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How To Get Connected!
JESUS TEACHES ABOUT THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES
John 15:1-8
INTRODUCTION
There's a phrase that has become popular in pop culture today, Being in "the zone."
The zone refers to that state of mind when everything is clicking for you and you're doing everything right.
You can't miss a shot, you're able to anticipate what the opposition is doing, and you have a quick answer for every question.
Anyone who has ever played sports or performed in public knows what it's like to be in the zone.
Also, anyone who has ever played sports or performed in public knows what it's like to be out of the zone-there are days when you don't think straight, don't perform well, and nothing seems to go your way.
When it comes to living the Christian life, there's a zone that we can be in-a zone that makes it easier to walk in faith, live in obedience, see our prayers answered, experience joy, and handle adversity.
It is a zone that Jesus challenges us all to live in.
What is this zone?
Well, I want to look at a passage of scripture this morning that gives us the answer to this question: How am I supposed to live up to the holy standard that God has for me?
When you bear fruit you know you're in the zone!
FRUIT BEARING (15:1-8)
~* The Signs
~* The Steps
~* The Success
A. The symbols (15:1, 5a-5b)
1.
The Son is the true vine (15:1a, 5a).
2. The Father is the gardener (15:1b).
3. The believer is the branch (15:5b).
LOOKING FOR FRUIT (V.
1-2)
We all need to make a careful examination of our own lives as to fruit-bearing.
Most of us immediately think about what we have been doing for the Lord - how many people we have won to Christ or whatever.
Partnering with God
Printer view
Topics:
Deeds; Evangelism; Faith and works; Fruitfulness; God's Will; Ministry
Filters:
Christian Culture; Quotes
References:
Matthew 28:18-20, John 15:1-17, 1 Corinthians 3:9, 2 Corinthians 6:1
Tone:
Neutral~/Mixed
Without God we can't; without us he won't.
B. The steps (15:2-4, 5c-6)
1.
We must submit to pruning by the Father (15:2-3).
PRUNING FOR FRUIT (V.
2-3)
". . .
every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful" (John 15:2b).
The branches that are doing well, those that best convey the life of the vine, get the knife.
Anyone who has ever driven through the great northern California vineyards understands what the Lord is talking about.
In the winter all you see for miles is bare, twisted trunks.
But in the summer, what meets the eye are endless rows of lush green grapevines expanding their foliage so fast you can almost see them grow.
Their health is directly proportionate to their pruning.
A grapevine will never produce anywhere near its potential without being pruned!
~* Grape-growers, viticulturists as they call themselves, practice several stages of pruning.
~* There is pinching to remove the growing tip so it will not grow too rapidly, and also topping when a foot or two of new growth is removed to prevent the loss of an entire shoot.
~* Thinning the grape clusters enables the rest of a branch to bear more fruit and better quality fruit.
~* Also, the cutting away of suckers gives more nourishment to the whole plant.
The vines are pruned in fall or winter so the main stock will have more advantageous growth and fruit.
~* To the inexperienced eye it looks cruel and wasteful, but to the experienced eye it is the only way to grow healthy, delicious fruit.
The same is true in the Christian life.
~* What is involved in pruning?
Pain.
Pruning always hurts!
David said in Psalm 119:67, "Before I was afflicted I went astray."
~* Psalm 119:71 says, "It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees."
~* Sometimes the pain of pruning comes because of our sins.
~* Other times it is simply because we are bearing abundant fruit and God wants us to bear more.
Whatever the reason for pruning, our natural selves always want to escape it.
No one naturally wants the knife.
Nevertheless, the results of God's pruning will be beneficial for us and for him.
~* Often we Christians are subject to what I call the "When I Syndrome."
"When I get spiritually mature, these things won't happen to me." "When I get married, I will not struggle this way anymore."
"When I retire, my life will be easier."
Afflictions would only stop if they were useless, and that is why they never stop.
Without pruning, a vineyard would never be in full bloom.
~* John 15 clearly teaches that pruning is always good for us.
Malcolm Muggeridge in his book Jesus Rediscovered says:
Suppose you eliminated suffering, what a dreadful place the world would be.
I would almost rather eliminate happiness.
The world would be the most ghastly place because everything that corrects the tendency of this unspeakable little creature, man, to feel over-important and over-pleased with himself would disappear.
He's bad enough now, but he would be absolutely intolerable if he never suffered.
Those are true words, and I speak from experience.
Some years ago I set off on a grandiose spiritual scheme.
I shared it with my friends, and they assured me it would succeed.
I had good motives, and the ideas were sound, but I fell flat on my face, to my great embarrassment.
So I called a close friend, whom I could go to when I was discouraged.
As we sat in a restaurant, he said to me, "You know what?
This is good for you.
If you had succeeded at this, you would have started telling others how to do it.
Then you would have a seminar, and so on.
Failing was the best thing that could have happened to you."
Much of what is noble in us has been accomplished by God's pruning in our lives.
A character in C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series is named Eustace Scrub, a selfish, immature boy who thinks only of himself.
In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, he not only finds himself in a dragon's cave but discovers he has turned into a dragon!
He attempts to remove the scales but cannot do so by himself.
Finally the Lion, the Christ-figure, comes.
Eustace describes what happens next:
This is what the Lion said, but I don't know if he spoke.
"You will have to let me undress you."
I was afraid of his claws I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate, so I just lay flat on my back and let him do it.
The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right to my heart and when he began pulling the skin off it hurt worse than anything I had ever felt.
The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off.
That is how it is with pruning.
We would rather do it ourselves, but we cannot, and even if we could, we would not remove what really has to go.
The truth is, what is noble and attractive in us has come from the cutting we would have avoided.
"Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word" (Psalm 119:67).
"It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees" (Psalm 119:71).
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