Connection vs. Production

Introduction

One of the devastating things about life is that people die. Not only do people die but grief is a monster that can sometimes take a lifetime to deal with. Meanwhile, death is not the only form of grief we experience. Grief happens to enter our life at the expense of losing jobs, friendships, changing geographical locations and even the ending of relationships. One of the things that I’ve constantly heard when people are grieving I just need to keep myself busy to keep my mind off of what I’m going through.

Or maybe you can relate to this one, to be quite honest some of us are productive in ministry, not because we have a close relationship with God but out of fear. So we show up when the doors are open but the idea of authentic relationships amongst Christians and with God seems void. Productivity is one of many challenges we face in ministry because the world we live in a based off of how productive you are.

If you go to McDonald's you may see a sign that says “over 1 billion burgers served”. If you have a American Express Card, “Don’t leave home without it”. Red Bull, it gives you wings. Everything is about the amount produced. On your jobs it’s about production, in our personal life we typically invest our time in things that provide the most convenience. Being connected to Jesus is about productivity also. It’s about producing fruit, here’s the challenge though. No matter how much we produce or how active we are in ministry we will still find ourselves unworthy of the gift of salvation from Jesus Christ. We can’t work our way into heaven, and there’s no amount of work we can do that will ensure our salvation. We have to be thankful for grace, we must be thankful for mercy, we must be thankful for forgiveness. All of these tenets of God play a role in our life on a daily basis.

This pericope is a lecture of preparation. Jesus uses the analogy of the vine and the branches on the heels of expressing the fact that He leaves his apostles with the gift of peace.

John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

When I understand who I’m connected to I understand the fact that the enemy has no power over me. Jesus states in the previous chapter “I will not talk to you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me!

As we approach chapter 15 we are informed of our place as it pertains to the Kingdom. Jesus is the true vine, God is the gardener, and we are the branches. Remembering what you are connected to should encourage us even through the toughest of storms. When you think of a fruit producing branch it goes through a number of seasons. Every season isn’t always pleasant. God sends the rain but we do not always see the increase instantly. Harvest doesn’t happen over night. Nonetheless if we do not produce we will be removed. Although we desire to produce fruit, production isn’t always pleasant, just when we think we are producing an adequate amount, here comes God pruning us in effort to produce more fruit!

You’d be suprised what you can accomplish when you are connected to the right source! Don’t fall victim to the standards of this world! Truth be told as much as we are doing, we could be doing more. Everyone has a role to play.

Think of our duty in the kingdom as an assembly line, everyone has a specialized task, let us go back in time to the industrial revolution. Prior to the evolution of the assembly line manufacturing things such as cars could take days, but once the assembly line took off things that took days only took a matter of hours. Play the role you were intended to play. We lose productivity when we are connected to the wrong source or focused on a task that God never intended for us to focus on.

The Curse of Productivity

The issue we have within the family of God is comparison and people operating outside of position.

To often we equate faith with productivity. No matter how perfect your attendance is, how many ministries you lead, if you aren’t connected to God it will be short lived. Often times people grow weary in well doing becasue they aren’t connected to the right source.

Productivity is about abiding not accomplishments. We praise accomplishments but if all Glory is due to God the accomplishment doesn’t matter as much as who provided space for us to accomplish such tasks.

John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

•A branch is only as strong as the trunk it’s connected to.

•It’s only as healthy as the roots that provide it’s nutrients to be able to bear fruit.

•If we remain connected the productively with come.

•If we become blinded by productivity, connection may suffer.

This is why we can accomplish things, recieve all the pats on the back and still be unfulfilled! There’s no accolade or accomplishment that is going to bring you true peace unless you are connected to the right source.

What does it mean to remain? Understand first of all I can’t remain anywhere that I haven’t been placed! When I understand that I’m only here because of God I don’t take my place for granted. When I don’t take my place for granted I know that I’m here to produce. When I know I’m here to produce there’s no storm, no heavy rain, no pest, or tough time that will keep me from producing what God has called me to produce.

We are conditioned to applaud production but none of it would happen without God.

•From a young child we are conditioned that if we do something right there is a reward that follows up instantly!

•We’ve even given rewards of production at our church.

The Fruit Is Not the Sole Goal

Our paradigm has to shift. When I go to HEB and I buy fruit, I’m buying it because I appreciate what the fruit does for me nutritionally and for the taste. Understand it’s not just about the fruit, fruit has an exponential affect on the kingdom. Every fruit produces a seed! Each seed has the ability to grow and produce more fruit. Look at the blessing of being connected to God. One branch has the ability to produce much fruit which produces many seeds to produce more fruit.

Matthew 13:23 “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.””

Remember the setting in the text! Everything of God has purpose. Where you’re planted has purpose, where you grow has purpose. This is why when there’s no output God has no choice but to cut you off! Vine in this text is associated with the function of pruning, God prunes what belongs to Him!

This is why Jesus is so staunch on removing those who do not produce fruit. Think about it, all the resources you need are in that vine that sprout from that root, when we are unproductive we not only inhibit our own blessing but we inhibit the blessing that the seed could have been to the world!

Tread Lightly

•Be careful that you do not begin to see value through the lens of productivity so much that you create a hierarchy of importance.

•No Big I’s and Little u’s – we are all branches that are only connected because of the power of Jesus Christ.

•BUSY doesn’t mean CONNECTED!

Connectivity Blesses More than Just Me

We isolate this idea of connection to just Jesus when it all actuality when we are connected to Jesus it leads to connection with others. When I’m not connected to others I truly have to ask myself am I truly connected to Jesus. If we are all branches off the same vine, connection to Jesus should be without question, but also my connection to the saints should be sustained as well!

•Ask yourself the question do you plan your life around responsibilities or relationships?

•How intentional are you about building healthy relationships with Jesus and with others?

Connection sustains us when productivity does not! We all go through moments in which production isn’t where we desire it to be.

Without Jesus there is No Production

John 15:5 ““I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

It’s easy to try to attach our doing with to God’s love but honestly there’s no amount of production that could buy the love that God has for us. He loves us because He wants to, he provides grace not because of what we’ve accomplished but because He just loves us that much! There’s not a sermon you can teach, a ministry you can lead, a song you can sing that will make you worthy of the love of God. We are only here because God desires that we be here.

Romans 5:7–8“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

It’s time that we are real with ourselves and understand that we aren’t as strong as we think we are. Picture a storm, often times even the weakest of storms will destroy a branch on the strongest of vines.

When we understand that we don’t really have as much strength as we think we do we will understand the blessing that it is to produce fruit in the 1st place. To abide in Christ means to be in communion with Christ so that everything about our life pleases Him.

Don’t get discouraged when God prunes us, sometimes we get bent out of shape becuase God cuts away what we thought was good for us, but understand that good isn’t always good enough, God is pruning so that we produce the best.

One seed of abiding depends on obeying and obedience depends on love. I’m able to find joy in all situations because love and joy go hand in hand and make it easier, even in the toughest of times to obey the will God.

We should love God, love His will and love one another! That spirit, that fruit of that spirit produces peace. Peace provides space for production but peace can only come from God.

Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,”

When I’m at peace because I’m in communion with God, love follows, joy follows, longsuffering follows, goodness and faithfulness follow!

When I’m connected to the right source I can be longsuffering with others, I can show kindness to others. No matter my circumstance I can produce because of who I’m connected to.