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The Rock Family Worship Center
Taking The Church Outside The Walls
The Rock Family Worship Center
Bearing Fruit
The key to effective Christian living isn't about religious performance but simply abiding in Christ. Jesus used the metaphor of a vine and vinedresser to illustrate this profound truth during His final intimate teaching with His disciples.
• Contrary to popular belief, the "key" isn't Bible knowledge, prayer time, or church attendance
• The Greek word for "takes away" in John 15:2 actually means "to lift up" - God doesn't cut off unproductive branches but lifts and restores them
• Understanding vineyard practices reveals God as a gentle caretaker who tends branches with purpose and love
• Jesus declared His disciples "already clean" - we don't bear fruit to become clean, but because we already are clean
• Abiding in Christ means living from our secure position rather than performing to earn one
• A finished work perspective allows us to experience Kingdom realities now rather than waiting for some future time
• The Father's pruning isn't punishment but preparation for greater fruitfulness
Rest in your identity, stay rooted in Christ's finished work, and allow God's shaping process to help you flourish in who you already are.
So let me ask you this question, starting out how many would love to know the key? You know we got keys for everything. You go online. There's keys to weight loss. There's keys to great living. There's keys to this, keys to that, especially around New Year's. Anywhere you go, you're going to find a key somewhere. They're going to try to give you keys to success.
Speaker 1:So what if we could know the key to effective Christian living and powerful, fruit producing life? Because, if you think about it, that's what we want. We want to live our life, you know, in the right way. We want to do the right things. We want to. We want to be a light, we want to be an example of the kingdom of heaven, but we also want to produce fruit in our life. So what is the key to doing that?
Speaker 1:Let me first tell you what it's not, because this is where I think a lot of people get messed up at. What it's not is it's not how much of the Bible you know, it's not how long you pray every morning or at night, and it's not what church you go to. Now, don't get me wrong. All of those things are good. So I'm not knocking any of those three things. Okay, we want you to pray. We want you to get up in the morning and pray. We want you to know the Bible. We want you to be able to quote Scriptures. You're already at the best church, so we've got to go there, but we want you to know these things. So when I'm saying that, I'm not saying that as a knock to these things and to say they're wrong, but is that what brings us to a place of fruit-producing life? That's the question we got, because to a lot of people, it is those things and those steps that I can take is what brings me to a place of feeling like I'm living the best Christian life that I can live. It's a process and it's things that they do in the natural that they feel like gets them there.
Speaker 1:But according to Scripture and we're going to show you this this morning the key to this is abiding in Christ. It's really simple. We make it difficult, but the key is simply abiding in Christ. Remaining in Christ there's another word for remain. This was one of Apostle John's favorite things to write about In 1 John.
Speaker 1:1 John is actually written entirely around the importance of abiding in Christ. His gospel is the only one which goes really into great detail. When he had the last supper, jesus had the last supper with his disciples. John's writings is the only one that really goes into great detail and explains what was said during that time and what Jesus was trying to portray to him, what he told his disciples during the last supper. And if you look at John 13 and chapters 13 through 17, it's actually known as the upper room discourse. You can type in upper room discourse in your Google or whatever and it'll show you this and it'll tell you about the theme of what it's about. But it's actually the most intimate and loving sermon of Christ anywhere in the Bible and it's written by John, whom he felt like he was the one whom Jesus loved more than any other, and it wasn't that the rest of them wasn't worthy of it. It was that he was so intimate and so close with him. Why? Because he understood what it meant to abide. Regardless of what was going on, regardless of what anybody said, regardless of what kind of mistake he might have made, he knew what it meant to abide in Christ. So let me set the scene for you just a minute before we get into it.
Speaker 1:Jesus knew that his time was short when he took them in there to have this last supper with him and to talk to him. This was the night before the crucifixion, so he knew the next day he was going to be crucified. He focused not on fear he didn't want them to be scared but he focused on final truths. These are the things that I want you to know, that you have to get before I crawl up on that cross tomorrow. This is what I want you to know, that you have to get before I crawl up on that cross tomorrow. This is what I need you to know.
Speaker 1:He summarized everything and you can find this in John 13-17. He summarized everything that he had taught them over the years. Then he told them what they must not forget. Don't forget this, don't always remember what I said here. So he reminded them of essential truth that they had to have to move forward and to do the work that he's called them to do. He warned them about trials that were going to come. How do you handle this trial when it comes? He was so amazing. He didn't just wait and say don't know what's coming, be ready. He said this is what's coming, and not only am I telling you in advance what's going to come, but I'm going to give you exactly what you need to deal with it. So he gave them all that information.
Speaker 1:He was laying a foundation for life for the disciples under the new covenant. Think about that. The new covenant had not began yet, jesus hadn't went to the cross yet. They were still living. And we don't think about that when we think about the disciples. Oftentimes we think about new covenant living and there was a part of new covenant, but we also have to remember that many of their years was under old covenant. So he was telling them this is what life's going to look like under the new covenant, life after the cross. When I climb up there and I finish it, this is what life is going to look like after that. So if you want to understand the heart of Jesus and I hope that's the goal of all of us if you truly want to understand the heart of Jesus, the place to start at would be the upper room experience, when he took them to that upper room and he began to speak to them, because he was speaking to them on an intimate level, but it's no different. I mean, you can put your name in there when he was speaking to those disciples. You can read it now and you can insert your name and insert yourself into that upper room experience, because what he was telling them is the same thing that he's telling us today. We can take the same stuff from it.
Speaker 1:So, in the middle of this passage that I'm going to read this morning in John 15, and we're going to go into verses 1 through 4 in John 15 in just a few minutes but there's a section where Jesus illustrates what he's been teaching. That's the one thing I loved about Jesus, and this is where I he don't just preach it. He's not just a preacher, but he's a teacher, because most teachers don't just speak but they illustrate. So he didn't just tell his disciples this is what I want or this is what you need to do. He actually gave them illustrations that they could fully understand, because he told them you've got to get this, you've got to see this. You can't just walk out of here and say it was a good sermon. You've got to be able to grab onto this, understand it and walk it out in your life. So he began to show them an illustration, as he so often does. He uses common everyday pictures to vividly portray lessons that he's taught in the past.
Speaker 1:In John 15, he gives us the picture of a vine and a vine dresser. This is what we got into somehow. I don't remember how it come up, but this topic come up Wednesday night and we got into this. We really dove into it and broke it down and began to say what is? What is he saying here? What does this really look like, you know, for us today? So we're going to, we're going to break down verses one through four in just a minute, but before we do, I want to bring your attention to what Jesus says in verse 2 and 6. And we don't have to go there. I'm going to share it with you. But this is what he says If a branch does not bear fruit, it is cut off, taken away and burned in the fire. I'm just summarizing. He says the same thing in verse 2, and he says the same thing in verse 6. It's cut off. If it don't bear fruit, it's cut off. It's cut off. If it don't bear fruit, it's cut off, it's taken away and it's burned in the fire.
Speaker 1:John 15, 2 has been so misinterpreted through the years, in every denomination, okay, especially by people who what I call what I consider futurists, people who's just living here right now, but they're waiting sometime in the future for everything to happen. Right now I don't know what we're doing. We're just here. Everything's going to happen one day. That's a futurist perspective. It's called a futurist theology.
Speaker 1:Most of the church, of what we know around here, kind of fall into this futurist mindset because we're waiting on everything that Jesus promised us is coming one day after we're raised up, after we go through the judgment, all this after we go through Armageddon, all this stuff that's futuristic. So I'm not saying that's futurist in a negative sense. I'm just saying that's the mentality that a lot of people in the church have is everything is happening one day. The difference in us if somebody ever asked you the question is we believe that a lot of this stuff that some people's waiting on has already occurred and we're living now in the reality of what Jesus has already done, are living now in the reality of what Jesus has already done. That's not to say, take all the future stuff away. We're not saying that. We're just saying that a lot of it, that we're expecting the peace, the joy, the kingdom, all these things. We don't have to wait until we get there, to get it. We have access to it now because of what Jesus done on the cross, and it was a finished work on the cross. So there's a difference between the finished work versus futurist mentality.
Speaker 1:But this verse has been so misinterpreted. If you're a futurist mindset or if you have a performance-based perspective, then when you read through this, if you read through it with that kind of lens, then what you're going to see is you're going to read it with a lens of fear, through a lens of the possibility of losing your salvation, or you're going to read it through a lens that's going to create something that's performance-based. I've always got to work and strive and try to be something that you don't even realize you already are yet. So everything's about performance and, again, that's not taking away from good works, but we don't do the good works to get to a place. We do the good works out of who we already are. Big difference in the mindset on that. It has to be a shift in that.
Speaker 1:So what he's talking about here is or one of the reasons this is so misinterpreted is because we look at it through that lens. If we look at it through the lens of finished work, the meaning becomes deeply, deeply freeing to us and we'll see that it's also rooted in grace Salvation. We're saved by grace Alone. We're not saved by our works. We're not saved by anything we do or anything we say. We are saved by grace. So this is going to take you back to that main point of being rooted in grace and be freeing for some people who have come to understand that I have to work for things and I have to perform a certain way to be able to please God.
Speaker 1:So let's look at the common misinterpretation of this. The words in there takes away. It says if it does not produce fruit, then it will be taken away. It's often misunderstood as removal from Christ. I've heard it preached like this. I'm sure at some point I could go back and I've probably preached it like this myself. To be honest, it's removal from Christ, suggesting that the branch is cut off and removed. It's cut off from salvation, cut off from Jesus. If you're cut off from Jesus, then you're cut off from salvation. I mean those two go together. So it says that if you don't produce the right fruit or good fruit, that you are cut off from Him, which means you lose your salvation and you are cast into the fire, going to hell.
Speaker 1:That's the mindset. We don't like to look at it like that, but when you really take what's being preached and you narrow it down, that's really what it's saying. That's what we've been taught. That this verse is saying it leads to fear. If I don't produce enough fruit, god will remove me. It also shifts our focus to performance and not position. I can't put my focus on performance. I have to put my focus on position, of who I am, based on what he's done. So it changes. Again, the mindset has to change. To understand that, to understand what Jesus is truly saying, we must understand the methods and the practice of tending grapevine.
Speaker 1:And I went back. I pulled the sermon up from when I preached this. I pulled it up Wednesday night, but then I went back and I started studying it. It turned the whole sermon around Because I started studying more on it. I got researching it more. So I'm going to share with you some things that I learned as we worked through this text.
Speaker 1:Let's look together at John 15 and 1. Again, we're only looking at four verses here, but John 15 and 1. Jesus says I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Now I'll give you a little bit of insight into how my mind works. When I read a verse, I look at words. I feel like every word in there has some importance in it. I can't just take a word out and say, well, that's not really useful. When he says I am the true vine, my first mindset is there has to be a false vine. If he's the true vine and he's making a point to tell them I am the true vine, at some point in time there had to be a false vine. So what did I do? I started studying that, I went back and started looking at it. But he says I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.
Speaker 1:In the Old Testament, israel was often referred to and described as the vine. You ain't got to look at these verses. I didn't even put them down for Ronnie to pull them up. I'm just going to share them with you. Psalm 80 and 8 says you brought a vine out of Egypt. Isaiah 5, god planted a vineyard which was considered Israel, but it produced wild grapes. Jeremiah 2, I had planted you a noble vine. How then have you turned it into a degenerate plant? So, all through, you can go through the Old Testament you can look, and when you study this out, you'll see that Israel, at that point in time in the Old Testament, was considered the vine. So Jesus comes along and he says I am the true vine. You had another vine and it didn't work for you. You had another vine that could not sustain life for you. I am the true vine, I'm the one that can give you everything. So when you go back and just even the first verse, you can break it down and like man, there's so much in this verse.
Speaker 1:Okay, jesus explains this picture right from the start. He is the vine and God, the Father, is the vinedresser. A vinedresser is more than just a farmer. We have to understand that. He knows all about grapes, how they grow, what they need, when they need it. A vinedresser's grapevines remain with him for decades. That's his baby. He takes care of these things. He comes to know each and every one intimately, for they are unique and they are all different.
Speaker 1:Now, I'm talking about a grapevine here, but I hope you can see a little bit deeper than that. I'm talking about a grapevine here, but I hope you can see a little bit deeper than that. He knows each vine, how each vine fares from year to year when it's doing good, when it's drooping over and it's in its depressed state, when it's just not doing what it should be doing. Which ones are more productive each year. He knows that why? Because he tends to these things daily. He knows how much each vine responds to various forms of care and how best to care for each vine's needs. Now, in this picture this is what you've got to see here In this picture, there's only one vine. There's only one vine. That's Jesus, with branches coming off from Him. So, as the vine dresser, the vine dresser only has one vine to tend.
Speaker 1:Now think about this, because I've said it and I've heard so many people say it all the time that some people just don't understand how so much is going on in the world and all the people's here, and God's just trying to do this for everybody, he's got one vine, one vine. We're the branches. Sometimes we see ourself as the vine. You're not the vine, you're the branch. So all God had to do was say Son, demonstrate, give them what they need. And in three and a half years he come and he done. He said this is what I'm going to show you. I only do what I've seen my Father do. I only say what I've heard my Father say. I only say what I've heard my Father say. I'm going to be an example to you on earth of exactly the way my Father wants it done in heaven, because we're one. So everything you see me do, everything you hear me say, is just a pattern of exactly the way I want you to live your life.
Speaker 1:In this picture here there's two kind of branches. Let's look at verse 15 and 2. Let's see this in verse 2. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Now, I didn't say this a while ago, but I want to say the main part of tending the vine is taking care of the branches. That's the main part of tending the vine is taking care of the branches. It's the branches Jesus talks about in John 15 and 2. He's not talking about anything. He's talking about the branches. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. Everyone that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
Speaker 1:In this verse, jesus continues the picture with two kinds of branches. Here You've got to see this. You've got to pick up on this. There's two kinds of branches Branches that bear fruit and branches that do not bear fruit. Real simple. We try to make it difficult, but it's really simple. There's two kinds.
Speaker 1:One bears fruit, one does not. There's also associated action with each one. He says it right here For the ones that bear fruit, he takes away. I mean, does not bear fruit, he takes away. For the ones that bears fruit, I prune. So no matter which one you are, there's going to be an action that comes along with it. You're either going to be taken away or you're going to be pruned. You know whether you take away or whether you prune, there's cutting, but it's cutting with purpose. I can remember teaching that before and I had such a misunderstanding of it in the way I taught it Because now it makes more sense to me. So either one, there's going to be an action that comes along. He doesn't prune to punish. I can't say, well, I've slipped up or I made a mistake and God's going to punish me. God's doing this to me. This is because I did this. No, it's not.
Speaker 1:He prunes to align us with our true identity and to increase fruit in our life. That's the only reason. Pruning is not to make us acceptable. See, some of us think we're being pruned and again, man, so many sermons are coming back to me Because I've told this and I said God prunes us to get us ready. No, we don't. He prunes us because we're already there but it's not showing, it's not being demonstrated. So he comes in there and says I've got to get some of this junk all so that you can shine again. I don't see this stuff in my life. Sometimes he prunes to align us with our true identity in Christ, so that we can increase in our fruitfulness. So pruning is not to make us acceptable, but because we are already accepted in Christ. We're already accepted. See, this is so good. Even the birds are tweeting. So let's deal with a minute. Before we finish up with those two verses, let's deal with this.
Speaker 1:Taken away part a minute the niv, which a lot of people read because it's easy to understand. So I mean a lot of people in the church reads the niv. Nothing wrong with it. Don't think I'm bashing it, but I'm just saying when you read something from the new king james or the king james or the niv or any other version, sometimes the words are going to be a little different. Okay, we have to realize that. We have to recognize the words may be different and they don't always mean what they are saying. That's why we've got to be disciples, we've got to study, we've got to say why is this word different? Okay, so let's deal with that word. Taken away.
Speaker 1:The NIV actually uses the words cut off, cut off that's pretty simple. Cut off means I'm no longer a part of the Greek word, for this is actually translated as lift up. This is really what we got into Wednesday, because this verse is saying that if I do not bear fruit, he takes away, or if I do not bear fruit, he cuts off, and it gives this impression that if I'm not doing what I should be doing, that he cuts me off from Him. But that's not what it's talking about. Look the Greek word up and it means lift up. Okay, so how do we know what translation to read? How do we know which translation is correct? Do I look at the NIV? Do I look at New King James? Do I look at whatever? How do I know Because there's so many different words out there that's being used and again, I'm not knocking these other translations what some of them is doing is they're using words to try to make it easier to understand, but a lot of times when they change the wording they change the meaning of the verse.
Speaker 1:That's the downside to it and that's every translation. That ain't just NIV or New King James. Every translation that tries to I don't know how to use the word water it down, but in a sense that's what it does. It tries to make it more understandable in our language. But guess what? The Bible wasn't written in your language, so therefore you can't always get the meaning out of it that was truly intended. So we have to go back and look it up.
Speaker 1:Now I don't mean the verse is wrong. It's just that if I put a word in there that don't belong, it means something totally different to me today than it did back. Then it's going to give me the wrong interpretation of that verse. The intended interpretation is already there, but my wording changes it, so I have to be careful with the wording of it. So when I ask, how do I know what's right? How do I know where to look? What? If we ask a vine dresser about how he does his job? Now there's not a lot of what we would consider vine dressers around here. There's some places that have vineyards and you can go up and I'm sure you can talk to somebody that takes care of them. But what I wanted to know is I wanted to know about a vine dresser in the day of Jesus. You know, technology is so amazing and if you're not using technology to help you study the Word, you're losing out. There's nothing wrong. Some people are against it, some people think it changes the meaning, but I'm going to show you that it don't. I simply typed into AI. This is what I typed in Give me a first-person account of a vinedresser's job in the day of Jesus. That's what I typed in. I'm going to read this to you. Remember, this is first person. This is the vine dresser talking to you.
Speaker 1:I have walked among these vines for many seasons. I know each branch by sight, by field. Some I even know by name. These vines are not just my work, they are my heart. Every morning I come early, before the sun is hot. I walk slowly, carefully, looking. Some branches stretch high and full, already bearing fruit. Others droop low, tangled in dust, weighted down with mud. And when I see a branch not bearing fruit, here we go. I do not cut it off, I would never do that. I lift it up, I kneel down, I cradle it gently, I wash it, I water it and I lift it up and tie it to the trellis so that it can feel the sun again. It belongs to the vine, it belongs to me, and so I care for it until the fruit returns.
Speaker 1:For the one bearing fruit, I prune, but not to punish. I trim what is stealing life. I remove anything that's distracting to it, not to take away beauty but to make room for more beauty, for more fruit. The more fruit, the more life. I never rush the process. Some seasons are dry, others are full. But I wait, I watch, I work with care, because fruit is not forced. It flows when the branch stays connected. This is not forced. It flows when the branch stays connected. This is my joy To see life come from something that was once dormant, to see fruit ripening in the sun, to see the vine flourish and the branches thrive. I am not here to judge the branches. I am here to tend them, to lift them, to prune them, to help them, to prune them, to help them live fully from the vine.
Speaker 1:I am the vine dresser and this is what I do. That's powerful. That is powerful. You can tell that in your eye. I mean, I'm telling you. It never quoted a verse, but it stepped all over what we're reading right here. I mean, this is coming from what a vine dresser would do, because I can't go talk to one. You can study it, you can read about it and this is what we're doing here and you got to catch this.
Speaker 1:So when the vine dresser comes along and he sees branches lying on the ground, he knows that what they need is not to draw their own nutrients from the soil. When they fall to the ground, little roots start going down into the soil and they're getting the nutrients from their self. And all of a sudden he comes along and says you don't need the nutrients from their self. And all of a sudden he comes along and says you don't need the nutrients from yourself because they don't draw enough to produce. If they do produce, it's just a few little bitter grapes. So he takes them and he picks them up, he cleans it off and he says I'm going to reconnect you. So the energy that you get, the nutrients that you get, don't come from yourself, it comes from the vine. So when it comes from the vine, it's got everything you need to sustain yourself and to produce fruit. So he lifts it up, cleans it off and puts it back where it belongs. But to get there because they got to get their nutrients from the vine, because the vine's root system goes deep. So that is what God does with the unproductive branches he lifts them up so that they will produce more fruit.
Speaker 1:To see this idea as removal from the vine, that if they're not producing, he cuts them off or he takes them away and he throws them into the fire. This removal process totally contradicts the actual practice of a vine dresser. That's not what a vine dresser would ever do. He's not going to chop up his vines and cut them off and throw them away. There's a part of it that he will. What's burning in the fire is the excess, the one that's drawing nutrients away from the vine. He cuts the excess of the wood off, throws it into the fire when he's pruning, but he never cuts the branches off. You see this idea again we have to look at it from the mindset of what would a vine dresser. This is context, because this is saying what would a vine dresser actually do, because the story that Jesus was telling his disciples was in a way that they would understand, because they were around vine dressers every day. Some of them may have been vine dressers, so they understood the common language of that time and what was going on.
Speaker 1:It makes perfect sense when we look at it as not cut off but as lifting up. It makes perfect sense and it brings us really a sense of encouragement. Maybe I'm not producing like I feel like I need to be. Maybe I've slipped and fell. Maybe I'm not in church like I want to be. Maybe my life is not always what it should be. Do I just hang it up and say God's cut me off? Or do I realize that God is lifting and he's saying you're my child, you're a part of me. I can't cut you off, I can't remove you because you are part of me, you're one with me. I'm going to lift you up. I'm going to trim off anything I need to trim off and we're going to get you producing again. We're going to put you in a position to produce. This is powerful.
Speaker 1:So what does he do with them once they do produce fruit, or with those that already are producing? Jesus says in verse 2 that these branches are pruned. The Greek meaning is actually to wash or to clean. We always think and I used it a while ago, and I said it a while ago because I know we're thinking cut, cut. And I said that because that's the message I preached years ago that God cuts with a purpose, not always cutting.
Speaker 1:We look at it like that because we go through life and sometimes we get knocked down, sometimes we get hit, sometimes we get kicked, sometimes we get cut, sometimes things happen and it makes us feel good to say well, sometimes God just does this, just to strengthen me, just to test my faith. Sounds good and it does test your faith, but God's not doing it. He's not doing that to test your faith. He already not doing that to test your faith. He already knows who you are. He already knows Well, god's just trying to help me be more righteous. He already knows you're righteous. He gave it to you. He's waiting on you to get something from out here that he's already supplied to you. But when we look at it as this word here, those are producing fruit. They're producing, they're doing what they feel like they should be doing. There's something growing out of their life and he still prunes them. What does that mean? He washes them, he cleans them.
Speaker 1:Now, normally we wouldn't say we would look at the ones that's producing and say, well, they don't need no cleaning, they don't need no pruning, they're already, he's a good y'all. Ever looked at somebody you've seen in you know in your life and you said, man, that guy, they're just perfect. You know, you would look at them and say they're just a perfect Christian. It's like they never do anything wrong. They're just always nice, they're always joyful. They're just always nice, they're always joyful. People always want to be around them. We've all met people like that, you know.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing he prunes them too. He prunes them too Because they are the ones producing and he says I'm going to prune, but look at verse 3. Here's the cool part of this. You are. This is what he told his disciples. Now don't forget the context. Right here he's not talking to anybody else, but his disciples. Right here, you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. The disciples, just like we would be, were probably wondering which ones they were If Jesus sat down and started giving you this message about the clean, about the ones that are producing fruit, the ones not producing fruit, and this one I'll cut and this one I'll prune.
Speaker 1:If you're sitting there and you're listening to him, it's going to go through your mind which one am I? Is he talking to me? Is he talking to me? And it should be like that. We should feel like he's, because it's not me. If I'm doing what I feel like God's called me to do and being led by the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit knows what's going on in your life, even if I don't. So, yeah, it should feel like I'm talking to you, every single one of you, I hope.
Speaker 1:Walk out of here at some point and say, man, he was just talking right to me today. Yes, I was Every single person in here. I want to feel like that Because it's the Holy Spirit speaking to every single one of us. But these disciples, I can imagine, were doing the same thing Looking around I'm clean Looking over there. What about you?
Speaker 1:Think about how these guys lived together. These guys traveled together. These guys weren't perfect. They were old, dirty fishermen and I'm sure that some stuff went on. They knew some stuff on each other, okay, so they were probably looking around, wondering, but then he kind of calms it down right here. I think he knew he knew he could look at them. He could see them looking around at each other trying to figure out which one's dirty and which one's not.
Speaker 1:And he says God, you're all clean, chill out, you're all clean, chill out. You're all clean, not because you've done anything to deserve it or to get that way, but simply because of the word which I have spoken to you, not anything you've done is what I've done for you, you. He tells them in 15 and 3 that they are the fruitful branches and they have already been cleaned. Only fruit bearing branches are clean. Remember that Only fruit bearing branches are clean. So they were producing. So what's he saying here? We don't bear fruit to become clean. That's not what makes us clean. We bear fruit because we already are clean through the finished work of Christ. It's not to gain, but it's because of the last verse and I'm getting too early.
Speaker 1:The last verse I want to cover right here Is verse 4. I wasn't going to include this one, but I want you to see this Because this is the key to it Abide, abide. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself Unless it abides in the vine. The branch can't do anything if it is not connected to the vine. Neither can you, unless you abide in me. Very simple verse here, but powerful.
Speaker 1:Jesus is not giving them a new burden to carry. He's not all of a sudden saying hey guys, I'm going to the cross tomorrow. Here's your instructions. I need you to do this Kind of like. When we go into the schools and we try to do something, I can see the teacher's faces sometimes talking about, oh my God, something else. It's like a new thing we've got to do now. And you're like no, it's not, it's already connected to what you're already doing. It's just taking a little step forward. That's what he was doing here. He wasn't giving them anything new to do, but an invitation to simply remain in what they already knew to be true, what was already there. He'd already gave them these things and he was fixing to go to the cross.
Speaker 1:The abiding is not the way to become clean. That was settled in verse 3. But we're not trying to abide in him so that I can stay clean. That's settled. You're already clean. It's the way to experience fruitfulness based on what is already true about you.
Speaker 1:Now let me hit this right here just a minute, because you might be saying, well, this is pretty simple, I get this, but a lot of people don't, because if I'm waiting to be clean one day, then I've just missed everything in this verse, in this Scripture, because it's not about one day, it's about now. So that's what we're saying. We're not saying somebody's not a Christian because they understand it or think differently. We're not saying that, but I'm just saying I look at anybody that says, well, I believe it's going to happen one day. Well, good, but I believe it's happening now and it's already happened and I've got access to it. Now I'm not bearing fruit one day. I can bear fruit now, I have access now. That's the difference. Does that mean they're not born again? No, does it mean they're not going to enjoy the fruits of everything that they've done? No, it don't mean nothing like that. It just means that he said I want you to do this now. That's what he told His disciples and that's what he told us Not waiting.
Speaker 1:Listen, if heaven was going to be the overall, this is the goal, this is the main thing. I feel certain Jesus would have preached that. He never did. He never preached that that was the end goal. He said I'm giving it to you now. So the goal is live it now. And that is so hard to get people to see that and to understand it.
Speaker 1:But Jesus was the example and even though it's difficult sometimes, all we've got to do is keep going back to the Scripture. Let Jesus be the model. Let Jesus be the model. Let Him be the one who shows us the example. And as long as I'm following what he's done and I'm following His example and I'm following His model, I'm not going to be wrong. I don't care what you think. You may not like it, you may not agree with it, but I'm not going to be wrong. Why? Because I'm following the example of the original one. He showed me how to do this. He didn't just throw us out there and say good luck. He showed us and he demonstrated and said this is what I want you to do. And not only that, but I'm giving you everything you need to do it. And that's why one day I made the comment and some people may have missed it we are starting at the. It is finished. We are starting at the finish line.
Speaker 1:You know how easy it would be to win a race if you were starting at the finish line. You know how easy it would be to win a race if you were starting at the finish line everybody else way back there somewhere and you're starting about a foot from the finish line. You should be able to win. There shouldn't be any excuses. You could trip and fall and still win it. And that's what we've done. We trip, we fall, we slip up, we make mistakes and we're still winning, because it's not about your fall or your slip, it's not about what you've done. It's not about trying to get back to where you think you need to be. You're already there. We just got to see it. Think you need to be, you're already there. We just got to see it and we got to abide in what he's already done for us. So three simple things here how to make it relevant Rest, abide and receive. It's real simple Rest in what In your already clean identity.
Speaker 1:Jesus said you're already clean. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say it over the years and I remember back before I got in church I was saying it too. Well, when I get this right, I'll get in church, if I can get this right here in my life straightened out, then I'll go You're already clean According to Christ. You're already clean According to Christ. You're already clean. Yeah, but I'm still doing this. Well, we didn't ask according to you, we're saying according to Christ.
Speaker 1:I mean, if it's according to me, man, I can come up with every wrong thing I've ever done in my life and tell you about it, and you can do that about yourself. That's why he says there's no condemnation, there's no condemning myself, there's no. Condemnation actually means self punishment. There's no self punishment to those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because if I'm in Christ, I see myself through his eyes and not through my own. Therefore, I don't condemn myself, I don't punish myself for all the mistakes I've made.
Speaker 1:Listen, if I sit up here and gave you a list of everything I've ever done wrong, I promise you you would not want me up here preaching. You would say, oh, he's done too much, and I probably have. But what he done was more and it covered it. And I just happened to realize that, come on, I've had people. Look at my pastors, look, you're divorced. You can't preach I like now preach you. You ain't never been divorced. I mean, that's what I want to say sometimes Listen, I can preach the same gospel you preach.
Speaker 1:I understand kingdom, I understand my identity in Christ. It don't matter about what I've been through, it don't matter what's happened in my life. That's going back to the law and that's what he was teaching them right here. Rest in your identity, your already clean identity. Abide. Abide in what. Stay rooted in Christ's finished work, not your performance. Get your eyes off of what you're doing and stay rooted and stay in what he's done and receive. Receive what. Allow God's pruning to shape you, not as judgment. Get into that, not as judgment, but for greater fruitfulness. I mean man, judgment has ruined us. Waiting on judgment, Expecting judgment what if we just understood what judgment really meant? Because we're waiting on the final judgment, the great judgment. Judgment simply means correction, correction. Has Jesus not corrected things and I know I'm this is messing with some people because everybody's waiting on that final judgment day.
Speaker 1:His goal is to help you flourish in this life, already yours, in Christ, no matter what I've done, no matter what I've been through. He wants me to live a life as an example and to be an example of the kingdom of heaven right now, here and now on earth. I don't understand sometimes why and I say that a lot, but it just that's things that go through my mind I'm like, why is it so hard to understand? But then I have to look back and say, well, for a long time I didn't understand it, but I wasn't privy to the information. I didn't have anybody I was connected to that was teaching this. Once we got connected and I began to see it.
Speaker 1:Now it's my responsibility to not go back and to not allow other people to be stuck in a place. You can't we talked about it Wednesday night. You can't force them. You can't force somebody to say, hey, you need to believe, finish work. Some people's not going to Period, and that's fine.
Speaker 1:But there's some people, and there's a lot of people out there right now that are not satisfied with traditional church anymore, traditional teaching. They're recognizing that living in law and living with all this futuristic mindset and waiting on the rapture futuristic mindset and waiting on the rapture to happen and waiting on the second coming and waiting on the final judgment and waiting on the Armageddon and all this stuff, especially after it's been prophesied by so many people that it was going to happen 15 different times and it hadn't happened yet. So why do they think it's crazy when I stand up and say it has happened? They'll believe this guy over here who's been wrong 15 times. And he keeps coming up with a reason. I can name some big time prophets off to you right now that every year was going to be we're gone, earth's going to be gone. But number one, that's not even biblical what you're saying.
Speaker 1:Let's get back to the Bible. What does the Bible say? Now, sometimes I hate to bring some of this stuff up because I don't have time to get into it, but I know I'm stepping on some sacred ground when we start talking about the rapture and second coming and judgment. I know some people clutch that close hard. You don't want to let go of it. I'm not telling you to let go of it. I'm telling you to just think, think and search the Scripture. That's all I'm saying. Does it line up with what he's saying? I don't worship an angry God who's out to get me. I worship a good Father. He's provided for me. He gave His Son for me. He said everything that he has is now yours as he is. So are every one of you. Why would I not grab that message? Why do I need a taskmaster behind me Hopping a whip or something to try to make me do something To stay in line. You know, get out of line, you're going to burn forever. You know I was. You can stand. Let me end with this because I'm going to keep talking if I don't.
Speaker 1:Me and my brother was talking yesterday and we was talking about some different things. It's amazing, around October, you see it all over Facebook, all over the internet, about all the churches condemning Halloween. You know, I'm not telling you to go one way or another, I'm just making a point here. They condemn Halloween and they talk about, they go into all the history of it and the pagan holiday and this and that. And then they go into Christmas and the way we celebrate Christmas. It was all pagan and it and that. And then they go into Christmas and the way we celebrate Christmas. It was all pagan and it was this. I mean everything that's their go-to Pagan. Get away from that. It's not Christian, that's not godly. Do you know?
Speaker 1:The word, as we know, is hell in the Bible. It was actually given to us and I may have the date wrong. I'll have to look it up, but I think it was 729. It was given to us from the Anglo-Saxons. Why is Halloween pagan? But hell, that was given to us from the pagans, is not considered pagan. It'll leave me something to think about.
Speaker 1:We condemn Halloween because it's pagan, but hell's pagan the word hell that we teach so much about is a pagan idea. It's not a Christian idea, it's not a biblical idea. It's a pagan idea. But we grab onto that and for nothing. We will not let it go. God forbid a kid walk out and get some candy from somebody. See we, I'm leaving you this just to think about, because this is one of those things we so messed up sometimes. We got things so messed up sometimes and if we just stop and think, study, get off of what we've always known and say I'm okay with having my theology checked a little bit, I'm okay with not thinking like the crowd always thinks, I'm okay with that, it's not going to bother me.
Speaker 1:Listen, we have people in our, in our ward of education. We have people there that talk a lot. I mean, most of them are Christian people and they'll get you know. Sometimes they'll be in there. We'll have a luncheon or something. Somebody gets to talk about something. I don't get into a lot of the conversation, because some of my thoughts are a little bit different. I use wisdom and we have to do that. But if you ask me a question, then you open up the door and it's so amazing Because most of the time when that door is opened up and I give my opinion, this is the word that always comes.
Speaker 1:I've never looked at it like that and they walk away going. Thank you, because what does it do? It challenges what I've always thought to be true. That may not be. You ever believe something in your whole life to be true and then one day you figured out that it wasn't. You're like, wow, a light come on. And your whole life to be true. And then one day you figured out that it wasn't. You're like, wow, a light, come on. We can do that and we should do that, and that's one of the things we said Wednesday night.
Speaker 1:Once we get an understanding of this, this is what Jesus and I'm saying this because this is what Jesus was telling the disciples Do not and this is what John and Paul was teaching so much about do not go back. Got this now, abide in it. You can't abide in this and go back over here. You can't abide in love and go back and teach hate. You can't abide in joy and go back and teach hate. You can't abide in joy and peace and teach that I worship an angry father. They don't go together. It don't work like that. I have to abide in who he is and who he says he is and let the other stuff go. That's the only way that I'm going to be go. That's the only way that I'm going to be fruitful. That's the key to it. Abide in Him and as you do that, you'll soon begin to realize who you are.
Speaker 1:More and more Condemnation goes away. The guilt goes away. The shame goes away. The guilt goes away. The shame goes away. All that stuff no longer. Brother, you don't know what I've done. I don't care. It don't matter what you've done, no matter how far you've fell, no matter how many times you've failed. What matters is do you realize who you are right? And when you realize that, it won't be a matter of time you'll walk away from the rest of that stuff. It won't be a problem anymore.
Speaker 1:Father, god, we thank you for the word.
Speaker 1:We thank you for what you're doing in each one of us.
Speaker 1:I pray for every person that's here right now, father, I pray that you'll this word will leave with them today that you've stirred something in their heart that you've just made them think on a different level, father, that something will cause them to their heart that you've just made them think on a different level, father, that something will cause them to pull out their computer, pull out their Bible, pull out their books and just begin to study, to go deeper, to want to understand more and more about who you are and about what the purpose was for your son going to the cross.
Speaker 1:Father, god, we just thank you for everything that you're doing in this ministry. We thank you for the word that you're bringing, for the revelation that you're giving us. We thank you, father, for the new facility. We thank you for the property, father, we thank you for the provision that's coming to put the new building there. Father, we don't know how it's going to come. I pray every day about it and I say it. I don't know how it's going to come, but I know that if you give us the vision, you're going to provide the provision. So, father, we thank you for that and we'll just be careful to give you the praise, the honor and the glory for everything In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.