What Does Abiding in Christ Look Like? Word, Love, and Joy

Pastor Josh opened the sermon fresh off a big life change — he and his family just moved to Bowral. After a wedding and a flight to Melbourne, his kids welcomed him with a home-cooked meatball dinner. The house was messy, still full of unpacking boxes. Compared to the clean but cold Airbnb he usually stays at in Melbourne, it didn't measure up. But would he trade it? Not a chance. Because this is what home feels like — the place where you belong, where you're not a stranger, where you didn't pay to be there.

That, he said, is what the church should be. Not a place you go, but a place you become part of. And in week three of the Abide and Advance series, he made it practical: what does abiding in Christ actually look like? Three words — word, love, and joy.

You Are What You Repeatedly Choose to Be Influenced By

Jesus said in John 15:3, "Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you." Right there in the vine and branches passage, Jesus goes straight to the word. When the word enters your mind and heart, it activates something spiritual. It keeps you connected to the vine.

Most people who don't have a constant, faithful journey with Christ have a very shallow understanding of the word. When a different season comes and the wind blows, they shake easily. They don't know where to anchor their faith. So they listen to all sorts of things — this YouTube, that YouTube.

But just reading the Bible like a religious routine isn't what Jesus meant either. He's saying: have spiritual curiosity. Don't you want to know what God wants for your life? Don't you want to know his dream? The information is all in the word — the problem is that we don't have the curiosity to go looking.

Most people say, "I'll read the Bible when I feel like it." That's this generation's big thing — to be authentic, I have to feel it first. But Pastor Josh pushed back hard on that.

"Most of the things you know come from your constant habitual action. You are the creature of what you do repeatedly."

He even found that Aristotle said something similar: "We are what we repeatedly do. Therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit." But Pastor Josh went further with his own version: "You are what you repeatedly choose to be influenced by." Your heart is formed and conditioned through what you repeatedly consume. Your faith powerfully hinges on your discipleship discipline. A lot of people think they're in a spiritual dry season when really it's a habitual thing — too much YouTube, too many movies, not enough word of God.

He made a compelling case for the power of routine. A pastor running a house church model told him they only meet as a big congregation every eight weeks, but people still struggle to commit. Pastor Josh's response? It's actually easier to meet every week — because it becomes part of the life cycle. No negotiating on Sunday morning. No conjuring up willpower. You just get up, eat something, put something on, come to church. That habit becomes a powerful spiritual discipline.

Word and Prayer Always Come Together

But the word can't be separated from prayer. Charismatic people and reformed people fight against each other as if God is putting word against prayer. There's no such thing in the Bible.

Verse 7: "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done to you." The word leads naturally to prayer. You read something that moves you, you take it to God, you see him answer, you come back to the word, go deeper, pray more, receive more.

"Word, prayer, God. Word, prayer, God. Word, prayer, God. Do you see the whole powerful consequence and chain reaction? That is what abiding in Christ looks like."

And Pastor Josh was honest — the only reason he can stand up and preach is because he's experienced answers to prayer firsthand. From the small things to the big things, in every aspect of life. Church is not an academic institution. It's the place where people encounter a living God who actually answers.

The Greatest Offence to God

The second mark of abiding: love. Verse 9: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love." Jesus is saying: I love you even when you don't feel it. Even when God seems far away. Because I died on the cross for you.

"The greatest offence to God is not the sin we commit. The greatest offense to God is that you don't have enough faith to believe that he can forgive your sin."

So instead of abiding in Christ's love, people abide in their own self-righteousness. They work harder to earn God's approval. They do church work out of fear — fear of rejection, fear of hell. But God doesn't want you to operate that way. He wants confidence, joy, and passion.

Then came one of the most moving moments of the sermon. Pastor Josh shared a phone call from about 20 years ago. His father, then in his 70s, called out of the blue. He'd been hearing about friends going to nursing homes, and he wanted to know — would his son send him to one?

"Dad, don't be stupid. You have your own home. How can I kick you out of your own house?" The call ended. But the emotional disturbance didn't. Pastor Josh called his wife and just cried.

"What my father said really hurt me. Not the fact of what he said — it's that he had to fear about my love for him."

That's exactly how we come to God sometimes. We project our own limits onto him. "I wouldn't forgive someone who did that to me, so how could God forgive me?" But God's love goes beyond our understanding and imagination. Who would send his own son for people like us? He did. And as verses 15-16 remind us — you didn't choose him. He chose you. The initiation started from him.

Don't Lose the Ability to Be Fascinated

The third mark of abiding: joy. And not just any joy — supernatural, Christ-given joy. "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." Christianity isn't supposed to be miserable. It won't be painless, but it should be filled with a joy the world can't understand.

Hebrews 12:2 tells us Jesus endured the cross "for the joy that was set before him." Suffering wasn't the destination — it was the passage. Joy is the purpose. Glory is the purpose.

So how do you fight for joy? Pastor Josh had a surprising answer: fascination. The more you are fascinated with who God is, the more curiosity you bring, the more joy you find. And when you lose that fascination? Joy goes first. Then love. Then passion. And what fills the gap? Resentment, bitterness, tiredness, spiritual illness.

He illustrated this with a golf story. He recently played a round with Jungmin — Ty's sister — a top-level professional who had won five championships. After four years of playing golf, Pastor Josh was eager to show off his skills: "I figured out how to draw the ball, hit it this way — can you give me a tip?"

Her response floored him.

"I don't know my golf yet. I'm here to get coached by this guy who tells me what my swing looks like. I'm still learning."

A champion golfer who says she doesn't know her golf yet. And here he was, four years in, thinking he'd figured it out. Sometimes we come to God the same way — thirty, forty years of faith and we think, "I've read Genesis to Revelation. What's new?" That attitude kills fascination. And without fascination, joy dies.

Challenge: Constant Obedience in One Direction

Pastor Josh closed with a powerful takeaway:

"We can't maintain our altitude, our attitude, our affection without constant obedience in one direction."

Christianity isn't a Sunday thing. It's not events and hype. It's constant obedience in one direction. Your altitude — flying high with Christ. Your attitude — becoming more like him. Your affection — loving him with real passion. None of it works without abiding.

Whatever life throws at you — sickness, financial struggle, the unexpected sting of life — it's not a crisis. It's the opportunity to bring God in. To experience him. To know him deeper. Don't be satisfied with where you are with Christ. Keep getting curious. Keep getting fascinated.

Jesus says it simply: abide in me. Attach to me like a branch to the vine. Word, love, joy — that's what it looks like.