Abide In Me

Sometimes within church circles we hear things from the Bible sometimes and even believe those things, but when we think about we have no idea what it really means. One of the phrases that we read today was one that I knew, that I could quote, i even believed it, but I found myself asking the question this week what exactly does that mean? The phrase is what Jesus told His disciples "Abide in me" I know there are some here that think they know what it means, there may be a few that really knows what it means, but I figure most have no idea what that means. You may know what abide means but how do we abide? You tell me, you will find that is very difficult to tell someone how to abide. Why is it even important? Well it is important because Jesus repeated the phrase 8 times just in this passage. (4,6,7,10) Not only that in the particular verse we find that there are some promises associated with abiding in Him. (1)There is first the promise of a fruitful life if we abide in Him vs 4. (2)There is the promise of answered prayer if we abide in Him vs 7. (3) There is also a promise in the fact that Jesus said "abide in me and I in you" If we will do our part and abide in Him we are assured of the fact that He would also abide in us. Sometimes in our lives when we look around and say Lord where are you maybe you should go back to the point where you quit abiding in Him, because a sure promise of our abiding is His abiding. Now none of this means anything at all if we don't know how to abide. I will start by saying there are some sure ways we can know that we are not abiding in Him, the first is unfaithfulness, the second is a lack of faith, the third is discouragement, the forth is doubt, now there are more but I figure these are the most common and probably most of us are guilty of one or more of these. What can we do well lets look today at "Abide in Me" I guess the first thing we should do is see

I. What Abide means.

a. To remain-abiding in Him means to remain in him for example; (ill-a tree limb- would you say that this is a part of some tree? Would you say it is an active part of the tree? No, why because it no longer abide in the tree, do you know what is happening to this limb now and what will happen in a few days?)

b. To continue- which means the same thing as to remain

c. To stay-Which mean the same as remain, and continue

d. To wait- abiding is a patient expectancy My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him Psalms 62:5

e. To rest other definitions out of Strong's exhaustive concordance of the Bible 1 to remain, abide. 1a in reference to place. 1a1 tarry. 1a2 not to depart. 1a2a to continue to be present. 1a2b to be held, kept, continually. 1b in reference to time. 1b1 to continue to be, not to perish, to last, endure. 1b1a of persons, to survive, live. 1c in reference to state or condition. 1c1 to remain as one, not to become another or different. 2 to wait for, await one.

Now I had the definition for abide, but that's not what I wanted not what abides mean, but how do I abide. I have remain in Him, and Continue in Him, Stay in Him, Wait in Him, rest in Him, but how do I get in Him, because it is possible to be in Him (as in saved) but not abiding in Him. And I am trying to figure out how to abide, I want to abide in Him, so I didn't really have time to remain, continue, stay, wait and rest, I was looking for answers. So the definitions didn't help me so I decided I would figure out;

II. What are the Results for Abiding in Christ-

a. Fruit bearing- If we abide in Christ according to our text we will bear fruit

b. Loving Jesus and doing what he says- If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:23 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 1 John 2:6

c. Loving Others- He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. 1 John 2:10