2016 TGC Atlantic Session 9 - Melissa Kruger - "Abiding in the Trinity" | Word First

speaker really boring do you believe that and so I'm going to introduce her in a really boring way Melissa Krueger serves on staff as women's ministry coordinator I can't I can't do that to you can I you can read that for yourself can't she she's got three daughters and she serves at eight years uh at uh at her church Town Church in North Carolina Charlotte North Carolina couple of books I think you're going to get uh at least one of her books this conference are you already have it do you you're going to maybe get it maybe I don't know well if you don't get it for free you have to buy it okay whether here or somewhere you've got to get her stuff uh phenomenal Bible teacher and uh she's thankful that she's here today because if she was where she normally would be in North Carolina she said uh with 101 degree temperatures and all of that her hair would be out to here and I don't know those kinds of problems I cut it short and put lots of gel and hairspray in it so it looks like this every day so I don't know what those problems are but uh you all know those sorts of problems but you'll are you are in for a treat this morning uh why don't we welcome Melissa thank you for Melissa for being [Applause] here okay always do a little test is that good it sounds good to me so I can hear myself so I guess that's always helpful um well good afternoon or we're still in the morning aren't we these teaching times haven't we made it to the afternoon yet are y'all done I'm I'm wondering how you all take in so much all in one couple of days um thanks so much for having us we have loved being here we felt so welcome um and it's just been such a treat to get to be here and and even in the sessions just the fellowship that we've all had um so thanks so much for inviting us and welcoming Us in all these ways um and thank you in my sessions for always participating when I ask and stare at the crowd does someone please have an answer um I won't do that in this session you just have to hear me talk the whole time you should have outlines youall have I give these for a couple of reasons one I'm a visual learner so I like it I also when someone's really boring I want to know when will they be done I don't know which category I'll fall in for you but at least you'll know she's almost there um and I put all the kind of verses I use and some of the quotes I'll use just for you to have because sometimes I hear a quote I'm like I want to hear that again and then I don't have time to write that fast so it's here if you want it um I love the passage we're going to be talking about today is something wrong oh yes oh can I keep this one oh they're all out thank you and and actually I do have another one if anyone needs one yeah sorry I can take this one I can keep this one I think it's about the same is that okay we pretty good okay and we can get more after and I can email it to someone if they need it um this passage we're going to look at today is one I have loved for many years and so I'm really excited to look at it and to be thinking about the Trinity as we look at it um I realized I had this wonderful moment it wasn't really wonderful at the time when I realized that my son loves this passage too I was walking by his room one day and you you catch something out of the corner of your eye when you're walking by a child's room and his is always a mess um but as I walked by I noticed some something a Miss on his headboard and as I got a little closer to his headboard I realized my son has carved something into his headboard he is going down he's going to be in big big trouble and so I get really close and I look what does he think is okay to carve into his headboard and when I get really close and I look at it and all of the sudden I stop because he has carved the words John 15 1 through five with three little crosses and I'm like Oh my son loves this passage too you and I have this whole moment of I'm like oh this is so sweet and then we did have a whole conversation later that you can love a verse and not have to carve it into your headboard just because you love it so I've asked him to stop doing that if he can although I did find Romans the other day was also carved into his headboard he didn't listen but I'm okay with it because I'm glad he's loving God's word but just like he had etched these in his headboard I would say these these verses are etched in my heart I love them they have been very true of my experience of my walk with Jesus so I look forward for all of us to get to go into them um and read them and hopefully learn as the spirit teaches us so let me open us in prayer and then we'll jump in Father we thank you that you are a God who invites us to abide in you that you welcome us to yourself and that you provide Within the Trinity everything we need to abide in you Lord I pray that we will be women who stop rushing and rushing to and fro Every Which Way and become women who sit still and know that you are God help us to be those women meet with us now as we sit together in your word speak and teach us all it's in your name we pray amen um so I want to give a little bit of background about where we are in the The Book of John before we jump into the actual text because I always think it's helpful to know where we are um John is one of those great books in Scripture that actually tells you why he wrote it it's really helpful in John 20 he told us that many signs had been done but that these have been written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and by believing have life in his name so that is why he has recorded the different signs specifically in the Book of John and what's interesting about the signs in the Book of John is that they build as they go so the first sign Jesus changes water into wine at the wedding and it progresses and each one gets a little more significant a little bit more significant until finally we get to the death of Lazarus and Jesus raises a man who has been dead for three days and so all along the way John is showing his readers Jesus is something different but what's really interesting about the Gospel of John is that over over half of the book is spent on the last week of Jesus's life so it's as John is saying here are all these small signs I want you to look at them but here's what I really want you to get here's the real Miracle the real Miracle is the resurrection and so he focuses all of this attention and it matters what an author puts a lot of time into and so he focuses all this attention on the last week of the Life of Christ and that's where this passage takes place we've just been if you remember in John 13 um in John 13 Jesus washed the disciples feet he sat with them he ate with them he sent Judas away to betray him we are told from the Gospel of John that he is deeply troubled in spirit this is where he is as he sits to have this conversation with his disciples so he's just eating they're going out for a walk in a garden and this is what he takes the time and you at this moment I would would be really tempted to think I need some alone time I'm getting ready to Bear the sin of all the world um let's let let me just get by myself but he loves his disciples and these are the last words he gives them and I think last words are really important what would you say to the people you love the most when you know you're getting ready to die and these are those words so I think they take on great significance when we think about them as these words that he wants to give them so let me read I'm actually if you have your Bibles I'm actually going to read John 15 1-8 all that's printed is 1 through six but I'm GNA go through eight so if you have your Bibles open up and then we'll jump in this is what it says John 151 I am the True Vine and my father is the vine dresser every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit already you clean because of the word I have spoken to you abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me I am the vine you are the branches whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing if anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and Withers and the branches are gathered thrown into the fire fire and burned if you abide in me and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples so what we're going to do with this passage we're going to take it and look at it in four ways the person in whom do we abide we're going to look at the problem what hinders us from abiding we're going to look at the process what does it actually mean to abide and then we're going to look at the produce what are the fruits of abide of A Life That's spent abiding in Jesus um and so the first thing I think it's important to look at is the person um what Jesus has done through the Gospel of John you may be familiar with all the I am statements he's every at every stage of his Teaching Ministry he has declared himself to the Israelites with I am statements throughout the Book of John and he always does it while he's referring back to Old Testament truths so when he's feeding the 5 he says I am the bread of life and he's also at the same time having a conversation about Moses who gave them bread the Israelites are asking about that and then at another time when he says I am the Good Shepherd he's speaking to the bad Shepherds of Israel and he's hearkening back to Ezekiel when there's this promise that the bad Shepherds will replac by a good shepherd and so he does this time and time again and this is true of this Vineyard imagery that he uses it may not be as familiar to most of us but but Israel was referred to in Isaiah 5 as a Vineyard and it was a Vineyard that the Lord planted um and he took care of it and he tended it but it only produced wild grapes it did not do what the vineyard was supposed to do and in Psalm 80 there is a promise of a new Vine that will come and when this happens this is what it says it says have regard for this Vine and it says let your hand be on the man of your right hand the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself then we will not turn back from you give us life and we will call upon your name restore us let your face shine upon us that we may s be saved so Jesus is picking up on this Vine imagery and he's saying I'm him I'm Psalm 80 I'm the one you have been waiting for to come and replace what Israel could not do through the law I am here to give you the nourish M that Israel and the law never could and essentially what Jesus is saying is that Christianity is not about nationality it is not about even theology it is not about having a right way of thinking about the world he is saying it is all about a person and I am that person and and he is also saying In this passage I think it's really apparent that this person is a Triune person and this person is inviting us to abide and he invites us through the work of the three persons I love how you see it in this passage and there's a little bit more that gets a little bit later in John with the Holy Spirit which we'll talk about but what I think he calls us to is we abide he says in this that we abide the words of Jesus the work of the father and through the power of the holy spirit in us and so first Jesus when he's talking to his disciples he says this it's kind of an interesting statement already you you are clean because the word I have spoken to you now this is an interesting thing and it's really kind of different for our ears um because we think of ourselves as pretty clean people I think y'all all look clean to me um relatively um in my in my vision you do but the Israelites I don't know if you've ever read through the Bible in a year when you get to Leviticus you're thinking maybe this wasn't the right choice for my year normally and I did this a couple years ago when I was looking at this text and I had been in Leviticus for at least 3 weeks and I remember picking up my bible to read it and in my heart I was thinking I know I'm going to be told one more time how unclean I am and all the different ways you can be unclean and every day it was a new way if you do this you're unclean if you do this you're unclean if you do this you're unclean everything if you walk past someone who might have once been unclean you're unclean and it goes on and on and on and so when the when the Israelites hear this when these disciples hear this this read it from that perspective already you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you being clean for a Jewish audience is a big deal and he is doing something really specific here the word he uses is actually kathos it's actually the same word for pruning so he says you are pruned and then he says the father's going to prune you and In this passage he's really pointing now one thing he's saying he's saying the words spoken to you he's not just saying people who listen to the word are okay because he's already rebuked if you go back to John 5 he rebuked the Pharisees and this is what he said you do not have his word abiding in you for you do not believe in the one whom he has sent you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life it is they that bear witness about me yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life Jesus is essentially saying his disciples have accepted him as the word who has become flesh and because of that they are Justified this is what Jen was talking about yesterday Jesus is Calling himself he justifies them and this is vitally important when we think about our abiding we do not have to get ourselves cleaned up in order to be women who can come and abide in the Trinity so often I don't know if you're like me you're struggling with a sin and you think well maybe I'll have that quiet time when I've already got this all sused out when I get it so that I'm okay I don't want to go to God with my mess well this is telling you something when we are Justified God declares us clean Jesus is saying you are clean there's no other way for you to be so there is the freedom we have so I want you to think as we think about abiding the first thing is that we have access if we are in Christ because we are clean so we can go before a holy God and we can abide in him but secondly we abide in the continuing work of the father it's not just that Jesus justifies us we continue in this and so the passage is essentially saying you are pruned and the father's going to keep pruning you and this is that beautiful interaction between justification and sanctification you are clean and you're being made clean those things are not mutually opposed you have have been declared clean but God is always in the process of making us more like Christ and so both are true and so we have in this passage that this promise that the father will prune those who are already connected and bearing fruit now I don't know about you when I hear the promise that God is going to prune me I don't get really that excited I hear that and I here's what I am Vision I Envision these big Clippers coming at me and I'm thinking this is really going to hurt um about two years ago I went to the dentist for a routine checkup and it was one of those I felt fine when I went in and they took some X-rays and they said you have a little cavity that we need to fill so I came back in in a couple weeks I'm sitting in the dentist chair once again I had I felt nothing bad when I walked into to the dentist I sit there and he suddenly pulls his hands out of my mouth and he takes his mask off and he says you know you have an exposed root so rather than just a filling we're going to have to do a root canal so what was supposed to be a little 30 minute Quick Trip they moved me down the hall it's the bad Hall is what I call it they moveed me down the bad Hall and they stuck me in the chair and all of the sudden my mouth is open and they're putting all of these things they're Drilling in the back of my head they're sucking things out and honestly it felt like torture I don't know if any of you used to watch the show Alias but she was a yeah she basically was a spy and at points they would rip her teeth out and this is what I felt like was happening to me um and as I'm sitting in the chair I'm thinking I think I could make it if I tried to fight here maybe I could make it but I I didn't do that one it would be very embarrassing if I tried to fight the dentist but there were three things that held me in that chair and the first thing that held me in the chair is I knew the dentist wasn't torturing me he was there for my good he actually was a good dentist and he was caring for me the second thing that kept me in the chair was I knew I actually had work that needed to be done if I had gotten up and that Nova cane had worn off I would be in a bad place so there was actual Decay that needed to be taken care of and then the third thing I kept thinking as I'm hearing the drills and leaning back is I kept peacefully trying to say to myself soon I will be home and all of this will be over and I kept repeating that to myself and I think this and as I was thinking about it sitting in his chair I was like this is what the father is doing when he prunes us and the reason I can trust in those hard hard times is because I have a good and competent Gardener he knows exactly where to cut he knows exactly what to do and the reality is why I may not feel in pain pain when I get in his pruning I have work that needs to be done it's there and it needs to be taken care of and the third thing when we're in those pruning Seasons that we can really rest in is that one day we will be home and we will be made fully in his likeness and there will be no more pruning and we can sit in those moments and we can trust that what he is doing is good it's for our good and one day it will be over the fact that it's limited is greatly encouraging when we are in different seasons of pruning I love how Thomas K said it he said and listen to this this is what our God does he said sin brought Affliction into the world and God makes Affliction carry sin Out Of The World Isn't that beautiful Affliction sin brought Affliction into the world and God uses Affliction to take sin out and Thomas Brook says this sometimes God's children must see the world's emptiness to be acquainted with Christ's fullness he is always working for our good as the father prunes and then lastly we abide through the work of the spirit in John 14 a little bit further down this passage this is what Jesus says and I will ask the father and he will give another give you another helper to be with you forever even the spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it needs neither sees him nor knows him you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you so there's this kind of question when we're commanded to abide in Jesus because it's kind of like well you're not here you went to heaven you're seated with the father but here's this promise of the Holy Spirit and listen to what it says you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you so this is every member of the Trinity is part of our abiding every they are all working this one God is working in every way to provide us access to abide in the vine it's a beautiful thing Our God does not just work to save us he works to be in relationship with us he wants not just to be our ticket to heaven but to be our abiding friend through all of life in some sense that we would know him intimately he desires a relationship with us that will not begin in heaven but that starts now and will only grow and grow and that will be what we continually look forward to more and more as we get closer to heaven so we have this wonderful wonderful invitation we have provision to get us to be able to abide but the reality is for most of us it can be a struggle so I want us to think through a little bit about what hinders us from abiding when Jesus says abide in me why do we so often run from this time and I want to look at three things unbelief idolatry and Disobedience what is not on this list is very important the word busyness is not on this list because I do not believe in the church today that we have a busyness problem I think we have a belief problem we spend our lives on whatever we believe will ultimately bring us satisfaction and the reality for most of us is that we don't honest ly believe that abiding in Jesus really makes that much difference we may think we're not clean enough to abide in him so sometimes it's our sin that speaks to us and Whispers lies saying you're not good enough he wouldn't want you to come to him and those are just lies but sometimes it's just life and we start believing that life is in doing and being and it can even be good things like Ministry but all of these things we start believing life is there we have to do them and so our unbelief that time with Jesus is the most important thing in our day will always lead us into idolatry in some way um there's a Passages and this is in your outlines it's in 2 Kings this passage to me um is just one of all those one of those sobering passages this is what it says 2 Kings 17:15 this is the Israelites they rejected his decrees and the Covenant he made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them that they followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless they imitated the Nations around them although the Lord had ordered them do not do as they do and they did the things the Lord had forbidden them to do do you hear that verse they followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless the reality is when we put our hope and trust in that which has no meaning Our Lives become meaningless and that is what we are so tempted to do when we Chase and we chase after the things of the world so I want you to ask some questions when you think about how unbelief might be leading to idolatry think about what who or what do you trust in on a regular basis is it your bank account is it your spouse is it your children what are you trusting in what are you spending your mental energy thinking about as you go on dayto day Derek Thomas I once heard him speak and one thing he said what do you think about when you're not thinking about anything where is your mind drifting as you go through your day what are you spending your money on what are you spending your time doing where do you think you say to yourself if only this then I would have joy those are the places we are most whatever we trust in is most likely to become an idol if it's anything other than Christ himself and so our unbelief leads to our idolatry and our idolatry will always lead us into Disobedience just as it did the Israelites they did as the other nations did even though the Lord had said do not do as they do and so the reality for us disobedience is basically the opposite of abiding it is running from the plans the Lord has for us and it is saying to God I'm not really sure you know what's best for me and it's TR trusting essentially in my own judgment for me me and I say I think I know better in this situation if you were in my session earlier I drew a big picture of a circle and I drew and I said in that big circle is all that God knows and if we and that's greatly limiting him and then I drew a little bitty Dot and I said if we greatly overestimate who we are We Are The Dot and so this is the dot looking at the infinite god of the universe and saying I don't think you're reigning very well I don't think you really know what you're talking about and this is what we do every time we disobey we say I the finite small being and telling you the God of all the Universe I would run it better and let me show you and this passage that we read in John actually has two B bookends of warnings that we really need to pay attention to in verse two it says every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and in verse six he says if anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and Withers and the branches are gathered thrown into the fire and burned I don't know if you've ever worked with vines I grow tomatoes and so when winter Comes The Vines have just turned to dust and the reality about a Vine is it is good for nothing you know if you have a tree that falls in you could take the wood and you could do something with it you could make a peg Vines are really actually quite easy to clean up because they just go Dusty I mean so all you can do is throw them away or as he said burn them and the reality for us is apart from Jesus we are dry brittle Barren branches and I think it's important when we look at this to really acknowledge two truths in Scripture that are very important to Note One the doctrine of the preservation of the Saints okay when I say say that what do I mean if we are Christ we are never removed from the vine if we are abiding in him our sin does not Chop us off he might prune parts of us but we always remain however another truth that is seen all throughout scripture is that there are those who are in the church who come to church who are not actually connected with Jesus they have a outward Association but no inward affection it would be the example of the difference between Peter and Judas of the disciples both walked with him both appeared to love him both spent three years walking with him Peter denied him Judas betrayed him Peter return he was truly Christ and he was abiding but he just he had sinned but he was still he remained Judas had an outward association with Jesus he had no inward affection so let me say to each of us here do not be okay with an outward association with Jesus it is not okay to just be a person who goes to church and checks the Box Hebrews says this take care lest there be in any of you an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the Living God exhort one another every day as long as it is called today that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin in every one of our congregations there are people there who do not know Jesus they may look like they know Jesus they may appear to have fruit but if we are in Christ the fruit will continue and the fruit will last and so we need to reckon with that all those who are Christ will be Christ but the reality is we need to always make sure we have an inward affection for the person of Christ and so those are our warnings because our unbelief will lead to our idolatry and it will lead to our Disobedience and we have a strong warning in this passage do make sure you are connected to the vine so we need to heed that so that's the person the problem what keeps us I want to look practically at the process and John 15:7 gets to this a little bit if you abide in me and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you Jesus is essentially giving us the blueprint for how we abide in him we need the word and we need prayer we he speaks to us through the word he has given to us and we speak back to him through prayer I want to give you four P's because we have a lot of P's I'm sorry I'm going to give you four more of them hopefully they will help you remember of practical ways to actually bring this into your life plan participate persevere and Purge first we need to plan to have time and the word and time in prayer um um I want to just dispel the notion that it is legalistic to plan time with the Lord my husband and I a few years ago recognized that we were not doing a good job of spending time together so thankfully we had phones that have these wonderful apps that now every Wednesday once a month it comes up date night and once a Wednesday every in there we also have a lunch date so every other week we have either a lunch date or a dinner date I have never once when those come up looked at him and said to him now this is a really legalistic way to pursue me I have always looked at him and said where are we going I can't wait I'm glad to get out of the house with you even though I love you Emma U I'm glad to get time with you um it's not legalistic to plan time with someone you love it's what you do when it's a relationship with someone what we do not get when we we spend time with Jesus there is no angel sitting up in heaven with a gold star chart and saying well look you did your quiet time today we do not earn righteousness because we spend time with God each day but let me tell you this you will know you are righteous because you read it in his word he will not love you more because you spend time in his word but you will not know of his love if you miss reading in his word that's what gives us the assurance that we're deeply loved it is us who will miss out on the Deep truth of God if we do not spend time in his word and prayer but so I just want to encourage you plan time I like to say plan what to study and like to say plan when you'll study for each person that's different but I encourage you it helps me in a busy life to know okay I'm doing this book now I'm studying it this way I love using study guides um Jen has a great first Peter one if you need one I just did it this year those are really helpful to keep you in the word on a daily basis and sometimes you know what you need you need a friend saying what does this passage mean you need a friend to prompt you and ask you and those study guids can be great to do that but I encourage you to plan what you're going to study and when you're going to do it during the day the second thing I want to encourage you is to participate in community with the church the reality is the Christian Life is never meant to be just God in Me even as Jesus says abide in me guess what you're abiding in when you abide in him you're abiding with everybody else who's abiding in him there is no Lo there are no lone branches they're all connected to the same Vine so part of our walk and part of our growth in Christ is being connected to one another and let me say that will come with both blessing and that will come with Brokenness I am not inviting you to I'm not telling you to abide with a perfect people but I am telling you you need the church no matter what has happened with the church in your past the church is a place um last fall I had a really bad car wreck and I had a concussion these were the people who came and they're bringing me meals our kids would not have eaten anything other than fast food if it was not for those people but I can also tell you that in the past two years we had a situation with a friend that was probably the most painful betrayal that my husband and I have ever been through and it was someone very close to us and it brought me closer to Christ because I never understood in that way what it must have felt like for Judas to be the one to betray because you have to be close enough for it to hurt that much and it so in that I knew Jesus in a new way because of even the Brokenness of community so God will allow us to know him him through the blessings of seeing Community provide for us and also the Brokenness we will exper experience so we do not have to fear either of those we run to Christ in both of them and we will know him more in both of them third thing persevere if you come to your Bible sometimes with sleepy eyes and it doesn't seem to be saying anything to you that is normal I think I think I can say that now safely um um keep going I have found it's interesting the more I have cooked the more I taste flavors that make me excited about food um because now when I taste food I taste the hints of the herbs I love so I'll say oh that's Rosemary or oh I sense the mint in that the same is true about scripture the more you taste of it the more you start to see hints of the Gospel everywhere and the more excited you I don't like food less let me tell you I like it more with every every passing year and the same is true of scripture it grows richer and deeper and deeper and deeper and I I don't think that'll ever stop because we're studying the God of all eternity and so we start to see hints of him and his character everywhere in scripture the more that we study it so keep persevering lastly um we're going to have to purge if we want to make sure we hold on to the best thing we are going to have to let go of some really good things it might be that you choose not to do certain sporting activities with your kids because you know it will make your life too busy to spend time in the word it might be that you say no to some service opportunities because you know you need to spend time in the word remember what that passage says apart from me you can do nothing the best thing you can do for your community is to be a woman who is rooted and grounded in God's word everything else will flow from that say that to yourself every day the best way you can love your family the best way you can love your church the best way you can love your community is first to begin abiding in Jesus because apart from him you can do nothing nothing so I encourage you on this plan participate persevere and Purge what you need to so that you can concentrate on the most important thing okay last thing the produce what are the results when we abide and this is good news um when Paul you know we're told in John 15:5 whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing Philippians when Paul is praying for him he prays that their love would abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that they can discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ to the glory and praise of God so the first fruit I want to talk about and obviously in all of this one the fruit that we display is Galatians 5 love joy peace all of those fruit are going to be continually welling up through different seasons as we abide in Christ but I also think there are some specific things that we gain from abiding in Christ and the first is discernment there are a lot of decisions each of us have to make that aren't necessarily in scripture we might know that God wants us to be hardworking but we have no idea what job to take um we we may know that God wants us maybe to get married but we have to make a decision one day who is that person going to be the more that we spend time with the author of all that is good and right he will give us increasing discernment for all that is good and right does that make sense so as we spend time in his presence he changes what we understand to be good and he gives us great discernment in those things the second thing we we actually Bear the fruit fruit of righteousness now I know if you're like me I feel like I feel like I I seem worse every year sometimes but the reality is slowly he is changing us to be more like Christ and I call this type of righteousness Victorious humility um and and I found this I I lived with the same roommate all four years in college and by the end we started to dress alike look alike and just be alike um people would get us confused on campus and what happens when we spend time with Jesus is we start looking like him but here's the good thing when we start bearing fruit in Christ we know it is all because of his influence on our lives um I want you to picture with me for just a moment two apple trees and they're off in a distance and they both look like trees but as you get closer to them you realize that all of the fruit on one tree has been tied on it's not actually an apple tree it's been hard work that tied all the fruit on and I think that is what happens when we are women who say In My Own Strength I am going to love that person who I cannot stand you know and I am going to be patient with those children and you and we are tying on the strings and and let me tell you that kind of fruit always comes with strings attached and there are two strings the first is Judgment we look at our entry and we say I have done a pretty good job it is covered with apples look at her tree it's not and so we look down on other people who aren't as quite as good as us don't have it as right as us or the second string is despair because we see somebody else's tree with more fruit and we despair that we have not worked hard enough and we get on this rat race of having to do more and more so if we're wondering if our fruit is Spirit born fruit we should start to say am I despairing a lot and am I judging a lot it helps us know what kind of fruit we're bearing on the flip side the fruit of the when fruit is born from abiding in Christ and the spirit alive in us these type of women you know what they look like they are worshiping women when they see fruit on their tree and they see maybe less on someone else's tree they don't judge they say come let me tell you about Jesus let me tell you what he's done in my life this isn't about me this is about what God has done in my life and I can't wait to tell you about he can change you too they're worshiping women and when they see that they have failed and they have less fruit than someone else you know what they remember you're already clean because the word I've spoken to you and they worship and they say it doesn't matter that there's less fruit on my tree Jesus Christ saved me I'm safe I'm with him for all eternity the only thing that really matters is I'm his and he is mine and they worship worship so the heart of a woman who is abiding in Jesus and abiding in the Triune God is worship that's what we should be looking for in our own lives so we do have this increased righteousness but it is righteousness that worships because she knows it's not her own the third thing we have is Assurance a woman who abides in Christ he becomes her friend she wants to talk to him about things that are going on in her life she turns to him and increasingly she has assur assurance that my beloved is mine and I am his so we have this deep Assurance but the last thing and the most important thing we find in John 158 by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples the whole ultimate hope of our abiding is these other things are great but the thing we really want is we become women who rightly reflect their creator we start working as though we were made to work and we glorify him by our good works and so the world watching sees the fruits of the Christian and they glorify God who is in heaven and this is ultimately what the what Jesus asked us to pray for the very first thing of the Lord's prayer Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name you see what Jesus is doing there he's setting our desire on the most important thing that God's name would be glorified no matter what happens and so as we abide in the triing God he produces fruit through his spirit and God is glorified the fact that we can be women who bring him glory and honor is what we hope most when we abide in him so I just want to encourage you in this that the Triune God invites you provides for you to come and abide in him and he wants to meet with you so I encourage you run to to him and be with him let me close this in prayer father we thank you that you have not left us as orphans but that you have come and you have rescued us from the Dominion of darkness and brought us into your kingdom of light and we have the opportunity to sit and abide in you help us to be women who believe that you are the most important thing who sit at your feet and learn from you Lord we pray that you would do this in our hearts we love you we thank you you and we praise you for christ it's in his name we pray amen thanks y'all