SPEAKER_00: Meet you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh come say hi after the service.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to have an opportunity to uh to greet you.
SPEAKER_00: I am the discipleship pastor here at Parkside, and it'd just be great to uh get the chance to shake your hand, hear a little bit about you.
SPEAKER_00: Um I wanted to start today by saying that yesterday, our family had what I'm calling like a true, genuine American experience.
SPEAKER_00: We we were outside doing some gardening work when all of a sudden, overhead, there's this and five F-16s flew right over top of our house.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, and all of us was like eyes in the sky, and we're like, America.
SPEAKER_00: And so, I mean, I don't know if it gets much more American than that, but um I just wanted to share that with you.
SPEAKER_00: It was a fantastic day.
SPEAKER_00: They're all getting ready for the Indianapolis 500, and hopefully today during the opening ceremonies, they're able to make that flight, and hopefully the rain is held off for that.
SPEAKER_00: But it was just, it was so cool.
SPEAKER_00: Um, more than that, though, uh I'm just I'm so honored to be able to stand here this morning to open up God's word to all of us, to hear from him and to ask that he would uh teach us as we submit ourselves under his word.
SPEAKER_00: We ask that the Holy Spirit would begin a work in us and also continue a work that he's already started in us as we submit ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: As has been mentioned many times, this is our final gathering in this auditorium for the next few months.
SPEAKER_00: And while we don't know exactly when we'll be back here, hopefully it's before the new year, as if everything goes according to plan, and we'll be before the new year.
SPEAKER_00: And as your pastors, we just want to say thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Our church family has been so supportive of us as we've been seeking to lead us in this direction.
SPEAKER_00: You've been generous, and uh, we just we appreciate you so much as our church family.
SPEAKER_00: Um, to everyone who's already signed up to be a volunteer, whether it's for setup and teardown, for the extra uh warm welcome people or any other the other needs that we have, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't found a way to use your gifts to like uh get involved in this new season of church life, I just want to encourage you to do it, to just find a way to get plugged in.
SPEAKER_00: And I can I promise you that your faith will only increase as you find ways to serve the church using your gifts and abilities that God has given to you.
SPEAKER_00: Um and not only in this season of meeting in a gymnasium as a church, but in all seasons of church life, including in upcoming church plants.
SPEAKER_00: And as Sunday schools and community groups multiply, I want to encourage you to get involved and see God move.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, with all that, as we as we turn our attention to God's word, uh I'd like to pray and just ask that you would pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: Our God, we we humble ourselves now, thanking you that you have given us your word and you did not abandon us to just try to figure out this life on our own, but that you you came down bodily in the form of Jesus and that you've given us your word so that we can know all things that pertain to life and godliness.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, I ask that as we come under your word, Lord, would you teach us?
SPEAKER_00: Would your word be the thing that would remain in us, in our hearts?
SPEAKER_00: And we ask that you would not allow us to leave here the same, but that you would continue and start a transformative work in our hearts as we submit ourselves under your word.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Justin mentioned uh this morning that back in January at our family meeting, we started thinking through this theme of dependence on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And as Christians, we all know it to be true that in all things we depend on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And while we know this to be true, this year we wanted to specifically focus our attention on this fact over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: One of the main things that we are seeking God's guidance on is the plans that are being made for an upcoming church plans.
SPEAKER_00: As we seek to develop these plans, we don't want to just make these plans based on what makes sense in our minds as your pastors or as leaders in the church.
SPEAKER_00: No, we we want to plant a church based on God's leading.
SPEAKER_00: We've been reminded again and again in our prayer meetings that we don't pray and then get to work, but that prayer is the work.
SPEAKER_00: You may remember that we had a prayer and fasting four by four, four weeks in the month of January, where we sought to pray and fast one day each of those weeks with this theme in mind of dependence on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And at every prayer and family meeting since then, we've been reminding ourselves of this theme of dependence on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so today, as we gather for one final time in this auditorium before it's remodeled, we're turning again to this theme of dependence on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's so humbling for me to think of all of the sermons that have been preached from right here over the years.
SPEAKER_00: And for you to think of all of the people who have sat where you're sitting right now, under God's word, who have who have prayed where you are sitting right now.
SPEAKER_00: To think of all the baptisms that have taken place up here, of all of the hands that have been shook and the hugs that have been given, of all of the times that where we have remembered Christ's sacrifice by celebrating communion together.
SPEAKER_00: Today we get to see a chapter of God's provision in this church close.
SPEAKER_00: And we look back with great thanksgiving and joy.
SPEAKER_00: And our challenge today from Scripture is not a new one, but one that's rang true for thousands and thousands of years.
SPEAKER_00: Abide in me.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know what our gatherings are gonna look like when we move to the gymnasium.
SPEAKER_00: We we don't know exactly what they're gonna look like when we move back into this room and what it's going to look like.
SPEAKER_00: But what I do know is that Jesus tells us that if we choose to abide in him, he too will abide in us.
SPEAKER_00: And this way our joy will be made full.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's let's turn to God's word to hear from him this morning.
SPEAKER_00: In this passage, we're gonna hear the urgency of Jesus' final words to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And in the sermon, I hope that we come away with these four things in mind.
SPEAKER_00: That as a Christian, I have to be abiding in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's number one.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, this means that I must be allowing his word to abide in me.
SPEAKER_00: I must be daily in his word.
SPEAKER_00: Three, as we abide in his word, God the Father does his work of pruning us.
SPEAKER_00: And number four, all of this is done so that we, the church, can truly love one another.
SPEAKER_00: Abide in Christ so that his word will abide in us, so that God can prune us, so that we can go on and love one another.
SPEAKER_00: With that in mind, let's turn to John 15, verse 1, which says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.
SPEAKER_00: For context, it might be helpful for us to know that Jesus says these words in a section of the Gospel of John that is known as the farewell discourse.
SPEAKER_00: This section is part of the final hours leading up to Jesus' arrest and crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: Back in John chapter 13, we see Jesus washing his disciples' feet in the upper room, followed by him outing Judas as the one who's going to betray him.
SPEAKER_00: Turn back in your Bible to chapter 13, verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Then after he had, he being Judas, after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, What you are going to do, do quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Now, no one at the table knew why he said this to him.
SPEAKER_00: Some thought that because Judas had the money bag, Jesus was telling him, Buy what we need for the feast, or that he should give something to the poor.
SPEAKER_00: So after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out, and it was night.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately after Judas goes out from their midst, Jesus begins this discourse that lasts from chapter 14 through to the end of chapter 16.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus has what is known as the high priestly prayer in chapter 17.
SPEAKER_00: And I wish we had the time to slowly walk through this whole portion of scripture, but we don't this morning.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to encourage you this week, in your devotional time, to slowly walk through these final words that Jesus gave to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you've never read it or you've read it many times before, to slowly go through and hear Jesus' last words to his disciples, knowing that Judas has just gone out to betray him.
SPEAKER_00: By the time chapter 15, verse 1 comes along, Jesus and his disciples are no longer in the upper room, but they're somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: The last words of chapter 14 are rise, let us go from here.
SPEAKER_00: And when we get to John chapter 18, at the end of the discourse, we find that Jesus and his disciples, they leave the city limits of Jerusalem and make their way toward the Garden of Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_00: But between the end of chapter 14 and chapter 18, we don't know where they are.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they left the upper room and they're walking through the city streets on the way to the gate that leads to the Garden of Gethsemane.
SPEAKER_00: One commentary I read stated that perhaps they went to the temple for Jesus to continue teaching his disciples here, where there was an ornate grapevine that hung from the ceiling over one of the gates.
SPEAKER_00: That grapevine in the temple was a symbol that represented Israel, God's people.
SPEAKER_00: First century Jewish historian Josephus records that some of the grape clusters that were made of solid gold were the height of a man hanging from the ceiling.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they were at the temple, or perhaps grapevines were to the people of Israel, what cornfields are to the people of central Indiana.
SPEAKER_00: And that Jesus just understands what types of images are going to make sense to his people, and so he draws on these things to teach them.
SPEAKER_00: All this to say that at the end of chapter 14, Jesus says, Rise, let us go from here.
SPEAKER_00: And then the discourse continues without identifying the location.
SPEAKER_00: And in 15, verse 1, Jesus says that he is the true vine, and that his father is the vine dresser.
SPEAKER_00: At this time I want you to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: Keep your finger in John here, but turn turn to uh Isaiah chapter 5, starting at verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: This theme of vines and a vine dresser, it's not a new theme in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: All throughout the Bible, this theme continues to come up again and again.
SPEAKER_00: But what is new is Jesus claiming to be the true vine, which implies that there are false ones.
SPEAKER_00: And in this passage in Isaiah chapter 5, we're going to hear of another vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Let me sing for my beloved, my love song concerning his vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
SPEAKER_00: He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines.
SPEAKER_00: He built a watchtower in the midst of it, and he hewed out a wine vat in it, and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
SPEAKER_00: One Bible dictionary looked at this week said that that term wild grapes could be also translated as stinkberries.
SPEAKER_00: And now, O inheritance inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard, and what more was there for me to do for my vineyard that I have not done for it, done in it.
SPEAKER_00: When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
SPEAKER_00: Stink berries.
SPEAKER_00: And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: I will remove its hedge and it shall be devoured.
SPEAKER_00: I will break down its wall and it shall be trampled down.
SPEAKER_00: I will make it a waste, it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briars and thorns shall grow up.
SPEAKER_00: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
SPEAKER_00: For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting.
SPEAKER_00: And he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed, for righteousness, and behold, an outcry.
SPEAKER_00: See, God had already planted a vineyard, and he named it Israel.
SPEAKER_00: But Israel failed to produce the fruit that the Lord had desired.
SPEAKER_00: He sought out justice, but behold, bloodshed.
SPEAKER_00: For righteousness, and he heard an outcry because of its lack.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Jesus says that he is the true vine, he is contrasting himself against the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And whereas Israel was a corrupt and a false vine, Jesus is true.
SPEAKER_00: God was expecting to find choice grapes from his vineyard, especially because of the way that he cared for and tended his vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: And rather than finding choice grapes, he only found wild ones, stink berries.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever planted a garden before and come harvest fine?
SPEAKER_00: Everything's just rotten?
SPEAKER_00: You took such good care of it, and to yield nothing come the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Israel was chosen by God to be his choice vineyard, but they didn't produce what he desired.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus is saying is that in God's vineyard there is only one true vine, and that the people of Israel have to determine whether or not they are attached to him or not.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus tells us what happens to every branch from him, from the vine that doesn't bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 2, it says that every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, he being the vine dresser, God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So where are all my gardeners at today?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone out there planting already?
SPEAKER_00: Tending your gardens?
SPEAKER_00: What do you do with a dead limb on a fruit tree?
SPEAKER_00: You cut it off.
SPEAKER_00: If there's a section of a plant or a garden that's diseased, you get rid of it, right?
SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't spread.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday, as Katie and I were doing our gardening and the F-16 fighters were flooring over top of us, one of the tasks that Katie did was to trim off all of the dead branches from the rose bushes that are surrounding our house.
SPEAKER_00: Chop them off and just toss them away of no value.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is challenging the people of Israel and is warning them to consider who it is that they belong to.
SPEAKER_00: And that if Jesus is truly who he says he is, that there's going to be a reckoning for every branch that isn't attached to the vine.
SPEAKER_00: But notice what he says in the second half of verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: Says that every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it might bear more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: I just love the imagery that this metaphor brings to mind.
SPEAKER_00: If a branch is dead, you cut it off and you take it and it's taken away.
SPEAKER_00: But a branch that is doing as it's intended to do, it's pruned.
SPEAKER_00: It sounds kind of like a cute metaphor, but it also involves a very real cutting off of certain parts of it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says that it is his Father who does this work of pruning in his branches.
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 3, he tells us exactly how this work of pruning takes place.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you notice this shift from verse 2 to verse 3?
SPEAKER_00: In verse 2, Jesus says that every branch that bears fruit, we should be thinking here of his true disciples, will be pruned.
SPEAKER_00: And in verse 3, he says that you, again speaking to his disciples, are clean.
SPEAKER_00: As I was preparing for this message, I came to find out that the word prune and clean came from the same root word.
SPEAKER_00: And that when we think of the work of a vine dressing, a vine is cleaned as it is pruned.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says that his disciples have already been cleaned or have been pruned through his words spoken to them.
SPEAKER_00: What this means is that Jesus' disciples, as they submit to his word, it is the work of God the Father who prunes them so that they might be able to produce even more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I'm gonna assume that for some of us, this is a new idea today.
SPEAKER_00: That the work of transformation within me isn't accomplished as I try harder.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't need you to try harder to be a better person.
SPEAKER_00: He needs you to listen to his word.
SPEAKER_00: And that as you submit to his word, God the Father will do his work in pruning you.
SPEAKER_00: And what does this pruning look like?
SPEAKER_00: This pruning might look like that long-standing addiction in your life suddenly starts to lose its grip.
SPEAKER_00: Snip.
SPEAKER_00: It might look like that explosive anger that you have in the home dies away.
SPEAKER_00: Snip.
SPEAKER_00: It might mean that you stop rolling your eyes, or that you start bending your knee in prayer, or that you have a sudden overflowing of generosity and hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: Snip.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling his disciples and us that as we submit ourselves under his word, that God the Father is going to do the work of pruning us and making us clean so that we can bear even more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And at this point in Jesus' discourse, I'm I'm asking the question uh can you please tell me exactly what fruit it is that you're looking for?
SPEAKER_00: And if you're like me, I want to ask you just to hold on for a few more minutes.
SPEAKER_00: Because for now, Jesus turns to verse 4 and he says, Abide in me and I in you.
SPEAKER_00: As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
SPEAKER_00: I am the vine, you are the branches.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.
SPEAKER_00: For apart from me you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I love verses four and five, because in it, Jesus basically says the same thing over and over again, five different times.
SPEAKER_00: He's really trying to get this through our heads that unless we remain branches attached to the true vine, we can do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: The word abide can also be translated to remain.
SPEAKER_00: And John really loved this phrase, this word, because it he repeats it in the gospel of John, but also in all of his letters to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Remain, remain, abide, abide.
SPEAKER_00: Our challenge today is to abide and remain in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, abide in me and I in you.
SPEAKER_00: And we nod along.
SPEAKER_00: It makes sense based off of what he's already said to us.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus knows exactly how thick my skull is and says, if a branch, a branch cannot bear fruit by itself, and again, we nod along.
SPEAKER_00: It's like we get it.
SPEAKER_00: It makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: The branch must remain in the vine.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, unless a branch abides in the vine, it cannot produce fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And we're like, okay, we get we get it.
SPEAKER_00: You've said it three times now, it makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: And I can just imagine Jesus slowing down.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'm the vine.
SPEAKER_00: You are the branches.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples are like, mm-hmm, we understand.
SPEAKER_00: But do we?
SPEAKER_00: As I was preparing for this weekend, as I was reading through this passage again and again, I was gripped by the truth that so often I can find myself claiming to be abiding in the vine while simultaneously trying to just do it all on my own.
SPEAKER_00: And I have to ask myself again and again, am I someone who is continually submitting to God's word so that he can do the work of pruning me?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells us that if we abide in him and allow his word to prune us, that we will bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_00: But there's also a warning here in verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: He says, If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into a fire and burned.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, especially, fire is associated with divine judgment.
SPEAKER_00: The people would have likely been thinking about Israel's prophecy over God's people that we read earlier, and God's former judgment on the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And here Jesus is reminding his audience that anyone who does not stay, does not remain attached to the true vine is going to suffer judgment in hell.
SPEAKER_00: This is twice that Jesus has issued a warning for us to consider whether or not we are attached to the true vine.
SPEAKER_00: If hearing this statement causes you to wonder whether or not you are, you would be receiving pruning from God or be thrown away and burned, I want to tell you that Jesus' desire is that all of us would choose to come to him to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: That you must put your trust in him to be grafted into the one true vine.
SPEAKER_00: In this passage, we can hear the urgency in his voice as he speaks to his closest friends and offers a word of caution to those of us who might be distant from him.
SPEAKER_00: In this passage, Jesus is not telling us to try harder.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying try harder to belong to me.
SPEAKER_00: He's asking that we listen to him through his word.
SPEAKER_00: And as we listen to his word, we come to find that by trusting in Jesus for our salvation and turning from our sin, only through trusting in him can we be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to talk more about this, please come talk to me or Pastor Justin, one of the pastors after the service.
SPEAKER_00: We continue in verse seven, where Jesus says, If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
SPEAKER_00: By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
SPEAKER_00: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.
SPEAKER_00: Abide in my love.
SPEAKER_00: If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.
SPEAKER_00: These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much that we could say in this passage here.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 7, Jesus said is telling us the secret to a fruitful prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: And the secret is that as we abide in him, which he's clarified, means that we as we abide in his word, that whatever we ask will be done for us.
SPEAKER_00: Is Jesus here giving us blanket power to ask for anything?
SPEAKER_00: As if God is suddenly like the genie from Aladdin?
SPEAKER_00: No, he's saying that as we abide in the true vine and as God prunes us through his word, our prayer life will become shaped and conformed to match God's will.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't saying that if I pray for a Ferrari, it's gonna happen because I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: If anything, he's saying that if I'm a Christian, I'll not have a need to pray for a Ferrari because there's far more fruitful things to be bringing before the God of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: As we abide in Jesus, we will be pruned so that we will bear more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Can anyone else feel the urgency in Jesus' words that he's sharing with his disciples, his closest friends?
SPEAKER_00: Abide in me.
SPEAKER_00: Stay in my word, bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: I'm remembering back in John chapter 13, Jesus says to them, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.
SPEAKER_00: Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
SPEAKER_00: And by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
SPEAKER_00: I think that Jesus is telling us that the fruit that he is expecting for his branches to produce is this love for one another.
SPEAKER_00: And that our love should be the same as how Jesus has loved us.
SPEAKER_00: How different does that sound from how you've possibly heard it said before?
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you've heard it explained that the fruit that Jesus demands from you is measured by your good deeds over your bad deeds.
SPEAKER_00: Or your fruit is the number of people that you have led to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling us here that the fruit he expects from us is a genuine sacrificial love for one another.
SPEAKER_00: He's pleading with his disciples to abide because he knows what's awaiting him in the coming hours.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 9, he says that in the same way that God the Father has loved him, that's how much he loves us.
SPEAKER_00: Have you let that sink into your heart before?
SPEAKER_00: That the same love that is shared in the Trinity is shared with those of us who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of the lyrics of a song that go, Amazing love, how could it be that you, my king, would die for me?
SPEAKER_00: Amazing love, I know it's true, and it's my joy to honor you in all I do.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that the God of the universe would love you and would love me is so incomprehensible.
SPEAKER_00: How could that be?
SPEAKER_00: And just as the song says that it's our joy to honor Jesus, Jesus tells us that our joy is made full as we love God by keeping his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: And at this point, I might fear that like the Jewish audience who would have first been reading John might have been tempted to lean back and say, There it is.
SPEAKER_00: I knew there was a catch.
SPEAKER_00: I knew we were gonna have to keep the law and the commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Not so fast.
SPEAKER_00: Because in verse 12, Jesus explains just how his people are to obey the commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: It says, This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
SPEAKER_00: Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
SPEAKER_00: You are my friends if you do what I command you.
SPEAKER_00: This scene reminds me of another scene in the Gospels where Jesus is asked, What is the greatest commandment?
SPEAKER_00: Back in Matthew chapter 22, we read this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
SPEAKER_00: And he, Jesus, said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
SPEAKER_00: This is the great and first commandment.
SPEAKER_00: And the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: The commandment that Jesus is calling us to be obedient to is to love one another just as Jesus has loved us.
SPEAKER_00: And how has he loved us?
SPEAKER_00: By laying down his life, by dying a criminal's death on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is saying that if we likewise live a surrendered life to laying down our lives in love for our brothers and sisters, we're fulfilling this commandment.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 16, Jesus says that he has chosen us and appointed us to go and bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And he says that we do this as we love one another.
SPEAKER_00: Can I summarize this passage for us real quickly here?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling us that the good life, the abundant life that He has prepared for us is found as people choose to submit themselves under God's word and as they sacrificially love one another.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us that as we submit to his word, God the Father does the work of pruning us and shaping us so that we can go out and love one another.
SPEAKER_00: It seems like such a simple message for us to get, and yet Jesus makes sure that his disciples hear it as one of the final things that he says to them on the night where he's been betrayed, knowing that it's going to lead him to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a pencil or a pen, I look at look at your copy of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to circle every time you see the word abide in your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 4, it shows up three times, in verse 5 once, in verse 6 once, in verse 7, two times, down in verse 9 it happens, and in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Abide, abide, abide 11 times in 17 verses.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is calling his closest friends and his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Abide in me, remain, stay close, stay in my word.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's because Jesus knows just how prone we are to abide elsewhere.
SPEAKER_00: This week, as I took time to reflect on this passage and to work through different material, I kept coming back to this word again and again, abide.
SPEAKER_00: Parkside, not only because we're about to go into a season of church ministry life that might be a little bit difficult in some ways, of learning how to do church in a gymnasium, but in all seasons, in church life and in our individual walk with the Lord, we have to be continuing to abide.
SPEAKER_00: And our theme this year has been the exact same thing: dependence on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot depend on Christ without abiding in Him.
SPEAKER_00: And as we abide in Christ, we come to find just how much we truly depend on Him.
SPEAKER_00: If your pastors are gonna go into this auditorium remodel or a new discipleship pathway, or a church plant or a ministry model because it's the trendy thing to do, Jesus tells us it's gonna be burned.
SPEAKER_00: But only if we depend on Christ by abiding in him and his word will we continue to be fruitful for God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is challenging us about true and false vines.
SPEAKER_00: He's making the claim that he is the true vine, which means that there are other false vines that are seeking to graft us in.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's your career.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a love of money.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's sexuality or leisure.
SPEAKER_00: Are we abiding in the one true vine?
SPEAKER_00: Or a vine that will die?
SPEAKER_00: Each of us have to ask this question: Am I abiding in Jesus or am I just living adjacent to him?
SPEAKER_00: Can I say that I'm abiding in his word so that God the Father might prune away in me the things that are inhibiting my fruitfulness?
SPEAKER_00: What's getting in the way of your ability to sacrificially love your brothers and sisters in the church?
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're going to do something that we don't often do, and it's going to take a little bit of time, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: What we're going to do is we're going to take some time to reflect on this theme of dependence on Christ and this call to abide in him.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to give us a tangible way to remember it by.
SPEAKER_00: What you may or may not have noticed on the ends of the pews is a small stack of three by five cards.
SPEAKER_00: You can begin passing those on.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone in the room should have one of those with you.
SPEAKER_00: If your pew doesn't have them or if the kids have doodled on them already, uh raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: There's some more at the at the welcome desk, and we can we can run some to you.
SPEAKER_00: But but what I want us to do is I want us to think of something specific in this season of life that you would say you haven't yet depended on Christ for.
SPEAKER_00: Or another way to say it could be what is something in your life that you know God would seek to prune off of you so that you could be more fruitful for his kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's an unhealthy desire for status.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a covetous longing that you have.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're stuck in a sin pattern and you just need to submit yourself under God's authority of his word so that he can prune you and do his work.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna call Pastor John up here, and he's gonna lead through the singing of the of the song, Abide.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to just encourage you to just sit and listen to the words as he sings, to take some time to reflect, to write something on that card, to prayerfully consider it.
SPEAKER_00: And and as you've prayed and as you've as you've written on the card, we have three baskets at the front of the sanctuary here.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to do that work of standing up and as a as a memorable act to remind yourself of this day, to lay it in the basket.
SPEAKER_00: To say, on March, or sorry, on May 24th, 2026, I said, Lord, I need to depend on you for this.
SPEAKER_00: And as part of the remodel, as a way for us as a church to remember this, what we're gonna do is, because this platform's gonna be looking a whole lot different, and they're gonna be pouring a new concrete slab for it.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna put all these cards under the concrete as a way to commemorate that on this day I said, Lord, I need to depend on you for this.
SPEAKER_00: And when we gather back here, whenever that day might come, we can say, I remember that time, I need to depend on Christ that day, and I still need to depend on him today.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to encourage you to take some time to write something down and to come lay it at the front.
SPEAKER_00: And after Pastor John is is finished leading the song, we will um we will be taking communion, and so take a few moments to reflect as well, to prepare for communion, and then I'll come back up here to lead us through that.
SPEAKER_00: But take a few moments now, reflect and pray.