What Attribute is Key to Being a Fruitful Christian?

Today, we are going to look at a section of Scripture that some scholars refer to as the farewell discourse of Jesus Christ. This discourse goes from John 13 to John 17. We are very familiar with those five chapters because we read portions of those chapters every year as we conclude our Passover service. In this section of Scripture, matter of fact, let's just take a moment here and turn to John 13. John 13 and verse 1. John 13 and verse 1. This kicks off the farewell discourse. Jesus talking to those closest to Him, His men. John 13 and verse 1. Before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come, that He should depart from this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. So what we're looking at in this farewell discourse is Jesus Christ realizing He doesn't have months to live. He doesn't have weeks to live. He doesn't have even days to live. He only has hours until His death.

When you know you're about ready to die, everything you say has a certain value to it. You don't engage in a lot of talk that has little to no meaning. Every thought, everything you're saying has a great deal of meaning. So Jesus began to share, starting here in John 13, going through chapter 17, thoughts that were very important for His men.

Important for them as they were to do their jobs for the rest of their lives. And important to us as well. Vital information for us as well in this day and age. What did Jesus Christ want to talk about?

Well, He talked about a number of things in this farewell discourse. Now drilling down, I don't have time to go through five chapters today. We're not even going to go through even one of those chapters altogether, but we're going to go through a portion of chapter 15, John 15. In John 15, you can break that chapter down into three portions. To outline that chapter, the first 11 verses of John 15, Christ talks about the relationship the disciples have with Him.

Starting in verse 12 and going through verse 17, you've got the second section of that chapter. The relationship the disciples have with one another. In the last section, verses 18 through 27, the disciples' relationship with the world around them. So today, we want to take a look at that first portion, John 15, verses 1-11, the disciples' relationship with Jesus Christ. And I want to ask a question and hopefully answer the question today as we look at that section of the farewell discourse.

The question we're going to ask is this. What attribute is key to being a fruitful Christian? What attribute is key? Or foundational? Or fundamental? What attribute is key to being a fruitful Christian? And of course, what we want to be asking ourselves, what I ask myself, what you ask yourself, are you, am I, a fruitful Christian? How would we know? Well, there's a section here in John chapter 15 that gives us the information we're looking for about whether we are fruitful or not.

So this being the Passover season, we'll be there before you know it, as you and I examine ourselves, certainly one of the things we want to ask ourselves is, are we fruitful? And as we're going to see in John chapter 15, if we are not fruitful, then the consequences to that are quite dire. We don't want to have those consequences visited on us.

Okay, let's start by going to John chapter 15. And all of this is in red lettering, the entire chapter. John chapter 15, verse 1. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. So here we've got essential information here about a relationship that's going to bear fruit. If we want to bear real spiritual fruit, we have to be in the vine, and the vine dresser has to be working intimately with us.

So we've got a couple of concepts here in this very first verse. The first concept is that there's a dynamic fruit producing stock. It's essential in horticulture to plant the right kind of vine, the right kind of tree, to get the right kind, the right quality of fruit. You know, when you go, if you're going out in the springtime to buy annuals to plant around the house, you don't go over to wherever it is you go to buy your plants and buy the most sickly looking plant.

You know, things that are just really droopy and kind of laying down. You want a plant that looks like it's got some vitality to it, it's been well watered, it looks good, and that's what you're going to put your money into. Well, the same thing is true spiritually. We want to make sure that the vine that we are a part of is Jesus Christ. No fruit can be better than the vine that produces it.

Jesus Christ said, I am the true vine. And unless you and I, brethren, are vitally connected to Jesus Christ, our fruit will not be acceptable because our fruit will not be of Christ. Matter of fact, there might not be fruit at all. Put a marker here. I want to go someplace. Those of you who go to our midweek studies, you will remember this section. Let's go to Mark 11. I actually probably can ask one of you fellows to come up here and do this. Not that we'd ask one of you ladies to do it. Ladies don't preach from the pulpit, but probably I guess some of the fellows here can get up here and go through this.

Mark 11, verse 13, And seeing from afar a fig tree, having leaves, he went to see if perhaps he would find something on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season of figs. In response, Jesus said to it, Let no one eat fruit from you ever again. At first glance, you might think, What's wrong with Jesus here? It says, It's not the season for figs, and he curses the poor tree. Does Jesus have a mat on here? Is there something wrong here? Or do we not really understand what's taking place?

One of the things before I give you the explanation here is, when there wasn't fruit, there was a curse. When you and I are thinking and asking ourselves as we analyze our lives about whether we're fruitful or not, it's a very big question. Same chapter, Mark 11, verse 20. Now, in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, remembering, sent him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered away. Now when we get back to John, chapter 15, we're going to see that some branches wither away.

We're going to analyze that. So what's the deal here? Why did Jesus Christ, when he saw a tree having leaves and he went to it and found nothing to eat, why did he curse it? The reason is this, brethren, in Palestine, fig trees produce their leaves in April. But in March, they produce these little buds that are edible.

And many times, that's what the poor would eat. So when Jesus Christ saw a tree that had leaves on it, and again, this is Passover season, when Jesus Christ saw the tree that had leaves on it, he should have expected those little buds. There were no buds. There was no fruit. When there's no fruit, it's cursed.

I need to ask myself, do I want to be cursed? What kind of fruit do I have? I better have some. You know, you go to the parable of the talents. What happened to the one man who had the one talent did nothing with it? He didn't produce fruit. What happened to him? Well, he was cursed, wasn't he? So one concept is, there's got to be the right kind of stock here. And of course, in John 15, verse 1, we see Christ is the true vine. We don't get any better stock than that. But a second concept we see in verse 1 is that God the Father is the gardener. He's the expert in the growing process. He's going to be there to make sure the vines are properly watered, the vines are properly taken care of, they're properly cultivated. So the combination of God and Jesus Christ are there to make sure we produce fruit, and plenty of it. So let's ask a question at this point, at this juncture in the message. Do you, do I have a dynamic fruit-producing relationship with God our Father and Jesus Christ our Elder Brother? What quality of fruit are we producing? Are we even producing fruit? Or are we just producing leaves? You know, we can come to services, Sabbath services, we go to Holy Day services, we can be in places where the brethren congregate, but is that just so much leaves? Or is there a real fruit there? Are we producing substance or window dressing? Those are only questions we can ask and answer ourselves. For example, how vibrant, how dynamic, how fruit-producing are your personal prayers? Do your prayers get answered? An answered prayer doesn't always mean yes. Your prayer is going to be answered when there's no. Your prayer is going to be answered when God says, well, not at this time. Let's not be so always hung up on an affirmative response, because sometimes God says, not now. I'm sure Moses prayed to help his people, but there came a point where God says, not now, let's wait another 40 years. God was answering his prayers, but it wasn't time yet. How about your Bible study? Are you growing and understanding? You've been in a church a long time, but are you growing and understanding? Do you have a better concept of what's happening with God's plan? Do you have a better understanding of what God is doing in your life as you study the Word of God? Do you have a fruitful study? Those are just some of the things we could be asking ourselves regarding fruit. Let's go back to John 15, verse 2. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. That's a warning. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. But notice, there is a branch there. There was growth there. There is some wood there. But it's not producing fruit. We drop down to verse 6. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. They are burned. Jesus Christ is painting a picture of people. There are those who at one time probably were zealous. That's why there is some wood there. That's why there is a branch there. There was some growth there at one time. But then something happened, and there wasn't any more fruit there. Why is that? A couple of reasons that could be the case. One, because the branches were not attached to the vine as strongly as they should be. The branches must be attached to the rootstock very firmly. Otherwise they are going to wither. In your notes, you can write down Philippians 4 and verse 13.

In essence, what that says, we can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens us. But if we are loosely attached to the vine, we are not going to be strengthened. We will wither. We will not produce fruit. The second reason that the branches were withering is that the sap isn't flowing into the fruit as it should. Not flowing as it should. That can be true, brethren, when we are putting obstacles in the path of God's Holy Spirit. When we are choking God's Holy Spirit. When we're doing things in our life that doesn't allow God's Spirit to dwell on us the way it should and develop and thrive. We're told not to quench the Spirit. We're told not to grieve the Spirit. And yet, maybe that's one of the reasons why these branches were unfruitful. So let's go back now to chapter 15, verse 2. Every branch of me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. But now I want to take a look at the second part of verse 2. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it will bear more fruit. There is a pruning process here. Remember God is the vine dresser. It is God who does the pruning in our lives. What do we know about this vine dresser? I'm not going to turn there, but in 1 Peter 5, verse 7, it says, We can cast all our cares upon him, for we are his personal concern. The vine dresser is very much invested in who and what we are. He wants us to grow, wants us to develop plenty of fruit, as we're going to see later on in this same chapter. You can write in your notes Hebrews 13, verses 5 and 6, where the vine dresser says, I will never leave or forsake you. You can also write in your notes Jeremiah 29, verse 11, where it is said, I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and of hope of a future. There's a pruning process. Now, I was relating, I gave this sermon in Chicago a few weeks ago, I was relating to the folks in Chicago that when I went to Ambassador College, I was hired by Ellis LaRavia, he was running the landscape department at the time. Mr. LaRavia had owned a business, I think he was growing roses, that was his business. And so he was hired by the church and he was in charge of the landscape department. And I remember sitting down in his little office, at the time a little office, and he said, Randy, what do you know about landscaping? I said, well, I used to mow lawns when I was a kid to earn some money and rake leaves and trim hedges and this and that. He says, well, you're hired. So for the next four years, I worked on the college's landscape department. And that was quite something because two of the four years I was there at Ambassador, we won an award as the nation's most beautiful campus. So it meant something to be a part of that landscape crew. But I remember one day where I was told I was going to go prune some bushes. And I thought, oh no, because it was right on Delmar, it's a major thoroughfare that borders the campus. And I thought, I know nothing about the kind of pruning they're talking about. I'm 18 years old and if I make a wreck of those bushes there, the whole place is going to look scarred. Well, thankfully, I was paired with somebody who knew exactly how to prune a bush.

You know, when you walk up to a bush, and take this analogy, brethren, you and I are a bush. God is the vine dresser. God's got to go to your life and mine and there's some pruning that has to be done. There's some things that got to go. Okay? So when I would walk up to a bush, I was told, okay, you look at the structure, the outer structure of the bush, and you see the beauty of it. You see how nice it's growing and so forth.

Then, what you do is you walk closer to the bush and you begin to open it up a little bit. You look in the interior of that bush. What's happening in the inside of that bush?

Is there dead wood? Well, that's got to go. Because if it doesn't go, you're going to have a rot, you're going to have insects, you're going to have all sorts of other problems.

You're also looking at the interior of that bush.

Do you have a branch that's going to start going off in a funny direction?

Once it pops its head out, the other greenery is going to make the bush look ugly.

Well, that's got to go. But you can't keep on chopping things out and leave the bush with big holes in it and look scarred and ugly. You still have to have a nice aesthetic.

God takes out our dead wood. God takes things out of our lives that are growing kind of funny, are going to mar the bush. And what he does is he makes sure he uses some very specific tools.

Now, when I was doing the landscaping and I was pruning these bushes, I got to be quite good at it. You know, when you're done with your bush, and the first time I did it, I had a row of about 10 or 12.

When I was done with that row, you can look at it and say, those are nice looking bushes.

And what you want is you want to thin things out so you still have a nice appearance. But what you also want is taking out enough so light from the sun gets into the interior of that bush to help grow.

Just like God wants things to be taken out of our light life, so the light from his son, S-O-N, comes into the interior of our bush and helps us grow. And you've got various tools. You've got the hand shears. You're all familiar. You probably all use those hand shears. You've got what we used to call bull snips. Those are loppers. They've got two long handles, and the cutting edge is rather small. Or you've got a saw. And each of those tools are used for the appropriate method of pruning.

Now, as I said, it's a no-brainer. The deadwood's got to go. What isn't a no-brainer is there are times in our life when God takes things away that hurts. You know, when you're pruning, you don't want a dull saw. You don't want a dull lopper or bull snip. So you don't want a dull hand. You want an instrument that's extremely sharp. Because if you don't have something that's sharp, what you're going to do is you're going to try to cut something, and you'll cut half of it. And then you'll try to yank it. And as you yank it, you hurt the bush. You might split the branch. You might tear off bark that is needed for the rest of the branch. Now, you want something that's sharp. So God comes into our lives with a very sharp tool. Not only to take out deadwood, but to take out things we may think we need. And maybe we did need, but maybe it's in God's mind that we don't need those things anymore.

He may allow you to lose a loved one.

He may allow you to lose a loved one. Somebody you relied too much on, and you weren't growing enough on your own. You used a loved one more as a crutch. And I've seen that over the course of time in my ministry, where there was a lovely person in another person's life, a wonderful person, a person of strength. But the person who, there was the one person was just relying so much on the other. They were always in the other person's shadow, and they didn't grow like they should. I can give you an example of my own mother and father. My dad, being an Italian, was very much a, it's very much a male-dominated sort of a culture in an Italian home. And, you know, he did everything he possibly could for my mom. You know, she, he said, I don't want you driving on the freeways. You don't need to go find work. You don't need to do all these various things. Well, my dad died.

My mother was six months older than my dad. They were both 55 when my dad died.

He worked for the the gas company in Michigan. You needed to be 57 and have worked 30 years to get a full pension. Well, he worked 33 years, but it was only 55. So he worked more years than he needed, but he was two years shy of the age limit. So he got half the pension, which meant my mom had to go and work. But that was a good thing. I mean, my father's death was not a good thing in some ways, but in other ways it was because it forced my mom to go and jump in a car, drive on the freeways in Detroit, get work, enjoy work. I was able to watch her really thrive. But see, God did a pruning there. My mom was in the church. I baptized her, but there was a pruning there. It hurt at once, but it was also good. God may allow you. He may prune your job. Anybody here ever have any bouts of unemployment? I think probably most of us have. I think I've made mention that I've been in a situation in life where when I was in sales, the sales were not coming, and it got to the place where I was either going to lose my house or my car. And I didn't want to lose my house, so I said to the guy, I said, well, come over and pick up my car. I said, I will not be sitting on the hood of the car with a baseball bat. You know, you're a businessman. I'm a businessman. Come get my car. Now, of course, what that meant was if he did that, lose the car, I'm eventually going to lose the home as well. But he was so taken aback by they said, well, maybe we can work something out. And so I said, yeah, if you give me your, if I can have my payment on this date, then I can better rob Peter to pay Paul and pay you better. And we did that. And then God began to open the floodgates. The trial went away and never did lose a house or a car or anything. God may prune in your life by allowing friends to turn their back on you.

Friends that you thought you needed. But God said, you know, let's see what happens in your life without these people. God may prune your health. I reached a certain age where I began to feel that pruning process real good. You know, had a hernia surgery, had a emergency appendectomy of my own, you know, quadruple bypass surgery and other things. But God knew what he was doing. Let's take a look at, put a marker there in John 15. Let's go to Hebrews 4.

Hebrews 4. I know we're getting close to the end of the time, but you know what? We canceled services a couple of weeks and I've got a few minutes owed me, or I owe you.

So we're going to go over time today a little bit. Hebrews 4 and verse 12. For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, sharper than any pruning instrument, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

God uses his word to teach us and to prune from us. Hopefully we can do some of our own pruning as we see things that need to go. This is a good segue to, let's go back now to John chapter 15, verse 3. John 15 verse 3. You are already clean because of the word which I've spoken to you.

You know, they have Jesus Christ in their midst physically. We have the Bible that we go to. We've got the word of God that helps us clean up our act, helps us to understand what needs to go. So we ourselves, in addition to what God does, we can do some pruning on our own.

Now, I ask the question, what attribute is key or foundational or fundamental to being a fruitful Christian? What attribute? And we find it here in verses 4 and 5. Here is the meat of the sermon.

John chapter 15 verses 4 and 5. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

That is the key. Abiding in the vine, abiding in Christ. The word abide here in the original means to remain, means to continue, means to stand firm. We are to remain in Christ. We are to continue in Christ. We are to stand firm in Christ. That's how you and I grow good, solid fruit in Christ.

Now, this is the Gospel of John. Let's turn over, put a marker again in John chapter 15. Let's go to the first epistle of John, 1 John chapter 2. Take a look for a moment at this idea of abiding.

1 John 2 and verse 6. 1 John 2 and verse 6.

He who says he abides in him, ought himself also to walk just as he, just as Christ walked.

So part of abiding is learning how to walk like Christ and with Christ.

We walk as he did. So we study the Gospels. We study the Scriptures. We learn from Jesus' actions and the principles as to how we should act. We learn from the responses when Christ was asked questions or when he talked to people. We take a look at what he said and we understand how we should respond to others. When we see Christ's compassion, we understand how we should be compassionate. When we see how Christ was obedient to the will of God, we see how we should submit to the Father. When we see Christ and the self-control he was using, we see how we are to stay pure and strong. So we study the Master. We abide in Jesus Christ. Continuing on in 1 John, look at 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 3. And everyone who has his hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. Just as he is pure. Repentance helps us abide in Christ. We are coming up not only to the Passover, but the days of unleavened bread. The days of unleavened bread picture us purifying ourselves, picture us getting the leavening out of our lives, and bringing in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Now, God is the one, Christ is the one who does the purifying, but we have a part to play in that. There are things we have to do. We are in partnership with our great God in terms of this purification process. We can't do it all by ourselves, and yet God's not going to do it all by himself either. There's a partnership there. 1 John 3, verse 24. Now, he who keeps his commandments abides in him. See, there's something for us to do. We have to keep the commandments, and by doing that we abide in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. Now, there's a relationship about abiding, obeying, and having God's Spirit.

In your notes, you might want to jot down Acts 5, verse 32. I'm not going to turn there, but Acts 5, verse 32, where it talks about how God gives his Holy Spirit to those who obey him. God gives his Holy Spirit to those who abide in him, to people who actively surrender themselves to God. And when we actively surrender yourself to God, and you're repentant, and you're abiding, then God gives you special spiritual understanding. In your notes, 1 Corinthians 2, verses 10 through 14, 1 Corinthians 2, verses 10 through 14, talks about how through the Spirit we come to understanding things that the human mind can't understand it by itself. You can jot down Luke, chapter 22, in verse 42, that shows the Holy Spirit gives us a willingness to obey God, where Jesus Christ said when he was about to breathe his last, you know, your will be done. When he was praying there just before his crucifixion, your will be done. God's Holy Spirit, as we abide in God, gives us an ability to love and obey far above our human abilities. 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7, 2 Timothy 1, 7, where we're giving the power of love and of a sound mind, not the power of fear.

Let's go back now to John chapter 15. So a key section here is verses 4 and 5. A fundamental key to being fruitful is abiding in Christ. To the degree we do that will be to the degree we're fruitful. To the degree we don't do that will be to the degree we have fruit that is bitter and will not survive. John chapter 15, verse 6, If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out of the branch and withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they're burned. So let's ask ourselves some questions here.

We've looked at the example of Mark chapter 11, the fig tree that had all the leaves with no fruit. How do you and I know whether we are withering on the vine? How do we know? Well, you can ask yourself these questions. Are you losing your spiritual energy? Is coming to services more work?

Than something you look forward to?

Is your zeal languishing? Where once upon a time you used to enjoy doing this or that of the other spiritual activity, now you view it more as a chore?

Is your love growing cold? If your love is growing cold, then maybe the supply of God's spirit is being choked off, and you're withering. Is your prayer and Bible study being neglected?

That's going to cause a withering.

When you come to Sabbath services, do you find you just don't get as much out of church as you used to?

You don't get as much out of fellowship as you used to. In essence, what we're looking at is you're asking yourself, I'm asking myself, are we spiritually starving? Are we spiritually starving? If we're spiritually starving, we're not going to be able to produce the fruit we want to produce.

Going back to John 15. Verse 6 talks about the branch that's withering. Let's take a look at verses 7 and 8, which gives the other side of the coin. Verse 7, If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, so let's say you're doing it right, you're firmly attached to the vine, the sap is flowing, fruit's growing, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. So basically what we're looking at there is a vibrant prayer life. Now again, that has to deal with God's will. The Apostle Paul had a vibrant prayer life.

Great miracles were done as a result of his prayers. But was every one of Paul's prayers answered in the positive? Well, we know that three times he asked for the thorn in the flesh to be removed from him, and God said, no. I'm going to allow my grace to work at you in another way.

And in that way, Paul's prayer was answered, because that's what Paul was always in his mind. He wanted the grace of God to work powerfully in his life. And that meant he wasn't going to be healed of something. That meant he got a no for an answer. And sometimes, brethren, as you and I want to be fully doing the will of God and obeying God, sometimes the things we ask for, even though they may not be bad things, Paul asking to be healed is not a bad thing. But God had something more in mind from him. And that was he had to realize that walking through life with the issue he had, that by doing that with God's help, with God's grace, that was going to be more beneficial to him than just being healed of whatever it was that he had. So abiding in God gives you the answers to the ultimate answers to your prayer, which is growth. Verse 8, by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. Much fruit, not a little fruit, much fruit, a great deal of fruit. And then notice now, verse 9 and 10, as a father loved me, I also have loved you, abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

Verses 9 and 10 show something that's very, very powerful, that as you and I do what it says in verse 4 and 5, as we abide in Christ, we have an immense privilege that's granted to us.

That immense privilege is to be brought into the community of godly love.

The immense privilege of being brought into the community of godly love.

That is universe class. We talk about world class. This goes way beyond world class. This goes beyond universe class. This is what we want. This is what we yearn for, to be in the community of godly love. God is love. We want to be love as God is love, and an immense privilege.

And that brings us down to the last verse of this section of Scripture. Christ's relationship with, in God's relationship with the disciples. Verse 11.

These things I have spoken to you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

A life full of spiritual joy. A life full of spiritual joy. Three takeaways from this, it will be done. Three takeaways.

Three takeaways.

Abiding in Christ brings great spiritual joy. Point number one.

Spiritual joy comes from God alone.

Spiritual joy, the roots are not earthly. They're not material. They come from God.

Number two. Spiritual joy does not depend on our circumstances or our happiness.

That's what the world looks at. We don't look at it that way. Spiritual joy, because Christ said for the joy that is set before, the Bible says, for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross. Obviously, those were not happy moments. Those were not joyous circumstances. That was not, you know, like I said, happiness. Let's take a look at Psalm 5 for a moment.

Psalm 5.

Psalm 5, verse 11.

Psalm 5, verse 11. But let those rejoice who put their trust in you.

Let them ever shout for joy, because you defend them. Let those who love your name be joyful in you.

Notice it doesn't say be joyful in your circumstances. Be joyful in, you know, whatever, your wealth or your health or whatever. No. Be joyful in God.

Spiritual joy does not depend on the physical. And lastly, our faithful service to God and Christ will result in eternal spiritual joy.

Eternal spiritual fruitfulness. Last scripture of the day is found over here in Matthew chapter 25.

Matthew chapter 25.

Verse 21. Matthew 25, verse 21.

His Lord said, I'm a well done, good and faithful servant.

You were faithful over a few things. I'll make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.

Here's an individual that Christ was able to look at and said, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord.

And that was done because they were fruitful. Because they had fruit that was going to remain.

They're going to have spiritual joy in an eternal relationship with God and Jesus Christ and the rest of the family of God. That's what gives joy at that point.

They'll have spiritual joy in having overcome sin and death. They'll have spiritual joy in having eternity of fulfilling and rewarding service.

They'll have joy, spiritual joy, because they will be for all eternity in that relationship of love. And that all comes about as you and I abide in Jesus Christ.