John Chapter 15:9-13

Fill in the blank.

What is your blank this morning? Well, I'll be happy when I get that job promotion. I'll get happy when I move into that new house. Oh, if I can just get that new car, I'll be happy. And Jesus is saying, no, that's not it at all.

That's not it at all. True joy comes from Him. Now, I've heard it put this way, and I like this. Happiness depends on what happens. But joy, true joy comes from the Lord alone.

Now, I'm not talking about all of a sudden, you know, everywhere wearing a happy face all the time. I think that's a little classic, but I'm talking about a joy that will weather the storms of life, and you can keep that joy. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Today, we're blessed to have Pastor D.A. Brown with us, one of David McGee's associate pastors.

D.A., what do you think will make you happy today? Bob, in life, the best way to experience true freedom, that's what I think you're asking, and joy is to follow and obey Jesus. Today, Pastor David McGee explains how this works as he continues in the Gospel of John, chapter 15. Let's jump right in and listen as David McGee starts his teaching, Joy and Love. John, chapter 15, verse 9.

Before I read this verse, let me paint a picture for you, if you will. Can you imagine the love that exists between God the Father and God the Son? Now, understand that is a perfect relationship. In other words, there's never been problems there. There's never been jealousies.

There's never been strife. It's perfect love that they have for one another. Now, let's read verse 9. As the Father loved me, says Jesus, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. In other words, the same love that God the Father has for God the Son is the love that He gives us.

What an amazing thing. So while we look at this love that the Father has with the Son, we should look at how does the Father love the Son? And just as importantly as how does God love us?

Because it's different from the way we usually think of that word. The first thing is God loves us without any beginning. He loves us without any beginning. Jeremiah 31, 3 says, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.

Therefore, with loving kindness I have drawn you. And Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5 says, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. You see, the Lord knows us better than anybody else. And yet He still loves us.

Why? It's a decision on His part. The second thing, He loves us without any change. Hebrews chapter 13 tells us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He also loves us without any end. Without any end. You see, Jesus loves us without any beginning, without any change, without any end. With Him, it's not He loves me, He loves me not kind of a thing. He loves us. Period. And it's never going to change.

It's never going to vary. And that is so important for us to understand because I realize that many of you may have had somebody that you really cared about look at you at some point in your life and say, you know what? I no longer love you.

I no longer care for you. And to realize that is never going to happen with Jesus is incredible to ponder. See, because we think of love kind of ebbing and flowing like a tide or something. But with the Lord, it's not like that.

He will constantly, He will consistently love us forever more. And you'll never hear those words from Jesus. Well, I'm tired of you. I'm bored with you.

This has gotten old. But He's always going to love us. Take comfort in that.

Loved ones, take comfort in that. Verse 10, 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. Now again, what Jesus is doing in this verse and it's consistent with what we were looking at before in John 15 is He's tying obedience to love.

He's tying obedience to love. You see, I've talked to people and you probably have too who said, oh, I love the Lord. I'm just not ever going to church again. Oh, I love the Lord. I just, I don't want to read my Bible.

Oh, I love the Lord, but fill in the blank. The problem with that is this verse speaks to it and says, you know what? If somebody is not being obedient, if somebody is not listening to what the Lord is telling them, then Jesus is saying, you know what?

They don't love me. Now understand, at that point, somebody is not telling the truth. Either the person who He says they love, Jesus doesn't, or Jesus is lying. Now we know that Jesus doesn't lie.

He is truth, so He's not lying. So if somebody says they love the Lord, but they're not being obedient, then we should put a big question mark there. Now when I say being obedient, let's understand something. I'm not talking about they never sin. I'm not talking about they never mess up because everybody in here messes up.

Amen or on me. If you never mess up, you're in the wrong church. There's somewhere else you're supposed to be, but we all mess up, but living a life of disobedience without caring or adhering to anything that God says, that's different.

That's different. That's expressing that you don't love the Lord. Now verse 11, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. What an interesting verse.

It's interesting because, well, it speaks against the system of the world. You see, the system of the world says in order to get joy, what you need to do is get stuff. And as you get stuff, then you will get more joy. That's not what Jesus says.

As a matter of fact, He steps out against that and says, that's not it at all. So you understand we live in a very consumer oriented society. You can watch television and you can see these Ronco commercials or the shopping network and you can see stuff that you never knew existed. And within 60 seconds, you're buying one for your aunt, for your uncle, and you got to have three of them because there's a special deal. Because you think, oh, I get this, I'll get happy. But fill in the blank.

What is your blank this morning? Well, I'll be happy when I get that job promotion. I'll get happy when I move into that new house. Oh, if I can just get that new car, I'll be happy. And Jesus is saying, no, that's not it at all.

That's not it at all. True joy comes from Him. Now I've heard it put this way and I like this, happiness depends on what happens. But joy, true joy comes from the Lord alone. Now I'm not talking about all of a sudden everywhere wearing a happy face all the time. I don't, I think that's a little plastic, but I'm talking about a joy that will weather the storms of life and you can keep that joy. Now I do, I do have a problem with this because in our society, in our culture, people think they can figure out who's a Christian by how big they're frowning.

Oh, there's somebody that's really spiritual and really pious. They're mad, they're upset. You know, this concept of being baptized in vinegar or something, I don't, you know, and getting the pickle face, you know, you know what I'm talking about, the pickle face, that has nothing to do with God.

Don't blame God on your pickle face. I mean, and I see people in the society and they're just mad and they're angry and it's like, where is the joy? Jesus is saying, you will have this joy and understand, joy is contagious.

It's contagious. Jesus is lining up saying, okay, this is what you want to do and this is why you want to do it and this is why you want to do it and you can have this joy that your joy will be full and as the world looks on, they'll think, man, I want that. I don't have that. I don't know all about your theology or understand this and that but you know what, you got something I don't have. We're told the goodness of God leads people to repentance and I believe the gospel in its truest form and it's irresistible when people really understand what Jesus has done for them, how much he loves them and how much he wants to give them joy. Not a list of do's and don'ts but to give them joy. Maximum freedom, maximum joy comes from serving the Lord. It doesn't come from you doing whatever you want to do. I'm sure many of us in here have lived that life. We just did whatever we wanted to do.

Now let me ask you a question. Were you filled with joy from that or perhaps were you more miserable than ever? You see, I've known people that lived to do just what they wanted to do, not regarding what God wanted them to do and they were miserable and then I've seen people who lived according to what God wanted them to do and they were filled with joy. So obviously the world doesn't have this thing of joy scoped or figured out.

Now they'll tell you that they do. It's about the getting but then what? I'm doing this. I'm going to get an education.

Well the education is good. Well then what are you going to do? I'm going to get a job.

Okay, job's good. Then what are you going to do? I'm going to get a house. Okay, well the house is good. Then what are you going to do? I'm going to get married. Well married's good.

That's good. Then what are you going to do? I'm going to get some kids. Well kids are nice.

You know them. Then what do you do? Well then I grow old. What then? Well I guess one day I die. Yeah.

What then? You see that day's coming and Jesus is saying this is Christianity is not just a way to die. It's a way to live. It's a way to live. We should be experiencing more life than the world has to offer and I know that you know the storms come but the joy that I have is a rock that comes from the rock.

Amen. So even when you feel discouraged you can have that joy. The life lesson here is the way to experience true freedom and joy is to follow and obey Jesus.

The way to experience true freedom and joy is to follow and obey Jesus and perhaps if you're not sensing that joy just do a little spiritual checklist. You know am I praying? Am I in the word? Am I serving?

Am I giving? Am I doing these things that Jesus encouraged me to do? John chapter one verses one and four says and these things we write to you that your joy may be full. Now John right there in the first epistle of John the first letter of John tells us he wrote that epistle that our joy might be full.

Now here's a man bore. Think about this. The Bible in part is what gives you joy. Now let me ask you a question. Is that the picture that society paints about the Bible?

No way. You're reading what? You're doing what? What do you mean you study the Bible? But I don't know if you've ever had the experience of going through a hard time going through a you know period of depression or anxiety or whatever and open the Bible up to the book of Psalms and begin to read it and just begin to have your joy resurrected because you understand that weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. This book can give you joy. As a matter of fact when you have a hard day tough day things maybe didn't go well to get home and then you dig into the word and you go oh praise God that's good. It's all this other stuff is temporary written that our joy may be full. I don't mean that we just focus on a good time but I think it goes hand in hand with being a believer that you have this joy that you're there's an enjoyable thing when we gather together as believers to worship God and dig it into his word. You're listening to pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be right back with more in just a moment but I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on Cross the Bridge dot com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as Savior. You need people to pray for them. You need someone to present God's word to them. Every day we're presenting God's word to them here on Cross the Bridge with pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to Cross the Bridge dot com and click on the pray for the lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as Savior. Click on submit and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones and what an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. 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 Saint 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 would 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 12. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

Well the bar is definitely getting listed in this verse. Jesus before has told us to love one another but here he adds this. Love one another even as I have loved you. Even as I have loved you. How did Jesus love us? Halfheartedly? Did he love us when it was convenient?

When he had time? Aren't you glad God doesn't have voicemail? I mean voicemail is a very cool thing. It's a very nice thing to have to stay in communication with people but wouldn't that put you off a little bit if you you know you were trying to pray you were on the spot and you said God, God's not in right now. If you'll leave a message when you hear the tone he'll be sure to get right back to you. His love is constant. He's always wanting to hear from us. He's wanting to listen to us.

What an amazing thing. Now he doesn't love us halfheartedly. This redefines love. See because we think of love as feelings don't we? Well obviously it's more than that because Jesus wouldn't command us to feel a certain way necessarily.

He's commanding us to act. An act of volition. An act of the will to love one another.

It's a decision and and guys you know what sometimes it's a tough decision to love somebody. The Lord is the one that defines what love is. Not society.

Not culture. Please understand that because if you're defining love from People magazine or Cosmopolitan you got a really twisted version of love. God has the true picture of love. Remember that song years ago you know wonder who would who wrote the book on love? God wrote the book on love.

That's an easy that's an easy question to answer and he tells us what it looks like and what it doesn't look like. Now it can be a feeling but it should be much much much more. How do we show love for one another? Well through caring, through sharing, through giving, serving, praying. All those are ways that we show love to one another and you know in some ways I understand you know this message is is you ever heard the term preaching to the choir and we don't have a choir here so I should probably explain that one. What that means is that you know you're talking to people that already are aware of these things because many of you let me be honest with you you do an outstanding job of this. See we get calls and we get emails from people who come by here who visit here who who get plugged in here and they're like you know what I've never been to a church where I've just felt such a sense of belonging and and felt such love here.

That's an amazing thing. That's not something that I get to communicate. That's something you guys many of you who are serving are communicating to people and understand that is part of displaying love to people.

Now how do we not show love? Well I'll tell you one of the ways that we don't show up is when we gossip and speak evil of one another. This is a it's a horrible thing that happens in churches today that we gossip about people that we speak evil about people that we fellowship with. And you know what's interesting is I've had people actually come to me and go you know so-and-so is such a gossip. It's like how do you know?

It's a good question. You see because when people are gossiping understand there's two parties there. There's the party that's talking and there's a party that's listening and both of them are engaged in the sin of gossip. You see if somebody starts to tell you something that you know they shouldn't be telling you shut them down. That's the godly thing. That's not rude. That's the godly thing to do. Say you know what I don't want to hear this about this other person. That's not godly. And shut them down. Now they got a big head of steam they're going to continue on.

You might have to shut them down several times but that's the godly thing to do. Why? Because that's not displaying love. That's not the real deal. That's something false, fake and evil. So that's one way that we it doesn't show love. Now verse 13. Man these are awesome awesome verses. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. We know in hindsight what Jesus is saying here. That he is getting ready to do just that. To lay down his life for his friends.

Now the thing is what is the present-day application of this? How is this personal? Because chances are nobody's going to come to you after service and say look I got this cross these nails and these hammers and guess what we're going to nail you to the cross and crucify you.

That's probably not going to happen. So what does it mean to lay down our lives for one another? Well let me give you this clue. It happens all the time here. Happens all the time. When you come in and there's somebody trying to help you park and greeting you. That's them laying down their life for you. Because chances are nobody went to him say hey what would you really like to do with your Sunday morning?

I'd like to stand out in the parking lot and you know wave a flashlight at people who are occasionally kind of high rate with me. They didn't say that. Surely they've probably got better things to do but they wanted to lay down their life for you guys. So you know I want to help people get in here and have a good experience. The people in the children's ministries spent Friday and Saturday doing what? Putting together the lessons.

Why? They were bored. They didn't have anything else to do. They're kind of looking for it.

No that's not it. They're laying down their lives. Why? To love your kids. To love your kids so that they will know the truth.

They will know the love of the Lord. That is a real practical way of laying down your life for people. And so when we look at this don't take it into some far off state and think well gee what does that look like?

That's what it looks like. Doing things that you wouldn't normally do that possibly aren't convenient that aren't on the top of your priority list. Why? To lay down your life for somebody else. To be a picture of Jesus to somebody else. The life lesson here is we are living to tell what he died to say. We are living to tell what he died to say.

And when we lay down our lives for people that communicates what Jesus died to tell them. Hey you know what? I care. I love you.

I love the saying that people won't care how much we know until they know how much we care. Again notice it's a commandment. It's not a suggestion. It's not hey if this is convenient if you can work this into your schedule if they don't look at you wrong or say something silly or do something to hurt your feelings and love them.

It's not what he said. He's saying love is a commitment. Do you have that commitment to your brothers and sisters that are gathered around you right now? If you don't may I suggest according to the words of Jesus you need to do a heart check. I understand this is challenging and this is convicting but these are the words of Jesus. See that's why they're in red if you've got a red letter bible. That's what that means. If you've got a red letter bible the words of Jesus are in red and he's saying look this is the deal.

This is what love looks like. Then to lay down one's life for his friends. We look back on Jesus and we know what's about to happen. He's about to be crucified and so we tie that verse in with the fact that Jesus is laying down his life. In other words he's willing to die. He's willing to put aside whatever self-centeredness that he might engage in.

It's a sobering word but the reality is that's what Jesus is challenging us to do as well. To die. To lay down our lives for one another. John Knox a man who ministered in Scotland. He prayed a prayer for many years. He prayed like this Lord give me Scotland or I'll die.

He prayed that repetitiously time and time again and then the Lord spoke to him and said you die and I'll give you Scotland. In other words lay down your life all that you think should happen all that you think would happen and watch what I will do through you. See this is what we're supposed to be doing. This is the stuff. This is the real deal. This is the goods that we lay down that we die to ourselves and it's a challenging thing that Jesus is telling us to do here.

It's very challenging. Let's be you know let's be honest. Let's be real about this. Not like okay Chuck did that.

No. You know this is a constant way really to live in obedience to the Lord and I love this quote. It is what we do in the here and now that will make a difference in the then and there. That what we do in the here and now affects people's eternal destinies.

That's the reality. We all want to belong to something that's bigger than us and that's the whole concept. That's the whole vehicle of the church in general. Man did not come up with the church. God is the one who instituted the church and yes it's been imperfect. It's you know the church is what it is.

It's not a perfect vehicle and you know as a young believer I used to argue with people when they started discussing church history and you know oh no that wasn't really like that or no they didn't really do that or you know but you know what the more I grow in the Lord the more I go yeah isn't that awful. We need like a savior or something. 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. 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 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. Those are terrific and it's easy and it's free so folks sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.