Sermon March 6, 2011 John 15:4 Abide in Christ
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Here are my notes from this morning.
Message title: John 15:4 Abide in Christ
The Big Idea for message: As Christ followers we need to be in a complete dependent relationship with Jesus for Him to really work in our lives. If we attempt to do everything on our own we will struggle, if we seek Jesus and stand with Him everything is accomplished together.
Sticky Statement: Abide in Christ and watch how He can use you!
Misc: This morning we are looking at the second section of ‘God’s Plan for Sharing’ as laid out by the Iowa Southern Baptist Convention. Last week we looked at Galatians 6:1-10 Hold to One Another. The two main points were bearing one another’s burdens and sharing our blessings. We talked about how we need to help each other through the tough times and lift each other up. We also looked at how we are told to use what God has blessed us with to bless others.
This morning we are going to be looking at John 15:4 ‘Abide in Christ’ and how we can apply it to our lives. Next week we will finish out this series with Acts 1:8 and look at how we are to ‘Reach Out to Others’
The hope is as we work through these sections of scripture we can further develop a love for our community and think about ways how we can show God’s love to others.
ME (orientation):
It was many centuries ago in a remote village in India. Word began to spread that something was about to happen that no one had seen in their lifetime the prince was coming to visit their forgotten little village.
Everyone was excited but no one was more excited than the village beggar. Every day he eked out another day by sitting by the road with his little cup, hoping to get enough money to buy the rice to live one more day. He actually had two cups one for collecting money and one for his few grains of rice. But now the prince was coming the wealthy prince! When the prince finally arrived, the beggar mustered his most impassioned appeal - Alms! Alms for the poor! And the prince stopped. The beggar’s heart was pounding furiously.
Give me your cup of rice. That was all the prince said. The beggar slumped down in disbelief. Here was the wealthiest man in the land, asking for his lousy little cup of rice. The beggar was about to refuse, but instead placed 3 grains of rice in the prince’s hand. The prince turned to his servant and said, Bring me the bag of gold. The beggar could hardly contain himself as he eagerly stretched out his empty collection cup. The prince reached into his bag and placed three gold coins in the beggar’s cup. And then he disappeared, never to return but leaving the beggar to wonder for the rest of his life . . . what would have happened if I had given him my whole cup of rice?
There have been times in my life that I have limited my dependency on Jesus. Those were times where I made a choice to not bother God with my problems or even just decide it was something I can handle on my own. As I look back, whatever the issue may have been, I remember struggling, I remember not feeling like I succeeded, and most importantly I did not see God working.
As a Christian, a Christ follower, I denied myself the work of the Holy Spirit the divine influence of God, the love of Jesus when I did not abide in Him. Holding onto what I had, trying to be in control, I did not get to experience the Great work of Jesus in my life. Like the Beggar I only gave over a small portion and tried to control everything else, in turn Jesus let me do it myself and left me asking what if I had given it all to Him.
WE (identification):
If you were to take some time and reflect back on this last week, maybe last month, of even the last several years of your life, can you see the difference from when you ventured out on your own versus when you were depending on Jesus?
When we depend on Jesus for the big things and the little things we regular get to witness Him at work in our lives and the lives of others around us. If we fully abide with Him, He will be with us always.
GOD (illumination):
In the NKJV “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me”
What we are being told is that we need to Abide in Jesus. By ourselves we are just people who struggle, but being part of His family we get to see Him work through us.
I looked up the word Abide in the dictionary and here are some of the meanings that I felt were relevant to our lesson this morning.
Dwell
Stand
Endure
Wait for
Suffer for
Submit to
Remain Faithful
In today’s society many of these words are not something that is valued. People want things now, the fast food mentality, they do not want to wait for anything. They definitely do not want to accept anything without questioning it and without fully understanding it. The thought of suffering for something you believe in is a foreign concept. Submitting to anything is beyond understanding. Remaining faithful is not something that is valued, just look at the divorce rate.
While these things are foreign to the world, they are exactly what Jesus wants us to do. Actually He expects us to act this way.
Dwell – Psalm 23:6 “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
The Psalmist is saying that we are supposed to be with God, live our lives with Him, forever. Another way of looking at this is that we are to depend on Him for our entire lives.
Stand – Ephesians 6:13 “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
As Abiders in Christ we are soldiers equipped with the armor of God. As soldiers we need to stand firmly, we need to not yield, we need to not flee, we need to not yield. Life will throw us challenges, we will encounter people who challenge our beliefs. We need to stand strong in our faith, in our beliefs. Remember we are equipped to stand strong.
Endure - Matthew 10:22 “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved” NKJV
Following Jesus is not something that will make you popular in the world. Our beliefs get trashed in the media, people think all Christians are narrow minded, but in the end we get a wonderful gift! In the end we get to spend eternity with Jesus.
Wait for – Romans 8:25 “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Wait patiently for what God has promised; wait for His work to be done.
In this world that wants everything fast, now, and how they want it Jesus wants us to wait on Him. Abiding in Christ means that we need to buck the trend of the world and wait on the things He has promised us.
Suffer for – 2 Timothy 4:5 “But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry”
Abiding in Christ means that at times in our lives we will endure afflictions, life will not always be easy. From medical and financial issues, to being treated negatively due to our beliefs we will have to face afflictions. In many ways it is part of our ministry, as it helps us to develop our own testimony.
Submit to – James 4:7 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Abiding in Christ means we will submit to Him. Again a foreign concept to the world today, but it is exactly what Jesus wants us to do. The good news as we are told in this verse that as we submit ourselves to Jesus the devil will flee, as he knows he has already lost.
Remain Faithful – Matthew 17:20 “He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
The ‘amount’ of faith is not important; even the smallest is enough. The smallest amount of faith in a God that is beyond anything we can dream about is all that is needed. We need to have faith to see God work in our lives.
So when we abide in Christ:
We dwell with Him; we stand strong with Him and never yield our faith. Abiding in Christ calls for us to endure things from others, at time we may be mistreated for His name. We need to wait for God and remember things happen in his time not in ours. Abiding in Christ will mean that at times we will have to suffer for what we believe in, but in turn it will strengthen our witness to others. We will need to submit to Jesus and give things over to Him that we may struggle with. We may want to control this or that, but submitting them to Jesus shows are abiding in Him.
And finally abiding in Christ refers to having faith. There will be times when we will be so beaten down by life that we are not sure where our faith is coming from and it may seem very slight, there will be other times when we know nothing is impossible cause God is with us. We need to remain faithful in all that we do.
YOU (application): Abide in Christ and watch how He can use you!!
As we abide in Christ and remain faithful in Him, He will use us!
Think back to the story of the Beggar and how he had very little faith and only gave the prince the smallest portion or what he had. If had realized all that the prince could offer him and had the smallest amount of faith in the prince the outcome would have been much more pleasant.
Remembering who Jesus us, dwelling with Him, having faith and standing firm in it will allow God to work in us.
We have been talking about God’s Plan for Sharing, and when we look at abiding in Christ we can see that He will be with us, we need to stand strong and do what He asks, we need to understand that our words and actions will not always be accepted, but ultimately if we submit to Jesus will and have even the smallest amount of faith in our amazing God, He will work in us.
WE (inspiration):
As individuals and as a church we should be continuing to reflect on what God wants us to do. How can we show love to this community, what is our niche. I want to encourage each of you to pray about it and abide in Christ. Take it to a new level, if you have depended on God for the little things, start depending on Him for everything. If you only pray when you have a major problem, start praying every day.
Whatever it is take the next step! Abide in Christ and watch how He can use you!
Here are my notes from this morning.
Message title: John 15:4 Abide in Christ
The Big Idea for message: As Christ followers we need to be in a complete dependent relationship with Jesus for Him to really work in our lives. If we attempt to do everything on our own we will struggle, if we seek Jesus and stand with Him everything is accomplished together.
Sticky Statement: Abide in Christ and watch how He can use you!
Misc: This morning we are looking at the second section of ‘God’s Plan for Sharing’ as laid out by the Iowa Southern Baptist Convention. Last week we looked at Galatians 6:1-10 Hold to One Another. The two main points were bearing one another’s burdens and sharing our blessings. We talked about how we need to help each other through the tough times and lift each other up. We also looked at how we are told to use what God has blessed us with to bless others.
This morning we are going to be looking at John 15:4 ‘Abide in Christ’ and how we can apply it to our lives. Next week we will finish out this series with Acts 1:8 and look at how we are to ‘Reach Out to Others’
The hope is as we work through these sections of scripture we can further develop a love for our community and think about ways how we can show God’s love to others.
ME (orientation):
It was many centuries ago in a remote village in India. Word began to spread that something was about to happen that no one had seen in their lifetime the prince was coming to visit their forgotten little village.
Everyone was excited but no one was more excited than the village beggar. Every day he eked out another day by sitting by the road with his little cup, hoping to get enough money to buy the rice to live one more day. He actually had two cups one for collecting money and one for his few grains of rice. But now the prince was coming the wealthy prince! When the prince finally arrived, the beggar mustered his most impassioned appeal - Alms! Alms for the poor! And the prince stopped. The beggar’s heart was pounding furiously.
Give me your cup of rice. That was all the prince said. The beggar slumped down in disbelief. Here was the wealthiest man in the land, asking for his lousy little cup of rice. The beggar was about to refuse, but instead placed 3 grains of rice in the prince’s hand. The prince turned to his servant and said, Bring me the bag of gold. The beggar could hardly contain himself as he eagerly stretched out his empty collection cup. The prince reached into his bag and placed three gold coins in the beggar’s cup. And then he disappeared, never to return but leaving the beggar to wonder for the rest of his life . . . what would have happened if I had given him my whole cup of rice?
There have been times in my life that I have limited my dependency on Jesus. Those were times where I made a choice to not bother God with my problems or even just decide it was something I can handle on my own. As I look back, whatever the issue may have been, I remember struggling, I remember not feeling like I succeeded, and most importantly I did not see God working.
As a Christian, a Christ follower, I denied myself the work of the Holy Spirit the divine influence of God, the love of Jesus when I did not abide in Him. Holding onto what I had, trying to be in control, I did not get to experience the Great work of Jesus in my life. Like the Beggar I only gave over a small portion and tried to control everything else, in turn Jesus let me do it myself and left me asking what if I had given it all to Him.
WE (identification):
If you were to take some time and reflect back on this last week, maybe last month, of even the last several years of your life, can you see the difference from when you ventured out on your own versus when you were depending on Jesus?
When we depend on Jesus for the big things and the little things we regular get to witness Him at work in our lives and the lives of others around us. If we fully abide with Him, He will be with us always.
GOD (illumination):
In the NKJV “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me”
What we are being told is that we need to Abide in Jesus. By ourselves we are just people who struggle, but being part of His family we get to see Him work through us.
I looked up the word Abide in the dictionary and here are some of the meanings that I felt were relevant to our lesson this morning.
Dwell
Stand
Endure
Wait for
Suffer for
Submit to
Remain Faithful
In today’s society many of these words are not something that is valued. People want things now, the fast food mentality, they do not want to wait for anything. They definitely do not want to accept anything without questioning it and without fully understanding it. The thought of suffering for something you believe in is a foreign concept. Submitting to anything is beyond understanding. Remaining faithful is not something that is valued, just look at the divorce rate.
While these things are foreign to the world, they are exactly what Jesus wants us to do. Actually He expects us to act this way.
Dwell – Psalm 23:6 “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
The Psalmist is saying that we are supposed to be with God, live our lives with Him, forever. Another way of looking at this is that we are to depend on Him for our entire lives.
Stand – Ephesians 6:13 “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
As Abiders in Christ we are soldiers equipped with the armor of God. As soldiers we need to stand firmly, we need to not yield, we need to not flee, we need to not yield. Life will throw us challenges, we will encounter people who challenge our beliefs. We need to stand strong in our faith, in our beliefs. Remember we are equipped to stand strong.
Endure - Matthew 10:22 “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved” NKJV
Following Jesus is not something that will make you popular in the world. Our beliefs get trashed in the media, people think all Christians are narrow minded, but in the end we get a wonderful gift! In the end we get to spend eternity with Jesus.
Wait for – Romans 8:25 “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Wait patiently for what God has promised; wait for His work to be done.
In this world that wants everything fast, now, and how they want it Jesus wants us to wait on Him. Abiding in Christ means that we need to buck the trend of the world and wait on the things He has promised us.
Suffer for – 2 Timothy 4:5 “But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry”
Abiding in Christ means that at times in our lives we will endure afflictions, life will not always be easy. From medical and financial issues, to being treated negatively due to our beliefs we will have to face afflictions. In many ways it is part of our ministry, as it helps us to develop our own testimony.
Submit to – James 4:7 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Abiding in Christ means we will submit to Him. Again a foreign concept to the world today, but it is exactly what Jesus wants us to do. The good news as we are told in this verse that as we submit ourselves to Jesus the devil will flee, as he knows he has already lost.
Remain Faithful – Matthew 17:20 “He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
The ‘amount’ of faith is not important; even the smallest is enough. The smallest amount of faith in a God that is beyond anything we can dream about is all that is needed. We need to have faith to see God work in our lives.
So when we abide in Christ:
We dwell with Him; we stand strong with Him and never yield our faith. Abiding in Christ calls for us to endure things from others, at time we may be mistreated for His name. We need to wait for God and remember things happen in his time not in ours. Abiding in Christ will mean that at times we will have to suffer for what we believe in, but in turn it will strengthen our witness to others. We will need to submit to Jesus and give things over to Him that we may struggle with. We may want to control this or that, but submitting them to Jesus shows are abiding in Him.
And finally abiding in Christ refers to having faith. There will be times when we will be so beaten down by life that we are not sure where our faith is coming from and it may seem very slight, there will be other times when we know nothing is impossible cause God is with us. We need to remain faithful in all that we do.
YOU (application): Abide in Christ and watch how He can use you!!
As we abide in Christ and remain faithful in Him, He will use us!
Think back to the story of the Beggar and how he had very little faith and only gave the prince the smallest portion or what he had. If had realized all that the prince could offer him and had the smallest amount of faith in the prince the outcome would have been much more pleasant.
Remembering who Jesus us, dwelling with Him, having faith and standing firm in it will allow God to work in us.
We have been talking about God’s Plan for Sharing, and when we look at abiding in Christ we can see that He will be with us, we need to stand strong and do what He asks, we need to understand that our words and actions will not always be accepted, but ultimately if we submit to Jesus will and have even the smallest amount of faith in our amazing God, He will work in us.
WE (inspiration):
As individuals and as a church we should be continuing to reflect on what God wants us to do. How can we show love to this community, what is our niche. I want to encourage each of you to pray about it and abide in Christ. Take it to a new level, if you have depended on God for the little things, start depending on Him for everything. If you only pray when you have a major problem, start praying every day.
Whatever it is take the next step! Abide in Christ and watch how He can use you!
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