God in Us, Us in Him | Francis Chan

you know when I uh I I was kind of ignorant to human trafficking I didn't even understand the term like years ago and I remember speaking at a thing and the guy you know I was at dinner with a guy I'm like well what do you do here and he explained it and it just was a shock and so I remember going back to my hotel room that night and I just started imagining what if at that time it was just Rachel and mercy I was like what if someone took Rachel or Mercy okay and

they enslaved them somewhere in the world and I'm just going through I'm just laying in bed thinking about this like I I I just you know how you just start daydreaming or you're falling asleep and you're Imagining the scenario and I started thinking man what if someone took Rachel or Mercy what would I do and I I just started picturing myself going back to the church and I thought would I really get up and just preach a nice little sermon or would I just start screaming at everyone like we've got to do something like I

I there there's no way I just pictured myself like throwing the you know the pulpit and just yelling like come on man some of you guys have resources some of you have abil we're going to find them we're going to get to them and and how I would devote my life to that and and now I wouldn't just kind of go I think the right thing to do is to search for my daughters you see what I'm saying it's like it's natural when you love to go well this is my only natural response resp resps

what else would I do and so when we talk about you know human trafficking last week we were talking about the kids in Africa and everything that that Jen is doing out there I don't want us to ever be like hey let's give some money toward that I think the right thing to do is to celebrate freedom Sunday I think it's this I think it's that but somehow that our hearts would be ignited and it would just become natural cuz I remember laying in that bed thinking about my daughters and Imagining the things that were

being done to them if they were taken and just what I would do and I remember the Lord just saying friend that's how I want you to love all of my kids you know I want you to care about this to feel for this not just go okay here's my Christian duty but in my heart to love because the Bible says look if you give your whole body and everything you own it it's going to profit you nothing without that love he wants us to be lovers okay that's that's what this book is about and

what's crazy to me is I mean I grew up in church I went to churches and it just felt like a a list of dos and don'ts right don't do this or you're going to feel guilty you know do this and you're going to feel good about yourself but is that the language that we've been reading this week in the Book of John I mean the language has been insane I I I this this this passage that I want to read to you like I'm obsessed with it right now I just I I I don't

know if I've ever been obsessed with a passage like I am with this one like it's it's in John 15 and I don't know even this morning I I believe the Lord revealed some things about this passage that I never got even though I've read it so many times in John 15 listen to the the words I mean does this sound like dos and don'ts in in John 15:7 if you abide in me and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you by this my father is glorified

that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples as the father has loved me so have I loved you abide in my love if you keep my Commandments you'll abide in my love just as I've kept my father's Commandments and abide in his love these things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends you

are my friends if you do do what I command you no longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing I've called you friends for all that I've heard from my father I've made known to you you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the father in my name he may give it to you I love this passage I I love more than I've ever loved it

um just just the words that he uses this is it feels nothing like do and don't it's it's like the natural resp that's why he says if you love me you'll obey what I command so just like when I think about if my daughters are taken away my natural response is to go after them why because there's love there and that's what Jesus is saying is our obedience should be like this natural response to his love he said I'm not calling you slaves I'm calling you friends but this this first phrase when he says abide

in me remain in me you know that that word uh abide means to live and this morning I thought gosh Lord what what does this mean like abide in you I know he's talking about the vine and the branches but I'm not really a Vine or a branch or I don't really get that and this picture just came to me me thought oh my gosh that's exactly what he's saying Karima can you stand up Rachel can you stand up how about all the pregnant ladies all the pregnant ladies all the pregnant ladies can you just

stand up if you're pregnant okay no think about the wording okay look at a pregnant woman close to you okay all right you guys can sit down but you guys that's the picture I mean think about the intimate picture he's saying go I want you to live inside of me I want you to live inside of me he goes abide actually live remain in me and I was thinking about that cord you guys know you have a cord in there Rachel okay and and it's like that is all that's keeping them alive I mean that's

the picture he he gives of the vine and the branches he goes you're like a branch you've got to stay attached to me but then he he uses this word like remain live inside of me and I thought man have I ever had that picture of God is I'm just this helpless infant inside of him but that's what he wants of me he doesn't want me going no I'm cutting the cord I'm on my own I'll call you every once in a while no it's just constantly like I just praying God help me to see

myself right now like that's all I am I'm just this this this infant just living inside of you protected by you you nourish me you keep me alive everything I'm enveloped inside of you that's what God wants of us that's what Jesus said remember he says Jerusalem Jerusalem I I try to gather you together like a like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings I wanted you just to live live under my protection and that picture just came to my mind today of like abiding in him completely connected to him and he says you

do that and you'll bear much fruit because if you abide in me and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish it's going to be given to you but if you're going to go off acting independently doing your own thing dreaming your own dreams good luck with that he says ou'll accomplish nothing but you abide in me he goes in fact it's not that God it's not like I'm on my knees saying God please please please I know you don't want to do great things through me but please do it anyways because I'm asking

that's not what he says in verse eight he says by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit this is what brings glory to God is when he can take take a loser like me who finally gets it and says man I'm going to abide in you I can't do it on my own he goes well when you do that I actually want to show off my power in fact this is what brings glory to God is I want to do something amazing through your life that's God's desire for you okay you're not

here saying oh God I know you don't want to use me but would you please anyways now he's saying No this is how I bring glory to myself I take ordinary people who will actually abide in me who'll get over themselves who say I don't want to cut the cord and live on my own and be independent and make my own choices I want to come into you I want to live with you I don't want to leave your side okay I don't need Glory I don't need anything else I just want to tell people

I'm attached to you and now God says Okay I want to use you and I want you to Bear much fruit because that brings me Glory and then he says one of the most unbelievable verses in the Bible verse 9 when he says as Jesus says As the father has loved me so have I loved you man do we believe this Jesus the Eternal Son of God going you know how much the father loves me you talk about abiding we're one I am the father you've seen me you've seen the Father Like We are one

for all of eternity and he goes and as the father has loved me that's what I feel for you that's the love I have for you it's equal even as in the Greek even as the father has loved me so have I loved you and all I'm asking is just stay in that love does this sound like dos or don'ts no he's saying just just just abide in me just love me just accept this love just know that as far as much as the father loves me that's what I feel about you now all I

want is for you to stay in my love but he says the commands are of overflow of that I mean it's if you love me you'll obey what I command the two go together so it's not just as oh we have these feelings for each other no this feeling causes us dry D us to action it's like I love him so much I don't want to disappoint him I don't want to do the things that he hates it's just like the natural response if my daughter's out on streets if my daughter's abducted somewhere my natural

response is not just oh I still have feelings for her no that feeling drives me to action and you start believing what he says if you keep my Commandments you abide in my life he and why does he give these commands look at verse 11 these things I've spoken to you why that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full why why does he give you these commands he goes because I want the joy of Jesus Jesus who is freaked out about nothing Jesus who is the most joyful being in

existence he says I want that type of joy in you okay I want you to be in me and I'm giving you these commands why because I want joy in your life man many of us our parents why do we give commands to our kids it's not to ruin their lives it's Joy it's like no it's better if you don't play in the freeway it's it's just it's just wise you know every one of these things and I know as kids sometimes you think oh that's so fun I can see the cars close up and

he's like no it's it's not fun it's not good I love you and I and there's so many things in the world that we just go I just want to get close to that that'll bring me pleasure that'll bring me pleasure he goes man don't you get this I just want you back in my womb I just want to protect you I just want you to be under me I'm trying to gather you under me like a hen gathers his chicks and and I want you to listen to me because that's what's going to make

your joy full I don't want you insecure I don't want you coming here lacking I don't want you depressed that's why I give you these commands it's that your joy may be full in these words uh verse 13 Greater Love greater love has no one than this God's saying to you you're not going to be loved this much greater love has no one than this again what are these words about greater love is no one than this that a man lay down his life for his friends God saying I want to be your friends I

hope these words don't just go oh yeah God is my friend like I hope you're just stunned by this he's going I want you to live in me I call you friends verse verse uh 15 is it no longer do I call you servants cuz a servant doesn't know what his master is doing I've called you my friends for all that I've heard from my father I've made known to you he goes this is what I see you as but here's here's what I want to get at his point you know he says just as

the father has loved me so have I loved you and he says look I want you to abide in my love and he says and you abide in me when you obey my commands but then he says what is my command verse 12 this is my Comm Commandment that you love one another as I have loved you okay why do we do everything we do as churches and try to get to know each other and really pour into each other's lives because it's commanded he goes look you can abide in my love just obey my

commands and he goes what's my command here's my command love one another as I have loved you remember earlier he says even as the father has loved me so have I loved you now I want you to do that to one another I want you to love each other as much as I love you can I know we come here and it's not like we don't love each other you know or have some sort of feeling for each other but what God wants is he wants this miracle to take place where I so accept the

love of God that I am just beaming and I'm overflowing and it becomes natural for me to see you and go okay there's John and it's just natural to love him as Jesus has loved me as for me to see see Angel and go okay God I want to love him as much as Jesus loved me and this is the stuff that most of us weren't brought up with in church it was dos and don'ts and usually a church service was pretty it was consumerism like you didn't come thinking I'm going to show up to

this group of people and I just want to serve them I want to love them like Jesus has loved me is that your thought when you quote unquote go to church whatever that means like your head to a church service and you're are you in your mind thinking God just as you've loved me let me love them you know jesus' mindset he says I didn't come to be served I came to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many and then we call ourselves Christians that means we are little Christ so we

should gather together okay I don't come here to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many just like Jesus loved me as much as the father loved him now God let me show up with this mindset to love these people and Jesus says look I'm not doing this to ruin your joy going man I just want to go to play with a short service it's you know and get back to the football game and this and that you know even wore my jersey you know I I I'm kidding

I'm kidding I just I already said earlier I loved him so then I could do that and and but it's like I just want this I just want this I mean that's what church has been traditional Al it's about us and then we leave critical going well they didn't do this for me they didn't do this for me no one talked to me no one shook my it's like man but if the love of Christ is in you it's like it's supposed to be your joy like this is what the reason why I'm bringing this

up and the reason why Jesus commanded it wasn't to just shame us but he's saying look you're never going to be joyful you'll never have enough people shake your hand and hug you and give you money or whatever else if that's your mindset Joy comes from being a giver Joy comes from God delivering me from being this selfish self-centered everywhere I go what about me what about me no one's taking care about me and when God changes you you're overwhelmed by the love of God and you can just abide in him and go man I'm

good I'm I'm like inside of God right now he calls me his friend I'm attached to him he says no one will ever love you more Francis just stay right here under me I'll protect you I'll give you life just abide in me that's it and he goes and I'm telling you obey my commands why because that's how my joy will be in you he goes what's my command love one another as I've loved you see our desire as a church it's not just oh let's get in smaller groups CU it's cheaper that way although

the Asian side of me is like this is a great deal um it's it's this command Jesus this is how I want them to know you're my disciples it's by the way that you love one another in John 13 man as we do these readings man my desire is that you're alone with God reading this stuff and going no way no way no way as you and him and you're so filled up thinking I abide in him right now I'm I'm loved by him no love that you come here so full that you just give

and it's the craziest thing because the more you expend yourself and give yourself those of you who are givers and lovers of others it's like it brings you this insane joy that you go I don't get this anywhere else you know when we started giving more financially it's different places I mean it brought such a joy in our lives and then uh the church I used to Pastor down that when we as a church started giving more I mean you should have seen like time's like we're going to give away million dollars Jill younger fun

you know and we wrote that check like a quarter million dollars every quarter the whole place would just erupt like there was so much look what we did look at this orphanage look at the school look at this I mean it was like no way let's do more let's do more let's do more it wasn't like oh okay we got to reach deep deeper in our pockets it was just this joy and that's what God wants man I hope you get what I'm saying and but it's not something where you just muster up this love

or This Joy I believe it is a miracle from God I believe it's the power of God so here's what I want to do I want to I'm done talking here's what I want to do Jesus says at the end of that I guess I'm not done talking at at the end of that passage though he says you didn't choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the father in my name he will give you he say whatever

you ask me in the father's name in my name the father will give you wherever you ask the father in my name the father will give you he'll give it to you like there's power in this prayer and here's what I want to do I want to get some of the leaders down here um so if some of the uh the pastors and maybe women's leadership if you would just just kind of line up maybe a group over there behind that speaker and a group behind this speaker um so like stand up and walk down

there you go um like some of the women's leadership too you know here here's what I want to do sorry I didn't prep you guys for this but hopefully you know how to pray um and here's what I want to do seriously I want to have a time of just prayer and deliverance from self-centeredness like some of you guys are hearing me and you're going man I wake up thinking about me I just do I wake up and I think about myself and I don't want to do that anymore maybe I don't get the love

of God maybe I don't understand maybe I'm not abiding in him but I want that to change I'm tired of being selfish I'm not a giver but I want to be okay that doesn't just happen it's about the power of prayer to believe these words Jesus says look if you ask for this in my name I'll give it to you God wants to do this today and so rather you know in church we always just think okay give me a message and that'll change me no there's something about the power of prayer and so I'm

asking you guys that are up here not just to close your eyes and go okay give them you know self lessness no but really like work love the people that are coming forward and going okay I'm going to get my mind clear and come into the presence of God and say God help this person be a lover of people but don't make it about Works God make them really understand your love there's no greater love than God himself coming down taking the form of a man dying on a cross to pay for your crimes and

he goes and I want to make you like me me like a giver a sacrificer like to pray that way and like to do battle like now is your time your opportunity to love the people everything that we say go just forget about you you know what you feel or whatever saying God you've got to do this change his or her heart