Legacy show on The True Vine with Pastor Carmine Gabriele

In this sobering legacy message, Pastor Carmen Gabriel of New Life Fellowship preaches on John 15—and what it truly means to abide in the True Vine. Recorded live, this episode cuts through the noise of modern Christianity to ask the hard question: Are you bearing fruit—or are you in danger of being cut off?

🔑 Key Takeaways:
• Why "once saved, always saved" may not mean what you think it means
• The difference between Esau (who sold his birthright) and Jacob (who hungered for God)
• What happens when sin sears the conscience—and why that's the most dangerous place a believer can be
• A sobering word for pastors and leaders who preach a compromised gospel

📖 Scripture: John 15:1-6

🌐 Connect:
New Life Fellowship: Corner of 4th & San Benito, Hollister, CA | Sunday 10:30 AM

🙏 Support This Ministry:
Listener-supported. Donate at www.imdauntless.org or mail to: 1760 Airline Hwy. Box #103, Hollister, CA 95023

💬 Share your thoughts: ramona@blossomsofmylife.org

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Transcript

Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Thank you for tuning in to Blossoms of My Life Radio. Today I am going to be sharing a message from our senior pastor, Pastor Carmen Gabriel, out of New Life Fellowship in Hollister. And I need to ask up front, forgive if there's any kind of noises that you hear in the background. The message was recorded. With no intention that it I would put it on the air, but when I heard it, I just knew that we had to share the message. So it will be in two parts, and today will be part one, and then next Monday we'll do part two. So thank you, and I hope you enjoy it.

Bearing Fruit & Eternal Security

The Pruning Process for Believers

God as the Pruner: The Apricot Tree Parable

Without Jesus, You Can Do Nothing

Calloused Hearts & The Fear of God

Cut Off, Withered, and Burned (John 15:6)

Conclusion & Part Two Preview

SPEAKER_01 1:03

I have one true vine, and Jesus says, My father is the husbandman, my father is the gardener, he's the caretaker of the vine, the true vine. And today we have many people that call themselves vines, but they're not the true vine. We've got the Jesus of the Catholics, we've got the Jesus of the Baptists, we got the Jesus of the Jehovah's Witnesses, we've got the Jesus of the Mormons, we got the Buddhas. We got so many different Jesuses that are being proclaimed in the land, but they're not the true vine. Because there's only one Jesus, and there's only one message. Do I hear an amen? There can't be many messages. There's not many Jesuses. But Jesus said in the last days that many false prophets will arise, deceiving the very elect. The people will arise and will want you to follow their way. That you can be good enough, you can be a good person and enter heaven. And we know that's not to be, that's not the truth. You can't be good enough to enter heaven, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's not one that is righteous, no, not one. Our righteousness, the Bible says, is like filthy rags. Amen. So we we're we can't stand on our goodness, we can't stand on our righteousness, we have to stand in Christ Jesus. And there's not many ways to the Father. There's only one way, and that way has to come through the way of the cross. You have to come through Jesus, you have to come through forgiveness. Amen. You have to come through repentance, you have to be born again in order for you to be in the vine. So Jesus is the true vine, and God is the husbandman. Now continue on in verse 2. Every branch in me, Jesus says, that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. So, what Jesus is saying is this anybody that's in the vine, in the vine is Jesus. You're already in the vine. But if you don't produce fruit, God the Father is going to come and cut you off. There goes eternal security. Right? Some people say, once saved, always saved. You know, God would never sever me. God would never prune me off because I belong to the vine. And I love God and I serve God. But I want to I want to have an understanding here this morning that may this message may not be for you. This message is for the world. This message is going to be for pastors and leaders. So what this message is for is for you to hear it and then for you to proclaim it from the mountaintop to others. Because they're not able to hear the message. So you are receiving the message, and then you're to give the message out. Amen. So God is the pruner. So you can be in Christ, you can be in the vine, but if you don't produce fruit, he's going to come and cut you off. Cut a branch off and throw you into the fire. Alright? Throw you into the fire. Now, the fruits that we're talking about, when we talk about fruits, people immediately go to the fruits of the spirit. Love, peace, joy, long suffering. That those are those are indeed the fruits of the spirit. But there's other fruits as well. Faithfulness is a fruit. Being committed to God and standing and fighting the good fight of faith. Not giving up on the promises of God. Amen. Not being lukewarm in your spirit, but being red hot. Those are fruits. Being active for God, doing something with your faith. Not just having faith and putting on a bookshelf, but taking that faith and doing something about that with that faith. Warning the lost and the dying. Being involved in the kingdom of God, giving and doing and praying and seeking and proclaiming. Those are the fruits of the Spirit. Those are the fruits that God wants to see that we don't just hear the message and remain idle and do nothing with it. And so today, you know, we have churches that are that are at capacity. But is the message of God being preached in his fullness? Is the message of God being preached in his fullness? Or are they condoning sin? Or are they evading certain toxic topics like heaven and hell, sin and adultery and fornicating and all these other things? Are they evading those crucial subject matters from the Word of God? Are they representing God the way He needs to be represented? We have churches today that will proclaim nothing but the love of God. God will love you no matter what you do. But they don't proclaim the judgment of God. They don't proclaim the consequences of disobedience to God. They just focus on the love of God. Or they focus on the forgiveness of God, or they focus on the friendliness of God without focusing on the entirety of who God is. Amen. Because God's got a loving sign and he's got a judgment sign. That's right. God's got a forgiving side, but he also has a pruning and a severing side. That's the rich man. Amen. That's the rich man. He's already in hell wanting a glass of cold water. And he's been there for 2,000 years or more. So we have to proclaim God the way he wants to be proclaimed. And when we proclaim God the way he needs to be proclaimed, holiness and repentance will be the fruit thereof. Amen. Amen. When you become the when you feel uncomfortable when God's word is being preached, that's the beginning of repentance. That's the beginning of restoration. That's the beginning of salvation when you don't feel comfortable. We feel undone. That's right. Amen. And that's what the message needs to be. It needs to be proclaimed. And today it's not being proclaimed that way. Amen. Today it's not being proclaimed that way. So God is He is the one, in other words, you can't even come to God unless the Father draws you. Joshua. God the Father has to draw you to Jesus. He's the true vine, remember? The true vine. And when you're hooked up to the true vine, there has to be a change. You cannot be connected to the true vine and be unchanged. There has to be a change when you hook up to the true vine. And today, so we have people today that call themselves Christians. They're nominal Christians. They hardly ever go to church. They hardly ever give to God. They hardly ever participate in the kingdom of God. But boy, are they Christians. And we see that their lifestyles and the choices that they make are contrary to what God wants them to live like. And we're not to be their judges. We're to proclaim the word of God and let it fall where it will. Amen. We're not to be the judges of whether someone goes to heaven or hell. That is not our that is not our responsibility. Whose responsibility is that? That's God's. Contrary to whoever preaches it. It's a wonderful thought, you know, eternal security. I'm eternally secure because I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. But if that branch that you have in the vine begins to wither and you don't bear fruit, it will be cut off. Amen. It will be cut off. So we we as Christians have to understand that. That our eternal security is only when we are in Christ Jesus and we are pursuing him, hungering after him, striving to be obedient unto him. So every branch in me that beareth not fruit, you can underline that, and the next guy that comes along and tells you that I'm securely, I'm securely secure in the Lord, and then you can say, Are you bearing fruit for him? Are you bearing fruit for him? Every branch that bears fruit, God the Father says he will purge it that he may bring forth more fruit. How many of you are going through the pruning process? From the time I gave my heart to Jesus Christ 40 some years ago, God has been pruning me. God has been pruning me. He has been pruning you. And why has he been pruning you so that you'll bear much fruit, better fruit for him? Amen. Amen. And so pruning is not a glorious experience. It means cutting, severing certain things out of your life. My friend, things are gonna drop off the closer you get to Jesus. They need to drop off. The closer you get to Jesus, things that you used to think were very important and very precious to you, they need to drop off. Alright, let's go. In verse 4, it says, Now, abide in me, Jesus says, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except and abide in the vine, no more can you accept you abide in me. Now, for abide means you need to dwell, live, set up residence. Now you can't abide going to church once a week. You have to do, you have to abide outside of the church. Amen. That's where most of the fighting takes place. When you meet reality, when you meet this life face to face, and you've got friends that are going in different directions, friends that aren't serving God, and you're tempted in every direction, that's when the abiding has to take its power, its strength, because that's when the choices come. Ashton, Isabella, all the young people today, that's when the abiding takes a hold. You're protected here in the house of the Lord. But when you leave these doors, the choices that you make, whether you're going to abide in Christ, stay in the vine, or separate yourself from the vine. Amen. So it doesn't matter if you're young or old, it's a matter of choice. Jesus said, If you abide in me, and I in you, see, it's living with uh the Lord lives within you and you live within him. Amen. That's what it that's what it's all about here. Verse 5, Jesus continues to say, He says, I am the vine and you are the branches. You know, a lot of people today think they're the vine. They make up their choices. I choose today what I'm going to do. And I think that sin is okay. I think it's so, you know, I think committing fornication and adultery is okay. I don't think God's going to judge me for that. And they become the vine. They make up their choices the way they're going to live. And you can't stop them. Amen. God's giving them a free choice. And sometimes these people got churches, sometimes they got radios, sometimes they got ministries, and they proclaim what whatever they want to proclaim, but they don't represent God the way He needs to be represented. Amen. Doesn't matter how big the ministry is, don't matter, doesn't matter how small the ministry is. And this message is going to go right into the pastors and the leaders of God's churches. And how God is going to bring judgment and deal with them because they're preaching a false message of hope. And they're condoning sins that the Lord does not condone. And they're going to be the ones that are going to that are going to uh uh uh uh receive the greater judgment. You'll see when we get into the study of of Malachi what God says he's going to do to the pastors and preachers and priests, they are proclaiming a message that's not his, and they're doing an injustice to the hearer. Amen. They're doing an injustice to the hearer because they're not proclaiming the true message that God wants to be proclaimed, and so we have that today in our world today. We have that in our world today. Jesus says, I am the vine and you are the branches. He that abides in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. What is God looking for? He's looking for fruit. Amen. He's looking for fruit. It's like I I have an apricot tree and I water it and I prune it, and I'm expecting apricots from that tree. And I go on there to pick the apricots, and there's nothing there. It's barren. Barren. So the next year I thought, well, maybe this has been a bad year, maybe it's been a bad season for apricots. I will continue to water it, I will continue to nurture it, continue to prune it, continue to fertilize her. Hopefully, next year I'll get some more some apricots off of this tree because it is an apricot tree and I'm looking for fruit. And I go the next year to that apricot tree, and it's barren again. There is no fruit, not even one. Not even one. And then it's up to me. I'll make the decision. I'm no longer going to water and take care of this apricot tree. I am going to cut it and I'm going to burn it. I'm no longer going to put any effort in trying to bring about a cultivation of fruit. And how many of you know God is long-suffering and patient? But what He says, there's no more fruit, and He cuts you off, and your mother can't help you, your priest can't help you, your pastor can't help you, your wife can't help you because God cut you off. That's right. God cut you off. God wants us to produce fruit. God wants us to produce fruit. So it's up to you to determine what kind of God, what kind of fruit do you want to come from my life? Am I being fruitful? That's the question we all need to ask ourselves. Amen. Is my life being fruitful to God? Is the things that I'm doing, the life that I'm conducting, the way that I'm walking, the way that I'm working, the way that I'm talking, the way that I'm acting, isn't producing fruit for God. It doesn't matter what the church says, it doesn't matter what your brothers and sisters say, it's what God says that matters. Amen. Because he's the pruner. Right? He's the pruner. He's the pruner. And so we need to understand and recognize that we need to produce fruit. And Jesus says, if you abide in me and I, you you will produce fruit. You will produce fruit. And he says, Without me, you can do nothing. It's surprising to see how many people can they live their life without Jesus and they're just doing absolutely nothing. They're doing nothing. They may be working and saving and accumulating and buying a house and buying cars and going vacation. But without Jesus, it's all for nothing. Amen. All that you have and all that you do and all the efforts that you put forth, if it's without Christ, it's just it's an it's it's for nothing. It's just for a time being. You're gonna enjoy, you're gonna enjoy the pleasures of this life for a time being. But then what? Wait what? When you're faced with eternity without Jesus, what then? What then? But then it's like this billionaire, F or whatever, he's a child molester and all kinds of different things. He's a billionaire. A billionaire over, I don't know how many times. And he he's he's now been he's in jail right now, waiting for conviction because he evaded one conviction somehow, but now he's he's he's he's facing another conviction, and now he's taking like 66 million or 70 million dollars to try to bail himself out. My friends, before God, when he comes in to bring judgment, there ain't enough money on the planet to bail you out. Your money, so this guy's gonna be a billionaire and he's gonna spend his the rest of his life behind bars if there's a justice system. I hear an amen. How many of you obey the laws? How many of you today will not go out and murder somebody? Raise your hand. Why do you do that? Why do you obey the law and not go out and murder somebody? Why? You don't want to face the consequences. Now, those are big consequences when you murder somebody, but when you cheat on your taxes, hey, you know, that's not too bad, you know. So we weigh the consequences based upon the act. But before God, sin is sin. Amen. Rebellion is rebellion. God doesn't, God doesn't have, you know, the real bad sins and then the medium sins and then the you know the little white light sins. God doesn't separate those things. It's all it's all disobedience. We want to follow God's laws. Why? Because we don't want to face the consequences. We don't want to be cut off of that vine, right? We don't want God to come along, and so we're all comfy and we're all feeling like we're secure in our faith and everything's going great, and all of a sudden our hearts are far from God. We're inactive, we're not doing, we're not praying, we're not reading, we're not involved, we don't feel the hunger, we don't feel the passion for the lost and the dying, you know, and and and and and all of a sudden we we just feel like you know, I'm just I'm just existing. There's no real purpose and meaning for my life. And when sin, when we when when we do commit sin, it doesn't bring the conviction like it used to. Right? When we disobey God, or what it doesn't bring the same conviction like it used to. And so we're beginning, we get a seared conscience. It doesn't affect us anymore. Amen. It's like we get callused. You work with your hands or a hammer long enough, you first you get you get uh blisters and then you get blood blisters, but you keep working with that hammer, and pretty soon your hands will get uh uh uh calluses and your skin will be hardened and made it's just like it's like you know, nothing will ever penetrate that skin because it's just hard. Many people have gone that way towards God. They've gotten callous before God, their hearts are callous, and now they have no fear of God. Now, you know, that's what's wrong with our nation today. Amen. That's what's wrong with our city today, that's what's wrong with our neighbors today. People that we fellowship and work with, they've gotten hard towards God, they no longer have a fear of God. Many of them have made money their God. Right? They go, nothing's gonna happen to me. Hey, I'll have me and getting blessed financially, I'll build bigger and better barns to store all my goods. And Jesus said, You fool, tonight your life will be required of you. Wow, wow, a rude awakening, brother Bob. When we think we're all secure, when we think we got it all together, and yet we know that we're undone. Amen. And so we need to understand and recognize here that Jesus says, If I'm in you, then you'll bring forth much fruit. What are we getting out of verse 6 of that same chapter of John? If a man abide not in me, Jesus says, Abide not. You know, a lot of people believe in God, the devil believes in God. How many of you know the devil believes in the Bible? He believes in the Bible, he believes in God. It's not good enough to believe. You got to do something with that belief. Amen. Some changes have to come forth from that belief. You can't believe in God and be part of the world. God says, Come out from among them, saith the Lord, and be you separate. God has called Christians to be separated. Amen. Like the sheep from the goats. We no longer belong to the goats. We are his sheep. Jesus said, His sheep hear his voice, and what do they do? They just hear his voice. That's for a lot of Christians today. They go to church and they hear a message, they hear his voice. But what do they do when they leave the church doors? They don't follow him. They don't take him into the workplace, they don't take him where they go. It's just the Father's thing from their minds until next Sunday. Right? Whatever sin comes their way, whatever they want to do, is fine with them because Jesus is not in their minds until next Sunday comes. When next Sunday comes, then then Jesus is back in their minds, back in their in their in their in their vocabulary. If a man not bite not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. And then a man and then gather them and cast them into the fire. And they shall be burned. This is a key verse here. Right? It's a key verse. If we don't abide in the Lord, then we're cast off as a branch. You know, I went the other day and there's along along our fence, there's a bunch of bushes. I don't know what they are, sagebrush or whatever, and they're taking over around this pine tree. I couldn't even see the pine tree. So I went over there with some pruning shears. And I just found out I started and I started clipping all this sagebrush away from around this pine tree because it couldn't breathe. I felt I couldn't breathe. So I had to go relieve the tree because I felt I didn't breathe. And so I went in there and I began to cut, cut, and prune all this sagebrush around this pine tree. And then I just threw through the branches to the side there. And then a couple of days later it went by and it's all brown and dead. Brother Joshua, you know what? When you're cut off of your vine, when you're cut off from the root, you're going to die. It's only a matter of time. Right here, anyway. And how do you know? Because the leaves begin to shrivel up. You see a lot of people walking around, they're shriveled up and dead. There is no life in them, there's no joy. They don't want to sing the songs, they don't want to lift up their hands, they don't want to give testimony, they don't want to bother. It's even the task to stand up. Their efforts are their sacrifice. I want to talk about that too. The sacrifices that they're making is not acceptable unto God. Wow. The efforts and the sacrifices that they're making, they're not acceptable unto God. Because He is worthy of our praises, He is worthy of our sacrifices. Amen. And so today, you know, our menial efforts stuff with the things that we show that we love God aren't really what God wants. Amen. Some people think they go to church on Sunday morning and that suffices God. No, it doesn't do that. God wants you to love them 24-7. God wants you to think about them 24-7. Before you do a sin, God wants you to think about the consequences before you go do that sin. Amen. If you love God, you're going to be quick to first of all, how's God? What does God say about this? Now we all fall short. I fall short. Amen. Do you fall short? And we're going to talk about that as well. The disposition of an individual. We're going to talk about Esau and Jacob. Esau didn't hunger after God. He sold his birthright for a cup of pea soup. His birthright, he was firstborn, he was going to get all the blessings in the family. But because he was hungry, because his disposition was not on God, was not on the blessings that would come from being firstborn. Jacob comes along and takes his birthright from him. So Esau wasn't an idolater, he was a fornicator. And he looked at looked at the things of God, they had no value. You know when the things become valuable to those people is when they die and they stand before God. Then it becomes valuable. It's too late then. Right? It's too late then. Jacob, on the other hand, his name was a deceiver. He deceived Jacob, he deceived Esau, took his birthright. But Jacob had a hunger and a love for God. He wasn't perfect by no means. What's your disposition here this morning? Amen. You have a hunger for God. To seek him out, to serve him. And so it's a disposition, it's a nature of who we are. And God looks at that disposition. He looks at that hunger and that appetite. He says, if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. And many gather them up and cast them into the fire and they are burned. Now we know what the fire is, right? We know the fire consumes, doesn't it? I mean, I'm amazed, man. We throw stuff in our wood stove and it's solid, it's uh cardboard, and you light it up, and after a while, it just becomes ashes. It's just nothing left of it. Nothing left of it. I scoop it out, put it in a bucket, and go throw it out in the orchard. It's just ashes. Ashes. And that's what the Lord is saying here to us this morning. Is that we need to recognize and understand that without him we have no hope. We have no hope. Abraham didn't falter at the promises of God. But he remained faithful all the way to the air. Can you do that? How many of you promise to remain faithful all the way to the air?

SPEAKER_00 28:18

I hope you enjoyed part one of the true vine, the one true vine. Next week, stay tuned, and we will have part two to this awesome message.