The Way of Abiding

John 15:4 ESV

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.

Introduction

How many of you are plant people in the room? Where are the plant people?

OK, where are my artificial plant people in the room?

You all are my people!

Before there was AI, there was AP. Artificial plants.

And I don’t know why my wife and I are this way, but we are great at killing plants. We are gifted at killing plants. It’s a spiritual gift of ours.

Transition

And although that is the weirdest way to start a sermon, I’ll tie it all together in a minute.

Today we are continuing our series, A Better Way, looking at the Way of Abiding. I teased some of this last week. It is one of the invitations that Jesus makes to us, and I felt like theres so much more to say and talk about and I want to talk about that today.

To Abide

Last week I gave you this definition of what it means to abide. To abide is to remain, or to stay. In our context, as followers of Jesus, to abide in him is a voluntary posture. We remain in him not because we are coerced to do so, but out of a longing or a desire to do so.

So what compels us to abide in him?

Let’s examine all of John 15 to understand our key verse.

Jesus the True Vine

Jesus tells us that He is the true vine.

John 15:1 (NIV)

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

What that infers to us the readers is that if he is the true vine, there are false vines.

So let’s start there. Jesus informs His audience that He is true. He is the truth.

We read in another passage of scripture:

John 14:6 (NIV)

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The significance of this statement then, carries a lot of significance to us today.

Jesus was saying that although there are other streams of religion and other streams of thoughts and philosophy, I am the truth. Everything that does not come through me, is a false vine.

This is why we respectfully push back against the idea that all roads lead to the same destination.

We respectfully push back against the idea that truth is relative.

We respectfully push back against the idea that there is no absolute truth.

Jesus is the way. Jesus is the truth. And Jesus is the life.

Everything outside of Jesus is a false vine and false vines eventually die.

A false vine gives the allusion for a little while that it is connected to the ground, but eventually a false vine dies, and anything connected to a false vine will die with it.

So it’s important that you are connected to Jesus, and if you don’t know Jesus, then today you get a chance to know him and live from the vine of truth.

He Prunes Every Branch

Jesus will prune every branch so that it produces fruit.

John 15:2 (ESV)

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.

There is so much to unpack here...

First off, as we said just a minute ago, anything that is not bearing fruit, because it is not connected to the vine is removed.

My mother-in-law likes my house because at our house we have a lot of fruit trees. We have blackberries, mandarins, pears, apples, poblano, and I think we have a pomegranate as well. I said I think because I honestly am not sure. My wife and I are not that into the trees we have and the fruit that they produce. They’re there, becuase they came with the house, but we don’t care that much about them.

But my mother-in-law comes over and she can’t help herself. She pulls away the dead vines and the dead branches. Anything that is not alive, and is attached to what is alive, will eventually choke away the potential for what is alive.

Can we pause here and make an application?

Are there any dead things in your life that are choking your potential?

What’s a dead thing?

Maybe its a relationship. Someone who doesn’t add life to you, but sucks the life out of you. That’s a dead thing. And Jesus wants to remove it from our life.

Maybe its a habit or a hangup. Sure, you look good right now sitting in this church. But there are some of you who are going to walk out this door and go back to another life. A life you are hiding. Things that you do and you believe no one sees and that you are getting away with… that’s a dead thing and Jesus wants to remove it from your life.

As painful as it may feel to you, you need to let Jesus remove the dead things in your life.

And now here’s a second thing - Every branch that is bearing fruit he prunes.

I looked up pruning and here is what it means:

Pruning is the selective removal of plant parts, including branches, buds, leaves, blooms and roots. It can involve the removal of living, dying or dead plant parts.

What’s fascinating to me is that the process of pruning will remove living things. Things that are not dead. Why is that?

Just because it is a good thing, doesn’t mean that it is a God thing.

And… He prunes what is already producing fruit so that it produces more fruit.

Let me encourage someone here. Because I’ve heard this before from people.

“Pastor, all hell has broken lose in my life! Just when I started really serving God, all these things have started to happen!”

Well, maybe the pruning is because God is getting ready to produce more fruit in you. Maybe he is going to do more than you asked, think or imagined!

Some of you need to change the perspective that you about what is going on and submit to the process of pruning that He is taking you through.

Remain in Him to Bear Much Fruit

And that takes us to the third thing we see from the words of Jesus.

The way of Jesus is a fruitful life.

John 15:5 (NIV)

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Jesus simply says, remain in me! Abide in me! And when you do, you will bear much fruit.

Pastor Sam talked about this a few weeks ago. How will we know that someone is connected to the Father? We will know by the fruit that they produce. The Orthopraxy in a person’s life.

And Lighthouse, I believe that the Lord is calling some of you to step into a fruitful life. And the way to do that is to… abide. Remain.

It is the antithesis to what we’ve seen in culture that wants a shortcut or a hack to everything.

Listen, I love a good hack and I love finding short cuts. But to abide and to remain speaks to staying power. It speaks to remaining in Jesus. It speaks to trusting in His process. It speaks to choosing the God thing over the good thing. It speaks to being consistent with our devotion, and remaining unchanged by what is going on around us.

And when we do, we live a fruitful life.

Conclusion

Earlier I started the sermon asking how many of you are plant people, and truthfully I wish I was committed to the process. Because really that’s what it is… it is committed to the process so that in time your plant is beautiful. It it’s a fruit tree, your fruit tree is beautiful.

You see we all love fruit, right? If I had an avocado tree in my backyard that would be amazing. I want the fruit that it produces, but what I don’t want to commit to is the work to produce the fruit.

But the fruitful life of Jesus is different. The work has already been done. He’s already died in your place. Your sins are forgiven. The bill has been paid. There’s no more work to done…

Our job is to abide in him. Our job is to rest in him. Because the work has already been done.

Call

An invitation to rest in his work.