me. He is cast forth as a branch. Rather, I read that wrong. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. And men gather them and cast them into the fire. And they're burned. He abide in me and my words abide in you. Ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples indeed. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you, Lord, for the privilege of opening it tonight. Lord, we just pray, Father, that you'd meet with us, that you'd have your way with us, Lord. And we just pray, Father, that you'd guide our discussion and Study here tonight. Just look forward to all that you're gonna do in Jesus name. Amen All right. So last week as we looked here at verses 1 through 4 Primarily, I believe we mentioned verse 5. Well, we mentioned several of the other verses as well, but I looking at bringing forth fruit. We talked about the fruit of the spirit, the lust of the flesh, and all those things. So we're not going to focus on the fruit as much tonight as the aspect here that he says, if ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. And this might be a real short message tonight, but we're just gonna deal here with getting what you want. All right, getting what you want. Who would be happy if you could just get what you want? Just get what you want. All right. There's a trick to this, getting what you want. And I'm tempted to tell you what that trick is up front. But I want to wait a little bit here before I tell you the trick to getting what you want. In Psalm chapter number 37, The Bible says, delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Here we see, he says, if ye abide in me and my words abide in you, is that the way it says it there? All right. What's next? Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be given to you. Wow, it seems like Jesus just gave us a blank check, didn't he? Let me give you some key points of this passage here. First of all, what are we talking about? Okay, there's a big if, okay? But what are we talking about? Again, at the very beginning, he says, I am the what? I'm the vine. You are the branches, right? At the very beginning, first verse, right? He says, I am the vine, you are the branches. And he talks about abiding in him. Now, as we abide in Christ, if you're born again tonight and you abide in Christ, look back or think back at the concept of the vine and the branches. Remember, he says there just before this, he speaks of those that don't abide in him. They're cast forth as a branch, right? It's kind of like, where'd the branch come from? It's not getting its nourishment from the vine. So if you abide in him, what is your source of everything? The vine, right? If you're a branch and you're attached to a vine, well, your source for everything that you get comes through the vine, right? It's gonna, your source for nourishment, right? What you need, let's think botany here for a moment. Y'all know what botany is? Study plants, here we go, or horticulture, right? Not horticulture, where it's a culture of hoarding, but horticulture, right? So. the concept here having to do with plants, right? And how these things work. How is it that, now, here's what's interesting as well, is that oftentimes, so when it comes to plants, you have a process by which plants obtain energy, right? And their cells get what they need to survive, right? And there's photosynthesis, right? And there's several things that are needed for this to take place. Can somebody name some of them? Oxygen. No, not oxygen. Opposite, who said oxygen? Carbon dioxide. And somebody said the sun. Chlorophyll, that's what they make. Water, right? Okay, so we have the sun, water, carbon dioxide, chlorophyll, and there's a process, and I didn't brush up on the process. Yes, sir? What's that? Well, the plant has to be there, yeah. We started out with it already being established, right? So we were just talking about how it produces energy, right? And then what does it do with that energy? It feeds the cells, right, turns it into food, which generally almost every creature on the planet turns, what is fuel for organisms usually? You should know. He already said it. He already said it. So human body, what does your body work off of, the fuel your body works off of? Okay, and what's it break down the food into? Calories, it's sugar, right? Sugar, your body breaks, it turns the food into glucose. And of course, there's other nutrients that your body uses out of the food too. But as far as like fuel, like you wanna run a marathon, the protein's gonna help you, but you're gonna need some sugar. And your body's gonna break the protein down into sugar eventually anyways, if you're running a marathon, it's gonna need that fuel, right? It's gonna burn that. Well, plants are similar in that sense, although plants don't eat protein. but they have proteins in them. We're not getting all the way down into chemistry. We're just trying to talk about the basic, how this whole thing works. Yes, sir? Yes, that's true. Plants are important. That's why God made the plants before he made us. So, yes, sir? Yes, the plants need our CO2. That's true. Yes. Yes, they do. So make as much of it as you can. Anyway, so save the plants. Give them CO2. Drive your car. Yes. Anyway, so that's not where we were going with this. Okay. Interesting things, right? So how does the plant get water. There are two ways, through the roots and through... Is that? Well, yeah, rain comes, but yes, osmosis through the leaves, right? Where are the leaves usually located? On the branches, right? Now, so the branches in some ways are feeding the rest, but the root comes, you know, comes up from the root and then from the vine to the branches. So it's like a constantly flowing system that, because he said, you abide in me and I in you. How does the tree get the other necessary ingredient for its fuel? Sunshine. How is that taken in? Well, from the sun, but it's through the leaves. Right now, I guess there's some aspect that it can, you know, get through other parts of the plant, but primarily it's coming through the leaves, right? So, but then it has to get into the part of the plant that's going to produce the, that's gonna do the photosynthesis and is gonna go through that process and produce the fuel and then go back to, you know, to the vine, back to the branches, and then it's going to allow the branches then to reproduce cells, which will then become more leaves or blooms, and then fruit, which will contain seed, and you have more plants. Yes, if it's a good branch and bring forth much fruit, right? And which will bring forth more plants, which will bring forth more branches, which will bring forth. So yes, harvest and so on and so on, right? Or fruit and the whole process continues, right? It's a whole, he's given us the great commission right there, right? The whole process going. Now, back to our point. So I wanted to distract you for a minute. So you didn't think about how you get what you want. How? Let's ask this question now. If we're a plant, if we're part of the plant, and we are the branch, how do we determine what we want? The vine. You're right. That's exactly right. So because we're a branch and not a standalone plant, We don't have the liberty to decide what we want on our own. Right? Because we abide in the vine. The vine determines what we want. So y'all know want and will that's like what I will is what I desire what you know what I my volition requires right so so he says here if ye abide in me and my words abide in you so that's we look at you already cut to the chase amen we look at the the thought here his words are the equivalent of our nourishment, right? As the as the branches, right? So the his words are the fuel that is made by the process of osmosis. Now, we don't just lay on it, right? But how do we get it in us? Or we get it in us through the process that God has ordained, right through the eye gates, and the ear gates, right? So it's osmosis through the eyes and the ears, right? That's how we get it in there. His words abide in us. And the more of his word that abides in us, or rather, as more of his word abides in us, more of his will then is known by us. And so, our wanter, Y'all know, y'all have a wonder, right? Your wanter. Wanter. W-A-N-T-E-R. It's a word I just made up. Your wanter, right? It's that thing in you that wants stuff, right? It's, it's your wanter. It's the thing. It's, it's that, uh, deep down desire that you have for things. Stuff. Uh, let's, let's not say, uh, stuff, flesh. Cause I don't want to indicate that it's, uh, that it's like, That within you, which desires, isn't necessarily positive or negative until the desires become positive or negative, okay? So something that desires, like you may have one thing that you desire, one thing that you will seek after, that you may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of your life, and that you may, you know, that you would have knowledge of him, right? And like Paul said, he said, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. You know, this was what he wanted. This was his desire. This was, you know, he said this, that I may know him, after saying all this other stuff that everybody else wants, I count but done, that I may know him, right? And so, all of the desires, let's actually go there here in Philippians chapter, what was it, three? Two, three, somewhere around there. Middle of the book, Philippians. Chapter three. He says, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, verse number one here, to write the same things to you indeed, or to me indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice, in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh. I'm more circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews is touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless. But what things were to me, you know, these, these things that everybody else wants, these things that everybody else would desire say, Oh, to be a Pharisee. I mean, the Pharisees, they were the, they were the guys. They were the leaders, they were the rich guys, they were the guys that had everything they wanted. He says, what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. I think that's maybe abiding in Him and His words abiding in us. He abides in us, His words abide in us, we abide in Him. He says, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. Why? Why would he say this? And be found in him not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." And he goes on and he says, this one thing I do forgetting those things which are, verse number 13, which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, right? not going after his own will. Well, actually he is, because his will has changed, right? His will used to be to be proud of his heritage, of the tribe of Benjamin, to be excited about, or to in the flesh, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, To be a Pharisee, one who fulfills the law, persecuting the church, having zeal, being zealous of what he thought was the truth, being blameless concerning the righteousness, which is of the law. His will used to be those things, right? My will used to be, what? What did your will used to be? What was the will of the flesh before you? You desired to have stuff. You desired to have, right? You desired to have, to have fame and fortune. And you desired to have all that you could consume upon your own lusts, right? That's what we used to desire, but the more that our sustenance comes from the vine, the more that our ... I hate to use the word blood flow, but you take the vine and the branches, and you consider that if he's the head and we're the body, The head decides what goes into the body and all of that, and what goes into the bloodstream and what pumps out to the hands and to all the members of the body, right? Just the same, what comes into the plants is going to have, and what goes to the branches is going to come from the vine, and so everything that comes to us comes from him, and that would include, eventually, as you are conformed to be a good branch and abide in him and his words abide in you, eventually, even the desires of your heart and mind are the desires of the vine. And so then when this, when this is the case, you get to the point that when you ask what you will, you're asking what he wills. Does that make sense? because you're no longer desiring what you wanted when you were a stick in the ground over there. But now that you've been grafted in, and you're now a branch off of the true vine, and everything that you have is no longer coming from the world and the flesh and the devil and the dirt out there, but it's now coming from the vine. You're not trying to be your own plant anymore. But now you're trying to just be a branch of the vine. And so the desires that you have are now the desires that the vine has. And you're gonna ask what you will, because what you will is what he will. And guess what? When you ask God to do what he wants to do already, how hard is it to convince him? It's impossible not to, right? Flip that around. So, In Psalm 37, where it says, delight thyself also in the Lord. Let me ask you this. What does that mean? Delight thyself in the Lord. That's right. That's exactly right. The things that you take pleasure in are found in him. The very desire that your heart has is him. And if you delight yourself in him, he's going to give you that desire. Because that desire and that delight is him. Right? delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. What are the desires of thine heart but to know him, but to have him, but to be his and for him to be yours. to be in the vine and for the vine to be in you as your branch. And so as he as he gives us this point here, he says, you shall ask what you will. And I want to say this, even though he knows what you want and even though he knows, even though he he already knows the things that you desire because they're the things that he desires. He tells us that we shall ask, right? And in other places, he tells us to ask, right? And then in James, he says, we have not because we ask not, right? And of course he had to correct them there because they were asking outside of the vine, their own desires, that they could consume it upon their own lust. And that's why they didn't get what they asked for. But because we, hopefully, are in the vine, and we have the desires that the vine has, and we have the will that the vine has, when we ask what we will, we're asking what He wills, and we're getting it. But why don't we ask? Yeah? What's that? Yeah. So what kind of things have you asked the Lord for this week? They fall into two categories, things that I want because he wants them or things that I want because I want them. Right. So I know the message isn't so much about why don't we ask more often, or about what the content of our prayers should be, but the message assumes that we pray, that we ask God. You know, the word pray means to ask, right? That's why he says in places, I pray you and I'm asking you, I'm coming to you with a request. We come to God with requests. So again, the assumption here is that we, as we're in the vine, we have a communication with the father, right? We have a communication asking for things that he wants. He wants us to bear fruit, and there's a lot of things that we can apply this to. Of course, God wants you individually to win souls. He wants you to be witnessing to other people. Of course, he wants our church to do it, but he wants our church to do it individually and collectively, not only when we go out on visitation, but in between those times. He wants us to be evangelists, every one of us, reaching the lost. He wants us to, we talk about bearing much. Number eight says, herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples. And by the way, the fruit here, yes, it applies to your personal fruit in your life. but I believe that it is more applying here relating to the fruit of your work, your labor. In other words, other people, right? Bearing much fruit is meaning that you're bringing more branches, right? I had, contemplated doing something fun, maybe some sort of like a competition this morning in Sunday school, this side one. And you guys didn't know you were competing. So this side one, because there wasn't anybody over here till halfway through. Yeah. Um, I was going to say maybe we should do like a side versus side and split the church. No, I'm just kidding. Do a side versus side and see who can, you know, bring guests or whatever, you know, but then I thought, I don't know, I think we ought to, I mean, sure, we could do something fun to maybe like a pack a few Sunday or something like that. I've done that with other churches, um, you know, and, and, you know, some people look at that kind of thing kind of sideways and they're like, isn't that just like hype and this or that. And I don't know. I mean, I kind of like the way they do it. The others don't do it. So, um, whether, you know, I went not, not to say that we're going to follow after this, but I, we visited, we were in Chicago on our way back and visited a big church up north and Indy and they fall, uh, program, whatever. And, and, um, they had like, uh, Like they had like however many people, certain person would invite or whatever. And whoever won for that Sunday of guests that they brought got to spin the wheel of fortune, you know, in church. And it had all kinds of stuff on it. And this one person won a hundred dollar gift card. And I was like, my goodness, that's crazy. Well, they got their reward, but I don't know. I kind of like go back and forth on that. Is that okay to do? Is that not? But then here's where the question really comes. Would you invite more people to church because you're gonna get a reward for it today? What if I said the person who brings the most first time visitors next week can have this $20 gift card to Calvin Fletcher Coffee Shop. Would you be more motivated by $20 worth of coffee than you're motivated by doing it because it's right? Be nice to have $20 worth of coffee. But I thought to myself, is it okay to motivate people that way? You shouldn't have to, no. Would it be wrong? What's that? Right. Oh, we wouldn't be giving coffee to the people that you brought. Sure. Now, I think that if we did something like that once, or maybe every once in a while did something like that to like wake everybody up and say, hey, let's do this. Actually, what I thought about doing, and I just kind of let the cat out the bag and there you go. What I thought about doing was go ahead and do the competition. And then when I gave the reward to the person, I say, this is your reward, enjoy it. And that's all you get. The rest of you take this as a lesson. You can have your award today or you can have your word in heaven. What's going to motivate you if I $1000 for every 10 people you witness to? How often would you be witnessing? Now, hopefully. That hurts a little bit. Because we ought to be. bearing fruit because it's who we are, not bearing fruit because of what we get. Certainly we're going to get reward in heaven. I'll tell you the greatest reward in heaven is that I'll get to walk up to somebody who's there because God used me to get them there. Praise the Lord. That's a much bigger reward than, than even a thousand dollar gift card to the gun store. What's that? Go pretty quick, yeah. I already know what I'd get with a $1,000 gift card to the gun store. I know exactly what I'd get. Actually, now I'm kind of torn between three or four things, as I thought about it. But think about it. You see, this is what tells you where you're at on this fine branch thing. If worldly gain is more of a motivator than just doing it because it's who you are, then it tells you how closely knit you are with the vine. And it ought to tell you that you need to come up here and spend some time talking to the vine.