Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Would you bow your heads for a moment with me?
Lord? We.
We approach the Scriptures with humility, with a desire with the heart, posture to obey, to experience your truth.
Would you speak to us?
Would you transform our lives? Would you cause our hearts to burn as we read the Scriptures today?
Would you breathe upon these words in Jesus name?
Amen.
You know, it's amazing to me that you could, you could do so many things right and miss friendship with God.
You could do so many great things for God and miss knowing Him.
You can build great things and yet still without Him.
God designed the best version of us to be in union with Him.
In other words, whatever we do and build apart from union with Christ is just so shallow in comparison to our design.
You know, even our faith, it's not great because of our knowledge of scriptures or memorizing Scripture. And it's not even ambition and it's not even our, you know, natural human strength, ability or gifting. But what makes faith fruitful and effective is connected to proximity.
It's not really connected to what you're doing, but. But it's connected to who you're with.
That's why the Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing from the word of God. Faith doesn't come from reading. Faith comes by hearing. And to hear, you have to be close, you have to stay close. That has to be the aim, the goal, the purpose of our life, to hear Him.
This is where we find true contentment in life.
In his presence, at his feet, in union with Christ.
True contentment.
You know, many people followed Jesus when the crowds were there, when Jesus was multiplying bread, when Jesus was healing blind people and raising the dead? I mean, that was an exciting time to be around Jesus.
But what about times when the crowds were gone and it wasn't that popular and it was actually a little dangerous to be near him. And one of those times when the crowds left and the people that were left were offended and left too, and Jesus turns to his disciples and says, don't you want to leave too?
And they said we would, but we have nowhere else to go. Because you're the source.
You're the source of life.
And contentment is not connected to results or outcomes.
It's not connected to success or loss.
It's the ability to stay there, to remain, because it's about proximity to the who.
And there's something profound that Jesus is actually saying because he was a rabbi who had disciples and, and no rabbi would call his disciples friends.
That was not normal. That was not Common that would have never been used that way in that kind of language.
And even masters, they wouldn't call their slaves friends, they would call them servants or slaves.
But Jesus says, I no longer call you slaves or servants. I now call you friends.
And this is the last day.
In context, this is the last day of Jesus with his disciples.
This is after the last Supper. This is after Judas went on to betray Jesus. And most likely he's having this conversation with them, the John 15 conversation on the way to Gethsemane, passing by vineyards and talking about this theme of the vine and the branches.
And you know what his whole point of the message is? Because they're approaching that time where he was going to be betrayed and separated. The whole point of the message is, I'm inviting you into union with me, not just to do things for me, not just to do great things, but I'm inviting you into intimacy, I'm inviting you into friendship.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: I'm calling you friend.
Who are we to be called friends of God?
[00:06:01] Speaker B: And we know that this is the aim of the Christian life because we see that in so many passages like Revelations chapter three, where he says, I know your works, but this one thing I have against you, you've left your first love.
Or Corinthians 13, where you know it goes right after the gifts of the Spirit and the power of God, which we love. And he says, you may do this.
You may be so generous that you. You would even give your body as a burnt offering. You would progress in spiritual gifts so much that you would speak even with tons of angels.
But if you have not love, you are nothing.
It measures up to nothing.
And so what Jesus is saying Here in John 15 is so profound for a rabbi, but even more a master in even more God to say, I, I call you friends.
In John 5:20, Jesus says, For the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself is doing.
The Father shows the Son everything he's doing.
And in John 15 he's saying, Everything that the Father showed me, I made known to you.
Look at Psalm 25:14. The Lord is a friend to those who fear him.
He teaches them his covenant.
The Lord is a friend to those who fear him. The Lord reveals his secrets to his friends.
There was even a thing where kings, in the inner chambers or the inner courts, they would allow friends, the friends of the king, to come to have access to that place, to hear about the plans and the counsel of the king and the heart and the why.
So what Jesus is saying, you're Not a slave. You're not a servant that gets tasks done. I'm inviting you into the, into the inner circle to sit with the king and to know his heart.
The Lord reveals his secrets to friends.
And friends is not a, a, a position.
Friends is something that's formed through time.
That's why Jesus didn't say this in the beginning. But think about this. What is it about Jesus that he would approach his disciples in the beginning?
Never seen them before.
They never seen him before.
He doesn't necessarily have any public ministry. There's nothing about him that, you know, they could benefit from at the time. And he says, follow me.
What is it about that invitation that caused them to drop everything and just go after Jesus.
Earlier in this chapter? Chapter 15, verse 9.
I want you to see this.
Just as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you.
Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.
This is my commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this than a person laid down his life for his friends.
I want you to notice something. Everything Jesus is telling his disciples, he's doing it first.
He's not asking them to do something he didn't do.
And also, we see here that what we do, we never initiated. We just responded to, he loved us first.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: He.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: He said, hey, the highest level of friendship is when a friend lays down his life for another.
What did he do?
Lay down his life for us?
And he says, if you love me, you will obey my commands, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands.
I remember when, when people would ask for me to share my story, and I had a radical supernatural encounter with Jesus, and he transformed my life. He rescued me from darkness. And, and the question would be phrased like, how did you find God?
And I. And I remember, like, trying to figure out how to answer that question. I realized that the answer doesn't flow because I'm realizing I. I didn't find God.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: He.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: He found me. He pursued me. He loved me. He. He rescued me. He's the one who initiated and, and through his love and pursuit of me, I reached my rock bottom and finally responded and yielded to his love that transformed me.
And so even here, this invitation in John 15, it's an invitation that's based on his initiation.
Friends.
Eventually, for you to have deep, intimate friendship, you have to value what your friend values.
So it's not like, hey, obey. And the reward is you get a friendship.
What he's saying is, friendship looks like you valuing what I value.
That obedience is the result of union and intimacy.
And there is, you know, just like in the Bible, there's, there's many even promises and prophetic words. And they are all yes and amen. But some of them have an if, right? And what we see in John the end of chapter 14 and this chapter 15 is four ifs.
We see four ifs here.
And the first one is, if you love me, obey me, right? We see it in 4, 14, 15. If you love me, you will keep. In other words, you will treasure, you will tremble at my word. You will esteem it, you will value it, you will adjust to it, you will reverence.
And you know, in first century Judaism, disciples didn't learn necessarily just information and text. The way they learned was through imitating.
And so that's why you'll see still some of that tradition where they even tied physical boxes, you know, because they took words literally and, and they would imitate those words.
And what, what Jesus is saying, if you love me, you will imitate what I'm saying. You will press into experience that you will press in to know it. Through experience, you will manifest my words.
And that's the theme of John 15 is that as we abide, as we surrender as a branch, we bear fruit, right? We, we manifest God's hidden glory because he caused his glory to rest on his bride.
The second if is if you abide, you bear fruit.
If you abide, you bear fruit.
Our effective life in God is less about our strength, our gift and our ambition. Our effective life in God, our fruitful life in God has a lot more to do with staying connected.
This has to become our priority.
This has to become what we lay down our lives for. And it's to know Him. And that's the invitation. He's saying, you're my friends. And here's the definition. There is no greater friend than one who lays down his life for another.
Well, he did it first and he left an example for us now in this branch and vine relationship to lay down our lives, to have this aim, to know him.
So he says, if you abide, you will bear fruit. It will be hard not to.
Why? Because you know his secrets.
You know, a lot of success for people that walk with God is connected to hearing something where the Lord in that space where you're alone with him, where you're in a quiet place with him, and he just drops something. How many Guys know what I'm talking about. He just, he just.
You slip away to be with him and he slips something to you and he just drops something. And then you, you simply obey by yielding to what he's saying. Not because you think you're ready, not because you think you're qualified, not because you maybe even necessarily agree with God's choice, but you choose to surrender and abide to stay conn.
And a great fruit comes from that.
And then people want to come around your fruit, your results, and say, man, how'd you do it?
How did you know when to plant and how to prune and what you know?
And you're like, it's my secret.
He just told me what to do and I just did it.
We have a problem with that because you can't copy that. You have to have your own secret.
You have to have your own secret place, your own relationship with God, your own hearing.
The problem with the church sometimes is you've allowed someone else to take that place. Let the pastor hear for us, or let the preacher or the speaker or the life group leader. It was never designed to be that way.
So he says, if you remain, you will bear fruit.
Why? Because in the picture of vineyards which were all over Israel, branches had zero independent life.
We could stay there for sure.
The third if is if you do what I command, you are my friends, And the word friend there is one bound by affection, trust and shared life.
That's a glorious invitation.
Because he decided to be your friend, but your friendship with him, you decide.
The fourth if is if you remain in my love, You will have fullness of joy.
We see it in nine if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love. So that my joy may be in you, my joy may be in you.
You know, worry exists where we don't know God yet.
So many people worried about everything.
Worry is not the problem.
It's not knowing him, not knowing him in that space, not knowing him in that room. Because if you know him, you will not worry.
And it's true, it might be offensive because the. The solution is too easy. It's intimacy, it's relationship.
It's actually to come back, to yield, to surrender. And there's a beauty in surrender, because there's contentment there, because you're abiding is to stay there, build your house there, and then it doesn't matter.
The reward is joy.
The outcome is joy.
Joy when you have success and same joy when you have loss. Joy in suffering, joy in trials, joy in testing, joy in Prison. When Paul was in prison, Joy in persecution and joy even for Christ on the way to the cross.
[00:21:09] Speaker A: Why?
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Because he remained in the will of the Father. There's joy there. And that joy is strength.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: That joy is an anointing. That joy is a grace. That joy is the evidence
[00:21:24] Speaker B: of someone that is abiding.
And let me tell you, people that abide, they will bear much fruit. They will do great work for the kingdom of God.
But in that great work, they will never burn out.
[00:21:41] Speaker A: In that great work, they will never,
[00:21:44] Speaker B: you know, get depressed and reach the end of themselves. Because in that space, even if it's hard, it's the most life giving place and space you can be.
It's like, man, I would have never signed up for this in a thousand years.
I would have never said yes to this in my right mind. But now that I'm here, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
That's that feeling where, where you're abiding and obeying his commands and you're bearing fruit and you're remaining in his love. And you, you're just there.
You're there. And you're not consumed by what's happening around you, you're consumed by who you're with.
And this is eternal life.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: That we know Him.
That we know Him. God wants to raise a generation that knows Him.
It's a generation that knows him who
[00:22:42] Speaker B: will be strengthened and do great exploits.
Why have we made it about the work?
Why have we made it about disciplines and all these other things? And two chapters a day. You can do two chapters a day and not know Him.
I'm not saying those things are not important. They are important to our formation and maturity. But I'm saying they have to have the right aim.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: That the aim is to be with him, to meet with him, to hear his voice.
And imagine if we as a people unify in that aim, what could happen in this room? What can happen through this room?
Let me remind you about Acts.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: When the Holy Spirit came and it
[00:23:32] Speaker A: took him 10 days of prayer to unify in this hunger and aim, just to have Him. We don't need to work, we don't
[00:23:41] Speaker B: need to do anything.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: We need to wait.
[00:23:44] Speaker B: And when he came, let me remind you that out of that upper room they touched the entire world with the Gospel and died as martyrs without fear in their eyes.
I can't. Like, there's nothing I can do to make you more hungry. There's nothing I can do to make me more hungry.
But I know that one of the Things the Holy Spirit does as we walk with him is he gives us the gift of hunger.
The Bible says in Galatians, he gives us desires.
Desires is hunger.
So the aim is not to do more, it's to stay connected.
The last message Jesus preached.
I'm inviting you into union with me.
I call you friends.
Where did we get busy and distracted doing great things and gave up friendship with God?
Because friendship with God is the greatest gift you can, could never have.
Where did you lose your joy in being a disciple of Jesus?
Where is it hard for you?
Where are you stuck in worry?
Maybe those are the places and spaces where he's inviting you to learn the beauty of surrender again, to learn the beauty of yielding again, so that he who is the vine can cause that life to flow through him to you.
Because in all of your experience, in all of your spiritual maturity, you have never become the Source.
And you know where worry comes from?
You thinking you're the Source. You need to create the solution. You need to provide for you. Because if you don't provide for you, God ain't gonna do it. When did you become the Source?
How about the beauty of surrender again, where you have joy even in the midst of lack? Because he's the Source.
You know, Jesus, in his life and ministry, learned to slip away many times, even from crowds, even from busy work, good work.
And when he would slip away, the Father would relationally reveal things to him.
And then Jesus, with his disciples, said, you're my friends because I.
I've shared everything with you, Want you to stand to your feet. I'm gonna invite the worship team.
This is a holy moment because his Spirit is here and his presence is here.
And you can have as much as you want.
But it's not him who's deciding that. You're deciding that.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst.
They will be satisfied.
God wants to fill you, you who are empty. God wants to fill you, you who are weary, you who are anxious. God wants to fill you.
God wants to be a friend to you.
God wants to reveal his secrets to you.
God wants to share his heart with you.
And some of you in this room, you're like man.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: I've never known God that way.
Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of grace.
The Christian life is not behavior modification, learning how to act right, how to stand right, how to talk right.
The Christian life is a life in the spirit.
It's a life of power. It's a life of anointing. You don't need to chase anointing. You just need to stay close to the Anointed One.
There is more.
There is more that Jesus died for.
And I believe God is awakening a bride who becomes jealous for her bridegroom, jealous for intimacy, jealous for his affection.
The same way the Holy Spirit yearns with jealousy for us.
So go ahead.
[00:28:59] Speaker B: Confidently approach the throne of grace.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: Approach the Holy of holies.
Confidently come into his presence and receive mercy and grace in the time of need.
Would you lift your hands and would you just expand? Press your desire, your hunger, your surrender. Let the Holy Spirit renew the beauty of surrender, the beauty of yielding.
Let him fill you with joy that's connected to one who abides and remains.
And if you're hungry for more, you can come forward. We're gonna have people just roam. Roam through the ministry team Lay hands. God is going to pour out his spirit and fill empty vessels.
Fill empty vessels.
Fill the void.
Birds of cry in this generation.
Purify us with your fire.
Here he comes. Who baptizes in the Holy Spirit and fire.
Psalm24. Who will ascend the hill of the Lord?
Those who have clean hands and a pure heart.
Purify our hearts, Holy Spirit, where our affection has become divided, where our loyalty has become divided.
Purify, Purify. Purify, Purify.
Break down the idols.
Break down the idols.
Shake what can be shaken?
Come on. Cry out. Come on. Hunger, thirst. Reach out.
Reach out. He's here.
He's in the room.
The King of glory is in the room.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: Thank you for joining King Movement Online. I pray and hope that that sermon impacted you deeply. I would love if you shared this with a few friends and family. And before you go, don't forget to subscribe. See you next week.
