What a precious privilege it has been for me to declare the Word of the Lord to you these days. There's a great joy given to a man in preaching. And my joy has been exceedingly full preaching to you. And here we are again. I'm before you with this same honor. And I'm praying for me. that my delight will not be in the sound of my voice, but in His Word. I'm asking that of you too, but I need to do that as well. And I'm also praying that you will delight in His Word even as you hear it spoken from my lips. The text, I pray the Lord be pleased to speak to us one last time this morning is, yes, John 15, verses 1-10. John 15, verses 1-10. Can you hear me? Our Lord Jesus said to us, not just to the apostles, but to you. So you listen as if Jesus was speaking to you. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He lifts up. 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. As the Father has loved Me, I also 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. Last night, We said that to abide in Christ is to rest in Him. To recline and rest and receive. The branch does not struggle to receive from the vine. It's very natural to it. Why? Well, just stop and think. Look at the trees here. They're not a grapevine, but the illustration would be the same. The branches are a part of the tree. And therefore the life that is in the trunk and in the roots is in the branches. It's natural. And therefore it ought to be natural for you and I to imbibe, drink in, absorb, utilize the life of Christ. Last night we said the confident resting in Christ is faith. That's what it is. And if you are to have faith in Christ, you must first cease to have faith in yourself. You cannot trust Jesus and you at the same time. They are mutually exclusive. They just don't go together. You can't trust Him 80% and you 20%. It doesn't work that way. So what does this look like? And I want to be childlike in my answer. But there is a danger in oversimplifying it. So I pray God help you to understand. It looks this way. You trust Christ for the faith to trust in Him. Now where does the faith come from in the first place? The gift of God. God has given to every man a measure of faith. That's Christians. Every child of God here does have faith no matter how weak or small it might be. And so with that even feeble faith, exercise it. Take that faith and let it look at Christ. He is the object of that faith no matter how small it might be. Faith is content in what He does and also does not give. Because faith ultimately is a trust in a person. It's a trust in the goodness of God that He's too good to be unkind, too wise to make a mistake. I think the problem and the confusion of faith is varied, but one of the huge problems that I think every Christian struggles with is they confuse faith with assurance. Assurance and faith are not the same. Assurance is produced by faith. It's the fruit of faith. But you cannot judge your faith by how assured you feel. So even if your faith be weak and your assurance level low, cast your eyes on Him who's faithful. and your faith will increase. That's why the struggle to have faith in God is absolutely crazy. It's ludicrous. It's absurd. Faith doesn't work that way. Faith is not based upon trying to trust someone. If you're trying to trust someone, let me tell you, you've got a problem. And the problem is that person evidently is not trustworthy. If you trust someone, I mean really trust them, whose work was it that produced the faith you have in them? You or them? Now think about that question, brother. Who produced faith in your heart towards that person? You or them? And the answer obviously is them. It's not your work that produced your faith in them. It was their work of proving themselves trustworthy. If you're trying to trust them, it won't work. How many of you have been struggling to trust Jesus? Well, thank you for being honest. There's a lot of other people who wasn't so honest. You're struggling to trust Him. And the issue is you do not believe that He is as good as He promised. That's the issue. Now this is a whole different series of messages, but let me just give it to you in a seed form and may God germinate it and develop it as He pleases. But the greatest text in all the New Testament dealing with faith is probably Romans 1.25. And it doesn't really correlate with Hebrews 11.1 on faith's value, but it really does. And they exchange the truth of God for the lie and worship the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. They exchange the truth of God for the lie. When you're trying to believe God, it means as far as you're concerned, God has not proven Himself trustworthy to you. Now that's a harsh statement, but you need to face it, you need to confront it, and you need to let God deal with it. And with you. If you're struggling to trust, the problem is not the heart, the problem is how your heart views God. This morning early as I was in His presence, I came across Psalm 36, verse 7. Listen to David. How precious is your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings. Do you see the corollary? Children of men put trust in God when they view His lovingkindness. and it's precious to them. They don't trust until they value God. Until you value who He is. His goodness, His grace, His greatness, His glory. And when you comprehend that, when you see that, oh my friend, it's automatic. You won't struggle to believe. It's natural. As natural as the branch to receive the life from the vine. I trust my wife. Why? Because she's proven to be trustworthy. I don't try to trust my wife. If I did, we would have marital problems. My struggling friend, listen, your issue is you're looking at your faith way too much. Turn away from it. And look at Him who can create faith. See how precious He is. And then you'll trust Him. Well, how do we do that? How do we do that? And here is what I've promised you now for three sessions. How do you really do that and abide in Christ? And the text actually tells us three things. And I want to unpack them for you. First, you must let God's Word abide in you. Look at verse 7. You must let God's Word abide in you. Verse 7, If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you'll ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. Look at the first two clauses, phrases. If you abide in Me and My words abide in you. He's changed pronouns here. If you go back to verse 4, the pronouns are Me and I and You. Abide in Me and I in you. But not here in verse 7. He switches it. If you abide in Me and My words abide in Me. Lord, why did You do that? You see, when you're reading your Bible, you need to talk to the author. You need to talk to the text and say, why is that? Why the change? Why didn't You just go ahead and say, Lord, if You abide in Me and I abide in You? Because He's teaching us how to abide. He's giving you a clue. A significant piece of the puzzle. If I abide in you, the way I do so is by My Word. Now let's understand this. This is too huge. We see this again later in the New Testament. In Ephesians 5 and verse 18. Do not be drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. And the grammar there is in the present tense, which means keep being filled with the Spirit. Well, did you know that when Paul, writing from the prison, When he wrote the epistle to the Ephesians, he also wrote a second letter at the same time. It was to the Colossae church, the Colossians. And in Colossians chapter 3 and Ephesians 5, you'll notice the terminology is almost identical. In some places it is. It's like whatever he wrote, whichever one he wrote first, he just kind of picks up and does it again in the second epistle. So let's assume Ephesians was the first one he wrote, and now he's writing to the church at Colossae, of which he had never seen, and he's repeating some of the same instructions and exhortations he gives to the Ephesians. And in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16, instead of saying, Don't be drunk with wine where it's in excess, but be filled with the Spirit. He says something completely different. And if you look at the context, it's almost identical to Ephesians 5. He says this, Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. By the way, do you know what the 19th verse of Ephesians 5 is? It's the last part of verse 16 here. Don't be drunk with wine where it's excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing grace, melody in your hearts to the Lord. So what is Paul doing? Thankfully, we have both letters. And since the Bible is its own best commentary, we can compare these two texts. And Paul tells us what it means to be filled with the Spirit. Here it is. Let the Word of God be at home. in you. Because that's what those words dwell in you richly means. It doesn't mean you let the Word of God be a guest in your home. I don't know where I'm staying after today, but I'm not worried about that. If I'm in your home, James, or in someone else's, or wherever you put me, I will be made at home, I'm sure of that, wherever I am. You will see to it that I am not a guest, but I can make myself feel at home. But that's not what this text means. No, no. It literally means turn the key to the house. Take the deed out and sign it over to the guest. And say, it's yours. Let the Word of God possess you. Have you. Own you. That's what it means to be filled with the Spirit. And that's exactly what Jesus is saying in our text here in verse 7. They're synonymous. To abide in Christ is to be filled with the Spirit. To abide in Christ and be filled with the Spirit is to let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Now, why the change in the pronoun? Well, it's a clue. But it's more than that. The words of a man are the projection of that man's persona, his soul, his heart. Jesus said, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. When you're speaking to someone, you're revealing you. Our words reveal us. Hear me. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ reveal Him. He and His Word is one because they are the revelation of Him, of His heart, of His passion, of His persona, His personhood. In one sense of the word, you are not separate from your Word when you're speaking out of honest sentiment. You are revealing yourself. And so therefore, how does this man Christ Jesus, who is seated now at the right hand of God, and because He's a man, He's limited to one place at one time, even though He's also God which is Spirit and He's omnipresent, how does He abide with us? By and through the Word. That's why preachers pound the pulpit and plead with their members. Get into the book. Read the Bible. Get into the book. Memorize it. Get it into you. Why? Because that's the religious thing to do? If you do that, you prove to be a better Christian. But if you do that, you'll become a more mature Christian and a scholar and a theologian. No! It is the primary way in which I interact with my Lord. He has designed the Christian life. And He's designed it to revolve around the authoritative, all-sufficient Bible. The Bible isn't Jesus. Jesus isn't the Bible. but He has communicated His heart through the Word so that you might know His heart and interact with it. Just as you would interact with a close friend's heart through the Word of that friend. Am I making sense? And so therefore, Jesus is saying, you want to know Me? Know My Word. Because My Word is out of the abundance of my heart. It reveals me. Now there's a big, big clue. But before I give it to you, I've got to warn you. Reading your Bible is insufficient. I too, like a lot of pastors, well-intentioned, used to encourage and exhort my church Read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible. We even would have printed in our bulletin McShane's reading schedule so we all could be reading the same thing together. And then one day God just showed me the foolishness of that. I discovered that there's not one text of scripture that commands me to read it. Not one verse. You'll search your concordance in vain to find it. But you will find exhortations and commands to study it, to meditate on it, to muse, to think about it, to hide it in your heart. But why no command to read? Because just reading the Bible is insufficient. It has some benefit. I don't want to discourage you from reading a chapter a day to keep the devil away, because that's how most of us read. But that's not what you need. That's not interacting with Jesus. You don't read your Bibles to gain information either. Now we need information. We need knowledge. But that's not the purpose of why God gave you a Bible. He gave you a book so that you might know Him. Interact with Him. And see His greatness towards you. And when the Lord showed me that, it revolutionized my Bible reading. Until that, I have to confess that I studied the Bible like most of us do. To learn. To learn more facts. To gain knowledge. And that's about all that happened. I could impress people with that knowledge, but that's about the only thing that happened. I could certainly help somebody by giving them a verse, and I don't demean that or try to minimize that, It usually had no power, no life. Why? Because it was just coming from my brain. And when the Lord showed me that I'm to open this book, not with the intent of just learning knowledge and facts about Him, but I am to open this book to hear Him! To see Him! To experience Him! This book became Treasure. It no longer was my textbook, it was my treasure. And so, I get up in the morning and I open my Bible, and I now read to see this big God. I read to see just how big and great this God is. Because I know today, the enemy's going to come and he's going to lie to me about my God. He's going to try to persuade me that my God is not as good as He claims to be, not as gracious as He claims to be, not as great as He claims to be, nor is He as glorious as He says He is. Therefore, I need to see it for myself. I need to experience the glory. I need to experience His greatness, His vastness, His omnipotence, and oh yes, His great grace toward me and His goodness. And so now, when I get up in the morning, I read, not just to see how big He is, but how big He is to me and towards me. That's what Jesus is saying. If my words abide in you. It's the means by which we interact, but there's yet another and necessary thing. Because once again, even studying and meditating on the Word of God apart from the Holy Spirit, there will be no help. It will be black ink on white paper. And I'm going to be offensive to some, perhaps. We live in a time of so much confusion. So many doctrines. With the Internet and the availability that we have in the West, and now almost globally, you can find almost every wind of teaching. And just because you're Reformed doesn't mean you're biblical. Again, I'm not against Reformed theology. I know you think that probably. You're suspicious of me. But that's my task. as a minister of Jesus to bring biblical balance back. And we think the more we understand the Scriptures, the more spiritually mature we are. Well, that ought to be the case, but often it isn't. And we have thoroughly and totally offended the third person of the triune God, and we have rejected Him. just because we have knowledge of theology and Scripture. Listen to what happened in Luke 24. You might want to follow along, you skeptic. Luke 24. Without the wind of the Spirit, there's no life. Some have gone so far to say that this book has power. No, it doesn't. The power is not in the book, the power is in the person. And you need the person who wrote it to speak to you. To make it have life and reality. That's what I mean. In Luke 24, it's the night of the resurrection. Jesus appears to the 11 apostles locked up in the upper room. Then He said to them, after He explained the Old Testament plan of redemption to them again in the preceding verses, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you. that all these things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." Do you see that? Stop. Look at me. Jesus said, I've taught you and taught you and taught you and taught you. That's what He's saying. And I'm telling you again. And of all of the teaching from the Master Teacher, how many of His students got it? How many? None. Not even Peter. Not even the beloved John. None of them got it. Now friends, that ought to encourage some of us. It does me, as a preacher and teacher, if Jesus couldn't get the lesson across, well, praise God, I'm in good company. But something happens in the next sentence. Read it now. And he opened their understandings. that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Something supernatural took place, guys. God did something to those men's understanding that night. What do we call it today? We call it illumination, the granting of spiritual understanding, whatever you want to call it. But that's what's necessary. As you open this book to see Jesus and to hear Him, you need this to take place. Of course, being Reformed, I thought I was a crazy man. That I was the only one that thought these things. Because everyone I was talking to, except for a few exceptions, didn't believe that. No! You're trying to make this too mystical. Then I read one day John Murray. You ever heard of John Murray? You can't call him a charismatic by no means. Redemption. Accomplished and Applied. Great little book. I discovered he had a say. He called it intellectual mysticism. That the mind has to be enabled by God in order to understand the truth of Scripture. And then one day who helped me most was John Owen. Now you won't be able to call this staunch Presbyterian. Anywhere, in any way a mystic in the way we use the word today. And he said, without the gust of the Spirit, there is no understanding. What does he mean by the gust of the Spirit? Well, a gust means a wind, a strong wind. And as you go back in church history, Just go back 100 years ago. You would find men that readily believed that the intellect, the human understanding is insufficient to understand even a glimpse of this incomprehensible God. Tell me, how are you going to know God? With that puny little brain of yours. I don't care what your IQ is. My close friends now in heaven with the Lord had an IQ of 162. One day he calls me up and he's beside himself with such joy. Michael, you're right. You're right. I was reading the Bible and something happened to me today. It was like God was in the room with me. It was like He was speaking to me. I said, praise God. God showed up. You need the Spirit. And that's why we read. And you have the Spirit, brothers. You have Him. He's with you. He's in you. He is the Spirit of Christ. He wants you to know His heart. He's wanting you to reveal His heart to you and you to receive it. The hindrance is not on His side. It's how we approach the Word of God. We don't depend upon the Word anymore. We depend upon our knowledge of the Word. And there's a huge difference. As I travel and I go into so many different kinds of churches, it doesn't matter whether it's high Calvinistic or low Arminian. I see the same tendencies and trends. We don't live by the Word of God. We learn a few general principles from the Word of God, and we think we know how to address life. We've turned the Bible into a book of formulas and principles. Not a living Word. Not the voice of God. Not God interacting with me and my spirit. So, if you're to abide in Christ by faith, you've got to get into the Book. And let the Book get into you. So that you know your Father's heart. And here's why. I have three children. Of course, I've told you about Victoria, who's very low-functioning mentally. We've taught her everything we can. Much of that didn't stick. But my two older boys, 35, 33, I've taught them and trained them when they were in my house, and we've sent them forth. And they know wisdom. They know what Daddy taught them. And they know when they're with me what Daddy likes. Why? Because I've taught them. They know me. The same reason you get in the morning and open this book is to learn your Father's heart. And His wisdom. And His ways. so that when you walk through the day, you don't have to have voices, you don't have to have feelings. If that's what you're looking for, brother, you're going to be sorely disappointed because God's not going to accommodate you. He loves you too much to do that. That'll ruin you. Almost ruined me. Thank God He loved me to bring me out of that. But today I can know the will of God and walk in confidence and assurance that I'm in His will. Why? Because I know Him now. I know Him. I don't know Him fully. I'm still learning. I can't fully know God. He's incomprehensible. But I know what I need. And if I don't, I know where to go. Are you with me? Are you desperately dependent upon this Word that you eat it and drink it, imbibe it, you could not live without it because it is the revelation of His heart and you love Him so much, you've got to know the heart. That's it, brothers. That's why we're in the book. Not for sermons. Not for Sunday school lessons. Not even to instruct our children. I get in this book namely primarily because I've got to know Him and His heart. And thereby His ways. Well, I could continue to preach another hour on this. So I've got to move on. There's a second thing He says we are to do in order to abide. We abide by faith, confidently resting in His good character. And we do that by His Word dwelling within us. We've given the title deed of our lives, both body and spirit, to Him. And the Word rules in us by the Holy Spirit. But then secondly, Jesus says, we must by faith pray and practice the presence of God. Back to verse 7. We must pray and practice by faith the presence of God. Verse 7. If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. I made comment in an informal group yesterday afternoon that in your ESV Bibles, does it not say, and you will ask what you wish? I wonder which prosperity teacher slipped in on the ESV translators, huh? One of them snuck in. No. They got it right. They got it right. What you desire, what you wish, what you want. And it shall be done for you. Now, that is a dangerous statement, isn't it? Because we do know men who have taken verses like this and they have perverted them to their own benefit. It's always interesting that God's address is their address, isn't it? When God needs money, that their address is always the one that the money is to be sent to. So this is a dangerous statement. It does need to be clarified. It follows the first half of the verse we just finished with. That if the Word of God is dwelling in you richly, the Word of God is at home, it's going to shape your desires. Because this is the way you're transformed, brothers. This is sanctification. In one verse. II Corinthians 3.18. Beholding the glory as in a mirror. We are transformed from glory unto glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. What is the mirror? Well, He uses the mirror because it's ultimately Jesus. Ultimately it's Jesus, but we can't look into His face at this moment. But He has revealed Himself, His face, His heart, in His Word. So the mirror is the Word. So as we behold, not just the knowledge and the facts, but the glory of those facts. We're being transformed. That's why you read your Bible. And that transformation transforms your desires, your heart. It brings you into conformity with His will. So that you want to pray, not my will, thy will be done. And by the way guys, Don't tack that onto the end of your prayer. That drives me crazy when I hear that. It's an escape valve for people. I don't know if this is God's will, so to cover me to make sure I'm not looking like I don't have any faith, not my will, thy will be done. Jesus prayed that specifically knowing what the will of the Father was. And He was struggling with it. and he voluntarily subordinated and submitted to it. Quit using that as a line to end your prayers. It grieves the spirit. The only time that's appropriate is when you know the will of God and you're struggling with it too. And so, The Word of God, Jesus through the Word by the Spirit shaping my heart and my desires and my prayers so that I know that whatever I ask, whatever I wish, I will receive. Now guys, you need to get this down. I don't know what of the Lord will ever let me come back again. But I'd like to teach more about faith. And I know Brother Morrow did so five years ago. But there's more about faith than what two men could even do in two different retreats. God always answers prayer. Always! There's never a prayer God has heard that He doesn't answer. I know, again, I'm scaring you, aren't I? He answers every prayer of His children's Christ. Every one of them. Sometimes He says no. But that is an answer. And you better embrace it. It's God's love and goodness. Amen. Thank the Lord. He doesn't give me everything I ask. Because sometimes, still yet, my desires aren't always in line with His will. And the worst thing He could do is give me my desires. He's done that before. I've grabbed on him and pulled on him, tugged him, just like that importune widow with the unjust judge. And he says, OK, you want this? I told you no. I'm going to give it to you. I don't, don't, don't do that. You see, God, He does answer prayer. And sometimes you don't want Him to answer every prayer. I've learned the hard way. I like no's. I like no's. And then the answer can come, yes, but not now. Yes, not now. That is my will, my son. I'm going to do that in your life. Yes, but not now. You're not ready. Circumstances are not ready. Parties on the other end are not ready. It's not the right moment. Trust me. Trust me, even if you're walking in darkness. Walk with me. I'm with you. And then third answer. Yes. Yes. Period. Yes. And let's go back to the first answer. No. Yes. Period. It's always that way. Yes. Period. But no never comes with a period. God never says no to your prayer with a period. It's always with a comma. I've got something better for you. See, this is what I'm talking about. You've got to get to the point where you really believe God and know that he's good. That even when he says no, he's got something even better. Oh, glory be to God. I could just tell you story after story and I'm resisting the temptation because I don't want to ever put myself out. So let me give us a biblical view of prayer. We pray until we pray. That's what the old divines used to say. I say that around modern Christians today and they look at me with a stare and a blank. What do you mean pray until you pray? What that meant was you pray until you pray through. And I get another blank. What do you mean pray through? You pray until you pray through and you know heaven has answered. Because God always answers prayer. So I'm not going to quit praying until I know His answer. Whether I have it in my hand or in my heart, it doesn't matter. Often my answers come and I possess them in my heart way before I possess them in my hand. We were praying for our sons. I told this story yesterday. We were praying for our son's salvation, 18 and 20. And one day, wrestling with God, He gave me a promise that I could now sue Him for. I could bring my suit to God. And He had to do it. And a point came where in praying, the answer came before the answer came. The burden lifted. Couldn't even pray for it anymore. Why? Because I possessed the answer in my heart already. It was mine. Now I didn't understand that. That was one of the first times that had ever happened to me. I didn't know what was going on. I felt guilty and condemned that I couldn't pray for my son's salvation anymore. But I had the answer. Long before I possessed it in my hand. God always answers prayer and you always pray till you pray through and get the answer. Whether it's no, I've got something better. Or yes, but not now. Or yes. Now in your daily devotions, because we're not just talking about prayer for specific needs. We really need, I think Jesus is going back now to a way of life kind of prayer. You're walking with God kind of prayer. When you pray, you've got to have a right attitude about prayer. So here I am going to put myself out as an illustration. Because of the way I grew up, I was taught that prayer ought to be a very momentous occasion, like a dialogue. You talk to God and God talks to you. My prayers were more monologue than me talking to God and didn't hear a thing. Because my mindset was prayer was like the Mount of Transfiguration. It should be that way every time. And so one day I'm so broken, I'm just so upset, I'm so heartbroken. Why is my prayer life, why does it stink? Why do I not find Your presence when I pray? Why is it just routine? I'm praying the same prayers and nothing's moved, nothing's happening. God, this is not what You intended by prayer. At least I knew that much. I try not to say things that might shut you down and not listen to me anymore, but so let me say it this way. An authoritative thought came to my mind. God spoke to me. You don't understand prayer. I do talk to you. The word is my voice to you, and prayer is your uttering your heart to me. And brothers, you don't know how much that meant to me. And soon after that, my dear friend Mac Tomlinson had republished the autobiography of George Mueller because up to that time, all you could get was that little bitty abridged, I mean terribly abridged paperback book. So I had the whole thing. And I started devouring that. Karen and I read it together every Monday. And we devoured this. I got to be honest, the first part of the book was depressing. After his biography, when he started building those orphanages, the life of faith wasn't too spectacular in the beginning. They were selling things, hawking things, trying to get enough money to feed the kids. I mean, it was sometimes God didn't answer prayer immediately. But you saw something happen, transformed in his life and his faith. And one day he's talking in his autobiography about his Scripture reading. Have you ever read that part? He talked about how for the first 10 years of his Christian life, his prayer life, his study of the Word was sometimes dull. He would sometimes fall asleep. I mean, I could identify with that. Sometimes he said, I could read the Bible and pray and couldn't remember what I read 15 minutes later. I could really identify with that. And he said, I finally learned God showed me that I was to pray using the Bible. And now I pray the Scriptures to God. And he said, it's uncanny, and I'm paraphrasing, but essentially he said, it's uncanny that what the needs are of the ministry in my life that day, whatever I'm reading in my Scripture reading, always applies. Now it's not uncanny, is it? Nor accidental. Or serendipity. It was ordained. And he said, now, now I can read the Scriptures with life and power and I can pray. I don't pray for 30 minutes and run out of things to pray now. I believe that's what we're talking about. So today, my prayer book is my Bible. I pray with an open Bible. And it has so transformed my life. And what am I doing as I'm praying over the Scriptures? The Scriptures are richly dwelling in my heart. His Word is interacting with me by the Spirit. So, prayer becomes the way you practice the presence of God. Now here was another mistake I made. Okay, I learned this. This was great. My devotions in the morning were just radically altered and it was wonderful. Couldn't wait to get up in the morning and go and pray and read my Bible. But then I'd close my Bible, leave the prayer closet and go about the ministry the rest of the day. One day the Spirit of God convicted me. Why are you leaving me in the prayer closet? So now, I began to learn to practice the presence of God. And it wasn't Brother Lawrence. It was the psalmist David. In Psalm 16, verse 8, David said, I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. I saw it. David practiced the presence of God. He set the Lord right there before him. Now there's two sermons right there, guys. Two sermons on how to do that. But just let me suffice to say, you have to actively, mentally do something. What is it you have to do? You have to believe the promise! I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Let me give you a little story. We were contemplating in 2005 moving to Texas then. The church in Austin was looking at us. Paul had recommended us. And it looked like we were going to go. And it all fell through. God smashed it. And I was devastated. I was heartbroken. I'd lost my burden for the people at Oak Grove. I knew I had. I was discouraged. So I just said, ok. God, I'm going to block off three hours a day and seek You until You give me either a new heart for this flock, or You get me out of here. On top of my devotions, I'd get to the office about 9 o'clock and I'd tell my secretary, hold all my calls, no interruptions, unless it's an emergency. And for three hours, I would seek God. Now some days, three hours went by fast. Some days I couldn't pray three minutes. But I'd made a covenant to God, and so I'd sit there before Him with my Bible open, and I'd just read and pray and wait on God. This went on for a week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, six weeks, about a month and a half, and nothing had happened. It's a Saturday morning. We live next door to the church. I said, sweetheart, I'm going to go to the church. Nobody's there. Because I knew what I was going to do. I was going to yell at God. So I walked the sanctuary. God! Where are you? Just like that. I was so frustrated. I was so... Bewildered. Where are you? God, if I could just feel you right now, my faith would be strengthened immediately. An authoritative thought. You've got it backwards. Feelings never produce faith. But faith will always produce the correct and corresponding feeling. And I knew immediately what that meant. And so I began to meditate on every verse that promised His presence. I've quoted two. Psalm 41, verse 10. Fear not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will help you. Yea, I will strengthen you. Yea, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. And I began to meditate on those verses. And I would look at them at this angle, and I'd look at it from this angle, and look at it from this angle. And all of a sudden, I began to think, this is the promise of God. This is God promising this. And the moment I believed God, that God you're here whether I feel you or not, that moment something happened. You know what happened? The experience and conscious awareness of His presence. Boy, that was so instrumental. I learned that day that the Spirit of God mediates the presence of God by truth believed. That'll protect you from the kooks out there and the wild false teaching. Let me say it again. The Spirit of God mediates the presence of God through truth believed. That's the only way He does it. And that is what He means here by praying. Your prayer life becomes walking with God. You talk to Him through the day. Again, I could teach on this all day long, but let me just say this and then we've got to move on to what I think is the best point. You say, I can't do that. My mind, I've got to concentrate at work. I just can't be praying all day long. Well, yeah, you can. Just engage God in whatever your work is. I know you all probably do. I was talking to Jake. He restores beautiful cars. And I'm sure he knows what he's doing. He can probably do it in his sleep. Probably dreamt about it. You know the job so well. But have you ever thought about, Lord, I know this is what I'm supposed to do, but do you have any other ideas that I have never understood? Engage God in what you're doing. You repair air conditioners. Well, talk to God about the air condition. He's there with you. And if you're a pastor, goodness, when that phone would ring, I'm praying, brother. And when I'm preaching, you don't know it, I'm praying. I'm praying all through my sermon. God, help me right now. I'm not feeling Your power right now, Lord, but I'm believing You. I preach by grace through faith right now. Just the way I got saved, that's the way I preach. By grace through faith. I'm holding on to You, God. Whether I feel it, whether I see anything, it doesn't matter. I'm trusting You that You're going to do what You want to do. That's what Jesus is talking about. That's how you abide. By faith that He is with you and you engage Him with you. Well, thirdly and lastly, Jesus says in v. 9-10 that to abide in Him is to practice the love of God. Look at v. 9-10. As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide. He changes now. from Him to His Word now, He changes it to 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. Now this is very similar to a verse He's already stated in the 14th chapter, verse 15. If you love Me, keep My commandments. The English translation is very awkward here. It reads like that if we obey God, then we love Him and that He will love us in response to our obedience. But friends, that can't be true. That's works. That's not it. That's not grace. But when you finally understand that that's not the grammatical structure, the English is just not precise here. It really reads, if you keep on loving Me, you will keep My commandments. So, obedience is a result of God's love for you. You see that? Let me read it again. If you keep on loving me, you will keep on obeying my commandments. It's the same as this verse here. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. So, John 15.10 is actually saying, if you stay in my love, listen, listen, you will be obedient. You see, you have to stop abiding to disobey. Disobedience is not an act in itself all tied up and bundled together. It is the end result of a series of events that goes on internally. And one of those events is to stop abiding, stop resting, stop trusting. And you will disobey. But the question is, how do we stay in His love, which is answered with another question. I love questions. Have you picked up on that? How did we ever fall in love with Jesus in the first place? The answer to my question, how do I keep and abide in His love, is answered by the question, how did I ever fall in love with Him in the first place? And so to answer that question, I want John, same author of our text, to tell us from his first epistle, chapter 4. I John chapter 4. You all know where I'm going. But I hope to make it more... Well, I pray God will make it more understandable. I John 14. In this is love... I John 14. In this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And then verse 19, he just states it in a short, simple sentence. What does it say? We love Him because He first loved us. That's the same thing as what Paul Apostle says in Romans 5, verse 5. Now hope does not make us shame, for the love of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to pour out God's love in your heart. And my dear friends, that's not a theological fact. It's an experiential fact. It's an experience that every born-again Christian has had. God made you to know He loved you. He was real to you. And the response to that was you loved Him in return. Which means this, that the love of God is reflexive. Now what do I mean? Have you ever gone to the doctor, get a physical, and he checks your reflexes. What does he do? He gets a little rubber mallet out and he taps you on below the knee. And what happens the moment he hits the certain nerve? The foot and the lower leg moves, doesn't it? If it doesn't, you've got a problem. The stimulus is the rubber mallet. The reflex is automatic and natural. The knee twitches or jerks. What I'm saying to you is the moment you experience the love of God, your heart in reflex loves Him back. That's the whole premise of John in that fourth chapter about loving your brothers. You see, your love for your brothers is reflexive of you experiencing the love of God. So if you don't love your brother, it tells me you haven't loved God and experienced His love for you in a long time. Dissension in the church is a love issue. And it's not just your love between you and your brother. It's you experiencing the love of God for you. And so, Jesus is saying, abide in My love, which simply means keep experiencing My love for you. And the Bible substantiates this. This is not wild doctrine from Michael Durham's crazy imagination. Jude in the 21st verse. What does he say? Keep yourselves in the love of God. What do you mean? I am a Christian. I know God loves me. But Jude says no, keep yourself in it. Paul the Apostle says the exact same thing to the Thessalonians in II Thessalonians 3 and verse 5. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God. My friend, do you think the day you were converted you experienced all of God's love for you? Not hardly. His love is a boundless ocean knowing no shores. You have just waded into the kiddie pool side of that water. You have not gone into deeper waters, but oh may God direct your heart deeper into that love. That's why we say to you, dear friends who are yet to be saved, We're not talking about religion and start following rules and turn over the proverbial new leaf. No, no. We're talking about experiencing love like you've never experienced before. David could say of Jonathan and we can say of Christ, His love is far superior than the love of a woman. You don't know what you're missing. May God direct your hearts into the love of God. But the best text, some of you already know where I'm going, don't you? Ephesians 3, verses 17-19. Let's go there and we'll be done in a few moments. Ephesians 3, beginning with verse 17. Paul is praying for the Ephesians. You remember he planted this church. These are his converts for the most part. And he's praying. And here's what he prays in verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Stop reading. Look at me. Wait a minute, Paul. Jesus already dwells in my heart by faith. Why are you asking God of that? It's already happened. Evidently, the answer is, there's more of Christ to experience in your heart by faith. That's what we've been preaching all weekend. Brothers, you barely know Him. I barely know Him. Boy, what I've discovered is good. And it's addictive. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. And when you taste, like the old Lay's potato chip commercial a long time ago when I was a kid, you just can't eat one. You just can't eat one. You just can't take a taste of His goodness and you're satisfied. There's something amazing about this person Jesus. He both satisfies and He brings dissatisfaction at the same time. The more He satisfies me with His love, the more hungry I am! That's what He's praying for. that you being rooted, now you can go back with me to the text, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the depth and the height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. Stop reading, look at me. Now come on Paul, you're double talking, double speaking here. How can you know something that is past knowing? that you may know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. And the answer is we're not talking about intellectual knowledge. This kind of knowledge surpasses intellectual knowledge. Intellectual understanding never comprehends the whole of it. But you can experience it and know it in reality. And that's what the Apostle prays for his converts It's what every true pastor prays for his converts, his church. And it's what you ought to pray for your family. But brother, more importantly, you need to pray it for you. You're no good to your family, to your church, until you have first made your soul happy in the Lord. And the way you get your soul happy in the Lord is by the experience of His love for you personally. And that has to be not just a daily experience, A walk with God, continually experience. I tell people as I travel about my heart condition. I have a heart condition, it's called the leaky heart syndrome. What God puts in, it leaks out eventually. Oh, you have it too. We all have it, don't we? Haven't you had those glorious moments in prayer and church? God was real to you. You knew you had been in His presence. The glory was shining around about you. You didn't have to see it. It was just as real that you didn't require seeing it. And you just thought, man, you felt like you was walking on the cloud, on air. You get to the car and your kid says something, your wife does something, and what do you do? Out comes the bitter word. Where did it go? I've experienced God's in that closet of prayer and I leave. And I walk in that all day. I keep it. I cultivate that. That's what Jesus is telling us to do. That's what abiding is. I cultivate, go to bed. I don't know what happens in the night watches, but something sometimes happens. I wake up and it's all drained out. Now I've got to go back once again. And what's my goal? What's my goal, guys? to be filled with the love of God in an experiential way, afresh and anew. That's the only thing that gets Michael Durham so happy, and it's the only thing that gets your soul happy, is that the love of God is poured out into your heart by the Holy Spirit, through the Word and by prayer, by abiding in Jesus. There it is! Now I told you I would risk the danger of being anticlimactic. And though you knew these things, some of you didn't really know them. I know who knows them. I can see it on your face. I know who knows what I've taught. We're seeing things for the first time. Praise be to God that God has given you understanding. That's not Michael Durham's ability to explain truth. No! It's God! Don't look at me and don't dare give me the credit. Look to Him. God is now working in you. You're experiencing Him right now. If you have understanding of these things, it's something. A light bulb has gone on. That wasn't me! It was God! Let me tell you what an encounter with God looks like. It's not spooky-freaky. or mystical. You're reading the Word and the gust of the Spirit blows and the truth becomes real. You've read the verse a hundred times, but today something's different. It comes alive. It has impact. And the presence of God is mediated through truth believed. That's an encounter with God just as real as Moses had at the burning bush. And that's how you need to start thinking. This is the way the mind must be renewed. And when you have an encounter with God, one of two things or both things will happen. Your heart will swell with joy or conviction, but mostly, often, it's both. Because when He convicts you, I've never felt more loved and joyful that my Father won't let me get away from Him. Are you understanding? That is an encounter as much as Peter watching the net fill with fish in his boat. It's as much as an encounter as Martha and Mary had when Jesus said to their dead brother, four days stinketh. Lazarus, come forth. It's as much an encounter with God. Don't underestimate this. This is how the resurrected Christ abides with us. By the Spirit, through the Word believed, practicing His presence, through prayer, as you experience the love of God fresh. That's it. That's the parable. But for too many of us, we have a name only that we are alive In Revelation 3, verse 1, there's a church that Jesus has John write a letter to. And He says this, I know your works that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Beloved, as I travel, I discover another premise, unfortunately, that I've had is true. I don't think that's going to be the case this weekend. In fact, I'm pretty sure. But I'm never surprised. But the majority of people sitting in our churches have never truly been converted. You want to know why that is? Because most pastors haven't been converted. Unconverted pulpits produce unconverted pews. Like after like. Kind after kind. That's the law of God. But the problem is there only lives a minority that are saved, regenerated, know God. And the problem is the majority of them are immature. because they've not learned what you've heard this weekend, how to abide in Jesus. Some of you have learned the mortician skill. You ever been to a funeral? Friday night, Thursday night when I was speaking, while I was speaking, a pastor friend of mine, barely 50, passed away suddenly in his home. No warning. Had a heart attack. And if like any other funeral, they're going to go to the funeral home and somebody's going to invariably say as they look in the casket, boy, doesn't he look good. I've never understood that statement. Death doesn't look good. But the mortician has an art and a skill to make the corpse look presentable. To look good. You've learned the mortician skill too well, my friend. You've learned the language of Zion. You know how to pray the prayers. You even know some theology. But my friend, what I've preached today has never been your experience. And God in His mercy has allowed you to come unto the hearing of His Word. And it's His Word to you. Respond! Get up and run to Him right now! Don't sit there in your unbelief. If there is any sense of movement within your heart, let it energize your heart and propel you to the cross. And there, look upon the bleeding Savior as His blood courses down His body, shed for thee, for you. But if you continue to believe in your skill, you will perish in it. If I could get you to know that the burden of religion is far more difficult than having the genuine, come out from under that. Jesus said His yoke is easy, His burden is light. He's here to receive you this morning. He's here. God is here with us. He's not a figment of our psychosis. Look at you all. I've watched you. I've looked at you. You've come from so many different backgrounds. This cannot be done by psychological manipulation. Not all of you are the same, think the same, have the same brain type, same backgrounds, education. No. Something miraculous happened to you. It's the same miracle that happened to Saul of Tarsus. Sure, he got to see Jesus, but friends, it's no less a miracle what's happened to you. And the miracle can happen again today. Cry out to Him. Oh God, I believe. Help my unbelief. Before my brothers, I want to say to you familiarity with Christ has become our greatest enemy. You understand, don't you, who I'm talking to? I'm talking to Christian brothers, my brothers. I'm going to be with you forever. You're going to have to get used to me. Because we're going to be together and we're going to have fellowship that supersedes this to the millionth power. And so I want to say to you, we've become familiar with Christ, but I want to ask you, is the fragrance of Christ on you? Has familiarity hindered the fragrance? Has the knowledge been sufficient for you? I wonder if you're even saved if you say yes. I really do. I don't know how you can be saved and just knowing facts about Jesus be sufficient. I fear you're one of those who's learned the mortician skill. If you're a Christian, your heart's resonating with this message. There's been something in your heart that has said in leaping, yes, this is what I've been looking for. This brother has told me what I've been wanting to understand. Thank You, God. Yes, Lord, I see it now. Oh, friends, will you cultivate this? Will you rest in Him? Will you trust in a person and get to know Him and experience Him and thereby fall more in love with Him? He's here. Blessed be the Lord. who has loved us with an everlasting love, a love that will not let us go, and who is now knocking at the door of our hearts, saying, if you'll hear me and open up, I will come in to you and sub, dine, commune, commune with you. Amen. Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for the opportunity of these days here with my brothers, your sons. Lord, they're royalty. They're royalty. Princes with you. I salute them. I cherish them. But I can't love them to the degree you do. You love them, Lord, so much that if they only knew how much you did love them, they couldn't stand it. But Lord, give us more. Give us more. We're hungry for you. We've had our fill of things of this world and earth, and yet we're still hungry. We're still hungry. Lord, hear our prayer. Hear it for more of you. Visit the sinner right now, God. Speak life to him. Speak life to him in an irresistible way. Now be unto thee praised now and forever, our great God, who loved us with compassion and pity, longsufferingly is patient with us, We worship You today. We honor Thee, for Thou art the one true God. And You have caused us to know You, Father. We bless You for this fact. Help us to love You more by pouring more of Your love into our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.