WEBVTT 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:06.639 The sermon text for today is found in John chapter fifteen, verses one through eight. 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:11.119 You can find this passage in the Blue Pew Bible on page sixteen forty-three. 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:14.800 Listen as I read God's word. 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:19.600 I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:27.199 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:31.280 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:34.799 Remain in me as I also remain in you. 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:39.359 No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine. 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:42.880 Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.479 I am the vine, you are the branches. 00:00:47.119 --> 00:00:50.640 If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:53.119 Apart from me, you can do nothing. 00:00:54.159 --> 00:00:58.399 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers. 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:02.640 Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned. 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:09.359 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:15.920 This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. 00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:18.079 Here ends the reading. 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:36.000 If I haven't had the chance to meet you yet this morning, my name is John, and I get to serve as the lead pastor here at Elmwood. 00:01:36.159 --> 00:01:44.480 I'm wondering if that church that had the uh soul winners parking space also was the church that had the non-tithers board out in the entryway. 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.560 Uh it was a real thing, Google it, and uh just be grateful. 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:50.319 We don't do stuff like that here. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:58.400 The list of all the people that don't do anything around here, not the kind of stuff you want to have uh displayed around your church. 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:02.959 As we come to this passage, I want to invite you to join me for a word of prayer. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:24.479 God, we worship you this morning for sending your son. 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:35.039 We worship you that when we were running as far and as fast as we could away from you, you pursued us. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:46.080 We're thankful, God, that in the face of our brokenness and our sin and our idolatry, you have made a way for us to be reunited to you through your Son Jesus. 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:49.039 Thank you for sending him. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:03:03.680 God, we pray that as we think about what it means to be a people who are commissioned and sent out into the world, Lord, that you would do your unique work in each of us here this morning. 00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:08.879 Lord, you know exactly what each of us needs to hear today. 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:15.199 So we are trusting you, Holy Spirit, to meet each of us where we are. 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:23.759 We pray that you would help our lives to better reflect you, Jesus, the Sent One. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:26.800 We pray this in His name. 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:27.759 Amen. 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:40.800 As Dave mentioned this morning, we are beginning a new series of messages that we have titled Commissioned and Sent, Finding Our Place in the Mission of God. 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:48.319 What I want to do this morning to begin is just to share with you a little bit about how we ended up doing a series like this and why we're doing this. 00:03:48.560 --> 00:03:59.439 Because our plan, as Christina mentioned last week, was to go back to the Book of Mark, where we picked up, uh pick up where we left off right before Easter and finish the Book of Mark before fall kickoff. 00:03:59.680 --> 00:04:01.919 But that is no longer uh going to be the case. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:08.639 And I wanted to just give you a little bit of uh the behind-the-scenes story about how we ended up where we are here today. 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:20.480 We mentioned a couple times here recently that Elmwood this coming November turns 100 years old, which is a significant milestone in the life of like any church, right? 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:24.079 100 years of being in existence is uh an important thing. 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:25.680 It's a huge milestone. 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:34.079 And as we look back on those 100 years, what we can see is what a long legacy of faithful ministry. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:05:00.480 As we look back on those years of Elmwood's history, what we can see is all of the ways that God has used Elmwood for the advance of his kingdom purposes, not just here in this neighborhood, in this community, in this part of our city, but also all around the world, as Elmwood has been a place historically where people have uh experienced a call to missions and to go in a unique way to other parts of the world. 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:09.519 And Elmwood has been a place historically where some have sensed a call to a unique form of ministry, which is vocational ministry, pastoral ministry. 00:05:09.759 --> 00:05:18.319 Elmwood has over the years supported numerous, countless missionaries and global partners who are doing ministry in other places across the world. 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:26.480 And so the legacy of ministry that Elmwood has built doesn't just impact this little area where we find ourselves sitting here today in this little community. 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:32.319 Elmwood's ministry has an impact that goes out into all parts of the world. 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:45.680 And uh as the 100-year anniversary of Elmwood's birth approaches, I've known about this for a little over a year now, because it's the kind of thing that you would uh hopefully try and plan and prepare something special for. 00:05:45.920 --> 00:06:00.639 So as uh I've been thinking about the hundred-year anniversary of Elmwood approaching, there's a phrase that's been stuck in my mind, just sort of bouncing around up there, living rent-free, for the last about a year or so here, and that phrase is 100 more. 00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:06.000 It would be amazing if Jesus returned before then. 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:06.800 Amen? 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:07.600 Okay? 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:09.279 That would be great. 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:21.120 But if not, what I want is for my great-grandchildren to be here celebrating 200 years of faithful ministry here at Elmwood. 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:27.120 What I want is to be a part of building a ministry that far outlasts my lifetime. 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:31.040 And I know that you all desire that same exact thing. 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:45.279 As our leadership team and some of our other key leaders have talked about this and prayed about this together, uh, we look to the future and we believe that it's possible for the next 100 years of ministry to be more fruitful than the last. 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:51.360 That's not saying anything about how uh about the fruitfulness of the last hundred years, it's been incredible. 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:57.120 And we believe that the next 100 years can be even more fruitful. 00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:05.920 Which has let us ask the question, okay, well, if that's going to be true, what needs to happen? 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:15.199 If the next 100 years of Elmud's ministry is going to in any way be more fruitful than the last, what needs to happen inside of us? 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:26.240 What needs to happen in the life and the ministry of our church for us to have and build a ministry that leaves a legacy for generations to come? 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:27.920 What needs to happen? 00:07:28.399 --> 00:08:07.439 Now, of course, the answer to that question is multifaceted, very multifaceted, but one of the core, central pieces to that, a huge part of the answer to that question is we have to lean into the fact that we have been commissioned and sent by God into the spheres of influence that we all have, into the places where we live, work, learn, and play, because as apprentices of Jesus, we have not only been brought into the family of God and given an identity of sons and daughters, we have been commissioned and sent out into the world with an identity of neighbors and witnesses. 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:22.319 And so what we believe is that a huge part of the answer to the question of how Elmwood leaves, continues to leave, a lasting legacy of ministry, how we do that is that we have to lean into the fact that we have been commissioned and sent. 00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:25.839 We need a renewed outward focus. 00:08:26.079 --> 00:08:38.399 We need to have hearts that are filled, as Christina prayed this morning, filled full with the love of God to the point where we overflow into sharing the good news about Jesus with those who did not yet follow him. 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:43.919 Now, I want to be really clear about this and be very transparent with you. 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:50.559 I am not standing up here as the example that you all are supposed to follow. 00:08:50.879 --> 00:09:01.039 I'm not standing up here saying, you people need to get your act together and figure out how to, you know, do gospel neighboring and have gospel conversation. 00:09:03.039 --> 00:09:16.639 As we've talked and prayed about this and looked ahead to this next season of ministry, one of the things that's been exposed inside of me is that I don't functionally live out our mission of inviting all people into the life-giving way of Jesus. 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:21.519 There's so much room for me to grow in this. 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:25.919 I'm not standing up here saying, you all have lost focus. 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:32.799 I'm standing up here saying, I have lost focus, and in that way I have failed to pastor our church well. 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:43.440 And so this series and this new sort of season of ministry we're heading into is first for me, and I'm glad y'all will be along the ride with me. 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:44.000 Okay? 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:48.399 Um, so I just want you to hear my heart and our heart as we talk about this. 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:53.519 Uh, we are going to, in the next season of ministry, learn together. 00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:57.440 Some of us do this really well now, others of us have lots of room to grow. 00:09:57.600 --> 00:09:58.240 And that's great. 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:03.039 We're going to, over the next season, learn how to be this kind of church together. 00:10:03.279 --> 00:10:08.639 And so we want to just begin that by saying, let's just talk about this here on Sunday mornings. 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:11.840 This is a huge part of the life of our church, is gathering together. 00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:13.679 And so let's talk about it. 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:18.960 So, over these next five weeks, we're going to be uh thinking about the subject of living on mission. 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:22.879 And our time this morning is going to be organized around two questions. 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:25.600 The first question is, what is the mission? 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:29.840 We can't like talk about anything unless we know what the mission is, right? 00:10:30.159 --> 00:10:31.279 So start there. 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:32.639 What is the mission? 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:37.759 And the second place, second question is, okay, knowing what the mission is, where do we start? 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:38.240 Okay? 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:40.240 So let's think about this together. 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:42.639 And uh, as we ask the question, what is the mission? 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:50.879 There's like a million different ways you could summarize the mission that God is on in the world, but let's just put it this way for our purposes here today. 00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:56.399 Uh, the mission is partnering with God as he brings harmony out of disharmony. 00:10:57.120 --> 00:11:12.559 We as followers, as apprentices of Jesus, if that describes you here this morning, we have been commissioned and sent to partner with God, to join with God as He brings harmony out of disharmony. 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:22.799 Every single one of us, we all see and we experience and we feel the disharmony in the world around us. 00:11:23.840 --> 00:11:29.200 And that disharmony is felt and seen in a variety of different ways. 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:34.960 We see it socially, in what a lot of people refer to nowadays as the culture wars. 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:47.519 We see it racially as we deal with the lingering and lasting ripple effects of the evil and unjust slavery trade that was such a huge part of the founding of our country. 00:11:48.320 --> 00:12:02.240 We see it politically in the divisions that we experience, we see it economically, we feel it and see it geopolitically as we look at nations and countries that are at war with one another and the potential of more countries at war with one another. 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:07.519 We all see and feel and experience the disharmony that exists in our world. 00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:09.200 And it's not just out there. 00:12:10.159 --> 00:12:12.879 We see it and experience it in our own lives. 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:26.399 We can look to our relationships with one another, and we can feel and experience the disharmony, the broken relationships, and the frustrations, and the tensions, and the hurt feelings. 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:30.720 We can see and experience all of that very deeply and very personally. 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:36.080 And it's not just with other people, it's also there's disharmony that we feel within our very selves. 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:39.120 We are not at harmony with ourselves, even. 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:49.919 Every single one of us can look to our lives and make a long list of things that we would say, I would give almost anything to be able to change this about myself. 00:12:50.559 --> 00:13:01.519 Every single one of us can look at our lives and come up with a list of things that we would say, you know, I wish this was different about me, and I feel in some ways powerless to do anything about it. 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:08.720 Maybe patterns of thought, or patterns of behavior, or ways that you think about yourself. 00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:22.879 Ways you think about your identity, maybe in the eyes of other people, maybe motives, maybe attitudes, maybe prejudices that you have that you just sort of can't seem to get out of your mind against certain kinds of people. 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:26.240 Might be emotionally. 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:34.960 You may feel anxiety or depression or discouragement or any number of things emotionally that just make you feel sort of out of sync even with your own self. 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:39.200 You would say, I don't want to live like this, I don't want to feel this way, I don't want to be this way. 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:47.039 We experience it uh spiritually, where we can look at our lives and say, this is not where I want my relationship with God to be. 00:13:48.639 --> 00:14:01.679 I thought I'd be further along in my journey than I am right now, I thought I would be more obedient at this point in my life, and we can feel all of these ways out there and in here, where there's just disharmony in our lives and in our world. 00:14:01.919 --> 00:14:11.120 And the message that the Bible communicates to us is that the reason that disharmony exists in the first place is because we are out of step with our Creator. 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:20.240 Because we have disharmony in our relationship with God, our Creator, everything else in our life is totally out of whack. 00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:22.720 Everything else is totally off-kilter. 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:28.799 And that's the core, that's the foundational reason why we see and experience all the disharmony in the world around us. 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:34.720 But the Bible doesn't just give us that message of uh like the realism and the bad news. 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:43.440 The Bible tells us the good news that God is actively in the process of bringing harmony where there currently is disharmony. 00:14:44.320 --> 00:15:09.200 God Himself has sent Jesus to give his life in place of ours so that the disharmony that we experience in our relationship with God can be healed, and so that we can begin to experience all those other areas of life where we feel and experience disharmony, all those things can begin to be healed in part now and fully later as the kingdom of God comes on earth as it is in heaven. 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:12.080 But we get to experience that and taste that now. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:19.519 And that's the mission that God is on, and now that He's given us renewed hearts and He's caused us to become alive again. 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:29.600 Because of that, all those areas in our life we can experience harmony that we were designed for, and we now get to live as agents of harmony in the world around us. 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:39.200 God doesn't just want us to experience all the wonderful, beautiful, joyous, you know, the joy of having lives that are lived in alignment with how he's created us. 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:44.960 He wants us to live as agents of healing and renewal and restoration and reconciliation. 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:48.799 He wants us to live as agents of harmony in the world around us as well. 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:51.679 And this is the mission that he has sent us out on. 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:58.639 The mission is that we get to partner with God as He brings harmony out of disharmony. 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:04.559 He is the one doing all the work, and he even uses people like us in the process. 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:06.399 So this is the mission. 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:11.440 The mission is partnering with God as He brings harmony out of disharmony. 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:16.720 The second question then is okay, well, where do we start? 00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:22.960 As we think about what it means to live as commissioned and sent people, the place we have to start is this. 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:28.639 If you're a note taker, this is the big idea, the big sort of point of the message this morning is this. 00:16:28.799 --> 00:16:32.240 Life on mission begins with life in God's presence. 00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:35.519 This is where we have to start, okay? 00:16:35.679 --> 00:16:38.960 I want to just be really like explicit and obvious about this. 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:55.919 We are not starting a conversation about life on mission with strategies or tactics or apologetics, proofs for the existence of God, or you know, scripts you can memorize to share the gospel with people, things like that. 00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:58.000 Those all have their place, okay? 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:04.960 But that is not the place we can start as we think about what it looks like for us to live as people who are commissioned and sent. 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:15.359 The place we have to start is recognizing that any semblance of life on mission out there begins with life in God's presence. 00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:33.119 As I've prepared for this morning and for the rest of this series, and as I've thought about the subject of living on mission and gospel neighboring and gospel conversations, there is a tendency that I've noticed inside of myself. 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:40.240 And my guess is that there is more of you that maybe uh think this way or feel this way than just me. 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:41.599 I hope I'm not alone in this. 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:44.079 I'm almost certain that I'm not alone in this. 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:53.440 What I have noticed about myself is that my instinct is to think, is to assume that what needs to change is out there. 00:17:55.440 --> 00:18:04.799 My tendency and my default, my assumption has been that living on mission is primarily about change happening inside of other people. 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:25.279 After all, those people out there who are not sitting in church on Sunday morning, those are the ones who have, we could just crassly put it, wrong beliefs about God, about the world, about what's true, they are the ones that need a change. 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:38.640 After all, there's people out there who have what we could call a moral framework, a way of viewing the world, a way of interacting with the world that's out of alignment with the way that God has designed them. 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:42.640 And so they are the ones who need to have that changed. 00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:54.160 We can look out and say it's all those people out there who are spiritually dead, they are the ones who need Jesus to give them new life and cause them to become alive once again. 00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:56.240 They are the ones who need a change. 00:18:57.039 --> 00:19:10.240 And while all of that may be true, and while in a lot of ways that is true of people who are out there in the world around us, a life of mission does not start with other people changing. 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:16.640 It does not begin first with change happening out there, but first begins with change happening in here. 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:23.440 Within each of us personally, within our church family, that's the place where life on mission begins. 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:32.319 Life on mission is not first about other people changing, it's about encountering God and us ourselves being changed. 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:35.119 That's where a life of mission starts. 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:53.359 It begins with a heart that increasingly recognizes the depth of our own brokenness, the depth of our own idolatry, and the depth of our own sin and the corruption that exists inside of us. 00:19:54.079 --> 00:20:12.559 It begins with us seeing and recognizing that and feeling the weight of our need for a savior, which turns into glad and joyful hearts that can rejoice that God has sent us a savior, that God has made a way for that brokenness and for our sin to be washed away because of what Jesus has done. 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:21.839 A life of living on mission does not begin by looking outwards at all the other people that need a change and how much they need Jesus. 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:30.160 Life on mission begins with each one of us recognizing our desperate need for Jesus and how much we need Him to be our Savior first. 00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:45.920 If we are not rooted in that, our life of living on mission out there is going to be skewed, and we're not going to produce the kind of fruit that God desires us to produce if our attitude is that other people need to change first. 00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:48.880 To be clear. 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:53.279 Other people do need to be changed by God. 00:20:56.319 --> 00:20:58.240 We need to be changed by God first. 00:20:58.640 --> 00:21:04.400 And it's out of that changed heart that we go out and live on mission with God. 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:10.400 To use the language of John 15, we've said life on mission begins with life in God's presence. 00:21:10.640 --> 00:21:17.279 And to use the language of John 15, life on mission begins with abiding in Jesus. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:23.920 Life on mission has to begin with us abiding in Jesus. 00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:28.640 Think about the word picture that Jesus uses here in these verses. 00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:32.240 He talks about a vine and he talks about branches. 00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:39.119 Let me just summarize very briefly sort of the main points of what Jesus is saying here. 00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:42.400 He says, Branches are connected to the vine. 00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:44.880 Let me know if I'm going too fast, okay? 00:21:45.279 --> 00:21:52.160 Branches are connected to the vine, and a branch has a unique organic relationship to the vine. 00:21:54.400 --> 00:21:56.480 Branches are connected to the vine. 00:21:56.880 --> 00:21:59.039 Branches are meant to bear fruit. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:03.680 Remember, Jesus is speaking to a largely agrarian society. 00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:17.200 And even today, no one would ever go through all of the work to till the ground and to remove rocks and to pull weeds and to plant seed and to water it and to maintain it and to care for it and to prune it. 00:22:17.359 --> 00:22:22.079 No one would go through all of that work if that if they knew that that thing isn't going to bear fruit. 00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:25.920 The point of the branch is that the branch bears fruit. 00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:28.559 So branches are connected to the vine. 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:32.319 Branches are meant to bear fruit. 00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:34.160 They must bear fruit. 00:22:34.720 --> 00:22:38.240 Branches can only bear fruit when they are connected to the vine. 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:50.640 A branch will only ever bear fruit when it is connected to the vine and receiving life-giving and life-sustaining nourishment from the vine. 00:22:51.839 --> 00:23:03.599 Just last night I went out and took a pair of little pruning shears and pruned off a little branch from an apple tree that is in our backyard. 00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:08.400 What do you suppose are the chances? 00:23:09.359 --> 00:23:25.039 Even if I stuck this thing in a jar of water, what do you suppose are the chances that this thing is ever going to grow leaves or cause blossoms or bear any kind of apple fruit? 00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:26.799 I heard slim to none. 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:27.279 Yes? 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:28.640 You're on the right track. 00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:30.400 The answer is zero. 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:30.960 Okay? 00:23:31.440 --> 00:23:34.000 There is no way that this thing is ever going to bear fruit. 00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:43.279 In fact, I cut this thing off at like 8 o'clock last night, and I woke up this morning, and these leaves are already like totally wilty and like starting to die. 00:23:43.519 --> 00:23:46.240 And it's been like a few hours since I cut it off. 00:23:46.480 --> 00:23:57.680 Because unless this branch is receiving the life-giving and life-sustaining nourishment from the tree, it has no chance of survival and it has no chance of ever bearing fruit. 00:23:59.119 --> 00:24:08.079 And Jesus' point here in this passage, he's not just giving us a lesson on agriculture, he's giving us a lesson on discipleship. 00:24:08.319 --> 00:24:11.599 He's giving us a lesson on apprenticeship to Jesus. 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:22.400 And so what he says, you take these same points and you just apply them to us as followers of Jesus, and what he's saying is, as branches, we are connected to Jesus who is the vine. 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:23.839 That's what's true about us. 00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:28.880 If you're a follower of Jesus, you are organically and uniquely connected to Jesus. 00:24:29.039 --> 00:24:31.200 You are united to him through faith. 00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:32.559 That's what's true about you. 00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:34.400 You are connected to the vine. 00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:39.039 But also as branches, we are meant to bear fruit. 00:24:40.319 --> 00:24:46.480 Now, there are so many different kinds of fruit that God has meant us, has designed us to bear. 00:24:46.720 --> 00:24:52.160 You know, you can read the book of Galatians, and you can read about the fruit of the Spirit, which many of us have memorized. 00:24:52.319 --> 00:24:57.680 Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law. 00:24:57.920 --> 00:24:58.319 Right? 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:01.359 We are designed to bear that kind of character fruit. 00:25:01.599 --> 00:25:10.720 We are designed to bear the fruit of good works, good deeds, where Paul even says, like God has prepared good works in advance for you to do. 00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:12.640 You were supposed to do things. 00:25:12.880 --> 00:25:14.400 That's a kind of fruitfulness. 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:26.960 Another kind of fruitfulness that we're going to be talking about over these next weeks is our lives and our apprenticeship to Jesus ought to lead other people closer to Jesus. 00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:43.519 If the way we do apprenticeship to Jesus leads other people away from Jesus, if the way we do apprenticeship to Jesus leaves other people turned off to him because of what kind of people we are, something is fundamentally wrong with the way we're doing apprenticeship to Jesus. 00:25:43.920 --> 00:25:46.000 We are designed to bear fruit. 00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:51.599 And what Jesus says in this passage is that branches that don't bear fruit, what happens to them? 00:25:55.279 --> 00:26:00.559 God the gardener comes along with a pair of pruning shears and doesn't just prune, he cuts the branch off. 00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:08.400 Branches that are fruitful get pruned because that's a way of making that branch even more fruitful. 00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:19.920 Branches that don't bear fruit are lopped off, thrown into a pile that is good for nothing else except drying out and be used to start a fire. 00:26:25.519 --> 00:26:35.920 Jesus even says here, he says, This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourself to be my disciples. 00:26:36.240 --> 00:26:45.680 You see what he's saying there, is the fruitfulness of your life and discipleship to Jesus is proof, is evidence that you are connected to Jesus divine. 00:26:46.079 --> 00:27:11.519 So to look at that the opposite way, just the scary way, is to say, if I can look at my life and not see evidence of discipleship to Jesus, if I can look at my life and not see fruitfulness in my character, in my obedience to Jesus, if people in my life are not coming closer to Jesus because I'm there, if none of that fruitfulness exists, Jesus would say, you should have no confidence that you are connected to the vine in the first place. 00:27:11.759 --> 00:27:16.640 Because the life of a person who's connected to the vine will bear fruit. 00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:17.839 That's the point. 00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:29.279 We're connected to Jesus divine, we are meant to bear fruit, and we can only bear fruit when we receive life-sustaining nourishment from Jesus. 00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:41.440 That's the only way that as branches who are connected to Him, we will bear fruit, is if Jesus' life in some way flows into and through and out of us. 00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:47.039 That is the only way that we will ever bear any kind of lasting spiritual fruit. 00:27:47.359 --> 00:27:51.440 Is if Jesus is, his life is feeding our life. 00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:54.480 We are meant to bear fruit. 00:27:54.799 --> 00:27:58.480 And we can only do it when we're connected to Jesus, who is divine. 00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:01.920 Friends, this is where a life of mission begins. 00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:10.640 It doesn't begin by looking out there at all those other people that need a change, although that's a component of life on mission. 00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:16.400 It doesn't begin by thinking about strategies and apologetics and arguments and all this kind of stuff. 00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:19.599 It begins with a life of abiding in Jesus. 00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:22.880 That's where fruitful life of mission has to begin. 00:28:25.759 --> 00:28:27.119 So, what do we take away from this? 00:28:27.200 --> 00:28:30.480 What are some ways we can respond to this? 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:34.640 Let me just briefly offer you a couple uh different ways you can respond. 00:28:34.799 --> 00:28:38.799 Uh, the first way is this cultivate a healthy rhythm of being with Jesus. 00:28:43.119 --> 00:28:55.920 If the only way we can bear fruit is by being connected to remaining in the vine, who is Jesus, then it means we have to. 00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:01.039 We must cultivate a healthy rhythm of being with Jesus. 00:29:01.599 --> 00:29:04.160 This is one of our core values here at Elmwood. 00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:09.119 One of our core values is being with God over doing for God. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:18.319 And the way we say it is like this: we are deeply rooted in knowing that everything we do must be fueled by prayer and communion with God. 00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:22.640 We do for God out of being with God. 00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:36.319 We refuse mere religious activity and instead pursue lasting gospel impact that's only possible through ongoing communion with Jesus and the empowering presence of God the Spirit. 00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:41.599 We have to cultivate healthy rhythms of being with Jesus. 00:29:41.759 --> 00:29:45.759 And yes, we ought to do lots of things for Jesus. 00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:46.319 Right? 00:29:46.480 --> 00:29:51.599 Being with Jesus will lead us to all kinds of obedience and fruitfulness in all kinds of ways. 00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:58.400 But all of that fruitfulness has to be born out of a life of being with Jesus. 00:29:58.720 --> 00:30:04.000 We're not interested in just merely doing more religious-looking things. 00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:14.720 What we want is to have people have a church filled with people who are living with, in communion with Jesus, and as a result of that, going out into the world as changed people. 00:30:14.960 --> 00:30:19.359 And of course, this is going to look so different for each and every one of us. 00:30:21.200 --> 00:30:24.079 For every one of us in this room, it's going to look totally different. 00:30:24.319 --> 00:30:27.759 Some of it may look similar, but it's going to look different for each of us. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:47.680 And as you go through your life, and as you experience different seasons, maybe a season of maybe if you're single, if you are in the middle of, you know, your schooling and education, if you have young children, in your vocation, in retirement, there's all kinds of different seasons where this is totally going to shift and change. 00:30:48.079 --> 00:30:53.839 And for some of us, it may be true that you can come up with like a rhythm of being with Jesus. 00:30:54.079 --> 00:30:58.880 Maybe it's your, you know, I get to get up in the morning and I don't have kids to get to school. 00:30:58.960 --> 00:31:00.799 I don't have any real schedule. 00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:04.960 I can get up and like just have a cup of coffee and sit with Jesus for like an hour or whatever. 00:31:05.039 --> 00:31:09.119 Like, praise God if that's you, and you can do that for 10 years and not change it. 00:31:09.599 --> 00:31:17.680 For the rest of us, we have to wake up every single day saying, what does obedience look like today? 00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:22.400 What does it look like today for me to commune with Jesus? 00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:30.960 Not just, you know, in my season of life more broadly, but also like this month or this week or this day, what do I have going on? 00:31:31.119 --> 00:31:35.119 What does it look like today for me to live in obedience to Jesus? 00:31:35.599 --> 00:31:53.039 If there's any chance of us being changed people and experiencing fruitfulness and living on mission, and if there's any chance of us being a church that bears fruit in any significant, meaningful way, we must cultivate rhythms of being with Jesus. 00:31:53.200 --> 00:31:54.799 That's where it all starts. 00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:00.319 The second application that I'll submit to you is this. 00:32:01.200 --> 00:32:05.119 Assess your level of missional intentionality. 00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:20.000 Assess the level of thoughtfulness and intentionality that you have in your life as it relates to living on mission with God and leading other people towards Jesus. 00:32:20.240 --> 00:32:25.839 So one of the things you can do is you can take this little card that we passed out to you this morning. 00:32:26.079 --> 00:32:40.480 And as Dave mentioned, this gives just like a helpful way of like thinking about how does a person go from being totally unaware of Jesus in their everyday life to being a fully formed follower of Jesus? 00:32:40.799 --> 00:32:47.839 Well, it doesn't start with it doesn't always, anyways, sometimes it does, but it most of the time it doesn't start with like you preach it them. 00:32:48.480 --> 00:32:51.440 It starts with like, hey, did you like pray for that person? 00:32:51.680 --> 00:32:55.279 Did you engage that person in relationship and like love that person? 00:32:55.759 --> 00:33:00.720 Have you like invited them to be a part of anything that's happening in our church family? 00:33:00.960 --> 00:33:07.200 Like there's a there's sort of a progression of like, here's a process for how you can invite people into the life-giving way of Jesus. 00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:27.039 And so take this card, and your assignment is to sit with this and just to sit down and look at each of these six categories and say to yourself, can I remember the last time that I prayed specifically for a person by name who's in my sphere of influence? 00:33:27.759 --> 00:33:32.559 Can I remember the last time I prayed for someone by name to come follow Jesus? 00:33:33.440 --> 00:33:39.680 Can I remember the last time that I engaged in meaningful relational activity? 00:33:40.160 --> 00:33:45.200 Maybe I saw a neighbor outside in their driveway and I was like, you know, I'm just gonna go connect. 00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:48.000 I'm gonna go see how they're doing and talk with them. 00:33:48.160 --> 00:33:51.920 Or I'm going to invite someone over to my house for dinner who's not a Jesus follower. 00:33:52.079 --> 00:33:58.799 Um that you engage someone in meaningful, intentional, purposeful relationship. 00:33:59.839 --> 00:34:07.359 Do you live in a Christian bubble where you don't have friends who are not already followers of Jesus? 00:34:08.639 --> 00:34:10.559 You can go through the rest of these. 00:34:12.079 --> 00:34:17.440 Can I remember the last time that I specifically asked someone in my sphere of influence how I can pray for them? 00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:27.039 It may be as simple as, you know, you send someone a text message and you say, hey, um, you came to my mind today, and I just want you to know that I'm praying for you. 00:34:27.119 --> 00:34:30.000 Is there anything specific you want me to pray for you about? 00:34:31.840 --> 00:34:32.800 And see what happens. 00:34:32.960 --> 00:34:38.239 Like that may oh, you know, have you asked people in your sphere of influence how you can pray for them? 00:34:38.480 --> 00:34:42.320 Can you remember the last time you had a meaningful spiritual conversation with someone? 00:34:43.039 --> 00:34:44.320 Can you remember the last time? 00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:48.159 Has there ever been a time where you have invited someone to put their trust in Jesus? 00:34:48.719 --> 00:34:57.840 So all this is, is just a tool to help you assess and evaluate and say, okay, what's my temperature, as it were? 00:34:58.159 --> 00:35:02.719 This can help assess the level of intentionality in my life. 00:35:02.880 --> 00:35:09.679 Uh some of us are gonna be able to look at this and and say, like, yeah, I've got like a whole bunch of examples I can think of for like a lot of these things. 00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:11.199 Praise God for that. 00:35:11.360 --> 00:35:12.559 That's awesome. 00:35:12.800 --> 00:35:21.679 And some of us are gonna have to do business with God because we can't remember the last time we did any of these things. 00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:31.840 And we've lived with zero purpose, and we've lived with zero intentionality for how we can be a meaningful gospel presence in someone's life. 00:35:32.559 --> 00:35:42.480 And it may be that you look at some of these and say, you know, I seem to be stuck on this first part where it's like, I'm good at praying for people, and I'm good at like doing relational stuff, and I feel stuck. 00:35:42.559 --> 00:35:46.079 I never get past the relational stuff to actually talk about meaningful stuff. 00:35:46.320 --> 00:35:53.119 And so it can just help you assess where you are in your life as someone who has been commissioned and sent. 00:35:53.360 --> 00:35:54.960 So I want to just commend this to you. 00:35:55.039 --> 00:36:00.719 Uh, take this and think through these categories and just do some assessment on yourself. 00:36:01.280 --> 00:36:11.920 So those are the two uh take homes for you today is cultivate a healthy rhythm of being with Jesus, and second, assess your level of missional intentionality. 00:36:13.039 --> 00:36:26.559 No matter where you are today in your relationship with Jesus, and no matter where you are today as you think about a life of living on mission, every single one of us who's here today, who's listening online, needs to hear the exact same thing. 00:36:27.280 --> 00:36:33.280 Every single one of us needs to hear about the sent and the sending one. 00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:38.239 As we come to the communion table today, we get to do precisely that. 00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:40.800 We get to be reminded of the sent one. 00:36:41.599 --> 00:36:47.679 Just earlier in chapter three of John is one of the most well-known, famous Bible verses in all the Bible. 00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:50.480 God so loved the world that he sent his only son. 00:36:53.760 --> 00:37:03.920 Jesus was sent by God in order to suffer and to die for us so that the relational disharmony that exists between us and God could be healed. 00:37:04.400 --> 00:37:09.519 And as a result of that, it opens up worlds of possibility for new ways of living. 00:37:09.760 --> 00:37:15.360 So we look to Jesus, who is the sent one, and we also look to Jesus who is the sending one. 00:37:16.079 --> 00:37:29.760 Later in chapter 17, as Jesus is praying for his disciples out loud in front of his disciples, he says, Father, I thank you that in the same way you have sent me, so I am sending them out into the world. 00:37:30.960 --> 00:37:37.760 And so we remember that Jesus is the one who is not only sent, but Jesus Himself is the one who's commissioned us to go out. 00:37:38.239 --> 00:37:57.039 And as we look at our lives and as we remember all of the different ways that we have failed, that we have not lived in obedience to God's command and all the ways that we have not borne, maybe the kind of fruit that we should, we come to the communion table and we remember that the cross is for us. 00:37:58.800 --> 00:38:06.239 We come to the communion table and we remember that God's love for us does not rest on our obedience to Him. 00:38:07.840 --> 00:38:10.800 God has poured out His mercy on us first. 00:38:11.679 --> 00:38:18.800 And so we don't live in this sort of weird world of wondering, is God mad at me right now because I'm not doing the right things? 00:38:19.039 --> 00:38:27.440 We are freed from that kind of shame-based, fear-based, guilt-based thinking. 00:38:27.679 --> 00:38:35.119 We are free then to go out into the world as neighbors and witnesses because of what God has already done for us in Jesus. 00:38:35.360 --> 00:38:47.679 So that's the place we have to start is by remembering that life on mission flows from, it's born from life in God's presence, and we have to come to the communion table and remember the good news that God sent us his son. 00:38:48.159 --> 00:38:49.840 And so we get to do that this morning. 00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.719 I want to invite you to take just a few moments of silence for confession and reflection. 00:38:54.960 --> 00:39:01.280 Uh maybe there's something that stuck out to you from what's on this card that you need to sit with God with for a few minutes. 00:39:01.360 --> 00:39:08.159 Uh, but let's take a few moments of silence for confession and reflection, and then we will come and remember Christ at the table.