"These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full."
I want you to hear those words. Jesus is not calling you to abide in order to add one more thing to your to-do list. He's saying—these things I have spoken to you so that your joy would be full.
Scripture Focus: John 15:8, 11; Nehemiah 8:10; 2 Corinthians 3:18
"My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples... These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full."
"The joy of the LORD is your strength."
"We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory."
What does abiding produce? Jesus tells us directly. The Father is glorified by this—that you bear much fruit.
The closer we live to Christ, the more fruit we bear. Ephesians 5:9 says the fruit is all goodness and righteousness. Galatians 5 gives us the list—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. Those are not isolated characteristics you pursue in your own strength. That's the fruit God brings out from within you. It's organic. The Spirit transforming you as you remain in Christ. Second Corinthians 3:18 says you become like that which you behold.
A light bulb doesn't need to tell you it's on. It just is. You see it. And you don't need to tell someone you've poured salt on a meal—they taste it. Same thing with the Christian.
But I want to stop on verse 11.
There are times when I'm studying where I lean forward, and then I'll lean back and just have to sit with something for a few minutes. Verse 11 was one of those moments.
"These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full."
It's possible—as much as you've heard about the mercy and grace and love of God—that the sermon you preach to yourself on a regular basis is that you are a profound disappointment to Him. I want you to hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ: You bring Me joy.
My second daughter, Scotty, she's three. And I'll be watching her just do her thing. And I'll look at my wife and we'll just mouth to each other—because we don't want to interrupt whatever she's doing—and just say, "I love her. She's amazing." If you're a parent, you know that feeling. "They bring me joy. I'm so grateful to be their dad."
And out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, He says, "I speak these things to you so that My joy would be in you."
You're not a disappointment to God if you're in Christ. We can grieve God. We can disobey God. We can dishonor God. But He condescends to our level. He says, "You bring Me joy. And I want My joy to be in you."
The joy God has when He looks at you is not because of you. It's because of Christ. Your standing before God had nothing to do with what you did in the first place—it's all about what Jesus has done for you.
It's very possible to live the Christian life, to sing about God's grace and love, and yet to never experience the feeling that God's smile could be upon you as one of His children.
And Jesus says these things to you because it's very possible to live a life stripped and starved of the unrivaled joy offered to you by the Lord Jesus Christ. When He bids you to abide, it's not to steal your joy. It's to give it.
1. Is the sermon you preach to yourself that you are a disappointment to God—or that you bring Him joy because of Christ?
2. Are you living in the miserable middle—not participating in sin, but not experiencing the fullness of knowing God either?
3. What would change if you genuinely believed that God's joy rests upon you not because of what you've done, but because of what Jesus has done?
Stay dialed in
