Sunday’s Sermons

Text: John 15:12-17                                                         1/27/08 PM

Thesis: We are loved by Christ, friends of Christ, chosen by Christ, and appointed by Christ so that we will bear the fruit of love, character, and evangelism through effective prayer.

 

Intro: If there is any area of weakness in my life that I see reflected in this church it would be in the areas of prayer and the Great Commission.

You can’t lead a people where you the leader isn’t willing to go.

We are making great strides as a church when it comes to understanding the value and supremacy of Jesus Christ. I see that in the way we as a people talk about God with a greater depth than we did 3½ years ago.

We are making great strides as a church when it comes to understanding biblical authority. Taking a stand on Scripture and joining the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention is a big deal. I am proud of you.

We’re doing well in the area of biblical fellowship. Our day to day care for each other, regular fellowship meals, the dinner for 6 group, and just caring for each other is showing great signs of health.

But our greatest weaknesses as a church are seen in the areas of prayer and the Great Commission.

So it is my prayer tonight that God will bring revival to us. I pray the humility expressed last Sunday night as several of you asked for help will bear the fruit of saving and strengthening souls.

 

Read John 15:11-17

 

What I want to do tonight is give you some biblical principles on which you can build a life of prayer and evangelism.

I) Principle one- Jesus’ commands are for our joy

a)      We must understand His love and His commands

i)        But because of sin we get some things wrong.

ii)      One of those things that we often get wrong is friendship.

iii)    Let’s do a little test. If I showed up on your doorstep one Saturday afternoon and gave you a list of commands and told you that if you didn’t do them you wouldn’t be my friend anymore what would you do?

iv)    Here’s how some of you would respond: who does Paul think he is telling me what to do? No friend of mine bosses me around. Nobody bosses me around.

v)      You would conclude that because I am making demands on you without your consent that I am a dictator and not a friend.

vi)    And you certainly wouldn’t think that I love you and have your best interests at heart.

vii)  You’d be convinced that I only have my best interests at heart. Right? “If you loved me you’d ask me what I want to do instead of commanding me to obey you.”

viii)            You would think that I am there to use you.

ix)    Now, that’s how some of us think about the commands of Jesus.

x)      We cannot believe that love and demands go hand in hand. So, since God loves us he can’t make any demands of us.

xi)    Many of us live this way and it is frankly a wrong way of living and thinking.

xii)  Let’s return to our test.

xiii)            I show up on your doorstep one Saturday morning and give you a list of commands and tell you if you do not do them you won’t be my friend anymore what would you do?

xiv)            Here’s how I hope some of you would think about what I’m doing: Paul loves me and Paul loves Jesus. Paul wants to abide in Christ and Paul wants Christ’s words to abide in him.

xv)  I know Paul and he wants to keep the Father’s commandments.

xvi)            I know Paul and he wants me to know true joy and he wants that joy to be full in me.

xvii)          He loves me and because he loves me I love him. You think these things and so you obey.

xviii)        Clearly from Scripture we are loved by God. John 3:16, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.”

xix)            Romans 5:8, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

xx)  Ephesians 1:5, “in love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ.”

xxi)            God loves us. How do we know? Look to the cross and look at your salvation. You are greatly loved.

xxii)          And clearly from Scripture we are commanded to do things. Jesus said in John 14:15, “if you love me you will keep my commandments.”

xxiii)        So, in order to make sense of this life and why we are here as Christians we must believe three things.

xxiv)        First, we must believe God loves us.

xxv)          Second, we must understand that God places demands on our life.

xxvi)        Third, we must cling to the truth that Jesus speaks these commands so that we will have his joy in us and that our joy will be full.

xxvii)      Deny any of these things and I guarantee you will live a hopeless, fruitless, or unhappy life.

xxviii)    Jesus tells us what to do because he loves us and he wants us to taste true eternal joy.

b)      So Jesus commands us to love one another

i)        Read verse 12

ii)      It is for our eternal and satisfying joy that Jesus demands that we love each other in the church.

iii)    “But he’s hard to love. But she’s hard to love. I don’t like what he likes. She disagreed with me when I wanted the church to do something.”

iv)    He talked bad about my momma.

v)      But look at the command again.

vi)    Jesus doesn’t give us any clauses or exceptions. Jesus stands before us tonight and does not give us any other choice.

vii)  Love each other.

viii)            How much should we love each other? Can’t I just go find another church and forget about him?

ix)    Read verse 13

x)      True love is love to the death. If you aren’t willing to die for them then you don’t love them.

xi)    Churches get petty because of controversial issues. Churches get petty because churches don’t love.

xii)  And churches don’t love because they don’t understand the love of Christ and the power of his gospel.

xiii)            Verse 14 is a gut check. We’re skating along minding our own Jesus-business and verse 14 comes along and body checks us into the boards.

xiv)            You are my friends if you do what I command you.

xv)  Now, who does verse 13 tell us Jesus loves and lays his life down for? It’s for his friends.

xvi)            How do you know you are Jesus’ friend? Jesus’ friends do what Jesus commands.

xvii)          It’s a sad day when the US Department of Transportation gets this and the church doesn’t.

xviii)        What does the US Department of Transportation say? Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. 

xix)            Friends don’t let friends disobey the law, hurt themselves, and hurt others.

xx)  Church, we’ve got to do better than the department of Transportation. Friends don’t let friends disobey the commands of Christ.

xxi)            Friends want friends to know the joy of Christ and they want their friends to have that joy to the full.

xxii)          Because Jesus died for our joy and obedience in turn friends die so that their friends will obey.

xxiii)        We die to our selves so that others can know the joy of being forgiven in Christ Jesus. And this leads to greater joy for us.

xxiv)        If there is no desire in you to obey Christ. If there is no frustration in you over your lack of devotion.

xxv)          If there is no confession and crying out for change when faced with your disobedience then there is no reason for us to call ourselves friends of Jesus.

xxvi)        There is no reason for us to claim any benefit in his death.

xxvii)      This is Jesus’ commandment, that we love each other to the extent that Jesus loved us.

xxviii)    Here’s the next biblical principle

II) The more we know about Christ the more we want to obey

a)      Joyful obedience is inseparable from right knowledge

i)        Read verse 15

ii)      Those of you who have or have had bosses in the past did your boss give you the details of why he was commanding you to do something?

iii)    Did he give you the big picture of how your duty would fit into the grand scheme of the picture?

iv)    Your boss probably didn’t.  Like in the owner and slave relationship you were told what to do and expected to do it.

v)      Most of you with bosses probably know very little about your boss outside of his immediate expectations of you.

vi)    This is the characteristic of the relationship of a master and servant.

vii)  No longer does Jesus call us servants. No longer are we commanded to do things without understanding or joy.

viii)            Now we are called friends. How in the world did that change come about?

ix)    Jesus’ love for us led him to lay down his life for us.

x)      Paul in Galatians 4:7 said, “so you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

xi)    Jesus said, “no longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends.”

xii)   Jesus loved you and died for you so that you could cease to be a slave and start being a son.

xiii)            How do we know? You’re holding it in your hands.

xiv)            All that Jesus heard from the Father he has made known to us.

xv)  We abide in Christ and Christ words abide in us. The Bible is the testimony of Christ to his friends.

xvi)            The Scripture that you hold and cherish is the message of Christ to his brothers and fellow heirs.

xvii)          He is speaking to you through his word so that his joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

xviii)        The more you know of grace. The more you know of the transforming power of the Spirit. The more you know of Christ’s amazing sacrifice.

xix)            The more you know what Christ expects of you. The more you love Him and obey Him.

xx)  The more your joy will increase and as you taste that joy you will want more of it.

xxi)            Here’s our final biblical principle

III) We have a job to do

a)      We have been chosen and appointed for a task

i)        And it is Jesus who makes the commands and calls the shots. It’s not a 50/50 relationship.

ii)      The work of salvation and the experience of joy is not one that we initiate. Salvation belongs to God.

iii)    This calling to know forgiveness and find joy in obedience in not a calling that we have sought on our own without the Spirit’s work.

iv)    It is a calling from Jesus Christ that has sought us.

v)      You’ve probably heard churches referred to as the frozen chosen. Just a bunch of people saying they love Jesus but doing nothing.

vi)    There is not such thing as the frozen chosen.

vii)  Now there is a connection in our passage that unfortunately no English translation brings out.

viii)            From verse 13, the verb lays down from “lays down his life” is the word tithemi.

ix)    From verse 15, the verb appointed or ordained is the word tithemi.

x)      Jesus’ death, the laying down of his life was for a purpose. He set aside his life for a reason.

xi)    The calling on us as Christians is for a purpose; it is for a reason. Here it is

b)      We have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit

i)        Read verse 16

ii)      Makes you think of the Great Commission doesn’t it?

iii)    Go therefore and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28.19)

iv)    The frozen chosen are no friends of Jesus. The friends of Jesus are the blowin’ and goin’.

v)      The reason you are still alive and not dead worshipping Jesus face to face is because Jesus has chosen you and appointed you to get out of these walls and bear fruit.

vi)    Go to work and bear fruit. Go to mothers’ day out and bear fruit. Go to the grocery store and bear fruit. Go to your neighbors and bear fruit. Go to your family and bear fruit.

vii)  This is the reason you are not dead.

viii)            I’ve got a question: What’s the problem with fresh strawberries in the fall? They look good, oh man do they look good.

ix)    But you better eat them within 24 to 36 hours because they won’t last long.

x)      The blessing on the Christian life is a calling not to produce 24 hour strawberries but fruit that will last.

xi)    We are to work for fruit that should abide.

xii)  Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21,

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

xiii)            Think about it. The reason you may lack joy in your life, your job, your family, or your marriage could be because you’re obeying the wrong commands.

xiv)            We’re storing up treasure on earth by the garage full while joy slips away.

xv)  Know why you are here. You are chosen and appointed to bear fruit that will last. Stop wasting time on junk that doesn’t matter.

xvi)            But bearing lasting fruit is not the only reason we are chosen and appointed.

c)      We are chosen and appointed to pray and get what we ask for.

i)        So that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

ii)      Clearly Jesus expects us to pray prayers that line up with his life and purposes.

iii)    John 14:13, “whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.”

iv)    John 15:7, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

v)      And then verse 17, “These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

vi)    Jesus went to the cross so that your sins would be forgiven.

vii)  Jesus went to the cross so that your heart of stone would be replaced with a heart of flesh.

viii)            Jesus went to the cross that that your joy would be complete.

ix)    Jesus went to the cross so that your prayers would be answered.

x)      So what is it that we should be praying for every day with diligence and great faith?

xi)    We should be praying for love.

xii)  The prayer that God will answer is the prayer for love.

xiii)            Pray that God will give you love for your wife whom you’ve stopped loving.

xiv)            Pray that God will give you love for your neighbor who bugs you to death

xv)  Pray that God will give you love for that family member who took advantage of you or hurt you.

xvi)            Pray that God will give you a love for that church member who disagreed with you or hurt your feelings.

xvii)          Pray that God will give you a love for the lost so that you will go to them and bear fruit.

xviii)        Pray that God will give you a love for the world.

xix)            The prayer that God will always answer, a prayer of great power to do great good, is the prayer asking for a heart of love and strength to love.

xx)  It’s the reason we are Christians. It’s the reason we are alive and not dead.

xxi)            To love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as our selves.

xxii)          May God create in us hearts that love so that we lay down our lives for each other and then and only then will Granbury know that we are His disciples (John 13:35).