Pastor and author John Ortberg, loved puzzled over a church member named Hank. He'd been a member there for 40 years. Yet Hank was his honoring angry and tankless old man who never seemed to change that's just Hank.. So Ortberg writes It was as if everyone simply expected that Hank's soul would remain withered, sour, year after year, decade after decade.

No, we're gonna talk about expectations. Thinking about Hank or for comments, everybody just expected. Him to be that way. No one seemed bothered by Hank's condition. No emergency meetings were held to probe. The strange case person who followed the church's general guidelines for spiritual life and yet was not transformed.

No, the church did have some expectations. We expected to hang from certain religious beliefs. We expected that he would attend services, support the church financially, avoid certain sins, but here's what we didn't expect. We didn't expect that he would progressively grow, become more and more like Jesus.

Now, in what other realm? Would this be tolerated? When you think about it? I live and work on an academic campus Loma Linda University. But can you imagine a kid who is in kindergarten for 40 years, don't you think the principal and some of the teachers and classmates maybe would ask, oh, what's wrong with Hank?

How long's he been in kindergarten? Oh, this is his 40th year. Is he doing his homework? Oh, yeah. Yeah. He does all of his homework. He does everything we expect him to do. So why is he still in kindergarten? Oh, because that's Hank Never Change,

or Loma Linda is also a hospital, a health sciences campus. Can you imagine hospitals? There's somebody who's. On a ward in a room in a hospital for 40 years. Don't you think some of the nurses, doctors, healthcare administrators, would start asking questions? Wait a minute. How long has Hank been on that ward in this hospital?

Oh, I think it's 40 years now. Okay. Is he compliant in taking his medication? Oh, yeah. Yeah. He does all the therapies, everything that we're asking him to do. Yeah, he does all of that. Oh why is he still there? Oh, that's just Hank. Hank will never change. So how is it that we would never tolerate this, school or a church or in a hospital, but somehow in the church, we shrug our shoulders and say, oh, he'll just always be an.

Cranky old man. Hey friends, let's be clear. Jesus made it very clear that all of his followers, everybody who would carry his name would grow. They would progressively become more and more like him. They would produce the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, and so on. John, chapter 15, if you want to turn there, will work through my favorite chapter and all of the Bible where Jesus makes this clear that.

It's an expectation for all of us who would call ourselves Christian to grow spiritually and to bear fruit. Verse one, Jesus begins, I am the vine and my father is the garden. Now, this metaphor, the vine, is a very commonplace symbol in that. Culture, ancient Palestine. It was the symbol, the nation of Israel.

It was the emblem on the coins. The Maccabees also in the front of the holy place was engraved a golden vine. So Jesus is doing here. What he often did, and that is to take a very common metaphor and then expand it to help us understand the deeper spiritual principle. So he says, I'm the vine. My father is a gardener.

He cuts off every branch envy that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he p prune so that it will be even more fruitful. Now, of course, pruning prolongs the process here. It transformation or sanctification, if you want the theological word. This adventure of growing to be more and more like Jesus.

It takes time. Vintners in Napa, California say that they don't expect to even break even on a crop until year 15. So for 15 years, what are they doing? Pruning and more pruning. You already are already clean. Jesus goes on because of the word that I have spoken to. You remain in me as I also remain in you.

No branch can bear the fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear. Fruit unless you remain in me. Notice, Jesus doesn't call us here to produce fruit, and yet so often we think of spiritual life like that's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to work hard, garner enough willpower to produce the fruit, the spirit.

Jesus says no. That's not the way spiritual life works. You are to bear. Much fruit. It's the spirit living in us that produces the fruit. We simply bear the fruit of the spirit by the indwelling presence of Christ through his spirit. I am the divine. Jesus goes on. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

Apart from me, you can do apart from me. You cannot produce fruit, you cannot do anything. It reminds me of Volkswagen commercial. Remember this at debut with a 2011 Super Bowl that from Volkswagen, picture a kid. Wearing this Darth Vader outfit walking through his home trying to evoke this kind of hocus pocus magic.

And he does this thing with his hands over his sister's dog and over the family dog and all of the house, and nothing happens much to his chara until he walks out to the driveway and sees the family Volkswagen, he does his hopeless focus thing with his hands and poof, suddenly. The lights pop on the engine.

Purs, the kid staggers back, obviously very impressed with his great power. And then the camera cuts to the father of the kitchen who is controlling the electronic. Oh, and we as viewers understand, apart from the father, that kid has no power whatsoever. It's all the father. And so here, Jesus says, if you remain in me, I will remain in you and you will bear much fruit.

But apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in near you, like a branch that is thrown away in withers, such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me, my words remain in you. Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. This is to my father's glory, that you bear much through showing yourselves to be my disciples.

And so if we live in Christ, he promises to live in us and there are certain expectations. What are these expectations? Let me give you three. Number one, you can expect God's pruning, right? Revisit the verse. Every march that does bear fruit, he grooms so that it will be even more fruitful. It's just a part of spiritual life.

God's roommate. A while back I received an email from a friend named Courtney. She was a college student at the time. She said, in the last several months, I have made some serious lifestyle changes. In doing so, my religious life has improved tremendously. But isn't life supposed to get easier the closer we come to Christ?

My life just seems to be getting harder. Nothing seems to be going right, man. Maybe you could give me some scripture. It could help me stay on the right path and fight the temptations. The devil of the will continues to throw my way and maybe you all pray for me as well, and my response was simply, No, life does not necessarily get easier when we commit to living in Christ and inviting Christ to live in us.

And when she asked for a scripture reading, I pointed her here to John 15, where the expectation is very clear. If we are to bear fruit, God will continue. This pruning, you might think of the plants that guard the edges of the beautifully landscape campuses, Disney World, Disneyland. They come in these beautiful shapes of Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, but we all understand they don't just happen to grow that way, right?

It's not by accident, but rather this bush looks just like Minnie Mouse because. Horticulturists through the years continually p prune it into the shape that they envision that it can be. So it is true in spiritual life. God is continually shaping us into the form, into the character of Christ who envisions us to become loving, filled with joy.

Peace, long suffering and so we can expect God's prime. And secondly, you can expect God's presence again. Repeated promise remain in me and I will remain in you. You can expect God's presence. He will remain in us, and so life can really become, like I talked about last night with Brother Lawrence, that is Nicholas Herman, who decided to make his whole life this wonderful experiment of the habitual, silent, ongoing conversation with God, so that his entire life is just this long prayer.

Constantly communing with the father, living in Christ or in his vernacular. Practicing the presence of God no matter what you're doing, is an opportunity to pray. I think of Paul's admonition, pray without ceasing, pray continually. The Bible says always, not just in your prayer closet. But always life can be and you can expect God's presence.

I'll share. My favorite story to tell on this one. Takes me back to my freshman year. Attending a boarding academy, Shenandoah Valley Academy in New Market, Virginia. When I arrived on campus, I signed up to play intramural football and wouldn't you know if the best athlete in the whole school chose me to be on his team?

I was so excited. Now, he chose me last, but I didn't care. I was on Wilhelm's team, very first game closer than any of us could have imagined. With just time remaining for about one final play, we needed to cover about 60 yards of real estate in order to score a touchdown in the game. So Wilhelm yeah, was us in the huddle.

He says, now look, let's push them off. Instead, hiking the ball to make hiking instead to two. He started pointing right at me. And he said to what's your name again? I was so panicked. I couldn't even remember. It wasn't a trick question. I just couldn't remember my name. I was so nervous. He said, I get to this guy in the orange jersey, and then he looks at me square in the grill and says, all you have to do is hold onto the ball for about three seconds, counting your mind to three, and then he it, as far as you can, throw it down the middle of the field.

Not to worry. I'll be there. I'll catch you. I'll score the touchdown. We'll win. Let's go break. Everybody lines up. I'm just shuttering in fear. This is a big moment. May I remind you, this is intermurals in academy. I will be talking about this moment 40 years later. In a men's moments like this really matters, right?

And honestly, in my mind, I am sincerely praying. Thinking, God, if you can part the Red Sea for your children, surely you can deliver this football into the hands of that prophet welcome. I need a miracle. That is honestly, what I'm thinking is just, oh God, please, I need you desperately help me here. And because that's what I'm thinking.

Inevitably, that's what comes out. You can't hide it. I did not mean this. I just, it's, so instead of saying what you would expect a quarterback in that moment to say something like that, sit pipe or something like that. I said exactly what I was thinking, dear, heavenly blah. It froze the defense if I was trying to, or funny or which I wasn't.

They just stood there. Our center alertly hiked the ball. Everybody's standing around except for Wilhelm, who's all by himself down the other end of the field. I just got rid of the football. He grabbed it, ran the length of field, scored a touchdown. We won the game.

Now here's the deal. Look. Whether you are texting in church or sitting in traffic, or swimming in the lake or taking a Sabbath afternoon, fiesta, whatever is fiesta, whatever it is, doesn't matter. Every opportunity is chance to connect with God. Amen. And you can expect his presence if you just live there.

If you remain in Christ and make your life this wonderful experiment of a continual, constant conversation with Jesus, you can expect his presence and think about all of the experiences, all of the adventures this man entail. What? What could happen? I, if you just decide I am gonna live in Christ and will continually invite him to abide in me.

I was going to preach about this the next day, and I was flying home to Ohio at the day from Houston, and I was jotting some notes that the sermon was still a lot of work needed to be done. I was praying, in my mind as I got on this plane fly moment, I had a yellow legal pad and I was taking notes and I was just praying, God, what would this look like in my life if I were to do this?

Constantly just abiding and just before we were. Getting ready to take off a woman seated in the back of the plane, scrambled to the front and made herself comfortable in the seat right next to me. And in that moment it wasn't an audible voice of God, anything like that, but I'm telling you, it was as close as I've ever experienced.

I just had this strong sense that God was saying to me if you want to know what that's then turn to the woman next to you and start the conversation. Immediately. I found myself arguing with saying no, I hate talking to strangers on airplanes, which I really do. I just don't do it.

But it was just this strong. Compulsion that you asked me and I'm telling you, and I'm like, God, that is why I always wear the universal symbol on airplanes that scream, I don't want to talk to you. Noise canceling in phones I never travel without. And it was almost as if God said, fine. I don't, since I can't talk to you, I'll work with her.

Yes. And in that moment she turns to me and asks the most bizarre question. I've never been asked it before or since, just out of the blue. She didn't introduce herself, nothing like that. She asked me are you a priest? Like I wasn't wearing aler collar or anything like that. And I shook my head because that's the problem with noise canceling headphones.

You can still hear what people say, I hate them, I could hear her ask the question and so I shook my head and then she asked are you a rabbi? Do I look like a rabbi? Shook my head. Are you a pastor? It took off and I said, ha, have we met before? I am a pastor. And she said, I knew it said, oh no we've not met.

I just knew, God assured me that he was going to reassign my seat and put me next to somebody who works for him. Okay. Exactly.

And I said please tell me your story. She said I don't know that I've ever felt more exhausted in my entire life. Just spent three days in Houston with my brother who is dying of leukemia. Yeah, he's under the care of the best oncologists in the world who all tell him, get your affairs in order.

You don't have very long to live.

She said, for three days I haven't slept. I haven't eaten hardly anything. I just feel so spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally depleted. I just have this sense that. God wanted to reassure me that he hasn't forgotten me.

I just knew that's why he put me next to you

for the entire flight. We talked. We talked about why such terrible things like cancer happen to good people like her brother. We talked about our respective churches and communities. We talked about our families, talked about what a terrible disease cancer is, and when we landed, I asked her, would it be okay if I shared your brother's name with our prayer ministers in my church?

We will lift him up to prayer and she couldn't even respond other than to just sit there sobbing. And then she gave me a big hug goodbye. And she said that would mean more than I can even tell.

And then a few days later, I received this email from her. She said, Carla, being able to share with you on that flight meant so much to me. God used you to bring such comfort. Owen lost his battle with leukemia. He was a wonderful man, brother who loved the Lord and is very much a mess. Thanks so much for being there.

When I desperately needed to be reminded that God had not forsaken me, ours was a divine appointment. Now you continue to shine the light of Jesus in this dark love.

I wonder how many of these divine appointments have I miss because I don't want to take off my noise canceling headphones.

Just imagine your life is this as this experiment. Of an ongoing, continual, habitual, silent conversation with God. Just God in this moment abiding me and all abide in you. Imagine living with this responsive heart. Amen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Amen. To be always receptive and responsive to that spirit.

God tells us clearly, if you will abide in me, that's the adventure that awaits you. Amen. You can live this kind of life in Christ. You can expect his pruning. Yes. You can expect his presence. Absolutely. And finally, you can expect his power. May I remind him this is not your power trying real hard. No. This is God's power residing in you.

He goes on to say, I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me, I am you. You will bear much. Apart from me, you can't do nothing. It's not your willpower. It's trusting in his spirit's power in. Big difference. One of my favorite children's books, the series features Frog In. Yes, they're great books.

They are great books. My favorite book, in fact my wife is a fourth grade teacher was looking for this book just the other day. And it's just coming to my mind as I'm talking and. She's did you take that book? And I had to, she officially apologized, said, do you know where it is? It was right there on my bookshelf where I like to keep it, but it is my favorite fog of Tu story where they bake these delicious chocolate chip cookies and they sit down and they just can't stop eating these cookies.

Like they do not have the power to control themselves. And What Fox says is what we need is willpower as he's grabbing and eating and still another cookie. And Toad asks what is willpower? I like this definition. Willpower is trying very hard not to do something that you very much want to do pretty much, right?

And so they try all of these methods and ways to stop eating the. Cookies, they wrap 'em up and they put 'em on the top of the tree, and then they sit around thinking about nothing but eating chocolate chip cookies. So then they climb the tree and they unwrap their box, and then they just keep eating cookies and until finally frog just crums up all of the cookies, throws the crumbs everywhere and announces, Hey Burns, here's the cookies.

The forlorn Toad says now we have no more. Frog says yes, but we have lots and lots of willpower.

So says you can keep while you're willpower. I'm going home to bake a cake.

It's not your pal. It's not about mustering personal role. It's about trusting Christ. So to build on what I talked about this morning, it's not about training. Yes. An important part of the process is training that is doing those spiritual disciplines that put us into the presence of God, studying the Bible.

Fellowshipping together, serving where there are needs, fasting, meditation, and so on, doing these spiritual disciplines. And I used to stop my sermons there 20 years ago, but then since I have come to discover, that's night. Not quite complete. No, it's not just about I. Spiritual training and going into spec training, strict training, but ultimately, it really is about trusting he who begins in good work and all of us, he will be faithful to complete.

And so there are some things that we can bank on, expectations that we can have. We can expect God's proning as he's shaping us into his character. We can expect God's presence if we just living in Christ. He will live in us through his Holy Spirit and we can expect his power. We don't live the Christian life by trying hard to be good and focusing all of our efforts on our behaviors.

Doing the things we don't want to do and not doing the things we so want to do just by mustering up more willpower. No. We simply trust in the power of Christ's indwelling spirit in us when we do that, he will change us into his likeness. Amen. Father, we are grateful. I just pray God, that you would help Angel.

Us to continually live in that space of being yielded to your promptings. May we be receptive. May we be responsible to your Holy Spirit as you continue to change us, to change our hearts, our attitudes, our desires, and to your is our prayer. In Jesus name, amen.