Knees Down | Dream Disciple Series

Well, good morning, it is good to be back with you guys today. I'm gonna get you to grab your Bibles and go with me to John 15. We've been in a series called Dream Disciple, and today we're gonna talk about living a knees-down life, a spiritually dependent life. As you're turning to John 15, I'll just share this with you. We are in, as a family, a very kind of weird season as a family, a lot of change in our family. So when we came here 14 years ago, we had a daughter who was going into kindergarten, a son who was three, and a baby who was still in the womb. And now we have a young woman who is going into her sophomore year in college, a young man who's going into his senior year in high school, and a little girl who is now going into her freshman year in high school. So Lord, help me, all right? My heart can't handle all of this. And so it's a good season, but what's strange about this season is that we're learning what it looks like to parent almost adults. If you have kids that are older, you know what I'm talking about, almost adults. So like they're getting older, they're able to make a little more decision. We're trying to give them a little more freedom, and yet they can't pay bills, all right?

Let's just be honest with you. And they don't know how to pick up the room half the time. So there's a lot of things that we're doing in our parenting that's different in different seasons, and it's honestly different for every child that we have, the different freedom that they get because of where they are. Because the goal of parenting is to move your kids to a place of independence and self-reliance, right? So when a baby is born, they're dependent upon mom and dad for everything. To eat, to sleep, to get their diaper changed, to change their clothes, everything. And then you slowly start trying to train them toward independence. We teach them how to feed themselves. We train them how to go to the bathroom so they don't need to have their diaper changed. We're trying to teach them how to walk and how to talk, and then how to not to talk and how to sit down, right? And then ultimately, here's the goal. The goal is we wanna move them from total and complete dependence where apart from us, they can do nothing, to a place of independence and self-reliance where they can go and be productive citizens in the community and live out from under depending upon us, right? That's the goal of parenting. When it comes to spiritual maturity,

it's the complete opposite. When we think about spiritual maturity, before Christ, we are self-dependent, self-reliant. We want to be the master of our own destiny. We don't want anyone telling us what to do. We wanna live our life our way. But when you come to faith in Christ, a change has to happen. You have to come to the end of yourself where you then go, okay, I can't be Lord of my life. He has to be Lord. And you surrender to him as Lord. And now you're trusting him and depending upon him. And then spiritual maturity is the process of learning how to be more and more and more dependent upon him. You see, when you first come to faith in Christ, you still are a little bit self-reliant and you still wanna have a little bit of control. But as the Holy Spirit and as the Word of God begins to grow and mature you, here's what God's goal is, to move you from being self-reliant and independent to being fully reliant upon him and dependent upon him for everything, that he becomes your life. It's dying to yourself so that he can live his life through you. So it's the complete opposite of our physical maturity. Our spiritual maturity is going

from independence to dependence. And here's what we're gonna look at this one. In John 15, Jesus is gonna show us what this looks like. He's gonna help us learn what this looks like. What we're talking about is a knees-down life, a life that is reliant upon him for everything. So John 15 is where we're gonna be. If you're there, say the Bible is true. Hey, you're much better than the eight o'clock. They were not very convincing. You were a little more convincing, all right? Verse four, abide in me and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide, excuse me, in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches gathered and thrown to the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it'll be done for you. By this is my father glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciple. As the father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. just as I have kept my Father's commandments

and abide in his love. This is huge, verse 11. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Now, Jesus in John 14, 15, and 16 is preaching what I would consider the second most important message he ever preached, the first being the Sermon on the Mount, and then there's this message, and here's why. In chapters 14, 15, and 16, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure. He's preparing the disciples for his ascension. So he's gonna go to the cross, he's gonna die, resurrect, he's gonna go back to the Father, and he wants them to know what life is gonna look like with his absence. And he spends some time telling them, listen, I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit. I'm not gonna leave you alone. I'm gonna give you the Holy Spirit. He's gonna live inside of you. In fact, it's gonna be better to have the Holy Spirit in you than to have me with you. And so he's showing them that the Christian life is going to be a life of surrendering to the work of the Holy Spirit. And so in this section, what he does in chapter 15 is he is going to repeat a single word that describes for us what the new life in Christ is supposed to look like,

what the Christian life is supposed to look like, and it's the word abide. In fact, if you just wanna take this down in your notes, 10 times in the first 11 verses of chapter 15, he mentions the word abide. Anytime you see this kind of repetition in the Scriptures, there's a point that's being driven home here. And what Jesus wants us to see is this, is that this is the key to the Christian life, to abide in him. The word abide means to remain in or to stay connected to. And how do we do this? Well, we do this by yielding ourself fully to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is all connected with everything he is saying in chapters 14, 15, and 16 about the Holy Spirit. So how do we abide in Christ now that he has ascended? We abide in Christ by submitting to and communing with and surrendering to the Holy Spirit in prayer. In essence, here's what Jesus is doing. He is calling us to a knees-down life, to be fully surrendered and relying upon the Holy Spirit. This is, by the way, the essence of prayer. Eyes right here just for a second. Listen, we've made prayer into something that it's not supposed to be, only. Prayer for most of us is just a transactional conversation where we go to God, we tell him our needs, we ask him for our wants, and they might be legitimate, they may not be legitimate, but it's very transactional.

God, I have this, you have that, I need you to give this so that I can move on with my life. That's how most of us pray. So prayer is primarily about us getting from God, but if you read the Bible, you're gonna understand more about prayer. Here's what you'll discover. Prayer is less about you getting things from God and more about you experiencing God. Prayer is ultimately, listen to this, about us experiencing the manifest presence of God in our daily life through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This happens as we commune with him, as we abide in him. Prayer is the means by which we do this. Listen to what Jesus says about this in Luke chapter 18, verse one. He says this, and he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. So Jesus is calling us to a praying life. Listen to this, 1 Thessalonians 5, 17. Pray, Paul says this, without ceasing. Prayer should be the way that you live your life, a constant communing and surrender to and dialogue with God through the Holy Spirit as you go about your day. Listen to what Paul would say in Ephesians 6, 18. He says, praying when? At all times in the Spirit with all prayers and supplication.

So what is Paul saying here? Paul is saying, listen, prayer should not just be moments that you have, but a life that you live. That's what it means to abide in him. It's knees down living. It's a praying life. So here's what I wanna do. I wanna walk back through these verses in John 15. And so the question people might ask is, okay, what does it look like if I'm living a knees down life? How do I know if I'm living a knees down life? Let me give you four markers of a knees down life. Four markers, four ways that you know that you're living a knees down life. You're taking notes, write this down. Here's number one. Marker number one is dependency. Dependency. You'll be dependent upon Jesus for everything. Look what he says in verse four. He says, abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. abide in me. I love verse five. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing. Now listen to what he's saying here. He is calling us to continually, go back to verse number four, to continually abide in him. The word abide here, the language here, some scholars say the language is used to describe an urgent matter. Something you should do right now and never stop doing it. The idea is abiding in him, this is the command, to continue in him, to remain in him and never stop remaining in him. And then he shows us a metaphor to give us an indication of just how important this is. And here's the metaphor. He says just like a branch has to remain abiding in the vine to have life. So when you think about a branch that's on a tree does not have life in and of itself. Would you agree with that? That the life of the tree is in the tree. It is in the root system. That's the resource of all the nutrients that's needed. The vine, watch this, is simply the recipient of what's in the tree or what's in the vine. So it is essential that the branch stay connected to the vine because the moment the branch is separated from the vine, it is cut off from its source of life.

And therefore immediately begins to wither and die. And Jesus is showing us this is why it is critical for us as Christians to abide in Christ. We are completely dependent upon him. We are helpless without him. This is the point that he's driving home. The branch only has the life that is given to it by the vine. The moment the branch is removed from the vine, the branch begins to die. And Jesus then goes in verse five to apply this. Look what he says. He says, I am the vine. You are the branches. Now follow what he's saying. He's like, I wanna make sure the relationship is in order. I just wanna make sure in the metaphor you understand what we're saying. You're not the vine. I'm not the vine. We're branches. Jesus is the vine. So what Jesus is saying is I am the source of life. You are the recipient of life. I am the one who has all the nutrients, all of the things that you need. You are simply the one that abides in in order to receive what you desperately need for life. And then he goes on to say, whoever abides in me and I in him,

he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do some things. For apart from me, you can accomplish every now and then. Somebody needs to correct the preacher this morning. Is that what it says in your Bible? Apart from me, you can do nothing. You know what nothing means in the Greek language? Listen to this. Nothing. It means nothing. Men, you will never be the father or the husband or the employer, employee that God has called you to be and that you can be apart from abiding in the vine. Ladies, you cannot be the wife or the mother or the employer or the employee that God has called you to be without abiding in the vine. We are completely helpless without him. This is why, listen, the knees down life, it's a life of complete and utter dependency upon the Holy Spirit because he has everything we need and without him, we have what? We have nothing and we can do nothing. See, the reality is is that we know that here at New Beginnings. Three and a half years ago, the Lord revealed something to me and to us as a church that while we have had great ministry over the life of our church, a lot of great things have happened in the 40 plus years that we've been around, the Lord showed us that we were in a season where we were trying

to do ministry without his presence and power. We were trying to use resources and gifting and our own creativity to do spiritual things and here's the thing, what we discovered is is that without the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, we can't accomplish the things that God has for us, amen? And we begin to hit our knees, begin to pray, call on the name of the Lord and God has moved and he is moving at our church. What we're learning is this, is that when we abide in him and so here's what's happened, every Wednesday night, we're gathering, what is Wednesday night gathering? Let me tell you, one word to describe Wednesday night prayer meeting, abide. It's we as a church are recognizing that if we abide together in him, he can do work that's beyond our wildest Imagination, do you really realize this? Some of you may not know this, but even though God has done some great things in the past 37 years despite us, do you realize that we have seen more people, as many people come to faith in Christ and be baptized in the last three and a half years than we did the first 37 years? We didn't change our ministries. We didn't really change our programs. What did we do? We got knees down. And when we get knees down, God shows up, why?

Because we're dependent upon him. Apart from him, we can do nothing. But with him, all things are possible, amen? Here's the second marker. It's not just dependency, but it's obedience. So marker number two is obedience. Look what he says in verse number seven. He says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it'll be done for you. Now, I'm gonna show you this. This is gonna connect last week's sermon with this week's sermon. Last week was Bible Open, and we talked about being men and women who obey the word of God, that when we obey the word of God, the truthfulness and the reliability of the word of God is evidenced in our lives. So we, by faith, obey, and as we walk in the Word of God, and as we walk in obedience, God's truthfulness becomes something that's evident in our life, amen? But it goes hand in hand with a knees-down life. See, here's this, watch this. You can't live knees down if you're not living Bible Open. Because it requires God's Word, and if you're not walking in obedience, listen to this, you're not walking in dependence. Because depending upon the Holy Spirit and obedience to the Word of God goes hand in hand. This is why Jesus says what he does in verse seven.

He says, if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it'll be done for you. So notice this, abiding in him, knees down, his words abiding in us, here's why. Prayer and God's Word go hand in hand. And the byproduct is when we make our petitions before the Lord, here's a misconception with this passage. People go, oh listen, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, all of a sudden our prayer life becomes powerful, but I don't really believe that's the case. I believe, listen to this, abiding in him and his words abiding in us is prayer. It's praying in submission to what God has revealed. See, prayer is about us being transformed by the Holy Spirit as the Word of God is applied to our life. So watch this, so when he's saying, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, and when you finally get to praying, praying is gonna be powerful. No, no, no, here's what he's saying, I believe, is that the power of prayer is that we get to abide in him, his Word abides in us, and then when we bring in prayer, our petitions to the Lord, all of a sudden now, our wants and desires that we're bringing to him, those wants and desires are in alignment with him and what he's revealed in his Word. And that is where the power of prayer comes from.

Listen to what Henry Blackaby says about this. He says, prayer is designed to adjust you to God's will, not to adjust God's will to you. So when I'm living a knees-down life, abiding in him, and his Word is abiding in me, what's gonna happen is is that God is gonna reorder my priorities. He is gonna transform me from the inside out so that my wants and desires conform to his will, and when that happens, now I bring my petitions to him and my petitions are surrendered to him so that whatever I ask, the Lord moves in. So what if we're asking for something that's not the Lord's will? Then if we're living in this posture, go back to that verse again, if we're living in this posture, here's what we're gonna do, we're gonna pray like Jesus. Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, Father, if it's possible, take this cup from me, but not my will, but yours be done. What is he doing here? He's abiding in the Father and letting the words of the Father abide in the Son, and that dictates what he's petitioning. People have asked the question often, prayer or Bible reading, which is more important? Henry, not Henry Blackaby, Charles Spurgeon was asked that question one time. Hey, what's more important, reading the Bible or praying?

And his answer is, what is more important to your breathing? Inhaling or exhaling? His point is, you can't do one without the other. So we've gotta abide in this and walk in obedience to him. I want you to notice what he says in verse number nine. He says this, he says, As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now watch this. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. So now he's saying, abide in me, let my word abide in you, and in doing this, you're gonna be abiding in my love. So how do we abide in his love? He tells us by obeying his commandments. So obedience is the knees-down posture. It's surrendering. This is how we abide in his love. What do you mean abide in his love? Do you know that it is possible for you to be loved by God, but not experience in your life the benefits of his love? To be loved by God, but not experience the benefits of his love. You know the way that you experience both the love of God and the benefits of his love? It's by obeying his word. Obeying his word. You see, when we're living in rebellion,

we're stepping outside of God's design for our life, and in doing so, we're stepping outside of the benefits of his love. Do you realize that God loves us so much that he has revealed himself to us both in his word and in the personal work of Jesus, amen? And in his word, God has given us commands. What are the commands? He's showing us, watch this, this is my design for life. I love you so much, I got a plan for your life. There's a way that life operates that's easier, that's a blessing to you, it's an expression of my love, and when you live in submission to that, you will get the highest joy that you could experience by living in submission to me. So what does he do? He gives us his commandments as guardrails for our life. His commandments are an expression of his love, and so whenever you begin to live your life outside the guardrails, you're living your life outside the benefits of the love that God has for you. I mean, think about it. When you go over a bridge that has a steep cliff on either side and you see the guardrails, you don't think to yourself, man, how arrogant are those architects? Like, who do they think they are? Like, engineering this thing with guardrails

to keep me from driving off a 100-foot cliff, what if I wanna drive off the cliff? How unloving is that, right? Has everybody ever done that? No, you don't even notice it, but if they're not there, you're like, who's the moron that built the bridge without the guardrails? Like, what kind of a psycho is that? God in his great love for us has given us commands, guardrails for our life that says, look, I want you to be in the trajectory of my blessing. I want you to abide in my love, and so I'm giving you commands. Stay within the guardrails. This is where my presence is experienced, and my joy, you find it in its fullness. I want you to go back in chapter 14, and notice how Jesus connects this. Listen to this. Chapter 14, he says it a little different way. He says this, whoever has my commandments, verse 21, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. So, do you ever, like, how do I know if I love Jesus? Jesus says, you keep my commandments. You love Jesus to the extent of which you'll obey him. Whenever I walk in willful disobedience, can I tell you what's happening in that moment? And we don't like to admit this.

In that moment, I love that sin more than I love my Savior. And he says, if you love me, you're gonna do what I ask you to do. Look what he goes on to say. And he loves me, will be loved by my Father, and I will love him. Now, I think this has gotta be connected to chapter 15, when he talks about abiding. So, he's not saying the Father's not gonna love you if you don't obey, or the Son's not gonna love you if you don't obey. What he's saying is you're not gonna experience his love. You see, you don't earn God's love, amen? But there are things you have to do to experience his love. God loves us unconditionally, but the benefit of experiencing the love that he has for us requires that we surrender, and we submit, and we obey. And watch what Jesus promises when we do this. Look what he says. And I will love you, I love him, and manifest myself to him. This is talking about the manifest presence of Jesus in our life, like him showing up in a very real and powerful way. This is what happens when we abide in him in dependency and obedience. You say, what do you mean, his manifest presence? Well, the disciples asked the same question.

Look at verse 22. Judas, not Iscariot, said to them, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not the world? Like, what does this even look like? Jesus says this in verse 23. Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him. Listen to this. And we will come to him and make our home with him. What is he talking about? He's talking about the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life. That when we live in obedience and dependency, when we're a knees-down type of disciple, the presence of the Holy Spirit will be manifested in our life in a very real and tangible way. We will literally be able to walk in the very presence of God, communing with him, and receiving all of the blessings and benefits that are ours in Christ Jesus. Anybody want that? Dependency and obedience. You see, the truth is, parents, we kind of recognize this. Like, I love my kids without conditions. Sometimes I don't like them very much, but I love them with no conditions. Anybody say amen to that? You don't like them sometimes, but you still love them? One of my kids the other day accused me.

He's like, I think you like so-and-so, one of our other kids. I think you like that sibling more than you like me. And I'm like, nope, they're just easier to like right now. Like, you asked. But here's the thing. While I never stop loving my children, there are times, and a parent that loves their child, you want to bless your children. Like, there's nothing you wouldn't do for them, or you want to do for them. But there are times, then, because of my children's behavior, the benefit of the love that I have for them is limited and is restricted, because I can't let them walk in rebellion or disobedience and reward that. So it's not as if my love is withdrawn. It's just the benefits of my love are not realized in their life because of the decisions they're making. And the same is true in our relationship with our heavenly Father. Which leads me to number three, dependency, obedience. These two lead to the next two, which, the first of which is fruitfulness. Number three is fruitfulness. Look what he says in verse five. He says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing. Notice here the outcome. The outcome of a life of dependency and obedience. So in other words, the outcome of a knees-down life is a fruitful life. It is spiritual fruit. And again, he uses this metaphor. Just like the branch, when it abides in the vine, depending upon the vine, staying and remaining in the vine, that branch then can have the life of the vine flowing through the branch so that the fruit is born from the branch. The same is true for us spiritually. When we abide in dependency and obedience, relying upon the Holy Spirit, obeying God's word, here's what happens. The life of Christ flows through us and then is produced from us. That we become fruitful. People ask the question all the time, is this fruit, like, is this like the fruit of the Spirit, like that kind of fruit, or is this like fruitful ministry, like people come into faith in Christ? The answer is yes and yes. It's both. First of all, it's the fruit of the life and the nature of Jesus. When Galatians, Paul talks about the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness,

long-suffering, self-control. You know what the fruit of the Spirit is? The fruit of the Spirit is nothing more than a word picture describing the life of Jesus. It's the character and the nature of Jesus. So whenever, check this out, whenever we abide in Christ, when we live a knees-down life, here's what that means. The source of the life of the vine flows through the branch and whatever's in the branch, the life source, will be what is produced from the branch. How many of you have ever seen an orange tree that bears apples? You don't, why? Because it's not an apple tree. All of the nutrients, all of the resources, the structure, the DNA is what? It's oranges, so apples aren't gonna come through it. So whenever the branch is connected to the vine, what happens, all the nutrients of the orange tree flows through the branch and oranges come out of it as the byproduct of the life that's in it. When we abide in Christ, the character and the nature of Christ will flow through us and be produced from us. We will look like Jesus. And you know what I love about this? Whenever you think about an apple tree, for instance, even when there's no apples on the tree, there is within the invisible realm of the tree, everything needed for apples to be produced. In other words, before you ever see the evidence of life,

the activity of life is there. And eventually what's inside the tree, if the branch remains connected, will be evident on the branch. Here's why. It's because the work is an inside-out job. And the same is true in the life of a disciple. It is an inside-out work. You don't go and produce Christ from your life. In fact, think about this. Nowhere in the metaphor does it ever say that a branch is supposed to produce anything. A branch doesn't produce. What produces the fruit? The vine produces the fruit. What is the branch's job? Abide in the vine so that it can bear the fruit that is produced through the vine. So when you abide in Christ, a fruitful life is the byproduct. Why? It is Christ in you producing it, not you trying to do it yourself. See, religion is outside-in. Christianity is inside-out. And it requires that we remain in the vine because then and only then can we become fruitful. And by the way, this is the call. I want you to listen to what one theologian says about this. He says, we are called to be fruitful, not successful,

not productive, not accomplished. Success comes from strength, stress, and human effort. Fruitfulness comes from vulnerability and the admission of our own weakness. In other words, he's saying fruitfulness comes from a knees-down life of dependency and obedience. And here's the hard part of the fruit, because I think everybody wants fruit, right? Nobody in this room has to say, hey, how many of you just want to live a life that's barren, no fruit whatsoever? Like, no one's raising their hand, hopefully. But there are times when the Father has to prune us in order to grow us. There are times when that has to happen. Listen to what Jesus says in verse one. He says this, I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and listen to this, every branch that, watch this, this is huge, that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bring forth more fruit. How many have ever been through a season of life where you are, man, I am dependent upon the Lord and I'm obeying him, like I'm in that sweet spot of surrender, and yet I feel like life is just kicking my teeth in? Anybody been there? And sometimes we're like, why even try?

Like, I'm seeing fruit from my life and why is life so hard? Let me tell you why. He prunes the branches that are producing fruit. Whenever we're in that posture of surrender, now we're moldable. And there are times where the Father loves us enough where he'll make the branch bleed so the branch can be more fruitful. And that's hard, that's challenging. There are seasons we go through and we're like, man, I don't know what God is doing, but I just feel like there are things that he's removing from my life, and some of them aren't bad, some of them are good, I don't know what's going on, here's what's happening. Trust the processor, trust the vinedresser. He has his glory and your good and mine, and let him trim away. You might bleed for a little bit, but listen, ultimately you're gonna be more fruitful in the end. We have these big buckets in our front yard by our driveway full of these beautiful flowers. And last couple of weeks we've looked and they just looked like they were ugly, like they were about to die. And we couldn't figure it out. Like we're getting sunlight, until we turned into Seattle the last couple of weeks,

but we were getting sunlight, and we got obviously rain, we water them every day. We couldn't figure it out. We went over and kind of examined it and we realized something. We needed to drill some holes in the bucket. Because what was happening is, is that while water is essential, the same water that can give life to the tree or to the plant can also drown the plant and take the life from it. So we literally went out and we drilled holes in the bucket and now they are vibrant and beautiful and overflowing and they've never looked more pretty. And here's the thing, too much of a good thing can hurt it. And the same is true for your life. There may be some good things that are not great things that God says, I gotta put some holes in your bucket. I've gotta cut some things out because it's not necessarily sinful or bad. It's just not my best for you and I'm not gonna do it. this season, so I'm gonna drill some holes in the bucket and this might be painful, it might feel weird, you don't know it, but the end product is gonna be flourishing and beauty. And we have to trust him in that, and here's why. The last marker, the last marker is this joy. The last marker of a knees-down life is joy. Look at verse 11, all these things I have spoken to you

that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. What is Jesus saying? He says, I'm telling you all of this, and all of this, by the way, includes everything from you're gonna get the Holy Spirit to you're gonna be persecuted for my name, there's gonna be pruning, you're gonna bleed, there's gonna be hard times, I'm telling you all of this so that at the end of the day, the joy that I have, what joy, perfect joy, the joy that Jesus shared with the Father, the highest joy ever in existence, Jesus says, I wanna take my joy and I wanna put it in you so that your joy might be full. This is what I'm doing. I want you to experience the fullness of the joy of a relationship with me, and oh, by the way, at times, the joy of the Lord comes through pain. Remember what the writer of Hebrews says about Jesus. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the Father. Why did Jesus go to the cross? It was for the joy that was set before him. What was the joy? Obedience and surrender to the Father. And what that would ultimately produce for the salvation of the world. So Jesus endured bleeding because he knew on the backside of that joy.

In the garden of Gethsemane, knees down, surrendering, full dependence upon the Father, aligning himself with the word, sweating drops of blood, and he did this because he knew that yes, Friday, he was gonna hang, he was gonna bleed, and he was gonna die, but he also knew that early Sunday morning, that first Easter, he was gonna resurrect from the grave, and because of his obedience to the Father, joy to the world would be available, and the glory to the Father would be known. Listen, joy is what God is after. He does not want to subtract from you. He wants to give you more of himself. He wants to manifest himself in you. Dependency, obedience, fruitfulness that leads to joy. It is his presence. According to the psalmist, Psalm 16, verse 11, you make known to me the path of life. Listen to this, in your presence there is what? Fullness of joy, and in your right hand there are what? Pleasures forevermore. Joy is found in presence, not circumstances, not easy times, it is in presence, and what is the outcome of a knees-down life? Jesus says, I will manifest myself in you. My fruit will be displayed in your life, and my joy will be yours, but you have to submit. You have to surrender. You have to depend upon me in prayer.

You have to obey me and surrender to my word for this to be a reality in your life, but joy is what I'm after. This reminded me of my senior year in high school. I had an old pickup truck, like I'm talking like, we bought it for $300, and when I'd pick my girlfriend up for school, we'd drive to school together, I would pray the whole way that every light would be green, because if there was a stoplight, the truck would die, and I would get out, pop the hood, crank it from under the engine on the hood, and then jump back in. I figured out that if I turn up the throttle, it sounded like a diesel all the time, and it wouldn't die at a stoplight, and like literally like, hey, you got glass packs on that? Nope, that's just an old pickup truck, you know? And I'll never forget, and the truck finally died, but my senior year, every day, I would go with a group of guys, we'd go to the park and play basketball every day. I'm talking like every day of the week. School gets out, we load up, we go to the park, play basketball until dark, come home, do it again the next day, and one day my mom walks into school, and she says, hey, you gotta go home today. I'm like, ah, I'm going to the park with the boys. No, not today, your dad says, you need to come home.

Like, mom, I had these plans. Every day we do this. Today your plans are gonna be interrupted, dad needs you home. I was so mad. I was like, argued with her, and she was like, your dad needs you home, we're not talking about it, get in the car. And so I was so angry the whole way home. So mad. Fussing at my mom, and I pulled into the driveway, and there it was. Mom and dad had bought me a new car for college. And you talk about feeling this big. I was so angry because in that moment there was something that I thought would bring me joy. Like going to the park with my buddies, that brings me joy every day. And now mom and dad are interrupting this joy. Your dad needs you home. And I'm arguing, I'm fighting because I have a vision of what joy would be, not realizing that my father had something even better. That my father had bigger plans. He had something better to give me, but it required obedience. And when I got there, I was like, oh my goodness, this is better than going to the basketball with my buddies. Like this is incredible because my father, listen, he had a greater joy and I couldn't see it

from the limited perspective. Can I tell you, there are gonna be seasons of your life where you're like, what is the father doing? I know this is what I want. I know this is who I'm gonna marry. I know this is the job that's gonna make me happy. I know this is the neighborhood I wanna live in. And God is gonna put roadblocks and he's gonna cut things out of your life and you gotta depend on him and trust in him. And here's why, your father has more joy waiting for you if he alters your plan than to stick with your own. Will you trust him? So here's how we're gonna respond just for a few moments this morning. I'm gonna ask you to stand to your feet. I'm gonna ask three questions and we're just gonna respond. I want this altar to be open for you and really lock in, don't stand and lose focus. Lock in for a second. Here's question number one. Are you in Christ? Are you abiding in Christ? Are you in Christ? Have you ever been saved? All of this begins with you surrendering your life to him as Lord and Savior. Have you truly, and how do I know that? He says, you bear much fruit.

That's the proof that you're a disciple. So if you look at your life and whatever experiences you had with Christ, if you can't see fruit of Christ, the evidence of becoming more and more like him in your life, there's a good chance you've never met him. And today you need to come and receive him. We'll have prayer people available for you. Here's question number two. Are you right now fully surrendered to him? Another way of asking that question is to ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, is there in any area of my life that I'm not living in full dependence? Family, job, finances, relationships, whatever. Surrender that to him today. Here's question number three. Is there any area of disobedience in your life, even the smallest, that would limit his presence from being fully at work in your life, producing fruit and joy? I want you to wrestle with those three questions. Are you in Christ? If not, come receive him. Are you fully dependent upon him? If not, surrender. Are you obedient to him? If not, repent. Jesus, I'm asking that you would move in this moment. Let your spirit do a work in us.

We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. As the worship team leaves.