Wednesday Bible Study: Vine and Branches

All right, we'll go ahead and get it started. I need to adjust these volumes down. And if you're joining us online, there are handouts available right on the front page of our website, collegeparkcc.com. We're going to take a look at John, the 15th chapter. I'm just going to go ahead and read through this, and then we'll just kind of dive right into it. I'm going to begin with verse 1. My father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for a part of the vine.

Apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. And 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 prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is the commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you, these things I command you, so that you will love one another. And so before we dive into this, we need to talk a little bit about what is happening here. So properly speaking, if we want to be very technical, probably not so much a parable as it is an allegory. So a parable is a story with a truth or a spiritual truth to it. An allegory tends to have a little bit more detail. So in a parable, for example, the vine and the branches, they're just generally probably a vine and a branch, right? And then in an allegory, you know, the vine is Jesus, the branches are the disciples, the vine dresser is God the Father, and so there tends to be, in an allegory, a little bit more detail.

Parables, because sometimes we tend to add too many details, and we have to be careful with allegories, because sometimes we don't see all of the details that are there. So this tends to go just a little bit deeper than a parable, and so I want to sort of take a look at the context from two different directions, the first being the context in the ministry of Jesus. So Jesus speaks these words during what is known as the upper room discourse, and so that's John chapter 13 through 17, and these events take place during the Last Supper. So the night they celebrate Passover together, the disciples and Jesus gathers around, and He teaches them extensively. He works to prepare them. Remember, He comforts them. I'm going to prepare a place for you. He promises the Spirit that the Comforter will come. He prays in John 17. He prays for the disciples.

All of these things happen. So we have to understand, and one of the things, all the words of Jesus are weighty, but these are some of the last words of Jesus during His, you know, before He goes to the cross. And so that's part of the context here. The other part of the context is, and you probably heard it, where Jesus says, "I am the vine." This is one of seven "I am" statements made by Jesus. And that's not just a clever, kind of list from John where, you know, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world. I am the way, the truth, and light. I am the door of the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I am the bread of life." All of these different "I am" statements. It's not just an interesting list, but it goes all the way back to Exodus chapter 3, and if you remember Moses, he's on the run. He's somewhere between 40 and 80. He leaves Egypt at age 40. He's in the wilderness. He's tending sheep. He looks at a bush, and it's on fire.

which is interesting, but as he watches it, it doesn't get burned up, and so he approaches it. God speaks from the bush, says, "Moses, remove your sandals. The ground upon which you are standing is holy," and Moses realizes he's in the presence of God. God commissions him to go and save his people, and Moses goes, "Well, who do I say sent me?" And he says, "I am," or "I am who I am." And from that, we get the most holy name of God. And so when Jesus says things like, "I am the light of the world," he's not just saying, "I bring light into the darkness," right? He's making a great statement about his identity and his work, that God has come into the world, and he is bringing light into the darkness, and this is a wonderful and powerful thing. And so when we hear these "I am" statements, we shouldn't trivialize them by just thinking, "Oh, Jesus is taking

telling us a little bit about himself." We've probably all been in those meetings or classes where it starts, where everybody gets to know each other, "Now tell us three things about yourself," right? Jesus is doing something that's bigger here, right? He's saying, "I am." And in fact, several cases, the Jewish religious leaders understood it this way because he'll say, "I am the light of the world," and they try to kill him because they understand what he is claiming to do. So the context here is not just, "Oh, I'm divine," and the branches, and we'll put this on a coffee cup to make us feel good about our relationship to Jesus. Jesus is saying something really, really big and really, really wonderful. So we sort of have a scriptural, biblical context of Jesus's ministry and Jesus's claims of who he is. So any thoughts or comments before we go any further about that?

A very significant cultural context. So vineyards for the disciples are pretty familiar, probably not as much so for us as it would have been for a society that was significantly more agricultural. Although I've noticed in the last 10 years, it seems, I think when I first moved here, maybe there was like two vineyards in the area. When mom and I were driving back from Northern Virginia, I guess two weeks ago, I was counting all the vineyards we went by, and there was like nine or ten just on the one road we were on, and it doesn't count, you know, all the others. So they're becoming more and more prevalent now. It would have been even more prevalent, right, in Jesus's day. And additionally, you probably would have had experience with a friend who has a vineyard or helping, you know, in a vineyard, working in a vineyard, seeing a vineyard, knowing somebody who does. And so it was a very familiar thing. It was ingrained in the culture. If you didn't have a vineyard, you wanted one. One commentator said this was like one of the

big cash crops was selling grapes and the products made from grapes. If you remember Jezebel, she really, really wants Naboth's vineyard and ultimately has him killed so she can take his vineyard. So this is a very familiar thing culturally for the disciples. Additionally, it would have been familiar for them spiritually, not just physically. Oh, I saw a vineyard. My buddy Steve, he has a vineyard. You know, my uncle Jed, he works in a vineyard. It's going to be a spiritual picture as well. So throughout the Old Testament, God continually pictures his people as a vineyard. So I'll give you two examples. One is from the 80th Psalm recounting the history of the Israelites, and it will say, "You brought a vine out of Egypt, drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it. It took deep root and filled the land." So the story, as the psalmist portrayed

phrase it, of the nation of Israel was that of a vineyard, right? They were the vine that was brought out. The land was cleared of everybody else. It was planted, and it filled the land. In Isaiah chapter 5, bringing judgment on the people and talking about their sin, it'll say, "Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones. He planted it with choice vines. He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine van in it, and he looked to it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes." And so you wanted good grapes, and if you've ever had wild grapes, they're not nearly as good as regular grapes. And so the end part of this Isaiah 5 passage is that God comes in and tears down the vineyard, right? He rebuilds his vineyard, brings judgment upon it. And throughout the teaching of Jesus, we've heard about vineyards, right?

the vineyard, the tenants who rented a vineyard, you know, the wineskins, putting new wine into old wineskins. And additionally, in terms of the context of what Jesus has just done, the very immediate context, likely the chronology of the Last Supper. This likely comes probably after he has instituted the Lord's Supper, where he takes the fruit of the vine, right, and celebrates with the disciples He institutes the Lord's Supper for the church. And so on a lot of levels, there is some deep spiritual depth to what is happening here. Additionally, this was a very common cultural picture. It wasn't just a common job, or a common profession, or a common type of farming. It wasn't just common spiritually, but it was common enough that it became sort of a picture of the Jewish nation culturally. So just a couple examples. One,

Let me try to get over here. So during the Maccabean Revolt, that would be before Jesus in that time. The coinage, if you look at the back of the coin, one of the things you used in coinage, because not a lot of people could read, you did put letters on your coins, but a lot of times it was symbolism. On the back of some of the Maccabean minted coins was a vine and grapes as a picture. This is our coinage for our nation, just like we put George Washington or the White House or different things that are symbolic to us on our coinage. Additionally, and this is a reproduction of the temple, a modern model, but around the doors of the temple, Josephus records this. He says, "The gate which was at the end of the first part of the house was, as we have already observed, all covered with gold.

As it was a whole wall about it, it also had golden vines above it from which clusters of grapes hung as tall as a man's height." And so this doesn't picture it, but it would have been either in this area or in that area, pictures right in the house of worship of grapes and vines. And so this is not a picture or an image that would have been unfamiliar to Jesus' audience. It would have had significant depths in terms of his ministry and what he was saying with "I am the vine." It would have had depths that go back through Israel's history with God picturing Israel as a vineyard and vines and culture and all of these things. Any thoughts or comments before we dive into what Jesus says? So what Jesus does is he talks about vines and fruit and branches.

What he's going to do is he's going to picture a vineyard, and it's a relatable picture, but it's also, as I was thinking about this, there are so many elements in this that this text is almost like a vine. It goes here, and it twists here, and there's branches here, and there's fruit here. So not only is it a picture of what Jesus is trying to talk about, but it's kind of written almost. Jesus presents it almost in a way that feels like a vine through its twists and turns. And so we start with three specific elements in these first two verses. Jesus will say, "I am the vine, and my Father is a vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit."

So he identifies, in terms of this figure, three very specific groups. First of all, he identifies himself. And notice what he says. He says, "I am the true vine." And so when somebody says "true" in front of something, that generally implies there's people who are not the true vine. And so Jesus is sort of setting himself apart when he says, "I am the true vine," that I am the real vine. I am the true one. This is the one that you want to be attached to. And then he pictures his Father, God the Father, is the vine dresser. And so, not a word that we use a lot when we talk about the vine dresser. It doesn't mean you're putting clothes on the vines, but rather that you're caring for the vines. His purpose was to protect the vines, to train the vines.

So as you have your trellises, and the vines are supported by, to make sure that the branches are winding through, so that when the fruit comes, everything is supported properly. But also, part of his job was to prune, and in some cases, to cut off unfruitful parts and discard them. And one of the interesting things about this upper room discourse is you clearly see, throughout it all, the work of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Now, in the parable of, or the allegory of the vine and the branches, you see the Father and the Son, but surrounding it, both in the verses before and in the sections after, you see the work of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus pictures that, you know, all of the Godhead is involved in this.

And then, in verse 2, he says, "There's two kinds of branches. Every branch that is in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it may bear fruit." So, to keep in mind the characters that are at work here, you have the vine, you have the branches, both the fruitful and the unfruitful, and then you have the vine dresser whose job is to prune and to protect and to remove and to train the vine in the way that it should go. Any thoughts or comments about what Jesus has said so far? All right, let's take a look at what he says, and one of the things you'll find sort of over and over throughout this, and you've probably heard it, there's two words that are repeated very often, and we'll kind of take a look at both of them.

One is the word "abide," and it just simply means not to depart, to leave, and to continue to be present. Now, we understand it, especially in terms of the picture of the vine, that if a branch is attached to that, it stays attached. Branches don't just go, "Well, I like this vine, but I'd rather be part of an oak and get up." It's there and attached, or it's not, and it's dying. And so when he talks about abiding, he's talking about remaining and being nourished and supported and protected by the vine, because that's what the big vine does, right? It supplies all the nourishment from the roots. It supplies all the support. It supplies the protection by the strength of the vine. And so he says, "Abide." And we see it over and over again. "Abide in me."

"You abide in me." "I abide in you." "Abide in the Father." This is a theme that is repeated. Jesus doesn't want us to miss the fact that we've got to be attached to the vine. There are no, I guess the way we would say it, are there's no Lone Ranger Christians. Hi, hey Will. "You're not upstairs." No, not. "I was invited upstairs." Oh, by who? "By your wife." Oh, okay. You can go up, there's lights right there around the corner if you want to. "Is she up there?" I don't know, I don't think so. I haven't heard her come in. So, you can go knock on the door of the house. "Okay." Anyway, see what's up. Alrighty. So, Jesus calls us to abide. And so, look at what the effect of the abiding is sort of throughout this entire text.

It's simply bearing fruit. Everything else you see throughout these verses supports the fruit bearing and the abiding. So, just to walk through it. Verse 2, "Every branch that is in me does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does not bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit." And then verse 4, "Abide in me, and I in you." So you hear the abide. "As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me." "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." But this is my Father, by this my Father is glorified. Verse 8, "That you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples."

Verse 16, "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." And so, the two big themes throughout this are that you abide, you stay attached, and secondly, that you bear fruit. And sort of to understand the seriousness of this, in verse 6, "If anyone does not abide in me, he is like thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown of the fire and are burned." So, I don't have a lot of experience with grapevines, with the exception of, we used to go to this church in Vermont when I was younger, and the guy who was a preacher had some grapevines, and at all the big church gatherings, there'd be an announcement,

"Stay away from my grapevines," right? But my experience, like, you're not going to build furniture out of grapevines, right? You're not going to run it through the lumber mill, and so any branches that come off the grapevine, and almost every commentator points this out, the only use for those branches is to be burned, right? They're not even really that good for burning, because they're small and they burn quickly. And so the point is that this is a serious thing about abiding and bearing fruit, because if you do not do this, what awaits for you is this picture, biblically, of judgment. So what do we think it means to bear fruit? Any thoughts? Because he was specifically talking to the disciples at that moment, I think that bearing fruit is spreading the gospel and building the gospel.

And I think a big part of that, he's getting them ready for exactly that, because their world's about to fall apart, and he wants them to remember what ultimately they're, yeah, absolutely. Any other thoughts about bearing fruit? I think the other picture we see biblically, you know, I think there's two big pictures biblically of bearing fruit. One is that we go and make disciples. It's a very common picture throughout Scripture that we, you know, the harvest comes. In fact, when we started the book of Acts, the church begins on the day of Pentecost, which is the day you celebrate the harvest coming in. The harvest is brought in. So there's that aspect, but there's also the aspect, I think, too, of Christian growth and character, leaving behind sin, moving into righteousness. Jesus will talk a little bit about obedience in a moment,

which applies to both, right? It applies both to sharing the gospel and to growing. For example, we talk about, you know, the fruit of the Spirit, the description of what the Christian life looks like. And notice that Jesus is very clear that these things in the Christian life are not an option, right? You know, we're used to having all kinds of options. When we order something, when we go somewhere, and you say, "Well, what comes with that?" You know, you order a meal. What comes with the sides? Well, it comes with broccoli and potatoes. Well, can I just have all potatoes, right? And we're used to changing our options. Notice that Jesus is very, very clear here that bearing fruit in the life of the Christian is not something that we can sort of see as optional.

It's something that we just go, "Oh, yeah, well, it'd be nice if I could. It'd be nice if I would." But it's not...this is a serious, serious thing. Any other thoughts or comments? Well, also, I guess then it ties to, like, the individual's spiritual gift. Yeah. Yeah, I think the fruit of your spiritual gifts, yeah. Yeah, and I had not thought of how that, you know, fits in, but yeah, the exercise of the gifts that God has given us, which, you know, Jesus is pretty specific when he talks about the parable of the talents, what you're gifted with should be used to bear fruit. Any other thoughts or comments? All right, so in the last few minutes, what I want us to do is take a look at what this text says, and as I was thinking about this, one of the reasons I feel like this is kind of like a vine

is because it just kind of goes everywhere in terms of how much there is. You know, it's such a big text in terms of its theological implications that Jesus is the vine. It's a big text in terms of seriousness, that if you are not connected and abiding and bearing fruit, that you are cut off and you face judgment. But it's also a big text in terms of all the things Jesus says that help us to bear fruit. And almost every one of these we could dive into individually in depth and spend a lot of time in. And so the first thing I want us to take a look at, the way that we are fruitfully able to abide and bear fruit, is because of the words of Jesus. Look at verse 7. "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you."

And Jesus says part of bearing fruit and abiding, and we'll talk more about the second half of that, but the first part he says, "My words have to abide in you." That's not a new theme for us. Remember the parable of the wise man and the foolish man? The one who hears the words of mine and puts them into practice is like a man who dug down deep and built his foundation. Upon the rock, that God's word directs us, it protects us. Verse 3, it says it cleans us. Verse 3, it says, "Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you." And I always thought that was kind of weird, right? You've got vine, branches, and then right in the middle of it just goes, "Well, and now you're clean because I've spoken to you."

But remember the context of this. This is sort of one big thing. He's already a dress cleaning. Remember He went, they got there for dinner, everybody's feet smelly because they're walking around, you know, in agricultural society in sandals. Nobody washes anybody's feet because they're all kind of arguing for position, and Jesus gets down and cleans their feet. And use that picture of cleanliness, and He says that His words clean us. It means it, you know, convicts us of sin. It moves us to righteousness. That part of the way that we are fruitful is by continual attention to the words of Jesus. Additionally, the picture you have that sort of supports our fruit and helps our fruit is, in verse 9, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you, abide in my love."

And then you have this long section, 12 through 17, "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 what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I call you friends. For all that you have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. If you did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, you should go and bear fruit, that your fruit should abide. So whatever you ask in my Father's name, he will give it to you. These things I have commanded you, that you will love one another." And so love, it's sort of what directs our attention and holds it.

So if you ever, I was thinking about this with our dog, what he loves, he chases, right? So he sees a cat, he chases it. He sees a kid walking around with a cheeseburger at home, which is why you guys got to sit at the table, because he's right there waiting for it. And the same thing with us, our love directs us, and so God calls us to love him, but he also reminds us that he loves us. And I think that's probably more important for us to realize that we are loved for holding us to the vine, that God's love has brought us in. We generally don't run away from places where we are loved, and so he calls us to be reminded that we are loved. Third, we see obedience to the words of Jesus. Look at verse 10. "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."

There's the theme of being told something, the theme of love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. In verse 14, "You are my friends if you do what I command you." That part of bearing fruit is simply taking what we hear and putting it into practice. Not just hearing it, but actually doing it. Any thoughts or comments before we jump into the next little section here? Alright, I want to just take a look at this, and I like this so much, because it can feel like a heavy thing when it comes to bearing fruit. You say, "I don't know if I can do it, or if I'm strong enough, or I have the energy, and it's so serious, because if I don't, I'm cut off and thrown into the fire."

Look at what it says that the power of God equips us for that. "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, it will be done for you." And then in verse 16, the second half of that, "So whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you." What he's doing is emphasizing, and not in a small way, you know, whatever you ask, and whatever you wish, God will give it to you. Now, this has been taken kind of by two extremes by Christians, right, in terms of prayer. One extreme sort of treats God as a genie, right, where you rub the lamp, comes out, you just give you whatever you want, right? And so that's not a right way of thinking about prayer. The other prayer is where we put so many,

the other error is where we put so many qualifications on it. God doesn't, you know, he says whatever, but he doesn't really mean whatever. And so we overqualify it to the point where this loses its power. So one case sort of tries to take advantage of the power that we are given through prayer, and the other side sort of minimizes it. And what you find is that this is a big, big promise, but it also is, in some ways, qualified, right? So God's not going to give us something that will hurt us or cause us problems. So, I guess it was yesterday, Rachel was trying to open a package and goes, "Hey, I need a knife." And Luke's like, "I want a knife!" Right? Not giving my two-year-old a knife, right? No matter how much he wants it, right?

Because he, like, at this point in his life, he'll probably use it on his sisters. And so, right, there are some things, but the point here is that God gives us whatever we need, no matter how big it is, right? You know, it's one of those times we've had people working on the church, and they say, "Well, you come and work." I said, "I'll go get whatever you need." You know, and they say, "Well, this is what I need from Lowe's." Right? That's what God's saying. He's saying, "I'm not going to leave you where you're trying to do this under your own strength." That my power, no matter how big your need is, he's like, "I'm going to meet it." In fact, you see it a little bit. I was thinking of this on the day of Pentecost, right?

Here are these people from all these different languages. And the Holy Spirit descends, and they begin to speak in all of these different languages. And what's the amazing verse in the first part of Acts chapter 2? We hear them telling the mighty works of God that here's what they needed to bear this fruit of the harvest, was they need to be able to talk to all these different people. And what did God do? Miraculously gave them that power. And so we want to be careful not to minimize this, but we also want to be careful not to try to treat God as simply, you know, a vending machine where we put our prayers in and get, you know, get blessings out. Any thoughts or comments? So the Greek word that's there, that no answer ever you wish, is the Greek word, is it really, is that a literal translation?

Like, whatever you want on the, you can think of on the top of your head, or is there a difference? I think that, and I didn't dive into that part of the Greek as much, but I read a bunch of different translations, and some of them, it kind of has more of a picture of need or maybe want for the task. You know, I need to go back and look it up a little more deeply, but I don't think it's simply like, "Well, I want a motorcycle." Less desire. Yes, what you need for, you know, here I'm asking you to bear fruit, and to do, you know, obey, and yeah, yeah. Any other thoughts or comments? All right, two more things that I just want to take a quick look at here. This is not a have-to thing, so like when we ask our kids, it's like, "Hey, we're gonna do something fun later,

but before we do that, we need to clean your room." And they go, and it's just like, you know, grumpiness the whole time. That's not the picture here, is that this is not a sort of a heavy obligation. It is heavy obligation, but it's not an unjoyful one. These things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be full, right? Not that you're just going to be a little bit joyful, or a trickle of joyful, but rather an overflowing fountain of joy. Like I talked about earlier, Ezra and bread. Just like an overflowing fountain of joy that comes in. This is not just simply commands, but they're commands filled with the good news of the gospel, that God brings us joy. And I want to go back to verse 2, "Every branch that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit."

So one of the things that the vine dresser does in terms of the vine, I don't know how that is for modern vines, but in that time it was generally the newish branches that would bear fruit, so you had to continually keep pruning and pruning to keep the fruit to be born. And so some branches that never bear fruit, they just get chopped off, and the branches that would sprout, they would continually be pruned back, so that the energy from the plant, from the branches that attach to the vine, those branches, the energy from them wouldn't just be given to growing the branch bigger, but be given to grown fruit. And so one of the pictures here is that God will be continually pruning his people. And pruning is not necessarily a pleasant thing. God can do that through refocusing our energy and our desires,

through taking things away, through the difficulties of life, from the correction of our brothers and sisters in Christ. But to notice that part of God's discipline to make us fruitful is that there will be times we will face pruning. Any thoughts or comments? On the finish to the 13th through 17th, the high priesthood prayer where you praise for your disciples. And so when he lays all this on them, he doesn't just say, "You're going to do this." Right. Or you're going to get chopped off and he's going to pray. And he's going to equip and to, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's one thing that we have to be careful because we can be really discouraging when you put all this burden. It's like, "Well, you've got to bear fruit. You better bear fruit now, and you better bear a lot of fruit."

The picture here is that, yes, we have to bear fruit, but yes, that's through the power of God who equips us, who gives us joy, who gives us strength, who brings us nourishment, and who protects us. Sort of like what, you know, Paul talks about, you know, God works in us. We work out what God works in, that it's not just, we're not simply passive, but we're also, you know, equipped by the power of God. So it's our effort, with God's effort, we're strengthened by the gospel. It's the only way that we can bear fruit is by holding on to the vine. Any other thoughts?

Let's have a word of prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for allowing us to be here this evening. Thank you for these words from Jesus. Encourage us, help us to be strengthened, give us what we need. We know that you will, and you have promised to give us strength and hope and courage and joy.