Introduction:
Three Evidences That You Love Jesus (John 14:15-24):
- You keep His Commandments . (John 14:15)
- You have the Holy Spirit . (John 14:16-20)
1 Corinthians 3:16 - Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
Five Facts about the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17):
- He is a Gift to everyone who receives Christ. (John 14:16)
- He is God, just as Jesus is God. (John 14:16)
- He Permanently lives within you. (John 14:16)
- He Reveals God's truth. (John 14:17)
- He's Unavailablenavailable and Unknown to the world. (John 14:17)
- Jesus is Real to you. (John 14:21-24)
1 John 5:3 - For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
1 Corinthians 16:22 - If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:54-01:00
John chapter 14, are you there? Do you remember that old Meat Loaf song?
01:03-01:13
I would do anything for love. I would do anything for love.
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Get ready because your part's coming.
01:16-01:20
I would do anything for love.
01:23-01:26
Yes! I knew you wouldn't disappoint me on that!
01:26-01:27
Thank you!
01:29-01:31
But I won't do that.
01:34-01:36
You know, I, um...
01:36-01:41
When it comes to my wife, Erin, I have not yet found a "that".
01:43-01:46
I haven't found the thing that I wouldn't do for her because I love her.
01:47-01:54
Because I've learned over the last 19 years "that love makes you do some crazy things." True or false?
01:56-01:58
Some of you were a little too quick on that one.
01:59-01:59
(audience laughing)
02:00-02:01
Love makes you do some crazy things.
02:02-02:21
You know, for years, Erin was like, "I wanna get chickens." I'm like, "What about our family looks like chicken farmers?" Like, yeah, I was kinda like putting it all, then one day she calls me, she's like, "Yeah, I'm a tractor supply and they're 50 cents a piece." I'm like, well, we'd be losing money to not buy them now.
02:23-02:24
So guess who has chickens?
02:24-02:26
Yes, yes, guess who has chickens?
02:26-02:28
Yes, we have chickens.
02:30-02:33
And if it's not chickens, it's puppies.
02:34-02:47
You know, there was the time that Aaron said, "Hey, let's just take a drive to Ohio to look at this puppy." Like, we're gonna drive for four hours to Ohio and look at a puppy and not come home with it.
02:50-02:52
I was born on a Tuesday, but it wasn't last Tuesday.
02:54-02:55
Guess who came home with a puppy?
02:58-03:00
We brought two the last time.
03:00-03:02
We brought two the last time.
03:02-03:02
We're like, hey.
03:04-03:07
So the brothers have puppies that are brothers, which is fun.
03:09-03:11
But yeah, crazy things love has made me do.
03:12-03:15
One time we were at the rodeo.
03:15-03:17
We've gone to the rodeo a lot.
03:17-03:20
Any rodeo fans here love the rodeo?
03:20-03:20
Okay, some of you.
03:21-03:34
One time we were at the rodeo, and I'm by no means exaggerating, Aaron can verify this story, but they came over the loudspeaker and said, we just wanted to let you know that there's a tornado passing through this area.
03:34-03:36
The show will continue.
03:36-03:39
However, if you choose to evacuate, please leave in an orderly fashion.
03:40-03:42
Guess who stayed for the rest of the rodeo?
03:45-03:52
♪ I would do anything for love ♪ And that's where it ends for me, right?
03:52-03:54
But that's what we're talking about here.
03:56-04:00
In John chapter 13 through 16, we're in the last supper.
04:01-04:06
And Jesus started this whole teaching by talking about loving one another.
04:08-04:14
And in this passage we're looking at today, he's addressing our love for him.
04:16-04:19
You see, Jesus demonstrated his love for you.
04:20-04:24
Romans 5:8 says, "While we were yet sinners, God demonstrated his love.
04:25-04:27
Christ died for us." That was the demonstration.
04:28-04:29
So, listen, church.
04:29-04:32
Jesus' love is not in question, okay?
04:32-04:33
His love for you is not in question.
04:34-04:35
It's been forever established.
04:36-04:40
The real question is, not does he love you, the question is, do you love him?
04:42-04:42
That's the question.
04:45-04:54
And when we say, "Do you love Jesus?" I'm not saying, "Well, I'm not opposed to Jesus." That's not loving Jesus.
04:56-04:58
Or if you say, "Well, how can you ask that?
04:58-05:01
I'm in church, ain't I?" That's not loving Jesus.
05:02-05:09
Or even if you would say, "Well, you know, I get these warm gushy feelings about Jesus." That's not even loving Jesus.
05:12-05:13
Do you love Jesus Christ?
05:15-05:17
And if you're like, man, I think I do.
05:18-05:19
I think I do.
05:22-05:24
Yeah, I think I do.
05:27-05:35
Well, how would I know if it's like I really love him or if it's just like sentiment or a concept?
05:35-05:37
How do I know that I really love Jesus?
05:38-05:42
Because at the end of the day, that's all that matters is that you love Jesus Christ.
05:44-05:55
So if you're wondering that, if you truly, definitely, sincerely, genuinely love Jesus, I got some great news for you today on your outline, three evidences that you love Jesus.
05:56-06:00
These are from the words of Jesus himself, so we're not gonna get it from any better source.
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These are three evidences that you love Jesus.
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Number one, write this down, you keep his commandments.
06:09-06:10
You keep his commandments.
06:10-06:11
Look at verse 15.
06:13-06:21
Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Stop there.
06:22-06:24
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
06:26-06:30
Now we show love to different people, persons.
06:30-06:34
We show love in different ways depending on the context, right?
06:35-06:39
Like for my dog, Wanda, I show her I love her by throwing beef jerky at her.
06:40-06:41
Like, I love you, here you go.
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When I show love to my wife, it looks a little different.
06:45-06:48
Okay, I don't throw beef jerky at Erin.
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I'm afraid what she'll throw back.
06:53-06:57
So it's different, the way we show love to different people, it's in different ways.
06:58-07:01
Do you remember the five love languages?
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Raise your hand if you know about the five love languages.
07:04-07:13
Okay, do you remember like 20 years ago, maybe a little more than 20 years ago, that was all churches could talk about.
07:13-07:14
Do you remember that?
07:14-07:15
How many people remember that?
07:15-07:20
I talked to so many people that were like, yeah, my pastor's preaching through the five love languages.
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They were like so proud of that.
07:23-07:25
My pastor's preaching through the five love languages.
07:27-07:31
And I would say, oh, we're preaching through the Bible at our church.
07:32-07:33
I mean, you do you.
07:36-07:37
We're preaching through the five love languages.
07:37-07:38
Do you remember what they are?
07:39-07:43
It was like words of affirmation and gifts, yeah.
07:43-07:48
And like physical touch and quality time.
07:48-07:49
And what are we missing here?
07:50-07:51
Don't feed them after midnight.
07:51-07:52
Don't get them wet.
07:52-07:53
How does that go?
07:54-07:58
Anyways, it was all about the way that you give and receive love language.
07:58-08:00
But what's Jesus' love language?
08:01-08:03
How do we show our love for Him?
08:04-08:13
Because you know, when it comes to Jesus, we can't exactly send Him a letter, or buy Him a gift, or give Him a hug, and even words aren't in.
08:16-08:21
What does Jesus say communicates love for Him?
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He tells us right here.
08:23-08:30
Jesus right here tells us, "This is my love language." It's obedience.
08:31-08:32
That's Jesus' love language.
08:32-08:33
Did you see that?
08:34-08:35
It can't be any more clear.
08:35-08:41
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
08:45-08:49
This is the way that you show your love for Jesus Christ.
08:49-08:51
It's not just a way.
08:51-08:56
It's not, this is a way some people show love for Jesus and not others.
08:56-09:01
The way that you show Jesus you love Him according to Jesus is by keeping His commandments.
09:02-09:04
And don't get it backwards, okay?
09:04-09:05
Don't get it backwards.
09:06-09:15
It's not that He loves us when we obey Him, it's we obey Him when we love Him.
09:16-09:17
Do you see the difference?
09:20-09:23
You aren't saved by your obedience.
09:25-09:28
But saved people obey Jesus.
09:29-09:29
Why?
09:29-09:31
Because saved people love Jesus.
09:32-09:33
That's just all there is to it.
09:34-09:34
Right?
09:37-09:39
Love has to be the motivator for obedience to Christ.
09:39-09:40
It has to be.
09:43-09:49
Because in general, there's lots of reasons that someone might obey someone else.
09:49-09:50
There's lots of reasons.
09:50-09:56
I mean, kids will obey their parents for fear of losing their privileges, but not necessarily out of love.
09:58-10:06
Dogs will obey their master for a treat, which is really a selfish motivation, but not necessarily out of love.
10:09-10:19
And you and I are going to obey the rules at the airport because we don't want to get thrown in prison, but not necessarily out of love.
10:20-10:26
But we are called to obey Jesus, church, out of love.
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Because love is the highest and the purest motivation for a Christian to obey Christ.
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It all boils down to a heart issue.
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It's a heart issue.
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It's, I love Jesus Christ because I believe that he's God therefore he knows better than me.
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And I just, I want to honor him and I want to represent him.
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And I want to do everything that he has called me to do because he's so awesome.
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And I know he loves me.
10:56-11:02
And this is my way of showing that I love him and I'm on board with everything he's doing.
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That's the heart of a Christian.
11:07-11:10
So church, why do you forgive people who sin against you?
11:12-11:14
Yes, forgiven people forgive, so I've read.
11:15-11:17
Yes, it makes for peace in the church.
11:19-11:21
But sometimes we just don't feel like forgiving.
11:22-11:23
So why do we do it?
11:23-11:24
We do it because Jesus commanded it.
11:25-11:27
And you show your love for Jesus by keeping his commandments.
11:31-11:32
Why do you share the gospel with people?
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And sometimes that's very difficult.
11:39-11:42
But you do it because Jesus commanded it.
11:42-11:44
And you show your love for Jesus by keeping his commands.
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We talked a few weeks ago about the new commandment.
11:50-11:54
Jesus said that we're to love others the way that he loved us.
11:54-11:56
Like, why should I do that?
11:56-12:02
Why should I love people in the church the way Jesus loved me, self-sacrificially, graciously?
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Why should I love people in the church that way?
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because Jesus commanded it.
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And you show your love for Jesus by keeping his commands.
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Right?
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That's the evidence that you love Jesus.
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Do you love Jesus?
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Don't tell me words.
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Okay, don't show me your church attendance sticker chart.
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You know, don't tell me how active you're involved in your small group.
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Do you love Jesus?
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According to Jesus, this is the way it shows up, is you keep His commands.
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Secondly, three evidences that you love Jesus.
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Secondly, write this down, you have the Holy Spirit.
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You have the Holy Spirit.
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Look at verses 16 and 17 with me, please.
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Jesus said, "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him, nor knows Him.
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You know Him, He dwells with you and will be in you.
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Stop there.
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Jesus says to the people that love Him, to the people that obey Him, to the people that know Him, He's going to ask the Father to send another helper.
13:19-13:21
That's the paraclete in the Greek.
13:21-13:23
It's an advocate or a counselor.
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Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit.
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Remember last week Jesus talked about the greater works that His people would do.
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greater than Jesus did. And we said, here's how that's going to happen. Instead of Jesus going out himself doing things, he's going to put his spirit in all of his people. And as we spread out through the world, Jesus is going to be working worldwide through his spirit.
13:52-14:07
This is how God works. And now Jesus is again talking about the Holy Spirit. See, This is God's chosen method of revealing his presence in the church age.
14:08-14:13
You know, like if you lived in Old Testament Israel and somebody said to you, "Where is God's unique presence?
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Where's God's unique presence?" You would point to a building, the temple, and say, "There is where God's unique presence is.
14:19-14:27
It's in that building." And then when Jesus walked on the earth and you said, "Where is God's unique presence?" You would point to Jesus Christ and say, "God's walking around right there.
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God is in that man.
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God is that man.
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That's God's unique presence." Now, where is God's unique presence?
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Where is it?
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Is it in a building or one person?
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No.
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God's unique presence is in everyone who believes in Jesus Christ.
14:47-14:58
That's why 1 Corinthians 13, 16 says, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you have God's Holy Spirit.
15:00-15:01
You are the temple of God.
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Just as the building was, just as Jesus was on the earth, now you are the temple of God's spirit.
15:14-15:17
I'm going to go through this next portion very quickly.
15:17-15:22
But Jesus in these two verses says a lot about the Holy Spirit.
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Again, I'm going to go through this quickly.
15:23-15:25
You can take a re-listen if you need to.
15:25-15:27
It's important that we cover this.
15:28-15:31
Five facts about the Holy Spirit from verses 16 and 17.
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Five facts about the Holy Spirit.
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Number one, he's a gift to everyone who receives Christ.
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Loving obedience is the mark of a true believer, as we've established.
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And to those true believers, Jesus here promises the Holy Spirit.
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And so many times in scripture, the Holy Spirit is referred to as a gift.
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He will send the gift of the Holy Spirit, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
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over and over and over, you see that.
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Why is that so emphasized?
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Because you don't earn his presence.
16:00-16:01
As I look at me, God, I've been good.
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Will you come in and dwell me because I'm trying really hard to be good.
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That's not how it works.
16:06-16:06
He is a gift.
16:09-16:11
Indwelling every believer upon their belief.
16:12-16:16
Something else regarding the Holy Spirit, I wanna remind you is he doesn't come in chunks.
16:17-16:18
He doesn't come in chunks.
16:18-16:19
Like, why are you saying that?
16:19-16:22
Because people say, well, just need more of the spirit.
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You need more of the Spirit.
16:24-16:25
Like, what are you asking for?
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Like God's like, you're getting the Spirit, but like at 20%.
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And you do better, I'm gonna send you the rest.
16:32-16:33
That's not how it works.
16:34-16:38
If you're a believer, you have God's Spirit residing in you, okay?
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He's a gift.
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And he's the ultimate gift, because God doesn't just give us stuff, God gives us himself, right?
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So he's a gift to everyone who receives Christ, Let it be, he is God, just as Jesus is God.
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Understand the Holy Spirit is God.
17:00-17:02
He is nothing less than God himself.
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You see, Jesus said, "I'll ask the Father and he will give you another helper." I'm gonna talk about that word another, because in the Greek, there are two words for another.
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Heteros and Alon.
17:24-17:27
Heteros means another of a different kind.
17:31-17:34
Like heterosexual, you heard that term?
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What does that mean?
17:35-17:41
Man and woman, they're both human beings, but one is a completely different kind of human being.
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And the other Greek word is Alon.
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That means another exactly the same kind.
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You see, the two words for another are completely different.
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Think about it this way.
17:57-18:18
Let's say you brought me a tray of cookies and you say, "Hey Jeff, I love you and I brought you some cookies." And I say, "Thank you." And I go to take one and I'm like, "What kind of cookie is this?" And you're like, "That is a mayonnaise chip cookie." And I would say, "I would like another one, thank you." What do I mean by another there?
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I want a different one, right?
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Or if you brought me a plate of Oreos, I would eat one and I would say, I want another.
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Meaning give me one exactly like the one that I just had.
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That's Alon in the Greek and that's what Jesus is saying here.
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The point is the Holy Spirit is exactly like Jesus.
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He's God.
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You understand that?
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The Holy Spirit is God, just as Jesus is God, just as God the Father is God, God is one who exists as three persons.
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And you're like, can you explain that?
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No, I can't.
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Because I'm just a human being that lives in time and space like you.
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But this is just what God's word says.
19:04-19:10
But the Holy Spirit does the things that God does because he does the things that Jesus did when he was with the disciples.
19:10-19:15
When Jesus was with the disciples, he counseled them, he comforted them, he convicted them, he ministered to them.
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And Jesus said, "Now another is coming to do that, just like me, he's just like me, except he's gonna live in you." Instead of God in the flesh beside me, I have God in the spirit within me.
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Like that's awesome, how long does he stick around?
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I'll go to letter C, he permanently lives within you.
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He permanently lives within you.
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Look again, verse 16, Jesus said, "to be with you forever." Forever.
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This is huge.
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What this means is the Holy Spirit doesn't come over and over.
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Like he was with me last Wednesday and he wasn't with me Thursday and Friday, but he came back Saturday just for an hour and I'm hoping he comes back today.
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That's not how he works.
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He indwells you forever.
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And see, especially to the disciples, this would have been so radical because in the Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit didn't work that way.
20:08-20:09
Study your Old Testament.
20:10-20:18
When the Holy Spirit shows up, He shows up for a season and for a reason, and then he leaves, right?
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He shows up and he gets somebody to like prophesy, or he gets somebody to do an unusual deed.
20:23-20:28
Remember a series on judges, how the Holy Spirit made Samson like super strong.
20:28-20:36
Like we see that in the Old Testament, the Spirit would show up and God would be at work in that person and then he would depart.
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Jesus said, "Oh, it's gonna be different.
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It's gonna be different because now he's going to be with you forever.
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Like what's he gonna do?
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Well, he's gonna manifest the fruit of the spirit, God's character qualities in and through you.
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The Holy Spirit's gonna work those things out in your life.
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Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
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God's gonna work that in you through his Holy Spirit.
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And he's going to give you spiritual gifts, equipping God's people to serve Jesus Christ in his church.
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but he's gonna be with you forever.
21:11-21:13
Five facts about the Holy Spirit, letter D.
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He reveals God's truth.
21:17-21:19
Interesting what Jesus called him, right?
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Jesus called him, verse 17, the Spirit of truth.
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He's the Spirit of truth.
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He wrote God's word and he works with God's word, giving us understanding and power and growing us in Christ's likeness.
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That's what the Holy Spirit does.
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And that's why at this church we go after the Bible the way that we do.
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Because this is the Word of God.
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Doing the work of God, because it's written by God, the Spirit of truth.
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So he reveals God's truth, letter E, he's unavailable and unknown to the world.
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He's unavailable and unknown to the world.
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Notice Jesus inserted here that the world can't receive him.
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They don't see him and they don't know him.
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The world thinks it's foolishness, right?
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For you to say, "I have the spirit of God living in me." Like, idiot.
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World thinks it's foolishness, why?
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They don't know him.
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They don't know him like you do.
22:31-22:40
Remember Pentecost, Acts 2, Peter full of the Holy Spirit gets up and preaches, and 3,000 people come to Christ, and what was the world's conclusion?
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They're drunk.
22:43-22:44
They're full of new wine.
22:45-22:47
They're just drunk.
22:49-22:50
Why would they say such a thing?
22:51-22:52
They don't know him.
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They just don't know him.
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Why would Jesus tell them this?
22:59-23:01
I think Jesus here was leveraging their expectations.
23:02-23:14
That Jesus was saying, "Hey, I'm gonna go and you're gonna be full of the Spirit and you're gonna go out and by the way, just because you're full of the Spirit doesn't mean that everybody's gonna think you're awesome." Because the world didn't recognize Jesus either.
23:15-23:15
Right?
23:16-23:18
So Jesus was saying, "Hey, you're not gonna lose me.
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You're not gonna lose me.
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I'm gonna be back by means of the Spirit and I'm going to stay in you and I'm going to indwell you." And he goes on to talk about how the spirit relates to him and the father and the disciples.
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Look at verses 18 through 20.
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Jesus says, "I will not leave you as orphans." Orphans, that word communicates the idea of helpless, like people that are unable to take care of themselves.
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Jesus said, "I'm not gonna leave you like that.
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I will not leave you as orphans.
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I will come to you." a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.
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Because I live, you also will live.
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In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." So how do you know you truly love Jesus?
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You have the Holy Spirit.
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Jesus said, "You know Him. He's inside you. You know Him." And if you're sitting here today, if you're watching this stream today, and you're thinking, "You know what? I don't know if I have the Holy Spirit.
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I don't know. I don't know if I do." Then you don't.
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If you don't know if you have the Holy Spirit, that means you don't.
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Because Jesus said, when you do, Jesus said, "You know Him." Because He changes you from the inside out.
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And don't tell me that the God of the universe comes and indwells your heart, and you didn't change.
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I'm not going to believe that.
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You're never going to be the same.
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You know you truly love Jesus because He promised the Spirit to those who love Him.
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So do you have the Spirit?
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Three evidences that you love Jesus.
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Number three, jot this down.
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Jesus is real to you.
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Jesus is real to you.
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Look at verse 21.
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Jesus said, "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.
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And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." I love this. Jesus said, "Whoever has my commandments has them." Meaning, I make them my own.
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Do you understand that?
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that the commandments aren't just like rules in a book, like words on a page.
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Jesus said when you have His commandments, this is how my Savior and my God said that I can truly experience life the way He intended.
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This means something more to me than just words on a page.
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That's what it means to have the commandments.
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Like, I get it. I so get it.
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And I love this.
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That's why John writes later in 1 John 5.3, he says, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." Look at this, he says, "His commandments are not burdensome." His commandments are not burdensome.
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Meaning people that love Jesus don't see it as a pain to obey Jesus.
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You just don't.
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Because obedience isn't hard to people that are filled with love.
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And that's the key to behavior.
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It's not law.
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It's love, right?
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The key to behavior is not law, but it's love.
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Like when I'm walking into a store and there's a sign on the door that says, "Mask required." Do I obey that?
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I mean it's written. Do I obey that?
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About 15 or 20 percent of the time maybe. If I'm by myself it's a lot less.
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But do you know something? When I'm with Aaron, we go into a place and there's one of those signs on the doors, I put it on. Why?
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Not because there's a rule on the door, but because I love her and I know how much she would rather avoid a scene or conflict or watching me give a pile driver to somebody in aisle five.
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I know she'd rather avoid that.
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So I put it on.
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Do you see the difference between doing something out of love versus doing something because it's written down?
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And when you grow in your understanding of God's word, you see it goes from words on a page.
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It goes from, "Oh, I understand why that's important." And it goes all the way to, "The God who loves me told me to do this for my own good.
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And in doing this, I show him that I love him." And the more you understand how much he loves you, the more, the easier it is for you to obey.
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Jesus, there again, he said it.
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He says it over and over here.
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"Whoever has my commandments, he keeps them.
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"He that is who loves me," look at this, he said, "He who loves me will be loved by my father." I think we totally get that, right?
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Parents, don't you love people that love your kids?
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Like that's like instant.
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If somebody loves your kids, you automatically like that person.
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Like, "Hey, he's all right." Right? You get that.
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And Jesus said that's true on a divine level.
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That God says, "Hey, you love my son, I love you." That's just how it is.
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You love my son, you're okay with me.
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Look at this last phrase here.
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Jesus said, "I will love him," and he says, "manifest myself to him." What does that mean, manifest?
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It means making himself known.
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It's real.
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It's relationship.
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It's this, Jesus is known and he's real to the person who loves him and keeps his commandments because he loves Jesus.
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And when that person does that, Jesus keeps revealing himself, manifesting himself to that person who's walking in obedience.
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And that's the greatest work of the Holy Spirit.
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more than any sign gifts you could mention, or even fruit of the Spirit and spiritual giftedness, the greatest thing that the Holy Spirit does is He makes Jesus real and known to the people that love Him and follow Him.
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Coming to Jesus is not just seen as a religious duty, it's not a philosophy of life, it's not an ideal that you seek to attain to, it's a relationship.
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Because if you're born again, the one thing that you want more than anything else in this world is to know Jesus in a deeper way.
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That's true of every born again person without exception.
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And that's why this church is going through this three year thing through John, knowing Jesus.
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Why?
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Because that's the most important thing the church can attain to and to grasp onto and to embrace is knowing Jesus.
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That's what we're going after.
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Now the mark of the spirit church is not signs like speaking in tongues.
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That's not the mark of the spirit.
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The mark of the spirit is the ever deepening consciousness of God's presence in your life.
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It's a progressive intimacy that grows as you walk with the Lord, as you live a life of obedience.
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Some of you right now know exactly what I'm talking about.
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You're sensitive to what God is doing.
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I see what He's doing.
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It's so clear.
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It's so clear.
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God's Word and His Spirit makes sense of the world.
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And He makes sense of my little part of the world.
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Jesus said when you love Him and obey Him, He's going to show up in your life in a way that you're like, Jesus isn't a character in a book.
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He is the living Lord in my heart.
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He said He's going to manifest Himself to me.
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Look at verse 22.
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It says, "Judas, not Iscariot, said to him..." I just want to pause here.
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I have this theory.
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Because you know there were a couple of disciples named Judas, right?
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And you know at this point in the story Judas Iscariot left, remember?
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"I have this theory that when John was writing the gospel here, this other Judas was sitting down beside him." And John's like, "I'm going to put this little account of when you were talking to Jesus." "Judas." And then Judas was like, "Yeah, write 'Not Iscariot '." "Make sure you put that in there." And John's like, "Well, they're going to know because Judas left earlier. They're going to know." And he's like, "No, put it in there." "Put it in there." "Fine, parentheses, not Iscariot, thank you." I don't want to associate it with that guy.
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But this other Judas in the other gospels, it's Thaddeus, all right?
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He goes by Thaddeus, but you can understand why he embraced that name instead of Judas.
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All right, where were we?
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Okay, "Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, And this is a really good question by the way.
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He says, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?" That's a really good question.
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Because if he's thinking, "Okay, Jesus is going to show up to us, but not through us." Like how's that possible?
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Because look, Jesus, either you're going to appear or you're not.
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Now, how are you going to appear in such a way that your people can look at you and see you, but the world doesn't even see you?
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Like how such a thing possible?
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And Jesus replies, verse 23, Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, "he will keep my word and my father will love him, "and we will come to him and make our home with him.
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"Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, "and the word that you hear is not mine, "but the Father's who sent me." Jesus says, "Here's how that is.
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"We only make our home with people who love me "and keep my word." That's how it works.
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The people that want nothing to do with Jesus won't experience his presence.
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and the way the people who love Him and keep His Word do.
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So if you're not obedient to God's Word, then you don't love Jesus.
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And I don't, he says it in the negative here, and I don't know any way that it can be more clear.
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It doesn't matter what Sunday morning job you have, it doesn't matter your contribution in your small group, if your life isn't marked by striving to know Jesus through obedience to his word, then you don't love Jesus.
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And 1 Corinthians 16.22 has a word about that, where Paul writes, "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed." Our Lord, come.
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So as I close and the worship team makes their way forward, I just need to ask you, you know, Jesus demonstrated His love for you.
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Are you demonstrating your love for Him?
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You want to grow closer to Jesus?
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You want to prove your love for the one who died for you?
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Well love isn't this abstract emotion.
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Jesus said love for Him is very practical.
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It's obeying Him out of love.
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It's allowing His Word to guide every aspect of your life.
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And when you do that, you can truly say, "I don't just know about Jesus.
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I know Jesus." Let's pray.
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in heaven. Sometimes I come to your word and there's something I don't understand and it's kind of troubling to figure it out. But God, sometimes I come to your word and it's super easy to understand and that's even more troubling. We come to a passage like this, Father, and there's great conviction. But I pray, Father, that you would allow that conviction to bring us to real heart conversations with you.
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Jesus made it clear if we love Him, we keep His commandments.
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If we don't love Him, we won't keep His commandments.
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And Father, I pray that we would all examine ourselves to see is there a striving in all things for obedience and repentance and seeking to turn from anything that is not honoring to you.
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Father, we thank You for Your Spirit.
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Sometimes we live like people that don't even know Your Spirit's around.
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When You've told us Your Spirit is in us and we will know Him, and He will transform us, and You will manifest Yourself to us through the power of Your Spirit.
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Father, I pray today that we take another hard look at Your Word, and as we revel in the great love that You have for us, at the same time we would examine whether or not we have love for You, and if we're showing it in a way that You've called us to.
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Thank You, Father.
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Thank You, Father, for the clear understanding of Your Word.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 14:15-24
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Why do you think obedience is the way you demonstrate your love for Jesus (John 14:15)?
Jesus said you know the Holy Spirit (John 14:17). Give specific reasons / examples of how you
personally know Him. How would you describe this relationship to someone?
Pretend a friend confides in you with this statement: “I truly want to obey, I really want to show Jesus I love Him, but I fail so often. I am so weak.”
→ How would you respond?
Breakout
Pray for one another.