AXIOM 5 “What God does through you he also does in you” John 15:1-17

REVIEW: We are learning to live like Jesus by looking at the world the way Jesus did. We are doing that by learning these AXIOMS. Quick Review:

• [Kiroas- being aware of God’s activity in my life.]
• [AXIOM 1- God is always present and at work.]
• [AXIOM 2- God is like Jesus].
• [Axiom 3- God meets us in reality.]
• [AXIOM 4- God cares more about it than you do.]

ILL> Graduating high school, Columbia College, Academic probation.HALO video game. She called me into her office the next day and told me one of the hardest truths of my life. She said, “Jason, you gave one of the best oral presentations that I have ever heard but it is clear that you didn’t do the hard work of actually completing the assignment. You will not get by in my class by being a good talker and not do the hard work……

APP> See, I was trying to present something that I wasn’t prepared for. Or to say it another way, I was trying to present something that wasn’t really in me.

Big Idea > What God does through you he also does in you.

APP> We say things like “God, use me!” And that’s all good but that’s not God’s first priority at all. To say it another way, God will NEVER do something through you that he hasn’t first done in you.

CONTEXT> The scripture is filled with this type of language. IN our passage today alone, the word “in” is used 13x in 17 verses! In the NT alone the phrase or phrases “In him, with him, by him” is used 130x

• • • “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27
    • “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
    • “my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” Galatians 4:19

1. When Jesus’ words are in me, prayer flows through me. v7

• • • • • • “if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you…” Jesus here directly connects his words that he is speaking and our prayer lives. Matthew Henry comments this: “Note, Those that abide in Christ as their hearts delight shall have through Christ, their hearts desire… The promises abiding in us lie ready to be turned into prayer; and the prayers so regulated cannot but speed.”

APP> Here is a simple way to put it- What is inside of us will come outside of us.

*ILL> Full Glass of water, bump it.

APP> If we want God to use us greatly in prayer we must invest deeply in the scripture.

2) When Jesus’ love is in me, obedience flows through me. v10

• • • • • v9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you, Abide in my love. v10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my fathers commandments and abide in his love” Anytime I can, I try to show you the order that commands come in the scripture. God’s love always comes before God’s commands.

APP> I know what you are saying… “there are so many more things standing in the way for me to believe that Jason…” Can I show you something in the text… notice the two personal pronouns in verse 9 “I have loved you..” The only thing standing between you and Jesus is Love!”

• • • • • “So then what are these commands that Jesus is speaking about? Well, drop down to verse 12, a commandment to love another. “The inhaling of an underserved divine love for ourselves and the exhaling of our all-too-human but still well -intended love for others-this is the breathing exercise that all disciples try to practice every day.” Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John, page 889

APP> The love we profess for God is proved in our practice of love towards others.

3) When Jesus’ joy is in me, joy flows through me. v11

• • • • “that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full” it is very clear that this is Jesus’ joy, nothing that the world has to offer. Jesus really is for our Joy! The whole world is in pursuit of this type of pleasure

APP> God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

Big Idea > What God does through you he also does in you.

*ILL> Here is what this comes down to. On April 14th 1912, the very famous and beautiful and worlds largest ship at the Titanic struck an Iceberg and sank, costing 1,500 hundred lives. After must research and asking many questions about WHY there are a number of reasons. Two of them are that the ship was going too fast in the ice waters… the second was that the builders cut cost on the rivets that held the steel plates together couldn’t handle the blow.

APP> Who we are becoming matters to God more than what we are accomplishing.

Two Questions:

• • • Are you trying to make God work through you without allowing him to do that same work in you?
    • Are you happy for God to work in you but resist allowing God to let that work flow through you to others?