That We Might Abide in Him | Susan Heck

Well, ladies, there's times in our life when it seems overwhelming, right? Just recently, I was at the airport in St. Louis and they canceled my flight. I was supposed to go to California. Couldn't get there. So, I called Kim. She lived an hour from where I was supposed to speak. First time I ever had to cancel a speaking engagement because my flight was cancelled. So called Kim. Yes, she could do it. Praise God. So I returned home hour and 40 minute drive back home to discover my basement is flooded. And then a couple days later, I drove 4 hours to Chicago to have some unnecessary surgery that I'm still recovering from and never needed to have it. And then the next day, my sister-in-law texts me and she said, "I just thought you should know your brother was riding his bicycle and a tree branch fell on him and he's in the hospital with a brain bleed." And you ever have days like that was like just, you know, wave after wave you go, is this going to stop? When does this stop? Where do I go to stop? Get off, you know? And so sometimes the Christian life just seems like it's hard, you know, and it's not just daily living. Sometimes it's dark things. You know, my husband passed away 5 years ago and uh in August and my son passed away two years ago. And I remember when Charles passed away, I said, 'Lord, did you forget I was a widow? I mean, did you forget he's my only son? And so sometimes it's not just daily things like a flooded basement. Sometimes it's really dark stuff like losing a spouse and then a few years later losing your husband. And And Andrea, after she lost my my son, her her h her her her husband, a few months later she lost her mother and then she lost her brother. I mean, three deaths in a family in less than a year. That's that's a lot. It's a lot. And sometimes life just seems like, man, where do I go to get off? You know, where do I get go to get off of this wheel? But ladies, life is not always full of troubles. There are some abundant blessings of abiding in Christ. The Christian life, yes, it's full of troubles as the sparks fly upward. And sometimes it comes in persecution. Uh I know that for me, I've had lots of persecution for standing for what's right. I've lost good friends. I've had women I've had people that want to kill me. I've had to have bodyguards sometimes where I go to speak because there's threats on my life. And so sometimes our troubles come in persecutions for standing what's for what's right, for standing for biblical truth. But ladies, life is not always full of troubles. We should be often reflect on the wonderful grace of Christ and the wonderful blessings of abiding in him. The Christian life is more than sorrow and woe. Now, some people might tell you that's not true, but there are blessings for the believer that are almost impossible to number. And we could spend this entire day rehearsing the blessings of God in our lives and we would probably not exhaust all of them. Proverbs 28:20 says this, encourages us with this, "A faithful man will abound with blessings." And so ladies, what we're going to do in this time together as we think of abiding in Christ, we're going to look at the blessings of being a believer, the blessings of abiding in Christ. And there are four of them. And they all start with the letter F. The letter F for you to remember. Let's encourage our hearts with this lesson. Let's read it together. John 15:7. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, it will be done for you. By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit. So will you be my disciples. As the father has loved me also. I have 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 might remain in you and that your joy might be full. Now, it's interesting. Jesus has just said some very, very sobering words in John 15:6. He's been telling them about the parable of the vine and the branches which we'll cover tomorrow. And he talks about those that are not really attached to him. They they're spirious believers, believing unbelievers. And he says those are going to be gathered together and they're going to be burned. He's talking about those who profess Christ, don't possess Christ. They will spend eternity in hell weeping, nashing their teeth, outer darkness. Hell is a horrible place. You don't want to go there. And so Jesus is warning the pretenders, those that say they are in Jesus, but they are not. He's warning them. And so, ladies, remember Judas has gone out to betray the Lord. So, there's just the 11 left. And more than likely, these words that Jesus has just spoken to these 11 disciples is kind of like, what? What? Am I a pretender? Uh, he's already predicted that Judas is going to go out and betray him. He's told Peter he's going to deny him. Am I a pretender? And so they might be a little bit frightened by now. And they don't relish the idea just like you and I don't relish the idea that we may not be abiding in Christ. And so he now turns to the 11 who are genuine disciples. And he talks to them about the wonderful blessings of abiding in him. And he says, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask whatever you will and it will be done to you." Now, when you look at that verse, our uh word of faith proponents and new apostolic reformation and other weird doctrines out there, they will take this verse out of context and say, "Great, I can ask whatever I want. I'm going to ask for a new husband and I'm going to get one. or you know, I'm going to ask that the Lord provide me a $3 million home and I'm going to get it. I can have anything I want. They actually believe that your words have power. So if I say I'm going to get this, I'm going to get it. But ladies, look at the condition of answered prayer. He says, first of all, we have to abide in Christ. Number one condition of God answering your prayers is abiding in him. What does this mean? It means I remain with him. I dwell with him. I entirely depend on him. JC Riyle who wrote one of my favorite books, holiness. If you've never read it, you need to read it. But he says this in another one of his books. JC Ry says this, "To abide in Christ means to keep up a habit of constant close communication with him, to be always leaning on him, to rest on him, to pour out your heart to him, to use him as your fountain of life and strength. He is your chief companion and your best friend." End of quote. Ladies, is Jesus your best friend? Is he? Is he the one you go to when you are in trouble? You know, one of the marks of a genuine believer is that she abides in Christ. She remains with him. She dwells with him. She depends on him. She's not like that man in James that going through a trial. One minute he trusts God, the next minute he doesn't. He's like the waves of the sea tossed to and fro. Ladies, this is the first condition of having your prayers answers, abiding in Christ. The second condition, notice what Jesus says. Not only do you have to abide in him, but he says, "My words must must abide in you." What does that mean? His words must abide in me. What does that mean? First of all, his words would mean what? His commands, the 66 books that we have, ladies, the allsufficient, all authorative, all powerful book. You know what Peter says in the in these 66 letters that God's left you? Do you know what Peter says? We have everything we need for life and godliness right here. Right here. Why do we search other places? It's right here. So God's words must abide in me, dwell in me, remain in me. Ladies, this mean that scriptures must regulate my life. So when my basement floods or when my son passes away suddenly with no expectation of that, what comes to my mind? Does scripture run through my mind? Does Romans 8:28 run through my mind? We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those that are called according to his purpose. Do those things run through your mind when you go through a trial? That's what Jesus is saying here. My words must abide in you. And so, ladies, this implies you've got to know the word. You've got to study the word. You've got to apply the word. You've got to be like the church at Colasse where Paul says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." The Greek word for let is it must inhabit you. And when he says word, he's talking about logos. The entire body of God's word must inhabit you, must dwell within you. Francis Abgale, we just sang that uh song. Do you know she memorized the entire New Testament, Isaiah and the minor prophets in her teenage years? In her teenage years, she memorized God's word. No wonder she could write beautiful hymns like that. Ladies, we must hide God's word in our heart. As one man said, JC Riyle again, to have his words abiding in us is to keep his sayings continually before our memory, before our mind, to make them the guide of our actions and the rule of our daily conduct and behavior. Ladies, his words, we've got to abide in him, and his words have to abide in us. So, does your mind scan scripture when when you go through the crucibles of life? When you don't know what to do, does your mind know to go to the word of God for the answers? So, with these two conditions in mind, you're abiding in him, his words are abiding in you. Then notice what our word of faith uh people don't look at this part, right? So, you can ask what you desire, it will be done for you. So ladies, if you're taking notes, the first blessing of abiding in Christ is faithful answered prayer. What a wonderful blessing of abiding in Christ. God answers our prayer. Faithful answered prayer. If you desire to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your father in heaven desire to give good things to those who ask him, the Bible says, and the Greek rendering here, listen, is we must ask. You got to ask. This presents a problem. You know, for the many decades I've been counseling and discipling women, and they come to me with their problems, I'll ask them, "Have you prayed about this?" Do you know how many have told me they've never prayed about it? But they want me, you know, who has clay feet to give them the answers to their problems, and they haven't even gone to the one who allowed it to go to come into their life. They haven't even prayed about it. So ladies, we have to ask. We have to pray about it. You know what James says? You don't have because you don't have because you don't ask. You don't have because you don't ask. You know, sometimes in my own life, I thought, Susan Dunderhead, you should really pray about this. Why are you becoming troubled? I remember discipling a gal in my church for the first time. She was young, and I was so excited, you know, looking forward to our first time together. And we pull up into the church parking lot. It's it's just the two of us there. It's, you know, early evening. It's still a little bit daylight. And so we pull into the parking lot and I have a key to get into the church and uh so we our cars were she was like here and I was like here. So all of a sudden this pickup truck comes in. He parks right between us and I thought well I wonder if she knows that man and uh get out of my car and she gets here and I get here and I go I said Sarah do you know that man? She goes no I don't. I said well he's coming kind of quickly toward us. Let's just let me get in the church real quick. So we get in the church and we I said get in the corner. there's a there's an office around the corner and he starts banging on the door and just, you know, and I was like, "Okay, what is happening here? Why is he trying to get in?" He just wouldn't stop banging and trying to pull the door open. And uh so I said, "Well, I better I call one of the deacons." I said, "I don't I don't have my gun with me. Usually, I would carry my gun." And uh she looked at me and she goes, "Do you think we should pray?" And I'm like, "Oh my goodness." because this this was going on for a long time, 5 to 10 minutes, he was banging on the door and trying to yank it open. And so I I said, "Yes, we should pray." And so we did and he left. And I felt like an idiot in front of my new disciple, like, "Don't you think we should pray?" I said, "Yeah, that's a good idea." Instead of, you know, let's call 911, let's call the deacon that lives around the corner, you know. And what a what an indictment on me as her discipler. But what a what a young lady who was already knew the best thing to do is to pray, right? You know, an amazing thing happens. God answers prayer. He does. Uh even on the way here yesterday morning, uh I was on my way. It's an hour and 40 minutes for me to catch a a plane in St. Louis because I live in Illinois. And so I use that time for different things, but I was praying about something. And as soon as I prayed about it, the person I was praying that would get back to me text me. It was 6:30 in the morning. I was like, "Lord, you are so kind. You were so kind." Cuz I needed to get this taken care of. But many times I say, "Susan, just ask." And Jesus says, "If we ask, it will be done. It will be done." Ladies, we have to ask. We have to ask. So ladies, the key here to our prayers being answers is abiding in Christ and his words abiding in us. Now, I will say this. Sometimes the Lord doesn't answer because we're not asking of things according to his will or his glory. So, sometimes I'm asking, as James says, for things to spend on my own pleasure. Right? Sometimes I ask things that are not his will. It's like what Jesus said before he went to the cross, "Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass for me. Nevertheless, not what I want, but what you want." Right? I remember when Andrea called me that morning and she said, "I can't wake Charles up." I yelled to my daughter who was out. We were all on a family vacation. I yelled out to my daughter who was on the front porch. She ran up the hill to be with Annie to see if she could revive her brother and my son-in-law waited for me to uh change my clothes. I was in my pajamas reading and we went up the hill together and he held me all the way up and we prayed and I said, "Lord, please don't take my son. Please don't take my son." The Lord took my son. But you know what I have to say with with what Jesus said, "Father, not my will but your will be done." Even in those hard moments, those hard moments. So ladies, we sometimes know we don't. It's like Paul, remember the thorn in the flesh? He had that thorn in his side, that stake. And he said three times, "Lord, would you please take this away from me? Please, please take this away from me." And God said, 'N no, I'm not going to. I'm not going to take away your thorn, Paul. Why? Because my grace is sufficient for you, and in your weakness, my power is made known. And so Paul's, you know what he says? Okay, bring it on. Therefore, I glory in infirmities. Bring them on. Why? So the power of Christ may rest upon me. So ladies, sometimes we don't always get what we want, right? We don't always, but we have a there's a greater purpose, and that is to glorify God. We don't know the purposes for some of the things that happen in our life. But the Greek word here is very interesting. It says will be done to you. Literally, it'll come to pass. As James says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. It avails much. It accomplishes much. So ladies, do your prayers avail much? Is there someone you know that prays like that? Like that righteous man? You know, it was said of John Knox that Queen Mary said she feared his pray prayers more than an army of 20,000 men. Why? Because they accomplished much. She feared his prayers. Ladies, there's really no reason that all of us should not have answers to our prayers. If God isn't answering your prayers on a daily basis, maybe you need to ask yourself, am I abiding in Christ? Are his words abiding in me? You know, one of the things I like to do is write out some of my prayers every day. And I'm always amazed the next morning when I get up and get my coffee and go back to my office to read and to pray and I open my prayer journal. I was like, "Wow, Lord, I forgot I even prayed about that yesterday. Thank you." Now, it's not that every one of them are answered. But ladies, we don't have because we don't ask. And so, we need to pray. One of the reasons we probably see so few prayers answered is because we see very little close communication with the Lord and we are not obeying his word. The person who sees answers to prayers is a person who's abiding in Christ and his words are abiding in him. You know what the Bible says? Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Now before we go on, some of you again might be asking, why doesn't God always answer my prayers? Well, there's a lot of conditions to answer prayer. Not just his words abiding in you and you abiding in him. But ladies, we have to make sure there's no sin. You know, the Bible says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." I've often counseledled women. They have, you know, they said, "I'm praying about this situation, but yet they hate somebody in their heart." I had one woman tell me she wished to purchase a gun and kill her husband. I was like, "You you want me to help you with your marriage problems? Uh, you know, you need to repent of that sin, right?" So, if I'm regarding iniquity in my heart, the Lord's not going to hear me. And so we need to make sure that and there are many conditions to God answering prayer. We need to go through those in the scriptures ladies. We need to remember that often God is more interested in my humility and holiness than in my happiness and what I want. We would also do well to remember remember the John nine the man that was born blind. Remember what was asked Jesus uh why is this man born blind? Was it because his parents sinned or because he's in sin? Remember what Jesus said? Nope. Neither one of them are in sin, but he's blind so that the works of God might be made manifest. It's for my glory. Right? So ladies, sometimes there's a bigger picture. Sometimes there's a bigger spiritual blessing. And we just have to wait to see. Why is God saying no? Why is he saying not now? Because there's something around the corner. Maybe we need to wait and see what he's going to do. Well, Jesus is still focusing on what glorifies the father. And he says in verse 8, "By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit." Notice first of all that Jesus says that the father is glorified when we bear much fruit. To glorify him means to praise him, to honor him, to recognize him. Now, how can the disciples give God's glory? How can you and I give God glory? Ladies, we give God glory by bearing much fruit. Notice it's not a little, but it's a lot of fruit. I don't think we should take comfort in the fact that, you know, I'm a Christian, but I don't have a desire to bear little fruit. I want to bear a lot of fruit. In fact, uh, you know, the older I get, the more fruit I want to bear because I know that one of these days I won't be able to do what I'm doing. Uh, you know, that fruit in old age and the psalmist talks about that. That's what I pray for the Lord. Help me to bear fruit in my old age. I want to go out in a blaze of glory. Not in an airplane crash, but you know, in a in a blaze of glory, you know, to just keep serving the Lord. And the Greek tense here is we keep on bearing fruit. Ladies, bearing fruit is what we do through our whole life. That's how we honor the Lord. We want to bear fruit. So the second blessing of abiding in him is fruit bearing. Fruit bearing. Ladies, it's a privilege. Do you know it's a privilege to serve the Lord? It is a privilege to serve the Lord. But this is one way we know we belong to him that we abide in him and he abides as us because we want to bear fruit. He says this is how we are his disciple. We're a pupil. We're a learner. Ladies, we want to be disciples of Christ. We can be disciples of a lot of other things. Cooking, running, gardening, fishing, hiking. But Jesus says, "If you bear fruit, you're my disciple." What a blessing. In fact, did you know our good works, our fruits glorify God, even to the unbeliever. The unbeliever is watching us. They're watching us, right? And Peter says, "Even though they might speak against you as evildoers, they will, as they observe your good works, glorify your father who is in heaven." I remember when I was dating Dr. Kurt and I'd go to Springfield, Illinois quite a bit and we'd go different places around town. He's lived there. He's been the pastor there for 30 years. And we'd go to FedEx and we'd go here and we'd go there. And everywhere we went, he knew someone. And you know, almost every single time the person would look at me and say, "You're getting a good man. This guy's the real deal." Unbelievers would say that about him. His doctors would say that about him. He had a testimony and still does around town as being a good man, a gentle man, a kind man, a caring man. So people, even though they're unbelievers, they observe us, our good works, and hopefully glorify God. Now, before we go on, I want to get a little practical about us as women. How do we bear fruit? What are some of the fruit we should be producing? What should unbelievers see in our lives as and believers as well? In fact, I would encourage you sometime do a word study on fruit. There's 106 fruits mentioned in scripture, old and new testament. 106. But ladies, they should see us as women living a holy life. One whose husband trusts her. One who is submissive and respective to her husband, one who loves him tenderly. They should see us as doing him good and not evil all the days of our life. They should see us as one who works hard, being a keeper at home, working diligently, not a woman who lays around on the couch watching TV and updating her Facebook account every 5 minutes. The world should see us as women giving to the needy, looking for ways to do that. They should see us being wise with our speech, not a gossip, not a slander. They should see us as being kind, having a tender affection for our children. They should see us fearing the Lord and living holy lives. And ladies, could I say this? If the unbelieving world doesn't see these things in your life, you know what it does? It blasphemes the word of God. It makes it unattractive. That's what Titus 2 says. When we don't adorn the doctrine of God and make it beautiful, ladies, the unbelieving world says, "I don't want to be a Christian if that woman's a Christian." I had a woman tell me one time, she said, "If that woman's and I'm so I'm not pointing to any of you, but if that woman is uh going to heaven, I'd rather go to hell than spend eternity with her." This woman just blasphemed the word of God by the way she lived her life. Ladies, we need to be living out Christianity so that others see Christ in us. And not like the Pharisees that do it just to be seen, but because it's really in our heart. Well, in view of the fact that he's soon leaving them, Jesus reminds him of his love in verse 9. As the father loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. How did the father love the son? Well, in Jesus's prayer in John 17:24, he says this to the father. Father, I desire that those you gave me will be with me and behold my glory for you've loved me before the foundation of the world. The father loved the son before the world was even formed. The father's love for the son has no beginning. has no end. That's how much the father loves the son. Now ladies, I don't know about you, but there are people in my life that I once had a deep love for. Now I just kind of like them. But uh you know, our our love kind of waines back and forth, right? But that does not describe the father's love to the son. It's eternal. It's unchanging. It was before the foundation of the world. And Jesus says, go notice what he says next. That's how much he loves us. That's how much he loves us. We talked about that last night for a little bit. In fact, the Greek word here for love is agapeo, which is uh indicates a direction of your will in finding one's joy in something. Have you ever thought about that? Christ finds joy in loving us. So ladies, the third blessing of abiding in Christ is this. The father's love. The father loves you. Jesus tells them he loves them. I love you. Just like the father loves me. The father has loved me from the beginning. He'll love me to the end. There is no beginning. There is no end. That's how much he loves us. He loves us that much. In fact, the upper room discourse says this, "Having loved his own, he loved them to the end. He gets up and washes their feet. That's how much he loves them. Ladies, I think we should be more mindful of the Lord's love. I know in my own life, I think I dwell more on God's judgment, his wrath, his justice. But, you know, the scriptures are full of verses that deal with the love of God, right? He's loved us with an everlasting love. Jeremiah says, Deuteronomy talks about loving us. He set to choose to set himself to love us. Well, Jesus then commands him at the end of verse 9 to abide in his love. What does that mean? Remain in my love once for all. May it endure to the end. Continue in the shelter of my love for you. And the word for love here is agape, which is a love that is not shown by doing what the person loved desires, but what the one who loves deems is needed by the one who loved. You might say, "What are you saying?" It's very simple. You know how much God loves us? He knew he needed a savior. He knew he needed a savior. Right? So God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. That's what he's saying. That's agape love. He gives us not what we necessarily desire but what we need necessary. So ladies, for man to show agape love to God or to continue in that love, he must first appropriate God's love because only God has genuine unselfish love. That's how we're to love others. Well, our love for God is out of is of course shown by our obedience is what which is what the Lord says now in verse 10. 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. So ladies, notice the condition that Jesus mentions here. If if we keep his commandments, then we will abide in his love. You know, that's one of the tests in first John. This is how we know him. If we keep his commandments, he that says, "Yeah, I know him. I know him. I love Jesus." But doesn't keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. Scary, right? but comforting if you're endeavoring to keep God's word. The keeping of God's commandments, my friend, is not an option. But it is a result of our love for the father. And ladies, the greatest way to keep God's commandments is to abide in his love. And the greatest way to abide in his love is to keep his commandments. It goes hand in hand. Ladies, when we don't keep God's commandments, when we're being disobedient, it's a miserable place to be. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been there? I'm sure you have. Don't you Yeah. Yes, you have. All of you have. You've been disobedient to the Lord. You've lied. You've had a bad thought towards someone. And if we don't confess that and forsake it, it's miserable. It's a miserable place to be when you go through your day with sin in your heart and you don't take care of it. But ladies, when we're obedient and we abide in his love and we keep his commandments and we walk in the spirit, you know, I love to do what Paul did. He says, "I like to keep short accounts with God and man." So, as soon as there's an offense here on earth, take care of it right then. Do it quickly. Let Satan get a foothold. And when you sin against the Lord, even in thought or any Lord, please forgive me for that thought and move on. Right? It's so much more easier than to come to your time in prayer and say, "hm, now what sins did I commit yesterday?" Or, "What sins did I commit today? I can't even remember." Right? But do it quickly. Take care of it quickly, ladies. Notice the Lord here does not require anything of them that he has not done himself. Evidenced by the words he says next. Look what he says. Just as I've kept my father's commandments and I abide in his love. Isn't that nice? He's not telling us to do something he himself hasn't done. I've kept my father's commandments. In fact, the Bible says he I came to do your will, oh God. This is why I came to earth. I want to do your will and he abides in his love. He came to do his will. Ladies, did you notice that Christ delights to do the father's will? It's not a drudgery. You know what John says? This is how we know we know him if we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not a burden. They're not a drudgery. Ladies, keeping God's word is a joy. It's not a burden. It's not a drudgery. It's a delight. Christ kept the father's commandments perfectly, and that is the goal of all of us, right? As the sermon on the mount says, "Therefore, be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect." Peter says, "Be holy." Why? Because he is holy. Are we going to be perfect in this life? Are we going to be holy in this life? No. But we endeavor, right, to walk in obedience to the Lord. Well, are all these words to be nothing but a bunch of sorrow and drudgery to the 11? I think not. Listen to what Jesus says in verse 11 to the 11. These things I have spoken to you that my joy might remain in you and your joy might be full. Ladies, the connection to verse 10 and 11 are very interesting because love and obedience are the secrets of true joy. Joy, wrote CS Lewis, is a serious business of heaven. In fact, my first husband used to say, I think when we die, our first response when we get to heaven is going to be laughter. Why did we hang on to this when we could have that? Right? Joy is the serious business of heaven. Elizabeth Elliott says this, I love this quote by CS Lewis. She says, "Because I am sure that it must be true. For heaven is occupied with those who want no other business but to love God and to manifest that love perfectly and continuously by a glad obedience." Jesus says, "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love just as I have obeyed my father's commands and remain in his love. I've told you so that my joy might be in you and your joy may be complete." End of quote. Now, what are the these things that Jesus is saying in verse 11 when he says, "These things I've spoken to you." Well, the things he's been saying from John 11 on till now, the things he said with the last times with his disciple, and he says, "I'm saying these things to you so that you will have joy. You will have joy." He's promised them heaven. He's promised them. He's preparing a place for them. He promised them the promise of the Holy Spirit that will come when he ascends to heaven. The Holy Spirit will come and he will dwell in them and teach them and comfort them, convict them. He's made all these promises to them in the upper room. Ladies, if the promises of God don't bring you joy, then I don't know what will. I will never leave you or forsake you. Never. Five times I will never. No. Never. No. Never. No. Never. No. Never leave you or forsake you. I've loved you within. Go through. One year I read through my Bible looking for all the promises in the word of God. There are a bunch of them. Focus on those. And so Jesus says, "These things I've spoken unto you that your joy will be full." Ladies, if these things don't bring you joy, the promises of God, I don't know what will. I think the biggest reason, of course, that any Christian should be joyful is because you're saved. Right? Remember when the 70 went out to preach and teach and they came back and they said, "Wow, even the demons are subject to us." Whoa, this is cool stuff, Lord. [snorts] He said, 'D don't rejoice in this, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. That's the greatest joy, right? Our salvation. Now, why has Christ spoken these words to the disciples to us? He gives two reasons why. He says, first of all, that his joy will remain in them. Not that they'll just have joy, but it will remain. The word for joy is good cheer, gladness of heart. Ladies, joy should be the characteristic of all true disciples of Christ. And notice, my friend, it's his joy, not the world's joy, his joy. Ladies, it should abide. It should remain in us. The disciples were losing their joy. They didn't understand what was happening. They didn't understand why the Lord was leaving them. They didn't understand all these things. Everything seemed gloom and doom at this time, but Jesus says, "I want my joy to remain in you." You know, unfortunately today, we see a lot of sad faces and a lot of sour looks among believers. A lot of sad looks, but ladies, we should be the most joyful of all people. Why? Because God's joy remains in us. Right? Well, the second reason the Lord has spoken these things to them, he says, "So your joy might be full." So our joy is not just to remain, but it's to be full. It means to be filled up and to be perfect. And ladies, I don't think it's a coincidence that the promise for joy comes after the admonition to keep his commandments. It goes without saying, but I'm going to say it again. Joy comes from obedience. when I'm disobedient to the Lord, I am not very happy. I am not happy. In fact, uh, you know, I've been married a year now and it was an adjustment, you know, getting married and left everything I've ever known since I was three years old and moved to a place I didn't know to a church I didn't know and a lot of other things. And couple times, you know, I my husband has been very patient with me, but he'll say, "Now, how would you be counseling someone who's acting like you are?" I'm like, "What are you talking about?" And so uh and and he was exactly right. I said, "Okay, I'm sorry. Please forgive me." You know, and um but you know, joy comes from being obedient. And when you're disobedient, you're not very happy. You're not very happy. Trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Right? That's the happiest place to be. But when I'm disobedient, it brings sorrow, depression, sa shame, self-pity. And if I don't repent, it just gets worse and worse. So ladies, the fourth and final blessing of abiding in Christ is fullness of joy. Fullness of joy. What a wonderful, wonderful gift. So we see four blessings of abiding in Christ according to the text. First of all, the blessing of faithful answered prayer. Does God answer your prayers? Has he answered your prayers today, this week? If not, why not? What prayers has he answered? Have you shared with someone what God's done in your life? Number two, blessing of fruit bearing. Ladies, are you bearing much fruit? What kind of fruit is in your life? Do others see that fruit? Is there anything you need to prune from your life so you can bear more fruit for the father? Sometimes we need to prune some things. Just say no to a few things maybe we want to do so we can bear more fruit for the kingdom. Number three, the blessing of the father's love. Do you sense the love of the father in your life? If so, how? If not, perhaps consider that you might not be abiding in his commandments. And maybe there's an area that you're being disobedient in. I remember reading about a man who was so disturbed about his relationship with the Lord. He knew something wasn't right, he stayed up all night reading the word of God trying to find out what he was being disobedient in. Now that's a guy that was serious about his relationship with the Lord. Number four, blessing of fullness, joy, fullness of joy. Does your life exhibit fullness of joy? If not, why not? If you ask yourself, why is it due to any sin in your life? Remember what David, remember after he committed adultery with Basheba and then he had her husband murdered on the front lines of battles to cover up his sin and on and on it went. And David went for one year with his sin unconfessed until Nathan the prophet came in and confronted him. And he said, "I'm the man. I've done it." Remember he wrote Psalm 51, "Have mercy upon me, oh God, according to thy kindness." Remember what he says? Restore to me the joy of my salvation. Why was David's joy not there? Because he committed adultery. He murdered. And he had not confessed it. He'd not repented. So maybe you have some unconfessed sin. Maybe you need to restore a relationship with someone. Maybe you need to pursue peace with someone. Maybe you are allowing the cares of this life to steal your joy. Maybe it's a difficult person or a difficult situation that has stolen your joy. But my friend, as God's daughters, we should have fullness of joy. My dear sisters, in closing, if you will look at each one of these blessings, faithful answered prayer, fruit bearing, the father's love, and fullness of joy, they are present when we abide when we obey. But they are absent when we are disobedient. When we are disobedient, God doesn't answer prayer. We don't bear fruit. We don't sense his love. We have no joy. Right? So, do you know the precious precious joy and peace of abiding in Christ? I pray you do. Let's pray. Oh, Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for John 15-17. What a precious portion of scripture. I thank you that these last words you said to your disciples are here in our Bible and we can read them. We can be there with you as you are sharing with them in our minds. We just thank you so much for your word. So, Father, I pray that we would be women who abide in you and your words abide in us, Lord. May we be women of joy. Maybe we women that bear fruit for your kingdom and your glory. And so, Father, we commend the rest of this day to you and ask that you use it for your purposes, for our growth, and Lord, most of all, for the glory of our savior. In his name I pray. Amen.