How do we glorify God? Bill Johnson teaches from John 15, on the importance of abiding in Christ so that God is glorified. God’s desire is to co-labor with us to see His will established on the earth, that He would be glorified.
verse one we’re gonna excuse me we’re
gonna read eight verses verse one
i am the true vine my father is the vine
dresser jesus is giving
a lesson a metaphor an illustration
of an extremely profound reality let me
tell you where we’re headed before we
get there so that you’ll be able to
picture it as we read it
if you take a a vine a grape vine a vine
that grows grapes
the branch connects to the vine
but the fibers of the
branch and the fibers
of the vine
are so intertwined that you can’t
separate them you can cut the branch off
but that’s there is actually a growth
into itself
and that is the actual picture in
scripture of abiding in christ
is that you can’t tell where he ends and
where you start
there’s this intertwining of hearts of
minds of will there’s this yieldedness
to the heart and purposes of god so
deeply that that i i can’t tell where he
starts and where i am that that sort of
thing that’s the work that god is doing
in us and that’s the purpose of this
illustration
verse two every branch in me that does
not bear fruit he takes away every
branch that bears fruit he prunes
then it may bear more fruit
god rewards all growth with pruning
how many of you want to grow
yeah
he rewards all growth with pruning verse
three you are already clean because of
the word which i have spoken to you the
word clean there is the same word as the
word prune
you’re pruned
i pruned you and then he says but you
guys are already pruned
because of the word i spoke to you what
does it tell us
the discipline of god comes from his
voice
the circumstances are just to get our
attention
oh the whale swallowed jonah and that
was the discipline of the lord no i just
got his attention
and just got his attention so the next
time god spoke he was actually listening
he actually prunes us with his word it’s
called a sword for a reason
it was that was better than your
response but it’s all right
verse 4 abide in me i in you as the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself
unless it abides in the vine neither can
you unless you abide in me
boy isn’t that the truth
there’s nothing
of the eternal i can produce through my
own efforts
but everything
is available
if i yield to him
i am the vine you are the branches he
abides in me
i in him bears much fruit without me you
can do nothing if anyone does not abide
in me he is cast out as a branch and is
withered
they gather them throw them into the
fire they are burned verse 7
if you abide in me and my words abide in
you you will ask whatever you desire and
it will be done for you
please listen carefully this is a verse
i like to bring up our team brings up
fairly often these verses out of john 14
15 and 16. in three chapters jesus
repeats one thought four times four
times in three chapters and the thought
is this whatever you ask for will be
done
four times he does it whatever you ask
for will be done
in this particular verse he creates the
context for the absolute the um he
creates he creates the definition or the
uh he
illustrates
how is it i can live in such a way that
i live with the overflowing fullness of
god’s joy through answers to prayer it’s
according to verse 7.
abide in me
let my words abide in you
and you will ask whatever you desire and
it will be done for you
i i don’t like i don’t like the
i don’t like the teaching that
that’s basically says
if you pray for what god tells you to
pray he’ll answer your prayer
i know there’s truth there
but god makes himself vulnerable to the
desires of his people this isn’t
licensed to control or manipulate god
but it is an invitation for a
relationship where you actually have
input in interaction into the outcome of
things
the the the effort in consistent prayer
is not to persuade god
it’s to deal with the powers that are
entrenched in the area that we are
pushing into
and the process transforms us
so that we become responsible stewards
of what we’ve just prayed into
see israel if they would have walked
into the promised land in a 11 day
journey it was supposed to take they
would have wandered right out
they didn’t didn’t have the parameters
for the
how to do life
they were careless in their worship of
golden calf and all these other stupid
things they wouldn’t have had the
maturity to maintain the inheritance
and so the lord puts us in situations
where we push to build a strength so
that once the answer is released we have
the maturity to use it for his glory
there’s this overriding theme that if i
if i can maybe if i could communicate
one
one thing today it would be this
when it becomes my passion
for his will to be done on earth
and for him to be glorified as a result
that’s two sides of the same coin
when it becomes my passion
to see the will of god done on earth i
don’t mean the parts that benefit me
i’m talking about the absolute
demonstration of the lordship of jesus
when that becomes demonstrated and god
is glorified in all the earth in first
service today i read this first of the
passion translation now one of the
psalms and it said there’s a day coming
when all the kings of the earth are
going to give him thanks because they’ve
heard his voice
all the kings of the earth will give him
thanks because they heard his voice so
god has these lofty plans these lofty
dreams
and i i’m i’m not angry about this but i
i do get frustrated
to hear so many believers say well
that’s that can’t happen until jesus
returns
that’s only because we have greater
faith in the return of christ than we do
the power of the gospel
confidence in the power of the gospel
how does it end i don’t know how it ends
i have ideas so do you
neither of our opinions are worth much
unless we got them from him you know
but the point is is the power of the
gospel can change anything he gave me an
assignment not with the intention of
ignoring me
he didn’t say seek for me to be
glorified in the earth it’s not going to
happen
i’ll come back someday and then it will
seek for my will to be done on earth as
it is in heaven
it’ll just keep you positive in your
thinking and it’ll keep you active
until you die
he gave us an assignment why because of
his personal dream
to see something happen
on a planet
that has been marked by sin
he paid a price for the healing of the
land and the healing of the people that
live there
and he wants to see that world mirror
the reality of the one he’s in complete
charge
so here he says if you abide in me my
words abide in you i’ve had
quite a few times in the last couple
months especially where i’ve been
awakened in the night you know
i don’t know if this happens to you
where you’re just perfectly sound asleep
and then all of a sudden your brain is
working 100 miles an hour
how did that happen out of nowhere it
was a dead start how did it suddenly
wake up
and i’ve got a
million things going on through my mind
and i’m just wide awake
and physically tired but wide awake
mentally
and what i’ve been doing of late in the
past what i’ve always done is just
anchor my affection in him but in recent
days i’ve had to bring another tool into
this toolkit of mine
and i i will lay there and i won’t do
this out loud because i don’t want to
wait benny
but i’ll lay there and i’ll just begin
quoting scripture
psalms 34
i will bless the lord at all times
his praise will continually be in my
mouth
my soul shall make its boast in the lord
the humble will hear it and be glad
magnify the lord with me let us exalt
his name together
i sought the lord and he heard me he
delivered me from all my fears
taste and see that the lord is good and
just lay there and just begin to quote
scripture what’s happening the verses
may have nothing to do with what’s in my
mind it doesn’t have to it’s the living
voice of god
it’s the living voice of god that brings
all the random stuff it just starts
pruning this thought isn’t necessary
this one won’t help you this one’s
illegal this one starts pruning all
these illegitimate thoughts that are
competing for my affection and it
restores me to this railroad track that
already has a predetermined destination
and it puts me on this thing
i rejoice in the lord always again i say
rejoice
i had somebody asked me just uh oh just
a few weeks ago if you had to live the
rest of your life i’ve never been asked
this one before i’ve had a lot of good
questions in the years but this is the
first
if you had to live the rest of your life
off of one verse what would it be that’s
that’s easy
john 3 16.
it’s hard to get any higher than that
one
that’s the grand finale of all scripture
for god
so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that
whoever believes in him will not perish
they’ll have everlasting life
that’s not just an evangelism verse
that’s a here bill stay alive verse
get centered into what i’m saying and
doing become anchored in my presence
once again
here this will help you fight off every
distraction that is simply there to
dilute your affections for christ
for god so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son
that whoever believes in him
would not perish
he will have everlasting life
something happens in that midnight hour
3 a.m hour
where i was so awake suddenly i’m i’m
anchored into the person of peace
verse 8 says by this
my father is glorified
that you bear much fruit
and so you will be my disciple by this
my father is glorified that you bear
much fruit
what is this in that verse
by this
if god’s going to be glorified by it we
probably ought to figure out what it is
by this
my father’s glorified
at minimum
in his answers to prayer
a fuller definition would be me abiding
in christ until there’s answers to
prayer
but that’s the
this
i want you to picture this
you have a concern for a relative
and it just wakes you up at night and
you walk and you pray
the next day you do the same and you
pray for several days
and then all of a sudden you get this
phone call and
that relative was spared in an accident
or
or they they turn their heart to the
gospel and receive christ whatever it
might be you got an answer to prayer
what you don’t see
is the angelic realm that witnessed the
interaction
between a born-again person
created in the image of god who yielded
themselves to be a worshiper by choice
interacting with the great i am and
having an audience with the king of all
kings
and making a request that actually
shaped the course of history
the angelic realm
celebrates
your plan worked
your plan worked
you created them in your image and even
when they fell you restored them
and you brought them into a place of
co-laboring
you brought them into a place of
partnership with the almighty god fallen
redeemed man partners with the almighty
god they pray you act things change
your plan worked
by this my father is glorified that you
bear much fruit by this
this abiding in this
felt reality of the spirit of god the
greatest reality in my life is the
presence of god to live unaware of it is
a waste of time
to live unaware of this most precious
gift of all that the holy spirit himself
would dwell in me and rest upon me to
live unconscious of that one thing is to
sell myself short of every divine
purpose that he has created for me
i owe him
answers to prayer
i owe him answers
he decided a long time ago to answer
that’s why he gave me promises he gave
me promises to pull me into a place of
relationship with him where together we
would affect the course of history it
was already written my name was already
written in the document
this is what my son is created to do
i can stand away from the river and say
well there’s no current where i’m at
or i can move to that which has been
flowing since the beginning of time god
created us to co-labor with him to see
his purposes in the earth be fruitful
multiply subdue the earth he engages
humanity engages people with divine
purpose