The sermon focuses on the importance of abiding in Christ for believers. The speaker emphasizes that abiding in Christ is the foundation for every solution to every problem in the life of a follower of Christ. The metaphor of the vine and branches is used to illustrate the concept of dependence on Christ for fruitfulness. The sermon also addresses the distinction between false converts and true converts, highlighting the need for genuine faith in Christ. The speaker encourages consistent and dependent communion with Christ through prayer and the reading of God's Word as the means of abiding in Him.

So it has been quite a challenge to think about what passage I would preach on for my last message here at CBC. Of course I had the whole Bible to choose from, so I wasn't short of content or options. But then as I found myself reading again verses four and five of John chapter 15. I already felt this would be a good and appropriate text for a final exhortation as the Lord leads us into this new season. So if you want to turn there in your Bibles, John 15.

I can easily give you the main point of the message and the main application of the text in just three words. Three words that if you remember nothing else from this sermon will be of much benefit to you. If you heed these three words, cling to them, and if by faith you walk in the truth of them, you will live well as a follower of Christ, and you will finish well as a follower of Christ. And in doing this God will receive much glory and His name will be greatly exalted. What are the three words I'm referring to?

I'm sure you've guessed it. The title of this message which is simply abide in Christ. Abide in Christ. You could almost go as far as to say that those three words form the foundation for almost every solution to every problem we have as believers. If we don't start here, if we don't maintain this, nothing else will really be effective and nothing else really matters as a follower of Christ.

So let me begin by reading the first eight verses of John chapter 15 for context, and then we'll pray and take a look at these verses together and see what the Lord might teach us through them. So John 15 from verse one, these are the words of Jesus. 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 bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.

By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit so You will be my disciples. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this text, for these verses, for these words of Christ. And I do pray, Lord, that As we look at them more closely this morning, that they would encourage us, strengthen us, shape and mold us, and by the power of your Spirit working in us, conform us more to the image of Christ. Thank you Lord that no time is ever wasted when we sit under your words.

So may you get the glory for the fruit of this time in our lives in Jesus' name, amen. So the general context here of course is Jesus addressing his disciples in the upper room following the Last Supper, just after Judas departed from them to finalise his plans to betray Christ and hand him over to the Jewish leaders. There are several chapters covering what is referred to often as the upper room discourse and depending what Bible you have, this will be several chapters of red writing because it is the words of Christ. In these chapters, Christ speaks of some very important subjects to his disciples on this night before he will be crucified. Several things have been addressed prior to the verses we are focusing on here in chapter 15.

So from chapter 13 and into chapter 14, Jesus speaks of His departure to go and be with His Father in heaven. He gives the exhortation to His disciples to love one another. He predicts Peter's denial. He gives the promise of many heavenly mansions. He speaks of oneness with the Father and the Son.

He gives an exhortation to pray always in the name of Christ. He tells his disciples of the promise of the Holy Spirit as their helper, the need for obedience to his commands and the promise of peace for troubled and fearful hearts. And then as we get to chapter 15, Jesus begins to talk about the importance of abiding in him for the purpose of bearing fruit that brings glory to God. Following this, he continues to exhort and encourage his disciples in many things, including his profound prayer to the Father on behalf of his disciples as he entrust them to his care before departing from this world. So let me just make a few comments first on the verses either side of the two verses we'll focus on.

So from verse one Jesus says I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. So Jesus begins here using a metaphor something that was very familiar to the minds of those he was addressing. The concept of the grapevine found in a vineyard, tended by a vine dresser who was the one who owned the vineyard, the one who was responsible for maintaining it. Jesus pitches himself as the vine and his father as the vinedresser. And then the metaphor extends to the fruit of the vine in verse 2 which says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes and it may bear more fruit.

You're already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. So just as it would be with an actual vine in a vineyard, when there are branches coming off from that vine that are not bearing fruit, the vine dresser removes them. They're dead branches, they're not drawing from the vine any longer. And then the branches that are bearing fruit are pruned in order to encourage and enable more fruit to be produced. The spiritual application of this earthly metaphor relates to the way in which God helps Christians to be fruitful.

If we ask the question how can I be fruitful as a Christian, this helps to answer that? But it also speaks of the difference between false converts and true converts. Those who look like they are part of the vine but are not any longer part of the vine because they've never really been part of the vine. False converts don't bear fruit. True converts do bear fruit.

In 2 Corinthians 3.15 Paul encouraged believers to examine themselves to know for sure if they're genuinely saved. Now that's different to constantly, every day, lacking assurance wondering, am I saved, am I not saved, am I saved, am I not saved? But rather there's a time and a place to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith. To test ourselves he says, do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified? And that examination of course is not to be purely, am I reading my Bible, am I going to church, Am I telling people about Jesus?

The externals, that's not the examination. The examination is simply, am I trusting in Christ alone? Is He my all? Is He the one I depend upon? So when Jesus was speaking these words in the upper room, it was very timely considering, if you picture the scene, they gather, they have the last supper.

This was just after Judas had left the room. He was with the disciples, but he was not of the disciples. John speaks about these kind of false converts in 1 John 2.19 where he says, they went out from us, but they were not of us. So they looked like us, but he says then, if they had been of us, they would have continued, abided with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us. And the very language there shows us that it is not clear in the body of Christ who truly is saved and who truly isn't for every single person, that is sometimes made manifest at a later date.

Then as we look at John chapter 15, again he's given a word of assurance to his disciples. As he addresses them, he tells them that they are true converts. Remember, Judas had left the room at this point. They're true converts because they've been set apart as Christ's own. They've been cleansed from their sin, forgiven.

Because of the word of the gospel, they heard from Christ and responded to him by faith in that sort of unique time where Christ was on earth. And this is what Jesus refers to in verse 3 where he says, you are already clean because of the word which I've spoken to you. So he's speaking about the false converts, he's speaking about the branches that don't bear fruit, but he's saying you who I am speaking to, are mine because you are clean. Again, it makes sense as Judas was no longer there. God had already removed the unfruitful branch, though it looked fruitful on the outside, and it would soon be destroyed.

While Judas was still in the room back in John chapter 13, Jesus said these words as he was washing Peter's feet. He said, He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew who would betray him, therefore he said, You are not all clean.' So Jesus knew. And as he speaks to the disciples in an affirming way, you are clean, you are my children.

There is a yet future sense of this declaration of salvation because the disciples had not yet received the Holy Spirit as they would on the day of Pentecost. But because this is Christ speaking, because he is speaking about those for whom he would give his blood to purchase, his statement is a statement of absolute certainty. Because it refers to those he had already called to himself. It wasn't like I hope that you'll be mine, depending how you do between now and when I go to the cross, you are mine. In fact, you are mine and I'm going to the cross to purchase you.

You are clean. So we could paraphrase Christ's words here to be saying, not so much, make sure you bear fruit where you won't be my disciples, but rather, you will bear fruit because you are my disciples. You see the difference? And there's a lot of ramification to that concept in how we live our Christian lives. Jesus then gives the secret, if you like, to bear in fruit in verses four and five that we'll focus on shortly.

And then from verses six to eight he again repeats the consequence of an unfruitful branch saying, if anyone does not abide in me he is cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. He then reiterates the exhortation to abide, this time in the context of answered prayer, and he highlights the greatest motivation for godly fruit bearing, the glorifying of the Father. Verse seven, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit so you will be my disciples. It's one of the marks of a true disciple, bearing fruit.

So let's back up again to verses four and five and see what we can glean from these verses and other supporting verses to encourage us to be fruitful followers of Christ for God's glory. Verse 4, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing." So what does it mean to abide in Christ? Sounds good, we can sing it, but how do we define that?

The word abide in the original is many sort of extensions of its meaning. It means to remain in reference to a place or a state. It means to continue, to be present, to be held, to wait, to be kept, to last, to endure, to survive, to sojourn, to tarry and not depart, to not become different, to not become something other than what you are in Christ. All of those things. In short it speaks of a will that is consistent in its commitment to Christ, making faith choices in the will of Christ, consistent in its commitment and consistent in its dependence upon Christ, a dependent will.

That is what it is to abide in Christ. A continual drawing from Christ out of a desperate sense of the need to do that. And the good thing is, if we are truly His children, We will remain as his children. We will abide in Christ. So in a sense there's a two-fold encouragement and exhortation here in these verses.

Firstly that we will abide in Christ if we are His. You will abide in Christ. You will remain. You will continue. And this is subtly but powerfully stated in the first few words and we can easily miss this part where it says, abide in me but consider the next few words and I in you.

That's the incredible part. We mustn't miss this. It reminds us of our union with Christ. Yes, we abide in Him, but He abides in us. And the true believer has the assurance that Christ is not going anywhere.

He is Christ in you, the hope of glory. No matter how we feel, no matter what happens, we see this in Colossians 1.27. And this should greatly encourage us knowing that Christ is the one who works in us to help us abide in Him. In Philippians 2.12 and 13 Paul says, Therefore, my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence only, now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Not work for, but work out, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure." So easy to forget this.

So many of the godly desires we might have, the decisions that we make, the thoughts that we have in our mind that aspire to commitment to Christ, God is the one who even motivates that. He puts that in our mind, because there's just this union. We're in Him, He's in us. We're in him, he's in us. We're in him, he's in us.

It's not we're here, he's up there, we kind of connect every now and again. It's completely together. And this should encourage us. So the first aspect of this concept of abiding is the promise that as true believers we will abide because of Christ who abides in us. But secondly, it is an encouragement to continue to abide in Christ.

So it can seem contradictory. You will abide in Christ, continue to abide in Christ. But both things are true, knowing that we're all prone to wander, to get distracted by our sin, by Satan, by the things of this world. So Christ is exhorting his disciples in a practical sense from their perspective, don't move away from me. Don't get distracted from me.

Stay close to me. This is what Paul exhorts the Colossians in Colossians 2, 6 and 7. He says, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you've been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. He also encouraged the young Pastor Timothy in 2 Timothy 3, 14, He said, but you must continue, continue, abide, remain, stay, do not be distracted from the things which you've learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you've learned them. And then John said in his epistle in 1 John 5.13, these things I've written to you who believe, so you believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know you have eternal life.

So true believers who believe are saved, they will always be saved, they have eternal life. But then he says that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. You believe, continue to believe. This idea of abiding and continuing in Christ is prevalent throughout much of the New Testament. And in practical terms, as we consider what does it mean to abide in Christ, this happens predominantly in our times of prayer and reading God's Word.

They are really the primary means through the Holy Spirit that this abiding continues. A true Christian will have these things present in their life. Not always perfectly, but consistently. And they are concerned about the consequences they experience when they are not consistent, in contrast to the false believer, who could go many, many days without prayer or reading the Word unaffected. And it's not just an intellectual sense, it's a very relational, devotional manner, communion with Christ.

In John 8, 31-32, Jesus said, and here's the word abide again, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. Another mark of a true disciple. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. This is one of those upstairs downstairs verses I like to call it because so often the upstairs is quoted without the downstairs foundation. How many times you see on some Instagram post or some little sticker, you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free.

No, it won't. Not unless you are abiding, remaining, continuing in, not being distracted from, enduring in the Word of God. And as you continue to do that, the truth will set you free. To abide in Christ is to abide in His Word, to remain in His Word. And so, Summing up this concept of abiding in Christ, I'll put it this way, if you want to take notes.

To abide in Christ means that we seek to consistently and dependently live in vital union with him through the means given by him of prayer and the word of God. I'll Say that again. To abide in Christ means that we seek to consistently and dependently live in vital union with Him through the means given by him of prayer and the word of God. Consistency, dependence, just like a branch on a vine. Children, your first point this morning is this.

Praying and reading God's Word helps us to stay close to Jesus, which is the best place we can be. Always remember children, when you read your Bible, you are not just reading a book. And if you are trusting in Christ, then when you read your Bible, you are in fellowship, in relationship with the God of this universe. I bet you haven't got another book like that. I know you have no other book like that in your collection.

Continuing on in verse four, it says, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. And what Christ is pointing out here is that he is the source of all fruitfulness in the Christian life. No Christian, though we try, can bear fruit of themselves or in their own strength. It is impossible. That's why legalism fails.

That's why self-righteousness fails. That might look good on the outside. We cannot bear fruit of ourselves. We cannot go and just do the externals. One pastor described that like the difference between an apple tree where There are apples on the tree, healthy gorgeous apples that have grown on the tree, and then another tree next to it where there are healthy looking, gorgeous looking apples that have all been carefully attached to each branch by some string.

Look very much the same, but very different underneath. Might look like spiritual fruit in a person's life but the truth is revealed when the fruit does not last. God brings all things to light. Later on in this chapter in verse 16, if you jump ahead, Jesus says the following to his disciples, you did not choose me, but I chose you, so his idea first, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. So if Jesus chooses you and appoints you to bear fruit, will we bear fruit?

Absolutely. But it's fruit that should remain, he says, that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you. So that's the initiation of Christ. He chooses, appoints us. The purpose of Christ is that we would not just be fruitful, but our fruit would last and bring glory to God.

So I mentioned the question before, but I'll ask it again. Do you want to be fruitful in your relationship with Christ? I'm sure most if not all of you in this room would say yes, we want to be fruitful. Do you want to be more conscious of Him working in you and through you than abide in Christ. Continue in Him.

Remain in Him. Don't get distracted from Him. Don't depart from Him. Another point then here is it is impossible for us to be fruitful as followers of Christ or to live the Christian life in our own strength. It is impossible for us to be fruitful as followers of Christ or to live the Christian life in our own strength.

And I'm sure many of us would say, amen, we've tried it, it doesn't work. But you know how quickly we forget that, right? Children, here's a second point already, why your pen is still hot. God is so kind to give us everything we need to live in a way that pleases him. It wouldn't be very good, would it children, if your parents told you that they wanted you to go and paint something, but they didn't give you the paint and they didn't give you a paintbrush.

You'd think, well how am I supposed to do that? You've asked me to do something I don't have the things to do it. God never does that. Whatever he asks you to do, he gives you the ability, he gives you the resources to do that which he's asked you to do. Self-righteousness, again, legalism, getting into a performance trap, all of these things are signs of trying to please God in our own strength.

And we all do it in different little subtle ways and don't often realise that we're doing it. But he wants us to rest in that place knowing that we don't need to strive to bear fruit, we strive to abide in him. There's a difference. The good news then is another point I'll make is when we abide in Christ we can and will be fruitful. When we abide in Christ we can and will be fruitful because we are drawing from his resources not our own.

I'll say that again. When we abide in Christ we can and will be fruitful because we are drawing from His resources, not our own. It's impossible to not have that fruit when we abide, when we draw from Him. And we can only have that fruit when we draw from Him. Here's number three children.

We need God's help because it's impossible to live the Christian life in our own strength. You need God's help children, so again, When you know you've been naughty, when you know that you need to do better, be good, maybe begin that not by thinking I just need to try to do it otherwise I'll get in trouble, or I need to do it because I got in trouble, but ask God to help you. And even tell him, children, I can't do this. I don't feel like loving my sister or my brother after what they did. God, please help me, and he will.

So the answer to live in a fruitful Christian life is not to go and try and be more fruitful, but to abide in Christ. No grape ever produced itself on the vine, neither did the branch produce the grape by itself. How did it happen? Again, the vine supplied all that was needed, the life, the ability to produce the fruit. And just like I said with the apple trees, same thing with grapes.

And I've done this before when we've done some men's discipleship. You get a beautiful looking bunch of grapes in the supermarket, you sit them on a plate, they look great. But what would they look like in two weeks time? Shriveled up, mouldy. Why?

Because they've been detached from the vine. Do you notice it straight away? No. That's the whole point. A Christian's life can look fruitful, can seem to be okay When they drift, when they get distracted from their own times of communion and fellowship with Christ, they eventually dry up.

It doesn't happen overnight. And because of that, that's why we sometimes think, well, I missed being in the Word for a couple of days, but I feel okay. That's God's grace. That's running on fumes. But we cannot continue separate from that abiding relationship with Christ.

And this is why Jesus reiterates the points again in verse five where he says, I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit for without me you can do nothing. So Speaking of this metaphor of the vine and branches, John MacArthur says, it is symbolic of belonging because branches belong entirely to the vine. And if branches are to live and bear fruit, they must completely depend on the vine for nourishment, for support, for strength and vitality. And how easily I forget this in my own life and how easily it is to think I can do some things apart from Christ. I don't intentionally do this but I know we can probably all relate to those times we find ourselves in a difficult situation, stressed out, worried, depressed, downcast, confused, whatever it might be, and our response is one of self-effort or pragmatics or human wisdom rather than dependence upon Christ.

But be encouraged, the awareness of that is proof That you belong to Christ so much of the time because you're aware of the problem Sometimes you think if we're aware of a of a sinful tenancy in our own lives that itself is a is a failure but it's not because it's good that you're aware. But we do have those times where instead of praying we end up complaining. I never do that though, do I children? Especially when we're packing up boxes. No.

Instead of reading the Word, we end up leaning on our own wisdom. Instead of dependence, we move towards independence. God's not moving fast enough, so I'm just gonna take over the situation. The truth is, we will never love Christ as much as we want to, we'll never serve Christ as much as we desire to. We'll never have faith in Christ as much as we would hope to.

But the beautiful thing is that because of Christ, these things do not hinder sweet communion with Christ. Isn't that beautiful? In a state of thinking I don't love you the way I wish I could. I don't serve you, I don't pray, I don't have the faith. Listen to these words by Samuel Rutherford from the 1600s.

He says, I am in as sweet communion with Christ as a poor sinner can be. And I'm only pain that he has much beauty and fairness and I little love. He great power and mercy and I little faith. He much light and I bleard eyes." And he also wrote these words, Christ and his cross together are sweet company and a blessed couple. My prison is my palace.

My losses are rich losses. My pain, easy pain. My heavy days are holy and happy days." Beautiful words. The fact is sometimes God has to bring you to the end of yourself, to the point where you know you have nothing to give, no strength in yourself, to cope with the situation, no ability to cope with without his grace, and when you get the other side, you know he's helped you in a way that you never could have known otherwise. And spiritual fruit is not always the fruit we expect.

It's not always easy to have that fruit produced in our lives, but if Christ is the source of it, then it's good fruit and it will last. Sometimes the fruit just comes in seasons of great joy. Sometimes it comes in seasons of great sorrow. Sometimes it comes in seasons of great sorrow. Sometimes it comes in seasons of spiritual victory.

Sometimes in seasons of spiritual defeat. No one likes to be pruned, but sometimes it's necessary to bring a little pain for a lot of gain. And I guess the trials we face, the pressures we experience, all serve to help us see what we are really attached to in our lives. If we're attached to Christ, those things will propel us more towards him because we know he is the source of life. If we are attached to other things to give us the life we desire, then God may need to prune us a little so we're more dependent upon him as our source and substance.

Pruning is not fun. You think of the little branch of grapes that has borne some fruit and it's good fruit. And then sees the father, the vine dresser, the one who they thought cared, leaning forward with the blade and pruning and cutting and causing pain and shrinking back that branch. But what's the end result? More fruit.

Charles Spurgeon said, The word is often the knife with which the great husbandman prunes the vine. And brothers and sisters, if we were more willing to feel the edge of the word and to let it cut away something that may be very dear to us, we should not need so much pruning by affliction. It is because that first knife does not always produce the desired result that another sharp tool is used by which we are effectively pruned. And it's often in those challenging times we're drawn into more prayer, which is always a good thing. And if we think about it honestly, if we were to look back across our life, maybe the last ten years if we've been a believer that long, we were to see on a chart the times of a greater intensity in prayer, a greater dependence in prayer, I'm sure for most of us those little peaks in the graph would match some of the most difficult times.

And in that, as we look at that graph, we can say, thank you Lord for the difficult times. Thank you for the pruning. Philippians 4, 6, 7 says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guide your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. It's military language like a garrison of the heart and the mind. Peace will remain if you continue, continue, continue to give it to the Lord through prayer, through dependent prayer, through persistent prayer.

And we see also that God is the one who determines what kind of fruit will be produced and how it's going to be produced and it is only Christ again who produces this fruit. A person who's not in Christ cannot bear spiritual fruit. Matthew 7, 18. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. Nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

So we've talked about abiding, what that looks like, practically how that is, the purpose of it, but what is this fruit? How do we define spiritual fruit? Because often we can think of things that aren't necessarily specifically scripturally defined as spiritual fruit, but the answer to this is found in a very familiar couple of verses in Galatians 5, 22 and 23 where it says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, Faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law. And you know what's so incredible about this fruit is For the most part, it's all pretty passive in a sense and relates to a state of being rather than things that we do. It's more how we do the things we do rather than the things we do.

It's more how we live as a Christian than what we do as a Christian. And as you may have heard before, the fruit is really singular love that is manifested in all these different ways. The Holy Spirit working in us. And as you consider those characteristics, that spiritual fruit, it can really be summed up in one thing. Christlikeness.

And that's the ultimate goal of sanctification, the ultimate goal of discipleship, the ultimate goal of evangelism, that people become more Christ-like and bring glory to God. So again, to drive home the point again, our aim is not to encourage people to be more fruitful, but to point people to Christ. True for parents, true for pastors. To encourage them to abide in Him so the fruit will be produced. Paul was so committed to this task, and we see it in the way he writes about it in Colossians 1, 28 to 29, where speaking of Christ he says, Him we preach, warning every man, teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect or mature or complete in Christ.

He says, to this end I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily. And Paul uses the word here agonizio, one of those Greek words, agoniziozio. And it means agony. It can be translated. He's given in agony to labour for this.

What, to build his own kingdom? No. To get popular? No. To proclaim Christ, Christ, Christ.

So people are dependent upon Christ and their identity is in Christ and that they may be perfect and complete in Christ. He didn't labour to make people more fruitful, he laboured to point them to Christ. And It is my prayer that as the church family here, you precious brothers and sisters, that you continue to abide in Him. You point people to Him. You make all that you do as a church about Him because he is worthy and he deserves all the glory.

We want the fruit in our personal lives to have its source in Christ. We want the fruit in our family lives to have its source in Christ. We want the fruit in our church life to have its source in Christ. Why? So that God is glorified.

So when we abide in Christ, we can have peace and strength in trials. When we abide in Christ, we are shaped more by the Word than by the world. When we abide in Christ, it keeps us focused on Him and off ourselves. When we abide in Christ, we grow in assurance because we see Him working in our lives. When we abide in Christ we gain a deeper experience of our union with Christ.

When we abide in Christ we're more aware of our sin that we need to confess and repent and change from. When we abide in Christ we make wiser decisions Because we're more immersed and influenced by Christ's wisdom, not our own. And when we abide in Christ, we will be the church that God wants us to be for such a time as this, and He will provide all our needs. He will provide all your needs. Ironically, God never really asked us to be fruitful.

He asked us to be faithful. Be a faithful church. Let him produce the fruit. And remember, Satan does not want you to abide in Christ. He wants to sift you as wheat.

He wants to distract and divert you from Consistency from commitment from faithful devotion to Christ. What can we do about that? Ephesians 6 11 Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil So final point then is this There is no greater way to live as a believer than to order everything in our lives so as to become a fruitful follower of Christ for God's glory. There is no greater way to live as a believer than to order everything in our lives so as to become a fruitful follower of Christ for God's glory. Children, your last point.

The best life we can ever live is a life of trusting Jesus and following his will for his glory. And kids, you know, There are so many things in the world that will be screaming and shouting at you and alluring you away from Christ, pretending to be better, more fun, give more joy. Don't believe them. Trust in him. And so my heartfelt prayer for you all in this last exhortation is that you would abide in Christ for God's glory, that you would run well, and more importantly, no matter what, you would finish well.

Remember, do the things in your lives now that you'll be so glad you did then when you stand in glory. Do the things in your lives now that you'll be so glad you did then when you stand in glory. Do the things in your lives now that you'll be so glad you did then when you stand in glory. I'll just finish with these words from Colossians 3, one to four, and then we'll have a time of communion. And I think these are just such a fitting summary to all we've looked at this morning.

Listen to these words. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

And again the beautiful thing is we're all going to be there if we're trusting in Christ. We're all going to enjoy that time together. Let's pray. Father thank you for your precious word. Thank you for the hope we have.

Thank you for the encouragement that we will abide in you because you abide in us. And I do pray again that you would by your grace help us, help this church to be fruitful because they are abiding in you. And that whenever people come and visit here, whenever people join here, become part of this local body that they would always know that above all other things much is made of Christ. May we make much of Christ in our lives. I pray you would help us Lord where we have failed in that.

Where we have acted in our own strength according to our own wisdom. Thank you Lord that though we cannot love you like we wish, we have sweet communion with you because of Christ. May you increase our love and affection for you all the more for your glory in Jesus name. Amen.