WEBVTT 00:27:55.431 --> 00:27:58.064 Well, good morning Valley View. 00:27:58.064 --> 00:27:59.397 It's great to be with you today. 00:27:59.397 --> 00:28:05.698 As we continue in our study of the book of John, we're going in to John chapter 15 today. 00:28:05.763 --> 00:28:11.198 And that's a familiar passage for many and I think a significant passage. 00:28:11.431 --> 00:28:18.564 And as I study the passage, I was reminded of an experience when we moved into our first home. 00:28:18.798 --> 00:28:33.798 You probably may recall back to when this happened for you, but prior to that, we were renting and there's a different level of care that's needed when you own the home or have borrowed the home from the bank versus when you were renting. 00:28:33.798 --> 00:28:38.163 And me being extremely handy was looking forward to that. Not at all. 00:28:38.163 --> 00:28:46.064 By the way, we move into the home, though, and I can be motivated to learn how to do some house projects because of the reality. 00:28:46.064 --> 00:28:49.963 You start to learn, Hey, this is cheaper if I figure it out myself. 00:28:49.963 --> 00:28:55.498 And thankfully I had people around me who had a lot of wisdom I could call on and ask for help. 00:28:55.498 --> 00:29:02.263 And so one day though, my neighbor calls me and asked me for help on his house, which was his first mistake. 00:29:02.263 --> 00:29:03.131 Right? 00:29:03.131 --> 00:29:05.298 If you're calling me, you're really desperate. 00:29:05.298 --> 00:29:10.097 And he was he was trying to change out his garbage disposal. 00:29:10.097 --> 00:29:11.798 The garbage disposal got bad. 00:29:11.798 --> 00:29:16.564 Lucky for him, I had just done that and someone had just shown me how. 00:29:16.564 --> 00:29:21.864 And so I go over and of course, he's making the same mistakes that I was making before someone came over and showed me how. 00:29:21.864 --> 00:29:23.730 It's actually pretty simple if you know what you're doing. 00:29:23.730 --> 00:29:29.631 That being the key phrase, it's always if you know what you're doing and you have the tools every time, so stop telling me that, okay? 00:29:29.631 --> 00:29:30.498 I know I've got it. 00:29:30.498 --> 00:29:31.631 I got to figure it out. 00:29:31.631 --> 00:29:33.998 If you know what you're doing and have the tools. 00:29:33.998 --> 00:29:36.064 And I knew in this instance I felt like an all star. 00:29:36.064 --> 00:29:40.364 So we come in, we get it fixed, we get it all set up, everything's ready. 00:29:40.364 --> 00:29:41.431 It looks great. 00:29:41.431 --> 00:29:46.631 He flips the switch and nothing. 00:29:46.698 --> 00:29:51.631 And the first thing I say is, Hey, did you happen to check the switch first? 00:29:51.631 --> 00:29:55.564 Now, one element I didn't share was the whole time we're working on this. 00:29:55.564 --> 00:29:59.931 His wife was nearby the whole time offering. 00:29:59.931 --> 00:30:00.263 Let's see. 00:30:00.263 --> 00:30:02.730 How do I say this? 00:30:02.730 --> 00:30:05.364 words of advice, words of instruction. 00:30:05.364 --> 00:30:13.298 Words highlighting areas of deficiencies in our abilities and intellect all along the way. 00:30:13.364 --> 00:30:20.897 And so at this point, though, she saw this as a key opportunity to really heighten maybe some areas where he was lacking. 00:30:20.897 --> 00:30:25.564 And I thought, you know, I think this is a good time for me to remove myself from the situation. 00:30:25.564 --> 00:30:29.330 I said, I'll tell you what, I think you can figure out the switch. 00:30:29.330 --> 00:30:30.698 Let me know how it goes. 00:30:30.698 --> 00:30:34.298 And of course, the next day he told me it was the switch. 00:30:34.298 --> 00:30:37.597 Indeed, there was nothing wrong with the disposal. 00:30:37.597 --> 00:30:39.163 I replaced the switch. 00:30:39.163 --> 00:30:41.798 Now the disposal works and I have a new disposal. 00:30:41.798 --> 00:30:45.131 So thanks for your help. 00:30:45.230 --> 00:30:48.698 The key thing in that situation was there was nothing wrong with the disposal. 00:30:48.698 --> 00:30:58.998 The issue is, is that the disposal had been disconnected from the source of life, the source of power, the source of energy had been disconnected from the thing that makes it work. 00:30:58.998 --> 00:31:05.597 And of course, today, as we look at this passage in John chapter 15, that is the issue. 00:31:05.597 --> 00:31:09.230 How do we stay connected to the source of life? 00:31:09.230 --> 00:31:21.963 That is the issue when you get disconnected from the source of true, everlasting joy filled, purposeful life and everything else follows from that. 00:31:21.963 --> 00:31:23.730 How do we stay connected? 00:31:23.730 --> 00:31:26.963 That's what we're going to unpack as we look at John Chapter 15. 00:31:26.963 --> 00:31:28.230 So turn in your Bibles to John. 00:31:28.230 --> 00:31:29.463 Chapter 15. 00:31:29.463 --> 00:31:31.431 That's on page 848. 00:31:31.431 --> 00:31:33.931 In the Church Bible, we have free Bibles for you. 00:31:33.931 --> 00:31:38.131 If you don't have a Bible out in the connection corner, slip out anytime and grab one. 00:31:38.131 --> 00:31:40.097 Keep that, read it. 00:31:40.097 --> 00:31:42.631 We have Bible reading plans out there as well that you can get. 00:31:42.631 --> 00:31:45.064 We're working through the New Testament together as a church. 00:31:45.064 --> 00:31:49.564 This year we're going to look at John Chapter 15 verses one through 11 today. 00:31:49.564 --> 00:31:56.631 We're going to look at it in two big parts, verse one through three first, which deals with our position in Christ. 00:31:56.798 --> 00:31:58.597 Who are we in Christ? 00:31:58.597 --> 00:32:01.864 Where do we stand with him? 00:32:01.931 --> 00:32:11.830 Once we have our bearings on that, we'll look at verse four through 11, which is the product of our position, the overflow of our position because of who we are. 00:32:11.830 --> 00:32:16.998 In the end, because of the realities of who we are in him, because of the connection to the source. 00:32:16.998 --> 00:32:18.897 Here's what's true in your life. 00:32:18.897 --> 00:32:20.864 Here's the overflow of that. 00:32:20.864 --> 00:32:24.663 Here's what it means to be connected with him. 00:32:24.663 --> 00:32:38.364 So I want to start with verses one through three that'll set up everything else we look at. Verse one, chapter 15, Jesus says, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. 00:32:38.364 --> 00:32:48.397 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. 00:32:48.463 --> 00:32:54.263 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 00:32:54.263 --> 00:32:59.998 So there's a few words in here we need to unpack to get the fuller context of what Jesus is talking about. 00:32:59.998 --> 00:33:09.364 Because almost every time that Jesus speaks in the book of John, there's a huge amount of background going on that informs what he's saying. 00:33:09.431 --> 00:33:15.463 And the first little phrase in here that we need to look at, at a deeper level is this where he says True Vine? 00:33:15.463 --> 00:33:20.431 I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. 00:33:20.431 --> 00:33:22.830 Now, why would he add the word true? 00:33:22.830 --> 00:33:27.330 That implies that there's an untrue vine that maybe you've been looking for the vine. 00:33:27.330 --> 00:33:30.196 That's not the real vine. 00:33:30.196 --> 00:33:36.431 Well, this points to a broader context that the rest of scripture highlights. 00:33:36.497 --> 00:33:40.463 There's a background to this image of a vine. 00:33:40.463 --> 00:33:47.364 You see this in stories in the New Testament, but the Old Testament background goes back to a number of key passages. 00:33:47.364 --> 00:33:49.696 In fact, we're going to throw these up on the screen. 00:33:49.696 --> 00:33:54.763 I'm not going to reference them all, but you can jot them down and you can look them up later on your own. 00:33:54.763 --> 00:33:56.396 We're going to look at two of them in particular. 00:33:56.396 --> 00:33:57.997 Go ahead and put those up on the screen. 00:33:57.997 --> 00:34:08.563 But there's an Old Testament background this history of Israel being referred to as a vine or a vineyard over and over again. 00:34:08.664 --> 00:34:19.130 But there's some key aspects to why they were referred to as a vineyard and what the context of the reference was, what God was saying to them in that context. 00:34:19.130 --> 00:34:22.931 So two passages in particular we're going to look at today to give us that background. 00:34:22.931 --> 00:34:28.197 Isaiah Chapter five turn to Isaiah Chapter five and we'll just look at those first two verses. 00:34:28.197 --> 00:34:34.264 Isaiah is one of the major prophets, which just means, you know, there's a bunch of books from the prophets. 00:34:34.264 --> 00:34:37.731 The major ones just mean the big ones, the larger the longer books. 00:34:37.731 --> 00:34:44.431 And then there's a whole collection of minor prophets that doesn’t mean there are less important, they're just shorter books and they're all kind of collected together. 00:34:44.431 --> 00:34:49.563 But Isaiah is kind of in the middle, near Psalms, in the Old Testament. 00:34:49.563 --> 00:34:57.431 We're going to look at chapter five, and there's just a couple of two verses to set this up, and there's more beyond that that you can read. 00:34:57.496 --> 00:35:01.563 But here's what the first two verses say of Chapter five. 00:35:01.630 --> 00:35:08.331 Let me sing for my beloved, My love song concerning his vineyard, the Lord's Vineyard. 00:35:08.331 --> 00:35:11.996 My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it. 00:35:11.996 --> 00:35:16.231 He cleared it of stones, planted it with choice vines. 00:35:16.231 --> 00:35:17.431 He built a watchtower. 00:35:17.431 --> 00:35:23.463 In the midst of it, he hewed out a wine vat in it, and he looked for it to yield grapes. 00:35:23.463 --> 00:35:27.496 But it yielded wild grapes. 00:35:27.597 --> 00:35:39.331 So the Lord takes all of this time to create a vineyard, put a vine watchtower wine vat. Prepares everything ready for grapes to come, and it yields wild grapes. 00:35:39.331 --> 00:35:46.231 Now, that's not really the best translation of that word, because if you think of wild fruit, you still think edible fruit. 00:35:46.231 --> 00:35:53.097 I mean, behind our house growing up, there was a bunch of blackberry bushes and we couldn't wait to the middle of the summer to go out there and just and eat those. 00:35:53.097 --> 00:35:54.797 I'd get sick off of eating. 00:35:54.797 --> 00:35:58.431 My face would be stained black for weeks because of eating all those blackberries. 00:35:58.431 --> 00:36:00.963 They were wild, but they were still good. 00:36:00.963 --> 00:36:08.130 This word is also often translated stinky by bad, not good. 00:36:08.130 --> 00:36:11.130 Nothing that you want to eat. 00:36:11.297 --> 00:36:12.264 Sour grapes. 00:36:12.264 --> 00:36:27.431 It's often called the Lord invested all this energy to plant a vineyard and instead of it bearing good fruit, it bore actually bad fruit fruit that was not only just not good, but would make you sick. 00:36:27.496 --> 00:36:46.963 So that's his first condemnation of the vineyard, but now flip to Psalm 80 because Psalm 80 gives us a little more insight into when God refers to the nation of Israel as a vineyard, What he's pointing out and what he was trying to say to them, we get a little more insight. 00:36:46.963 --> 00:36:53.864 And so on Chapter 80 here, we're going to look start at verse eight. 00:36:53.931 --> 00:36:57.963 We'll just read most of the rest of the chapter here. 00:36:57.963 --> 00:37:06.030 And you know what? As I read this, think about other imagery in the New Testament of stories you remember about vineyards. 00:37:06.030 --> 00:37:11.563 We haven't read ahead yet in today's passage, but you're going to see some elements even appear in today's passage. 00:37:11.563 --> 00:37:22.396 Clearly, this was in the back of the mind of Jesus, and the disciples would have heard and can made connections here around this Psalm 80, verse eight, You brought a vine out of Egypt. 00:37:22.396 --> 00:37:24.996 You drove out the nations and planted it. 00:37:24.996 --> 00:37:28.630 You cleared the ground for it and took deep root and filled the land. 00:37:28.630 --> 00:37:37.731 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches it sent out its branches to the seed shoots to the river. 00:37:37.831 --> 00:37:39.297 That all sounds like a good thing. 00:37:39.297 --> 00:37:40.896 Israel is meant to spread. 00:37:40.896 --> 00:37:42.331 Bless the nations. 00:37:42.331 --> 00:37:43.831 I made you a blessing, he said. 00:37:43.831 --> 00:37:46.831 Abraham, I blessed you so that you will bless others. 00:37:46.896 --> 00:37:49.496 It's all sounding good. 00:37:49.496 --> 00:37:54.764 Why then, have you broken down its walls so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? 00:37:54.764 --> 00:37:58.896 The boar from the forest ravages it All that move in the fields, feed on it. 00:37:58.896 --> 00:38:00.231 Turn again. 00:38:00.231 --> 00:38:04.431 God of hosts, look down from heaven and see have regard for this vine. 00:38:04.431 --> 00:38:08.063 The stock that your right hand planted. 00:38:08.130 --> 00:38:12.664 And for the son whom you made strong for yourself. 00:38:12.664 --> 00:38:13.831 They have burned it with fire. 00:38:13.831 --> 00:38:15.797 They have cut it down. 00:38:15.797 --> 00:38:19.130 May they perish at the rebuke of your face. 00:38:19.130 --> 00:38:30.530 But let your hand beyond the man of your right hand, the son of man, the very phrase Jesus used uses of himself whom you have made strong for yourself. 00:38:30.530 --> 00:38:32.297 Then we shall not turn back from you. 00:38:32.297 --> 00:38:35.931 Give us life and we will call upon your name. 00:38:36.030 --> 00:38:39.297 What we see here and we saw hinted at in Isaiah. 00:38:39.297 --> 00:38:42.996 You also see in the Ezekiel passage that was on the screen, the Jeremiah passage. 00:38:42.996 --> 00:38:48.530 There were two things that were often referenced when Israel was called a vine or a vineyard. 00:38:48.530 --> 00:38:51.764 One was their lack of bearing good fruit. 00:38:51.864 --> 00:38:59.896 Each time that they're referred to as a vine or a vineyard, you didn't bear fruit like you were intended to. 00:38:59.896 --> 00:39:04.030 And then the was the warning of judgment. 00:39:04.130 --> 00:39:05.797 You didn't bear fruit. 00:39:05.797 --> 00:39:08.630 And if you don't, judgment is coming. 00:39:08.630 --> 00:39:16.030 And there was always a connection between those two realities. 00:39:16.130 --> 00:39:31.530 One thing I appreciate about that, and I think you see this pattern in the history of Israel where they get off course and God sends a prophet and he warns and he says, look, change your ways, repent or judgment is coming. 00:39:31.530 --> 00:39:37.264 And they ignore him and judgment comes and then there's sorrow and then repentance and then restoration. 00:39:37.264 --> 00:39:45.963 You see that cycle repeated over and over again, which makes me appreciate the warnings. 00:39:46.030 --> 00:39:54.063 You know, God doesn't just enter in to people's worlds and just out of the blue bring judgment. 00:39:54.130 --> 00:39:57.864 I mean, he starts with warning appeals. 00:39:57.929 --> 00:40:04.429 Come to me, return to me, turn away from your wicked ways, he pleads. 00:40:04.429 --> 00:40:14.496 It's almost it reminds me a little bit and it's a very different situation, but it reminds me some of of the parents that I've sit down with. 00:40:14.496 --> 00:40:18.963 We have a prodigal child over and over again. 00:40:18.963 --> 00:40:25.597 The pleading, the begging, the reaching out, the entering into their world. 00:40:25.597 --> 00:40:29.230 Please come back, return. 00:40:29.329 --> 00:40:33.829 You hear this cry of desperation, John, I've done everything I can. 00:40:33.829 --> 00:40:36.030 I don't know what else to do. 00:40:36.030 --> 00:40:38.829 And I know some of what I'm doing may be pushing them away. 00:40:38.829 --> 00:40:42.563 And I know some of what I'm doing might be enabling them. And I just. 00:40:42.563 --> 00:40:44.797 I don't know what else to do. 00:40:44.797 --> 00:40:52.530 I've tried everything I can to reach their hearts, which you can appreciate. 00:40:52.530 --> 00:40:56.697 I mean, none of us would do things perfectly in that situation. 00:40:56.697 --> 00:41:07.030 But there's a pleading, there's an urgency, there's a hunger to reach them and not just let them tumble out into wherever their choices take them. 00:41:07.130 --> 00:41:17.364 We have a friend recently who their family had gone through some trauma and one of their children pulled away, just kept pulling away from the rest of the family still in their home. 00:41:17.364 --> 00:41:21.530 But their room became a place of just utter isolation. 00:41:21.630 --> 00:41:32.230 And so this parent, single parent, didn't know what else to do, started to remove things from this child's room, things that that child would retreat to. 00:41:32.297 --> 00:41:43.697 And eventually it got to the point where they had taken their entire room, everything in storage, the entire room, just a mattress left on the floor. 00:41:43.797 --> 00:41:47.164 And this parent says, I, I don't know what else to do. 00:41:47.164 --> 00:41:49.329 I don't even know if I'm doing the right thing. 00:41:49.329 --> 00:41:52.264 I'm trying my hardest to get this child's heart. 00:41:52.264 --> 00:41:56.396 I just can't let them continue to isolate themselves. 00:41:56.396 --> 00:41:59.797 I got to fight for their heart. 00:41:59.864 --> 00:42:01.597 I can appreciate that. 00:42:01.597 --> 00:42:07.329 None of us do it perfectly, but it's done in love. 00:42:07.329 --> 00:42:10.829 And thankfully that child responded to that in a positive way. 00:42:10.829 --> 00:42:13.730 And of course, story's never over. 00:42:13.730 --> 00:42:17.197 We all have years ahead of us. 00:42:17.264 --> 00:42:26.730 But Jesus points back to the history of Israel as a vine, reminding them that we are called to bear fruit. 00:42:26.730 --> 00:42:32.597 We're called to bear fruit, and if not, there's judgment. 00:42:32.597 --> 00:42:34.963 God warned Israel about that for years. 00:42:34.963 --> 00:42:47.896 And so when Jesus says, here I am, the true vine, those who should have borne fruit, those who were meant to bless the nations and didn't. 00:42:47.896 --> 00:42:51.563 Now I'm the one who will perfectly. 00:42:51.630 --> 00:42:54.264 We've seen this throughout the book of John so far. 00:42:54.264 --> 00:42:55.164 John. Chapter two. 00:42:55.164 --> 00:43:02.364 He shows up in the temple, cleanses the moneychangers, drives him out, and he says, I'm the dwelling place of God. 00:43:02.364 --> 00:43:07.264 It's not this building, it's Jesus the person. 00:43:07.264 --> 00:43:10.963 John Chapter four with the woman at the Well Do I worship which mountain do I worship at? 00:43:10.963 --> 00:43:13.264 No, no, it's not about the mountain. 00:43:13.264 --> 00:43:16.063 Jesus says He is the one you worship. 00:43:16.063 --> 00:43:22.496 Spirit and truth in John Chapter five and six with Moses, he's comparing himself to Moses. 00:43:22.496 --> 00:43:26.429 Moses fed them in the wilderness, manna, for 40 years. 00:43:26.429 --> 00:43:34.329 Wasn’t Moses, by the way, it was God and I am, he says, the bread of Life. 00:43:34.396 --> 00:43:37.264 And so here I am, the true vine. 00:43:37.264 --> 00:43:42.396 I am the one where joy and peace and life will be found. 00:43:42.396 --> 00:43:46.164 So that's the first significant phrase to get our mind around to understand this passage. 00:43:46.164 --> 00:43:47.730 The true Vine Jesus. 00:43:47.730 --> 00:43:52.896 He is the fulfillment of everything but the second phrase. 00:43:52.896 --> 00:43:57.063 And now we start to get into a little more troubling or difficult part of the passage. 00:43:57.063 --> 00:44:06.164 Look at verse two again every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes. 00:44:06.264 --> 00:44:11.197 First, let's think about that phrase takes away. 00:44:11.264 --> 00:44:15.764 I think there have been many have wondered the difficulties of this passage. 00:44:15.764 --> 00:44:16.429 What do you mean? 00:44:16.429 --> 00:44:21.329 Every branch, in fact, every branch in me, he takes away. 00:44:21.396 --> 00:44:29.496 I mean, our church historically has held strongly to the view of eternal security. 00:44:29.496 --> 00:44:30.963 Once saved, always saved. 00:44:30.963 --> 00:44:38.697 May have been how you've heard it said, if you're a child of God, you don't become an unchild. 00:44:38.697 --> 00:44:45.197 Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ-neither death, persecution, peril, toil, nothing. 00:44:45.297 --> 00:44:46.130 So how can that be? 00:44:46.130 --> 00:44:49.663 Someone is in him and yet taken away. 00:44:49.762 --> 00:44:56.329 What's really important as we study every passage of Scripture to understand the immediate context, what is happening around it. 00:44:56.329 --> 00:44:57.063 I try to do that. 00:44:57.063 --> 00:45:04.329 To try to always point is forward, backward, behind, ahead, to make sure we're looking at the context, not forgetting what we just talked about. 00:45:04.396 --> 00:45:19.463 And for them, you know, this these 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, those chapters that we're taking many weeks to unpack would have just been over 15, 20 minutes of interaction with Jesus, probably. 00:45:19.663 --> 00:45:38.630 And so just a few minutes ago in Chapter 13, one of the disciples, one of those who was in him, among him, a part of him was taken away, left the group was sent out. 00:45:38.630 --> 00:45:44.963 Judas had just been in them, in me, among them. 00:45:45.130 --> 00:46:03.063 And the context here of those who are in me and one is taken away, I think clearly refers in part to Judas, one who had just left in one who appeared to have real faith but didn't. 00:46:03.063 --> 00:46:19.597 And if you've been a part of a church, whether this one or pick any one for any amount of time you've seen this, you've experienced this where someone appeared to have true faith, appeared to be following Christ, but then come to find out they weren't. 00:46:19.597 --> 00:46:21.297 It was a show. 00:46:21.297 --> 00:46:24.030 It was pretend it didn't mean anything to him. 00:46:24.030 --> 00:46:26.429 It was made up. 00:46:26.429 --> 00:46:31.929 And I'm not talking about those struggle for a season right? 00:46:32.030 --> 00:46:35.730 Anyone who is Christian has struggled for a season that happens. 00:46:35.730 --> 00:46:38.597 I'm not talking about that. 00:46:38.597 --> 00:46:42.630 I'm talking about those who never had genuine faith. 00:46:42.630 --> 00:46:43.697 It was a show. 00:46:43.697 --> 00:46:46.429 It was a game. 00:46:46.429 --> 00:46:50.329 And we see that for Judas. 00:46:50.429 --> 00:46:51.396 He leaves. 00:46:51.396 --> 00:46:55.630 He doesn't stay connected with them. 00:46:55.697 --> 00:47:00.262 The contrast here is interesting because we see the contrast as we continue through the book of John. 00:47:00.262 --> 00:47:01.829 We'll see this very clearly. 00:47:01.829 --> 00:47:06.262 It's really, in a lot of ways a contrast between Judas and Peter. 00:47:06.262 --> 00:47:07.230 And this verse highlights 00:47:07.230 --> 00:47:16.663 every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away-- Judas--every branch that does bear fruit he prunes. 00:47:16.762 --> 00:47:30.530 And the big contrast among the disciples is between Judas and Peter, because Judas denies Christ, not just denies, betrays, and thus shows that he didn't have genuine faith. 00:47:30.530 --> 00:47:34.197 Peter, though I will never leave you no matter what. 00:47:34.197 --> 00:47:38.762 Even if everyone else denies you, I will never deny you. 00:47:38.829 --> 00:47:43.762 He denies it, but he's treated very differently. 00:47:43.762 --> 00:47:46.630 Jesus prunes him. 00:47:46.630 --> 00:47:53.262 So one he removes and one he improves, one he takes out from the group. 00:47:53.262 --> 00:47:59.030 One who is decaying the group one who is a dead branch, not producing fruit, but one that will produce fruit. 00:47:59.030 --> 00:48:02.230 He prunes. 00:48:02.329 --> 00:48:05.329 Now pruning is really interesting. 00:48:05.496 --> 00:48:14.262 Pruning is the act of making one piece of fruit bigger than it should be by removing the smaller fruit. 00:48:14.262 --> 00:48:25.496 So you can have ten flowers, ten small flowers that no one wants in a vase, or you can have one big flower by cutting away the nine others. 00:48:25.563 --> 00:48:30.563 Pruning is actually an act of love. 00:48:30.630 --> 00:48:40.130 It's the step you take to take away the things that are taking life from the thing that should really be producing life. 00:48:40.230 --> 00:48:42.329 And so we've all experienced this. 00:48:42.329 --> 00:48:47.496 If you've walked with Christ for any amount of time, I think of parenting. 00:48:47.530 --> 00:48:52.929 Part of our call as parents is to press in to our children's lives. 00:48:52.929 --> 00:49:05.163 Part of our call is to take that unformed lump of clay you're given and to shape them, to give inputs, to help direct them, to correct, to be a part. 00:49:05.163 --> 00:49:11.597 The Lord uses you to help prune and direct them. 00:49:11.697 --> 00:49:15.362 And if we don't do that hard work, it doesn't somehow get easier later. 00:49:15.362 --> 00:49:19.163 In fact, it gets a lot harder. 00:49:19.163 --> 00:49:23.197 The call is to press in to do the hard thing to prune. 00:49:23.262 --> 00:49:26.530 And he does this in our life as well. 00:49:26.563 --> 00:49:31.530 I remember taking one of those personality profiles. 00:49:31.530 --> 00:49:37.329 You ever taken one of those for work or we used to do those at Church Spiritual Gifts assessment as well. 00:49:37.329 --> 00:49:40.963 There's different formats where those are given. 00:49:40.963 --> 00:49:52.530 I took one for a place where I was working, and part of it is to kind of help you understand yourself so you know how to better interact with others, to know what gives you energy, what takes energy, areas to grow strengths. 00:49:52.597 --> 00:49:56.829 And of course, whenever I have read those, I've focused heavily on the strengths. 00:49:56.829 --> 00:49:57.262 Right. 00:49:57.262 --> 00:50:02.230 Let me look at areas where I'm strong and I'll just kind of ignore the areas that are weak. 00:50:02.230 --> 00:50:05.596 We'll look at those pages later if I'm forced to. 00:50:05.695 --> 00:50:13.963 Well, this particular study had somehow stumbled upon the page that they don't call them weaknesses, they call them areas for growth. 00:50:13.963 --> 00:50:15.329 And there was this one in particular. 00:50:15.329 --> 00:50:21.862 It said this personality type tends to be good at dishing it out, but doesn't really take it very well. 00:50:21.862 --> 00:50:27.130 And it said it more eloquently than that, but that's what it meant. 00:50:27.130 --> 00:50:28.862 And I thought that that's interesting. 00:50:28.862 --> 00:50:32.929 This study is clearly wrong because that's not me. 00:50:32.929 --> 00:50:41.429 And Julie said, Well, yeah, you might consider it. 00:50:41.429 --> 00:50:45.130 Maybe just think about it. 00:50:45.230 --> 00:50:47.596 Very gracious. 00:50:47.596 --> 00:50:52.896 And of course, as I thought about it, you're right. 00:50:52.896 --> 00:50:55.896 That does describe me many times. 00:50:55.963 --> 00:51:06.396 Yeah, sure, I could offer some criticism, but not only did I not receive criticism, it was like a concrete border wall blocking out any criticism. 00:51:06.396 --> 00:51:09.329 It doesn't even get near me. 00:51:09.396 --> 00:51:15.362 you can dish it out, but can you take it in the same way that you're willing to dish it out? 00:51:15.362 --> 00:51:17.630 That's pruning. 00:51:17.630 --> 00:51:19.362 I hope I've grown some in that area. 00:51:19.362 --> 00:51:27.362 Just knowing that if you're going to walk with Christ, there will be pruning in your life. 00:51:27.429 --> 00:51:31.896 And this is hard to say, but we should welcome that. 00:51:31.896 --> 00:51:33.630 We should want that. 00:51:33.630 --> 00:51:34.563 Of course, none of us are going. 00:51:34.563 --> 00:51:38.195 Yes, Lord, prune me, please. 00:51:38.262 --> 00:51:43.429 No, But the part of us that goes, No, I don't want to stay the way I am. 00:51:43.429 --> 00:51:44.695 I want to keep growing. 00:51:44.695 --> 00:51:47.429 I want to keep growing closer to him. 00:51:47.429 --> 00:51:57.295 So we see this contrast between removing and pruning, removing, improving, cutting off the one who doesn't bear fruit or bears evil fruit. 00:51:57.295 --> 00:52:00.463 We're to remove. 00:52:00.563 --> 00:52:02.096 But the one who does bear fruit. 00:52:02.096 --> 00:52:07.630 We're going to prune, improve to bear even more fruit. 00:52:07.695 --> 00:52:10.463 So that sets the position. 00:52:10.463 --> 00:52:15.396 In fact, there's a quote that I heard one commentator say that I thought sum this up real well. 00:52:15.396 --> 00:52:16.829 Go ahead. Throw that up on the screen. 00:52:16.829 --> 00:52:23.762 God's agenda in our lives is not for our comfort, but for our fruitfulness. 00:52:23.829 --> 00:52:24.163 Yeah. 00:52:24.163 --> 00:52:26.929 Amen. Sort of. Right. 00:52:26.929 --> 00:52:29.030 A maybe we whisper. 00:52:29.030 --> 00:52:29.896 Amen with that one. 00:52:29.896 --> 00:52:30.262 Yeah. 00:52:30.262 --> 00:52:33.096 It's not for our comfort, it's for our fruitfulness. 00:52:33.096 --> 00:52:35.396 He doesn't seem very concerned about our. 00:52:35.396 --> 00:52:39.929 Our comfort, but about our fruitfulness. 00:52:39.929 --> 00:52:44.596 There's a great book along these lines of if you're married, you've got to read this book. 00:52:44.596 --> 00:52:44.896 I know. 00:52:44.896 --> 00:52:46.262 I've just sold it well, right? Yeah. 00:52:46.262 --> 00:52:46.762 Thanks, John. 00:52:46.762 --> 00:52:49.695 This sounds really appealing. 00:52:49.695 --> 00:52:51.795 You got to read this book. 00:52:51.896 --> 00:52:59.762 And if you want to be married, you've got to read this book, Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas here, the byline of the book says it all Grow up. 00:52:59.762 --> 00:53:01.929 This is the byline. It's on the cover. 00:53:01.929 --> 00:53:11.295 What if God designed marriage to make us holy more than to make us happy? 00:53:11.396 --> 00:53:14.795 Now, I hope marriage is happy. 00:53:14.795 --> 00:53:20.762 I don't think God wants us to be miserable in marriage, but happiness flows from the holiness. 00:53:20.762 --> 00:53:23.163 It's not the other way around. 00:53:23.163 --> 00:53:25.963 And most people enter into marriage. 00:53:25.963 --> 00:53:27.063 I'm sure you've been there. 00:53:27.063 --> 00:53:34.563 I'm sure you can remember back to that day where you thought, This person will finally make me happy right now. 00:53:34.563 --> 00:53:36.896 Finally complete me. 00:53:36.896 --> 00:53:37.695 They'll find me. 00:53:37.695 --> 00:53:42.762 Fill in all the gaps. 00:53:42.829 --> 00:53:45.362 But what happens when that wasn't true? 00:53:45.429 --> 00:53:49.163 Or maybe the opposite happened. 00:53:49.195 --> 00:54:01.396 Now marriage is first and foremost- Christ centered marriage is first and foremost about our holiness, about pruning, about sharpening. 00:54:01.496 --> 00:54:03.063 And then the happiness flows out of that. 00:54:03.063 --> 00:54:06.896 The joy, the relationship, the connection. It flows from that. 00:54:06.896 --> 00:54:08.795 It's not the other way around. 00:54:08.795 --> 00:54:11.630 So the pruning, it's a key part of our Walk with Christ. 00:54:11.630 --> 00:54:17.530 This sets the context verses one through three of everything we're going to see here in the second section versus four through 11. 00:54:17.530 --> 00:54:19.496 So let's turn our attention to there. 00:54:19.496 --> 00:54:21.563 I'm going to read through those verses. 00:54:21.563 --> 00:54:23.730 Let me just say on the front end, I'm going to give it away. 00:54:23.730 --> 00:54:32.663 These verses are all about one word, and you're going to see it ten times in this passage, depending on your translation, around ten times. 00:54:32.663 --> 00:54:38.195 And in fact, if you're comfortable, I might just encourage you to circle this word as we go through it. 00:54:38.195 --> 00:54:40.695 Some people like to write in their Bibles, some don't. 00:54:40.695 --> 00:54:42.163 I'm not forcing you to. 00:54:42.163 --> 00:54:52.063 You do what you want, but you might just circled this word to see, to have this visual representation, how many times it shows up over and over and over again. 00:54:52.063 --> 00:54:58.030 And it's simply the word abide, abide by it, abide abide by it. 00:54:58.030 --> 00:55:00.663 You're going to see it over and over again in John 15. 00:55:00.663 --> 00:55:15.262 Let's read verses four through 11, verse four, Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. 00:55:15.362 --> 00:55:19.530 Neither can you, unless you abide in me and I. 00:55:19.530 --> 00:55:24.896 In the vine you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. 00:55:24.896 --> 00:55:28.996 For apart from me, you can do nothing. 00:55:29.096 --> 00:55:30.929 If anyone does not abide in me. 00:55:30.929 --> 00:55:38.396 He is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burn. 00:55:38.463 --> 00:55:51.496 If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, it will be done for you. By this My father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 00:55:51.496 --> 00:55:55.262 As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. 00:55:55.262 --> 00:55:57.963 Abide in my love. 00:55:57.963 --> 00:56:01.262 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. 00:56:01.262 --> 00:56:06.663 Just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. 00:56:06.663 --> 00:56:13.396 These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. 00:56:13.496 --> 00:56:22.728 Abide, abide, abide, abide, abide in my words, abide in my love, keep my commandments, abide if you love me. 00:56:22.728 --> 00:56:27.463 Abide. I am me, me and you, abide, stay connected. 00:56:27.563 --> 00:56:29.496 This goes back to that picture of the garbage disposal. 00:56:29.496 --> 00:56:32.996 Stay connected, abide, remain in the source of power. 00:56:32.996 --> 00:56:36.362 That word abide is one of John's favorite words in the book of John. 00:56:36.362 --> 00:56:39.695 It shows up 40 something times. 00:56:39.762 --> 00:56:48.096 In fact, you may remember Andrew walked us through one of the Psalms, Psalm 91, with the theme of Abide That’s a great Psalm to complement this passage. 00:56:48.096 --> 00:56:52.596 If you want a passage to dwell on this week, put that in your reading schedule for the week. 00:56:52.596 --> 00:56:56.795 Just meditate on that psalm on the heels of this message on abide. 00:56:56.795 --> 00:56:58.496 That same theme was there as well. 00:56:58.496 --> 00:57:00.028 Go back and watch the message. 00:57:00.028 --> 00:57:05.128 He gave us a great message on this theme of abiding. 00:57:05.195 --> 00:57:08.496 John uses that word in a variety of ways though. 00:57:08.496 --> 00:57:13.695 So for instance, sometimes he uses it just to refer to a location. 00:57:13.795 --> 00:57:18.362 John Chapter 11 with Lazarus, he hears the message of Lazarus. 00:57:18.362 --> 00:57:21.896 They say, Come, he's sick, we need you here. 00:57:21.896 --> 00:57:27.563 But then it says he remained two more days where he was, he stayed where he was. Two more day. 00:57:27.563 --> 00:57:28.329 It could be translated. 00:57:28.329 --> 00:57:35.628 He he dwelled two more days where he was so referring to a physical location, a place you physically stay. 00:57:35.628 --> 00:57:45.063 But spiritually, the word when it's used is often referred to this idea of continuation continuing in the faith. 00:57:45.063 --> 00:57:48.628 You remain in the faith, you stay in the faith, you stay engaged in the faith. 00:57:48.628 --> 00:57:53.096 You're active in the faith. 00:57:53.163 --> 00:58:02.563 When I think of this, I've thought of maybe how it is to live in a house, own a home, going back to that analogy. 00:58:02.628 --> 00:58:09.063 Most of us don't even realize how much energy you are putting into that structure every day. 00:58:09.163 --> 00:58:13.596 Just by living there, you know, it's like this symbiotic relationship. 00:58:13.596 --> 00:58:17.862 If there's not someone living in a home, it looks really different than someone who is. 00:58:17.862 --> 00:58:25.096 And every day you're adjusting something, you're fixing something, you're mowing something, you're cutting something, you're doing something to improve that home. 00:58:25.096 --> 00:58:29.396 You're keeping something clean every day, even in small ways, in ways, dozens of ways. 00:58:29.396 --> 00:58:32.663 You don't even realize. 00:58:32.762 --> 00:58:43.063 And so it's really obvious when as a couple of homes in our neighborhood, it's clearly happened where someone has gotten chronically ill or or passed away. 00:58:43.163 --> 00:58:47.728 In fact, there's this one home I ride my bike past when I'm exercising. 00:58:47.728 --> 00:58:51.463 And just there was one day where I noticed all that shutters crooked. 00:58:51.463 --> 00:58:52.262 That's interesting. 00:58:52.262 --> 00:58:54.195 I bet they'll tend to that quickly. 00:58:54.195 --> 00:58:55.496 Don't worry. I'm not that neighbor. 00:58:55.496 --> 00:59:00.795 I don't go around checking everybody's house, make sure they're up to code for the neighborhood or anything. 00:59:00.795 --> 00:59:06.663 But for whatever reason, that stood out to me the next week, man, the grass is really tall. 00:59:06.728 --> 00:59:08.063 The next week. 00:59:08.063 --> 00:59:11.695 that gutter dropped the next week. 00:59:11.695 --> 00:59:14.163 A year later, you can barely see the house. 00:59:14.163 --> 00:59:17.762 I mean, the bushes have grown so tall. 00:59:17.829 --> 00:59:30.795 It's shocking how quickly, if there's not someone remaining abiding, staying engaged, investing every day that a house just falls apart. 00:59:30.795 --> 00:59:37.695 Remain, abide, continue, continue in the faith. 00:59:37.795 --> 00:59:41.695 It's not just a one time decision and I'm good to go. 00:59:41.695 --> 00:59:45.063 Remain, abide. 00:59:45.128 --> 00:59:49.362 Stay, continue. 00:59:49.429 --> 00:59:57.996 There's so much energy in this world and that's why we see it ten times here over and over again. 00:59:57.996 --> 01:00:07.663 And I think what we see as I looked at all those uses of the word abide and what was emphasized there, I think we see a list of how to abide. 01:00:07.728 --> 01:00:09.063 Okay, John, great. 01:00:09.063 --> 01:00:10.929 You say stay connected to the energy source. 01:00:10.929 --> 01:00:12.528 How do I do that? 01:00:12.528 --> 01:00:17.728 I think there's three ways we we do abide, how we remain, how we stay connected. 01:00:17.728 --> 01:00:20.563 But then there are five results. 01:00:20.663 --> 01:00:24.528 So we do stay connected, but then there are results of staying connected. 01:00:24.528 --> 01:00:26.663 So three ways we'll go through these quickly. 01:00:26.663 --> 01:00:33.996 Three ways we do abide, and they're here in the passage and then five results of abiding. 01:00:33.996 --> 01:00:35.028 Here's the first one. 01:00:35.028 --> 01:00:37.429 Number one, stay in his word. 01:00:37.429 --> 01:00:39.829 Look at verse seven. 01:00:39.829 --> 01:00:47.295 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 01:00:47.295 --> 01:00:55.762 Abide in my word, stay in his word, Spend time in God's Word. 01:00:55.862 --> 01:01:01.963 I think one of the fascinating parts of Christian growth is it's so simple. 01:01:02.028 --> 01:01:04.262 It's just so simple. 01:01:04.262 --> 01:01:06.063 Someone asked me, How do I grow as a Christian? 01:01:06.063 --> 01:01:08.896 I'm going to you're going to hear the same thing over and over again. 01:01:08.896 --> 01:01:10.628 There's no magic formula. 01:01:10.628 --> 01:01:21.896 I'm going to say, read God's word, pray, confess sin regularly, be in community, give, have a giving heart, serve others. 01:01:21.961 --> 01:01:30.429 It's very simple and maybe not always easy, but it's super simple. 01:01:30.496 --> 01:01:33.295 There's no magic formula. 01:01:33.295 --> 01:01:35.862 Stay in his word. 01:01:35.862 --> 01:01:39.862 The way your mind is transformed is by being in his word. 01:01:39.862 --> 01:01:45.561 Your thoughts are transformed by taking his thoughts into your heart. 01:01:45.661 --> 01:01:47.228 In fact, there's a story of Hudson Taylor. 01:01:47.228 --> 01:01:53.996 He was a famous missionary in China, really pioneered a lot of the missionary efforts into China. 01:01:53.996 --> 01:02:02.362 And someone had said to him he heard a report of one of the other missionaries had gotten caught in an affair. 01:02:02.362 --> 01:02:11.028 And his response to that very first words were, when did he stop having his quiet time? 01:02:11.128 --> 01:02:13.695 That's an interesting response. 01:02:13.695 --> 01:02:18.295 And of course, that doesn't mean that if you didn't have a quiet time today, you're going to have an affair tomorrow. 01:02:18.295 --> 01:02:25.396 No, but the point being, when did he stop abiding in God's word? 01:02:25.461 --> 01:02:27.695 And that's the beginning of a downward slide. 01:02:27.695 --> 01:02:34.862 How do we daily connect in his word, daily engage in his word and fight for our heart connection with him? So that's number one. 01:02:34.862 --> 01:02:39.061 Number two, this is also in verse seven, verse seven. 01:02:39.061 --> 01:02:43.061 If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. 01:02:43.061 --> 01:02:46.528 ask, pray. 01:02:46.596 --> 01:02:51.362 A key part of remaining in him is prayer. 01:02:51.362 --> 01:02:54.528 And we spent a lot of time on this last week, so I'm not going to rehash it here. 01:02:54.528 --> 01:02:55.996 In terms of what does that mean? 01:02:55.996 --> 01:02:57.128 Do I ask whatever I want? 01:02:57.128 --> 01:02:58.429 He gives me whatever I want. 01:02:58.429 --> 01:02:59.329 That's not what that means. 01:02:59.329 --> 01:03:06.728 What it means is more of as I grow in connection with him, my prayers become more like the prayers that he would want for me. 01:03:06.728 --> 01:03:08.262 My heart becomes more aligned. 01:03:08.262 --> 01:03:13.596 I have a better understanding of the very thing that I should be praying for myself. 01:03:13.661 --> 01:03:16.096 But prayer is a key aspect of growth. 01:03:16.096 --> 01:03:18.961 As a Christian Lord, let me hear from you, Lord. 01:03:18.961 --> 01:03:21.228 Hear from me, hear my heart. 01:03:21.228 --> 01:03:24.096 And it's also listening to him. 01:03:24.096 --> 01:03:31.429 I remember hearing Tim Keller say when he was asked, How come you didn't seem to get caught up into celebrity Christian culture. 01:03:31.429 --> 01:03:37.262 Tim Keller, well-known pastor in New York City, author of many books, highly regarded. 01:03:37.329 --> 01:03:45.161 And he said, I think the one key was just a commitment to personal prayer. 01:03:45.228 --> 01:03:46.896 It's not rocket science. 01:03:46.896 --> 01:03:48.396 Simple. 01:03:48.396 --> 01:03:50.329 Pray. 01:03:50.329 --> 01:03:54.695 So abide in my word, pray, and then number three, look at verse ten. 01:03:54.695 --> 01:03:59.528 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. 01:03:59.528 --> 01:04:02.461 Just as I have kept my father's commandments. 01:04:02.461 --> 01:04:05.161 We've seen this over and over again now in this passage. 01:04:05.161 --> 01:04:07.596 And number three is keep his commandments. 01:04:07.596 --> 01:04:09.429 We've seen this over and over. 01:04:09.429 --> 01:04:13.996 There is an intimate connection between love and obedience. 01:04:14.096 --> 01:04:21.728 Loving him and loving his commands, keeping his commands increase our love for him. 01:04:21.795 --> 01:04:23.429 And we're not talking about legalism. 01:04:23.429 --> 01:04:29.362 We don't gain his favor by how many commands we keep accurately, and hopefully those outweigh the bad things we do. 01:04:29.362 --> 01:04:37.061 It's not that there is a joy and delight in wanting to do the thing that brings him pleasure, that brings him joy. 01:04:37.061 --> 01:04:39.061 You keep his commands. 01:04:39.061 --> 01:04:47.762 So those are just three hows of abiding, ways to abide, the means by which we abide in him. 01:04:47.762 --> 01:04:57.329 But when we are abiding in him, when we are connected to the vine, to the source of life, what are the results of that? 01:04:57.329 --> 01:04:59.528 I think we see five results in here as well. 01:04:59.528 --> 01:05:17.461 I think there are more, I'm going to highlight five. The first is a deepened relationship with Christ, Look back at verse two-- and this is a really simple phrase it's easy to skip over, but it's important-- abide in me and I in you. 01:05:17.528 --> 01:05:21.228 There is a reciprocity here. 01:05:21.329 --> 01:05:25.195 We don't report to a dictator-- God. 01:05:25.195 --> 01:05:32.128 There's a relationship, there's a connection, there's a deepened sense of relationship. 01:05:32.295 --> 01:05:35.561 He says, I'm in you and you're in me. 01:05:35.661 --> 01:05:43.429 There- There is a source of life that we're drawing upon and like a friendship, there's joy in the give and take. 01:05:43.429 --> 01:05:46.728 There's joy in the building of the relationship. 01:05:46.728 --> 01:05:49.429 And we want to strengthen that source of life. 01:05:49.429 --> 01:05:53.195 We don't want it to get cut off. 01:05:53.262 --> 01:05:58.061 Any of you ever woken up in the night and you can't find your arm? 01:05:58.061 --> 01:06:00.061 You know what I'm talking about. 01:06:00.061 --> 01:06:01.329 You're like, Where is it? 01:06:01.329 --> 01:06:02.161 I can't feel it. 01:06:02.161 --> 01:06:02.862 I don't know where it is. 01:06:02.862 --> 01:06:08.429 Finally, you get around to it and it's like wrapped around your head sideways and it's completely dead. 01:06:08.429 --> 01:06:11.161 There's just nothing there in those moments. 01:06:11.161 --> 01:06:16.128 You got to be careful, because if you get up too fast, you might slap your spouse who's lying next to you. 01:06:16.128 --> 01:06:17.528 Don't, you know, try to play it off. 01:06:17.528 --> 01:06:18.195 Didn't mean to. 01:06:18.195 --> 01:06:20.461 Sorry, my arm was dead. 01:06:20.461 --> 01:06:21.896 Don't do that. 01:06:21.896 --> 01:06:25.061 They'll know it wasn't dead. 01:06:25.161 --> 01:06:34.829 But once you get up, once you walk around, once you get it out of that contorted position, life starts to flow to it again. 01:06:34.829 --> 01:06:37.429 It's usable again. 01:06:37.429 --> 01:06:40.961 Life is restored. 01:06:41.061 --> 01:06:46.195 I remember my dad had surgery on his wrist and when he was leaving the hospital, his arm was numb. 01:06:46.195 --> 01:06:49.394 You know, they had numbed it and they put him in a sling. 01:06:49.394 --> 01:06:49.862 He's like, What? 01:06:49.862 --> 01:06:50.561 I need a sling for? 01:06:50.561 --> 01:06:53.461 I don't need a sling, You know, it's just my wrist. 01:06:53.461 --> 01:06:56.061 The rest, my arm works like, No, you need it. 01:06:56.161 --> 01:06:57.628 Why? 01:06:57.628 --> 01:07:00.195 So you don't close your arm in the door? 01:07:00.195 --> 01:07:02.195 Why would I do that? 01:07:02.195 --> 01:07:07.961 Because lots of people before you have to leave the hospital with a numb door while it was doing - our arm. 01:07:07.961 --> 01:07:08.795 Why won’t this door shut? 01:07:08.795 --> 01:07:10.929 You know, our arms hanging out the door. 01:07:10.929 --> 01:07:15.262 They don't even realize it because it's dead. 01:07:15.362 --> 01:07:23.994 Stay connected to the source that gives you life, that brings you life, that deepens the relationship with him. 01:07:24.061 --> 01:07:26.795 The second result we see one is deepen relationship. 01:07:26.795 --> 01:07:29.762 The second is bearing fruit. 01:07:29.762 --> 01:07:33.028 Look with me in verse five, I'm the vine, you're the branches. 01:07:33.028 --> 01:07:39.362 Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing. 01:07:39.362 --> 01:07:42.362 The result of walking in him is bearing fruit. 01:07:42.362 --> 01:07:49.429 In fact, the expectation for the Father of Christ is that we will bear fruit. 01:07:49.528 --> 01:07:54.028 It's not, some Christians bear fruit and some don't. 01:07:54.028 --> 01:08:02.795 Those who are in Christ bear good fruit, and that's going to look different for all of us. 01:08:02.795 --> 01:08:05.561 There is the fruit of discipleship. 01:08:05.561 --> 01:08:07.461 There's the fruit of investing in others. 01:08:07.461 --> 01:08:11.829 To see them say there is the fruit of growing character, the fruit of the spirit. 01:08:11.829 --> 01:08:15.994 Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. 01:08:15.994 --> 01:08:19.561 Fruit takes on a variety of forms, but there should be increasing fruit in our lives. 01:08:19.561 --> 01:08:22.462 There should be some sign of Christ at work in our life. 01:08:22.462 --> 01:08:29.462 If a radical life changing event occurs in your life, there should be some sign of that having occurred. 01:08:29.462 --> 01:08:30.962 Again, we go through seasons. 01:08:30.962 --> 01:08:31.994 I get it. 01:08:31.994 --> 01:08:35.494 There are times where you wonder, Will I ever bear any good fruit? 01:08:35.494 --> 01:08:37.295 I get that. 01:08:37.362 --> 01:08:41.895 But over the course your life, we should be growing in fruit. 01:08:41.994 --> 01:08:48.694 In fact, what do you call an apple tree that doesn't bear apples? 01:08:48.761 --> 01:08:51.994 Firewood I heard someone say. That's right. 01:08:51.994 --> 01:08:53.261 It's not an apple tree. 01:08:53.261 --> 01:08:53.694 It's not. 01:08:53.694 --> 01:08:54.529 It's not good for anything. 01:08:54.529 --> 01:08:57.529 But maybe to look at, firewood. 01:08:57.561 --> 01:09:01.095 What do you call a Christian who doesn't bear fruit? 01:09:01.194 --> 01:09:02.962 No such thing. 01:09:02.962 --> 01:09:04.162 We're called to bear fruit. 01:09:04.162 --> 01:09:11.729 And it's the natural overflow of abiding in him. Number three, we have a unified purpose with Christ. 01:09:11.795 --> 01:09:16.095 This goes back to the one we already highlighted in verse seven. 01:09:16.194 --> 01:09:20.529 If you abide in me and my words abide in you, what will happen? 01:09:20.529 --> 01:09:28.362 You'll ask whatever you wish and he'll give it to you because you will be more unified in purpose. 01:09:28.429 --> 01:09:36.295 You will grow in your understanding of what will please him and you will only want to pray the things that please him. 01:09:36.362 --> 01:09:43.194 I appreciated Andrew Just sharing a little bit of transparency- you can have all this world. 01:09:43.194 --> 01:09:47.561 We pray that in faith because there's plenty of times we think life is found in this world. 01:09:47.561 --> 01:09:51.462 We all- that's a daily struggle. 01:09:51.662 --> 01:09:54.929 You can have all this world unity of purpose. 01:09:54.929 --> 01:09:56.862 We keep growing in unity of purpose with him. 01:09:56.862 --> 01:10:06.962 And then number four, look at verse eight, by this My father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 01:10:06.962 --> 01:10:11.994 Number four is glorifying the father. 01:10:12.061 --> 01:10:26.295 By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Part of the Christian journey is that we when we bear fruit, God is the one who gets the glory, not us. 01:10:26.295 --> 01:10:33.194 16, When you bear fruit, people will see it and they will give glory to the Father who is in heaven. 01:10:33.194 --> 01:10:34.628 They'll see your good works. 01:10:34.628 --> 01:10:37.462 Give glory to the Father who is in heaven. 01:10:37.462 --> 01:10:43.029 When we are a part of bearing fruit, it ultimately is to point others to him, not not us. 01:10:43.029 --> 01:10:49.261 In fact, I would say if you're bearing true fruit, some people even come up to you and go, How did you do that? 01:10:49.261 --> 01:10:51.328 Because I know that wasn't you. 01:10:51.328 --> 01:10:53.761 I know you. 01:10:53.761 --> 01:10:55.261 Where did that come from? 01:10:55.261 --> 01:10:59.295 There's got to be a greater power and that's when you get a little offended. 01:10:59.295 --> 01:11:01.628 But then you also go, Thank you, Lord. 01:11:01.628 --> 01:11:03.229 Thank you, Lord. 01:11:03.328 --> 01:11:05.261 Let me tell you where this came from. 01:11:05.261 --> 01:11:06.595 You're right. It wasn't me. 01:11:06.595 --> 01:11:10.162 Because in my flesh, that's not what I would do. 01:11:10.162 --> 01:11:12.962 But I'm going to bear fruit that glorifies the father. 01:11:12.962 --> 01:11:13.761 That's number four. 01:11:13.761 --> 01:11:18.761 And then number five, look at verse 11. 01:11:18.761 --> 01:11:42.529 These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. The result of abiding in him- one result, and it's one fruit of the spirit, but there should be an abiding deep present, prominent joy in your life. 01:11:42.662 --> 01:11:53.529 I read a quote from Abraham Lincoln they had been interviewing a guy for, I don't know, some position, cabinet position or who knows what. 01:11:53.595 --> 01:11:59.229 And the man left the room and the other person who was interviewing him with him said, Well, what did you think? 01:11:59.295 --> 01:11:59.828 I don't like? 01:11:59.828 --> 01:12:04.295 Abraham Lincoln says, I don't like the man because don't like his face. 01:12:04.429 --> 01:12:06.462 And the guy says, What do you mean, don't like his face? 01:12:06.462 --> 01:12:08.194 What control does he have over his face? 01:12:08.194 --> 01:12:13.395 He says every man over 40 has control over his face. 01:12:13.494 --> 01:12:15.662 Now it might be 40, might be 30, might be 20. 01:12:15.662 --> 01:12:19.261 His point was his face revealed his heart. 01:12:19.261 --> 01:12:21.528 There was no joy in that man's life. 01:12:21.528 --> 01:12:23.061 And you've seen it. 01:12:23.061 --> 01:12:34.927 You've seen those faces where you just maybe go a little wider around that person because, you know, they hadn't thought of joy in 30 years. 01:12:34.994 --> 01:12:47.694 But the Christian who abides in Christ, joy should be a mark of our lives, true, abiding, everlasting, real deep joy. 01:12:47.761 --> 01:13:05.927 These are some of the results of abiding in Christ, some of what happens when we abide in him, when we remain in his word, we stay committed in prayer, when We stay in community. 01:13:06.028 --> 01:13:09.962 I went to visit Roger Schubert in the hospital the other day. 01:13:09.962 --> 01:13:15.194 Some of you may know Roger, Roger and Elaine, longtime members here at the church. 01:13:15.362 --> 01:13:24.895 Roger, this was the day before he was having triple bypass open heart surgery, which, by the way, that seems to be all the rage here lately. 01:13:24.895 --> 01:13:25.627 Okay. 01:13:25.627 --> 01:13:27.261 Can we put an end to that? 01:13:27.261 --> 01:13:28.828 Right. 01:13:28.828 --> 01:13:31.462 This is the third one over the last few months. 01:13:31.462 --> 01:13:33.061 And there have been other heart issues in our church. 01:13:33.061 --> 01:13:35.761 Maybe the Lord is trying to tell us something as a church. 01:13:35.761 --> 01:13:45.962 I just take note of that side note, PSA over. Point being, back to Roger, I come to see him, to pray with him, and I walk in. 01:13:45.962 --> 01:13:48.295 And by the way, if you're a deacon, we're going to do communion today. 01:13:48.295 --> 01:13:50.095 You can go ahead and slip out and prepare for that. 01:13:50.095 --> 01:13:53.095 We're going to do that in just a minute. 01:13:53.261 --> 01:13:57.927 And I walk in and the first thing Roger and Elaine say to me, I'm coming there to pray with him. 01:13:57.927 --> 01:14:00.295 He's about to have open heart surgery. 01:14:00.295 --> 01:14:04.162 The first thing they ask, Hey, what happened with the hot chili contest? 01:14:04.162 --> 01:14:04.862 Did you survive? 01:14:04.862 --> 01:14:07.494 Are you okay? 01:14:07.494 --> 01:14:10.595 Last week was our fall Chili Cookoff competition. 01:14:10.595 --> 01:14:13.595 And I agreed to taste the hot chili. 01:14:13.761 --> 01:14:15.095 And I was like, What? 01:14:15.095 --> 01:14:20.127 You're about to have open heart surgery, and you're worried about that? 01:14:20.127 --> 01:14:24.061 Maybe, wonder if he's worried about how that might affect my speech. Right. 01:14:24.061 --> 01:14:28.061 Worried about what next Sunday would be like. 01:14:28.127 --> 01:14:39.528 But Roger and Elaine then at that point started to tell me about how person after person had come to visit them and how their family, their extended family had noticed. 01:14:39.528 --> 01:14:49.427 And they're calling and texting their friends saying, You won't believe how many people from Valley View have shown up here to love on Roger and Elaine. 01:14:49.427 --> 01:14:53.295 And when I heard that, I just thought, Yeah, that's Valley View. Of course. 01:14:53.295 --> 01:14:55.662 That's awesome. 01:14:55.662 --> 01:14:59.095 But then I said to them, You know, you're partly to blame for this. 01:14:59.095 --> 01:15:14.427 This is partly your fault, because we've had plenty of calls from people, especially when I first started and I was commuting back and forth, we get a call, Hey, how come no one's come to see me at the hospital? 01:15:14.494 --> 01:15:16.761 Some people slip through the cracks. 01:15:16.761 --> 01:15:17.962 Some of that we had to own. 01:15:17.962 --> 01:15:20.595 But some people we just had to say, We're sorry. 01:15:20.595 --> 01:15:24.328 We don't know who you are. 01:15:24.395 --> 01:15:27.862 And in fact, no one knows who you are. 01:15:27.962 --> 01:15:31.862 Roger and Elaine, stay connected. 01:15:31.862 --> 01:15:33.395 Stay engaged. 01:15:33.395 --> 01:15:35.828 They abide in the body of Christ. 01:15:35.828 --> 01:15:36.694 They're there. 01:15:36.694 --> 01:15:40.162 They were in the rooms of some of the others who had the open heart surgery. 01:15:40.162 --> 01:15:43.162 They're present. 01:15:43.395 --> 01:15:53.761 And it's through that connection, through that community that we grow, that we abide, that we stay that we remain in the faith.