Connection Matters
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Everything that (produces, accomplishes a task) needs a connection… cars needs a battery, a furnace needs a gas line, a well needs a well pump, Humans need other humans.
Relationships are essential to receive that needed love, encouragement, purpose, everyone needs to feel like they belong to something bigger then themselves.
There must be a healthy balance…
If a relationship is consuming and draining… it’s not healthy.
What are we connected to?
Are we more connected to our followers on social media then the real people that are around us?
Are we connected to our local community?
Are we connected to our friends, our family, our church? Are we connected to the people in our own home, who live under our own roof?
The people who are in our tribe, our posse, our crew always matter because they influence us but at the same time, we influence those people as well.
Whether that’s at work, at church, at school, at the gym… connection is important but one connection is essential for all connections to be healthy.
We must always be connected to Jesus.
Everyone benefits when we connect with Jesus.
Life is better when we connect with Jesus. People don’t drain us, the jerks don’t drive us as crazy, we have more patience, we have more at peace, we are more loving, more compassionate, and full joy and grace if we stay connected to Jesus.
If Jesus makes life better then why is it so easy for us to disconnect from Jesus?
The world, the culture, the drama distract us from staying connected to Jesus.
In John 15 Jesus cannot make this essential connection any clearer.
We cannot be unified in Christ, as the Body of Christ unless we stay connected to Christ.
We cannot be unified in Christ, as the Body of Christ unless we stay connected to Christ.
Jesus says… John 15:1-11
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 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. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
PRAY
Jesus makes it clear that HE wants us to connect with HIM before we connect with anyone or anything else.
When we Abide in Jesus, Lasting Fruit will be obvious.
When we Abide in Jesus, Lasting Fruit will be obvious.
Jesus starts off by referring to a vineyard by saying that I am the true vine, we are the branches and my FATHER is the vinedresser (the gardener).
The vine represented God’s covenant people, planted and tended to by HIM so that Israel would produce fruit.
When Jesus uses the vineyard metaphor, HE is touching one of the most-used images in Judaism to express God’s relationship with his people.
But instead of describing God’s people as planted vines rooted in the soil of Israel, Jesus describes them as branches attached to himself, the one true vine.
Now the question for God’s people is no longer, “Do I live in the vineyard?” but instead, “Am I attached to Jesus, the vine?”
A healthy vine must produce fruit and the only way a vine will produce fruit is if the branch is connected to the vine.
Jesus also mentioned the importance of pruning so that those branches will become more fruitful. That’s the vine dresser’s job… the Father’s job is to trim the branches and cut away any dead branches that have no life in them.
Fruit-bearing is the test of life-giving attachment to the vine.
This means that discipleship is not just a matter of acknowledging who Jesus is; it is having Jesus spiritually connected to our inner lives.
The growing disciple is utterly dependent on Christ.
But with this comes a warning John 15:6
6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
To fail to “remain” in Christ, to fail to find life in the vine, risks separation from the vineyard and destruction.
There is only one evidence if a branch is truly alive:
Does the branch produce clusters of grapes? John 15:5
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Note that Fruit-bearing is not a test; rather it is a byproduct.
The branch does not have to demonstrate a level of productivity to be safe from destruction.
“Apart from me you can do nothing” (15:5b). To be connected to the vine means that the life of Jesus is flowing through us, which leads us to fruitfulness.
Fruitfulness will be the inevitable outcome of an interior spiritual life connected with Jesus.
What fruit will be evident? The fruit of the Spirit…
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Jesus views discipleship in terms of attachment and fruit-bearing. The believer is like a living branch attached to a living vine.
It is the vine that gives life to the branch. Nourishment from the vine enables the branch to bear good fruit.
One should be able to look at a branch, see its fruit, and say, “This branch is living, it is attached, it is vital and growing from the vine.”
When we Abide in Jesus, Lasting Fruit will be obvious.
When we abide in Jesus, obedience is possible.
When we abide in Jesus, obedience is possible.
We have power when we abide in Jesus.
This means that Christianity is not simply about believing the right things (though this is important). Nor is it simply a matter of living a Christ-like life (though this is important too).
The Christian experience must have a spiritual, non-quantifiable dimension. To be a disciple means having the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit living in us.
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
This means that having this supernatural, interior experience that Jesus is inviting us too and made available for us, is unlike anything that this world has available.
This connection, this abiding with Jesus will impact our way of believing (doctrine) and our way of living (ethics), but these are possible as we are nurtured by the life-giving connection as we abide in Jesus Christ.
Abiding with Jesus will impact how we pray effectively.
15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
As our lives are so in harmony with Jesus we will find that our prayers are controlled by HIS Word.
The confident prayer described here is a byproduct of the intimacy with Jesus.
We are a branch connected to the vine… To be a branch, to be a disciple, does not mean that we can make some claim on the vine and demand it to produce what we wish.
Prayer “in Jesus name” is not a formula that guarantees we will get what we want.
Prayer that is inspired by the presence of Jesus, that is in harmony with HIS will, that is in unity with what GOD is doing in nurturing the vineyard—this prayer will succeed.
When we abide in Jesus, one another becomes lovable.
When we abide in Jesus, one another becomes lovable.
Jesus commanded HIS followers to love one another.
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
This is the true test. As we connect with Jesus, loving one another is no longer optional but it is the byproduct as we connect with God’s heart.
John sounded this same theme throughout his letters.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
This love for one another is a fulfillment of God’s love for us and in us (4:17), and to refuse to love leads John to describe such people as “liars”—people who show that they have neither seen or experienced God’s love (4:20).
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
This human love cannot be viewed in isolation, as if simply exhibiting such love satisfies the call to discipleship.
Such love is an outgrowth of a life that has witnessed and continues to abide in the dramatic quality of God’s love…
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
Jesus died on behalf of those that HE loves. This supernatural love requires that we also love God with our entire heart, soul, and, strength.
When we abide in Jesus, one another becomes lovable.
They may not be easy to love, in fact they may be impossible to love but that’s why we must have that connection with Jesus. Jesus is asking us to do something that is outside of our ability… to love those who hurt us, don’t like us, who consider us enemies, who are different from us, who do not have our best interest.
When we abide in Jesus, one another becomes lovable.
Take Away:
What are those connections that drain us and are we willing to let go of those connections?
Our phones, Media, drama
Are we willing to commit this week to connecting with Jesus?