John 15 (Week Five) Remain In

· Read John 15:4-11

· Pray

· Emotion isn't a learned skill or acquired capacity, it's a primal component of human nature

· No one has to tell you to be happy, angry, sad, etc.

· Jesus was full of passion and emotion

· Anger with money changers

· Grief when we wept over death of Lazarus

· Emotion also found in the language of Jesus

· Jesus was incredible practitioner of pathos, a rhetorical term for an appeal to the heart through emotions

· Today we call it emojis

· Even when audience lacked the ability for religious reasoning, Jesus able to reach hearts through emotive language.

· One way was through the use of repetition

· 11 times in six verses (John 15:4-10)

· Stated the command to “remain in Him”

· Repetition and example

· Ex. teens, human brain not fully developed until age 25

· Why this command?

1) It is impossible to be fruitful unless we remain in Him

· Fruit in the bible one of two things - Adam/eve in garden, and fruit of the spirit

· Love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

· whether we realize it or not, those nine things are at the heart of everything we long for in life.

· Every purchase, every conversation, every relationship, every job

2) Remaining in Him results in fruitfulness

· ex. "I can't help it"

· Ex. Right hand vs left hand - what’s natural?

· No pressure to try harder or manufacture those things, it just happens naturally

3) Failing to remain in Him leads to separation from God

· Our addictions are our human ways to make up for separation

· What does it mean - "Obey my words, and let my words remain in you."