Sermon - Remain in Christ - John 15:4 - May 13, 2018

John 15:4 Abide in Christ

Before we start, I want to make sure and wish all you ladies, young and old, a Happy Mother’s Day. Whether you are a Mother, hope to be a Mother someday, or are a Mother figure to others… you deserve our thanks. Happy Mother’s Day!

Our starting point this morning is John 15:4

“Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.”

Many centuries ago in a remote village in India, word was spreading that something big was about to happen. Something that no one had witnessed in their lifetime. The prince was coming to visit their remote, all but forgotten, little village.

Everyone was amazed at the news that he was coming and all were excited, but the village beggar was more excited than everyone else. The beggar spent all day every day sitting on the side of the road with his little cup hoping to collect money to buy enough rice to live one more day. He had two cups, one for collecting money and one for the few grains of rice that he had saved for that day. His hope was that with the prince coming to his little town, maybe somehow his life would get better.

When that day finally came and the prince was traveling down the road in front of the beggar, he shouted out his most impassioned appeal… Alms, Alms for the Poor!

The prince stopped, the beggar was beside himself. Here was that life changing moment.

The prince reached out to the beggar and said ‘give me your cup of rice.’ That was all the prince said, and the beggar was shocked. Here was the prince of all of India, the wealthiest man in the land and he was asking a beggar for his little cup of rice.

The beggar held onto his cup and almost pulled away, but instead pulled 3 grains or rice out of his cup and put it into the prince’s hand. The prince took the rice and asked his servant for a bag of gold. The beggar reached out his cup and the prince reached into the bag and pulled 3 gold coins and dropped them into the beggars cup.

The beggar never saw the prince again, but wondered for the rest of his life… what would have happened if he had given the prince his whole cup of rice?

Did the beggar limit his blessing by holding back most of his rice?

A question for each of us this morning is, are we limiting God by holding back parts of our lives?

When I look at my life, I can see times that I have limited how much I depend on Jesus and the Holy Spirit. There are times when I have made choices to handle it on my own, where I did not take the time to turn it over to God.

I bet we all have times like that. We may just jump in without thinking or praying about it. We may be so busy that we don’t stop and talk to our God. If were honest with ourselves, we do it more often than we realize.

As a Christ follower, when we do that we deny the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are essentially telling God that we’ve got this, that we do not need His help. When we do this, we do not let God work in our lives and we do not know what we are missing out on.

The beggar held back what he had and only gave the prince the smallest amount that he thought he could give up, his blessing was smaller than it would have been if he had given it all. When we hold back our dependence on God, it limits how much he works in our lives.

Too often we depend on Jesus for the big things but keep the little things for ourselves. If we depend on Jesus for all things we get to see Him work in our lives and the lives of others.

John 15:4

“Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.”

We need Jesus in every part of our lives. We need to be connected to our vine, Jesus, at all times. Without Jesus we are people who will struggle through life but being a child of God means when we Remain in Jesus, He works in us, for us, and through us.

So, what does it mean to Remain in Jesus? Here are some words that I think help explain what is meant.

Dwell

Stand
Endure
Wait
Suffer
Submit                  
Faithful

In this modern age we live in, many of these things do not have much value. People want control, they do not want to wait for anything. Some people take a stand for all of the wrong reasons and they definitely do not want to suffer. Submitting is beyond comprehension and faithfulness is not valued nearly as much as it used to be.

While these may be foreign to the world we live in, they are exactly what Jesus expects of us. After all Jesus is the one saying we need to Remain in Him,

Let’s walk through the list of words in a little more detail and some verses that support them.

Dwell – Psalm 23:6

“Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord as long as I live.^”

The Psalmist is saying that we are supposed to be with God, live our lives with Him, forever. If we dwell in the house of the Lord we are being dependent on Him. Not just for the big things in our lives, but for all things.

Stand – Ephesians 6:13

“¹³ For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.”

If we remain in Christ we are His soldiers equipped with the armor of God. As soldiers we need to stand firmly, we need to not yield, we need to not flee. Life will throw us challenges, we will encounter people who challenge our beliefs, we will encounter situations where we will fall to our knees. We need to stand strong in our faith, in our beliefs. Remember that if we Remain in Christ we are equipped to stand through any storm.

Endure - Matthew 10:22

“²² You will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

Following Jesus is not something that will make you popular in this world. Our beliefs get trashed by the media, we are accused of being narrow minded, there are people who wish us ill. But, if we endure, if we stand with Christ we will be saved. We get that amazingly, wonderful gift, of spending eternity basking in the glory of our Lord! No matter what we have to endure the reward is worth it.

Wait – Romans 8:25

“²⁵ Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.”

Wait patiently for what God has promised. Wait for His work to be done. This one is really hard for some of us. We have so much available at our finger tips that we get frustrated when we have to wait on the computer at work or in line at the local drive thru.

Jesus wants us to wait on Him. Remaining in Christ means that we need to buck the trend of the world and wait on the things He has promised us. Scripture is full of promises, we need to count on them coming to fruition instead of us trying to force them on our own.

Suffer – 2 Timothy 4:5

“⁵ But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Remaining in Christ means that there will be times that we have to suffer or endure hardships. Form medical and financial issues to being treated negatively for our beliefs, we are going to face hardships. As hard as it can be, we need to remember that while we Remain in Christ and suffer those hardships our testimony is growing. It gives us something to share with others, and people see how we respond as we suffer through it.

Submit – James 4:7

“⁷ Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Yep, one of those words people do not like. Jesus is not some genie we pull out of a lamp when we need something. Remaining in Christ means we need to submit to Him. Submitting to Christ is not something we do on Sunday’s or when we have a need. Submitting means He is our Lord and we are to give Him all that we have, all that we are, all the time. Everything belongs to Him and we need to freely give to Him.

The good news is, that as we submit to God the devil will flee. The devil knows that if you are living your life submitting to God, he has already lost.

Faithful – Matthew 17:20

“²⁰ “Because of your little faith,” he told them. “For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

The amount of faith is not important, it is simply the fact that you are faithful. If you believe in Jesus, if you believe He is your Savior, if you believe all that the Bible tells us, and you Remain in Christ your faith is powerful.

When you put your faith in God, you are trusting in a God who is beyond anything you can imagine. He is everywhere, He knows all, and He is all powerful and if you have faith in Him you will see Him work in your life.

When we Remain in Christ:

We dwell with Him; we stand strong with Him and never yield our faith. Remaining in Christ calls for us to endure whatever others throw at us. We need to wait for God to work in His time not ours. It also means that we may suffer for what we believe, but it will turn into a witness that others will see. We need to submit to our Lord and give Him everything.

And finally remaining in Christ refers to us 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 like it takes every ounce of our strength to believe and there will be other times when we know nothing is impossible when God is with us. All we need to do is remain faithful all the time.

Remain in Christ and watch how He can work in you and through you!

The beggar had very little faith and received 3 gold pieces for 3 grains of rice. Imagine the blessing if he gave the prince the whole cup of rice and possibly received a whole bag of gold in exchange.

My question today, is do you want to give Jesus 3 grains of rice or your entire cup? Do you want to give Him everything you have or hold some of it back?

John 15:4

“Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.”

If you want to see God really work in your life give Him everything!

God Bless,

Robert