Bearing Fruit

I mentioned earlier that we've had our second in the series of our Kingdom of God Bible seminars. Those are, like I mentioned, going to be ongoing. We're going to have those on a periodic basis here in the next few months. We're planning to do that on a consistent basis. And of course, the reason for that is that's our job. The reason for that is that that's the mission. That's the commission. That's the direction that God gives the church of God. That Christ gave to His disciples and that they were then to expend their energy and time and life preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Teaching that to others. Teaching others what it was that Christ taught and directed them to do. And as I know you know, a couple of weeks ago, I went over the parable that Jesus gave about the sower and the seed and the soil. And about how it is that, as Jesus described, the sower spreading the seed, that seed was the Word of God. That seed was what it was that people truly needed. Now, what kind of soil? Those were the things that we discussed as far as several different types of soil that the seed fell on.

And, now, as we discussed those four categories of soil, the fourth one was the good soil. The good soil that all of us want to be a part of. We want to be a part of that and we want to be bearing fruit for the Kingdom of God. And I think a part of that is just our involvement, our excitement, our desire. As Mr. Parks was mentioning in the sermonette, redeeming the time at this time, thinking about how it is that we have a focus, that we have a priority of furthering the preaching of the Gospel. And yet, I also want to mention, as we studied in looking at the good soil in the parable that Jesus spoke about the sower and the seed and the soils, the people that were represented by the good soil were to bear fruit. They were to produce fruit. And I want to discuss what kind of fruit it is that Jesus is wanting us to produce. Because, you know, it really is important that we understand. That we understand what He is expecting us. He's expecting us to obey, yes, because we do that out of gratitude, out of thankfulness, out of appreciation for the sacrifice that's been given to us. But beyond that, He also wants us to be bearing fruit. He wants us to bear fruit of a specific type. And we need to be, I think, thinking about that in order to do so. Here in John 15, you find another example of what Jesus describes in bearing fruit. And in this chapter, this is actually a beautiful chapter and one that I know we'll be talking about and covering even more as we work here in the next month or five or six weeks to the time of the Passover.

This chapter points out, as Jesus very clearly states, that I'm the vine. My Father is the vine dresser, the husbandman. He's the one who's tending the vine vineyard. And yet, what Christ reveals is that I'm the vine and you're the branches. Telling the disciples, you're the branches. You're the branches that are to bear fruit. Of course, He mentions in verse 2, He removes the branches that don't bear fruit. So we don't want to fall into that category. We think we have to analyze, even again, as Mr. Parks mentioned, how are we redeeming the time? How are we, what kind of selections are we making in how we utilize our time?

But He says in verse 4, in order for us to be productive, in order for us to produce the fruit that He wants us to produce, He says, Abide in me, abide in me as I abide in you. He's actually giving a very direct key as to how, as an individual who has received the seed in the good soil, as to how we can be successful, how we can be producing the fruit that He wants us to produce. Abide in me as I abide in you, just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. How important is that, brethren? How significant is that? This is actually far more significant than we probably really think about, that we really consider that we have to be abiding in Jesus Christ. He says in verse 5, I'm the vine, you're the branches. Those who abide in me, and I in them, are going to bear much fruit. Because actually, apart from me, no fruit is born. So He's basically telling us we're very dependent. We're dependent on Jesus Christ, on His life, on His words, on His way.

In verse 7, He says, if you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. See, He's talking about bearing fruit, and I'll go back to this after a little bit. I'd like to drop on down to verse 14. Because Jesus was concerned about His disciples. He wanted them to be productive.

He wanted them, as He sent them forth in preaching the gospel, He wanted them to succeed in doing that, and succeed in cultivating others who would become a part of the Church of God through their preaching. That's what He was actually directing them to do. In verse 14, He shows a very intimate relationship with them.

And this is important, as we think about abiding in Jesus Christ, we want to understand how concerned He is about us individually. How concerned He is about each of us, personally. No matter what we may be going through right now, because different ones of us are going through different trials and different tests at this point, no matter what we may be going through, Jesus Christ views us in a certain way. He says in verse 14, you are my friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. And certainly we're trying to do that. We're trying to achieve the part of this that we can do something about as we follow His directives, as we follow His commands. But He says as you obey, as you respond, as you yield to my command and directive, you're my friends. You are my close intimate friends. And He says in verse 15, I'm not going to call you servants any longer, because the servant doesn't know what the Master is doing, but I'm going to call you my friends. Do we think of Jesus Christ as our very, very closest friend? Because He certainly is far more than that. He is God. He is the high priest. He is the ruler, the sustainer of life. And He can be described in a lot of other ways. And of course, we also look to Him as our Master and our Lord. But see, what He says about us is that I look to you not just as my servants, which you are, but I look to you as my friends. I look to you as people that I am nurturing, that I am concerned about, that I want to bear the fruit that He's going to describe here. He says, but I'm calling you my friends, because I've made known to you everything that I've heard from my Father. See, we can be the friends of Jesus Christ, because we are learning about what it is that the Father told Christ, and what Christ then extends to the Church. What He tells us, what He gives us, the guidance and direction that He gives us. About what? All about the Kingdom of God, about the future of mankind, about the fact that there is a good answer. There is a solution. We're pondering right now. We're blundering right now, here on a world scene. Nations kind of chaotically vying with one another, and right now we're not directly so much in major warfare, at least not worldwide warfare, like we've been at times in the past. But we're certainly not at peace. We're not at rest. This world needs something to come, and that's what we proclaim. But it goes ahead to say that I'm calling you my friends, because I've revealed to you what I'm doing, and what the Father wants me to do.

What the Father wants you to do, and He says in verse 16, you didn't choose me. And of course, this goes to our calling. It goes to our understanding of being drawn by God to Jesus Christ. Being drawn to be a part of the church. A part of the Church of God that would proclaim the message of the Kingdom of God. That's where we are, but He says, you didn't just pick me. You didn't choose me, but He says, I chose you. That's a very, very significant factor. And that, of course, stands out. That should stand out to all of us. Because God knows about you. In some ways, that's pretty scary. In some ways, that's scary to me, because I know He knows about me. He knows everything about me. Some that's good, and some that's not so good. Some that may be bad. But He knows all of it. And yet, what He says is that, you've not chosen me, I chose you.

And I appoint you to go and bear fruit. This is what I want for you to do. Go and bear fruit. Fruit! So what kind of fruit does He want us to bear? He wants us to bear fruit that will last. Fruit that will remain, I think the King James says. Fruit that will remain.

And as you do that, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask Him in My name. As we are abiding in Jesus Christ, as we are living by His directives and commands, as we are living as His friends. We are directed by Jesus Christ to bear fruit that will last. Fruit that will remain. So what kind of fruit is that? Well, I would at least directly say that that could be referring to a lot of different kind of fruit. But the type of fruit that I think that we could say will always remain is fruit of faith and trust in God.

See, those are very broad topics, faith and trust in God. But the fruit that's going to remain, the fruit that He wants us to bear, is the fruit of faith and trust in God. Because that is going to improve our relationship with God. It's going to enhance our prayers and our prayer life. And it's going to allow God to help us. To help us. To give us the power. Give us the ability to bear the fruit that He's wanting to see. And as we live with faith and trust in Him, that's exactly what He's doing. The first thing I want to mention, we might answer the question of why God is so interested in us. Why is He interested in making us the friends of Jesus Christ? Why is He concerned about that? And why is He so concerned about our lives? In Hebrews 1, you see in the first chapter or two of the book of Hebrews, you see some remarkable statements that Paul was inspired to write. And of course, he was writing these to the Jewish people. He was writing them to the Hebrews, to the people who already were familiar with much of the Old Testament. But they were people who were very much connected to Moses and to what God did through Moses and through Israel. They were very familiar with. They were familiar with the history of being the people of God. In some ways, they relied on just who they were, who they were born to be.

And yet, he points out something here in verse 1. Long ago, God spoke to our ancestors, chapter 1, verse 1, in many and various ways through the prophets. And that certainly is the history that you read about in the Old Testament, that the prophets didn't always consistently act in exactly the same way. God did a lot of different things through different people at different times.

And yet, He says in these last days, He has spoken to us through His Son. See, what He's focusing on is, this is what you want to look at. This is what you need to keep in mind. This is, in essence, a part of the first things first. This is a part of seeing the trunk of the tree, keeping our eyes on that first thing.

In these last days, He's spoken to us by His Son, whom He's appointed heir of all things, and through whom He's created the worlds. See, the focus here in the first few chapters of the book of Hebrews is on Jesus Christ. It's on how important Jesus Christ is, how fabulous His role is in the world. And, of course, He's making a differentiation here between the angels, who are simply created beings. The angelic realm that God rules over. He rules over the entirety of the angelic realm. He rules over all of the good angels. He rules over the bad angels. He rules over Lucifer. Even though he has become the adversary, even though he's become the devil, God is more powerful. God is more able. God has more capacity than anything that Lucifer can do, or that he can encourage the spirit world to do. See, God rules over that. And, of course, what this chapter points out is that Jesus Christ is far above any angel, of any type, of any power, of any category. And in verse 1 of chapter 2, He says, Therefore we should pay greater attention to what we've heard so that we don't drift away. He said, I want you to pay attention. I want you to be especially concerned about what He's going to go ahead and talk about here. And starting in verse 5, He said, God did not subject a coming world about which we're speaking. See, He's talking about the kingdom of God. He's actually writing in chapter 11 about the listing of people who were people of God. People who were people of faith. And He says, all of these people were looking for something in the future. They were looking for a future kingdom. They were looking for the kingdom of God. What they needed, they didn't get in their lifetime. What they yearned for, what they wanted. And so here He's saying this, God did not subject the coming world about which we're speaking to angels. So here He's going to explain what it is that He's actually doing as far as His plan is concerned. In verse 6, He says, someone has testified somewhere. Now, I'm not sure exactly why He made that statement because He could have just as easily said, David said, back in the book of Psalms. But He didn't. This is quoting from Psalm chapter 8. Maybe we could go back there. Psalm chapter 8. Because this is a song that we sing. This is a psalm that has tremendous meaning. And yet it appears to be a psalm that David was writing, praising God, honoring God, worshiping God. He said in verse 3 of Psalm 8, when I look up into the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established. David spent a lot of time outside. He spent a lot of time caring for the sheep. He was a shepherd and was very interested in... I mean, you would think that he would be very attuned to the outdoors. He said, every time I look up into the heavens, every time I watch the phases of the moon, every time I see the consistent movement of the stars. Because those are things that you can learn to follow if you watch them any. The moon is much easier. You can see it real easily. And you can know when it's full and you can know when it's new. Of course, if it's new, you don't see it. If it's new, it's very, very faint. And you can start seeing a tiny little sliver of it eventually after a day or two or three.

And yet, David looked up into the stars and he looks into the heavens and he looks into the... I would assume, the throne of God, to look up to see where God resides. And he said in verse 4, what are human beings? What is man that you are mindful of him?

And mortals, man that you care about them. Verse 5, you've made them a little lower than God. A little lower than the angels. You've crowned them with glory and with honor. You've given them dominion over the works of your hands. You've put all things under their feet. All sheep and oxen and beasts and birds and fish. Whatever passes along the paths of the sea. Here, David was making a statement about how the God had actually created human beings with the potential. He had created them with a capacity that was far greater than the rest of the animal world. Far greater than the rest of the creation that we see on earth. And yet, you find, as you turn back to Hebrews 2, that Paul actually adds something completely different.

Or in addition to what David wrote, because what David stated was correct. And that man had been given the Spirit in man to be able to unite with the Spirit of God. That's what made man different. Men were different. Men were given a certain level of dominion over the physical things on this earth.

And yet, here in Hebrews 2, he says in verse 7, you've made them a little lower than the angels. You've crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet. See, that part of it, Paul quotes, that part of it he mentions here. And then he adds a little different dimension here under the inspiration of the Spirit of God.

He says now, in verse 8, in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them. See, even though God created us with the potential, He created us with the desire to be able to learn as far as His purpose, His plan, His reason for us. Now, He's not subjected us to everything as yet. That's yet to come. That's what we're going to have in the future. That again is what our sermonette mentioned, that we are in preparation for that. We are in development for that. To be a part of a divine family, that he's going to discuss here a little more. But He says right now, we don't see everything in verse 8 put under man. Not yet. But what we do see is Jesus. What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was made a little lower than angels. And yet now is crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone.

See, He has come and He has lived His life perfectly. He has offered Himself as the Lamb of God and in sacrifice for sin. And yet it goes on to say, it was fitting in verse 10 that God, for whom and through all things exist, it was fitting that God in bringing many sons to glory, bringing many children, many sons and daughters to glory, because that's what God is in the purpose.

That's His purpose. That is His plan. That's what He is doing. It's fitting that God in bringing many children to glory should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. See, Jesus Christ went through a great deal of suffering. We read about that as we read the Gospels. We read the different accounts. We think about that on an annual basis. We cover that usually around the Passover time. And so it's something that we can't avoid.

In our physical lives, we're going to do a certain amount of suffering. We're going to go through certain trials that we wish would go away. We wish they'd go away soon. But sometimes, God has greater plans. He has greater plans for us than what we might initially think. But He goes ahead to say, in verse 11, The one who sanctifies and those who were sanctified all have one Father.

To here He gives us a little more insight into what Jesus was telling His disciples. He says, I've selected you. I have chosen you. I desire to cause fruit to bear in you. I want you to bear fruit of faith and trust because you're my beloved brethren. You're my beloved family. And here He's going to describe that. Verse 11, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brethren. He's not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters of His. He calls us His servants.

He calls us His friends. But even more than that, more intimately, He calls us the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. And He says in verse 12, I'll proclaim your name to my brethren in the midst of the congregation. I'll praise you. Or in verse 13, I'll put my trust in Him in the latter part of verse 13, Here I am and the children whom God has given me. So here are statements that He's drawing out of the Old Testament that state or show the type of close connection that Jesus Christ has with us, allowing us to be a part of the church of God, allowing us to be His brethren, allowing us to be His friends.

And of course, in doing this, He's sharing with us what He has. See, He right now has. He's sharing in the family of God with the Father. The Father and the Word make up the family of God today. And yet ultimately, we too can make up a part of that family. We can be a part of that family as we bear the fruit of faith and trust that He so very much wants us to grow in as His little children. He's far more concerned about us, far more concerned about each one of us than He is about the angels. The angels come and go.

They are ministering spirits, sent and do whatever it is God directs or wants them to do. He rules over, as I mentioned, Lucifer's powers. That's a part, even though the power that He has is pretty widely extant here on the earth.

If we rely on Jesus Christ, if we rely on the Spirit of God, then we have nothing. Nothing to fear. We can overrule because of the help of God. We can overrule any obstacle that Satan puts in our way. The reason for that is because he looks at us as the children of God. He looks at us as the brethren of Jesus Christ. And so, how is it that children are viewed to the God family?

How important is it to think of ourselves in that way? Now, we can't certainly take any credit for that. We can't say that we've done anything that has warranted that. And you can go through numerous Scriptures that would say, I didn't call you because of any righteousness that you have. But He says, I called you because I love you. I called you because I want to relate to you. I called you because I want you to respond to me as the children of God.

In Mark 10, I want to cover, secondly, here a section that we often read, mostly right after the Feast as we get back into our congregations and we have a blessing of little children that is simply following a pattern that Jesus set, that we read about in the Gospels. But I'd like for us to think in connection with what we're talking about today and the bearing of fruit, the fruit of faith and trust in God.

How is it that God looks at us? Well, very emphatically, Jesus was very concerned about little children. Here in Mark 10, verse 13, people were bringing little children to Him in order that He might touch them. And the disciples spoke certainly to them. They're going to find out that they didn't understand Jesus very much. They're going to find out that, well, little children were not to be run off.

I don't know if it had been all that great to be rebuked by Jesus for what they were doing. They probably wanted to point fingers at each other about who was telling them to believe. You know, it wasn't me. They were probably making all kinds of excuses. But what Jesus said in verse 14, when He saw this, He was indignant. And He said, let the little children come to Me and do not stop them.

Because He said, it is to such as these, these little children, that the kingdom of God belongs. See, this is something that Jesus states in three of the Gospels, in Matthew and Mark and Luke. He points out that this incident was recorded and it's highlighted for a reason. Because Jesus is very concerned about us. He's concerned about us. He looks at us as the children of God. And here He very clearly says, little children, let them come to Me for as these that the kingdom of God belongs.

Verse 15, truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never receive it.

Unless we become, even though all of us are quite a bit older than children now, at least many of us are, I guess some in our congregation would be children. Most of us are over 20, or 40, or 60. Some of us are over 60, some few of us. But God still looks at us as His children. Jesus gave direct statements about children that connect to the kingdom of God, that connect to how it is that children relate to their parents. And He said in verse 15, I tell you, if you don't receive the kingdom of God as a little child, then you'll never enter it.

And certainly we all want to enter. We want to become a part of the kingdom that Christ is bringing to this earth as He intervenes in world affairs and stops the chaos. Stops mankind's hatred of each other. Stops the distress that is certainly going to even get far worse before Christ does intervene.

See, how is it that little children are toward their parents? How is it that they should be toward their parents? Now, there's a lot of different descriptions that you could make about little kids. It seems like it's getting further and further away that my wife and I had any little kids to take care of. I guess we have grandchildren now, and yet we don't quite have the same direct connection with them as we had with our boys when they were small. I remember when Brett was, you know, he couldn't have been too big. Had to have only been three or four. I could easily hold him up. And yet, I remember just playing with the boys and having fun with them and hopefully taking care of them. But I remember, it had to be fairly small, that Brett used to stand up. He'd just stand up real rigid, real straight, put his feet together, and stand in my hand. And I could pick him up and walk around like this. You know, he'd just be rigid there in my hand. So he couldn't have been too heavy, or I wouldn't have been able to do that. But, see, he very much trusted me. He had faith that I was not going to hurt him. And I don't ever remember hurting him, at least doing that. There have been times when I probably inadvertently did something that might have hurt him, but he was very confident that I was going to just hold him.

Wherever we went, if I walked around, he would just be standing there in my hand. See, I think that's the way that God wants us to look to Him. As little children, trusting, believing, faithful, clearly dependent.

See, those are the qualities or the attributes that you see in little children before they become polluted by the attitudes of growing up and being adults. Polluted by the way the world would prefer people be. Somewhat jaded, not trusting, not pretty well kind of out for themselves. That's what we become as we grow older. And we have to fight that. We have to fight that type of selfishness, that type of self-centeredness that's very much a part of human nature. And children acquire that as well as they grow in this world. And yet, what was it that Jesus was teaching? What was it that He was saying about the family of God? What was it that He was saying about how interested He is in us? Well, He said, let the little children come to Me. That's important. We have things we can learn from little children. And we want to be able to focus on the qualities that He says that we can exemplify. And some of those would be faith and trust in Him. So the last verse in this section, verse 16, it says Jesus took them in His arms. He laid His hands on them and He blessed them. See, that's again an example that we often read if we have a blessing of little children's ceremony.

But it's far more important than just something we have in a ceremony. It's more important than something we just do on a periodic basis, an annual basis. Because it has to do with the children of God today. It has to do with sons and daughters being brought to glory.

And that's the Christian lives that we are living. The lives that we are living as we abide in the vine. As we trust that He will produce fruit in us. Fruit of faith, fruit of love, but fruit of faith and trust is what I want to focus on right now. The book of James, I want to go to this last section here. In the book of James, because you find the book of James written in many ways to exemplify faith. It points out a number of different things about faith and about how we can live by faith and how we can enjoy living by faith. It shouldn't be something that we shy away from. It should be something we thrive in. It should be that we thrive in living by faith. And primarily, even though there are other topics mentioned here in the book of James, you see the topic of faith mentioned quite a bit. But I want to focus on the latter part of it because it gives us a lot of encouragement. It gives us a lot of exhortation. As God's little children, how is it that we should be toward one another? What is it that we might expect that we would live into and through with the help of God? Well, He says in verse 7, this could apply to our preaching the Gospel. It could apply to our doing the seminars that we're doing. It could imply to our reaching out to other people in whatever way we are able to do that. But He says in verse 7 of chapter 5, the latter part of James chapter 5 is what I want to focus on.

In verse 7, be patient, beloved. Be patient until the coming of the Lord. Now, when James wrote that, there was at least 1,900 years going to pass before the Lord came. He's yet to come to all of us. He is still saying through the pages of the book of James, be patient, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. Then He gives several examples. He said, the farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the latter rains. He gives an example of a farmer. He says that the farmer plants the seed. He hopes that it rains some early and then some later. Ultimately, those for its wheat, it actually sprouts. It should be up more than it is right now, around here. It's pretty small right now. And yet, ultimately, with a little more rain and with a lot more warmth, there will start being plants and then ultimately stocks and heads and grain that will be produced in a stock of wheat. He says, you should also, in verse 8, be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. It's at hand. See, that's what all of us have to keep in mind as we redeem the time, as we think about how it is that we use our time in drawing close to God and in abiding in Jesus Christ.

Verse 9, he says, don't grumble against one another and should be not judged. See, the judge is standing at the door. He doesn't want us to be in conflict. He doesn't want us to be divided. He doesn't want us to be in opposition. He wants us to love one another.

And he goes on to say in verse 10, as an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Indeed, we call blessed those who showed endurance. And we've heard the endurance of Job and we've seen the purpose of the Lord, how that the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

Here he uses an example of a farmer waiting for fruit to be produced. He also uses an example of the prophets. They didn't always see a lot of response. Actually, in many cases, they saw little response.

You can see Jonah, he got some response and didn't even like it. He hated it that an intimate changed. I think that was a temporary change, but nonetheless, Jonah didn't even like that. See, he was preaching the Word of the Lord. He was saying what God told him to say and he didn't really want the end of it to change. He wanted them to get it. He wanted them to be damaged. He wanted them to fall prey to the Lord and to what God would say would happen if they didn't change.

But he says also regarding Job, and of course the whole book of Job is somewhat of a long book, but it points out that God allowed Job to go through a great deal of suffering.

But Job was a very precious child of God. He looked at Job as a child of God. He looked at him. He caused him to come to see that he wasn't good enough to be in the family of God on his own.

What he showed him was that you need a Redeemer, Job. You've got to be redeemed. And when Job finally saw that, when he finally realized that he repented in dust and ashes, he said he saw himself like he had never seen him. He was very righteous before. He was a very good man. He did a lot of the right things.

But apparently God wanted him to understand even more about how God looked at him and how it is that he had heard him at the hearing of the ear, but he had never really seen God. He had never really had the relationship with God that God was going to cultivate. That God was going to cause to grow in his servant Job. And ultimately you see Job seeing that. And God having to answer him out of the whirlwind or out of the tornado, whatever it was, that God, however he spoke to Job, he got Job's attention. And Job could no longer say, I've been alright, I've been doing well, I've been righteous, I've been doing whatever. He could list many, many good things that he was doing. I said, I don't care. That's not what I'm interested in. I want you to know how much you need me. I want you to know how much you are to rely on me. I want you to know what it is to have faith in God. And of course ultimately Job was restored, as we know, in the last few verses of chapter 42 of Job. We know that God helped Job. And even after he caused Job to see himself, really to come to himself, like we see in Luke 15. You see the prodigal son coming back after seeing himself.

He finally came to himself and he said, whoa, I need the help of the Father. I need, I'm not worthy to be called a son, but I see I need my Father. And so he went back. God honored that clearly, and you can see through the example of the Father, you know, just awaiting the time that he would return, awaiting the time that he would see himself and see he needs to come back. But as we think about this, we see a lot of encouragement that's here. You also see Job praying for others. He was praying for his friends. God actually told him to pray for his friends. He said, I'm not even going to listen to these friends of yours because they're still wrong. But I ask you to pray for them. And of course, God did accept Job's prayer as he prayed for them. Down to verse 13 it says, to the people of God, is any among you suffering? Well, then they should pray.

Verse 13 of chapter 5, is any among you suffering? Then let them pray. Or any cheerful? Then let them sing songs of praise, as we've been doing here in services, as we should do in services. We should come before God and rejoice.

So if any of us are cheerful, then we ought to sing songs of praise. Verse 14, are any among you sick? And you should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. And he says, the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise them up. And anyone who is committed sin will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins one to another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.

See, it actually ties together, and I know that this is where we often get, and even though you also see illustrations in the Bible that don't directly tie together any type of an illness with a direct sin, per se.

Maybe there are things that we do that contribute to our ailments, whatever they might be. But you don't find that that's always the case. And yet, what we do find, it says anyone who has committed sin will be forgiven. And so, confess our sins one to another. But anyways, maybe sharing our infirmities, sharing the concerns that we have with one another, as we do with our prayer requests, and we don't directly go through everything about a person's life. We often go through what they're suffering, what they're going through.

And so, I perhaps could also refer, I think, to sharing with one another things that we can pray for one another about. And that, of course, is something that we all share together. And of course, ultimately, the latter part of verse 16 is that the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.

The fervent, effective prayer of the righteous man avails much. We want to fit that category. We want to pray for one another in that way. And even as he goes on in verse 17 and 18 to say about Elijah, Elijah prayed that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't. A long time. Great drought in Israel at the time.

And then when he prayed that God would send rain, it did. God did send the rain. Now, was Elijah a perfect human being when he did that? No. You see, in the next chapter, he's scared to death. Scared Jezebel's going to kill him. He's trying to flee. He's actually asking God, let me die. I don't even want to live. God wasn't finished with Elijah, but he said Elijah prayed, and God heard that prayer, and God answered that prayer. He gives that an example in connection with the prayer of the righteous availing much.

The prayer of us for one another avails much. And so, I think it's amazing to see how God honored Elijah's request. So, Elijah prayed first for no rain, and then later for rain, and God honored that request. He did what he was going to do there in dealing with the nation, the city, the country of Israel, which was what he was directly involved with at the time.

And yet, when you see that, you see that these things are written for our... If we're going to live by faith, if we're going to live by trust in God, then we're going to pray for one another. We're going to seek God's help and God's intervention and God's healing. And that, of course, is what he wants us as his children to do.

He looks at us as his children. He wants us to bear fruit of faith and trust. And that's actually what we read here if we go back to John 15. It's what we read in the very beginning, because as he said in verse 4 of chapter 15 of John, He said, I will abide in you just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself, and let it abide in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

See, this was exactly what Jesus was telling his disciples. I want you to live lives of faith, of trust, of dependence, because you are growing to be the children of God. You are growing to take on the divine nature. You are growing. There could also be a lot of other fruit that we could mention. But I want to just focus on faith and trust, because what he tells us, in verse 7, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask what you wish and it will be done for you.

He wants to hear from us. He wants to hear our pleas. He wants to hear our cries. He says that we are to come to Him in faith and in trust, and as His little children, that He will hear and He will help.

I think another thing that you also see in verse 7 is simply, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, he points out another aspect there, not only abiding in and understanding, believing, relying on and trusting Jesus Christ, but he says, My words need to abide in you. See, how much do the words of Christ abide in us? How much are they a vibrant part? See, again, as Dr. Parks mentioned, we have certain obligations throughout the day. One of those is studying the Bible. That may be something we look forward to. That may be something we just do because we have to. Maybe something that we forget. But what Jesus said is that, My words need to abide in you. And there's a lot that we can say about that. So, I want to just add that here at the end of the sermon because, as we learn to be the children of God, as we learn the type of trust and faith that He wants us to live by, He also wants us to abide in His words. And there's a lot that we can say. I'll probably cover some of this next time. Because there's a lot we can say about how we study the Bible. How we pursue learning from the Bible, the words that He wants to abide in us. There's a lot of fascinating things that we can cover in that. So, I hope that we all can share in the type of growth, in the type of bearing of fruit that He wants His children to share in. As we live our lives with faith and with trust as the little children that God is looking down upon in a very loving and very blessed way. Because that's the way Jesus looked at the little children. He picked them up in His arms. He wrapped His arms around them and He blessed them. If we're drawing close to God, we should feel that type of closeness to our Heavenly Father.