This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions and day 3 of our look together through John chapter 15. We're going to be looking at verses 7 to 17 today. You remember we focused on abiding, remaining in Christ yesterday, on staying attached to the vine. And today, some more specifics on what it means to abide. Jesus wanted us to get this and so as he follows up on what he said about vine and branches, he gives us some specific examples of what we abide in, what we remain in, when we remain in him. God doesn't want us to produce results in our lives, he wants us to produce fruit, to bear fruit. That's a different kind of life. It's not the kind of life that's lived just to impress the people that are around you. It's the kind of life that's lived towards eternity. Fruit that will last. And how do you live that kind of life? Well, Jesus talks about his words, about his love, and about his joy. When I understand the place of his words and his love and his joy in my life, it strengthens me to abide in him in my life. In John 15, 7 and 8, he says, "My words abide in you. " Let me read those verses for you. "If you remain in me," Jesus said, "and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. " It's interesting how prayer and promise are always linked together. Jesus has a command for us to pray here, and there's also the promise of bearing much fruit. As I read this, I realize that I don't want to live an action and results life. I want to live a prayer and fruitfulness life, an asking and depending kind of life. It's a different kind of life. When I pray those kind of prayers, prayers that are answered, "God is glorified, I am bearing much fruit, other people are seeing that I'm a disciple of Jesus," but the beginning of all of that, we see, "Ask whatever you wish, it's going to be given you, we're going to bear much fruit," but how do I get to that kind of point in my life where the things that I'm asking for are fruit-bearing kinds of requests? Well, it begins at the beginning of verse 7. People miss this. They want to just ask whatever they want. No, no, no. You have to start at the beginning of the verse where he says, "Remain in me, my words remain in you. " Then you ask whatever you wish because if you remain in him and his words remain in you, whatever you wish is going to change. You're going to ask for the things that God wishes. You're going to ask for the things that God wants. So of course God's going to answer those prayers. You want your prayers to be answered more often? If I want my prayers to be answered more often, then I need to more often pray the prayers that match the heart of God. And how do I do that? I remain in him and I allow his words to remain in me. His words in the Bible, his words that he taught us, his words that we're studying right now in John chapter 15, when I let those words sink into my heart, when I let the character and the values and the significance of who Jesus is sink into my heart, that enables me to abide in him in ways that I would not have been able to abide in him otherwise. Remain in me. Let my words remain in you. If I want to abide in Christ, I have to let his words become a part of my daily life and not just read them, but think about how I can live them. Let them sink in. My words abide in you. That's part of what it means to abide in Christ. Jesus also says if I want to abide in him, I have to understand what it means to abide in his love. John 15, 9 and 10, here's what he said, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in, abide in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. Just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. Abide in my love," Jesus said. Trust in that. If you want to stay attached to the vine, you've got to recognize how deeply Jesus loves you. You stay attached to his love for you. And how do I do that? How do I stay deeply attached to the love of Christ in my life? Verse 10 is very interesting. Jesus says, "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. " I stay attached to knowing how deeply Jesus loves me and drawing my life from his love. Not by some sentiment of love. Not by some feeling of love, but by actions in my own life. When I trust him enough to obey his commands, that ties me to his love in ways that I do not understand, but that are very deep that allows me to stay attached to him. How do I abide in his love? I obey Jesus the way that Jesus obeyed God. I obey him because of faith. Abide in me. Obey my commands just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and then you will remain in my love. Now, I'm not talking about my idea of obedience here or your idea of obedience, which might be unthinking or might be out of guilt or might be out of fear. I'm talking about Jesus' idea of obedience. In Jesus' words, obey is a beautiful word. Obedience is a word that begins with a relationship, a relationship with God, that grows out of trust. When God tells me how to live the life that he's shown me to live, I do it because I know that he loves me. When I do it because I know that he loves me, I'm staying attached to his love and I discover how much more deeply he loves me. God's words are a part of abiding in Christ. Jesus' love is a part of abiding in Christ and obeying, but joy is also a part of abiding in Christ. In verse 11, Jesus says this, "I have hold you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. " You see, Jesus knew he was on the way to the cross. He knew he was going to die the next day. This is the night before his death on the cross, but here he is talking about joy. Jesus had a joy that could endure a cross, and he wants to fill your life with that quality of joy. And if I look at my life in Christ and there is no joy, something is drastically wrong. It's like a TV without a picture. I look at it and immediately realize something needs to get fixed, and what needs to get fixed is my perspective. Hebrews 12. 2 says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. " If you're anything like me, you feel a loss of joy in your life often, and you wonder where's the joy in living out the life that God wants me to live? And immediately God tells us, you've lost joy because you're trying to find it in the wrong place. And Jesus comes to complete our joy, to show us where joy can really be found. I found, as I talk to believers, as I look at my own life on this subject of joy, that there's some people that are lacking joy, and they're very honest about it. And because of that, when we read verses like this, you say, "Okay, that's where I need to find it. " But there are many, many, many more Christians who, although they are lacking joy, that wouldn't be what you hear from them if you talk about it, because the truth is they are faking joy. Joy is more than a smile on your face as you walk into church at the service at 11 o'clock or 430 or whenever you happen to come. It's more than a smile. I read recently of a woman who set the world record for smiling, the Guinness World Book Record. The previous record had been seven hours and 32 minutes. She's broke the record by smiling for 10 hours and five minutes straight. I can tell you, there was no joy in the last at least few hours of that smiling, just a lot of pain. And I think it's that way for a lot of believers in Christ. There are smiles pasted on our faces, but there's no joy in our hearts. And Jesus wants to give us something genuine, not something fake. And the question I have to ask myself is this, am I going to settle for a substitute for joy? How long my joy lasts always relates to what I put my hope for joy in. If I put my hope for joy in some circumstance, it's going to last as long as the circumstance. If it's a circumstance of going to Disneyland with my family, it's going to last as long as I'm at Disneyland, sometimes not even that long. If it's a circumstance of eating a great piece of chocolate cake, it's going to last as long as the piece of chocolate cake. But you put your joy in Jesus Christ, and that joy is going to last as long as Jesus Christ lasts, and he will last forever. That's what the Bible says in Philippians 4 that we can be full of joy in the Lord always. You see, this joy that he wants to put into our lives is not based on circumstances. If it was, it would be many times, many days of your life where you'd have no hope of joy. It's based on the security of his love. It's based on the security of the fact that he knows you, that he has a plan for your life. It's based on the security of heaven. It's based on the security of things that you can rest in no matter what. Jesus gives us a no matter what kind of joy. Now as Jesus has talked about his word and love and joy, he returns in verses 12 to 17 to this focus on love, this focus on love that's so much a part of abiding in Christ. Verses 12 to 17, Jesus says this, "My command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends. If you do what I command, 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. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. Then the father will give you whatever you ask in my name, and this is my command, love each other. " Look at what Jesus says in these verses, "I have called you friends," he says. And he says, "I'm a friend like none other. I'm a friend who will lay down his life for his friends. " Jesus says in these verses, "I've made it all known to you, all that he had learned from the father he's made known to us, all of God's wisdom. " Jesus isn't saying here, "I'm giving you a crystal ball that lets you know everything in the future. " He's saying, "I've made known all the principles of God so that you can have the wisdom to live the life that God's given you. " Jesus says in these verses, "I chose you. Yes, we have free will, but that does not take away the sovereign choice of God. " And it begins with this sovereign choice of God. Jesus says, "I chose you. I love you enough that I chose you. " And all of this he says to say one thing to us, "Love one another. " I'm going to abide in Christ. That means I have to follow through on the command to love one another. The point here is not some theological discussion. It's easy to get caught up in that in these verses. The point is that we choose to love. In talking to God right now in the next few minutes, let's make that choice together. Say to him, "Jesus, as best as I know how, I depend on you to make the choice to love today. I need your words in my life to give me direction and hope and comfort and strength. I need your love in my life to give me the example and the power to love others. I can't do this on my own, and I need your joy in my life. I'm tired of trying to conjure up joy on my own. Instead, Jesus, I trust you. You're the only one who can complete my joy. Give me genuine joy. So I trust you for the joy that's found in the security of that which will really last, the security of my relationship with you. I trust you today. In your name, amen. " Well join us tomorrow. You're going to find out that Jesus makes an abrupt turn in teaching in the last part of this chapter.