Growing Relationship - Northland's Mission

Well, good morning. Northland Church Riverside. Very excited to be here with you this morning. Don't feel like I was going to be for a little bit. We went to Men's Retreat yesterday and Friday. I played a lot of flag football yesterday against Pastor Ruston, and I am so sore. I am not even gonna lie to you. I came across the middle at one point, ran right into Luke Zimmerman. He gave me a big dead leg. I think my leg's falling off. I'm not gonna lie. But we're here, we're making it, and excited to be here with all of you. If you have a Bible, if you would turn to John chapter 14. That would be where we start this morning. John 14. Today, actually, for the next couple weeks, we're going to continue to go through our mission statement as Northland Church. Today, we're talking about a growing relationship with Jesus. What does that look like? What does that mean? How do we grow in our relationship with Jesus? And then the process of thinking about this. I was just thinking about relationships. How do any relationships grow? And it made me think about all of the many friends and family members that I have that I've grown close with. Maybe you can think of a time where you grew really close with one person. Maybe it was a friend from childhood, maybe it was a friend in adulthood. Maybe it was a spouse, maybe it was a sibling, or maybe not a sibling, maybe not at all. But can you think of somebody that you grew really close with? I was thinking about this, and my parents worked at a children's home for 12 years. I lived there and I just had built-in friends no matter where I went. I would wake up and there was 10 people, 10 kids, a little bit older than me that were just there in our house. So I had 10 additional siblings, plus my three. And it was a ton of fun. And there was a family that moved in. They were called the washies. And they were like, my best friends. The oldest brother was a little bit older than me, that the oldest sister was a little bit younger than me, and the two younger ones were 4 years or so younger than me, and I just treated him like my little siblings. And it was the most fun I've had, like, in childhood. And then there was one additional, his name is Bobby, and he's a little bit older than me as well, but me, Kevin, and Bobby, were inseparable. We were a trio of troublemakers and many, many capacities, but we were we were best friends. And we started out as strangers. They moved into the house. I didn't know them. They didn't know me. If you know anything about children's home. their guards are up. They don't really know who to trust. So the way I got Kevin's trust is I immediately started to wrestle him. it was awesome. Actually, my foot ended up by his face at one and I cut his nose with my pinky toe and he has a scar on his nose right here from my pinky toe. Very embarrassing. But we became really close friends. And at some point in the in that 2 or 3 years of living in the children's home together. Some stuff happened, and my mom and dad actually decided to adopt them. So I no longer just have them as friends, but now there are my siblings. Like, literally my siblings. We share the same last name. We move into the same house. So me and my 2 best friends are now actually siblings with each other. My parents were very brave. I'll tell you that much. But we became best friends. We did everything together. We'd wake up, we'd go to school together. We'd play games, we'd play video games, we'd play sports together, we'd go to church together. We did everything. My brothers were a little bit older than me. Um, and Kevin, who was the one who was closest to me at the time, he joins the Navy. And then one day, he moves to go to basic, and then he stays in Dallas and Fort Worth, and he stays there. And the move changed things. Maybe you've had a close relationship and there was some kind of move or relationship change that made things difficult. He moved and we'd try to keep touch. We'd call each other, we'd play video games together. He'd come home, but something was different. We just continued to drift. And I'm sad to report, not because of his move, but because of his sin, he no longer claims to be a part of my family. Maybe you can also think of a time where you were close with somebody and you drifted apart because of something like a move, something that fundamentally changed the relationship. When we're coming into John 14, Jesus is talking to his disciples and he's telling them he's moving. He says, I am going to go to the Father. And he says, where I'm going, you cannot come. And the disciples are troubled, it says, in John 14 when we get into it, that they're concerned. What is that going to look like? What are we going to do? Are we going to drift apart? Are we going to fail? They think they may be falling away? Peter was just told, you're gonna deny me 3 times. The disciples are worried. What are we going to do without our friend, Jesus, without our rabbi, Jesus. He's the king. What are we going to do? They're worried about drifting. So as we start into our passage in John 14, the disciples have this mindset, and Jesus is coming to give them some instruction and some comfort. Start in verse one. Jesus says, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I would go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may also be. And you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough for us. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip. Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say show is the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak of my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Let's pray. God, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word, Lord, that it's true. Lord, that it's a comfort to us. Lord, that it corrects us. And Lord, that you've given it to us, Lord, that we'd be more like you. Lord, I pray that you would take the scribbles that are on this page that are written by a limited, fallible human, and Lord, that would you make them, um, glorifying to you, and would we be built up in the hearing of your word? Lord, we love you in Jesus' name. Amen. So Jesus understands. He just told them the very hard truth. He says, I'm leaving to go with the Father, and you cannot follow me. They followed him everywhere. That was the 1st command that they received. Follow me. And now they're no longer able to do that. How can they go on without the rabbi? He is going to prepare a place in the father's house for his disciples. And he wants them to know it is a good thing that I'm leaving. And there's a few reasons why it's a good thing. The 1st thing is, he's going ahead of them. They're going to follow him. He says, I will come back to get you, but I'm going ahead of you in preparing a place for you in my father's house. Jesus' comfort to the disciples are, you are not abandoned. You will not be forgotten. We will not grow apart and be distant. There are plenty of rooms in my father's house, and I'm going to go play the perfect host and prepare a room for you to stay with me forever, and I will not forget you, and I will come back to bring you with me. This is that big move I was talking about, the thing that fundamentally changes a relationship. It alters the moment. It alters the disciples' relationship with Jesus forever. They're no longer able to eat with, laugh with, hug or walk with or ask questions to Jesus anymore. It's like a best friend. Maybe he had a roommate in college, or maybe he had a sibling that you were close with. As soon as they move, something happened. Now we don't fully understand. We don't fully understand this concept in our 21st century. We understand that people drift apart and all of these things, even with my brother, but I can still check up on them on Facebook, right? I can still see that he exists. But in the 1st century, when you would leave and be separate from somebody, they don't necessarily know he's going to heaven. But they don't, they won't have any connection with them. There's one way from a more modern example of how we can understand this. There is a the 1st missionary from the United States. His name is Adoniram Judson. Maybe you've heard of him. As he was on his way and preparing to go to Burma, to reach the unreached people in Burma, he found a woman that he wanted to marry. Her name was Anne Hasseltine. And as he was, wanting to move, he said, we need to get this marriage done before we move, like, this is a prerequisite to what we want to do, what we're in Burma. So he, uh, before he asked her to marry him, he writes a letter to her dad. Um, and I'll be honest, I forgot it. I was going to read it to you. But what it says is, would I have your permission to take your daughter to the heathen people of Burma, to where you would never see her again, that she would be exposed to danger, potential violence, that her life would maybe be lost in the heathen land, and her life would be given up for the sake of Christ? And if you're a dad in here who have any kind of daughter and yet get that letter, you're probably like, this guy's crazy. Like, no, like, right? Like, no, you're not gonna get this. But John said, yeah, but what he recognized, when he signed this, yeah, or gave it to Adoni or anything, when they sailed off in February of 1812, he knew that he may never see his daughter again. And the truth is, he never did. He never saw his daughter again. She died while she was in Burma, serving Christ. We don't understand fully what it means when Jesus says, I'm leaving you. Where there's no connection, there's no phone call, there's no catching up over coffee. There's no Facebook stalking. He's gone. And Jesus is trying to tell them, this is going to change the way that we interact together. You will see me no more. And the disciples are feeling this way. And the question they're asking is, how can we continue to do what you've asked us to do when you're not here? Jesus, we've messed up so much. We don't understand fully. Every time you teach something, we have to ask you, okay, but what did you mean by that? And yet you're leaving and asking us to continue this? And don't we have a similar question? Don't we ask, how can we grow, even though we don't see Jesus, even though we can't audibly hear from Jesus? Maybe we would ask that we would say the statement. If I could just sit down with Jesus for one day, I could ask him every question I need to get, I have all the answers that I need, and then my relationship with him would be golden, right? Maybe we would want to, you have that question of, if you could eat with anybody in history for one meal, who would it be? I hope it would be Jesus, right? So we could hear everything from him. Maybe you would ask, maybe, if I only lived in the 1st century, or maybe if I was one of the Israelites who saw all these miracles and was in the presence of the ark or the presence of Jesus, my relationship with Jesus would be incredible. Maybe you rely on mountaintop experiences similar to that. You go from, maybe in youth ministry, you went from youth camp to youth camp. Or maybe you go from Sunday morning to Sunday morning, or maybe you do whatever it is to have some kind of experience where you feel close to Jesus, and that's how you are having this relationship with him. The question we ask is, how are we to grow in our relationship with Jesus now that he's moved out of the world? How do we grow in our relationship with him in general? And the thing you were to get anything from this sermon, the main point of all of this is that our relationship with Jesus grows as Jesus grows in us. Our relationship with Jesus grows, as Jesus grows in us. So the question is, how does he grow in us? The 1st way Jesus says here in chapter 14, is that we grow by the word, or by the way, or in the truth in the life. Jesus had been walking with the disciples for 3 years. He shared the words of life in John 6. He asked Peter, are you also going to turn away? And Peter says, where else would we go? You have the words of life. Jesus has shared what it means and the way to get to heaven, the ways to be pleasing to God. He has shared the truth of what it means to be obedient to the Lord. What it means to have salvation to God. Have you ever played the game telephone before? You have a big line of people, and the 1st person draws from a bowl or something, they have a phrase or a word. And then now you have to whisper it to the person next to you, and the goal is to get it all the way to the very end and to have the exact same word as the beginning. Anybody ever play that before? Now, does it ever turn out like that? Somebody is either a goofball and they say something entirely different. Or they're like me and just really can't hear all that well. And now what comes at the end of it is nothing like what it started. But the way that you truly under, the way that you would get back to what the word was intended to be, is you go back to the source. You go back to the person who said it to begin with. And Jesus here is saying, you know the way to heaven. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. He is the one who gives salvation. He is the one who shared these words. Jesus is saying, the way that they're going to continue on. The way that they're going to grow in their walk with Jesus is to come back to what he has said, to come back to him always. So Jesus is not expecting them to take what he's not expecting the disciples to take what has been given to them and to build on it. He wants them to come back to what he said. That's where the growth is because he is life. We don't have life in that as apart from Christ. The growth that we gain and the growth that the disciples have are coming back to Christ and going with what he has said. We come back to the source, coming back to the source is the only way forward. They grow in the way by coming back to Christ. In John 644, I alluded to this earlier, Jesus says this to the crowds. He says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. What Jesus is getting at here is that you can't save yourself. The only way that salvation occurs is if it's granted to you by grace. And the only way that salvation is finished is when Christ raises us up with him on that last day. You did not start your salvation, and you will not finish your salvation. Christ has done both, and he is the one who is bringing you from the beginning to the end. Jesus is in charge of the last day. He is in charge of the growth. He grows those who have faith in him, in the way. The disciples, they were taught in the way by the words of Jesus. They were reproved. Like get behind me, Satan. They were corrected. They were trained from the person of Jesus, the living word. He showed them the way was in him. The way was in Christ, and only through belief in him, not on works or ability, but by grace alone. And he is the very image of God. He was the word of God, that he only spoke what God told him to speak. He was fully in submission to what the Father said. He only did what the Father, what he saw the Father doing. God revealed himself in Jesus to the disciples and to the world. It was Jesus who saves people, and he continues to save people, and Jesus grows people by his word, and he finishes our salvation by his word. His word is true. Now they had the spoken word of God. We have the written word of God. 2nd Timothy 316. It says, for all scripture, is breathed out by God. And profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. This is the written voice of God. Do you realize that when you're reading this, is that you're hearing and you're reading the words that he's intended for you to hear, intended for you to read. This is his written voice, the recorded voice of the Lord. As we read, we are taught. As we read, we are reproved. As we read, we are corrected and trained by his word. In the purpose of that, is so that you would be complete. And that word complete is alluding to that last day when we raise up, and John says, we will see him face to face because we will be like him. We are grown by his word. We do not have the physical person of Jesus teaching us, but we do have his voice. We look to the word to learn about his character, his loves, his hates, his life. We grow in the way by placing his words in our minds and in our hearts so that our hands would do the work. We are living out obedience to him. Jesus has moved out. The relationship with the disciples and with us has changed, but he says, remember the way to the Father that I've shown with you. Grow in this way. He grows in us by his word as he brings us to the Father's house. Look at verse 12 and 14 with me. Jesus says 12 through 14. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me, will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. And the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. What Jesus is showing here is that his ministry will actually grow because he's left. Jesus is leaving the earth. He's moving out, and his ministry will actually grow because of it. The works that Jesus will be the works that Jesus has been doing will now be done by his disciples because he's going to the Father. His ministry expands as the many, his disciples and others and us who believe in him, will continue to do the works that he has done. One goes to the Father, and at this point, there are 12 that remain to continue the work. It's simple multiplication, that his ministry will be expanded as his disciples continue to do what he has been doing in all parts of the world. The works that the disciples do, notice here that it is directly tied to prayer. Look what he says here. He says, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And greater works than these will he do because I'm going to the Father. And then look at what immediately what he says. These are not disconnected but these are connected. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. So his ministry expands as the many continue to their works by prayer. They pray, and they are actually continuing the work that Jesus has already been doing. Look what he's been doing all throughout the gospel. Jesus feeds the 5000. He gets the bread in the fish. And what does he do immediately? He prays. He thanks the Lord, and then he breaks the loaves. Maybe another one that you would remember is with Lazarus. Lazarus has been in the grave a couple days. He stinketh, remember? And he's in there, and before he gets to the grave, he prays audibly. He says, I thank you that you hear me, Father, and that you always hear me. Now, I'm praying like this, not for myself, but so for others, so that they may believe, that the Father, hears his prayer and receives it, that Jesus did ministry by the power of his Father, through prayer. He is doing the words by prayer. And he says, disciples continue this on. And look who's doing the actual work here in this verse. He says, if you ask anything in my name, you'll do it. Is that what he says? He says, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. So Jesus is the one who is continuing his ministry by the loving obedience of his disciples. As they're growing in the recognition of what Jesus wants to do, they're asking Jesus to be the one to do it. Isn't that what we've been doing this whole time at Riverside, asking the Lord to go before us, asking him to be the one who would draw people to himself, that he would be the one to save people. The disciples, whatever they ask in prayer, in his name, will glorify the Father. What does it mean to be in his name? This is a, this is to be his representative, and this is in line with his character. As we look to Jesus, to grow as by his word, we are changed. When we're looking to Jesus, in his word, and we hear his character, we see his loves, we see his desires. We see the things that he despises and commands us not to do. Our prayers begin to change. Our prayers begin to sound more like Jesus' prayers. When we start to pray in his name, we're praying in his heart, in his character, in his likeness. He does greater work through prayer because his disciples are asking things that he would ask. Because that's in his name. He grows his ministry through this prayer. The result of the prayers of the disciples. are all in his name. We are not Jesus. We are imperfect sinners, but in his name, Christians, which means little Christ, disciples, we represent Jesus on earth. We are under his banner of grace, under his banner of his name and of his truth on this earth. And as we pray in his name and in line with his character, as he grows as by his word, Jesus moves in power. Jesus moves in power. And these are not just any prayers. These are not just regurgitating what Jesus has said, but these are prayers that he's welded up within us, or that he's placed within us, as we're understanding his character, looking at a modern world, and ultimately these prayers are for God's glory only. The prayers that are in his name glorify the Father. It's all about him. And this is what Jesus always did. Everything was always for the glory of the Father. John 519. Jesus says, whatever the Father does, the Son does, likewise. In verse 10, he says, do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Under and in the name of Christ, believers pray like Christ for the glory of God. They will do what they have seen their savior do time and time again, and what he is doing in the world, and they will ask the Lord to do it again in prayer. They pray for the Father to receive glory in his name. He gets the glory. He gets the praise. Maybe you're asking, how do I do this, Dalton? How do I pray these type of prayers? A good rubric is? is the Lord's Prayer? In Matthew 6. He says, Father, who art in heaven? Hallowed be your name, holy be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who've sinned against us. Deliver us from temptation and deliver us from evil. As we're praying in this rubric, or even with this thought in our mind, we are praying in the heart of Christ. We're praying in obedience. Now this is not, hey, go pray this prayer every single time. But recognize what's happening here. This is for God's glory. God, you are holy. Your will be done. Your kingdom, not my kingdom be grown. Lord, I need to depend on you. Would you give me what I need today? Lord, would you forgive me of my sin? I stray so often, just like the kid playing telephone. By the end of it, the word is messed up. The way is twisted. Lord, forgive me. Lord, I'm being tempted. Deliver me from this temptation, deliver me from evil. Jesus said to pray like this, to have this kind of mind fully dependent on him. We grow as we are fully dependent on Christ to do the growth, and our prayers are a thermostat of that. If we think about your prayers, do we pray like this? Do we pray for his glory, or do we pray for our comfort? Do we pray that he would receive praise, or do we pray that we would receive praise? Are our prayers in line with how Jesus prayed? So 2nd is we grow as we pray like Jesus. He gets the glory and grows us to be more like him. But maybe you're thinking, I know this, Dalton. I know to read, I know to pray, but I still feel distant from God. I've been reading my Bible for years. Ive been praying for years. I still feel distant. I feel like Jesus moving out, that Jesus being in heaven is a distance that's too far for me to reach to him. Maybe I try to remember his words. I try to pray like him, but I'm stuck in this rut. I've already said this about Peter, but think about how the disciples responded after this. Judas, this very night, leaves and betrays Jesus. Peter, this very night, who was one of the inner circle, who was the ones that would be closest to Jesus, who eventually will lead the church after Jesus leaves. He's at the cornerstone, under Christ. Denies Christ 3 times. and then runs away scared. He starts to do his old job because he thinks he's messed up too much. All the other disciples run and they scatter like sheep. They're gone. Jesus has given this command to grow in him, but the disciples couldn't do it. We can't do it. But Jesus doesn't leave us to struggle on our own. He sends help. Look in verses 15 through 18 with me. Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. So Jesus moves out. The Holy Spirit moves in. And he says, this is comfort. If you skip over to verse 27, He says, peace, I leave with you. My peace, I give to you. The spirit is the spirit of peace. The disciples are troubled at the thought of Jesus leaving, their friend, their rabbi is leaving the earth. How can we continue to be obedient to you, Lord? We keep getting things wrong? We're scared. grow distant from you. We're scared, we're going to go stale. As Jesus moves in, the spirit moves in to us. He is a comfort. His presence is still with us, and it's even closer than Jesus was previously, and he gives us peace. Jesus, while he was on earth, purposefully and intentionally was limited. He was a person. And if you were to follow a person around, you have to be within earshot to listen to them, to be taught by them, to hear from them. The 12 disciples were living with him for 3 years, and they asked him questions day and night. They would seek him all the time, but Jesus was not always with them, right? Sometimes he would disappear, and he'd be out in the woods with his father. Sometimes he would say, go on ahead, and then he would appear on the water just like randomly, right? But he was limited in his presence, that he was not able to be in all places at all times. He was in the Judea area. He was in that area. He wasn't in the United States, as some would like to say, but he was limited to a physical body. The Holy Spirit is always present in the believer. That as Jesus moves out, the Holy Spirit moves in and then dwells, every believer who loves Jesus. Every believer who has faith in Jesus. Jesus going to the Father, expands the Father's ability to be with all believers at all times all at once. He says, don't be troubled. You're not alone. My spirit is within you, and he will give you peace. But does he only give us peace? Is the Holy Spirit only to be some kind of stress reliever? Is that all he's meant to be to us? No, he's so much more than that. He also helps us. His name is the helper. He's called the helper, and that name is directly again tied to obedience. If you love me, you'll keep my commands and I'll send a helper to help you do so. If you love me, you'll keep my commands. This is not a proof of your love, but it is a fruit of your love. The love is the true saving faith in Jesus, and those saved from sin truly love Jesus, and those who truly love Jesus will do what he's asked. And the helper moves into our hearts forever and helps us obey him as we love him. It says in verse 26, that he will remind them. Read with me here. It says, the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you. The Holy Spirit who lives within you is bringing to mind what Jesus has taught you. To the disciples, he will be bringing to remembrance the 3 years of personal close relationship. Remember when Jesus did this, and how he said this about forgiveness, and how he did this when he walked across the water. He is the son of God. He is God in flesh. He reminds them. He's actively teaching them and reminds them. The Holy Spirit reminds us of the word and helps us grow in Christ. But here's the question. Or here's the situation. The disciples had 3 years of memories. Three years of one-on-one words from the Father, from Christ. How much of the word does the Holy Spirit have in you to work with? We did not have 3 years with Jesus. We have his written word here, his voice here, the Holy Spirit uses his word to draw remembrance of what he said. When the Holy Spirit is operating in your life as a believer, does he have much source material? Does he have the voice of God able to ring around in your mind and in your heart and call you to obedience? Does he have that? Can we remember what we don't know? We read the word. We need to study the word. We should meditate on the word and memorize it. Not so that we can earn salvation, not that we can make ourselves look better, so that when the Holy Spirit is working to remind us of the truth, he has sufficient material to work with. If he's trying to draw you to mind, To something that Christ has done, but you have nothing stored up for that purpose, who knows what you're going to think the Lord has said. If you don't know the truth, anything can be true. Maybe you say, I can't understand what I read. I read, and I read and I read, and all these words and names and books are so difficult. Man, here's a prayer that brings glory to God every single time and is absolutely in his name. Lord, teach me. Please. His Holy Spirit, who indwells with you, is not a weak... not a weak God. He is all powerful, living within you, and he can teach you. Jesus didn't say, I'll send you a helper, but he's kind of annoying. Because he doesn't let you do what you want to do. He didn't say, I'll send you a helper, but he's not as great as me. He said, I'm going to send you a helper who's going to help you obey and do all the things that I've done, but in greater measure, as you are praying like me. The Holy Spirit is powerful, and as we ask him to teach us, he will. As we, in faith, we should be moving closer to Jesus, asking in desperation for him to be the one to teach us, and not in frustration moving away. He teaches us. The spirit is powerful in us. A passage I come back to often is Ezekiel 36. The Lord is talking about the nation of Israel. He's talking about gathering them up from all the ends of the earth, and he's talking about a new place that they're going to dwell. And he says, in that day, this is what he says, I will put my spirit within you, and I will cause you to walk in my statutes, to be careful to obey my rules. This is a promise. Jesus talking about the helper. It's not just something he came up with on a whim. This has always been the plan, that God's people would be indwelled and would walk with God, and he would be the one who's helping us obey him in love. This is a promise that we can stand firm on. His spirit is with us to cause and to move and to work, in us to walk in his way, to obey his commandments, to help us. As Jesus walked and taught, the disciples still misunderstood, they still had to find personal time with Jesus. Jesus, could you please explain what you just said to these 1000s of people? But the Holy Spirit who dwells within you doesn't need privacy for you to ask him a question. He doesn't need to find time for you to inquire about him, the deep things that we don't understand. He doesn't have to find the time and the day to be able to come and comfort you with the word. Man, pastors and brothers and sisters in Christ are so good. And we can ask each other and we can encourage each other. We can stir each other up and we can help each other in times of need. But do you know who's a better comforter? The comforter, the Holy Spirit, the one who's always with you. And as we learn independence, to rely on him in all things, he's powerfully moving within us, to remind us of all that Christ has done for us. And the promises that he's given us for the future and today. We as Christians need to learn that we grow because the Holy Spirit helps us. We don't grow because we did it ourselves. We grow because the Holy Spirit helps. All right, our last little section here, verses 18 through 23. He says, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live, you also will live. In that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them. He it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot, just said to him, said to him, Lord, now, is it that you will, how was it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world? Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him. And we will come to him and make our abode our home in him. This is the promise that we have, that the one who loves Jesus will keep his commands, and the one who keeps his command will be indwelled by the Holy Spirit. That God, in his fullness, will live within us in his spirit. This verse here of, the one who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me, can be seen as you have to prove your love for God by doing what he says. But I believe it's better seen as your love for God resulting in good works. I think that's the more biblical model here. You don't obey to be loved. You love so you obey. When you believe in Jesus, you love him. He saved you from your debt of sin. He is delivering you from death to life. Your love for him stems from a grateful heart for the salvation that you've received in him by grace alone. Think about this debt, this life debt. I think I have a picture of this. There's some characters in Toy Story that make me think of this. You guys know these guys? These little aliens. You know, the same to our lions. We are eternally grateful. If you've ever watched any of the Toy Story movies, you know these little guys, they always find themselves in some kind of trouble. They can't walk all that good, one because they're toys, but also their legs don't move. But they're always in some kind of trouble, and they're always being saved. And every time they're saved, they say this phrase. You have saved our lives. We are eternally grateful. And they're kind of this, like, annoying character, but they're kind of cute in the show. But at this point, Mr. Potato Head saves these aliens and then actually adopts them as his own kids. Like, if I were to be describing this to somebody else, They think I'm probably on drugs. But this is what happened. And then eventually they actually pay that debt off in the 3rd movie and they actually save all the toys from the trash heap. If anybody's watched that, that's kind of a scary little scene, but that for some reason is my daughter's favorite scene with the fire and the destruction and scary. I'm a little worried about her, pray for her. But they had this life debt to these people, to these toys, rather, and they paid it back. Here's the truth. We owe our lives to Christ. We absolutely have been saved from so much more than falling out of the pizza planet truck. We owe him so much more, but we can never pay it back. And we shouldn't even try to pay it back. Because that's not what he's asking from us. We can't break even. We have been forgiven of so much. Every single sinner is under an insurmountable weight of a debt to the sin that we bring to him. But we have been forgiven by an unmeasurable love, an unmeasurable, undeserved sacrifice on our behalf, that you didn't earn, you couldn't ask for, and that he gives freely by faith. Our love should reflect that. The words of our heart should be, we are eternally grateful. Because we truly are. Not seeking to pay it back, but to continue in love and in grateful hearts to go towards him in that. Growing in Christ, then is not about doing something. It's about loving someone. Growing in Christ is not about having the perfect reading plan. Growing in Christ is not about having the perfect prayer life. Growing in Christ is about loving Christ. And as the Holy Spirit is within you, he will begin to draw your desires and draw your prayers to be more like him, and that you would look more like him. This is the basis of the Christian life. This is the foundation. From this love comes good works. And this is what he says here. At salvation, Jesus and the Father make their home in the Christian through the Holy Spirit, and he manifests himself to them. That word manifest means to be displayed or to be to appear. Jesus is saying that he is visible to the Christian. He is near in spirit, but there's more than that. He becomes visible in how we live. As we command, as we obey his commands, and grow in love, we begin to look like him. Act like him, talk like him. Pray like him. His presence is manifested in those who love him. Romans 828 is a promise. It says those that he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that we would look like Jesus. That as he's working within us, he's molding us more into the image of his son, because he was the only one whom God has ever said, in him, I am well pleased. And as the Holy Spirit is working within us, he's making us pleasing to God. But he also manifests himself in the world. In here, there's probably 50 to 60 people who would maybe claim to be a believer. As the Spirit is working in you to help you obey and to remind you of what Jesus has done for you, he is growing you in your likeness, to your family, to your coworkers, to your neighbors, to your friends, to strangers, to everyone. There are potentially 50 to 60 little Christs in this room who will leave and continue the loving redemptive work of calling people to salvation like Jesus. He will be manifest, as we love Christ, and we move into our neighborhoods and into our families, recognizing that we've been placed there to be a light of hope in a dark place. That he is manifest as we, by the power of the Holy Spirit, obey him in all of these things. This is the point of sending the helper that in his name you'd be glorifying to God. In his name, you would look more like Christ. Christ is growing it more in us, and we become more like him in this relationship with the spirit. So we grow in our relationship with Christ as Christ grows in us. And he grows in us as we become more like him. Say notice sin, yes to him. So let's do some, let's get practical. Let's get some things here so we can kind of move on. I got a few points here. The 1st point is abide in his love. Simple, right? This word means this word abide means to live in. We think about the word abode. My humble abode. Live in his love, live in that eternal gratefulness of what he's done for us. Growth starts with love. Do you love Jesus? Do you like him? I think everyone here likes Jesus. Do you love him? Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commands. This passage from today shows that obedience is a fruit of our love, not a proof of our love, but a fruit from it. As we love Jesus, our obedience follows. We should dwell on Jesus, dwell on all that he's done for us, dwell on his word, and come back to it often. And as we love Jesus, our heart will begin to be more like his. Our works will begin to look more like him. We need to remember the game telephone. We got to come back to the source. Come back to the beginning. Remember what it means to love him. The 2nd point is, remember, this is a relationship. With Christ, you have not been called to be a robotic rule follower, or a distance learner, or an online learner. You have been called by Jesus to live in him. to be with him because he is in you. The Holy Spirit is a person. He hears, he understands, he teaches. As he dwells within you. He has no limit to where his presence is, no limit to his understanding or ability, and as we come to him as a relationship, we are grown in him. Sometimes we treat our Bible reading time like, I don't even really know. We pull it off the shelf, we dust off the dust, we read it, and I said, okay, that should get me right for today. We don't even really know what we read. But as we see this, or as we hear this, as the written voice of God. And we understand that he's talking to me through his word, and that through prayer, I'm talking back to him. And as the Holy Spirit has reminded me of the word and reminded me of Christ, he's talking to me even still. We see that we're in a relationship with Christ, and that he wants us to be in this relationship. He hasn't called you to just go and be a robotic rule follower, but he calls you to be his son, to be his daughter. Do you enjoy relationships where people only ask you for things? That's all they ask for. They come to you like, hey, so I gotta, I got a problem. I need your help. And it's every single time. Do you have relationships like this? Have you been in seasons where it's always like that? Those are really hard. We love these people, but it seems like every single time I'm being asked for something, right? The Lord in the exact same way. doesn't want you just to be asking him for stuff. He wants to enjoy the relationship with you. He wants you to enjoy the relationship with him. The 3rd point is grow with us. We want to walk with you as a church. We want this to be a place where we can come together, we can worship Jesus together. We can point each other to Christ. We can stir each other up to good works. And that as we are watching Christ work in each of us, we can praise God because we look more like Jesus every single day. And every single week. And we start to help each other in every single neighborhood and family, and we're praying for each other, and we're asking for things in God's name, and in Christ's name, for his glory, that we'd see neighborhoods and families and jobs reached with the gospel. Come grow with us. Pray for us. We'll pray for each other. We'll push each other more and more and remind each other the grace that we've been shown. We'll keep each other accountable. And we'll push each other to Christ. The whole time as he's returning and to bring us back to himself. So, we grow in Christ as Christ grows in us. And as we do what he says, as a result of the love that we have for him, so love Christ, love his word, pray like him, and watch him do the work. Let's pray. God, we thank you for today. We thank you for loving us. We thank you for your kind word to us. Lord, we thank you for moments where Sometimes we just need to be woken up. We need to be reminded of our inability. And that is a kindness, Lord. Because we are fully incapable. of doing anything. We need your strength, your truth, your grace, your love in our hearts to make any kind of difference. Lord, would you be near to these people this week? Lord, some of them may crack their Bible open for the 1st time in a long time. Lord, would you meet them? Would you teach them? Lord, some of these people are going to be doing this for maybe for the 100th time. The 1000000th time. They do it every single morning, Lord, would you soften their hearts, and would they approach you not as a magic genie in a bottle, but would they approach you as their father? Lord, you're good and kind. Would you grow as in your image all the more as we see that day approaching? We love you, Jesus' name, Amen.