[0:00] Turn in your Bibles to John 14. We're going to read the entire chapter of John 14.
[0:30] Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you.
[0:42] I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you may be where I am.
[0:54] You know the way to the place I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life.
[1:10] No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
[1:20] Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. Jesus answered, Don't you know me, Philip?
[1:31] Even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
[1:45] The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
[2:05] I tell you the truth, as anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father, and I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
[2:25] You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth.
[2:41] The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
[2:53] I will not leave you as orphans, but I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me, because I live in you.
[3:05] Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
[3:16] Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.
[3:30] Then Judas, not Judas Iscariot, said, but Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus replied, if anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.
[3:47] My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own.
[4:00] They belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you, but the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
[4:17] Peace I leave you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.
[4:31] You heard me say I am going away, and I am coming back to you. If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
[4:46] I have told you now before it happens, so then when it does happen, you will believe. I will not speak with you much longer, for the Prince of this world is coming.
[4:57] He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father, and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
[5:08] Come now, let us leave. I want to turn your attention again to the verse that we began to look at last week, John 15, 11.
[5:27] I hope that you have that in front of you. John 15, 11. Jesus says, I have told you these things, or I have told you this, as the NIV has, but literally it's these things, so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.
[5:45] And we are going to turn our attention again to look at some of those things that lead to, that produce that joy that Jesus wants to give us, that Jesus does give us.
[6:00] As I said last week, Jesus, the context is that Jesus is leaving his disciples, and in some ways, he's leaving them in a very frightening situation.
[6:12] He wasn't leaving them in a world that loves them. If they hated me, they'll hate you. If they persecuted me, they'll persecute you.
[6:27] He is leaving them in a world that is completely upside down, morally, spiritually. They call it dark. They call it light. They call it good, evil.
[6:39] He says the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think that he is offering a service to God. That's how upside down and twisted and turned around the world can be.
[6:53] You kill God's children and think that you are going to please him by doing so. That's how evil this world is. And that's what makes John 15, 11 so surprising, so shocking, so out of the blue as it were.
[7:14] Nevertheless, despite all of that, I have told you these things that you are, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
[7:26] There is a joy that is outside of or beside, not dependent upon our circumstances. it's a full joy, a complete joy, an overflowing joy that has nothing to do with what the world is doing or how the world is treating us.
[7:50] There's a lot of attention in the church, the evangelical church, about look at what the world is doing, what the world has become, look at what our nation has become.
[8:03] And we maybe ask, how can I be happy when they are so evil? Well, Jesus is now showing us that exact situation.
[8:16] And it's not really different now than it ever has been, but we get to places in our life, in our situations, where we need to hear these things again.
[8:29] There's a joy that's outside of my health, my wealth, my circumstances, what's going on in the world, and it's a joy that is better than the world can ever give you.
[8:45] The world can give you a form of joy that's dependent upon those very things. Do people like me? Are they treating me right? Am I healthy? Am I wealthy?
[8:56] Are things going my way? Well, that's the best the world can do, but Jesus does his people better than that. He gives us a joy from heaven, his very own joy, something of his very own.
[9:09] Just as he doesn't give peace like the world gives, he does not give joy like the world gives. So, are you sad? Are you stressed out?
[9:20] Are you hopeless? I want you to look again. Let's look again together at what Jesus says to you, says to us this morning. Here's how you can be happy in an unhappy world.
[9:35] Here's how you can be happy in an unhappy world. This is very practical. This is what I said last week. Jesus is interested in doing something very practical in our lives.
[9:45] This is not theoretical. It's not ethereal. This is for us to experience real joy. And he says, now this is how this is happening. This is how this will happen. Very practical.
[9:56] Very day-to-day. And as Charlie made reference to, I compared it last week to a huge pole with large faucets all around it.
[10:11] And each one of the things that Jesus says to do, to believe, is a different faucet. And the more of those faucets that we are able to turn on, the more joy we're going to have.
[10:26] The more our pool of joy is going to fill up. And the further, the more that you turn each of those faucets on, the more your joy is going to flow.
[10:40] The more the pool will fill up. Now the very opposite is true. if you don't believe these things, if you don't do these things, if they don't really begin to, if you don't attend to them, you don't turn these faucets on, you won't experience joy.
[11:04] If you don't believe the things that Jesus is telling you, if you don't listen to the things that he says, then you will not experience the kind of joy that Jesus intends for you. you will not experience the fruit of the Spirit, which is joy in our lives.
[11:19] Now, last week, as Charlie made reference, we saw that first joy faucet. Jesus says, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
[11:30] Now, did you turn that on this week? Joy faucet, number one, was Jesus loves you. and he loves you like the Father, just as the Father loves him.
[11:45] Now, the Father loves his son with all the affection, all of the joy, all of the pleasure of a Father loving his child. He loves his son with delight.
[11:58] I tried to show you that a little bit last week. He loves his son transparently. The Father doesn't hide his heart from his son, but again and again he says, oh, I love him.
[12:10] He's not afraid to throw his arms around his son, as it were, and say, this is my boy. I am so proud. I love him. And the amazing thing is, joy faucet, number one, is Jesus says, I love you like that.
[12:32] That's how I love you. That's how he loves me, and that's how I love you. That's an amazing grace that's so undeserved.
[12:43] Jesus says, I love you with all of the transparency, all of the affection, all of the enthusiasm and care that the Father loves the Son. Jesus says, I love you like that.
[12:58] So Jesus loves you from everlasting to everlasting. everlasting. We sang it, his love never ends. Do you believe that?
[13:10] That will transform tomorrow. Because what will meet me tomorrow? Well, I don't know what will meet me tomorrow, but I do know that Jesus will love me tomorrow. What challenges will you face tomorrow?
[13:22] No idea. There's no way I can plan, I can foresee for sure, I don't know what a day may bring forth, but from everlasting to everlasting, Jesus loves me.
[13:35] So I might be good tomorrow, I might meet sorrow, I might meet tragedy, I might meet all sorts of things, but this is what I do know, that in it all, from everlasting to everlasting, that's how Jesus loves me.
[13:49] Your unfailing love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens. So I just talked about duration, now let's talk about quantity, how much does Jesus love you?
[14:03] Well, the psalmists are always wrestling with something that they can't get their arms around. Just as Paul has to pray for that church in Ephesus, I pray that you might know that which is unknowable, the height and the depth and the width and the length of his love for you.
[14:22] Your unfailing love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens. Nothing can separate us from that love. Romans 8, 28 and following. Life, no amount of life.
[14:36] Death, can't separate you from his love. Angels nor demons, that's how he loves you. There's that wonderful song, he is jealous for me. He is a hurricane.
[14:50] I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. mercy. That's how he loves us. Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens.
[15:06] He loves us particularly. He finds us beautiful. How beautiful you are, my darling. Oh, how beautiful. That's how he loves you.
[15:19] That should make you happy. why should teenage girls be thrilled with love and Jesus people go around mourning?
[15:30] Seriously, I have a question. That's a question. Why should teenage girls be thrilled with love and Jesus people go around mourning? He loves us better than any teenage boy ever loved a teenage girl.
[15:44] Monday, last Monday was Valentine's Day. day. And anyone told me that on Valentine's Day she saw a girl at school that had so many gifts and flowers and candies that she couldn't hold it all.
[16:00] It was overflowing out of her arms. Apparently somebody likes her or apparently someone is in love with being in love. I don't know what is going on. But Jesus loves us better than that.
[16:13] he doesn't give trinkets. He gives us his own life. He gives us his own blood. And if the love of the Son of God, the Prince of Heaven, the heir of everything, if his love won't make us happy, then shame on us.
[16:37] The problem is not with him. The problem is with us. Jeremy Taylor, that old Puritan, said, God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy. If we can stare the love of God in the face and not be happy about it, the only alternative is something terrible.
[16:58] Jesus loves us. That's joy faucet number one. Then related to it was joy faucet number two, which is something to do. Abide in that love.
[17:10] Abide in that love. If you were in the adult Sunday school, you saw how you abide in that love is to obey his commands, and specifically the one command to love each other.
[17:23] Jesus is very interested in this is how you're going to actually experience joy. You're going to live in the love of God, and the way that you live in the light of the love of God is by loving each other.
[17:34] love. So don't let anything hide his face. Don't let any sin or greed or selfishness hide his love from your heart.
[17:46] Jesus says to obey my commands, and if you do, you will abide in my love. The point is not that we obey in order to get his love. The point is that we obey in order that we might continue to experience the felt goodness of his love, that our joy really might overflow.
[18:07] And so there's something to believe, Jesus loves me, and there's something to do, abide in that love. But last week, I said that these things that Jesus references in 1511, that Jesus is talking about, I think begin all the way back in chapter 14 in verse 1, which Charlie read for us, that these things, these joy faucets, are not just found in the immediate context of 1511, but they begin all the way back in chapter 14 verse 1, where Jesus looks at his disciples and sees their situation, sees how troubled they are, and he says, do not let your hearts be troubled.
[18:55] And so, let's go back and look what else is here. So, go back to chapter 14. chapter 14 verse 1. This is where Jesus begins to tell the disciples the things that they need to know, that they would have joy in the terrible things that were about to happen.
[19:19] Well, you see the very first, the most basic, the most foundational faucet, so to speak, in verse 1.
[19:32] He says, do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. So, are you sad, distressed, troubled?
[19:46] The antidote to trouble is trust. trust. The antidote to trouble is not fixing all the circumstances so that everything is going your way.
[19:57] That will never work. That was not going to work for the disciples. The antidote to trouble is trust. Sometimes you can't change.
[20:10] You can't change the circumstances. Sometimes you can't change anything. And the disciples were in that position. They were helpless.
[20:24] They were helpless. How were they ever going to have joy then? The answer is trust in God, trust also in me. Trust God's heart.
[20:36] Trust my heart. Trust in our plan. Things are going to be bleak. bleak. They're going to be bleak for a while. I'm going away.
[20:49] And he's going away through the cross. But despite it all, despite how bleak and terrible it looks like, Jesus is saying, I'm up to something good.
[21:14] My father is up to something good. Going on, something going on behind the scenes. And so you're never going to have full, complete, never dying joy if you don't learn to look past the circumstances and the bleakness of the scene and to trust God's heart.
[21:35] Trust your father. fear. Now, I want to say that if you haven't trusted Jesus to save you, if you've never ever taken that and surrendered yourself and put yourself into his arms through faith and repentance, you're never going to have deep abiding joy.
[22:00] You will never have that kind of joy. You are forever going to be caught in a whirlwind of circumstances and some of the things you'll be able to change and fix and some of the things you will not.
[22:14] And the ball will just get moved on forward. You'll just kick the can down the road. You will never experience true joy because it will be impossible for you.
[22:24] You are not God. You cannot order your life, your circumstances and all people according to your will. And if that is the case, then you will never taste joy.
[22:36] And that's why there has to be another way. And Jesus says this is the way that you trust in me, you trust in God. We are up to something good.
[22:48] So do you see that faith and joy go together? Strong faith, strong joy. Great faith, great joy. So here's something to do.
[23:00] here is something to do. Jesus, this is a command that Jesus tells his people. Do you want to experience joy? Trust in God.
[23:11] Here's something to do. Act faith in God. Lean into him. Trust in his wisdom. Trust in his goodness. Lay a hold of his promises. Really believe that if he did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all then how will he not along with him give us all things?
[23:31] You lay a hold of that promise. You act trust, act faith in that promise and that's how you experience joy. And so Jesus says here's the first thing. I've told you these things so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
[23:48] Trust in God. Trust also in me. So look at your circumstances. Look at your situation. I don't know that there's a hundred difference ones. And if you want to have joy, you need to trust God right now.
[24:03] Put your faith in him. Now the second thing Jesus says that is meant to bring us joy, the second faucet here that we're looking at today is Jesus says I am taking you home.
[24:19] I am taking you home. That specifically is the very good thing that the father and the son are up to. But there's so much joy here.
[24:30] A reality check. A thing to understand, a thing to come to grips with. This world is not your home. We a lot of times act like it.
[24:44] We a lot of times think like that. And it ruins our joy. But Jesus just says very simply this world is not your home.
[24:54] You don't have to stay here forever. I'm just a pilgrim. I'm just a traveler moving on through. Pilgrim's progress begins with blessed are all those who take up the pilgrimage.
[25:13] Bless all those who walk on the pilgrim road. There's blessing along the way, but there's also a lot of trouble along the way.
[25:26] The real blessing of the pilgrim road is that it ends. And it ends in the celestial city. It ends at home. Jesus says I'm going to take you home.
[25:39] In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. And what is Jesus saying? He's saying, there's plenty of room for you.
[25:51] You're not going to be squeezed out. You're not going to come up short where the inn is full. The hotel is all booked. You won't get squeezed out.
[26:02] There's room for you. And when you get there, there'll be a place for you. I'm going there to prepare a place for you. So let's just rewind a little bit and just think again.
[26:15] What is meant to produce joy in us? This thought, this world is not my home. I am going home. And when I get there, there's going to be a place for me.
[26:26] And Jesus is preparing a place for me. Now how is Jesus preparing a place for you? Now I think a lot of people have this idea of all Jesus is doing is putting out flowers and making beds and adding on rooms to the house or something like that.
[26:43] I've heard things about, well, if this world was so great and he created it in six days, think about how much he's doing now. The point is not that Jesus is creating heaven for us right now.
[27:00] That's not what he means. How does Jesus prepare a place for us? Well, he prepares a place for us as he goes to heaven as a priest bearing his own sacrifice.
[27:15] That's how he opens the doors. That's how he makes room for us. How can sinners find a place in heaven? How can we get there and be welcomed? Well, it's not because Jesus is putting out flowers and making beds and putting chocolates on the pillows.
[27:31] No, he comes with his blood, his sacrifice, his death is the key that opens the father's house to us.
[27:43] And he comes with his sacrifice with our names on his heart. Our names graven on his hands with our names on his chest.
[27:57] You remember in the Old Testament, the high priest wore this special chest plate and it had jewels and the names of the twelve tribes were written on this chest plate.
[28:09] And the high priest was carrying the people of God into the presence of God saying, I'm bringing them to you. Here's how they can meet with you.
[28:20] Here's how they can be with you. Well, that's how Jesus prepares a place for you. His blood unlocks the door. His sacrifice makes room for you.
[28:33] His death makes you a place. That's what he says. Well, how do we know the way, Thomas says. And Jesus says, I am the way. I am the life.
[28:44] I am the truth. I'm the way and the truth and the life. I'm going to make you a home. And it's a home in the Father's house. And I will come and I'll take you home with me to be with me where I am.
[28:59] Now, here's a faucet of joy. Jesus died to give you a permanent forever home. Jesus isn't going to leave you here stranded forever wandering.
[29:14] You don't have to live here forever. This is not your home. You're going to get there though. Now, what is home?
[29:27] Just think about that. What is home? What is it like to be home? I bet half of you right now are wishing that you were home. Not because this is so bad, but home is where the heart is. Home is good.
[29:41] Home is relief. Home is what? Dumping your load at the door, kicking off your shoes, and putting away your trouble. Isn't that what home is? My son walks in the door at 5.15 after wrestling practice, and let me tell you, off goes his book bag, off goes his wrestling bag, off goes his winter coat, off goes his shoes.
[30:08] It looks like an earthquake happened right at the very beginning of the door. He unloads everything because he's home. All of that stuff, shoes and winter coats and backpacks full of books and wrestling gear, that stuff is for out there.
[30:26] That belongs out there. home is relief. Home is comfort. Brothers and sisters, Jesus is taking us home, and then your troubles will be gone.
[30:40] All those troubles that we just carry through our whole life, they're for this world, they're not for that world. They're for traveling, they're not for home. What is home?
[30:52] Home is welcome. You belong. home. Now, Cavan would never dump all of his stuff on your living room floor and crash on your couch because you're not, he doesn't live there.
[31:05] He doesn't belong at your house, he belongs at home. And Jesus is saying there's room enough for you and you're going to be welcomed. And you can dump all your troubles at the door.
[31:17] you're going to be welcomed. You're not going to be welcomed as a guest.
[31:30] I invite you over to my house and I could be as welcoming as possible, but you know what, there's still rules. There's still ways that you can't act at my house, that my children and that we can act.
[31:43] We sing that song of we'll live in heaven, not as guests, but as a child at home. There's a certain sweetness and familiarity there. Home is where you belong.
[31:54] Home is where your people live. Home is where you fit in. Home is where there aren't enemies, there aren't persecutors, there aren't haters. Home is where these are your people and you fit in and you're welcome and you're comfortable.
[32:09] Home is where your people live. So Jesus says don't let your hearts be troubled. trust in God, trust also in me.
[32:20] We're working on getting you home. That's what we're up to. That's what we're doing. That's what's going on behind the scenes. Believe it and I tell you that these things, if you believe them, that's how my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete.
[32:40] we would be a lot happier if we thought about home a lot more. If we were able to throw off this mindset that says I'm just going to live here forever, for better or for worse, I'm stuck here.
[32:56] Jesus says no you're not. You're going home. So trust in God, trust in me. Second, Jesus says I'm taking you home. Third is you're not alone.
[33:07] You're not alone. You're not alone here. We're going home. But in the meantime, look at verse 15. Chapter 14, verse 15.
[33:19] We're skipping a lot here. We're sort of only getting the Himalayan heights of this section. We're just picking out the high points, the biggest points. But verse 15, if you love me, you'll obey what I command, and I will ask my father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever, the spirit of truth.
[33:38] And then verse 18 says, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Well, how about this for joy?
[33:48] You are not alone. You're not alone. This is the problem. This is one of the deepest, most significant problems that faces humanity, that we wrestle with.
[34:03] we feel alone. We can be in the crowd and be completely lonely. We can feel like the whole world is on our shoulders.
[34:15] I'm not sharing this load with anyone. We feel alone. But Jesus says, you're not alone. We have the Holy Spirit.
[34:27] He lives with you and will be in you, Jesus says. So you're not alone in the world. You have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Christ in you and with you.
[34:40] He's your counselor. It's this wonderfully complex word that means counselor, helper, advisor, guide, teacher, someone that goes with you, that faces life challenges with you.
[34:56] He comes to take Jesus' place in us. So Jesus was with the disciples for three years and he had been their guide and helper and friend and defender and protector. And now he says, now the Spirit will come and be with you.
[35:10] And so we're not orphans. We are not orphans. Orphans have no one.
[35:25] Orphans are alone. orphans can only depend upon themselves. And the whole world is on their shoulders.
[35:44] They have to look at every challenge, every problem, every significant thing in their life and say, I have to do this all by myself because you know what? Maybe some people will help me but I really have no one else.
[35:54] And Jesus says, but you are not orphans. I will not leave you as orphans. We're children and we're family. And so I have just a question.
[36:08] Are you an orphan in your heart? Alone? Almost an adversarial relationship with God. God. You feel like he's more your master than your father.
[36:28] Christians can feel that way. Every unbeliever feels that way. They never think of God as a warm hearted someone who will invite them in and actually help them and live with them.
[36:42] At best they think of him as someone who tells them what to do. And if they don't do it, he punishes them and that's it. That's the full extent of their relationship. But God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out, Abba, Father.
[36:59] So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. That's Galatians 4. And a few verses after that, Paul says to the Galatians, what has happened to all your joy?
[37:13] joy. Our experience of joy is directly connected to our sense of sonship, our sense of adoption, our sense of I'm a child of God.
[37:31] And for the Galatians, they lost their sense of sonship, they had gone back into slavery and lost all their joy again. So joy comes from knowing that we're God's children.
[37:43] We're not orphans. We're not alone. The Spirit who calls out, Abba Father is in us. Now, is that faucet on?
[37:56] Have you turned that faucet on where you are living in the active realization by faith that I am a child of God and how magnificent and how wonderful and what promise that holds?
[38:14] I'm not alone. He's going to provide for me. He's going to protect me. He's going to take care of me. He's going to lead me. Everything that a father does, he does. Is that faucet on?
[38:26] Are you making much of the Spirit's help, the Spirit's strength? So when you're faced with opportunities or challenges, do you face them saying, I can do this through the Spirit's help?
[38:40] help. So let him who serves, serve in the strength that God provides. Verse 25, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I've said to you.
[38:58] Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. we're sons and daughters.
[39:13] He's given us the Spirit of His Son. And you know, it was through the Spirit that Jesus lived and obeyed His Father. Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[39:28] And then we go all the way to the end of His life and Hebrews says it was through the Spirit that He offered Himself. The cross, Jesus did that in the power and the strength of the Holy Spirit.
[39:43] The Spirit was with Him. The Spirit was for Him. And what Jesus says is now He is with you and for you. That's why you can be joyful.
[39:55] Jesus doesn't give you anything less than what He enjoyed. And I think we really need to drill this into our heads. We need to drill this into our hearts. We need to believe what He's saying.
[40:05] We are not alone. Challenges and the sins and the difficulties that we face, we do not face them as orphans, but as children.
[40:18] And even as our sins, we come asking God for forgiveness not as criminals or culprits, but as children. Not as strangers to Him, but as His own children.
[40:33] So that's our confidence, our strength, that's our freedom, that's our peace, that's our joy. I've told you these things, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
[40:48] So you're not alone. You need to turn that faucet on. And you need to turn it on as far as you can. Now, the last faucet in chapter 15, chapter 15, it's verse 5.
[41:04] And now we're almost back to where we started last week. Chapter 15, verse 5, I am the vine, and you are the branches. So, trust in God, trust in me.
[41:20] I'm taking you home. You're not alone. And now Jesus says, here's why you can have joy. You are joined to me. you are connected to me.
[41:33] Not like two Legos are connected. They don't have life. You can pull them apart. He's talking about a living connection. This is almost a step up beyond what he was saying.
[41:49] Yes, my spirit is in you. But now he's even going further. He's saying you and I are united together. living together.
[42:02] My life is in you. Your life is in me. That's why you can have my joy in you because I'm in you and you're in me.
[42:16] And so we will bear fruit is what Jesus is saying. We will bear fruit. We will bear fruit because Jesus bore fruit.
[42:27] And this is to my father's glory that you will bear much fruit showing yourself to be my disciples. We don't make ourselves Jesus disciples by bearing fruit.
[42:40] But we show ourselves to be his disciples. We show ourselves to be his followers. We show ourselves connected to him because we inevitably bear fruit. And so yes, in this world you'll have trouble.
[42:54] But take heart. Take heart. So how can I bear the fruit of perseverance and endurance and patience and kindness and gentleness in a hostile world?
[43:07] How can I be glad and be encouraged because in this world I'm going to have trouble? But we're connected to Jesus. And Jesus says I have already overcome the world.
[43:21] I've overcome the world. You're united to me and I've already overcome them. I'm stronger. I am greater than them. There's no one and nothing that can stop us from bearing fruit, from experiencing joy.
[43:37] Because someone who is in us is greater than everything and all that are outside of us. And so his life flows into you. The Lord says in the book of Hosea, I am, he says to Israel, I am a green pine tree.
[43:56] All your fruitfulness comes from me. It's the same sort of picture. Jesus is our sticky, sappy, pungent, living, exuding pine tree.
[44:14] He is full of overflowing life and full of overflowing joy and it's going to get squeezed into us and then come out out of us.
[44:25] They can't overcome us because he's already overcome them. And you say my sin, my battle against sin, against this difficulty is so hard.
[44:39] And I would say yes it is hard. It's too much for you. It's too much for you. But it's not too much for him. sin. So put your hardest struggle, your hardest sin, the most challenging thing in your life right now.
[44:58] And you know what you can say is yes, absolutely it's too much for me. But it's not too much for him. He's strong for you. He's living for you.
[45:08] He's more than enough for you. And so brothers and sisters, turn on this faucet. Jesus is here fighting for your joy. He's fighting for your holiness. He's fighting for you.
[45:20] Jesus wants you to be filled with joy. And so I want to give you the same practical advices that I gave you last week. We need to take the time. We need to make the space.
[45:32] We need to think about these things. To think deep about what Jesus is saying. To put off unbelief and to put on faith.
[45:43] Did you take time this week time? Did you take time this past week? Did you create space this week to turn on these faucets?
[45:58] I don't see how you would have experienced any more spiritual joy if you didn't do the things that Jesus says to do.
[46:09] Did you create space? Mental space, emotional space, time, energy, to turn on these faucets? Or was it another week of the cares of this life?
[46:23] The cares of this world? Was it other things? Were you Martha this week? Very busy?
[46:34] Maybe very busy about doing a bunch of good things? Busy? Too busy? Too busy about lesser things? Or were you Mary who chose better?
[46:49] Who chose wiser? You know, I bet if you did take time this past week, I bet you're glad you did. And I would love to hear about that.
[47:01] If you did take time last week to turn on these faucets, I bet you're glad you did. I bet you did experience greater levels of joy. joy. If you didn't this week, or if you didn't last week, I'd say this week can be different.
[47:19] Don't you think that so much of our problems is because we get stuck in these patterns that are really unhelpful to our joy? So much of our problems is we get stuck in the inertia of our own habits.
[47:34] We always do things this way. We never get out of the rut. And so if we're having these habits that drain away our joy, it's hard to break out.
[47:48] But I just want to encourage you. This week can be different. Make this week different. Create space. Create some time. Take an hour. Get your pen. Get your pad of paper.
[47:59] Prayerfully think about the things that Jesus has told you. I love you. now abide in that love. Trust in me.
[48:12] I'm taking you home. I'm taking you home. You're not alone. You're with me. Take time to think deep, to meditate slowly, to prayerfully put off unbelief and to put on faith.
[48:28] And when I don't everything does feel like boom.
[48:49] And when we we