Fruitful Vineyard, Fertile Hill Pt. 1

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi, welcome to the Vine Life Church podcast. We're involved in the following Jesus Christ and living in his presence, following his family and living on his mission so that hearts are awakened with his almost father. And if we can help you in any way, reach out to usvinelife.com. For now, here's a short sermon from last week in my life. Again, thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Starting off, I want to read a couple passages of scripture just to anchor us for the message this morning. The first comes from Isaiah 5, verse 1. Let me sing for my beloved, my love song, concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. Isaiah 27, 3. In that day a pleasant vineyard, sing of it. I the Lord am its keeper. Every moment I water it, lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day. I have no wrath. With that I had thorns and briars to battle, I would march against them, I would burn them up together. Or let them lay hold of my protection. Let them make peace with me. Let them make peace with me. In the days to come, Jacob shall take root. Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit. So as we come into the year, we want to lay a little bit of foundation for the next several weeks. So this last year, I was having an ongoing conversation with the Lord and with our elders about the season that we're in. And together, we were asking a lot of similar questions. God, what are you, where are you wanting to lead us? What new thing do you have for us? God, we want a fresh move of the Spirit. We want the freshness of life in you. We want a reinvigoration, God, of our souls and our spirits, even our bodies for your purposes. And God, we're thankful for the way you've led us through the seasons and you've sustained us through this weird pandemic. You've sustained us through, it seems like a lot of global crises. But now, God, we want to continue to move forward with you. And so we were praying in this direction. We even posited the question before the Lord about our namesake. Originally in 1985, this church, we were founded as the Boulder Valley Vineyard in 1985. Later on, as they left the vineyards, it would just become Vine Life Community Church in the late 90s. Eventually shortened to the nice and concise Vine Life Church. And so even this last year, as we're praying these questions about God, what are you doing on the earth? What are you doing among us that we can be faithful to your purposes? We were asking the question, God is Vine Life. Is this still our namesake? Is this what we should be called? Is this how you know us as? And to be honest, some of this is a very personal exploration for me. And we are an elder-led church, but in my role as lead pastor, I wanted to be sure that this next season is full of life and full of conviction and full of certainty that we're chasing after. We're actually following into what the Lord has for us. And as you know, names are not lighthearted according to the Lord. It's not a flippant thing all throughout scripture. Names mean something. A name is an announcement of identity and purpose and trajectory. They are significant. Your name is significant. You might not think so. And maybe when you look up the definition, it might not seem significant, but even in the scriptures in Revelation 2, it says that God has a new name for you written on a white stone. That only you will know, that we don't know yet, that God actually has a name for you and I that He will reveal to us in certain times. God names us, He names things. And our name, our name is kind of a sail that is hoisted into the air that allows us to catch the wind of the Spirit. And embedded in a name is identity. And so with that in mind, we pose this question before the Lord is, you know, we've been through a pandemic, we've been through all kinds of seasons, and now we're in this place of God. Is there anything that else that you want to say to us? Is vine life still our name? Is it a new season, a new time, or is there something more that you have to say? And I'll summarize to you what I believe the Lord had to say to us. And some of this was to me, and I hesitate to call this a thus saith the Lord. I know we do that from time to time. I just while I hear the voice of the Lord, I hesitate to frame anything in as a thus saith the Lord. What I'm doing is it's summarizing just a heart and a sense, and as an eldership, something we felt like together. And here's here's what I believe that the Lord wanted to speak as we hold held this question before him. He said, Luke, he said, I see your desire to be a part of something new and fresh. If you launch something new, I will be with you. There will be fruit, I will be glorified. But if you give yourself to what I've already spoken and what I've already set in motion, you'll experience much more fruit. You won't be able to take credit for it because it came before you and the roots go much deeper than you know. But there's something I want to grow from this old root system, established in the prayers and sacrifice of those who came before. And then it just continued on. The Lord said, I meant what I spoke when this church was founded, that you would be a fruitful vineyard on a fertile hill. I know the seasons have changed and there have been unexpected twists on the journey, but I have not given up on my word to you. What I said, I meant. And the promise you were founded upon still remains. And if you're willing to re-receive this namesake, even the name Vine Life as your name, there are more treasures for you to be discovered within this root system of fruitfulness that you have yet to see. Come on. That is an invitation from the Lord. And I read that to you, and I can't see your faces. I don't know, I don't know how that lands for you, but I'm just, but but I hope the substance of that goes out. I believe what the Lord wants to remind us of as we kind of set mo set in motion and continue to follow him into this new year, there's a calling into faithfulness. There's a calling to be reminded of what he spoke and that he meant, what he spoke, that we are to be a fruitful vineyard on a fertile hill. It's an invitation for us. And all of this, everything I just I just I just declared to you, it is embedded in the good news that God does not give up on his promises. His word is not empty. Sometimes I say empty words, sometimes I say things that don't bear a lot of fruit, but when the voice of the Lord speaks, his voice is synonymous with action, with movement. He cannot speak without creating movement. The words of God are life and light, and when the Lord speaks, it has a permanent effect. And when we anchor our lives into the promises of God and what he's already spoken from ages of old, even into prophetic words that were sown into our lives, into our histories, even that are decades old, there's something about it that creates a foundation for us unto fruitfulness and not just fruitfulness, but to the glory of his name. And so that has to do with something God is calling us to at Vine Life. And maybe if you're listening here today, maybe you're an old school vine lifer, and that's just a refreshing thing to hear because you've heard that for decades. Maybe you're newer to the community and that feels new, and so this is an invitation into that heartbeat into fruitfulness. And maybe you're just visiting online and you're thinking, what the heck does that have to do with anything? Listen, fruitfulness is something God calls all of us to. He calls us into a life that is good, that tastes good and actually has an effect that blesses the world and says something to the world about what God is doing. But maybe even personally, you know what it feels like to long for something new. And maybe you've prayed prayers this last year of God, I don't know how I got to where I am. But God, I'm longing for something fresh. I'm longing for something new. I need a breakthrough. I need something to change. I need something to change in my family or my marriage or my relationships. I need something to change in my career. Maybe there's just been a longing or a hunger for something to change, and you're not sure how to access that. You're not sure how to dive into that. And see, when we have those longings, see, as a culture, there's a lot of responses that we're taught. We just learn what to do when we want change. So in our culture, in our modern Western culture, when things feel old, when we get tired of things, what we do is we dispose of them. We make changes to our lives. We we we call the warranty department and get things replaced. We get new jobs, we move to new cities, we change churches, we end marriages and change relationships. We look for things that we can end one thing because surely there's something new that's happening. And in fact, even in church history, this has happened sadly. You know, even with the Protestant Reformation, as much as that revolution was needed and something uh, you know, that the stakes needed to be drived into the driven into the door, and a new pathway set forward, unfortunately had another effect as well when Martin Luther he stood against this religious oppressive system. But even then, we we look at that 500 years later, and now there are 45,000 new denominations worldwide, and we got to ask ourselves, was that what God had in mind? I don't know. See, oftentimes when we're longing for something new, we we change, we split, we divide, we move on. But I believe the invitation from the Lord so often into a season of life, into a season of newness, and into a season of refreshment, is not to move on to something else, but to return to the promise, to return to your first love, to the return to the joy of your salvation, to return to the word of the Lord, because he means what he says. Some of you need to know that. He means what he says. Sometimes, though, we have a hard time reconciling what our life looks like from what we feel like God promised originally, or maybe what we read in the scriptures, it just feels a little bit different. And so it feels hard to hang on to something old when it feels like that was in the past, but I'm somewhere different now. Well, I'm gonna read another passage from Isaiah. Why? Because we love Isaiah around here, he's one of our favorites in the scripture. Um, but also Isaiah just has this way of poetically painting a picture of what God is doing. And see in Isaiah chapter 11, Isaiah is prophesying again again about the coming Messiah. But here's how he frames it in He says, There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. It's this prophetic picture of the one who's come, the seven spirits of God, and his delight. He he has all these, this the spirit of the Lord uh has all these expressions of wisdom and understanding, but the one he delights in is the spirit of the Lord. The way this passage starts out is is likening what God is doing to a stump that came from Jesse. Now, what does that mean? Well, we know that Jesse was David's father, King David, shepherd, young shepherd, poet, warrior. His father was a man named Jesse. And to David, God's covenant to David, his promise to David, because David was so given to creating a place, a habitation for God on earth, it so moved the heart of God that even the Lord made a promise back to David that, you know, from your descendants, there's gonna be a throne, there's going to be a government, a kingship that will not end. It's gonna come from your line. It was a promise given to David that there's something happening here, that through your seed, I'm going to, I'm gonna continue something for all of time, and this kingdom will have no end. That's a promise. But when we start reading the stories, we see that it takes a little bit of a turn. You see, all of you know, David made some mistakes, but even more than that, his sons, Solomon and and other sons, they started to turn from the Lord and they started to make terrible decisions, they started to um lose their way. So much so that it was almost like this tree that God had started to develop through the line of David had to be lopped off, that it had to almost start over. There was something that had to just had to just come to an end. And we read in Israel's history that there was coming destruction and exile. And some of this is a result of how badly things went through the other kings after David. But this scripture, when it says there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, the picture we get is that yes, even though something is lopped off, even though everything has been so badly deconstructed that all we see is a stump. There's something I'm still doing, because while you see a stump, I am still faithful to the roots underneath this stump. And maybe you've seen this picture before. Maybe you've seen a picture of a stump with growth coming out of it. And it's a wild, it's a wild picture when you really look at that because on the surface you're saying, and what good can come of this. But what we don't see is underneath this stump is a root system that is still established, it's still nourished, it's still eternal. And so it is with the word of the Lord. See, when God speaks something into our root system, even if we look at our life and it looks like a stump, when we return to the word of the Lord, he can grow a branch through what others would call a stump. And listen, guys, that might be that word right there, I know is for some of you today. Because even as you're turning the corner to a new year, you're looking at your current life and your current circumstances, and on the outside, it may look like a stump, and maybe that's the story that you tell yourself, even. Um, that yeah, there used to be growth here, but no more. There used to be a dream here, but no more. What good could come of this? Jesus can come of this, and that he is the branch that comes from the stump. That is Jesus. Jesus grows out from the roots. Jesus grows up in a place of death. Jesus is the stream of living water in the wilderness, guys. And I'm just telling you, I declare over you today these places of stumps in your life where you've given up, where your heart has grown weary, when you've been disillusioned, where there is death, he turns graves into gardens. We sing about it, and this is a word for us today. God is committed to your fruitfulness, and he is committed not just to your fruitfulness, he's committed to his own word because his word does not return void. Somebody, wherever you're at, just get excited with me. Somebody just start waving a hanky, say an amen. Do a little lap around the room because God, this is what he does. He grows things up from the stumps of our life. And so as we're stepping into a new year, we're gonna take several weeks. And then in the coming weeks, we're gonna several weeks to dive into this age-old promise that God gave to his people that was ultimately fulfilled in the abiding life of Jesus, and that for us was renewed in the inception of this community 35 years ago. Today we say emphatically that we, according to the word of the Lord, are a fruitful vineyard on a fertile hill, not by man's declaration, but by the Spirit of God. And like I said, that is an age-old word. That's not just for us, that is for the people of God in Israel, fulfilled in Jesus his invitation to his disciples as they came to him. And he was the fulfillment of the vineyard and this fruitfulness. He is the vine. Here's what he says in John 15. He says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. You see, guys, Jesus is calling us into a life of fruitfulness if we're willing to enter into it on a new level. So it takes a stewardship. Sometimes in the Bible, and we'll explore this over the next several weeks, sometimes in the Bible a vineyard represents prosperity or the lack of it and the ravages of captivity. Sometimes the vine represents a woman or even a lover, sometimes it represents a mother, fruitful and childberry. Sometimes a vineyard represents the people of God. Other times a singular vine represents Israel. But as we're leaning into this this way, as we unpack this over the next several weeks, what we're hoping, what we're praying for is that God expands our vision for how He wants us, He is wanting to bear fruit in this next season. And so today, I want to invite you into faith. I want to invite you, and we're inviting the Lord to stir up faith in our lives for a new fruitfulness in this season. Next week we're gonna be launching into this fast together. And again, when you go online, you're gonna see a fasting guide, 21 days and 21 prayers. And see, these aren't just 21 prayers we pulled out of thin air as our team and as our eldership was praying into, as we even connected in with those across the community. We just paid attention to what are we praying together and what this 21-day prayer thing is, it's not just 21 random prayers. These are pictures of fruitfulness that we believe God is calling us into for the glory of his name. We we're praying that God would expand us as a house of prayer. We're praying that God would release healing and miracles, we're praying for salvations. Uh, we're praying that God would accelerate our children and our youth. We're praying for a release of the spirit, we're praying for businesses and entrepreneurs, for new kingdom dreams and new seeds to be launched in the season, because I believe the fruitfulness of what's coming is so much beyond what we've already uh what we've already tasted. We've only scratched the surface, guys. I believe that's the word of the Lord for us today that he's not done with his word to us yet. And if we're willing to re-receive it, there's more he wants to do. So I want to read something for us here. This is from James Rile. And he wrote this several years ago. Actually, hey Blake, could you grab those papers on the front row? So some of you guys know our founding pastor James Ryle back in the 80s. This is the word that the Lord gave to him. You're gonna be a fruitful vineyard on a fertile hill. And several years ago, he he wrote us in in 2015, before he passed away. James and Belinda wrote to the church, and so obviously, you know, 30 years had been removed, but they um they wanted to remind us of a few of those things. And here's what he said He said, We stepped out in faith, having only God's word to guide us, and witnessed many miracles that he performed as we continue to obey. By God's blessing, the church grew. Flourish, our ministry touched many throughout our community and beyond. It was in this place that God broke the spirit of poverty and unleashed extraordinary financial blessing upon us and through us. We were able to give thousands of dollars away to others with no strings attached and always had all we needed. It was here that God gave prophetic words that shaped the course of the ministry, not only in our church, but for hundreds of churches across the nation. And it was here that God raised up missionaries and sent them out to other parts of the world where they administered faithfulness and power. See, these are all pictures of fruitfulness. These are in the root system, these are our inheritance. He continued, he says, It is without hesitation that I say to you this morning, you were sitting in the midst of a miracle, you were standing on holy ground. There were many great people who sacrificed much to provide for you what you now possess. History weighs in upon you to prove yourselves worthy of their sacrifice by cherishing what they have done and stepping up now to do your part, to carry it forward. God sees it and has declared it to be so, a fruitful vineyard on a fertile hill. The question now remains do you see it? Will you declare it? Will you now do your part as so many others before you have done theirs? And he said, He finished, my dear friend, see what God sees and say what God says. Trust him and yield your lives to his spirit, and he will do it. It's your turn to make your mark, to carry the sacred legacy forward. So, Vine Life today, as we end this time, as we end this online service, I pray that the word of the Lord goes out to you and ignites faith and hope in your heart. If you feel like hope is deferred, if you feel like you're looking at the fruit of your life, saying, This is not, this is not all that I prayed for, all that I hope for, I believe as we lean into this promise, as we lean into what it means for the Father to be the vine dresser, to clean us with this word, to prune us with his careful hand, to grow us up, not just into aesthetic appearance of growth, but to actual fruitfulness that is good for the world and good for us. And brings glory to his name. Guys, I just think that there's so much on the horizon. I just pray that even this morning, that God would ignite a faith and a desire for fruitfulness, that you would not settle for what you've seen, but you would be stirred in desire for all the Lord wants to do. Because he's faithful to his word. He is faithful to his word. So we're gonna end our time this morning. We're gonna sing into this the eternal nature, the ongoing nature of the word of the Lord. On and on and on and on it goes. And wherever you are right now, just join with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word to us. We thank you for what you've declared before any of us got here. And I'm here, this year marks my 20th anniversary as part of this fellowship and this particular geography and this community of believers. And even for myself, Lord God, this stuff predates me. But I thank you, Father, that we get to enter into this promise together that we are a fruitful vineyard on a fertile hill, and that this year you are going to continue to tend to your vineyard. You're going to oversee it, and you're going to water it, and you're going to call us into deep fruitfulness, and you're going to you're going to go so much beyond what we can ask, expect, or think, Father. And so today, as we prepare our hearts for a fast beginning next week, God, let faith rise in our hearts to be a part of what you're doing. We say yes and amen. We say yes to every blossom, every branch that is going to grow up through the stumps of our past that Jesus, you are the one who grows up and we are in you. We are branches in your vine. We thank you for who you are. And it's in Jesus' name we pray.