The Branch Life | Fierce Pathways

Are you in a season where it feels like God is cutting things out of your life? 🌿✂️

A relationship… a dream… a plan… or even a version of yourself you used to love?

In this powerful message from Erica Adkins, she teaches us what Jesus meant in John 15 when He called Himself the Vine and called us the branches. When you abide in Jesus, you grow — but you also get pruned.
And pruning isn’t punishment… pruning is preparation. 💚

God prunes what He plans to grow.

This sermon will speak directly to you if you're:
🍂 Letting go of idols, dreams, or old habits
😣 Feeling the pain of surrender
🌱 Craving deeper intimacy with Jesus
🧠 Struggling to depend on God instead of yourself
💛 Learning to trust God’s cuts instead of resisting them

Abiding isn’t about performance — it’s not about cleaning ourselves up or trying harder. It’s about dependence. Only Jesus can cleanse us, sustain us, and grow us into who we’re meant to become.

And yes… the cuts hurt. But they also heal.

They remove what’s choking your growth and they shape your character from the inside out.

Chapters

• 0:00 Roots, Family Farming, And Gardening Failures
• 1:35 Tomato Suckers And The Case For Pruning
• 2:08 John 15: The Vine, The Gardener, The Branches
• 5:15 Leaving A Beloved Job And Facing Pruning
• 7:20 Dependence Over Performance: You Are Already Clean
• 10:40 Trusting The Cuts That Make Us Grow
• 14:10 How God Prunes: Correcting, Removing, Strengthening, Redirecting
• 18:30 Obedience That Flows From Abiding Love
• 21:10 Joy Made Complete In Remaining
• 24:10 A Hard Yes: Finally Letting Go Of The Job
• 27:20 Prayer And Closing Invitations

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:00

I uh want to be a gardener. I have more than four generations of gardeners in my family, actual legitimate farmers. Um, my great-great-grandfather, Casper, came to America from um Sweden? Nope, Switzerland. There you go. And there were many generations of farmers even before him. And yet he came here in search of good land and a future that could be prosperous and fruitful. And all of that farming love for nature, like passed down to my dad, who um left the farm life to come up here again and search for a more prosperous, fruitful future, just in a different sort of way. And yet, the man, his entire backyard, there's like not a square inch where you could even plant anything else. And yet he still finds a way to do it because he loves to plant. He loves to just see fruit come to pass. He loves to see flowers grow. It just like does something in his soul. And it does the same for me. And golly, Moses, if I could just actually get fruit, I can't. I have tried mind darndest. Now, um, to my credit, I have this like, I don't know, maybe eight-inch deep planter. That's all I've got, y'all. Like, I'm working with almost nothing. But then I got my friend Shannon Russo, who, uh, Jacob, can we see that picture on the screen? Who has this tomato plant that's taller than she is? And every year she has like this abundant crop. Now, if you are a gardener, you know, in order for something to grow, you have to tend it, right? You gotta pick the weeds out from around it. You have to do something specifically with tomato plants called pruning. And there's specifically these things called suckers on the tomato plant, and you have to pull them off because if you don't, the plant is going to give all of its nutrients to these suckers, and they don't actually produce fruit. So if you want fruit, you've got to prune. Well, if you want fruit, you gotta prune. And that's true of us. We're gonna dive into God's word in John 15, and we're gonna see how Jesus is saying, listen, if I want the most fruit out of you, and I'm actually promising you're gonna be fruitful if you remain in me, but one of the things I'm going to do because I'm a good God, I'm gonna prune you. I'm gonna cut some things back from you because I want absolutely the most fruitfulness out of you. About two and a half years ago, I so I've worked in a school for about 10 years, and I love this school. I've got probably like a 20-plus year investment in this school. And yet, around that time, it just felt like something was not clicking anymore. I felt like, I don't know, it just got harder and harder, and like the job actually didn't get harder. You would think after all this time of being there, it would be easier to do this job, and yet somehow it just felt difficult. It just felt icky's not the right word, but that's all I can think of right now. And it felt like the Lord was kind of pushing me out. I was like, God, what is going on here? Are you doing this? Are you trying to like make me come away from this? So, with a lot of praying and with a lot of counsel, it was like, yeah, it's time to leave. Well, so I quit my job last summer, except I didn't. Except I didn't. I was like, but I don't wanna leave this place. I like being here. I don't want to walk away from it. So I'm just gonna stay on five hours a week and just do a piece of the job still because I love it. I want to stay. Golly Moses! Can you just listen to Jesus? He's making you walk away. That's where my heart was, but I just wanted to stay. Have you been in that moment where it seems like there's something uncomfortable? Maybe it's a friendship, and you just know, like, this actually isn't really the best thing for me right now, but I I just I want to stay in it. Or maybe it's a job like me, where again, it's like, I don't know, I feel like this is making me compromise, or, or maybe it's a position where, like, actually there is fruit. You're seeing, like, there's good things happening here, and yet it just, I don't know. It's like, it's time to go. It's time to go. God can call us into seasons of pruning often, because he's saying, Listen, there's more fruit on the other side of this, and I have to prune this sucker away from you so that the more fruit can come. Listen, our bottom line for today is God prunes what he plans to grow. God is in the business of growing things, he's in the business of building things up, he's in the business of bringing about fruit because in that fruit, like it shows that we are his disciples, and it also blesses the community around us. So we're gonna dive in. Let's dive in today. John chapter 15, we're gonna start in verses one through five. It says, I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes. I'm gonna read that one more time. And I'm gonna go a lot slower. Jesus says, I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful. Jesus goes on to say, You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me. Can you say that? Remain in me, and I will 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. Then Jesus switches. He goes, Now I'm the vine, you're the branches. He's clarifying terms here. I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Whew. Okay, so we're gonna we're gonna keep going. We're gonna dive in a little bit. The context of this verse, Jesus is actually talking to his disciples. This is kind of his last chance to tell them everything he wants them to know. This is honestly a little bit his um survival guide to them. And he's saying, listen, I'm actually about to leave. You don't even realize it yet. You're still kind of holding on to me physically, but I'm telling you, I'm about to leave. You need to know I am the true vine. You're the branches. And he's saying that because Israel all throughout the Old Testament had been referred to as the vine. They were, they were the people, they were the group, they were the thing together. And Jesus is saying, listen, that's your old identity. I'm the true vine. I'm the very one from whom you're going to get all of your nutrients, all of your identity, all of your processes, all of your character. I'm gonna do that in you. I'm the true vine. Jesus is contrasting and making it obvious now. He's the true vine. We are all in him and he's in God. Okay, so we've got, we need to like look through the terms of all that we just read, okay? We've got Jesus, the true vine. He is solid, he is stable, he's where we get our nutrients, right? And then there's God, who is the very gardener. He's the one who's doing the work to make sure that the vine and the branches remain fruitful. It's all God's job to do this. Now, I need to point out the reason I think that God or Jesus uses this analogy is because literally a vine will not actually be like as fruitful as it possibly could be without a gardener. So, fruit on a vine, a grapevine needs a gardener. Back in, I want to say, the 1700s in England, this man brought a cutting of a grapevine to a palace and planted it. And he was faithful to take care of it and take care of it and take care of it. And it is now like one of the not eighth wonders of the world, but of the plant world. It is the the the great vine. There we go. Take a look at this thing. This vine has grown so much, one of its shoots, just one of its shoots, is 135 feet long. Feet. Just one. The base of it is. I don't know why I'm having trouble finding all of my details. The base of the vine is almost 12 feet around. This vine is 258 years old. There have been gardener after gardener after gardener. And if you were to come around the vine in summertime, it's beautiful, it looks lush like this. But just before it looks lush, kind of in the spring, do you know what they do? They cut it back 30%. 30%. If you were to walk through at that moment, you would go, are you kidding me? There's nothing gonna come from this. But a gardener knows what he's doing. A gardener knows just the right cuts to make the thing grow. So we've got the vine, who is Jesus, the one from whom we get all of our life. We've got God, the gardener, who is faithful to tend the vine, to take care of the vine, to do everything that is necessary. And then Jesus points out, you have you and me, the branches. We are the things through whom the vine produces fruit. God does the work of cleaning and preparing, and he does it through us. So your purpose is bearing fruit. And Jesus points out, I want you to be even more fruitful. So if Jesus is comparing us to branches, let's learn to embrace the branch life. That's our point today. That's what we're gonna be thinking in, that's where we're gonna go. And number one, if we're going to embrace the branch life, it means dependence, not performance. Let's take a look at verse four. It says, Remain in me and I, as I 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. I don't know about you, but as I actually read that, there's there's a caution, but then there's so much hope. First of all, let's let's step back a little bit in verse three. It says, you are already clean. Do you remember Pastor Elena speaking last week? And she talked about how God saves us and then he grows us. God has already done the work of that justification, that that saving us. This is what Jesus is saying. He's reminding them, listen, you are already clean. You're already clean because of the work that I've done in you. You actually don't have to earn this. You don't need to try and make it on your own. I'm doing the work in you. I've already made you clean. You don't have to try. I don't know, maybe there's somebody in here who needed to hear that. You are clinging instead to the very vine who gives you all the nutrients you need. You are clinging to your past self. You're clinging to this idea that you will never be good enough, that God couldn't use you. And Jesus is saying to you today, you are already clean. You are already clean. I've done that work. Leave behind the old has gone. Behold, the new has come. So you're already clean. I have hope because of the fact that you're already clean. He's already made you clean. And he's inviting us to remain in him. A branch apart from a vine can't produce anything, can it? If you literally cut off a branch of a tree and set it to the side, what would it just start doing? Withering, dying. It's it's already dead in that moment. It just takes a while to look dead, right? God is saying, listen, keep yourself connected to the vine. As you remain in me and I in you, he's actually giving us a promise, you will bear much fruit. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna put my sap through you and you will bear fruit. And he gives us a caution, though, that apart from me, you can do nothing. Nothing. If you're anything like me, you like to fix things. You like to make sure that you've checked off your list, that you've done all the work, that you have been approved, and you did a good job. I am a classic striver. It is just innate in who I am, and I need to rail against it because I am not the vine. I am not the vine. You are not the vine. Jesus is the vine. There's a hope in this because I don't have to strive. I don't have to make it in my own strength. I don't have to try and grin and bear it. I can just sit back in the vine. He's got it. He's already made me clean. He's already going to produce the fruit. And he's asking me to just remain in him. Like that's the biggest thing that I need to do. Just remain in him. I get to, I get to, you get to. Let Jesus' divine nature flow through you, and he'll accomplish it. 1 Thessalonians 5.24 says, and he will do it. And he will do it. He will accomplish it. But our part of this in the remaining in the vine is actually believing and agreeing that you are clean, that Jesus is the one who does the work. There's a freedom in that, right? Whew! Thank you, Jesus. You have done the work. I'm free. I don't need to strive anymore. It's that our part is remaining in him. Okay, God, I need to stay close. I need to get into your word. I need to remain in Christian community. I need to guard the voices that I allow to come into my mind. And then I need to recognize when I'm trying to do it without you, Jesus. And I need to repent quickly. So if we're going to embrace this branch life, it means depending on Him, not performing, right? Then it means, and this is the one that probably all of us are going to go ouch, it means trusting the cuts that will make us grow. I don't like this. Do you like this? Do you like any, like any time that something gets pulled out of your life? No, it hurts, right? No one likes this, but it's necessary. Remember the the grapevine at Hampton Court? A third, an entire third of the plant gets cut back every year. And then all throughout the season, they're trimming and trimming and trimming. A third of the flowers even get removed every summer, like as it starts blooming. A third of them get removed. We need to trust the cuts that make us grow. It's no fun. Again, over that time at my last job, I felt like the Lord was just putting in my heart, make space. I didn't know what that meant. I was not ready for that. I honestly thought that I would be with that school for, I don't know, until my all of my children graduate, which is another 12 years. And so that was a little bit strange to me that it was the Lord seemed to be calling me out, that it seemed to be like my time was supposed to go away. But here's the thing: God prunes what he plans to grow. He's got a good plan. So maybe you're asking, what are some ways that God may prune us? Well, one, he corrects us, he prunes us through correcting some of our internal actions. There's a discipline that needs to happen. I think of David after Bathsheba and some of the hardship that David's life went through because he had some character flaws that God was trying to train. This correcting is a removing that which would do damage to the rest of the plant. So if again, if you're a gardener, you know if you get like spots on a leaf, you gotta yank that leaf off because it's like a mold that's gonna attack the rest of the plant. When there's something that's deep within us, God is faithful to take that away and we can trust when he takes that away because it's ultimately going to produce more fruit, even though it hurts. So, number one, it's correcting our behavior, which might maybe will harm us and harm others. Number two, it's removing idols and false security. Have you ever held on to a friendship because it's just you knew you were safe there? And God is saying, actually, that friendship's not your security. That's not where your life comes from. And he's faithful to remove some of those friendships sometimes, or relationships and things like that. Maybe it's a job you depended on too much, or a relationship in which you became kind of codependent that was not healthy. I think of Gideon in the Bible. Do you remember he had 32,000 members ready to go to battle? And God was like, You're trusting in your fighting guys, and I need you to trust in me. I need you to remember that I'm the one who takes care of you. And he like cut Gideon's group down and cut Gideon's group down and cut Gideon's group down until he was at 300 men, started at 32,000. God is saying, Listen, I am your vine. I'm the one who supplies all your needs. Are you looking to others, to other false securities, to idols that are taking your focus off of me? So it could be correcting, it could be removing those false idols, it could be strengthening. Sometimes some of the waiting that we go through or the hardship that we're enduring is actually causing our branch to get thicker in the vine so it can sustain harder things as time goes by. I think of Joseph. You know the story of Joseph? For years and years and years, this kid he thought God was gonna do something huge. And it took, I think, about 25 years from the time that the promise and the vision that he had was actually fulfilled. Boy landed himself in jail and jail again, and then a really long time of being forgotten. But I believe in those times, all of that hardship that was the Lord like, depend on me, depend on me. I want your branch to get stronger and stronger and stronger. I'm strengthening you because what's coming next requires an incredible dependence on me for you to do that thing well. And that's true of Joseph's life. So again, where could some pruning come? From that correcting, the removing of idols, strengthening. Perhaps there's some chronic illness that you're going through, some ongoing limitations. Maybe there's a really slow progress toward that goal. But all of this strengthening, it's causing us to lean in and grow independence. It could be some redirecting. Maybe the Lord is actually removing something in advanced. It's a door closing, a plan failing, a dream collapsing. None of this pruning, I just want to say again, none of this feels good. If you get pruned, it hurts. And it honestly, even with a plant, it takes some time to heal from that pruning, doesn't it? It does. There was a moment for Paul when he really wanted to go to Asia, and God was like, nope, you're not going to Asia. Even though you think that's where the fruit's gonna come, I need you now to go to Macedonia. And because he did trust God and he went to Macedonia instead, thousands of people got saved. They came to Jesus because of that. God can redirect us. And then finally, maybe another one of the options, and these are this is not an exhaustive list, could be cleansing of internal character, shaping the very person that we are. Maybe we actually get sat down from a position. Maybe our motives and our character are exposed. We were not ready for that, and yet it happened. The disciples around the Seder dinner, they're like, Jesus, who's the better best of us? And what are you gonna do? And all this stuff. And Jesus is like, stop, you're missing the point. You're missing the point. There's a cleansing that the Lord does, and when he does that, some of that pruning via cleansing creates a deeper humility and service and dependence on him. Because we can't do it without him. Pruning can be anything that God is cutting away that hinders us from abiding in Christ and bearing more fruit. God is the true vine. Sorry, Jesus is the true vine, and God is the gardener, and he prunes what he intends to grow.

SPEAKER_01: 22:34

Jesus trusted the Father and leaned into obedience, even to death.

SPEAKER_02: 22:40

Skipping ahead just a teeny bit. But Jesus is talking about I'm the true vine and God is the gardener. That means God's the one who planted the true vine. And Jesus' trust as the true vine in the gardener is what allowed Jesus to do all the hard things that were ahead of him. So if we jump forward into verses nine and ten. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my father's commands and remain in his love. Embracing this branch life means leaning into who God is in dependence and not performance. It means trusting the cuts that help us grow. And then it also means obedience produced from an abiding love. As Jesus leaned into the gardener, he trusted whatever you're asking me to do, I know I can do it because you're in charge. I know your love for me. I know that you think about me and your plans for me are good. And so God, and Jesus is saying this, guys, like right before He's about to go to the cross. He knows it's coming. He's letting all of the disciples, he's letting you and I know, guys, if I'm calling you to something, I'm doing it because I love you. So step into obedience because I'm there with you and I'm gonna do something in you. And ultimately, I have a promise for you. You will bear much fruit. You will bear much fruit. There's a natural availability for obedience that happens when we just lean into God's love, when we remember, man, he's got us, he's taken care of us all this way. He's not gonna stop now. He's not gonna stop now. Jesus trusted the Father and leaned in. How? Why? Because he remained in the Father. He remained in his love and in his character. Jesus had a dependence on the Father, a communion with him. He recognized the Father was his source. The true vine was planted in God, in his love. And he's inviting us to do the same: to be dependent on him, to remain in communion with him, to derive our very source and our strength and our life from him.

SPEAKER_01: 25:23

And as we do that, our confidence grows.

SPEAKER_02: 25:26

We fall more in love with Jesus. We know who he is, we know his character. We know what he's going to do. And we can trust, okay, Jesus, if you're pulling that thing from me, you've got a good plan. If you're pruning me in this season, okay, this hurts. Jesus, ouch. I don't like this pruning. But I know you're good. I know your character. I know you love me. So I know that you're going to work this out for my good and your glory. And I know you're gonna produce fruit from it, even if I can't see it today. And then I love this extra promise in verse 11, and it's a bonus. He said, I've told you this so that my joy may be in you. I've told you this so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. He's reminding us, guys, the source of joy happens when you remain in me. When you remain planted in the true vine, the one who will not fail, the one who will never leave you or forsake you, the one from whom you get your very life and your very fruitfulness, the one who produces the fruit in and through you. He is the one. And I want to give you joy so that even as I'm pruning some of these things off of you, and it doesn't really make sense and it really does hurt. And listen, I'm in it with you, but I want to give you my joy. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. It doesn't lack, it doesn't wither away, it's complete joy because it's founded in the very God who purposed you for today. He gave you your identity as a branch, and he's inviting you. I want to, I want to give you joy. But here's how you do it. Number one, again, you depend on me. You stay remaining in me. Don't perform, don't try and do it in your own strength. I've got it. I'm taking care of you. I'm the one moving through you. Depend on me. Stop trying to make it on your own. Number two, trust me when I cut things off of you. Trust me when I prune things out of your life. Because if I'm pruning you, it's because I want growth to happen in you. Every hardship you encounter, if you lean into the Lord, I am believing with full faith. He is going to make it good. He is going to use it to ultimately produce more fruit. Because what God prunes, he plans to grow. It's not purposeless, he's not being mean. And as you remain in his love, that obedience to his nature gets more natural and his joy just fills your soul. So I started by telling you, I had that job where I actually really loved it and I found a lot of life in it, but it started to get difficult. And I, and so I quit working there full time, but still held on to that five hours. And over the last few months, it really felt so much more difficult. So much more difficult. I can't even really explain it. It's a little bit absurd, but it felt like the Lord was saying, you need to let me prune that branch. You are holding on to that sucker, and it's only going to kill you. And I cannot bring the fruit out of your life that I want if you keep holding on to that peace. And I wrestled and I kept wrestling. And then I finally was like, oh, okay. If you want to bring more fruit for my life, yes. Okay. I love you. I trust your love in me. I'm gonna open my hands. I'm gonna release Jesus. Okay, I'm gonna quit. This seems absurd, even for me to. If you work at a school, you know you're not allowed to quit in the middle of the school year. That's a big, big no, no. I've actually done it twice now. Um, because in another season, the Lord was asking me to prune it back. And I think even I'm realizing as I'm saying this right now, that I tried to put that branch right back on in the last few years of me working there when God was saying, Listen, I have more for you. You need to allow me to prune this thing. It feels like life to you. And there may be some fruit and there's some flowers growing out of that, but it's not the best harvest that I could produce through you. Stop holding on to a lesser harvest when I've got better things for you. Remain in the vine. Depend on him. Stop trying to make it on your own. Trust him as he's trying to prune some things off of you. Because I bet you anything, there's a greater harvest on the other side of your obedience. And as you obey, because it's born out of a knowledge of God's love for you, there is a joy that overwhelms your soul that you cannot even explain. Are you in a pruning season right now? Maybe you are, maybe you're not. But you can trust the God who prunes what he intends to grow. He's good and faithful. And he's gonna bring about a harvest that you could not even think or imagine.

SPEAKER_01: 31:34

Can we pray? God, I thank you for your faithfulness to us.

SPEAKER_02: 31:45

I thank you, Jesus, for your word. I thank you that it does not remain void or it does not return void. I thank you that it points out to us so many pieces of our character and your character and how we need to lean into you. God, I thank you for that visual that we we are just a branch. You are the vine. You're the one who produces all the things. You're the one who takes care of all that we need. And God is pruning us. God is watching out for us. God is cleaning us and making us whole in Him. Jesus, help us to slow down. Help us to really lean into the idea of remaining in you. Because apart from you, we can do nothing. I don't want to get to the end of my life and have nothing. I want to bear much fruit. Jesus, help us all as we lean into you, as we abide in you, as we remain in you, you produce the growth like Elena preached about last week. It is God-powered growth. Help us, Jesus, to remain in you and bear much fruit. In your name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 32:59

All right, folks, that's all the time we have, but thank you so much for listening to this sermon. If you got a lot out of this, feel free to share this with somebody who might need it. Also, there's a ton more content on our website, on our YouTube channel, on our Instagram channel, on our TikTok channel. Feel free to check all that kind of a thing out. Also, if you're interested in leadership type stuff, go ahead and check out another podcast or any other blogs or videos or anything over at BibleLeadership.com. And whatever else you do, make sure that you believe God for something big today.