You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
Our passion is to experience and express grace.
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Last week we started talking about abiding in Christ.
As we heard that gracious command from Jesus to His followers, to abide in me.
To be at home in Jesus.
He is the true vine, remember?
We are the branches.
Life and fruitfulness are always and only in Him.
And this weekend we've had plenty of chances to see branches all over the ground, all over town.
Be reminders to us of how much we need Jesus.
That's what you've all been thinking as you've driven around, right?
That we need to stay connected to Him.
We must.
I've received several helpful comments and questions since last week.
I want to respond to one now and one at the end.
Perhaps the most repeated question that I got this week was,
Really?
I mean, abiding all the time?
And actually I really, really appreciate whatever version of this question you have asked because
it means you're taking Jesus' words seriously.
Abiding, staying, being at home with.
That can't be occasional, right?
It's not a come and go type of relationship.
But do you want your surgeon daydreaming about Jesus mid-surgery, pastor?
That's what someone asked me.
I mean, I can't always be talking to Jesus, right?
I have kids to care for, problems to solve, rockets to launch.
That's right.
Being at home in Jesus doesn't mean that you do no other activity ever, okay?
Jesus sends us out, but He never leaves us.
It's that moment-by-moment walking with Him that we talked about this summer if you were here.
His word, prayer, worshiping together, relationships, all helping us walk with Him, abide in Him,
even while we do other things, lots of other things.
For example, I don't get to be, much as I might like, with my wife 24-7, right?
But we spend time together.
That's really important.
It does take time, time together, so that when we're not together, when I am doing something else,
I still haven't left that primary relationship.
Sometimes I just find myself doing things that I know she will love,
even though she's not right there telling me that in the moment,
like cleaning up the kitchen or getting her coffee or getting my hair cut.
Sometimes I just want to call and share a struggle with her in the middle of the day
and not be alone in it and remember that she loves me.
I just need that.
Sometimes it is simply too busy in the middle of the day to share what we're facing,
but I know that she's there and that she'll be at home at the end of that day, right?
And listen, as wonderful as that is, it's even better in our relationship with God
because he always keeps us, doesn't he?
He never sleeps.
He actually goes with us by his spirit,
whether our minds or emotions are tied up with something else because we're so limited, right?
He is holding us.
And abiding means this.
Abiding means knowing that he's got me,
even in those moments when I am too weak, too human,
to be consciously aware of it.
That's what abiding is.
Have you spent enough time with him to trust him for all the time?
That's Jesus' invitation to abide, okay?
That's what he's inviting you into.
And he wants to unpack the image of branches abiding in the vine a little bit more today,
which is so helpful because this is meant to be practical, not just theoretical.
How does it happen?
This is the essence of life in relationship with God.
It's the way he made us.
How do we live like this?
Let's continue listening to Jesus at verse 9 of John chapter 15.
God's word.
Jesus says,
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing.
But I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you,
that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Pray with me.
Jesus, we hear your words.
Would we by your Spirit now hear you speaking to our hearts,
shaping us, changing us, making us more like you,
growing our love for you.
Do that work we ask in your name.
Amen.
Thanksgiving weekend every year, my family has a special tradition of getting our Christmas tree.
There's a lot of traditions around it.
It happens at halftime of the Iron Bowl,
when the rest of town is busy with something inside.
And we bundle up,
pack all of us into the van with all of the necessary tools,
and go to pick out our Christmas tree from the gorgeous neighborhood Lowe's lot.
We bring it home.
We wrestle it into the tree stand,
while apple cider and hot chocolate are warming,
and sometimes that takes longer than others.
We debate very patiently whether the tree is straight or not every year.
And then, to be honest, we downright argue over white lights or different colors.
That is a tradition.
It's important.
If, if fewer than half of us are crying or angry by this point in the evening,
which is a pretty big if,
we decorate the tree.
And it is always really fun, honestly,
to get out old ornaments,
to tell stories together,
to kick off the Christmas season.
And that night, that Saturday in November,
the tree looks fantastic.
The branches are strong.
They're holding up beautiful lights and ornaments,
just where we put them.
A few festive weeks of this tree we're going to experience,
and then every year,
it will go to the side of the road.
Branches drooping and brittle,
already turning brown.
Not very festive anymore.
Why do we know that?
Even that first special night,
why do we know that those days are numbered for that tree?
Well, it's because it's been disconnected from its source of life, right?
You may be able to decorate it for a few weeks
and make it look fruitful,
but there will be no lasting life and fruit for this tree anymore.
And Jesus is making a similar point about us here.
Because we all long to live beautiful, full lives, don't we?
We want to grow.
We want to change over time.
We want to have an impact.
We want to bear fruit.
All of us do.
But you can't have lasting change.
Real fruit by just hanging some on the exterior of your life.
Doesn't work that way.
Apart from Jesus, he told us last week,
we can do nothing.
Real change, he says, comes from abiding in Christ.
From the inside out.
It's from the root all the way through the fruit.
That is his point.
About the branch having to stay at home in the vine.
His point is there's great hope for anxious people to become peaceful and courageous.
There's great hope for selfish people to be those who bless others.
There's great hope for us to grow into permanently life-giving trees bearing much fruit
if and only if we stay with Jesus.
Right?
Now that's counterintuitive to most of us.
It's not up to us and our own efforts to get better.
I've been told I can improve myself.
It's certainly countercultural.
It's not dig deep.
You've got it in you.
It's not the message.
Let's see how Jesus says it actually works.
He gets a bit more tangible for how we abide in him.
Same overall idea.
Just a couple more specifics.
If you're like me, we need that help.
Thankful for these specific instructions.
First, that abiding in Jesus means abiding in his love.
Which will bear the fruit of sacrificial love in our lives.
Verse 9, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Abide in my love.
Can we just slow down there with me for a second?
This short little verse is mind-blowing.
The Father has loved Jesus with full knowledge,
with eternal perfection,
with the complete sharing of all good things,
this Trinitarian love within the God who is love.
He says, just in that way,
Jesus has loved you.
He knows you completely.
And he loves you completely.
So much so that Paul says,
this is a love that surpasses knowledge.
And yet he also prays that we will know
how wide and how long and how high
and how deep is this measureless love
because we are told to abide in it.
To be at home there.
To have this reality that is beyond our full comprehension.
Be the one that shapes our entire lives.
I mean, we sing,
Jesus loves me.
Some of you have been singing that for decades.
Do you marvel at that?
Jesus loves me.
We could sing a million songs about it
and barely scratch the surface
because we have been shown the greatest love.
Right?
Verse 13 says that.
Nothing could be done beyond laying down your life for someone.
You couldn't love them any more than that.
The God who set the galaxies in motion
would descend to give his life for me.
Is that story, that love,
is that home for you?
That, Jesus says, is what will empower you.
It will transform you
and it will give you the power to love one another
as I have loved you.
As you abide in my love,
Jesus says,
the more it becomes home,
you will love others
who are undeserving and need grace.
Who are lonely and they need welcome.
Who are broken and need care.
Several years ago,
the football team at Grapevine Faith High School,
it's a Christian school in Texas,
they were in the middle of a very successful season
and had a game coming up the next weekend
against a winless opponent.
Seemed like a week to relax.
Gainesville State was coming to their stadium.
A team of kids
from a maximum security correctional facility
who hadn't won a game.
And Grapevine Faith's coach had an idea.
He gathered some parents
and started talking about what it could look like
to show the love of Jesus
to young men that most people had given up on
and stopped cheering for.
Here was the idea.
What would it look like
to love them the way Jesus loves us?
That's what they talked about.
Here's what happened.
Before the game,
over 200 faith fans
made a tunnel for the Tornadoes.
That's the other team
to run through into the stadium.
Then they went and sat
in their stands
on their side of the field.
They learned the names
of the players from the other team
and cheered for them by name.
You can read about it on ESPN.com.
That means it really happened.
Coach Hogan's message
that he wanted the opposing players
to receive.
Quote,
You are just as valuable
as any other person
on planet Earth.
Sounds like a message from Jesus,
doesn't it?
One Gainesville player said
that people were usually afraid of them
and looked at them as criminals
when they came into the game.
But he said,
These people were yelling for us
by our names,
cheering for us
to tackle their kids.
Grapevine Faith won the game.
Then they gathered at midfield
to pray
when Isaiah,
the quarterback of Gainesville,
asked if he could lead.
And he prayed,
Lord,
I don't know how this happened,
so I don't know how to say thank you.
But I never would have known
there was so many people
in the world
that cared about us.
Surprised, wasn't he?
Surprising.
Self-sacrificing love
like God's love.
I don't know what the fruit of love
will look like exactly
in your life.
Maybe your grace group
reaches out to a widow.
Maybe your friend group
welcomes a kid
who doesn't fit
with anybody else
to go to homecoming with you.
Maybe your family
adds a foster child,
adopts a college student,
helps a neighbor,
I don't know.
But the more you find yourself
at home
in the undeserved,
unconditional,
unending love of Jesus,
the more you will love others.
That's why we say
experience grace.
Breathe it in
and then express grace.
Breathe it out.
It's not complicated,
but it's not natural either.
It is divine fruit
grown only God's way
by abiding inside out.
Don't try to change
any other way.
His power
is so much stronger
than our willpower
to just do it.
He changes us
and bears this fruit
in us.
Abiding in Jesus' love
is really the headline
here in this passage.
In some ways,
these other two points
are subsets of that,
but they do stand
on their own too.
So let's ask,
where else
can we be at home?
Can we rest our minds?
Can we find our lives
shaped to other
things you can do?
Abiding
in Christ's word
produces
beautiful obedience.
Jesus already told us this
in John chapter 8
that true disciples
abide
in his word.
They stay
in his teachings.
They meditate
on his instructions.
And now here
in these final instructions,
he highlights
the mutual abiding.
Abiding in me,
verse 7,
involves my words,
abiding in you
so that you do them.
Verse 10 says,
that is part
of abiding in my love
just like Jesus
abides in his father's love
and obeys his father,
everything his father
sent him to do.
This is repeated
throughout the scripture,
that the word of Christ
should dwell in us
richly
so that our life
together
as God's people
is shaped
by his word.
That we're to hide
God's word
in our hearts.
Why?
So that we might not
sin against him
because his word
is a lamp
to our feet
and a light
to our path.
So abiding
in his word
means reading it,
yes?
It means meditating
on its direction
for my life,
memorizing it
so that I hear it
through my head
throughout the day
even when my hands
don't have a Bible
in them
in that moment.
It's okay to put it down
but you can still hear it,
right?
Young people,
memorize God's word
now while it
sticks with you
for your entire life.
There's nothing else
that will bear such fruit
in your life
as you grow up
but older people
you can memorize too.
It's not too late.
Just remember
that Jesus isn't talking
about some
robotic relationship.
Automatic,
cold obedience.
Every time we know
what we're supposed to do,
we do it.
Is that your experience?
Not usually.
No, this is
in the context
of love.
love.
A loving relationship
with him
where we are eager
to follow his words.
In fact,
verse 15,
I told you,
my friends,
everything that God
wanted.
You've got all my words.
We're friends.
And I chose you
to bear lasting fruit
so that when you ask
for anything
like to change you,
God,
make me new,
make me different,
help me obey,
then in time
I will do that.
It's lasting fruit.
Isn't that great encouragement?
The fruit will abide too.
It'll have a lasting impact.
It's not the kind
that looks good
for a few weeks
but is really dead inside.
You can put that kind
on your life
and pretend
for a little while.
Now this is the kind
of obedience
that is beautiful,
that adorns
the gospel,
that inspires others,
not shames them
because it grows
inside out
from a love for Jesus
and his design
for my life.
What does he want me
to do?
So imagine,
for example,
you sit with God's word
and you hear Jesus saying,
do not worry
about what you will eat
or drink
or wear.
And for many of us,
if we're honest,
our first thought is,
you know,
Jesus,
as great as it sounds
not to be worried,
as much as I would like
not to battle anxiety
about my appearance
every day.
Come on,
Jesus.
If I don't,
if I don't worry
at all
about my clothes,
about what I'm going
to look like,
about the things
that I will wear,
no one will like me.
I'll be worthless,
left out.
Can I just handle
this one,
Jesus?
I know how
to handle clothes.
How does abiding
in God's word
change that worried,
anxious heart
over time?
Well,
we hear Jesus
reminding us,
your heavenly Father
knows what you need.
Oh,
listen,
I grieve
when you are cast
aside by others
because you are
so precious.
so you need
to know
that even if
everyone else
discards you,
even if your own
mother forgets you,
yet I will not
forget you.
In fact,
I have engraved you
on the palms
of my hand.
And you hear Jesus
say that,
and when that reality
of being beloved
like that
becomes home
for you,
in other words,
when that takes
hold of your life,
it is beautiful.
beautiful.
You know it,
you've seen it
in people.
You've seen a peaceful,
kind,
humble presence
in the friend group,
right?
Not an anxious,
envious,
desperate friend
fighting for attention
all the time,
knocking everybody
else down.
No.
What do I do
to be abiding
in Christ?
Soak in his words
so that seed
sinks deep.
Ask him
to shape your life
by it.
Pray that he will
make your life
beautiful in a world
that is often full
of ugly fruit.
This fruit,
this obedience,
it doesn't graft you
into the vine,
right?
But it does show
that you are
crafted in,
that you have
the life of the vine
coursing through you.
One more way
to abide in Christ.
Abide in his joy.
And the fruit
will be full joy.
What I think Jesus
means by that word
full
is not
pretend
superficial happiness
like lights
on a dead Christmas tree
for a few weeks,
but deep,
lasting,
full joy
perhaps beyond
what we imagine
it could be like.
Listen to this
mutual abiding again.
It's amazing.
Verse 11.
These things
I have spoken to you
that my joy
may be in you
and that your joy
may be full.
This is,
this is wild.
But listen to how
serious Jesus is
about our abiding.
vine and branches
so closely connected
that we listen
to his word.
That we,
we revel
in his love
and we find
that his joy
is inside of us.
I'm not sure
I can fully describe
this joy
of Jesus
to you,
but it,
it has to do
with the mysterious
relationship
between father
and son
and spirit
into which
we are being
invited.
See,
we know
that Jesus'
joy is not
based on
happy circumstances
and everything
going well
because it was
for the joy
set before him
that he did what?
Endured
the cross.
His joy,
I think we certainly
understand here,
involves obedience
to his father.
And it must have
involved their
rescuing us
and bringing us
into that
relationship,
the joy
set before him.
He delights
in you,
in you sharing
in that relationship.
See,
it's a joy
that knows
no matter what
happens,
even death
on a cross,
good is coming
from his loving
father.
It's a joy
that feels
a certainty
that satisfaction
in God's
provision
is more
fulfilling
than anything
the world
offers.
It's a joy
that trusts
God's
eternal
inheritance
with the
Holy Spirit
as down payment.
That relationship
with him
and his presence
forever
is more
lasting
than any
other relationship.
That joy
has got
to get
deep
inside
us.
how?
When you
wake up
and sit
in my
presence,
Jesus says,
when you
come with
honest tears
and heartache
and you
open my
word
and you
open your
heart to
me,
Jesus says,
here's how
it happens,
I will
pour
my joy
into
you.
A joy
that comes
from knowing
you are the
apple of my
eye,
the delight
of my
heart,
the ones
for whom
I came
to give
my life
so that you
could share
in the greatest
thing ever,
this relationship
of life
with me
and my
Father.
I've given
you that
great love
so that my
joy can
start to
fill your
heart so
that your
joy will
be full
because nothing
else can fill
you up like
that.
There's no
other way
that you'll
get full
joy.
So when
your kid
wanders
away,
when your
house burns
down,
when your
co-workers
mock you,
you hurt
and you
grieve,
but you
rejoice
in every
season,
every reason,
right,
to praise
the Lord,
to trust
his faithfulness,
to experience
the fullness
of his joy
and that is
beautiful
and that is
unusual
and that is
curiosity
producing
fruit
because the
very life
of Jesus
is coursing
through your
veins,
his love,
his word,
his joy
flowing into
you and
overflowing
from you
over and
over,
it pours
out of
you.
Leads me to
think of a
really thoughtful,
honest question
someone sent me
this week,
I'll close with
this.
In my words,
he asked,
what do I do
if I'm not as
joyful about
abiding
as I should
be?
this guy said
he's heard
his whole
life about
the joy
and value
of this
close
relationship
with Jesus
but he
often finds
himself more
excited by
other fun
things.
First of all,
can we admit
that we all
know that
feeling?
What really
seems exciting
today when I
wake up is
college football.
It's making
money,
it's Pinterest,
it's whatever
it is.
And y'all,
our hearts
have been
conditioned
to delight
in other
things.
We are
bombarded
with messages,
ads,
stories telling
us that joy
is found in
something else,
in someone
else.
It is the
air that we
have been
breathing our
entire lives.
So we should
expect that it
will take time
for our lungs
to be cleared
out,
for our
hearts to be
renewed,
for our
broken joy
seekers to
be reset
to true
north.
My advice,
and I believe
Jesus'
direction here,
is don't
settle for
those lesser
joys,
but at the
same time,
don't try to
force external
joy.
pretend
happiness,
fake
satisfaction.
That's not
what he's
calling us
to.
You're not
in charge
of fruit
production.
You're
invited,
what?
To abide.
To abide
in him.
And I know
that can seem
self-defeating.
I mean,
come on,
pastor,
that's the
only thing
you've told
me to do,
and I told
you I'm
struggling to
do that,
so what
else do I
do?
Y'all,
that is
surrendering.
Surrendering
control to
an all-powerful,
all-gracious,
all-good
God.
Jesus says
it's not joy
actually that
you seek,
it's me,
and you
actually get
me.
I make my
home in you.
We abide
mutually.
I even call
you my
friend,
and for the
rest of
eternity,
your delight
in me
grows as
you see
me more
clearly.
It's okay
that you're
not totally
there today.
Keep walking
with me.
Keep abiding
in me.
You allow
your heart
to be
overwhelmed
by his
sacrificial
love for
someone like
you who
is so
often
unlovely
and yet
is so
often
loved
so
extravagantly.
That's
what you
do.
You
contemplate
his
life-giving
words
that don't
like so
many others
heap a
burden on
you to
change and
fix yourself
and yet
at the
same time
promise to
change you
completely
from the
inside out
and to
make you
into the
glorious
creation
that he
made you
to be.
You
taste his
overflowing
joy in
bringing you
to his
father,
in sustaining
you through
the trials
of life,
in having
you live
with him
forever in
the light
of his
presence and
that's his
delight and
you taste
that and
I don't
know how
many years
from now
it will be
when you'll
feel you
really delight
in abiding
in Christ
the way
that you
should.
I don't
know.
But I
know whenever
it is you'll
have an
eternity of
years ahead
to keep
enjoying that
savior.
Let's pray.
Jesus,
grow our
delight,
help our
joy,
reset our
hearts.
love our
hope.
We won't
look anywhere
else.
We come to
you and we
trust you and
we need your
help because we
are so prone to
wander.
Keep us as
you've promised.
Grow us,
change us,
make our
delight overflow
to many others.
We ask in
your name.
Amen.
For more
information,
visit us
online at
southwood.org.