SPEAKER_00: Good morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Ryan, and I have the privilege of serving as one of our pastors here.
SPEAKER_00: It's my joy to be with you on this beautiful uh morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you're new or just joining us, I'm particularly glad that you're here as we wrap up our sermon series on the I am statements of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's because at Harbor, we love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We love his word, and God's word tells us throughout all of the pages of scripture that it points to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so we really want to know about Jesus, but we don't want to just know about him.
SPEAKER_00: We actually want to know him personally and relationally.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why we're actually have been going through the I am statements.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus being God very intentionally reveals who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Just so you know, if you're married, you should uh really start to ask your wife's questions to get to know her and actually let her reveal who she is to you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm learning that even 10 years into marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Uh honestly, we couldn't have more of a better picture today of our weather.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I've already had to cut my grass.
SPEAKER_00: It's green, uh, allergies are raging, and today we are talking about Jesus is the vine.
SPEAKER_00: Will you pray with me as uh we jump in this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Father, we come before you.
SPEAKER_00: Needy again, needy for your spirit to work.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for those in attendance this morning that your spirit would cultivate and open, and that you'd make us hungry for your word.
SPEAKER_00: And I selfishly pray for myself that you'd help me get out of my own way.
SPEAKER_00: Restrain my flesh, spirit, uh, use me as an unworthy vessel to proclaim your glory for our good.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, as a preacher, one of the things that you're taught is that you actually need to preach the text to yourself before you actually just preach it to others.
SPEAKER_00: Like let it grip you, confront you, minister to you so that you don't just show up on Sunday morning and just pass on information.
SPEAKER_00: But rather you're actually passing on something that's actually worked on your own heart.
SPEAKER_00: And if I'm honest with you, uh, every single week isn't the same in that burden or conviction.
SPEAKER_00: But this week, it landed.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Monday night, full disclosure, Kelsey and I, uh, after the kids went to bed, we're discussing some things and uh had an argument.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, probably not the best time to start uh talking about finances and some other ministry pressures and some other things that were coming up.
SPEAKER_00: And I was feeling overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_00: I was anxious, I was worn down.
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking about providing for our family and expectations, and my capacity just felt low.
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, full disclosure too, like we confessed, we worked through it, we went to bed.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever been there, but it also didn't really feel resolved.
SPEAKER_00: And so I kind of just made in the back of my mind a commitment of like, I'm gonna get up and get after it.
SPEAKER_00: Like I was feeling overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_00: And my reaction in those moments is always just to grab the wheel tighter.
SPEAKER_00: Like I could produce my way out of it.
SPEAKER_00: So alarm goes off, I wake up early, I tiptoe down the stairs.
SPEAKER_00: You can't like take ground with six kids, six and under, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Tip down the stairs, and I'm ready to turn the corner to like get after it, and I'm hit.
SPEAKER_00: Right here, I see this sign.
SPEAKER_00: If it comes up, here we go.
SPEAKER_00: It's a sign that says, even if I didn't have the picture, you were on the edge of your seat, amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: It says this: it says, stop striving, start abiding.
SPEAKER_00: In that moment, it hit me.
SPEAKER_00: Like my wife put this sign up months ago, literally.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, it hit me.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of those phrases we say all the time, let's be honest, right?
SPEAKER_00: Abide in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But what does that actually mean?
SPEAKER_00: It sounds great and looks good on a coffee cup, but what does it mean?
SPEAKER_00: Because we need to know this answer.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's what's true of all of us we all want to grow, we all want to change, we all want to live lives that are fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: And that desire is not wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, you would say uh if you read your Bible that it was hardwired into you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus and in his word says, be fruitful and multiply.
SPEAKER_00: But the problem isn't that we want fruit, the problem is the way in which we go about getting the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Because most of us err in two ditches.
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe first we either strive, we white knuckle change, and we try and manage outcomes, and then maybe some of us actually just like give up and end up saying, like, dude, it's helpless, and we throw our hands up in the air.
SPEAKER_00: But underneath both of those is the same root issue.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to live a fruitful life apart from the vine, apart from the source of life.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why in our passage, he actually even just tells us in verse 5, he says, apart from me, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: That's not vague, it's not soft.
SPEAKER_00: I read that, it was pretty blunt and definitive.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know about you, but that actually kind of rubs me the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: Because like instantly I think like, nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I can do a lot of things.
SPEAKER_00: I uh I mean, people build businesses, build and raise families.
SPEAKER_00: They even do a lot of good in the world.
SPEAKER_00: So what does Jesus mean here?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't mean you can't do anything at all.
SPEAKER_00: He means apart from him, you cannot produce anything that eternally lasts, eternally satisfies.
SPEAKER_00: You can achieve stuff achieve stuff, but you actually can't bear spiritual fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Not the kind that actually like deepens your love and affection for Jesus or transforms your heart or produces real obedience or gives you lasting joy.
SPEAKER_00: Because in Jesus' framework, see, fruit isn't just activity, fruit is vitality.
SPEAKER_00: See, it doesn't come from effort, it comes from connection.
SPEAKER_00: Think about a branch.
SPEAKER_00: Like a branch doesn't like consciously think hard to produce fruit.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't wake up in the morning and it's like, today's an apple day.
SPEAKER_00: Like, like, no, it simply just does what?
SPEAKER_00: It stays connected.
SPEAKER_00: And when it's connected, fruit grows naturally.
SPEAKER_00: But the moment it's disconnected, it actually starts to look alive for a while.
SPEAKER_00: It might even hold leaves or hold structure, but actually it's dying, it's withering.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is telling us a sober remark is saying, like, you can actually look alive and not be alive.
SPEAKER_00: You can be active and still not fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: You can be striving and still not have life.
SPEAKER_00: Because striving produces activity, but abiding produces life.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why Jesus gives us this invitation.
SPEAKER_00: Stay connected.
SPEAKER_00: So here's our big idea this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is the true vine, you can stop striving and start abiding.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what makes this even more significant a little context for you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not giving random words to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: This is probably literally the last night that uh he's alive and with his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: It's the moment before he's actually taken.
SPEAKER_00: And he spent years with these men, like literally three years walking with them, teaching them, shaping them, investing into them.
SPEAKER_00: And he's about to leave.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants them to hear this.
SPEAKER_00: This is the last word he has.
SPEAKER_00: What he wants them to remember the most.
SPEAKER_00: Put yourselves in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples, like, imagine what they're feeling in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: They're confused, they're uncertain, they're anxious.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has literally just told them he's going away.
SPEAKER_00: But they can't go with him yet.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna send the promised Holy Spirit, and they're like, what's that mean?
SPEAKER_00: If you know these guys, their first instinct isn't to abide, it's to act, it's to react, it's to grab control.
SPEAKER_00: Like literally, Peter in just a few hours is gonna take a sword and cut off a guy's ear for Pete's sake.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, Pete's sake, you get it?
SPEAKER_00: All right, there you go.
SPEAKER_00: Free dad joke.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: That's probably where it came from.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
SPEAKER_00: Don't quote me.
SPEAKER_00: There's nervous fear there, there's urgency.
SPEAKER_00: And into this moment, Jesus says, abide.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say try harder, figure it out, get your act together.
SPEAKER_00: He says, abide.
SPEAKER_00: And so, really, what I want to do for you this morning is I just want to walk through this beautiful text with you.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to show you of what it actually looks like when we abide.
SPEAKER_00: Three things.
SPEAKER_00: When we abide, we should expect the pruning.
SPEAKER_00: When we abide, we should trust the process.
SPEAKER_00: And when we abide, we should enjoy the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Let's dive in.
SPEAKER_00: Expect the pruning.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me at verses one and two.
SPEAKER_00: I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.
SPEAKER_00: Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so Jesus gives you the picture, right?
SPEAKER_00: He said, He is the vine, okay, you are the branches, God is the gardener, the father, and at the very first thing he tells you, he sets the expectations.
SPEAKER_00: Like you, if you're connected to him, you will be pruned.
SPEAKER_00: These are his final words to his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't give them a religious platitude.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't sugarcoat it.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, Life with me will be easy.
SPEAKER_00: Everything's gonna feel smooth and up and to the right.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Expect the pruning.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all that matters because like some of us have been sold a poor or a counterfeit view of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Like that you believe that if you follow Jesus, everything is gonna work out and everything is gonna be easy.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: He actually says, expect the pruning.
SPEAKER_00: Pruning means cut back.
SPEAKER_00: Like Jesus is cutting back here for his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: He says, removing things, even good things that are actually getting in the way of your deeper growth.
SPEAKER_00: But not to harm the plant.
SPEAKER_00: Pruning isn't to harm the plant.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually to help the plant and make it healthier, to strengthen it.
SPEAKER_00: So this is key.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_00: The goal of pruning is not less growth.
SPEAKER_00: The goal of pruning is better growth.
SPEAKER_00: More focused, more intentional, more fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen this firsthand, uh, just the privilege of apple trees.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I've had the privilege of hunting a small farm here in Springfield a few years, and I've they have had this old couple has had a couple different apple trees on their property.
SPEAKER_00: I've even had the privilege of taking Emma and Ava, my two oldest, to go pick apples from time to time.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but over the years, uh, they're uh they've gotten older and they haven't been able to maintain the trees, and it's needed pruning, and it hasn't gotten pruned, and it's not produced good apples anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, it hasn't produced very many apples at all.
SPEAKER_00: See, the tree was wasting energy because it had grown in and around itself.
SPEAKER_00: So, what needed to happen?
SPEAKER_00: It needed to be pruned.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is saying that that's what God does in your life.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the hard part pruning is not fun.
SPEAKER_00: Like I wish this wasn't part of the process.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like loss, frustration, confusion, sometimes even suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Things get taken away, opportunities get turned into obstacles, they don't come through, relationships fail, plans fall apart.
SPEAKER_00: And it can feel disorienting.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if you've actually ever seen a vineyard during the pruning season or if you walk through uh like even an orchard, like it's a disaster.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at the ground, like it's like you just had a tree crew come to one of those neighbors in neighborhoods in Dundee with these big aluminous trees, and then like you look at the ground and there's branches everywhere, there's leaves everywhere, and there's sound everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: It's chaos.
SPEAKER_00: Things are cut back, parts are exposed, but there's deeper growth happening.
SPEAKER_00: So what if the next time you don't get the job you wanted, you receive the diagnose you didn't want to hear, the diagnosis you didn't want to hear, if someone has a hard or unsettling conversation with you, you realize that God actually isn't punishing you, he's pruning you.
SPEAKER_00: See, pruning feels like loss, but pruning is love.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the biggest mistakes we make is that we mistake God's pruning for God's absence.
SPEAKER_00: And see, Jesus knows this.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he keeps talking, so we should keep reading.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me at verse three.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
SPEAKER_00: That might feel a little out of place for you.
SPEAKER_00: Like we literally just were talking about branches and pruning, and now we're talking about taking a bath.
SPEAKER_00: Uh what is Jesus doing here?
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the original language, these words pruning and cleaning are actually very tied together.
SPEAKER_00: They're cleansed, purified.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same root idea.
SPEAKER_00: What is Jesus doing here?
SPEAKER_00: He's reminding you of your identity in him.
SPEAKER_00: You are already clean.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, you already belong to me.
SPEAKER_00: You've already been made right, you're already accepted.
SPEAKER_00: This is huge.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus doesn't prune you to love you.
SPEAKER_00: He prunes you because he already does love you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't clean yourself up to come to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You come to Jesus and you get cleaned up.
SPEAKER_00: He makes you clean.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: See, being made clean doesn't mean everything in your life isn't going to be fixed either, right?
SPEAKER_00: Habits, patterns, attachments, maybe that are still there.
SPEAKER_00: And God, in his love, begins to actually remove those things or invite you to remove those things over time.
SPEAKER_00: That's pruning.
SPEAKER_00: The great theologian Martin Luther even said, he said, the word of Christ makes us clean, but only suffering and discipline can actually continue to shape us.
SPEAKER_00: So the question then becomes where's God pruning you right now?
SPEAKER_00: What's he cutting back?
SPEAKER_00: What are you holding on to that he's actually trying to remove?
SPEAKER_00: Where are you resisting instead of trusting?
SPEAKER_00: Because some of us we're trying, we're striving to fix what God is actually trying to prune.
SPEAKER_00: And pruning often does something deeper too in you.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like think about a branch being cut, it exposes you.
SPEAKER_00: It makes us aware of our need, it drives us back to the source.
SPEAKER_00: When a branch is cut back, it becomes even more dependent on the vine for life.
SPEAKER_00: It stops wasting energy outward and it's scattered growth, and it goes more intentional to pull nutrients back from the trunk.
SPEAKER_00: So pruning doesn't make the branch strive or starve, it makes the connection matter even more.
SPEAKER_00: I've seen this personally.
SPEAKER_00: Early on in our marriage, uh, probably for about the first three to five years, uh, three to four years, we struggled with infertility.
SPEAKER_00: Uh miscarriages, uh, after we couldn't even get pregnant, and then right in the middle of that, Kelsey was diagnosed with Crohn's.
SPEAKER_00: And it was isolating.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it felt like one laceration or cut after another.
SPEAKER_00: And we were in a small town, so we didn't have many distractions that we could just like jump into, uh limited community, so we couldn't just avoid it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we had to face it.
SPEAKER_00: And what I saw in this season was this.
SPEAKER_00: I was forced to deepen my dependence on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I was forced to actually build my relationship up with my wife.
SPEAKER_00: Our marriage became stronger.
SPEAKER_00: I had to actually learn how to love Kelsey as a young married man to actually start to be her advocate in a poor healthcare environment in that little area.
SPEAKER_00: And while I would honestly tell you, I would never choose to go back to that season, I can tell you that God produced fruit in that season that never would have come unless we are pruned in that way.
SPEAKER_00: So, what about you?
SPEAKER_00: Where's God pruning you?
SPEAKER_00: Where does it feel like something is being taken away, cut back or withheld?
SPEAKER_00: And just think with me for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: What if God, in his providence, in his goodness, is changing your circumstances because he actually wants to deepen your dependence?
SPEAKER_00: Like God isn't trying to teach you something, he's trying to shape you.
SPEAKER_00: God is cutting something back in one area of your life to produce something maybe more beautiful in the other.
SPEAKER_00: Now, don't hear me say that God is somehow in charge or uh causing evil.
SPEAKER_00: No, he actually recycles and renews evil for good.
SPEAKER_00: When you abide, you should expect the pruning.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the reality pruning doesn't happen overnight, fruit doesn't grow overnight.
SPEAKER_00: It often takes time, and in those moments, things feel unclear, it feels disorienting, it feels slow, and the question starts to become will I trust the process?
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at ver let's look at verse four.
SPEAKER_00: Trust the process.
SPEAKER_00: Abide in me and I in you.
SPEAKER_00: As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.
SPEAKER_00: Abide, said three times in one verse.
SPEAKER_00: But what does it actually mean to abide?
SPEAKER_00: The word abide means to remain, to maintain, to continue on, to stay steadfast, to make your home in.
SPEAKER_00: That's the idea.
SPEAKER_00: Stay connected to me, stick to me.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, knowing that we're all prone to wander, wander, prone to panic, to try and manufacture things in our own strength, says in a very firm but also gentle way, he says, Man, just stay with me.
SPEAKER_00: Not try harder, not give up, stay connected.
SPEAKER_00: And so abiding is just living with this like conscious awareness that you are actually connected to Jesus, and that his life is out now flowing through you.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does that actually look like, Pastor?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's look to the verse, verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna give us two practical handles here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
SPEAKER_00: So the very first two things it says, really simply the word and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Like, there's no ifs, ands, or rounds about out.
SPEAKER_00: Like you literally cannot abide in Jesus while being disconnected from his word.
SPEAKER_00: And you actually can't abide in Jesus or grow in your relationship with Jesus if you're not actually in prayer with him or talking to him.
SPEAKER_00: See, abiding is not a one-time moment.
SPEAKER_00: It's not uh just like an event, it's a pattern of life.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, for me personally, I just know that I'm prone to wander, even in the morning, and my example.
SPEAKER_00: Like, so like I've just vowed to steal this motto and use this.
SPEAKER_00: Like, it is scripture before my smartphone.
SPEAKER_00: And even if I do use my smartphone, it's not work, it's like audio Bible, noise-canceling headphones in my ears, even if I'm catching like one out of 50 words.
SPEAKER_00: Like, we have to abide in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: We're trying to do scripture memory as a family, and man, it's chaotic as all get out at our house, like at breakfast.
SPEAKER_00: But like, they're not allowed to eat until we at least just read one verse.
SPEAKER_00: And it's mainly for my own soul, selfishly, if I'm honest.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know how much they're catching, I'm catching it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we have to be immersed in the word.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, like I know several of you have even told me this week, like, hey, prayer is hard.
SPEAKER_00: So I've just like started to journal my thoughts like at night, even if you're not necessarily a writer or a journal, just like writing down breaths that you've thought about.
SPEAKER_00: Anything you can do to actually just start to pray and commune and be in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Well, in light of uh prayer, notice what he actually says in this verse too.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Whatever you, whatever you wish or whatever you ask.
SPEAKER_00: You might think that means like, hey, if I if I ask for a Maserati or a million bucks, I might get that, right?
SPEAKER_00: No, it doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_00: You know that, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, the more we spend time in God's Word, what's it do?
SPEAKER_00: It actually shapes our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And we actually start to pray what God's word informs and gives us.
SPEAKER_00: It helps us in our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's be real.
SPEAKER_00: Starting rhythms can be hard.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm right there with you.
SPEAKER_00: We're four months into the New Year's, so New Year's resolutions are gone, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like branches like grow on their own, though.
SPEAKER_00: They stay connected to the vine.
SPEAKER_00: But on a trellis, they grow stronger, they grow fuller, more fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: This is why this image is super helpful.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because a trellis does what?
SPEAKER_00: It actually lifts the vine off the ground, it supports it, it guides it, and it keeps it from becoming like tangled and vulnerable on the ground.
SPEAKER_00: Harbor.
SPEAKER_00: Your life is.
SPEAKER_00: Needs a trellis.
SPEAKER_00: Your life needs a trellis.
SPEAKER_00: Historically, Christians have actually just called this a rule of life.
SPEAKER_00: Not rules to earn God's love, but a rule or a rhythm, a uh a set of structures or patterns.
SPEAKER_00: Some scholars actually even say this is uh the rule of life is actually taken from the word trellis, a structure that actually helps vines or uh plants grow maximum fruit.
SPEAKER_00: That's what a rule of life is, quite simply.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't create life, it supports life.
SPEAKER_00: And so most of us, for most of us, that just really needs to start with simple rhythms like be gathered regularly in Sunday morning worship.
SPEAKER_00: Like be known in community, in a type of small group, outside of the hustle and bustle.
SPEAKER_00: Be in the word and prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's not a perfect way to do this, or I'm not saying perfectly or consistently.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you this, Anita Grace, up here as well.
SPEAKER_00: But there's also freedom here as well.
SPEAKER_00: Like, in addition to this, these practices, you also need to start to think in these categories.
SPEAKER_00: What stokes my affections for Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Like there's freedom here.
SPEAKER_00: Like, actually in Psalm 19, God says his word and the world reveal his character or reveal himself to us.
SPEAKER_00: Like in nature, I just know for me, like every so often, like I just need to get in the woods.
SPEAKER_00: Like I need to watch the world wake up to hear birds and to see the stars and to sit amongst really large oak trees so that I actually just feel small.
SPEAKER_00: So I actually am more dependent upon Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like that in my own soul stirs my affections, my desires for Him.
SPEAKER_00: See, part of abiding is actually knowing what stirs your affections.
SPEAKER_00: Like you, some of you just need to start there.
SPEAKER_00: Like you need to ask the question to Jesus and to others around you.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what makes me love Jesus more?
SPEAKER_00: What helps me want to grow in his word?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's like sitting alone and journaling, maybe it's going to a coffee shop, maybe it's taking your earbuds out or no phone and going on a walk.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's just reading good books, maybe it's being in community.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, we need to know that.
SPEAKER_00: And just what we need to know what stirs our affections, we also need to know what doesn't stir our affections.
SPEAKER_00: This is where I'm stepping on tiptoes here, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like for me, I know social media and TV, they just dole my affections.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying you shouldn't be involved in those things.
SPEAKER_00: Like I love a good movie, but I know without parameters in my life, like if I if I put social media on my phone, it's just, I'm just not gonna be able to stay connected.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be distracted.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying you have to do that, but I would say try it.
SPEAKER_00: Consider it.
SPEAKER_00: Because your life will be shaped by your rhythms.
SPEAKER_00: The only question is whether they're actually forming you to love and abide in Jesus or not.
SPEAKER_00: And to just feel a bunch of grace.
SPEAKER_00: This is gonna feel hard.
SPEAKER_00: Expect resistance.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be surprised the moment you actually try and get the word by yourself or write a nice thought to yourself in the journal or to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Your phone lights up, the kids are screaming, work feels urgent, and your mind just starts racing.
SPEAKER_00: Just expect that.
SPEAKER_00: Like you're living in a world that is like craving your attention.
SPEAKER_00: But listen, some of you that actually means you need to buy a physical Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Like not reading the Bible on your phone.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you that means like you need to take the phone out of your room and get an old traditional alarm clock.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you need to actually just like hear this gently, like, stop feeling sorry for yourself that Bible reading is hard.
SPEAKER_00: It is.
SPEAKER_00: But it's good for you, and you can do hard things.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard for me.
SPEAKER_00: Like, some of you just need to hear that and also just not feel the shame of like, oh, I failed in my Bible reading plan.
SPEAKER_00: No one's keeping track of your Bible reading plan except you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus just wants you to abide in his word.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe you just need to try something different.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to try journaling or even talking or walking without your phone.
SPEAKER_00: But just hear this.
SPEAKER_00: This is a place where you can just like express need and help.
SPEAKER_00: We would love to be a church that just like carries each other's burdens, commits to plans with one another.
SPEAKER_00: If you need help, even starting, knowing where to go, just tell us.
SPEAKER_00: Tell somebody in your group.
SPEAKER_00: But stop beating yourself up because you know what?
SPEAKER_00: God's not in love with a better version of you.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't love you more when you've crushed your Bible reading plan or you've actually spent the whole 15 minutes in prayer, not fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody else?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: See, abiding is not about earning God's love.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually about just resting in God's love.
SPEAKER_00: You are already clean.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is united to you.
SPEAKER_00: You are united to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Union with Christ means that you literally get all the benefits that Christ has.
SPEAKER_00: You receive his inheritance, his delight.
SPEAKER_00: He's not waiting for a better reality of who you are.
SPEAKER_00: He delights in you, who you are.
SPEAKER_00: But also, that means the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the grave, is alive and reigning in and through you.
SPEAKER_00: So abiding is literally just simply bringing that back to the front of your mind over and over again.
SPEAKER_00: Because we all have spiritual amnesia.
SPEAKER_00: A rule of life does not connect you to Jesus, it just deepens your awareness of it.
SPEAKER_00: So abiding is not striving, it's intentional, but it's also not let go and let God.
SPEAKER_00: It's stay with him, stick to him.
SPEAKER_00: But we also gotta keep reading, and we gotta take seriously what Jesus says here.
SPEAKER_00: We're not done, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We gotta keep reading.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me at verse six.
SPEAKER_00: It says, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers.
SPEAKER_00: And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, we could have stopped at verse five.
SPEAKER_00: I asked Trevor if we could do that.
SPEAKER_00: He told me no.
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm joking.
SPEAKER_00: This is stark language, but it picks up on verse two.
SPEAKER_00: Uh remember in verse two, Jesus already said, Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.
SPEAKER_00: So what is Jesus actually saying here?
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying that a genuine Christian can actually lose his salvation anytime he likes to fails or he falls back or he has a spiritually dry season.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture is way too clear that those who actually truly belong to Jesus are secure in him.
SPEAKER_00: But it's meant to give you a sober warning.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is helping us make a distinction between outward religious activity and inward spiritual vitality.
SPEAKER_00: Between those who profess faith and those who actually possess faith.
SPEAKER_00: Between those who are actually what theologians have called for years the visible church and the invisible church.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what the visible church is: it's people who actually just attend church.
SPEAKER_00: They say they're Christians, people who may even attend or read Bible studies or read their Bible and do religious things.
SPEAKER_00: The invisible church, then, is the true people of God who truly know him and abide with him, who don't just intellectually agree with the claims of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: They actually have surrendered and they love Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They have a desire for him.
SPEAKER_00: And say Jesus over and over is saying to his disciples and to us, he's saying, Man, like real disciples who are truly connected to me, they produce fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Not perfection, not instantly, but fruit, evidence of love and obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Like a true sign of fruit and true is like a sign of conviction.
SPEAKER_00: Like you actually feel bad when you sin, not just because like that's what your mom told you or you got caught, but like relationally, you're just like hurt inside because like you sinned against your father.
SPEAKER_00: That's conviction.
SPEAKER_00: That's a sign of love.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why in verse 8, Jesus tells us this He says, By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all, the way you tell an apple tree is an apple tree by is be what?
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that was hard.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna try that again, rewind.
SPEAKER_00: How do you tell an apple tree is an apple?
SPEAKER_00: It has apples.
SPEAKER_00: And the proof that somebody is truly connected to Christ is not merely that they say the right things, attend church, or know Christian language.
SPEAKER_00: It's that over time there's actual change.
SPEAKER_00: Patterns of sin have actually started to change and shift.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a love for Jesus, there's a love for people, there's a desire for obedience.
SPEAKER_00: So let me say this plainly.
SPEAKER_00: You can agree with Jesus intellectually, but not know him personally.
SPEAKER_00: You can be around the church, not, but not actually be alive spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: You can do religious things without religious affection to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why this text is both an honest warning and a very kind invitation.
SPEAKER_00: The warning is do not confuse religious activity for spiritual vitality.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation is like, make your home in Christ, and he'll produce spiritual vitality in you.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just ask you like, uh do you just agree with Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you actually love Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Like, have I only said, Jesus, you're my savior?
SPEAKER_00: Or have you humbly told him, You're my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I surrender to you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus is getting at.
SPEAKER_00: And if that's you this morning, just hear this kindly.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to have this all figured out.
SPEAKER_00: You can just simply say, like, Jesus, I just want you to be mine.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to make your home in me.
SPEAKER_00: I just express my need.
SPEAKER_00: Just so you know, the only thing you bring to your relationship with Jesus is your need.
SPEAKER_00: How beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: It just brings us then to the actual just practical part of abiding.
SPEAKER_00: Just expressing your need.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a genuine believer, you also need to just expect that if you've walked with Jesus long enough, you're gonna have seasons of spiritual dryness.
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be seasons where you just your affections just feel weak.
SPEAKER_00: And they might even just feel numb.
SPEAKER_00: And the invitation in those moments is not like try harder or give up.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation is to trust the process.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9 says, abide in my love.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the children's song, Jesus Loves Me, is beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And we often play the office just a kid's thing.
SPEAKER_00: This is an adult thing.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes abiding in Jesus is like, you actually just need to rest and let Jesus love you.
SPEAKER_00: You actually just need to play that song over in your head, like, Jesus loves me, for my Bible tells me so.
SPEAKER_00: He delights in me.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't love you anymore because you're a better Christian.
SPEAKER_00: His love for you is not based on performance.
SPEAKER_00: His love for you is based on his performance.
SPEAKER_00: But your experience of his love is dictated upon your rule of life, the structures you've put in your life, the rhythms.
SPEAKER_00: You feel alive to him after you read his word.
SPEAKER_00: You spend time in prayer, you spend time in his people, you are obedient, you experience joy.
SPEAKER_00: Tim Keller said that the real definition of joy is just free from anxiety and you have contentment because there's no deceit.
SPEAKER_00: You're actually just confident because you've obeyed, you've been trustworthy.
SPEAKER_00: There's another part of practical uh abiding, and that's just verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Abiding also means obeying.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in Protestant cultures, uh sometimes we don't like the word obeying, uh, but it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus loves this word, so we can love it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh verse 10 says this if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.
SPEAKER_00: See, obedience is not how we earn his love, but it is in part how we experience his love and how we actually remain consciously aware of this abiding practically.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are not bearing fruit in your lives because you're not being obedient.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, you're callous to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are not obeying the Lord and how you steward your money.
SPEAKER_00: You're not giving, you're not saving, you're not stewarding or budgeting.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are not obeying the Lord because you're not guarding your tongue.
SPEAKER_00: You're saying words that actually tear down and not build up.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are not guarding your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: You're looking at porn, and man, maybe you're even just fantasizing about what the next season of life might be for you and your family, or if you had a family.
SPEAKER_00: It's not bad to desire, but it is wrong to lust after.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are not obeying the Lord in the way you just be with people.
SPEAKER_00: You have a self-centered presence when you're with others.
SPEAKER_00: You're not seeing yourself as actually giving life for others.
SPEAKER_00: Those are hard but maybe harsh examples.
SPEAKER_00: I these are things I just saw in my own life this week.
SPEAKER_00: Obedience is not always easy or fun, but it is formative, and over time it leads to furnishing, not furnishing, flourishing.
SPEAKER_00: Man, come on.
SPEAKER_00: Just like it takes trust and time for fruit to grow and ripen, it takes time for us to actually just trust the process.
SPEAKER_00: Abiding takes time.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is actually inviting us into a new life, a fuller life, one that actually bears fruit.
SPEAKER_00: But also, guys, like fruit is sweet.
SPEAKER_00: We should enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: We get to enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: You shouldn't just expect the pruning and trust the process.
SPEAKER_00: We should enjoy the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at our last point: enjoy the fruit, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says this that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're all after, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Like joy.
SPEAKER_00: Like we all desire to just experience life.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you just see this clearly.
SPEAKER_00: Like the God of the Bible is not outside of your joy or against your joy.
SPEAKER_00: He longs for you to experience joy.
SPEAKER_00: He's hardwired for you to take joy.
SPEAKER_00: And he desires for you to flourish.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why John literally gives us chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: He invites us to abide.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is what we're all pursuing, whether we realize or not, every decision in your life, you've made in the pursuit of joy.
SPEAKER_00: Some out of the pursuit of love.
SPEAKER_00: Some out of what the pursuit of what Jesus would have called actually just fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus knows this.
SPEAKER_00: And so, in light of this joy, it begs the question of like, what do we mean when we say joy?
SPEAKER_00: Like that's just as much as like abide, it's tossed around.
SPEAKER_00: But but joy is actually like outside of your circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: See, the joy is not happiness.
SPEAKER_00: Happiness is like fragile, it's based on external circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: But joy is actually like deeper and steadier.
SPEAKER_00: It's not built on those external things, it's built on internal realities.
SPEAKER_00: It's the settled contentment of knowing that I belong to Jesus and he belongs to me.
SPEAKER_00: You all have met these people, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like the people that just they're they have a non-anxious presence, they're joyful, they're buoyant.
SPEAKER_00: I think of this man named Jack Aaron.
SPEAKER_00: He's kind of a pillar uh in kind of the city light family of churches.
SPEAKER_00: Like it doesn't matter what that man experiences, I feel like he just has a buoyance and a joyfulness because he's just abiding in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's the first and central and last thing he thinks about is just knowing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And when you start to actually just abide, you actually like notice like not only does sin change, like your joy gets deeper.
SPEAKER_00: Your loves start to shift, your spiritual taste buds start to come alive again.
SPEAKER_00: The things that like used to satisfy you in sin, they no longer have their lure.
SPEAKER_00: And the things that felt dull now feel rich.
SPEAKER_00: It's like hearing music uh at half volume, now turned up to full volume.
SPEAKER_00: It's tasting food with restored taste buds.
SPEAKER_00: It's going from black and white TV to full color.
SPEAKER_00: This is what abiding actually does in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 5 just outlines this fruit for you.
SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, uh, gentleness, and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: You notice how it says fruit, though, not fruits.
SPEAKER_00: It's because they're all connected.
SPEAKER_00: These aren't separate compartments.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Like as you grow in love, joy deepens.
SPEAKER_00: As your patience grows, your relationships change.
SPEAKER_00: As you get self-control, your peace actually comes back.
SPEAKER_00: You don't just believe differently, you become different.
SPEAKER_00: And over time, you actually just start to like enjoy it.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.
SPEAKER_00: As you abide in his love, it transforms how you actually love others.
SPEAKER_00: You become more patient and sacrificial and more generous and more present.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 15 then says this relational idea.
SPEAKER_00: He says, No longer do I call you servants, but I've actually called you friends.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss that.
SPEAKER_00: Like abiding causes true fruit, it like gives you relationship.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just working for Jesus, you're known by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is a fruit that also lasts.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me at verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: It says that you should go and bear fruit, that your fruit should abide.
SPEAKER_00: Your fruit abides.
SPEAKER_00: It lasts.
SPEAKER_00: What you do for the kingdom and what comes from Jesus actually lasts.
SPEAKER_00: It's not temporary, it's not fading.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the kind of fruit that actually shapes and sweetens your life.
SPEAKER_00: It impacts others because it outlives you.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's a deep joy in knowing that actually, like what you do, that's actually truly from abiding, the fruit that you bear, like impacts others even long after you're gone.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't manufacture this.
SPEAKER_00: You can't strive your way into joy.
SPEAKER_00: You can't force this fruit.
SPEAKER_00: If you want joy, if you want fruit, if you want love, if you want change, you have to abide.
SPEAKER_00: Because striving produces activity, but abiding produces life.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what makes this image so much more powerful.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples know the Old Testament better than you and I.
SPEAKER_00: And when they would hear Jesus say that he is the vine, what Jesus is doing is picking up Old Testament language, the image of the vine in Psalm 80, Isaiah 5, it's always used as a negative connotation for Israel or God's people of when they've gone astray, when they've literally been disobedient.
SPEAKER_00: So it's actually like a negative warning to them.
SPEAKER_00: And so they probably at first would hear this and like, why is Jesus saying he's the vine?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he's doing: he's redeeming the image for them.
SPEAKER_00: Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeds.
SPEAKER_00: Where you fail, Jesus succeeds.
SPEAKER_00: You are not the vine.
SPEAKER_00: He is.
SPEAKER_00: Your job is not to produce life, your job is to stay connected to the one who already has it.
SPEAKER_00: And how's that possible?
SPEAKER_00: The cross.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was cut off so that you could be connected.
SPEAKER_00: He experienced separation so that you could actually be brought in.
SPEAKER_00: He took judgment so that you could actually experience life.
SPEAKER_00: So, y'all, you'll you may be pruned.
SPEAKER_00: You may be cut back, but you will never be cut off.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus was cut off in your place.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the invitation this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the true vine.
SPEAKER_00: The Father is the gardener.
SPEAKER_00: You are the branches, and his spirit is alive and reigning and connected in and through you.
SPEAKER_00: When you stay connected, you have life.
SPEAKER_00: And the more you actually dwell in this life and you dwell in this love, the more you're gonna enjoy his love.
SPEAKER_00: The more you're gonna receive this love, and the more you receive it, the more you're gonna want it more and more and share it.
SPEAKER_00: Pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you that you are the vine, that you sent Jesus to be the vine that we could not be.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that it doesn't depend upon our effort, it depends upon our awareness and our leaning in to you.
SPEAKER_00: We just also recognize that like we know this, but we need your help in actually like sitting in this, in applying this, and actually longing for that type of spiritual fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And we just ask that you would pour out your spirit of harvest, that we would actually become a church that is super fruitful, that we'd be known and marked and become a people in this community, in our neighborhoods, that people would actually see and bump into us and experience the sweetness of this type of fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Father, we if there's those in the room, I know there is that just haven't actually truly surrendered to you, that are just conforming to religious activity, maybe to appease family or friends.
SPEAKER_00: Father, would you would you not just convict them?
SPEAKER_00: Would you invite them?
SPEAKER_00: And would Holy Spirit, would you make them alive?
SPEAKER_00: Would today be the day that they actually start abiding?
SPEAKER_00: And for those of us who, man, we're in a season of spiritual dryness, a season of pruning.
SPEAKER_00: Just give us that freedom to just name that, but also to see it as strengthening us, connecting us to you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray you'd meet us right where we're at.
SPEAKER_00: We do this all for your glory and our good.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.