Sunday message: Theme of Joy to the World

Filling The Cup of Joy John 15:5- 11

John 15:5–11 (ESV)

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 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. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

This is about Jesus and you. We were not at the manger and we did not hear Him say this but we can read it over and over as the truth. He is the Christ, the anointed one. By the way, there is nothing wrong with Xmas

Χριστοῦ

māšîaḥ

Christmas is just a short way of saying Christ the Messiah.

Don’t ever apologize for celebrating Christmas. Don’t ever apologize for saying His whole title to make it plain who you are talking about:

Jesus Christ our Lord, the Messiah.

Joy is the word “chara” from where we get the word charismatic. It means gladness, state of rejoicing and happiness. There are definite feelings here you need to experience. It starts the day you meet Jesus. Do you remember that day? Do you remember the lifting burdens from your life?

I like to keep my cup full. The coffee flows on Tuesday morning with my men’s Bible study, and in my office during the week. I want to make sure there is enough to go around. In my car, I don’t like to run on empty. Granted, I may get down to an 1/8th of a tank but not very often. Why, because running on empty is a more expensive operation. Same thing goes in the Christian life. Getting down on empty with your cup of joy, not “joe”, is more expensive to maintain in your spiritual economy. It may be as simple as the time you lose, in filling the cup back up.

The shepherds who heard the angels speak of glad tidings of great joy had to eventually go back to the routine of tending to sheep after they had seen the unblemished lamb of God. I wonder how did they keep their cup full after leaving the presence of the Savior in that manger. After all, they did not have the 15th chapter of John to fall back on. That is where we find ourselves. Their joy was to tell of what they had seen in Jesus. John 15:5-11 is going to get us started.

Filling the cup of Joy

You Need to be a Branch , In the Vine vs.5, 6

There is no other way. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Nothing happens when you are not in the Vine.

I have pictures of both so there is no doubt.

three CA slides here

Vine,

Branch with fruit.

The three together, Vine branch, fruit.

****Shepherd of the fruit****

To abide:

It means it happens both ways: we abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us. We are covered, when we are in Jesus.

It also means that the intent of the branch is to bear much fruit. And, here is the shocker:

Prove to Him you are a disciple!

Let your cup be always full.

Make sure there is plenty of you to go around.

Without the abiding, Life has no purpose. NADA. Nil. Zero. Unimportant! Nothing! Let those superlatives sink sink in. They are the best of the worst.

You need to be like a branch. Not an opportunistic weed that that is going to be cast away and burnt. Not like an unkempt lawn that has been overgrown with thatch. You need to be a branch, living in the vine, that is doing everything it can to be fruitful. Without purpose in life, you become a throw-away, and you wither when the heat is on. Eventually you will be literally be thrown into the fire. That’s what that is talking about. How Will you come out on the other side ? Will you be walking out on the other side and people say I see another man with you and he looks like the Son of God!

I dare say, most people are content to be just a branch, not tending to your spiritual territory as a branch. Not much in the way of concern about the vine. Living off the vine, proving nothing and sooner or later, you find yourself, irrelevant. We are going to change that today. You are going to rise up and prove to be fruitful.

Listen to the Holy Spirit Speak to your heart where it says in James 2:18.

English Standard Version (Chapter 2)

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Abiding in Christ is proof you are who you say you are.

You need to be a branch but also

You Need to Abide

“Abide” means to abide, dwell, stay, stick around, set a spell y’all come back now, remain, wait for, remain in place, expecting something in the future and also endurance produced suffering. These are Bible based definitions of abide. Let’s think on this: Suffering produced endurance. When someone calls the dogs on you, and you are running for your life. You can do it. You will have the grace to run. Let me say also, you will have the grace to turn and say, the dogs do not scare me. Stop your barking and back off. I’m abiding in the vine right now and you can’t touch me.

Abiding is an aspect of action, not inaction. It can to mean to keep on continuing in an action or activity. This is no time to give up.

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Heb 12:2–3.

Abiding is a many flavored word to keep you occupied until Jesus comes!

You Need to Bear Much Fruit. That is a disciple!

There is no easy way around this.

Here’s how

Reading your Bible, reading your Bible out loud, reading quietly journaling your devotions, praying, silently and praying out loud, praying for your family, loving the unlovely, telling the gospel to others, don’t get wound too tight that you cannot change gears, meditate: silently and out loud, memorize the Word of God-out loud if you need a plan to memorize, go to the Navigators website and get their Bible memory cards, that’s what I used, I am willing to help and listen to your progress

Go soul-winning- when was the last time you led a soul to Christ? Become familiar with the great commission. Be baptised or tell someone that they can be baptized also after Salvation.

Be filled with the Spirit.

Music. Get acquainted with Christian music. It grows your spiritual life and is your cheerleader to succeed in what God has for you. Music strums the chords of your heart. They call that sympathetic vibration.

Start one or attend someones Bible study, recognize good doctrine from the bad, re-study the Sunday morning sermon. Take it upon yourself to grow the fruit of the Spirit in your life.

Make the connection between you and Christ a vital part of your daily life. It is not plug and play when you want it. It permeates you life.

Become a part of the sound crew or usher team. We need workers to be with our children. Come to a men’s breakfast or a women’s breakfast. Be a greeter, ask a pastor if you can do something to fit it. Ask to give your testimony somewhere.

Do something to increase the Word of God in your life. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The book of acts says the early church increased and they added to the church because the Word of God increased among them.

We all have our list. This is just a start. Pick your list you have made in the past back up and work on it. Shine it up, and put some polish on it and thrive. Let the fruit grow because Herein is my Father Gloried, that you bear much fruit.

************************************

Be in the Branch, You Need to abide, and you need to bear fruit.

At this point I’m thinking what is your Joy register reading right now? There are so many possibilities to this bearing much fruit and abiding in the branch and vine!

You Need to Keep His Commandments: vs.10

King James Version (Chapter 15)

10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and with all your might, This is the greatest of all, but the second is to love your neighbor as yourself

English Standard Version (Chapter 2)

2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:

6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.The New Commandment 7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.

The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

John ends this chapter in I John 2 with “ Children, listen up, this is the last hour…we know it to be true, but you have the Anointed, Holy One, and you have knowledge and you have truth, because you know it.

Today is the day to proclaim that your are going to keep your cup of joy filled. You are going to abide, you are going to prove that you are a disciple, you are going to abide and stick with it, you are going to bear much fruit, no more sidelines, you are going to keep His commandments. This is your day to shine for the Glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and your full cup.