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Part 3 of 16
Remaining in God's Word and Will
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John 15:7 is one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible. The promise is direct: "If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done."
Before we dive in, I want you to turn to someone near you and tell them today's topic: It's already done.
No matter what you're believing God for, he sent me here to tell you it's already done.
I've been married for a little over fifteen years and have four kids—two daughters and two sons. Britain, our oldest, is seventeen and heading to the University of Alabama to study corporate law. Brooklyn, our youngest daughter, is a teenager with her own priorities.
The other day, the kids were hungry, so they called their personal DoorDasher—me. They wanted Raising Cane's, but seeing the line on 280, I suggested we try Whataburger instead. Brooklyn agreed to come along.
But one stop became many. She needed a uniform from Sports Academy for cheer tryouts. Then she saw an outfit. Then shoes. Before I knew it, we had a buggy full of clothes and shoes. Then she needed to stop at Sephora for skincare products.
When we got home, Brooklyn walked in with bags of clothes, shoes, and skincare. I walked in with Whataburger. A storm erupted. Her siblings were upset: "You got us just food, but Brooklyn got clothes, shoes, and Sephora!"
Brooklyn looked at me and said, "Hey Dad, don't be mad because I walk with them."
Here's what I realized: Even though she made a lot of purchases, her father covered the cost. For many of you right now, you're stressed because there are certain things you've been paying for—not just financially, but in energy, time, and tears. God is saying, "If you just walk with me, you won't have to keep paying for that, because Jesus already paid."
Jesus is teaching in John 15 during his final hours with his disciples. He's giving his last instructions in the upper room. In John 14, we see his "I Am" statements: "I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life."
But in John 15, he says something that blesses me deeply:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener."
You might shout over the true vine, but let me help you understand what just happened. Jesus is connecting his identity in the New Testament directly to Exodus 3.
When Moses was called to deliver the children of Israel from Egyptian captivity, God told him, "Go tell Pharaoh to let my people go." Moses responded with every excuse: "I'm slow of speech. I'm not qualified."
God said, "That's exactly why I picked you. Where you feel unqualified, only I can get the credit. God doesn't call the qualified—he qualifies those he calls."
Moses then asked, "But who should I tell them sent me?" Egypt worshipped many gods. He needed a name that would mean something.
God answered in Exodus 3:14:
"I am who I am. This is what you say to the Israelites: 'I Am has sent me to you.'"
This is God's covenant name. In other words, Moses, you don't even know everything you'll need me to be yet. So I'm giving you a blank check. When you need me to be it, fill in the blank.
One of the most powerful words you will ever say is what comes after "I am."
Here's the truth: You cannot separate God's identity from his activity. When he shows up, healing comes with it. When he shows up, provision comes with it. When he shows up, victory comes with it.
The same God who delivered Moses and the children of Israel in Exodus is the same God in John 15. The same God who helped you in 2010 is the same God who will deliver you in 2026. Check his resume—he's never lost a battle.
But then Jesus shifts his teaching:
"He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit."
Jesus didn't just die to save us—he lived to be our example. If he's cutting off branches, there's a principle here.
But watch this—it gets more interesting. He continues:
"Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes."
Cutting and pruning are not the same thing. They look the same on the surface, but the motive is completely different.
I remember when my wife was growing her hair out. One day I walked in and saw her friend cutting her hair, and I lost my mind. "We're trying to grow her hair!"
They laughed and said, "We're cutting dead ends. If we don't cut the dead ends, it will block new growth."
Some of you have been complaining about certain people, places, and things God has been cutting out of your life. But God is saying, "I'd rather you cry for a season than cry for a lifetime. It may not feel good while I'm cutting, but I'm cutting for your good."
Here's God's math: Sometimes to multiply, God has to subtract. And let me tell you something—not everyone you lose is a loss.
Now, let's talk about what fruit actually is. You might confuse success with fruit. What happens when you have the dream job but no joy? The dream wedding but a miserable marriage? The paycheck but lost peace?
Fruit is the flourishing, fulfilling, and productive life that brings God glory and benefits others. If your fruit isn't blessing other people, that's not fruit—that's a fantasy.
Fruit has three characteristics:
First, fruit always reflects the character of the tree it comes from. Oranges don't grow on apple trees.
Singles, I need you to hear this: I know they're fine, but do they have fruit? Do they have character? Are they actually good on the inside? At a certain season of your life, you should do a fruit inspection. Just because someone served you well in one season doesn't mean they'll serve you well in the next.
Second, fruit is always visible. You can't lie about fruit.
Third, fruit always exists to benefit others. Fruit should never eat itself. If it's eating itself, that's rotten fruit.
Some of you think you're in a relationship, but you're not—you're dealing with rotten fruit. How do I know? Because you feel like you have a parasite, not a partner. You keep having to build them instead of building with them.
For some of you, you're not dating—you're in daycare. You're babysitting people who are thirty physically but twelve emotionally.
Even if you're bearing fruit, he prunes it. Why? Because he's teaching us the pain of multiplication. Multiplication requires managing disappointment and destiny at the same time.
What do you do when God calls you to a season to win without the people you wanted to win with? What do you do when you're grieving and growing at the same time?
Now everyone gets excited when they read verse 7: "Ask whatever you wish and it will be done." But here's the thing—the promise has a principle tied to it.
Jesus shifts to verse 4:
"Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."
And verse 5:
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
He says, "Ask whatever you wish and it will be done." This is one of the most radical promises in the Bible. But then he spends the majority of his time talking about remaining, not requesting.
Here's what I want you to catch: Jesus is not teaching us how to get prayers answered. He's teaching us how to become the kind of person whose prayers get answered.
This is not about relationship—it's about fellowship. Some of you have expectations based on the relationship, but you're treating God like you're married but separated. Some of the promises he has for your life require close proximity.
Our prayer life often looks like Brooklyn's brothers and sisters. We're mad that someone else got more, feeling like we've been doing more than them. But when you have close proximity to God, you don't have to walk out of his will—you just walk close to his wheel. The closer you get to him, you don't have to chase stuff; stuff starts chasing you.
He says you must abide. In Greek, meno means to remain, to dwell. Here's the reality: You cannot become like me if you don't hang with me.
He's saying, "I don't just want visits. I want to live with you everywhere you go."
If you abide in God and his words abide in you, then we get to verse 7. And this is where everyone gets excited.
But here's something critical: Remaining doesn't just give you access. Remaining reshapes your appetite.
When you remain, God doesn't just give you what you want—he changes what you want. How many of you have praised God that he changed your appetite? That you don't like what you used to like? That you don't desire what you used to desire?
When you abide in him, God gives you a desire detox. There's certain stuff you want that doesn't want you. If you just come close, God will open the eyes of your heart and the ears of your heart. You'll begin to see what you've never seen and hear what you've never heard.
Pain has created blind spots in your heart. Some of the stuff you're desiring isn't out of purpose—it's out of pain.
God is saying, "If you just walk with me, transformation is automatic."
Many of you, there's an expectation and an experience. You tried praying and felt like it wasn't working. You felt like you had unanswered prayers. You did everything the Bible told you to do. But God is saying, "Yeah, you were doing it, but you didn't stay close to me."
When you come close, you'll realize some of that was performance. When you start spending time with God, you'll pray because you love him, not because you need him.
When we prioritize intimacy with God, something shifts. God moves from loving you to trusting you.
I don't just want to be loved by God. I want to be trusted by God.
If faith is nothing else, faith is living like it's already done.
The healing is already done. The breakthrough is already done. The change is already done.
So if it's already done, how do we live in the John 15:7 experience?
Number one: Obey God's will.
Remaining is not a feeling—it's following. Sometimes remaining in God's will means obeying his instruction even when it's inconvenient.
You say, "But they don't appreciate me." God says, "So you need their appreciation? Mine is not enough? Go and bless them anyway."
"But they betrayed me." God says, "You betrayed me too."
Number two: Pray God's word.
This transformed my prayer life. Our prayer life has been stuck at the level of praying our problems instead of God's promises. God is not obligated to answer your word—he's only responsible for responding to his word.
So if I pray God's word, I'm already saying what God said. The promises of God are yes and amen.
Your life will begin to reflect his word when you begin to pray his word. Whatever problem you have in your life, find a promise from God that will overthrow that problem. When you meditate on God's word and pray his word, your heart and behavior begin to align with that word until it manifests in your life.
Number three: Seek God's ways.
Remaining should not just change your prayers—it should change your patterns. You've been saved too long to still do what you used to do.
At a certain point, if God has been good to you and saved you, you can't just sit and not serve others. If you're still easily offended, hypersensitive, unforgiving and bitter—if you can speak in tongues but can't speak to people—then seek God's ways.
Being saved includes the sanctification process. You become a new creature in your own body, and sometimes you feel like a stranger in your own skin.
His ways are higher than your ways. He doesn't need you to think better—he needs you to think higher. You won't experience the abundant life until you get a long view picture of eternal life. Everything should not be about personal pleasure in this place.
Father, right now I pray: It's already done.
God, I thank you that we're living by faith and walking by faith, not by sight. I come against disappointment. Some have allowed disappointment to lower their expectations to the level of their experiences. God, open the eyes of our hearts to see how you see.
I thank you for physical, mental, and emotional miracles. I pray for verbal miracles. There are people who tried to stop being negative, but it just flows out. God, I ask that you take authority over the tongue so they speak what you say and don't allow their flesh to talk them back into what you delivered them from.
I thank you for souls that will be saved today. Lives will be changed. We came to worship you, to serve you, to praise you. I thank you for those who came empty and have been refilled.
In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
