Christ's Joy in Us - John 15:1-11

2:33Depression. In fact, there's really kind of an epidemic going on in our world today. Depression, right? Sorrow. In fact, as you look across the landscape of our society today, you see evidence of it. We don't even have to go into it, that really there is an epidemic of depression. Because much of what's happening in our world. World, and much of our joy is completely based on circumstances. And just as Jesus had earlier left, told his disciples, I'm giving you my peace, it's not a peace like the world gives you, it's a different kind of peace. It's a peace that isn't based on circumstances, it's based on something transcendental, something that is transcendent. And so, in fact, I would say one of the greatest threats to the Christian church today is joylessness in ministry. God has given us His Word to be delighted in, He has given us ministry, He has given us the assembly of brothers and sisters together in Christ. And it is intended to give us all that is necessary to live life as it should be lived, to experience the joy of our Father in life.

4:01And yet, I would say one of the great things, we get into this rut of ministry, and even in our home, we start going through the motions, even in our families, even at personal levels. Joylessness is the biggest threat because it robs you of what God has really intended for life to be. Even in a fallen world, He has given adequate provision and abundant provision. For you to experience the highest kind of joy. You see, we need a joy that transcends our circumstances, don't we?

4:46Well, I will remind you that the context of our passage this morning is just hours before Jesus is going to be crucified. And here he is speaking about joy. He is concerned that his disciples have his joy. Where does this joy come from? He is in the context of going to the cross, and he's talking about peace, and he's talking about joy, a context which is totally contrary to any of those on a worldly perspective. And our passage is all about having joy.

5:27It's all about abundant joy, an overflowing joy, even in the face of the cross. Jesus is about to face the cross, and he is characterized by joy. Yes, there's sorrow. Yes, there's agony, but here the text. I'm about to face the cross, and I want my joy in you. Hebrews tells us that he endured the cross for the Joy that was set before him. How do we have joy when our circumstances don't go the way we want?

6:15God calls us to daily pick up his cross, pick up our crosses, and follow him, right? He's constantly leading us to crosses. If you're going to follow Christ at all for any length of time, you realize he routinely calls you to die. And yet, here he is in this situation where he is facing the cross and he's saying, Look, I can face this with joy. You can face with joy any circumstance or anything that is required of you from Scripture. You can face whatever circumstance with joy. And I want to show you, make sure you're convinced that this is about joy. Look at verse 11. These things, these things I have spoken to you. What things? Everything going back to verse 1 in chapter 15. Look back at verse 14, verse 31. It says, But so the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded me. Get up, let us go from here. So he is in movement, may still be in the upper room, or may be leaving. Whatever, but the point is, he is bringing to a conclusion everything that he has just said in verse 14. And then he starts up, I am the vine. And then he gets down to verse 11. He says, These things I have spoken to you. So I take all of this that he is speaking in the content of verse 1 through 10. And why is he saying these things? So that, verse 11, my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. In other words, I want you to go through life experiencing the maximum amount of joy that you possibly can. I want my joy in you, and I want your joy to be to the level of overflowing, to capacity. I want your joy to reach its capacity. And yet, many of us are content to go through life joyless.

8:23Why is that? How much of that is because our attention is upon circumstantial and worldly peace and worldly joy. And so, do you want to experience the maximum amount of joy that your life can possibly experience? Then pay attention. That's what this passage is about. And it comes to us from the setting of the cross. So, three things. And I want to. Make sure that you understand that this is not some power of positive thinking. This isn't the way the world says, Okay, I want my circumstances to change. And ultimately, that's what worldly joy is about. It's about circumstances and changing your circumstances. And if things get so bad, then what you could do is you could just blot it out and say, Well, I'm not going to think about those things. And that's the way I'm going to think about good things, and so my joy is going to be derived from positive things that I think about. That's not what we're talking about here. He's talking about a joy that can look at the difficulties, the perplexities, the hardships of life and go right through them with a joy so abundant that it overflows.

9:50Where does this joy come from? Well, it doesn't come from earth. So, three necessities to experience Christ's joy is what I want to talk to you about this morning. Three necessities to experience Christ's joy. First of all, you must receive the cleansing that He offers. If you're going to experience Christ's joy, you're going to have to experience the cleansing He offers. Let's jump right into the analogy. Look at verse 1. Notice who Jesus is: I am the true vine, I am last of the statement. I am the true vine. Notice what Jesus is not. He is not saying, I am the church. Cut off from the church.

10:40He's not saying, I am Israel. And he is not saying, I am the Eucharist. I would derail the whole sermon right here because this passage has been tortured through the ages. And there's huge implications. No, he's saying, I'm not the church. I'm not Israel. I'm not the Eucharist. He's saying, I am the vine. Who is the vine? Jesus, the person of Jesus Christ. He is the vine. Explicit, straightforward statement. Don't try to bring in another theological grid or another, don't try to shoehorn it to mean something that it doesn't mean. Jesus is explicit. He says he can be here. I am the vine. Think of me as the vine in this analogy. Before he said, I am the good shepherd. I am the light. I am here. I am the vine. I, the person, Jesus Christ.

11:43I am the vine. Notice who the father is. Verse 1, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. My father is the farmer. He is the vine grower. In fact, that's how it's used in. In Matthew 21, 33, speaking about the parable of the landowner, the vineyard owner, the vine dresser. He is the one, farmer, he is the one that is paying attention. And so it's like with this opening verse, you get this image that humanity is the crop that's being farmed. Humanity is the produce that is being harvested. God is the gardener, some translations. God is the farmer. He is the vine grower.

12:37And he is looking for something out of this vineyard. Jesus is the human stock that the Father wants to harvest. God is after Christ-like fruit. Jesus is the vine. He is the vine grower. And he wants Jesus related. Jesus generated fruit in humanity. That's what he's looking for. That's what all planet earth, that's what this whole creation is about. It's about God bringing forth a people who bear his image. And so you've got this little, if you will, plot of land like I've got. And I'm always looking to grow things. Never have been good at any of it. Many of you know some of my disasters. But one of the things.

13:31God is pictured here as a gardener, paying attention. He's active. There's something he's wanting to come forth. I am the true vine. My father is the vine dresser. So now notice what the father is doing. Notice what the father is doing. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it. The father is active doing what a dresser does. He does two things: he cuts off and he cleans. He cuts off, we use the word prune here, but really the word is clean. He cleans the branch, he cuts off, and he's making the. These are about people here.

14:15But he cuts off and he cleans, and no branch is exempt. First of all, he cuts off. He cuts off every branch in Christ that bears no fruit. That is, he gets rid of the dead, the failed starts, all of that on the vine that has no fruit-bearing capacity. And he takes them off so that those with fruit-bearing capacity can have more room for growth. You can think about some of these, and of course, this language, this phrase in me, has occasioned a whole bunch of speculation whether Jesus is talking about the Jews here that were once in God being pulled out, or maybe Christians who are apostate, they can be pulled out. The idea, I think, is pushing the vine imagery too far beyond the boundaries here. But there are on any vine, there are going to be those that are loosely connected. For whatever reason, their connection to the vine does not go deep. It isn't growing inward, it quickly grows outward, and then it gets brittle. Its attachment is very surfacy, and that's brittle, thinly connected. And so, those who, the branches here, when he's talking about a branch in me, it's not synonymous with believers in me. The branches are those people who are superficially connected for whatever reason. These dead wood or these branches, these unproductive ones. And you don't have to look back very far at all to know that Judas is a near and very relevant example of this. So, he's cutting off, getting rid of, taking away those superficial branches that have no deep connection because they're. Is no hope for fruit coming out of their lives. And that's exactly what the Father is looking for from humanity. Christ-like fruit, Christ-likeness. That's what he's excited about. That's what he's farming.

16:48Second activity that a vine dresser does is he prunes or he cleans every branch that doesn't bear fruit. And every one of us in this room, in earshot of me right now, is one or the other. Take a moment and just ask your soul: what is your connection to Christ? What is your connection to Christ here this morning? Is it superficially brittle or is it deep, deep and lasting? Very clear what happens to each. But notice why the Father is actively cleaning. Why is he actively pruning?

17:35Look back at the end of verse 2, so that it may bear more fruit. See, what he's doing is the Father's purpose is good and loving, even though he maybe go through a painful process of being cleaned and pruned, right? A lot of our idols have to come down. They have to be exposed. And sometimes those processes can be very painful. Sometimes our own sin. Gets us in trouble, and sometimes that it's the loving God's disciplining us, is letting us experience some of the consequences of our sins or some of our poor decisions.

18:16Sometimes he takes us through difficult trials and situations, some long, some short, because every idol needs to be exposed, and he wants fruitfulness, and he wants growing fruitfulness, and he wants more fruitfulness. This is the passion of your heavenly Father. Now, notice how our heavenly Father is actively dressing. Look at verse 3: You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. So now he's moved out of that analogy, and he's talking, okay, you guys are the branches. He's going to make that very explicit here in a moment, but that's what he's talking about. He's moved to, you guys are already clean, speaking to his disciples. You are already clean because of the word which I spoke to you. Singular word. His teaching ministry, the whole message of Christ. You have received it. And when you have received it, when you have heard, I have spoken it to you. And when you receive it, it sets our minds in the way of truth, which has a cleansing effect.

19:29Look at. Remember, look back a few verses, or chapters to chapter 13. You remember in verse 6, Jesus is going around washing the feet of the disciples, and he gets to Peter, and he said to him in verse 6, Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered and said to him, What I do, you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter. Peter said to him, Never shall you wash my feet. Jesus said, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. You have absolutely nothing to do with me. If you do not let me wash your feet, Peter. What does Peter say? Lord, then wash not only my feet, but my hands, my head, everything. And Jesus says, He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew one who was betraying him for this reason. He said, Not all of you are clean. So we're talking about cleanness here. He's talking about a disposition that is right towards God, right towards Christ. And that comes out of the word which he has spoken.

20:40You see, God wants something from creation. He wants fruitfulness. This is what he's after. This is what he's doing in your life right now. Cutting off pruning. Respond quickly to him. Because the kind of humanity that the Father wants are those who are excited about what he's excited about, and that is Christ's likeness. Those not cleansed by word, look at it. They have no part with him. If you do not allow Christ to cleanse you in the way he wants to cleanse you from the things he wants to cleanse you from, you have absolutely nothing to do with him. And you will never experience a transcendental. I got to come up with a word, a transcendent joy.

21:52It's so over the top, I can't even say it, right? So high, but it's like, yes, if you do not allow him to cleanse you, if you spend your life saying, you know what, I'm not really guilty of that. You know what, Christ, I think your standard of righteousness is wrong here. You're going to go through life fighting God. No, it starts with just agreeing. Yes, you say it's sin. I can see that. I agree that it's sin, and I want you to cleanse it from me. And if it means I need to come to you and receive what you give, shed blood on me. Cross that I must repent and turn from my sins. I want that.

22:36Lord, do whatever you need to do to cleanse me from whatever foulness you see in me that I might produce the kind of fruit you want me to. That's the response of someone who's going deep. Listen, we're not designed to live under a load of guilt. Humanity is not designed to carry this weight of sin and shame. That is not how we were wired. We were wired to bear His image. We thrive when we walk in His ways and when we are functioning in that capacity which He gave us. We do not thrive under a load of guilt and shame and pollution of sin.

23:30You'll never experience joy. We must receive the cleansing He offers. We also need to move on. Three necessities. You want to experience joy to the max in your life? You must receive the cleansing He offers. Second, you must see Christ-like fruit in your life. You must see Christ-like fruit in your life. Talk to you about four ways that this is done. Number one, you need to know the reason for fruitfulness. How do you start seeing? Well, there's some things you need to know. You need to know the reason for fruitlessness. Fruitlessness. Look at verse 4. Abide in me and I in you. And as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. Very simple concept. In light of the Father's vine-growing activity, abide in me, go deeper in me. And think of the situation. The disciples are going to be scattered. One's going to deny. You know, all going to defect. One has already betrayed. So here's Jesus at this point: remain in me, stay in me.

24:52Simple concept. We don't really have vines, grapes in Texas. I guess we do. It's starting to try to, but we, but what we do have is pecan trees, right? So we can make the analogy with pecan trees. Texas pecan tree. My wife is out, took a picture of this just close to our house. You see a tree getting ready. And what's the guy done? He's gone out and cut off limbs. Why did he cut off limbs? Because of. Not they're not going to add to the productivity of the tree. They're just there taking up nutrients, taking up that which is needful for the tree to produce its fruit. So they cut off the limbs, throw them aside. What happens to them? You see them there on the ground? They turn brown, don't they? They die very quickly. And that's the reality of our lives apart from Christ.

26:00If you do not know Christ, that is you. But it doesn't have to be you. You can change that today by putting your faith and trust in Christ. Second thing you need to do. First of all, you need to know the reason for fruitfulness. It's being cut off from Christ, disconnected from the life supply of the vine. What is the second thing you must do to see Christ-like fruit? Is that you must connect with the source of fruitfulness. Fruitfulness. Look at verse 5. I am the vine, you are the branches. He's talking about people. He's talking about his disciples there. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. So the one who is truly connected to Christ cannot help but produce fruit. Why is that? Because he's not producing the fruit. He's just connected to the vine.

27:00Is pulsating its life energy through the vine into the branch, and it is producing fruit. So, if you are in Christ, there will be measure of fruitfulness. The emphasis that Jesus is making here. The emphasis he's passing along here is like, there will be fruitfulness. Focus yourself on going deeper, connected more intimately and deeply to Christ. And don't worry about what the fruits are. He's going to produce it because he wants us connected. That's the human stock he's after. He's not after that stock that came, that Adam produced that says, I'll do it my way. I'll be the judge of all things. I will take for myself. I will get for myself. I will serve myself. And that is what has brought about all manner of chaos on planet Earth. But there's another kind of human stock, that stock, Christ, Christ himself, he's wanting. We need to be connected to him.

28:15So his cleansing work is through the word, Christ, abiding in it. And look at third, see Christ like fruit in your life, you need to understand. God's disappointment and fruitlessness. Look at this disappointment he has. Verse 6, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away. He is thrown outside as a branch and dries up. So you kind of get this picture of this vineyard here, and you've got all kinds of dead wood that's been cut off. Well, they don't even leave it in the vineyard, kind of throws it outside, and it's going to burn up out there.

28:57It gets rid of it. He gets thrown away as a branch and dries up. And they gather them and they cast them into the fire and they are burned. So they gather them. So his workers, you've got this vine grower. And by the way, we're talking sometime around Passover. And so this would have been activity that had been going on prior to that. And so much of the journey up to Jerusalem, his disciples would have been seeing this. It's probably all around Jerusalem. You still would have seen evidences of this activity happening and probably still happening.

29:34And so it's a very timely analogy. But the bottom line is, the vine grower doesn't have any use for the dead wood. Now, that's disappointing, right? He doesn't even grind it up and make compost out of it. The vine grower sees absolutely no use for those. Who are not connected to the vine in his vineyard, and so he throws them out, or his people, his workers, they are throwing them out, and they are burning up every branch burned up. That's his disappointment. God does not, he is not interested in a humanity that thinks they know everything.

30:26And a person, is that you? Oh, I know better than God. Or I know what is right, I know what is good, and I'll apprehend it for myself. That kind of humanity messed up things. It's the origin of sin, and the reason why he wants those who are going to be connected to him is because Christ, in his very essence, is somebody who absolutely perfectly loves to do God's will all the time, every day. Because the Father's will is supremely good, and it comes out of a supremely loving heart.

31:14So, if there is no fruitfulness in your life, you can expect God's frown, and there is no joy. When you go through life under God's frown, no transcendent joy, anyway. You're going to be assigned and incarcerated to circumstantial joy. And so your joy will be up and down, up and down as your circumstances change. But that's not the kind of joy that Christ wants to see his disciples have. So Christ-like fruit is very important in your life. And the fourth thing I want you to do, in order to see Christ-like fruit in your life, you need to share God's delight in fruitful prayer. When you get down to it, this passage heavily involves prayer again. Here comes the prayer theme again. God wants us to participate in Christ's fruitfulness. He wants you to know you're participating in Christ's fruitfulness. Look at verse 7. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. There you go again. God, look at if my words, now a minute ago he said, you are clean because of the word, singular, that I spoke to you. And now he's talking about if my words, plural, remain in you, abide in you, then you. Ask whatever you want. So, the idea here is that the words are those individual utterances of the word. He is the word incarnate, and he uttered his words, and so we are to be meditating upon his words.

33:15And his word, when you meditate upon God's word, that's the idea of abiding in. My words abide, they're resounding in you. Much like when energy is being pulsated, energy and nutrients and life-giving vitality is pulsating through a vine into the branches, so it will be like that if you will meditate upon God's Word and you will let its life-giving properties pulsate into your being, it will produce an understanding of God's world around you to such a degree that when you ask whatever you wish, it will be done.

34:08You see, God wants us to delight in the things that He delights in. And so, what He wants us to do is He wants us to meditate upon Christ's words. He wants Him, those words to shape our thinking. And then, He wants us to be asking for the things that naturally come out of so. A transformed heart, and then he wants you to be asking for these things. And the reason he wants you to be asking for them is because he wants to grant them to you so that you can experience God's goodness and share his joy. Do you follow all that?

34:50Listen, it's like this: to see evil in the world, and you see plenty of it, and to imagine the good, and then to ask God to provide it, and then to see it come to pass is participating in God's joy. Prayer is participation with God. That's why he makes such a blanket statement. Look, he says, I want you understanding my Christ. I want his words to be met to be pulsating through your life, and then I want your desires to align with him, and then I want you to ask whatever is on your heart so that I can grant them, so that you can experience my joy in fruitfulness. Whether that's something changes that needs to be in your own life, in the circumstance, or in the situation, right? You learn how to pray that which is most pleasing to him. And God is not stingy in answering prayer, he wants to be answering prayer.

36:00But he wants you to be asking the right things. And you do that when Christ's words meditate and are pulsating through you. And then you begin to see God's joy in fruitfulness. Look at verse 8. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. My Father is glorified by this. By what? Well, that you bear much fruit. What kind of fruit? Fruit that comes out of meditating upon God's word and asking for things in certain contexts that bring honor to him.

36:43It's through fruitful prayer. We must be a praying people. But a lot of us don't pray. We don't engage the world around us. We don't engage the needs and the crying needs in our own soul. We don't counsel our own hearts in truth. We don't see the needs around. We don't see the wrongs. And so we don't pray. Or if we do see him, we somehow just skip by without prayer. No, that's where he wants us. We live in a fallen world for a brief time. He wants us to be understanding the evil. He wants us to see the evil. He wants to see the harm. He wants to see the devastation. That it's cause, and he wants us praying towards remedy and so participate in bringing forth a crop of Christ-likeness.

37:43You see, and one of the things, if you don't see Christ-like fruitfulness coming out of your life, it's depressing, right? And I think we need to see it. And if you will pause, you'll see the goodness of God. If you are in Christ, if you will pause and you'll take a moment and you'll look at the things which God has done, the prayers He has answered, you'll start seeing the fruitfulness. Do any of you have a worn-out Bible with you here today? Thank God. That's a measure of His goodness in your life, right?

38:24Just go through. Think back where you were two years ago. Think back where you were. Think about the, just go, if you will take time, you will start seeing evidences of God's work in your life. And sometimes he doesn't show us all of our fruitfulness because we couldn't handle it, right? I don't know what he's doing through us. He gives us enough to encourage us, but not maybe not enough to blow us up, man. I could just imagine if God showed us all he did. We might be up here. And do you see that? Do you see what I did? Do you see that? Do you see that?

39:06We can easily get puffed up and become legends in our own mind, right? But he does let us see some fruit if we will stop. Fruitlessness is a cause for depression, being down, sorrowful, down on yourself. But fruitfulness is a cause for joy because it is his joy pulsating through us, not our own. And so those under God's frown in verse 6 are never going to experience Christ's joy. But those who have the smile of God, as verse 7 and 8 indicate, will experience Christ-like joy, his joy. But we need to move on.

39:59Three necessities to experience Christ's joy. You must receive the cleansing he offers. You must see Christ-like fruit in your life. And you must know that Christ's love abides on you. Look at verse 9. Just as the Father has loved me, I also loved you. Abide in my love. Look at that. This love that Christ has for you is unmeasurable. Look at the comparison here in your text at verse 9. Jesus Himself, just as the Father loved me.

40:39That's a lot of love, right? Infinite, omnipotent, all-wise, all-good, perfectly loving. God, just as he loved me, I have loved you. Staggering comparison. Truths like this cannot be fathomed. They must simply be believed. Do you really believe Jesus loves you to this degree? Or do you think he's lying here? Those are your two choices. One over the top, well, I can't help, but the other hand, I can't call him a liar. So I simply believe, because so it is.

41:28Second thing, notice the right response to such love: abide. Abide. Abide in my love. Don't run away, don't despise, don't reject, don't shun, and don't drift away. In other words, abide, remain, be settled in my life. Be settled in a life under my love. And if there's any question of that in your mind, you will not experience his joy. These are necessary. And you're just going to have to come to the text and let it shape your thinking. That's why you need to have his word rattling around in your mind because it brings you to points like this, and it'll transform everything when you understand that this kind of love has been put upon you.

42:27So, how do I abide? How do I abide? Good question. Jesus wants his disciples to know that answer as well. Look back at 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, that's what he's saying: keep obeying his commands. That's how you abide. It's how you dwell, keep dwelling, obey his commands, and understand something. He's not laying down a condition to earn. He's not saying, Okay, if you obey my commands, then I will love you. He's saying, Look, I have already loved you as my father loved you, given that, now abide, live under that, and you will remain under that. He's laying down a condition that tests whether you are abiding in him. Do you know if you abide in Christ today or not?

43:22How do you know? Well, here's the evidence: you will keep his commandments. If you're abiding in him, his commandments become precious to you. Again, notice the comparison here. Just as I have kept my father's commandments, and how did he keep his father's commandments? Perfectly and severely perfectly, right? So that's the standard. The relationship that I have with my father, Jesus is saying, I have with my disciples. The model in the Trinity, the relationship between God and Father, between Father and Son, is the picture of the nature of the relationship between Christ and His disciples.

44:25So verse 14:31. How did he love him? Verse 31, just before we started this, but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded me. The love that the Son has for the Father is reflected in his commandments. Sometimes His commandments are a little bit difficult, right? That's why we need to just be settled on His peace. First, He has to. Leave his peace. That whatever he requires of it, we could just set our souls at ease. No matter what he calls you to, whatever your posture has to be, in whatever kind of relationship you are in, whatever kind of moral standard, whatever he puts on you, understand it is good and just let your soul be at peace.

45:21Peace precedes the joy. Just settle it. Let his peace be in you. Obey, go, keep, and in time you'll experience the great joy. Because what his commands do, that is God's word that the Father has given to clean his disciples so that there will be more fruitfulness. And sometimes it admonishes us. Sometimes it raises a standard that we don't want to go to. And sometimes, whatever it's doing, it is having its cleaning effect. And that is, and keep in mind, this is happening on the eve of the cross.

46:05His disciples are to follow him to the cross. That's where he's leading them. All these years, this is where it's taken them. They're going to have to go to Jerusalem, and they're going to have to watch all of their hopes, all of their hopes for themselves personally, all of their hopes for their nation utterly crucified right before their eyes. And it's in that midst, in that context, that Jesus. Is saying, have my joy, have my peace.

46:36He leads us to the cross over and over and over again. But he gives us, it is good. And when you start learning his commandments, we've got it all wrong about commandments. We think of commandments, okay, he's some kind of mercenary up there, and I've got to comply. Compliance, compliance, compliance. No, one of the most loving things he does is gives us instruction. And when you get to it, they are his joy. They are wise. They are good.

47:20His commandments are supremely good. They are over the top good. And it is the Father's means of producing Christ's likeness in us. So don't be afraid of any standard that the scripture raises and brings to bear upon your life because it comes from a loving and good Father. Well, do you want to experience the maximum amount of joy in your life? And you must receive the cleansing He offers. You must see Christ-like fruit in your life. Must know that Christ's love abides on you. And just as a reminder, He wants you to experience His joy. These things, verse 11, I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, that your joy may be made full.

48:18Even as you watch me crucified before your very eyes, I want your joy to be full because God is doing something here that will forever turn back the devastation caused by humanity. There's a new stock of humanity, and He wants us in that stock, Christ. So it's a call to the repentant, unrepentant. If you have not repented of your sins, you need to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Stop fighting with Him, receive the cleansing He offers.

48:57Let Him start producing His fruit in your life and know that His love is upon you, regardless of where you've been, what you've done, or to what degree you think you are unforgivable. This is a call to you to come to Him today. And for those of you, many here today, let's just rededicate, repurpose our lives to really be ready to follow Christ. And many of you, are you really ready to follow Christ? Through the crosses, through everything. And do you see the joy that was laid for him in the cross? Same joys for us in our little crosses. We can be cleansed, we can abide, and we can know that his favor is forever upon us. Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do want your joy to characterize everything we do and everything we say. Father, we know that we have just a little window of time here on planet Earth. Let us not get caught up, bogged down, and hypnotized by the difficulties and perplexities of the fallen world. But help us, elevate us, raise us in our hearts and minds above that to the transcendent joy that belongs to heaven itself. Father, may your joy be in our hearts just as Christ wanted his joy in those 11 disciples there that night. Father, may you grant it to us, to this little body here out here on the edge of town in Bryan, Texas, that we would be a people characterized by your joy. Father, forgive us for all the Christless and all the joyless ministry that we have engaged ourselves in. Father, shape us, mold us, have your way in us.