Today's Sermon:
Life of a Disciple

I. Disciples Abide in .....
- Vs. 1, 4, 5

"To abide in Christ means to keep up a habit of constant close communion with Him- to be always leaning on Him, resting on Him, pouring out our hearts to Him, and using Him as our Fountain of life and strength, as our chief Companion and best Friend."
-J.C. Ryle

II. If We Do Not Abide in Him We are Not ........- Vs. 2, 6

III. True Disciples Bear the ....... Vs. 5, 8

IV. The Path to Fruitbearing:

A. Disciples are Willing to be ......... - Vs. 2

"I dare say the greatest earthly blessing that God can give to any of us is health, with the exception of sickness...I am afraid that all of the grace that I have got of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours, might almost lie on a penny. But the good that I have received from my sorrows, and pains, and griefs, is altogether incalculable...Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house."-Charles Spurgeon

B. Disciples Abide in ...... - Vs. 3, 9-10

C. Disciples Abide in ...... - Vs. 7

V. Disciples Abide in ........ - Vs. 11

“Abiding, not striving nor struggling…trusting Him for present power…I feel as though the first dawning of a glorious day had risen upon me…I seem to have got to the edge only, but of a sea which is boundless; to have sipped only, but of that which fully satisfies. Christ literally all seems to me now the power, the only power for service.; the only ground for unchanging joy. May he lead us into the realization of His unfathomable fullness.”
-John McCarthy

“I do from day to day and every day so delight in the love of Jesus, satisfy my thirsty heart when most desolate from His fullness, feed and rest in green pastures…Never does He leave me…His own rest, His own peace, His own joy He gives me. He kisses me with kisses of love, which are better than wine…In His presence there is fullness of joy.”
-Hudson Taylor

“In the midst of much joy and sorrow, the presence of our dear Lord has been a constant feast and a deep rest.”-Hudson Taylor

I read an interview recently with Gene Heyman, a Harvard psychologist who wrote a book called Addiction: A Disorder of Choice. Heyman, while researching to teach a university course on addiction, made an academy-shaking discovery: quitting an addiction is a choice. This subverts more than two centuries of claims otherwise. The staunch medical orthodoxy on addiction is that it’s a disease, some malfunction in the hardwiring of the brain. Those unfortunates who have the disease start to dope or drink or chase skirts and find that, all wishing and working to the contrary, they just can’t help themselves. It’s not their fault. But what Heyman discovered is that virtually every addict, given a compelling enough alternative, will shake their addiction. If they become convinced that life without crack or Jack Daniels or girls gone bad, or whatever, is better than life with it, they quit the addiction. Few forsake an addiction just because it’s bad for them. But many forsake an addiction because they come to believe that something infinitely better lies just beyond the door.
-Buchanan, Mark. Spiritual Rhythm, ch 11