"The Power of Abiding" with Pastor Doug Batchelor

thank you pastor sean happy sabbath everyone now i'm going to do my best you know i i looked at myself a couple of times i hate to admit that yes i do look afterward to see how the sermon looked and i saw like i preached on that message last week important message and i've got my sunglasses on i look like a thug and so right now we've got a little cloud cover but uh if it comes out i got my glasses and my top pocket i'll do my best to create the illusion i am a friendly guy up until then but praise the lord we have a little cooler weather you know we started meeting earlier because it was so hot we were afraid of heat stroke and now we could probably go back to the regular time but we are hoping we didn't want to keep mixing things up we are hoping god willing and we hope you'll pray that we're trying to get some final inspections and so we can get our temporary permit and be meeting in the church building of course that'll be spread out according to the guidelines but it wouldn't be wonderful to meet in our own building soon so pray for that and we're we're just we're so excited to see the way the lord is blessing you know this morning we're going to be talking about one of the most important passages in the bible it's that passage there in john chapter 15 where jesus talks about abiding in him you know being a christian begins with the great invitation you find in matthew chapter 11 where jesus says come unto me and i expect many listening if not most we've made that decision to come to christ but then it often happens that after we come to christ we have struggle staying we struggle staying with christ we're not exactly sure how to abide in christ and this was the appeal of jesus and you know if we could only learn the secret of abiding in christ there is so much that is promised there so i suppose you heard the scripture reading but i'd like to go back to john and look at that passage there where he talks about this wonderful experience that we can have abiding in christ i should probably give you a little background this takes place following the last supper and judas has already gone out they probably were traveling from the upper room in jerusalem through jerusalem before you get to the mount of olives where jesus prayed there in the garden he was ultimately arrested he probably stomped a few places along the way and he taught them he was outdoors evidently in john 17 when it says he lifted up his eyes into heaven and he prayed that great intercessory prayer then in chapter 18 of john it says they crossed the brook kidron and he went to the garden where he was arrested so somewhere in route he was teaching them and because it's the passover it's a full moon and in the moonlight even to this very day you could see on the hills around jerusalem grapevines now the the nation of israel if they were anything they were great people they uh their whole economy revolved around the grapes and so when he began to employ this symbol they knew exactly what he was talking about i am the true vine my father is the vinedresser every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes it that it might bear more fruit you are already clean because of the word that i've spoken to you don't miss that the sanctifying purifying influence of the word and then he makes that statement abide in me and i in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me i am the vine and you are the branches he who abides in me and i in him bears much fruit for without me you can do nothing if anyone does not abide in me he is cast out as a branch in his withered and they gather them and they throw them in the fire and they are burned if you abide in me and my words abide in you you will ask what you desire and it will be done for you by this my father is glorified that you might bear much fruit and so you will be my disciples as the father loved me so i have loved you abide in my love and keep my commandments and you will abide in my love just as i have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love and i'll stop with verse 11. these things i've spoken to you that your joy may remain in you and that your joy might be full so he tells us that the the outcome of knowing what it really means to abide in him is a joyful christian life now who here doesn't want a joyful christian life who here doesn't want a fruitful christian life and so we're going to talk about that a little this morning first of all jesus says i am the true vine now this is the the last in the seven great i am's you find in the gospel of christ you realize when moses said lord who will i say to the pharaoh is sending me and which god am i going to identify he says i am that i am so when jesus said i am he was making a statement of being in connection with a self-existent god notice he says i am the bread that's one i am the light of the world that's two three i am the door for i am the good shepherd five i am the resurrection and the life six i am the way the truth and the life and then finally he says i am the true vine the bible is a book of grapes from genesis where noah plants a vineyard through the parables of christ until you get to revelation and it talks about the wine of god's wrath and the wine of babylon the bible is filled with grapes part of the genesis of this discussion is my desire to get a harley davidson no part of the genesis of this discussion is that karen and i are it is grape season now you know we just had fire go through uh the napa valley and i understood 32 vineyards were burned and karen and i were up in the hills this last week and we actually ate some grapes off our own four little vines and i was thinking about grapes and i was thinking about pruning grapes they hadn't been pruned properly so all the grapes were no bigger than blueberries those were the big ones and karen bless her little heart you know we picked several of the clusters of grapes and we brought them in and she one by one picked out the good ones and put them aside and cleaned them and we ended up with a bowl of grapes just a little bowl and so i was thinking about grapes through the bible god compared the nation of israel to a vine psalm 88 through 15 you have brought out a vine out of egypt you've cast out the heathen and planted it you prepared room before it and you did cause it to take deep root and it filled the land we put in a a new trail is a few weeks ago up the hill and just wide enough for our little quads to go through and there was a spring on the back of the property there i didn't know about and because there was a spring there i kept cutting through these vines and it occurred to me i thought what is this plant and i saw it was a massive wild grapevine that was winding up through a very tall douglas fir tree it must have been a hundred and 100 feet tall anyway i was tempted to give you an evangelistic number but it was huge and he had to cut the vine with a chainsaw not with clippers and i thought boy they're tenacious if they get a little water and some sunshine grapevines can live for hundreds of years and they can produce tons of food if they're treated properly now in the passage of john 15 you find the word abide more than any other place in the bible it is a concentrated chapter where it says a buy to buy divide ten times in chapter 15 it's telling us to abide what does abide mean it means to stay as in a given place a state relation or expectancy to continue to dwell to endure to be present to remain to stand to tarry for you know the gospel begins by jesus inviting disciples to abide with him you remember when andrew and john after the baptism they heard john the baptist say this is the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world they fixed their eyes on him and they started following him and jesus turned and saw them following and he said what do you seek they said master where do you dwell he said come and see and he invited them to come and says they came and they abode with him so this is the beginning of the gospel when he begins his ministry he invites the disciples to abide with him then you get to the end we just sang that song abide with me you get to the end of the gospels and on the road to a mass jesus is speaking to two of the disciples and they don't know who he is and when they come to a fork in the road their hearts have been so stirred and warmed by his teaching that he makes as though he's going to go on and they say lord don't don't go it's it's near even that's where you get those words in the song fast fall the even tide it's near even abide with us and he comes in and he abides with him and it is in the process of abiding with them he reveals himself to them in the process of breaking bread and abiding with him he reveals himself to us and he was known the bible says he was known in the breaking of bread as he abode in their home because they invited him in and so the whole gospel is in the context of jesus wants to abide with us we want to abide with him we want that loving knowing relationship and that's the source of real salvation can you say amen so jesus has promised that part of abiding he says i am with you always to the very end of the age he says in hebrews 13 5 i will never leave you or forsake you now christianity is not just a religion of beliefs it's a religion of relationship jesus wants a relationship with us so when he talks about abiding he's wanting to dwell with us you look when jesus comes to zacchaeus what did zacchaeus want he wanted just to see jesus christ said look we don't want to just stare at each other that might be a starting point but you know two people might first become attracted to each other because they look but a marriage doesn't go very far if you just keep looking you've got to at some point communicate and then abide and it says when jesus came to where zacchaeus was in the tree he saw him he said zacchaeus make haste and come down in other words come to me for today i must abide at your house he says i want to abide with you and he made haste and he came to him how joyfully he received christ the lord wants us to have an abiding relationship with him that means that we have an order to fulfill on the way to the cross some of the last most heartfelt messages jesus gives to the apostles is a plea and he says abide with me abide in me and he emphasizes it for several verses the necessity how crucial it is and you realize there's only two choices in this verse you've got one vine that abides in the branch it is fruitful it lives the one that does not abide in the branch if it stays separated notice i said if it stays separated it withers it dies and it is burned there are only two kinds of branches in the world there's only two kinds now these are he's talking to people that claim to be christians he says those in me if they don't abide there's some people that say they know christ but they're not abiding in him and so this kind of flies in the face of those who say you can come to christ and once you're saved you can't be lost there are people who are in christ but they don't abide in christ and they will ultimately be gathered and burned the bible says you know in the book desire of age is that classic on the life of christ it says abide in me and i in you abiding in christ means a constant receiving of his spirit a life of unreserved surrender to his service the channel of communication must be opened continually between man and his god as the vine branch constantly draws sap from the living vine so are we to cling to jesus and receive from him by faith the strength and perfection of his own character so what does it mean we're seeing abiding in him and we're using metaphors and doug what is what does that really mean well he tells us really in the passage he says abide in my word he's talking about abiding him through communion through prayer but on a very elementary level jesus is saying stick with me now keep in mind when does he say this to the disciples after judas has gone out chapter 13 of john judas goes out and it is a night jesus never speaks to judas again judas goes out and he hangs himself he separates you know the one of the most heartbreaking verses in the bible is john 6 6 6. you can't forget that can you you realize there's not 66 chapters in john so it has to be the 66th verse of john chapter 6. you know what that says from that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more how sad they came to christ they followed him for a while then he said some tough stuff and they turned away many turned away jesus said there are a few that find it that hang on he says he that endures to the end jesus has this in mind that already many disciples have abandoned him and now judas has gone to betray him and he says to the eleven hang in there stick with me abide in me now if we continue you know once you come to christ he adopts you you're his child he is not going to let go of you you're free to let go of him but he's not going to forsake you you need to hang on to him he said it's a two-way relationship you can trust me i will not let go of you if you fall i still love you get back up abide in me abide in me it means to dwell in christ and when you're abiding in christ you know if you're walking in the spirit you're drawing from that sap it gives you a spiritual energy it gives you a spiritual life and then you'll naturally have the fruit amen and that's what he wants the lord wants that fruit in us not abiding i don't want to spend a lot of time on this is a little negative but jesus said it i got to say it not abiding is fatal so we need to know what that means every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away if anyone verse 6 john 15 6 if anyone doesn't abide in me he's cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and they throw them in the fire and they are burned they are withered dry spiritless fuel for the fire the lost are fruitless they are cast out they are burned there's only two kinds of branches here john the baptist when he was preaching he said in matthew 3 10 and even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire now there are some grapevines and they got grapes you can't eat and you know this wild grape i was just telling you about they're just they're sour and you can't eat them do you want the good grapes you know before i leave this important illustration if you look there's a passage in isaiah 7. that jesus is not creating new teaching he's he's actually expounding on the old teaching in isaiah chapter 5 rather isaiah 5 and i'm going to read through verse 7 now let me sing to my well beloved a song my of my beloved regarding his vineyard my well beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill he dug it he cleared out its stones he planted it with the choicest of vine he built a tower in its midst he also made a wine press in it so he expected it to bring forth good grapes but it brought forth wild grapes unedible and now o inhabitants of jerusalem and men of judah judge please between me and my vineyard what more could have been done to my vineyard that i've not done in it why then when i expected it to bring forth good grapes did it bring forth wild grapes and now please tell me what let me tell you what i'll do with my vineyard i'll take away the hedge and it will be burned i'll break down its wall and it will be trampled down i will lay waste and it shall not be pruned or dug but there shall come up briars and thorns i'll also command the clouds that they rain not on it and here's the summary for the vineyard of the lord of hosts is the house of israel and the men of judah are his pleasant plant he looked for justice but behold oppression for righteousness but behold a cry you know god said to the nation of israel i took you out of egypt i planted you as a choice of vine in a fruitful place i did everything to help you flourish and be fruitful but you became fruitless or the fruit was unedible so what good it cumbers the ground and so there's a judgment that comes on that fruitless vine friends there's no escaping that he wants us to have the fruits of the spirit and you know what those are we'll talk about them in just a moment you remember jesus before his death he went to a fig tree looking for fruit and he found none and it's the only time it seems that jesus lost his temper but he didn't it looks like he had a low blood sugar tantrum and he cursed the fig tree and said no man ever eat from you again it's because it was fruitless it had all the leaves and all the pretense of fruit but no fruit and you could have all the trappings of a church service you could have a beautiful building you could have beautiful music you could have beautiful programs but if we are spiritless if we do not have the fruits of the spirit the lord says what good is it it cumbers the ground cut it down those are the words that he he spoke to the keeper of the vineyard regarding the fruitless fig tree and so it's just absolutely essential that we have these fruits in you we cannot have the fruits if we don't abide some people struggle to produce the fruit and really the effort should be in the abiding you catching that it's a good point i want to say it again a lot of people worry about and some pastors will badger their congregations into fruitfulness but really the most important thing is that we make the effort to abiding in abiding the grapevine makes no effort to produce fruit if it abides if it separates from the vine if the branches the tendrils they separate then there's no fruit in ezekiel 15 6 therefore thus says the lord god like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest which i have given to the fire so will i give up the inhabitants of jerusalem jeremiah 2 21 yet i had planted you a noble vine a seed of the highest quality then how have you turned before me into a degenerate plant in an alien vine meaning fruitless or unedible so this theme runs all through the bible that he wants us to be fruitful keep in mind it is the fruit of the vine that jesus employs for his own blood at the last supper so it's this analogy this symbol is just part and parcel of the gospel the blood of christ so yeah i guess they call it viticulture is the science of taking care of grapes jesus said every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes it that it might bear more fruit you know the phrase that jesus uses every branch in me this is probably the favorite phrase of paul paul says in christ well the phrase is found about a hundred times in the new testament it's not just going to church being a christian abiding in christ means that you live your life in communion with him you are abiding in him you're talking to him you're resting in him you're looking for the guidance of his word in what you do you have a knowing relationship with jesus now you may not always feel it that doesn't mean you're not abiding i might come to your house if you invite me to spend the night and you can ask me was i aware all night long that i was in your house no most of the time i was asleep i was totally not aware but that didn't take me out of your house i was there the whole time though i may not have been thinking of it and so when you make your decision to abide in christ it doesn't mean you'll always be conscious of it every moment and then he says there's pruning that takes place what do you think that means i guess there's been some studies to find out if plants scream when they're pruned you know and then those that hug trees will probably argue for that but the bible tells us that uh pruning can be good for them and make them more fruitful god will discipline us we must receive it patiently james 1 verse 2 my brethren counted all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience but let patience have its perfect work that you might be perfect and complete lacking nothing our effort is really going to be in abiding and allowing god to prune us with the trials that come paul says for when i consider the sufferings of this present time they're not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us has god been pruning on you do you sometimes find you're going through trials it might be anything from a long traffic signal that's testing your patience to some serious physical problem that you're going through some trial in your family your finances there's a broad spectrum of ways that god allows us to experience trouble because he's trying to get our attention to teach us to trust him you know when you're abiding in christ that's where peace comes from he wants us to have that peace you have nothing to worry about when you're abiding in him because god is all-powerful and then there's that important lesson there is no fruit oh wait i want to read something to you about pruning first there's another great quote in that book desire of ages page 676 the pruning will cause pain but it is the father who applies the knife he works with no want in hand or indifferent heart there are branches trailing on the ground these must be cut loose from the earthly supports to which their tendrils are fastening they are to reach heavenward and find their support in god the husbandman prunes away the harmful growth that the fruit might be richer and more abundant and returning to our humble grapevines up in kovalev that part of the problem was they didn't get pruned oh we did the initial pruning at the beginning of the year but then they need some pruning along the way or they just start sending out vines everywhere that sap the strength from the fruitful vines notice jesus said the vines that produce fruit will be pruned that they can produce more those that understand the way that vines work and vineyards that you've got your primary your best vines and they're fruitful and then there'll be all these sucker vines that kind of launch off everywhere and they hang on the ground and they're just going to take nutrients and energy away from having the bigger better grapes and the good divine dresser needs to go in and snip away the ones that are dragging on the ground and all of us we've got that carnal nature where the vines just seem to drag on the ground we need to allow christ to cut those things away that the heavenly vines the ones that are lifted up will produce more fruit no fun picking your grapes off the ground if you didn't know that you want to get the ones that are elevated and he can make you fruitful abide in me and i and you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me i am the vine you are the branches you know i can't i can't preach about this subject without thinking back about 40 years ago i was doing evangelistic meetings in texas and i was visiting different churches on sunday making friends with people and i went to this one baptist church and the pastor who was very much a country self-taught preacher he decided to preach on john 15 and he stood up and he just believed that the spirit would lead him as he preached so he stood up and he said my passage today is john 15 and he read the verse abide in me and i sat there for 45 minutes and he said abide in me about a hundred different ways and that was the whole sermon and he just kept saying it i kept thinking well do you have more to add to that he said it smiling he said it waving his arms he said it so many different ways and and people i looked around they were just smiling and i thought i must be missing something but now i think back in that old preacher maybe he had the point that that the the message just needs to be said and said until it sinks in that we are to rest in him we are to reside in him we are to cling to him we are to endure in him abide in me i just felt embarrassed because i said it three times but he said it for 45 minutes only two kinds of vine you get the fruitful and the unfruitful and much fruit it survives and this is what the lord wants now the reason that vine is fruitful is because it's connected to something that is unseen you know it's interesting grapevines they're not like you know redwood trees they can produce a lot of luscious fruit the source of it is all something that is underground and people may not see the source of the spirit the nutrient the moisture the roots that is going down deep in the ground but it's through a relationship with god in the unseen that we're getting the power that produces the fruit what is that fruit this is something we should all memorize love joy peace long-suffering kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control he wants these in our lives you can read in first corinthians 13 13 now abides faith hope love these three but the greatest of these is love the lord wants us to have the fruits of the spirit and the opposite of that of course would be the lusts of the flesh or the fruits of the flesh which if you can't have both on the same tree the bible says you can't have both thistles and grapes and so he wants us to have the good fruit and not the bad fruit in genesis 49 i just thought i'd add this verse when joseph i'm sorry jacob is on his dying bed he prophesies concerning his son joseph they went through such terrible trials but he had such a fruitful life he said joseph is a fruitful bow a fruitful bow by a well his branches run over the wall now if you want to know how fruitful a vine can be i've used this before it is as an amazing fact there is a grapevine in england you would think that the best grape vine in the world would be in spain or france or napa right a lot of land in kovalev that used to be dairy they're now turning into vineyards people must be drinking a lot of wine because i don't think they're all eating grapes they've got by not far from the palace in england they've got what they call the great vine the great vine at hampton court palace near london planted in 1768 is the largest grapevine in the world it's got one trunk it still gives a harvest every fall the public is allowed to buy it it's provided by the royalty owns it and the money all goes to charity it's described as one of the wonders of the vegetable kingdom this grapevine the the actual trunk is outside but the vines are under a greenhouse is 250 years old it has one trunk that is two feet thick some of the vines are 200 feet long because of the skillful work of those who are cutting and pruning the vine it produces several one grapevine produces several tons of grapes every year jesus wants us to have much fruit and sometimes we got a couple little grape berries and you could have tons if you're connected and if you're patient even though some of the branches are 200 feet from the main stem they still bear much fruit because they're joined to the vine even though they're 200 feet away they've got big old clusters of grapes now if this this line is so heavy they have uh wires and wraps to suspend it to an iron grating or it would collapse and that goes through this tunnel of windows and it's really something to see fruitful vines that's what the lord wants us to be so what's the key when i say abide in you you say okay doug how do i do that well he tells us in john 15 to abide through his word you are already clean because of the word that i've spoken to you john 15 verse 7 if you abide in me and here it is friends what does it mean to abide in christ my words abide in you he goes on to say you'll ask what you will and it will be done for you to abide in crisis too and you're here today listening to the word hopefully it's having power in your lives you listen to his word his word abides in you and it gives you the fruits of the spirit and you get answered prayer john 5 38 but you do not have his word abiding in you because he whom the father sent you do not believe he said to the unbelievers in john 5 you don't have his word abiding in you and you don't believe in john 8 31 jesus said to those who are jews that believed in him this is the ones who did believe if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free so you're noticing what's happening abiding answered prayer abiding joy abiding fruitfulness abiding it tells us that you'll ask what you will and it will be done and it makes you free there's freedom through abiding do you daily read the word christ is the word when you're abiding in christ if you're in the word you're in christ if the word's in you you're in christ we need a feast on the word and the word abiding in us means more than memorizing scriptures it means a submission to scripture and a willingness to obey and this is where a lot of people fall short they're ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth he not only wants us to read it he wants us to walk in it not to look at the light but walk in the light as a result of that it tells us that there's a transformation that takes place staying in the way staying in the word stain in the fold abiding is something that happens through love it means obeying if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love notice that the word love keeping commandments and abiding john tells us the same author he says whoever abides in him does not sin now that scares people and you think well pastor doug that settles it for me i know what my status is the word there when it says does not sin is talking about they do not live a life of sin and you'll find that statement in the book steps to christ it's a beautiful quote it says it's not the occasional good deed or the occasional misty that determines whose side we're on but it's the habitual words and acts so if you fall if any man's sin we have an advocate with the father doesn't mean that you are not a christian that you are not adopted that you are not abiding you repent right away you reconnect to the vine but if we are living a life of abiding him we are not living a life where we are practicing sin if you are persisting in known sin you're not abiding in his word and you're not having the joy the peace the fruitfulness the freedom he wants you to come do you want god to give you peace in disobedience would that be good wouldn't be healthy so the and this is a quote from andrew murray he's got a great book on abiding by the way the secret of true obedience is the clear and close personal relationship to god all our attempts after full obedience will be failures until we get access to his abiding fellowship did he catch that how can we obey first comes the abiding fellowship and when you're abiding in him and you love him you don't want to do things that hurt him that's where the power comes from through love we love him because he first loved us it is in god's holy presence consciously abiding with us that keeps us from disobeying him friends there's the key did he catch it through abiding in him by faith staying in his conscious presence it keeps us from disobedience there's a power there in his presence now it's not just the power of fear i know my dad told me if he caught me smoking he was going to knock my lights out that's back before the government outlawed parents doing that to kids and he did catch me smoking and he did rough me up he had to put out his cigarette to do it so he wasn't the very best example but you know i was never tempted to smoke in my father's presence i had the victory when i was in his presence but that was through fear that's different isn't it what we're talking about is not through fear but through love not wanting to do anything that grieves god i won't highlight the list of things in my life that the lord keeps me because i know how much it would hurt him it doesn't mean i'm not tempted like everyone else but it means i couldn't do it because it would hurt him so much and that's the way it is with love the more you abide in him the more you know him the more you love him the better you obey him does that make sense i didn't want to leave that point because i think it's one of the most important and then going to that great promise we concluded with john 15 11 these things i've spoken to you that my joy may remain or abide in you that your joy might be full his joy abiding in us you know they say chill children that are in joyful homes stay longer and they come home more you know if if we know more about the joy of the lord we're going to want to spend more time with him if you've got if you're always thinking about your relationship with christ as he's angry with you and he's disapproving of you and you don't have that joy of coming to him and feeling you come to him but you must abide in him and say that he loves me i'm his child he delights in me after jesus was baptized it says this is my son and whom i'm well pleased and when you come out of the waters of baptism god says this is my son or daughter in whom i'm well pleased he delights in us he tells us he wants us to call the sabbath a delight god wants the christian religion to be gospel good news and if we've got that joy we'll abide in him and we'll want to stay with him so you remember where we started we talked about how jesus invited the disciples to abide with him and the gospels end where they invite jesus to abide with them and it's in the context of that that the church grows jesus tells us in john i'm sorry in revelation written by john chapter 3 verse 20 i stand at the door and knock if any man hears the door hears me knock and hears my voice so he's not only knocking his voice is not a knock he's knocking and he's calling if he hears my voice i will come into him and will sup with him and he with me you know what that means he wants to come in like he did with zacchaeus no matter how sinful we are and he wants to abide with us he wants to be in our hearts that's where the house starts cleaning up when christ is in your house you become very conscious of things out of place can you say amen a lot of people don't like the pastor to come over and visit unannounced because they think oh man i got to clean up we like to surprise you anyway every now and then well jesus should always be welcome not just to visit but he says i want to dwell in your house you know that that is the key now i want to i want to make a couple points before i conclude some are broken you feel like you've been cut off you've been separated there's a passage that you read in romans karen was showing this to me last night it's not talking about grapevine it's talking about an olive same principle they're both grafted romans 11 16 for if the first fruit is holy the lump is also holy and if the root is holy so are the branches branches if we're connected to a holy vine we become holy and some of the branches if they're broken off and you a wild olive tree are grafted in among them he's talking to the gentiles who grafted into the jewish stock you became a partaker of the root and the fatness of the olive tree do not boast against the branches but if you boast remember that you don't support the root but the root supports you will you say then the branches were broken off that i might be grafted in don't boast gentiles and say well look you were broken off and i'm grafted in i get all the promises of israel and you're cut off well said because of unbelief they were broken off and you stand by faith notice this friends therefore consider the goodness and the severity of god on those who fell severity but towards you goodness if you continue in his goodness what does that mean abide it doesn't matter if you're talking grapes if you're talking apples if you're talking olives we must abide or the branch cut off doesn't live otherwise you'll be cut off and they also if they do not continue an unbelief will be grafted in for god is able to graft them in again now that's a point in closing i want you to get some of you are thinking ah i think i'm already separated from the vine i've gone too far i'm just withered and ready to dry up and blow away and get cast in the fire what a wonderful promise he says yeah they were cut off but you know what if they return in belief belief in the bible is full of miracles they can be grafted back in again so it doesn't matter where you are in your relationship with christ if you come you can have that new beginning again and then you can experience ongoing abiding friends it's so crucial especially now as we're living in the last days that we abide and you know i might also mention the pastors often trick the congregation by saying inconcluding 15 minutes before they're done something else i i took another lesson in last week is that karen saw this uh this big fir tree that had died and it looked like it was full of poison oak and i thought so too the leaves were all red and we thought that don't get near that tree it says poison out killed it because poison oaks are fine and a little later that day i went over to the tree and i started looking and said no it's not poison oak that's a grape vine it's a wild grape vine and there it was and it was a hundred feet tall this is a different one that i was talking about it got that big because it had a water source nearby and so it became very strong something else last spring we were walking by the cabin we've just got two or three oh maybe a few more than that apple trees and the cows had come through in the spring and they like apple leaves i don't know why and those big old cows they got a hold of one branch of our little tree and they pulled it and snapped it and it was dragging on the ground and while i was there i thought oh well we're going to have to cut that off but i got busy and i never got to it we came back last week and karen was picking all these apples off a branch that had snapped off but it was still producing because it was still had a little bit that was connected and it was pulling the sap and the vitamins and the moisture and this branch that everyone else thought was dead and gone was still connected and that little tendon of connection was enough that it stayed alive and it was fruitful so some of you may not look good be careful about judging other people they may look like a broken branch to you but they may have fruit you know nothing about that could surprise you you know back in 1961 i remember nelson rockefeller he was a governor of new york when we lived in new york city and and uh we almost ran him over one day during a parade that's a different story but he had a son that um michael rockefeller he went down he wanted to be an anthropologist he was so fascinated with that study and he went down to new guinea and on one expedition going between islands he and a dutch anthropologist um named renee wassen they were in this outboard boat with a couple of other natives and going between islands and they got into some rough water the boat capsized and the motor became swamped and i think they flipped the boat over again but they couldn't get the motor started and and uh a couple of the natives that stay here will send for help the shore wasn't far away they swam off well they waited in the boat and a day went by and michael said you know i think i'm gonna i can make it to shore well now they're 12 miles off and he grabbed a couple of empty gas cams as floats and he took off and um mike michael renee was begging michael said don't leave abide in the boat they will find us they will come back you've got to wait so he became impatient he took off and he was never seen from again and his broken-hearted father flew to new guinea and he launched using his millions of dollars a multi-million dollar search effort to try and find his son and he was never found because he wouldn't abide in the boat so i want to kind of finish where i started when jesus said to the disciples abide in me it was on the heels of one of the disciples selling out he got discouraged he gave up and jesus said stick with me i'll never let go of you don't get discouraged if you fall get back up but abide in me and he wants you to have that experience friends in closing we're going to pray together and uh we want to sing that song under his wings that talks about safely abiding amen hopefully you've got that some of you will see it on your screens if you're watching at home you may have a device where you can sing along or hymnal but we're going to stand together as we're letting this song abide in rather under his wings and then we'll pray together [Music] i am safely abiding though the night deepens and still i can trust him i know he will keep me and i am his child under his wings under his wings [Music] his wings my soul shall abide safely above forever what a refugee who from his love his ways my soul shall abide safely abide forever under his wings oh what a precious enjoyment sheltered protected evil can harm me resting in jesus i'm safe his wings under his wings who from his love can serve his wings my soul shall abide safely above [Music] thank you todd michelle now here's the million-dollar question jesus pled with the apostles and with you abide in me would he ask you to abide in him if it wasn't possible for you to abide in him he's going to do everything he can possibly do for it to happen you must simply believe and come and then remain in christ some of you maybe you've done it before and you've drifted away or you're you've come to christ but you struggle to abide some maybe have never done it you can come to christ now and then remain in him and whether you're here spread out in our parking lot or you're watching online i'd be uh miss if i didn't invite you to make that decision again right now before we close in prayer and say lord by your grace both now and till you come again i want to abide with you he promises eternal life and fruitfulness to those that abide in him our our effort should be in staying in his word staying in communion with him through prayer through fellowship walking with him and then you can be ready when he comes is that your desire let's ask him to help us lord we find the joy and comfort in knowing that you're asking us to do something you want us to do and if you want us to do it it is possible lord we want to surrender right now and just to find rest and peace in you freedom and joy by abiding in you by remaining in you and then lord we want to have that fruit in our lives a fruit of peace and joy and love and also obedience i pray that you'll be with each person here and help us to apply that in our lives and when when we're pruned and when we're disciplined i pray we can receive that and draw near to the one who is chasing us in love and be with each person bless us through the remainder of this sabbath we ask in christ's name and we thank you amen please be seated for just a moment have a couple of closing announcements and praise god for a beautiful day [Music] again we'd like to remind all of you about our upcoming online evangelistic series revelation now we do have some flyers telling you about this special program and they're available here on the table near the entrance of may

Channel: Doug Batchelor

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Length: 52min 0sec (3120 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 10 2020