well,

every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that

will be even more fruitful.

He cares for the state of the fruit or the vines.

You are already clean because of the word I've spoken

to You remain in me, as I also remain in you.

No branch and bear fruit by itself, it must remain

in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you

remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches.

If you remain in me and I in you, you

will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do what.

Apart from me, You can do nothing. If you do

not remain in me, you are like a branch that

is thrown away and withered. Such branches are picked up

and thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain

in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever

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

is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit

showing yourselves to be my disciples.

As a father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Now remain in my love. If you can keep my commands,

you will remain in my love, just as I have

kept my father's commands and remain in his love. What's

the over arching resounding thing in this text? If you

ever confused on a text as you're reading through it

trying to find like, what's the point here, one thing

to look for is repeating words.

How many times you say remain in me, remain in me.

That's the most resounding part of this passage that Jesus calls.

For us to remain in him.

We can do nothing apart from Jesus, especially nothing of

eternal value.

We must remain in the vine.

A branch can do nothing but die when it's separated

from the vine. We can't bear any fruit if we

don't remain in Jesus. We must gather to Jesus and

remain in him. And our text today ended with blessed.

Rather are those who hear the word of God and

obey it. We'll look at the end of John fifteen.

Can we go back.

Verse ten?

If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love,

just as I've kept my father's commands and remain in

his love. Keep his commands, remain in his love. Our

text today obey God's word and be blessed. And that's

our application for today. I think that's how we need

to apply the text. Go to that next slide that

was just up. Gather to Jesus and remain in Jesus.

That's what we need to do. And we need to

gather to Jesus and remain in Jesus. But how do

we do that? What does that even mean? What does

it mean to remain in Jesus? And I put five

real quick points, some good practical stuff for us to do.

And the first one is stand firm in the faith.

I don't know how this is going to look at

the end, but we'll see. We'll see if it worked.

Stand firm in the faith. Don't walk away. That's kind

of seems kind of simple, right, How do I remain

in Jesus? You don't leave? How do I remain standing

where I'm at? I don't walk from this place? Stand

firm in the faith. One Corinthians sixteen, thirteen and fourteen says,

be on your guard, stand firm in the faith. Be courageous,

be strong to everything in love, have steadfast resolve, Be

immovable when it comes to the things of faith.

Be immovable.

Remember the gospel message of Jesus, and hold fast to

your faith, remaining in Jesus by standing firm or excuse me,

remain in Jesus by standing firm in your faith. Number two,

Grow and mature your faith. Grow and mature your faith.

Hebrew six one says. Therefore, let us move beyond the

elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity.

We're encouraged to grow. It only takes faith the size

of a mustard seed to believe. Right, That's what the

Bible tells us. But don't leave your faith that size.

Grow it.

Jesus said you of little faith on multiple occasions, challenging

the disciples to grow that faith. Growing your faith is

what actually helps you stand firm. I grow my faith

and there's nothing that shakes it because I know the

truth and I'm standing on the truth. Grow your faith.

Mature your faith. Growing your faith helps you stand firm.

Maturing your faith helps you wisely remain in Jesus. Number

three is pray without ceasing one Thessalonians five sixteen seventeen,

very too, very short versus rejoice always pray continually four.

Words two verses.

So if you everyone our memorized in Bible verses, those

are two you can pick. Rejoice always pray continually. Be

in constant communication and connection with God the Father. Our

whole Christian walk should be covered in prayer. And we

talked about a little bit last week, not a little bit.

The whole thing was on prayer. But Christians are a

praying people. It's just who we are. We remain in

Jesus by constant and prayer, by being connected to Him

at all times. Number four is seek out God's word, hear.

It and obey it. Seek out God's word and obey

it James one, twenty two. Do not merely listen to

the word and so deceive yourself.

Do what it says. God has spoken to us a lot.

He said a lot of things to us, and in

his providence, he had believers long before us write it

all down so we can have it today.

Thank you God.

Read God's word and obey it. That's why it's so

important to us that we so important to us that

you have a Bible, and we will give them to

you if you don't.

I don't know. We have them on our phones.

Too, but sometimes it's nice to actually flip through something,

read God's word and obey it. If we're on his side,

if we're part of his kingdom, then we should obey

his king and that's Jesus. We remain in Jesus through

obedience to his commands. And when we keep his commands,

we remain in his love because that's what his commands

drive us to, remaining in him. And number five is

fellowship with other believers. To fellowship with other believers Hebrews

ten twenty three through twenty five has let us hold

unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promises faithful,

And let us consider how we may spur one another

on to love and good deeds, not giving up meeting

together as some are in the habit of doing, but

encourage one another and all the more as you see

the day approaching. It's among other believers that were spurred

on too love and good works. My brothers in Christ

encourage me and challenge me to remain in Christ, no

matter the circums stances. I don't feel like it today.

I don't care brother, follow the Lord. Remain in Jesus.

Well, I don't whatever. Fill in the blank.

I had a bad day, Okay, Well does it matter

the circumstances?

What if I'm flying?

Hi? Hey, Greg, looks like you're forgetting to remain in

Jesus because you're doing a little too good right now.

My brothers in Christ are the ones who help me,

encourage me, and challenge me to remain in Christ. The

fellowship of Believers is one of God's greatest tools to

sanctify us, to shape us, and to transform us more

into the im of Jesus.

It's one of his tools to help us remain in Jesus.

And that's one of the reasons we even started these

men's in women's events because we have our once a

month breakfasts and our uh and starting this month, we're

doing our once a month ministry nights, which I can't

wait for.

It's gonna be awesome.

Yes, but go to those events. Fellowship with other believers.

They will help you remain in Jesus. Like we have

to be around other believers. If you're the one fish

swimming against all the other schools of fish, how difficult

your job gonna be?

Or make it upstream downstream? I don't care. No, here's

a better example.

Like if I had this chair up here, and I

stood on the chair, and I had a bunch of

people in a circle, and I reached down and grab

one of your hands, Who's winning that.

Tug of war battle?

Not me? Because it's me versus a bunch of other people.

I'm going to go in that direction. So what should

we do? Fellowship with believers, be around more strong people

that will encourage us to remain in Jesus. Fellowship is

not only super important, but God commands it of us

to fellowship with other believers. You are not meant to

walk out this Christian walk alone. Who does Satan devour.

He is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,

and lines devour those who are separated from the pack.

So why would you willingly walk away from the pack? No,

gather together and fellowship with other believers so that we

remain in Christ.

To go to those monthly events.

They're amazing. If you want more information, go to the

resource desk. We have more information out there. Jesus is

the stronger one and he will never lose. He has

all authority and he has all power over everything that

includes Satan and his demons. So you have nothing to

fear if you gather with Jesus and remain in him.

He is the stronger one. If you gather with Jesus,

you are on the right side. Not that you're the

team captain when it comes to salvation, but you pick

the right person out of your.

Team because you're gonna win that tug of war.

You were on the side that wins. When you gather

to Jesus, the Lord delivers, but only those who gather

to him who are on his side will be blessed

and better off.

And the only thing that's left for us to do

after we

Gather is to remain in him, to gather to Jesus

and remain in Jesus Amen