John Chapter 14:20-25

What do your actions suggest that you love the Lord? Are you in God's Word? Are you serving?

Are you giving? These things that we know are in His Word, and Jesus suggests that our obedience and our love are tied together, even to the point that you can see what level somebody is on. See, to just say, I love the Lord, again, is easy to do. But to obey the Lord, it's a little more difficult, isn't it? This is a tough message. It's tough to deliver. It's tough to hear. But this is the truth of God's Word. And as we dig into it, I'm not going to skip around or namby-pamby it. I understand.

This is not necessarily what you would term a seeker-sensitive message. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. David is a senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Today, we're blessed to have one of David's associate pastors with us, Pastor D.A. D.A., it's great to be here with you, and I've got a question for you. Yeah, Bob. Do your actions suggest that you love the Lord?

Bob, they should. As followers of Jesus, our words should line up with our actions. Today, Pastor David explains what these words and actions should be as he continues in the Gospel of John, Chapter 14.

Well, that sounds good. So let's listen as David Magee teaches promises. So we're in John, Chapter 14. We're continuing our march through the Gospel of John. We're going to pick it up at Verse 20, but first let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to sit here this morning and to hear the timeless truths of your word. Lord, we ask that we would be strengthened, we would be encouraged, we would be drawn closer to you, and we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to sit here this morning. And we ask that you would take the words and the letters off of this page and somehow change us. Change our hearts, change our minds, change our lives to follow you more closely. Lord, we ask that you would open our hearts to your word and open your word to our hearts in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, amen and amen. All right, let's pick it up with Verse 20. At that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

Now, this is an interesting verse. And it speaks of the intimate relationship that we have with the Lord once we ask the Lord to forgive us of our sins. Now, a lot of people say that they know God, but really what they're saying when they say that sometimes is that they know about God. So the question is not, do you know about God, but do you know God? Do you know God? See, you'd be hard pressed to grow up in this country and not know about God, but to know God and to have him in you, as this verse states. And there's a beautiful sense of intimacy, if you will, with the Lord in this. Isn't that marvelous? Jesus is in you?

You ever thought about that? Jesus is in you, praise God. Verse 21, he who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

This is a hoo-hoo. This is one of those verses that you don't hear taught a lot, because it's pretty forceful in what it's saying, isn't it? Now, understand verse 20 comes before verse 21.

If you're taking notes, you may want to write that down. But the reason I'm saying it is verse 21 is talking about the fellowship that we enjoy with the Lord, and part of that fellowship is us being obedient to the Lord. Now, I love the fellowship with the Lord, and I'm covering this intentionally for a reason. I love the fellowship that I have with the Lord. I also love the fellowship that I have with the brothers and sisters here in the body. It's an awesome thing.

And you know what? It's something the world doesn't have. Do you understand that? That we have a special treasure in our relationship with one another that the world doesn't have. The world can't really have fellowship. You may have, you know, before your conversion, you may have had moments, you know, whatever, late night in the bar where you thought you were having fellowship or something, but really true fellowship, you can't have that outside of Jesus, outside of a relationship with Jesus. I'm talking about Jesus being in you, but you need to realize something. Other people that are around you this morning who have invited the Lord into their heart to ask Him to forgive them of their sins, they have Jesus in them. And you know what? When I'm fellowshiping and we were fellowshiping yesterday with the workday and stuff, there's just something about that.

There's that recognition and saying, you know what? I like the Jesus in you. The reason I want to emphasize that is because we're getting ready to talk about works. And I want you to understand that the basis for works is our relationship with the Lord and not to get that backwards. Works are not the basis of your relationship with the Lord, but your relationship with the Lord should lead you to works. This verse doesn't leave a lot of hope for those people who say they know the Lord, love the Lord, but you don't see any fruit in their lives. You've probably met them.

Maybe you've even been one where you, well, I believe, I know, I just don't go to church and pretty much act like a pagan, but I know all that stuff. Wait a minute. Jesus is saying, number one, who has my commandments will keep them.

This is the deal. When you begin to walk with the Lord, when you begin to really understand what you've been forgiven of and understand the grace of God, it's a natural response to desire to serve him. It's a natural response to desire to obey him.

It's an unnatural response to not desire to do those things. Now, when Jesus says these things, and again, he's not mincing words here. See, when you really love the Lord, you have a desire to have his commandments and keep them.

James talks about this. James chapter two, verse 18 says, but someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. See, we tend to separate faith and works where the Bible simply doesn't separate them. Now, again, we are saved by grace. That is plain from scripture, but when you really comprehend that grace, you desire to serve. You won't need to be coerced into serving. You may notice we don't have big, long tearful pleas about this ministry needs help and that ministry needs help.

Why? Because we have so much help in those ministries. No, because I want you to be motivated out of the grace of God. James goes on to say in chapter two, verse 26, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. See, this is part of why I encourage people to serve.

See if I, and I have to check my heart. If I am motivating people to serve because we need help in ministry, that's the wrong motivation. Do you understand that?

That is the wrong motivation. If I'm trying to motivate you to serve because we need more help, I want to encourage you to serve because that's what followers of Jesus do. That's what followers of Jesus do. They seek to obey him. They seek to serve him. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 says, and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. I love this. Stir up. You know, a couple of other words for stir, agitate or excite.

Kind of puts that in perspective, doesn't it? Agitate somebody to good works. I am not interested in this la-ti-da social club form of Christianity that's taken over the world. I'm not interested in it. It's not biblical. It's not biblical.

What is biblical is the people of the body of Christ coming together and as a team reaching out into the world and watching lives change. Now hopefully everybody in here can get excited about that. Amen? So remember that when stir up because some of you might need to be agitated into serving.

I'm okay with that. If God wants to use me as an agitating spoon, I'm all right with that. Praise God. Some of you might need to be excited into serving. Praise the Lord. I'll do that too. I'll do whatever the Lord tells me to do and has me to do to encourage you into serving the Lord into works.

Why? Because that's what's supposed to happen. That's what's supposed. Jesus is saying, look, this is what happens. It's not like now some of you are called. That's not what he's saying here.

He's saying, you know what? If you are following the Lord, you will be obedient and you will begin to serve the Lord. You won't need to be coerced. You won't need to be manipulated.

You will have in you a desire to serve the Lord. It will happen naturally. And I think what's happened is we have gotten to an unnatural state in the body of Christ where we think it's the norm not to do anything. I don't understand that. I know that's the norm other places. It will never be the norm here.

It will never be the norm here. Here's the thing. You know the picture that I get of somebody that says, I believe, but I'm not doing anything.

It's a car without wheels. Now let me ask you a question. You pulled up to a stoplight and let's say you're kind of a racing sort of a guy or girl and you pull up to the stoplight and this car's beside you.

Are you threatened? I mean, maybe the guy's going, you know, I mean, are you sitting there going, oh man, he's good. He's got my daddy, that low end torque on that BMW, man. I, you know, there's just no, no, you're sitting there going, you don't have wheels on your car, dude. But you understand this is what the world looks at Christianity that's not obeying Jesus and serving him. This is what they see. We may sit at the stoplight going, and they're going what? Oh, you believe it. Oh yeah, really? What are you doing with it? Oh, not, not much.

I don't have any wheels on my car. That is, I mean, that is really as unnatural as a Christian who's not serving and not doing the things that Jesus told him to do. And we have to get out of our heads, out of our hearts, this thing of it's okay not to follow him passionately. It's okay not to serve him. It's okay not to do what he has told us to do. We got to get out of that because that is not a follower of Jesus. And I would hesitate to use the word Christian.

Here's the life lesson. When you understand what Jesus did enough to pray a prayer to ask him to forgive you of your sins, then you have a thankfulness and a gratitude for what he did that blooms into a love for him that will obey and serve him. This is supposed to be the natural progression of a Christian. If you've had any other thing represented to you, may I suggest this morning that it was not a biblical model. This is the natural progression for a believer. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. I want to pray for seven cities in our listening audience. Port Allen, Louisiana, Fruitland, and St. Mary City, Maryland, Scituate, Massachusetts, Baldwin, Benton Harbor, and Vassar, Michigan. Lord, thank you for these cities.

Thank you that we get to broadcast in these cities. And Lord, thank you for everyone listening. I pray that you would encourage them right now. Help them in these last days to keep their mind and their eyes, their heart focused on you. Help them to be in your word every day, Lord, for encouragement. God, I pray that you'd remind them that you have a good plan. You're going to take care of them, and they don't have to fear. And Lord, for anyone listening who doesn't yet know you, I pray today that they would put their trust in you, Jesus.

Simply receive the gift that you paid a high price for them to have, just by trusting in you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 22, Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? And Jesus answered and said to 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 home with him.

Again, Jesus, in the final closing moments with these disciples, is, he is on a theme of saying, you know what? If you love me, do the things I've said to do. If you love me, keep my commandments. If you love me, keep my word. It's real easy to say I love the Lord.

I mean, it's not that hard to say, is it? I love the Lord. But how do your actions, how do your words line up with your actions? Do your actions suggest that you love the Lord? Go through mentally, are you in God's word? Are you serving?

Are you giving? These things that we know are in his word, and Jesus suggests that our obedience and our love are tied together, even to the point that you can see what level somebody is on with their obedience, the level that their love for the Lord is. See, to just say I love the Lord, again, it's easy to do. But to obey the Lord, it's a little more difficult isn't it? Now, I understand this is a tough message. It's tough to deliver, it's tough to hear. But this is the truth of God's word.

And as we dig into it, I'm not going to skip around or namby-pamby it, and I understand this is not necessarily what you would term a seeker-sensitive message. But this is biblically sensitive, amen? This is the stuff that Jesus is saying, if you love me, this stuff is supposed to be going on. Verse 24, he who does not love me does not keep my words. And the words which you hear is not mine, but the Father who sent me. Jesus is being real plain spoken here. He's saying, you know, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments and do what I've asked you to do.

And if you don't love me, then you won't keep my words. This sheds a lot of light on conversations that I've had in the past when talking to somebody and you say, oh, you know, do you know Jesus? Oh yeah, I know Jesus. Oh really, where do you fellowship? Well, I don't fellowship. I don't go to church anymore. Wait, what do you mean you don't go to church anymore? Ah, you know, I watch TV.

I watch a little TV every now and again. The Bible says forsake not to fellowship. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard that verse before. Well, what are you doing? Ah, you know, I'm just, I'm hanging out. Well, are you in the body? No. You have brothers and sisters that you're close to? No, no. Are you serving?

No, no, no, no. According to the word of God, that looks like somebody doesn't love the Lord. And if somebody doesn't love the Lord, guys, in all honesty, I have to wonder if they know the Lord because to know the Lord is to love the Lord. The more you find out about Jesus, the more in love you fall with Jesus. The more as we dig in the word, you go, oh, that's my Jesus.

Look what he's doing here and look what he's doing there. Oh, that's my Jesus. I love my Jesus.

So it makes me wonder. See, and as followers of Jesus, this is the next life lesson. As followers of Jesus, our words should line up with our actions. Our words should line up with our actions. I'm not talking about you being perfect. I'm not talking about me being perfect. We can freely admit in here this morning none of us are perfect, but we need to have in our heart a desire to be obedient to the Lord.

That those times we fail, those times we fall are exceptions to the rule and not the rule because we want to show the Lord that we love him. And again, Jesus times love and obedience so closely, it's like Nestle quick. You know, when you take the powder and you mix it into the milk, it goes together. If somebody came to you after you mixed that all up and said, hey, get the powder back out, you'd be like, can't do it. Why?

Because it's mixed together. Exactly. You can't separate this concept of love and obedience. Oh, we try, don't we? We do try, but Jesus makes no separation. Let me take the next step in this thought process here because Jesus shares another theme towards the close of his life about reaching the lost and reaching out. The connection would be if we're acting in obedience to what he told us to do to reach the lost, then we love him.

If we don't, we don't love him. I know that's convicting. I understand that's convicting, but you know what? Jesus is called upon us to walk in the great commission, not the great omission, not the great suggestion, the great commission. I love the little story, you know, of an angel seeing Jesus when he comes back up and goes, okay, you know, you died for their sins. What's the plan? And he said, well, I left, you know, I left 11 guys down there and they're going to go spread the word. And the angel goes, who's the living God? And Jesus goes, yeah. Angels said, what's plan B?

And Jesus says, there is no plan B. I hope that you understand that evangelism, I think is something that every pastor should have a heart for. Everybody should have a heart for, but I like you can get calloused, can get jaded, can get distracted. Do you cry out for the lost? Is it a burden when you go through a Walmart or shopping mall and look at all the people and look at their faces and know so many of them don't know what you know. And are you okay with that?

If you're okay with that, something is wrong. Ask the Lord for more of a burden for the lost, because he has told us to reach out to them and in obedience, we shouldn't be reaching out to them. We shouldn't be talking to them about the Lord, about the good news. Let me read song lyrics to you.

Keith Green, an artist who went to be with the Lord many years ago, wrote a song called a sleep in the light. Now I want you to listen to these words. Do you see, do you see all the people sinking down? Don't you care? Don't you care?

Are you going to let them drown? How can you be so numb not to care if they come? You close your eyes and pretend the job's done. Oh bless me Lord, bless me Lord, you know it's all I ever hear. No one aches, no one hurts, no one even sheds one tear, but he cries, he weeps and he bleeds and he cares for your needs and you just lay back and keep soaking it in. Well can't you see it's such a sin?

Because he brings people to your door and you turn them away and you smile and say God bless you, be at peace and all heaven just weeps because Jesus came to your door and you've left him out on the streets. Now pastor, you're getting out of balance here talking about reaching the lost. Am I?

I don't think I am. Jesus said in John chapter 4 verse 35 through 37 says do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you. Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life.

What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike. It's an amazing thing that Jesus asked us to partner with him to reach the world. I've given it some thought and I thought you know Lord wouldn't it just be better if you just spoke in a thunderous voice from the sky explaining the gospel to everybody or maybe you know you actually write it in the sky in clouds or something.

That would really, that would woo them over. That would win them but God has selected to use you and I to reach the lost. That's his plan and we should be moved with compassion. Jesus in Matthew chapter 9 verse 36 said but when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd and then he said to his disciples the harvest truly is plentiful but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. He says pray. Be moved with compassion. Charles Spurgeon said this and I love this quote. If they will perish let them perish with their arms about their knees.

Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for. If you can see the picture of us grabbing people around the legs trying to keep them from an eternal destiny without God you're getting closer to it. Being moved with compassion. So the reality is either we hear this call and heed it or we're being disobedient to what the Lord has told us to do. I never want to get to the place as a church where seeing people get saved was something we used to do. That we no longer do.

If that happens then we're way off track. Verse 25 these things I have spoken to you while being present with you but the helper the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Now this is interesting because it goes back to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We talked about that last week but it says here that the Holy Spirit will be our teacher.

What a wonderful ministry he has. See this morning as I'm talking through these things and you're listening to these things if you're really getting them in your heart you know what's going on? The Holy Spirit is teaching you. The Holy Spirit is here this morning teaching you and opening things up perhaps like you've never seen them before because that's what the Holy Spirit does. Now isn't it interesting and I've been in church I've fellowshiped in churches where you gauged what the Holy Spirit was doing by how crazy the service got. I mean if people ran around the room man the Holy Spirit was powerful there you know or if they hollered or they did this they did that but according to this scripture one of his main ministries is to teach, to teach. Friend do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short simple prayer simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Now God wants you to pray this prayer so much that he died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven and I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life and I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days in Jesus name.

Amen. Friend if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible you've been forgiven you've been born again. Jesus said he would not turn anybody away who comes to him and he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness those who were sick not the righteous.

So congratulations friend you just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our first steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12 515 Winston-Salem North Carolina 27117 and share how God is working in your life. You know the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord but it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood through radio through the internet and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry please go to crossthebridge.com click on the donate button and ask God how much he would have you give either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well DA before we go what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Thanks again for listening and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.