Week 3 John 15 Remain In Me Day 1

Transcription

1 Week 3 John 15 Remain In Me Day 1 Key Verse: Remain in me, and I will remain in you. John 15:4 Read John 15:1 11 When I started finally realizing that God wanted to have a relationship with me, not a one sided relationship where He told me everything to do and I did it, it changed my heart. When I realized that His Word he had given us wasn't just a rulebook or a textbook to study, but that it was still living and breathing, that He was still living and breathing, I started to become alive. I was hungry, starving, after years and years of just trying to be good and follow my own rules I had created. This God wanted to be my friend? This God was jealous like a lover over me? I couldn't even fathom it. But I was hungry. I wanted Him. Nothing else in my search had satisfied me. Before I had held Him at a distance, sanitizing my faith and storing it away on a shelf. But now, all I wanted was more of Him. He wanted to abide with me, be with me, love me. He wanted me to realize He had made me, created me, loved me since before I was born, knitting me together with His loving hands, knowing every single thing about me. The God of the universe wants me to dwell, abide, live, breathe, move, in Him. He loves me so much that He wants all of me. He loves me so much. The more I realized how much He loved me, how He had chosen me and not rejected me, the more I loved Him back. When I started actually believing it with my heart instead of just my head, I experienced something that is indescribably wonderful. I started to feel complete as I started to live in Him. Today, he doesn't ask me to pray without ceasing because He wants to make my life miserable, He asks me to pray without ceasing because He wants me to know that I can have a constant and direct connection with the maker of Heaven, the one who lovingly cares for each bird in the sky, who continues to have the sunrise and moon shine because of His great love and mercy for us. He loves us, and when we really get that, we desire to abide in Him. He doesn't say that He cuts off our yucky branches only to warn us, rather He wants us to know He tends to us like a gardener who would carefully tend to His prized roses, pruning them so that they will produce the most beautiful and startlingly colorful blooms. He wrote this amazing Book to share with us, not so that we would follow it and think it was just something we had to read in order to be a good person, but because He wants us to know His heart and know that His heart is good and His ways lead to so much more than we could ever hope for. He whispers: The plans I have for you, they are more than you could ever imagine. I chose you before this world began, because I love you. I gave Jesus in exchange for your life. I know you better than anyone else. I want to be your friend, your husband, your Shepherd, your everything, because you are precious to me. You are my treasure. He whispers these things to each of us. He longs for us to enter into a deeper relationship with Him, to be with Him every day because he wants to take us to new heights and depths, to save us from the

2 shackles that chain us down, to lead us through paths that may be hard but that He promises to be with us every single step of the way. He never gives up on us, he is always patient with us, lovingly waiting for us to spend time with Him so He can tend to the garden of our soul. When we follow Christ, we do obey His commands. But we don't do it out of obligation, we do it out of the place where we go as we abide in Him. Before He ever asks us to do anything for Him, He asks us to be with Him. Out of being with Him, then we can find out what He wants us to do for Him. We don't produce fruit that will last without being deeply rooted in Christ (John 15:16). We spend time with Him by praying, by reading His Word. Although we should set aside for that daily, we can also abide with Him all day long, as we can approach Him anytime with all kinds of prayer requests truly anything and everything. God asks us to converse with Him throughout the day as we would our coworkers, family, and friends. We abide in Him not because we have to, but because we get to spend time with our Abba Father anytime we want. 1. Read John 15:1 8 below in the NASB translation. Please note that we are going to stay in these first 8 verses for 3 days because this passage is at the heart of the teaching of Christ. Without understanding that Christ wants us to abide in Him and in the Father, we miss His heart. I have written the passage here. Please circle each time that Jesus mentions the word Abide 1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to by My disciples. 2. What beautiful promise is given in verse 7 if we abide in Him? The Greek word for abide is Meno. Meno means: to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy) abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry (for) (from Hebrew Greek Bible) In this day and age, with our busyness and our running around, our commutes, our jobs, our families, our activities, it s hard to abide in Christ. Our families, jobs, and entertainment take up most of our time, and often we only have a little bit leftover and selfishly we want to use that time on our self. But what if we looked at it a different way? What if we stopped looking at our time as ours, but as God s? He is the one that is in charge of time.

3 3. What keeps you from spending time with the Lord? How can you be creative with your time in order to be able to make space for Him in your life? In order to abide in Christ, we have to make the space. We have to give Him the time, we have to create and protect the space so that we can have time with Him. The important thing is not what time of the day we spend with Him, but that we are making it a priority to somehow put Him first by spending time with Him in the day. Recently, I have been struggling to find time to be with God. As a mother of young children, it can be hard to find a time to be with the Lord because most of my days are consumed with kids and other relationships that are important in my life. Whether we have children or not, there will always be something that draws our time away from the Creator. Spending time with God is the most important time of my day. If I am not spending time with Christ, I am much more apt to anger, selfishness, and worry. Being with God fills me up. I am able to give to those around me because of the time I spend with Christ. In any season of our lives, it is important to abide, remain and dwell with Him. Last week I had to pray and ask the Lord to help me to be able to make space for Him. I know that He is the one that owns time, so I know that He is big enough to grant me time to spend with Him. He is faithful to do that, but again, sometimes we have to pray that God would help us have the time to spend with Him. He can help us to be creative with our time if we are in a season of life or have a job that does not give us a lot of free time. 4. Read Psalm 119:9 16 According to these verses, what are a few ways that we can be cultivating a life that dwells in the Lord? 5. Glance back up at the definition of meno. In your own words, write a definition of abiding in Christ: Spending time with our Father is not a want. This is a need. We need to spend time with God in order to be able to give to those around us and in order to grow with Him. Sometimes life will get in the way, but as much as possible be diligent to create the space. It is going to be a struggle, because the devil does not want you spend time with the Lord! When we open up our hearts to God, this is the place where He speaks to us, where He teaches us, where we sit at His feet and listen. 6. What are the things that get in the way of having a quiet time with God? How can you create a space to be with the Lord?

4 Week 3 Apart from Him Day 2 Key Verse: I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 Read John 15:1 8 These words have been echoing in my ears all week after I spoke them to a friend: Apart from me you can do nothing. It all hinges on these words. We cannot do anything for Christ apart from Him. We can strive to be really good. We can try to conquer it all, but what is the point if we are doing it apart from Him? Everything good in us is from God. He deserves all the glory. Apart from Him we can do nothing. Have you ever felt that what you are doing is running around and around like a hamster running his course in his little wheel? I have. I can feel like I am getting nowhere. But that is because I am trying to do things in my own strength. I will get to a certain point and believe I don't need God's help any more. I ve got this God! I can write/do/be/work on my own. I don t need help from You. I no longer need to depend on You! Self rises up and pride easily comes in, because I want to do things on my own. I want to have the freedom, the independence, the self reliance to not need God's help or anyone else s help. But this is the reality: Apart from Christ we can do nothing. Being dependent on Christ is a hard place to be but also a place that we experience great joy. This is when we say, Lord I can't do it on my own, I need Your help daily. I have been asking the Lord to help me depend on Him for a while now, and I think in this slow processing head of mine, it s finally starting to click, but there are still some missing pieces. There are parts that I can't put together in my head. And the place I come to is that I am scared to utterly depend on God. Scared to do what He has called me to do. Depending on God is not a place of self reliance or even a place of self confidence. Instead, it s the place where I trust in the Lord and place my confidence not in my self, but in Him. Instead of self confidence, I have God confidence. 7. What does the Father do with the branches that don't bear fruit? (v. 2) 8. How will we bear fruit? (v. 5)

5 9. Please read Jeremiah 17: Who is the one that is cursed? What does his life look like? 11. Who is the one who is blessed? What will his life look like? 12. Personal Reflection: Are you trusting in your own strength? (this could be money, a career, a relationship,etc.) Are you trusting in the Lord's strength? This is a rut that we all fall into. It's so easy to trust in our own flesh to get things done. But what happens when sickness comes, and we can no longer do things on our own? What happens when God gives us a job to do that is truly bigger than our own strength? How do we respond when the situation becomes bigger than what we can do with our own two hands? What happens when someone who is closest to us hurts us in a deep way, down to the core of our being? We have to turn to the Lord and recognize that all things come from Him, He is in control of all things, and whether we admit it or not, we ARE dependent on God. 13. Let s look at a couple scriptures to see how God can give us what we need. Jot down a sentence about each scripture: Colossians 1:17 Psalm 50:10 Philippians 4:19 Oftentimes we doubt that God can give us what we need. We think that what we need is too big for Him to handle, or we think that maybe it really isn't a need. But the reality is, if God has called us to do something if He has called you to work where you are working, or provide for your family, or do a ministry in your church it s not a want, it s a need. God may not provide on the timetable you want Him to, or the way you thought He would, but He will give you what you need, because apart from Him, we will be running in circles like that hamster in his cage, accomplishing nothing.

6 Tomorrow we will take a more in depth look at the fruit we can produce, but let's start thinking about that fruit. 14. Personal Reflection: What are some things that God has called you to do? Or what areas do you feel He may want you to bear fruit in? 15. Personal Reflection: What are some things that you need from God today in order to do the things He has called you to do? Week 3 Fruit Day 3 Key Verse: This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:8 My husband is a gardener. We have a plethora of raspberries in our backyard. He tends to our raspberries in order to ensure they produce the most amount of fruit. If he finds a new little plant growing where it shouldn't, he carefully digs it out to replant it in a place that it will flourish. Water and nutrient rich soil help the plants grow. The roots grow deeply into the ground and as the roots reach into the soil, life giving water feeds them and helps them firmly establish themselves. Without the roots, there would be no plant, no fruit, no harvest. He carefully removes any weeds growing within the tender shoots, in order for more and more plants to get a chance to take root and grow. He makes sure that they get water during the dry seasons. The more water they get, the more they flourish. The more the he tends and gets rid of the weeds, the more the plants will grow, producing more and more fruit. He agonizes and plans for not only how the plants are doing during the current season, but also for how they will flourish in the years to come. He looks to the future and carefully plans for them so that they will produce abundant fruit. Without water flowing into the soil, the plants will grow dry. Some are never deeply rooted and need to be taken out. Those that die and do not produce are not good for anything but to be thrown out. They are not rooted but just dead sticks. These he removes in order to make room for the other plants to be fertile. God too, is our Gardener. He cares about the way we are growing. He does want us to produce fruit, fruit that will last (John 15:16), but it is fruit that comes from being deeply rooted in Him. You will

7 not get fruit from the plant separated from the root system. Neither will we produce fruit for God's glory apart from Him. When we are deeply rooted in Him, we will start to produce abundant fruit for His glory. Not just fruit that will last only for this lifetime, but fruit that will change what heaven will look like. People will come to know Jesus and who He is. They will experience Him when we, out of our abundant life in Jesus, are able to visit them in prison, provide for the poor, change the lives of those who are abandoned, take pity on those that are lonely, and extend love to our neighbor. As we continue to feel His touch and experience the Spirit empowering us, we will produce the fruit that will last for all eternity, we we are watered and pruned by the Father, our Gardener. 16. Read John 15:1 8 This is the third time we are reading this important passage. Read it slowly. What observations do you have? Choose a verse that speaks to you today and write it in the space below. Why do you think it speaks to you? Remember that you have the Holy Spirit inside you. Listen to Him and tune your ear to Him as you read and as you apply these verses to your life. When I first started to follow Christ again in a radical way, I wanted to have immediate fruit. But what God revealed to me was that fruit was not going to be produced overnight. Just as it takes our raspberries a full year to produce fruit, fruit in my life was going to have to come from the abiding place in Christ as I meditated on His word and I sank my roots deep in Him. Picture a tree by the water. It s roots drink from the river of life. For a long time I was producing nasty fruit, fruit that was rotted and pitted the fruit of the flesh. And quite frankly I still produce some nasty fruit. However, when we live in the Spirit, and keep in step by the Spirit, we will produce good fruit: The fruit of love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (Galatians 5:22 23). We crucify, and get rid of that nasty fruit that comes so easily to our flesh. As Galatians 5:24 states, Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. That nasty fruit of the flesh is no more when we live by the Spirit. But we must remember that the abiding comes first. We don't produce good fruit without spending time with the Lord. And the more time we put in our relationship with Him, the more we will experience the fruit of His Spirit ripening in our lives. This is the fruit that brings life to our souls. In the Scriptures, God is often explained or pictured as streams of living water. We are often a picture of a tree or a branch that either produces fruit, or does not produce fruit. 17. Read Psalm 1: 1 3 What are the qualities of a person that bears much fruit? What do they do? What do they not do?

8 Our Father is the gardener. Sometimes there are things in our life that have to be pruned that aren t bearing fruit. He prunes those things out of our life so that we can bear more fruit. We want to be a healthy beautiful branch for our Father. We can t separate the concept of abiding with the concept of bearing fruit, nor can we separate it from the point that apart from Jesus we can do nothing. You see, our fruit is the fruit of the Spirit inside of us. Our flesh is not going to produce good fruit no matter how hard it tries. We must abide in Christ, staying connected to the vine, and asking Him to do a good work inside of us. The promise of verse 7 is inspiring: If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you. 18. According to verse 8, why do we go and bear fruit? A lot of times, I want my own glory. I admit it. I want people to notice my work and what I do and sometimes I am not working for the glory of God. That's when I notice that God's power is not really working inside of me. Also, when my motives for producing fruit are off, I notice that I become self focused instead of focusing on God and serving others. This starts a cycle of worry and anxiety for me. And yet, I notice that God is pruning me amidst my pride and my own want for self glory, getting rid of the impurities in my life. God prunes what is worthless in our lives, things that are not good for us. 19. Read Proverbs 11:30 Write the verse here. 20. Personal Question: Do you want to bear for God's glory? What vision do you have of some fruit for the Lord that you could produce? (Think outside the box) 21. Person Reflection: In your own words, how to you produce fruit for God? Week 3 You are my Friend Day 4 Key Verse: I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15 Read John 15:9 17

9 I met a few friends at the pool the other day. We spent hours at the pool watching our children play. We talked and laughed together, catching up with one another after we hadn't seen one another in quite some time. It was easy to talk to them because we have so much in common. Our children are similar ages, so we can easily talk about struggling with colds or poopy diapers. We also talk about deeper things. We talk about what is bothering us and our hopes for the future. We talk about dreams and worries. And we also laugh with each other. We are bonded through shared experiences and doing life together. Friends have things in common with each other. Laughter and joy infuse their lives with one another. Spending time with each other and doing things together is the groundwork for friendship. They call each other when they can't see one another. They cry when the other one is hurt by a broken relationship, health problems or unfulfilled dreams. When one celebrates a marriage, has a birth, is able to buy that house they have wanted, or a relationship is mended that has been broken, they get excited for them. They hope for the best and relish in their joys. 22. Why has Christ told us these things? (v 11) 23. What is His command? (v 12) 24. What is the difference between a friend and a servant? (v.15) Jesus wants to be our friend. Whether we are at a point in our lives where we have a lot of friends, or we are endeavoring to make our first friend, Jesus offers true friendship to us. He wants us to join in His happiness and joy. He wants to comfort us when we feel alone. His desire is to spend time with us. When we don t get a chance to be with Him, He misses us. He wants to share His plans with us for this world and His vision and hope for the future. Not only does He want to share His plans with us, but He also wants to know our dreams and desires. He cries with us when we are suffering. We cry too when His name suffers. It is a mutual relationship, based on having things in common. We are His friends when we obey His commands, and when we love each other. As our friendship with Him develops, we start to realize that His ways are really good. They are the path of life, instead of destruction. He doesn't call us a servant or a slave because we are so much more to Him. He wants our heart to beat together with His. He wants us to laugh with Him, to find joy in spending time with Him, and to serve others together with Him. He too finds joy in spending time with us! John 15:16 states that Jesus chose us and He says to each of us: I want to be your friend. I chose you because I love you and I want to be close to you. When you are lonely, I am lonely. When your heart aches, mine aches too. When your dreams come to life, I get excited! Please come walk with me. If you don't know yet how to love, I will teach you my ways. I will be your best friend.

10 25. Personal Question: How does it feel to know that Jesus wants to be your friend? 26. Read Exodus 33:11. Write down how Moses spoke to God. 27. Read James 2:23 What was credited to Abraham because of his faith? What also was he called? How can this happen? How can we have the ability to be friends with God? When we first start our relationship with God, we may come to Him out of fear. The Bible does say that the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. (Proverbs 1:7 & 9:10) It is right to fear the Lord. But He also wants us to understand who He is, to know Him as we would know our best friend. We can talk to Him. We can question Him and He will answer us. Sometimes, I find myself striving to please God, going about things out of a sense of duty, and I forget that what God really wants from me is an authentic relationship with Him. A relationship where He speaks to me, and I speak back to Him, where we talk and interact with each other. When I am abiding in that deep place with Him, in the quiet moments that I give Him, He can speak so richly to me through His Word and help show me what next steps I need to take in my life. It would be enough for me to be God's servant, but instead out of the abundance of His love for us, He says that He wants to be our friend! 28. Read James 4:4 What is the result of friendship with the world? 29. Personal Question: In what ways are you befriending the world instead of Christ? 30. What are we to remain in? (John 15:9) Again in this passage of scripture, we see the word remain or abide. We are to abide in God's love, and to also love others. This is how others will know we are Christ followers! This is what sets us apart from the world: We love. We love because He first loved us (I John 4:19). We love because He commanded us to love, and His commandments are good! We love because Christ died on the cross out of love. I often have a hard time loving others. There are days when I have to pray that God will instill my heart with love towards those that are difficult for me to love. We were not commanded just to love those that are loving towards us or to just love our friends who think like us and act like us. We are commanded to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44). We combat hatred and anger, in ourselves and in the

11 world around us, by loving. We love others when we love in actions and in truth and not just with words (I John 3:18). It may be easy to talk about love but to actually live it out can be difficult. We have to have hard conversations, to reach out to the needy in our communities and to love first before another person can be ready to show love. These are the hard actions of love. 31. Personal Question: What tangible way can you love as Christ loved? Week 3 What the World Thinks Day 5 Key Verse: If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hate you. John 15:19 Read John 15:18 27 I stood there crying. I couldn't explain all of the feelings in my heart, but I was afraid. I was afraid of loosing a relationship if I started to actually live for Jesus. God had been doing a transforming work in my heart and as I finally, after years and years, recognized God for who He was, a living God with power who is a jealous God, who wanted every single part of me, as a lover who wants total commitment and no one else to come before Him, I realized I wanted to follow Him. I had doubts. If I started living for God, would people hate me? If I started saying what God says is right would I even be able to say it in a kind and loving way? Would I turn people away from Him or turn them towards Him? I'm so feeble and so full of sin that often I can't separate the good from the bad. I was afraid of failing God and losing everyone else at the same time. God was totally transforming me asking me to come to a deeper place with Him, a place that He asks all to come, since God shows no favoritism (Acts 10:34). Would I answer Him? Or would I ignore His voice that had become so loud I could not ignore it any longer? I had dedicated my life to Him years before. It had been a small tiny yes to God that I didn't fully understand or follow through on. But now, as I saw what could happen if I followed Him, as I saw how I had to put Him first before any single relationship on earth no matter the cost, I made another small yes to God. I said, Yes Father, even at the cost of any relationship. I confessed to Him my desire to please others, even at the price of my relationship with Him. And I declared to Him Even if my people pleasing self won t be able to people please any more, I will go where you ask me to go. I will do what you ask me to do. I will speak up and speak out for You. At that point I did not know that God was trying to free me from the chains of trying to please people so that I could walk in His freedom. There was validity in my fear of what I might lose. But God has given me so much more in Him. The peace and love that I now experience through Him has been amazing. He has asked me to surrender that which had become an idol in my soul. And He has helped me replace it with Him, which has led to more life in my heart than I could ever have imagined!

12 What He has planned for us is more than we can think or imagine (Psalm 40:5) What God says is not easy on our ears: If the world hates me, they may also hate you. He also said Anyone who loves his father or mother, son or daughter more than Him is not worthy of Him. (Matt.10:37) It's so easy to make a relationship or a job or even something really good in our life such as ministry, more important than God, but the Lord is jealous of us because He loves us so much. He wants all of us, every part of us, because He loves us. 32. If you belong to Jesus, how will the world feel towards you? (v. 19) 33. What will happen to those who belong to Him? (v. 20) 34. Personal Reflection: Christ was hated without reason. (v.25) Have you ever felt hated without good reason? What did it look like? In the same way, the world was filled with hatred towards Christ. They had even seen his miracles (John 15:24). He had raised Lazarus from the dead who the chief priests also plotted to kill, because many were believing in Christ because of his testimony. (John 12:10,11) The Pharisees were afraid that they would lose their traditions and their nation because they saw that if He stayed alive, all the people on earth would follow Christ. (John 11:48) Losing their way of life was just one of the reasons that they hated him. Others wouldn t follow Christ because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God (John 12:43). Christ was revolutionary. He was calling them to love God more than praise from others. He was cutting to the attitudes and actions of the heart rather than outward piety. Jesus characterized love for God over loving any government, political or religious party. It amazes me that the Pharisees saw with their very own eyes the miracles Christ did. They would look for any reason to accuse Him, such as when He would do miracles on the Sabbath. He was causing eyes to be opened and sick to be healed and yet they didn't care. In fact, not only did they not care, they wanted him dead. Its easy for me to say I am not like a Pharisee. But how often have I known God's word, and the path that is says to go down, and I have gone exactly the other way? I've done it gain the praise of men, for people to like me, for my own selfishness and what I want to do rather than what God wants me to do. 35. In what ways can you see the attitude of the Pharisees and Jewish leaders inside of your heart?

13 Just as Jesus called His disciples and followers to love, He calls us to love Him more than college degrees or money or fame or anything else. As we follow Him, we may not always understand at the heart level what is right, but we have to accept by faith what God says as it permeates our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus' way is not in agreement with the world s rules and philosophies. 36. Read Matthew 7: Where does the broad road lead? Where does the narrow road lead? 37. Personal Reflection: Which Road are you walking on? Are you walking on the broad road or the narrow road? In Christ, we have a high calling. We are not called to follow the standards and beliefs of this world, but to follow Jesus. In Christ, we are anointed, redeemed and have been chosen to go and bear fruit, showing ourselves to be His disciples, all for the glory of God. Week 3 Day 6 Read John 15. Record any insights, thoughts, prayers, etc.

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