The Vine

In John chapter 15, Jesus taught his disciples and us the secret to a fruitful life, and that is abiding in him. He calls himself the true vine from whom we can bear fruit that pleases God. Today we'll meet the vine dresser, the branches, the fruit, and the sap. All components of living a life of abundance stay with us. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly broadcast of worship and teaching with Pastor Philip Miller.

Today, another in a long series of messages from the Gospel of John. A series we're calling Loved by Jesus. Our focus, The Vine. Here now is Pastor Philip, along with worship leader Tim Stafford and Assistant Pastor Larry McCarthy.

Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to The Moody Church. We're so grateful that you're joining us today as we discover one of my favorite images in all of the scriptures, and that is this imagery that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. We are called to abide in Him because apart from Him, we can do nothing. We are powerless without the presence and power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, as we begin, let's ask him to come and to fill us and to be our all in all. Let's pray as we begin. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus, who is our life. He is the vine. We are the branches, and we need a life-giving, abiding relationship with Jesus.

Otherwise we shrivel and die. And so, Father, would you... Flow. through Jesus your eternal life. And your power and strength into our frail and broken and needy lives today.

Come and meet us. Make us new and make us alive through Jesus Christ. We pray this in His name. Amen. Yeah, yeah.

What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer There is no more forever now to Him He is my joy, my righteousness and free My steadfast love my deep and boundless peace to this I hold my home is only Jesus for my life is holy bound to His oh, how strange and divine I can see Always thine and not I, but through Christ in me. The night is dark, but I am not forsaken. For by my side, the Savior he will say, I labor on in weakness and rejoicing. For in might his power is displayed. To this I hope my shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley he will lead.

Oh, that mine has been one, and I shall overcome. And not I, but through Christ it be with every breath I long to Father Jesus, for He has said that He will bring me home, and in thy name I know He will renew until I stand with joy with oil of hope. To this I hope my hope is only Jesus. All the glory ever born to live when the race is complete, still my lips shall reveal and not I, but through Christ in me. When the race is complete, still my lips shall reveal, and not I, but through Christ in me for my waking breath.

My daily thread I depend on you I depend on you for the sun to rise for my sleep at night I depend on you I depend on you You're the way, the truth, and the lie You're the world that never runs dry I'm the bread you are by Draw me close and teach me to buy Where the spirit leads as I follow I depend on you I depend on you for the lives still in context I depend on you I depend on you You're the way, the truth and the light You're the world that never runs right I'm the branch and you are the mind Draw me close and teaching To the blood, be my strength, my song in the night. Be my own, my treasure, my card. I am yours forever your mind. Strongly close and deep to the heart and I pass through death as I enter rest. I depend on you, I depend on you for eternal life to be raised with Christ.

I depend on you, I depend on you. You're the way and the truth and the light. You're the power and power of strong. I'm the passion you are mine. Draw me close and deeply to be my strength, my song in the night.

Be my love, my treasure, my God. I'm the pressure you are mine. Draw me close and deeply to the heart. I depend on you, I depend on you, I depend on you, I depend on you, I depend on you, I depend on you, I depend on you, I depend on you. One of my favorite things about the Midwest is how long it takes us to say goodbye.

Have you noticed this? Whenever you're with people you love or that you know well and you're having a good time, You know you have to go. but you just don't want to just yet. Uh it takes you forever to say goodbye. You kind of linger behind.

There's the living room goodbye, right? And then there's the, oh, take some of the food with you. Goodbye in the kitchen, and then there's the foyer goodbye, and then the porch goodbye. And if you live in the suburbs, the driveway, goodbye, right? It takes like an extra 30 minutes to leave in the Midwest, right?

If you're in Minnesota, it takes an hour, right?

Now something like that is happening in our passage today in John chapters 13 down through 17. If you'll remember from last time we were together, John chapter 14, verse 31, Jesus says, Rise, let us go from here.

So they're seated for dinner, reclining at table. He says, Let's get up and let's get out. Let's go. And then 14, all the way through to chapter 18, verse 1, we finally get this: chapter 18, verse 1. When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden which he and his disciples.

Entered. This is the Garden of Gethsemane.

So he says at the end of 14, let's get out of here. It's time to go. And it takes all the way through the end of 17 before they've actually left. And so this is kind of the Midwest goodbye, if you will, or better yet, the Middle East goodbye here.

Now, in John chapter 15, which is our passage that we come to today, Jesus is teaching his disciples and us this secret to a fruitful life. that it is found in abiding in Him. The secret to a fruitful life. is abiding in Jesus.

So grab your Bibles. We're going to be in John chapter 15, verses 1 to 17 this morning. And let me read these verses to us, and then we'll pray. John 15 verse 1. I am the true vine.

And my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me.

And I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him He it is who 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 I have 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 my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you Greater love has no one than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends.

And you are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me.

But I chose you. And appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you.

So that you will love. One. Thanks be to the Lord for the reading of His Word. In this passage, we have an extended metaphor in verses 1 through 8, and then Jesus sort of expounds on that metaphor, applying it to our lives in verses 9 to 17. At the very heart of this extended metaphor is this idea of the vine.

He says it in verse 1, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. In verse 5, he goes a bit further. He says, I am the vine, and 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.

So, what I want to do with you this morning, just to organize our thoughts, is break down this metaphor piece by piece. And so, here's our outline: We're going to look at the vine, the vine dresser, the branches, the fruit, and finally the sap. You say, What's the sap all about?

Well, you have to wait for it. It's at the end, okay? The vine, the vine dresser, the branches, the fruit, and the sap, okay? Let me pray and ask the Lord to be our teacher as we jump in. Father, we love you, and we ask now that you would teach us what it means to abide in Jesus Christ.

If this is the secret. to a fruitful, flourishing life. We want to know it. Help us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. So first of all, the vine, the vine. Jesus says, verse 1, I am the true Vine. I am the true vine. This is the seventh and final I am statement that is in the book of John, where Jesus takes the ego ami, the divine name of the Father from the Old Testament and applies it to Himself with a predicate, a modifier.

I am The true vine. He says it twice here in verse 1 and verse 5.

Now what's interesting is that if you look back to your Old Testament in places like Psalm 80 and Isaiah 5 and Isaiah 27, Jeremiah 2, Jeremiah 12, Ezekiel 15, Ezekiel 17, Ezekiel 19 of Hosea 10. you will find that this imagery of the vine is used consistently as a symbol for Israel. That Israel is the vine and God is tending to the vine and whenever this comparison is made in the Old Testament, it is always around the theme of Israel's failure to be fruitful as God intended.

So there's a foil in the background here. And Jesus now applies this metaphor to himself. He says, I am the true vine, the true vine. I'm like The old vine that was not fruitful. I'm here to be a true vine, a real vine, a better vine, an ultimate vine.

The fruit that Israel failed to bear, I will bear in myself. The covenant that Israel failed to uphold, I will fulfill through my life, and I will establish a new covenant. With God's people in my body and through my blood, as I go to the cross and die in your place and for your sake. I am the true So in the Old Testament, the way to God was through the Old Covenant and through the temple sacrifice.

Now that Jesus has come, everything changes. Jesus says, I am the true temple. I am the true sacrifice. I am the true covenant. I am the true way to the Father.

I am the true vine, you see. Verse 4, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, it is he that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do Nothing.

And once again, we see the language of mutual indwelling, don't we? We've been learning about this the last few weeks. This perichoretic dance of love that typifies the triune community of God. Three persons, one in essence, in the dance of perichoretic love with one another. And now Jesus is inviting us into union with himself.

Whoever abides in me and I in him. Him. It is in Him that we have life, it is in Him that we find love, it is in Him that we come alive into ourselves. In other words, Jesus Provides true access to the living, pulsating, abundant life of God. Jesus provides access, true access to the living, pulsating, abundant life.

of God. We were made by him and for him. We were made to come alive in his love. That He is the true source of our life. You know, we talk about in human relationships, we talk about life-giving relationships, don't we?

We say, these people are my people. They're life-giving relationships. They encourage me and speak life into me and they strengthen me and give me wisdom. I love to be around those people because when I'm around those people, I'm more alive because they are pouring into me. And do you see?

Jesus here is the ultimate life-giving relationship. It is in our connection with Jesus that we find ourselves coming truly alive. And apart from Him. We shrivel. and die.

Right? See, friends, we are inescapably spiritual beings. Just as we draw in physical life from food and drink, from things outside of ourselves. We draw in spiritual life in sustenance from Christ. As we imbibe him, as we Ingest all that he is.

He's the vine. We're the branches. Our life is contingent upon Him. And we try all the time. to try to find life in everything else but Jesus.

We try to find life in our career. We try to find life in romance. We try to find life in money and travel and family and sex and all kinds of things. But it never works in the end, does it? Because only Christ can give us the abundant life that we are so desperate for.

Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. There is life in Jesus The second thing we see here in this metaphor is the vine dresser. The vine dresser. Jesus says in verse 1, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.

I am the vine, I have life in myself for all who will abide in me, and it is my Father who is tending to, caring for, the life of the vine. And by the way, it's pruning season. Yeah. This is what vineyards Go through. Verse 2: Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Jump down to verse 6. 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.

So there's two kinds of branches that are attached to the vine here, and the vine dresser approaches them differently. You see this: the fruitless dead wood. Is removed, it is burned. But the fruitful living branches are pruned to become even more fruitful.

So both kinds of branches receive cuts, right? Both received cuts. And there are cuts that remove And there are cuts. that reinvigorate. that lead to more fruitfulness.

So if Jesus is divine, And his disciples are the branches here. He's letting his disciples know that a cutting is coming. They will feel the vine dresser's knife. The question is: will they abide and become more fully alive and attached to the vine so that they bear fruit, or will they fall away? Wither And die.

Now Jesus already knows the answer to this question. Look at verse 3. Already, he says, you are clean. Because of the word that I have spoken to you.

Now at first glance this sounds like it doesn't fit here. This sentence, all of you are clean. But in Greek, it's very obvious what's going on here. It's a play on words. the word in verse two, the Greek word for prune.

is Cathyro It's a verb. In verse 3, the Greek word for clean. Is kathyros, a noun. It's the same word, they're related.

So to prune is to make a clean cut, you see. It's to clean. It's to promote fruitfulness. And Jesus is saying: look, you're already pruned, you're already clean. By my word which I have spoken to you.

which you have believed. You are already pruned. You're already... Clean.

Now immediately our mind goes back to chapter 13 because the last time Jesus used this word clean was in chapter 13. Look back with me, John chapter 13, verses 10 and 11. Jesus, you'll recall, is having a conversation with Peter. He says, I have to wash your feet. Peter says, you'll never wash my feet.

He says, I have to, or you have no part in me. And he says, then wash my whole body. And then Jesus says, You don't need a whole body wash because you're clean, right? Remember, he says, and you are clean. But not every one of you, for he knew who was to betray him, and that is why he said, not all of you are.

Clean, same word.

So here you have two different people. You have Judas and Peter. Peter will deny Jesus three times, yes? He will be cut to the heart with remorse. But in the end, he will attach more deeply to Christ.

He will strengthen in his connection with Christ through repentance and faith, and he will become abundantly fruitful. But Judas who will betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. who will also be cut to the heart. Will in the end disconnect. From Christ.

His connection will be broken. He will fall away. He will wither. and die. So both Peter and Judas will experience similar cuts.

One will abide deeper in the vine and come alive and be fruitful and live. and the other will recoil from the vine. and wither and die. Each man is responsible for their own. Choices, you see.

But Jesus wants us to see there's a sovereign vine dresser who is presiding over all of this. as well. The father's pruning. cuts away what is dead. and fruitless.

and cultivates what is alive and fruitful. What made the difference? between Peter and Judas. He says, already you are clean. Because of the word.

that I have spoken to you. You're already pruned because of the word. It all comes down to the word. What do you do with the word of Jesus, you see? To hear the word, you have a choice.

Do you believe it or do you disbelieve it? What do you do? Do you let the word in? Do you let it penetrate? Do you let it rebuke you?

Do you let it draw you close to the heart of God? Because to believe is to abide, and to abide is to live. The branches have to abide. in the vine if they're going to live. Otherwise they die.

Point number three, now the branches. The vine, the vine dress are now the branches. Verse 5. I am divine, Jesus says, and you. 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. The secret to a fruitful life, friends, is abiding in Jesus. Everything hinges. on the strength of our connection with Him.

It is that connection that makes us alive. It's that connection that makes us fruitful. It's that connection that gives us life. Apart from him, we wither, we die. Not only is there no fruit, there's no life.

And Jesus has already given us the connection between his word and abiding in verse 3, but he unpacks it further here in verse 7. Look with me, verse 7: if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

So, Jesus has already talked about abiding in Him and Him abiding in us.

Now, He's talking about His words abiding in us. us, his words dwelling in us, residing in us, settling down and making themselves at home in us. Friends, words have power. Narratives have power. They shape who we are and who we become, yes?

We all live from a life narrative. Who we are, where we came from, what matters in life, where we're going, what this life is all about. And for Christians, friends, Jesus' words form our life narrative. We seek to live into his words, and we seek to have his words living in. Uh to abide in Christ.

is to have Christ's words abiding in us. But more than that, look at verse 9. as the Father has loved me.

So have I loved you. Abide in my Love. You see how Jesus is defining abiding by circling around and around and around. You see, abide in me. My word abides in you.

Now abide in my love. He's defining it with each pass as he goes by and he layers on these truths. To abide in Christ is to abide in his love. Again, do you see the language of perichoresis? That the abundant self-giving love that the Father has for the Son now overflows from Jesus into us.

He invites us to make ourselves at home in his love. to settle down and abide in it.

So that his love, listen. His love becomes the most important thing about us. Uh To abide in the love of Christ. is to allow his love to become our identity and self Definition. To be is to be loved.

By Jesus.

Now how do you abide in the love of Jesus? 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. Jesus says, as I have loved the Father and obey the Father because of my love, and now I live in His love and pleasure because I obey Him and I live in His love, and His love and pleasure are mine.

The Father's love is my life. It's my joy, my peace, my strength, my everything. I live because the Father loves me. I live in the love of the Father. And so it is with you.

If you love me. And obey me. If you obey me, you will abide in my love. Because to love is to obey and obey is to live in love with me. Verse 11, these things I've spoken to you.

that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full. Jesus says, look, when you live in my love. It leads to joy. That my joy would be in you. and your joy would be full.

That your joy and my joy would flow together into a fullness of joyous and united and overwhelming love beyond your wildest imagination. Abiding is to dependently welcome Christ's life into ourselves.

So that his word, his love, his obedience, his peace, and his joy become our very own, friends. Abiding is to dependently welcome Christ's life into ourselves so that His word, love, obedience, peace, and joy become our very own. To abide in Christ. It's to be tethered to him. It's to imbibe the life of Christ into ourselves.

It's to be filled with the fullness of Christ. to become like Christ as Christ is in Uh Which leads us now to the fourth thing, the fruit. The fruit of the vine. Verse 5: 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. Friends, if we abide in Christ... It is his life. That is actually flowing into us and through us so that it bears. His fruit.

On our lives, you see this. It is his life, the vine, which is bearing the fruit through us. It's never our fruit. It's his fruit. Through us.

By this, verse 8, my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. When we bear fruit, It magnifies the Father's glory, yes? And when we bear fruit, It signifies that we are Christ's disciples, yes? All kinds of people claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. In Jesus' day and in ours.

But it is the fruit of Christ that will distinguish those who are his true disciples from those who are not. And listen to me, listen to me. Bearing fruit does not cause you to be a disciple. Bearing fruit characterizes you as a disciple. You're a disciple of Jesus Christ by grace through faith in his life on your behalf so that you're tethered to him.

That's how you're a disciple, and that tethering always bears. Fruit, you see. The fruit is evidence. It is the fruit of the root which is grounded in Christ. It is faith alone that saves, but the faith that saves is never alone.

The fruit naturally and necessarily flows from a life-giving connection with the vine of Jesus Christ.

Now what is that fruit? What is the fruit Jesus has in mind? Verse 12. This is my commandment. that you love one another.

as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this. Let someone lay down his life for his friends. And you are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, but the servant does not know what his master is doing.

But I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from the Father I have made known to you. You want to know what kind of fruit? Jesus wants Love one another. as I have loved you.

He serves. He sacrifices He gives of himself. with loyalty and love. For his friends. For you, for me.

And he says, and you are my friends, if you. Do what I command and I command. That you love one another as I have loved you. I want you to serve one another. I want you to sacrifice for one another.

I want you to give up yourselves for one another. with love and loyalty. That's the kind of fruit I want to see in your lives. Verse 16, you did not choose me. But I chose you, and I appointed you, that you should go and bear much fruit, and your fruit should abide.

So that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He should give it to you.

Now, scholars, this phrase, go and bear fruit, go and bear fruit. Scholars will tell you, I didn't see this until this week, there's a parallel here. The syntax is obviously parallel to go and make disciples. Go and bear fruit, go and make disciples. This is commissioning language, and all around it, I chose you, I appointed you, I am sending you.

It's an echo, a little prefiguring of the great commission, you see. It's just subtle, but it's here. You have a mission. You will be my witnesses. I haven't got there yet, but soon you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.

You will bear my name among the nations, and you will go and bear fruit. And that fruit means making disciples of all nations and that fruit will abide. Weird word, it's the same word, abide in me, that fruit will abide. How does fruit abide in the vine? He's mixing the metaphor on us.

But the point is, just as you abide in me and bear fruit, which means more disciples. who will then have the opportunity to also abide in me. Their lives tethered to mine, their branches grafted into mine, their disciples, just as you are disciples, many branches, one vine. United in the love of Christ as one New people. That's why he ends with verse 17: These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Friends, only Jesus life in us. can produce the abiding, Christ-like fruit of loving obedience. joyous self-sacrifice and faithful mission. Only Jesus' life in us can produce the abiding Christ-like fruit. of loving obedience, joyous self-sacrifice, and faithful Mission.

It is this fruit you see that proves. That we are disciples of Jesus. It is this fruit that glorifies the Father. It is this fruit that flows from our abiding relationship with Christ. And apart from Him, we can do Nothing.

Friends, could it be? They're one of the reasons the church It's so often anemic. in this world today. is that we're trying. to produce fruit.

by our own efforts. By our own gimmicks. My own strategy and cleverness and political alliances. When all along the real vital thing is to simply abide in Christ. To know him.

to love him. to obey him. to trust him. to surrender to him, to abide in him, to love like him. What if it's actually really that simple.

Finally, the sap. The sap. Jesus doesn't label the sap, he doesn't call it out directly. But it's here. Let me show it to you.

All along, the question that we have to ask is. If the branches, who are we, we are the branches, right? If we draw our life-giving nutrients from the vine. What carries it along? What what makes it flow?

Sap in a vine, sap is what enables the nutrients to flow from the vine into the branches, right? What is it that enables Christ's life to flow into ours? What Jesus has told us all along. Verse 7: If you abide in me and my words abide in you, Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. Verse 16.

You did not choose me. But I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. and that your fruit should abide.

So that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you. We remember previous chapter, John 14, verses 13 to 14, Jesus said something very similar. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. That the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

And don't you see prayer, prayer? is the sap. Prayer. Is the sap. Prayer is what enables Christ's life to flow into ours.

The prayers of the saints mediated by the presence of the Spirit. is the life Flow. of this dynamic interrelationship that we have. In Christ. Whatever we need.

We ask for it. And it's ours.

Now, isn't it so obvious, friends? That these promises are not a blank check to get whatever we want in life. These promises are in a very specific context. Abiding in Christ.

So as to bear much fruit.

So if we are the branches and we're intended for fruitfulness, And we're abiding in the vine. The question is: what do we most need from the vine in order to be most fruitful in our lives? You see, that's the question. And Jesus says, whatever it is you need. I am divine.

I will give you all that I have in order to make you fruitful. My father's the vine dresser. And he'll do whatever it takes. to make you bear much fruit. And so, friends, do you see in prayer we open ourselves up to the abundant life of God for us and in us and through us?

You want more of the life of Christ, friends? Ask. You want more? Obedience in your life. If you want His love, His joy, His presence.

Find If you need courage to act sacrificially toward others, Pray. If you want to be more fruitful and multiply the mission of God in your life and to the ends of the earth, Implore of him. If you want more surrender, more humility, more spiritual sensitivity. Pray in Jesus' name. If you want love.

Joy. Peace. Patience. kindness goodness faithfulness Gentleness. Self-control.

Ask whatever you wish. And it will be done for you. four. You. Because here's our takeaway.

Jesus is life. Jesus is life. Do you know this life? Do you abide? in this life.

Is this life? Bearing fruit. In your life. Let's pray. Oh, Father.

We want to be alive. Teach us to live. Forgive us for spending so much of our time looking for life and the wrong things. looking forward to a vacation more than we look forward to being in your presence. Looking forward to When life will matter, oh And all along you're saying, come to me.

Okay. Abide in me. you will become more alive than you could ever imagine. Forgive us for neglecting your presence. Father, teach us to waste time with you.

Teach us to find life in you. Teach us what it means to allow you to live through us and in us.

So that we can say with Paul about Christ in Galatians 2: I've been crucified with Christ. And it is no longer I who live. but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith. in the Son of God who loves me.

and gave himself For me. Help us to connect more deeply. We pray that you would flow into us more richly. That you would live through us. More fully.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Do you know him? It's not about being a member of a church. Yeah.

or about what you give. It's about a relationship with the true and living God and our. Question for you this morning is, do you know him? The word of God has been preached. The love of Christ is available to all, and I would implore you: if the word of God has spoken to your heart this morning, won't you respond?

Do you want to know Jesus? Do you want to be alive? Do you want to abide in Him? Don't leave this place the way that you came in here today. What a wonderful day today for your life to be changed by the truth of the gospel that today you can be saved.

Yeah. We invite you to respond. All right, now our benediction from Galatians chapter five. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

but through love serve one another. For the whole law of Christ is fulfilled in one word: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But I say walk in the Spirit. and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Hmm.

For the fruit of the Spirit is love. Joy. Peace. Patience. Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against such things, there is no law. And all those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. the Spirit. Amen.

Amen. On today's Moody Church hour, we heard Pastor Philip Miller with another message in a series he's calling Loved by Jesus, the book of John. We heard about the vine, finding in Jesus the source of life that bears fruit that pleases God.

Next time, we meet the Helper, how the Holy Spirit would live within each of his disciples once their master was gone. Plan to join us. Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers? That's a book by Pastor Lutzer. It's a biblical guide to God's hidden purposes.

It will be sent as our thank you when you give a gift of any amount to support The Moody Church Hour. For details, call 1-800-215-5001. That's 1-800-215-5001. Online, go to MoodyChurchHower.com. That's MoodyChurchHour.com.

or write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Join us next week for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Philip Miller and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church. Um