Abiding People - Abiding in Pruning

I. Introduction

A. Continuing the series on Abiding People. We are making our home with Jesus so we can bear the fruit of the household. The family business is to bear kingdom fruit.

B. One of the most critical times to abide and cling to the vine is when the gardener is coming toward you with knife.

C. God is both the internal source of life through the vine of Jesus, but also the external force of our lives that prunes us for growth. Do you trust both?

II. A Faithful Gardener Cuts

A. When is it time to cut? The question here is not one of status, saved or unsaved, but rather fruitful or unfruitful. Is your life producing the stuff of the Kingdom?

B. What is fruit? It is both the character of God through the fruit of the Spirit- Galatians 5:22 and the work of God through the gospel shared. Colossians 1:6. Are lives being transformed by grace around you? When do we get the knife?

1). When we are not bearing fruit. This is when a life or ministry is not displaying the character of God nor the work of God. Your life isn’t being transformed nor are the people around your life. Your life or your ministry isn’t displaying the likeness of God even though you bear His image.

2). When we are bearing fruit. This means you are growing the character of God in your life and people are seeing and hearing Jesus’ love in and through you.

B. The Axe - Cut off - Hebrews 12:1 (NIV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,”

Sin - we talked about his last week. Obviously all sin gets the axe. There is no value in propping up your false self with acts and thoughts of the sinful nature.

Extra Weight - This is a burden, a cause, a weight that you are carrying that is hindering your movement or access. It’s not sin it just not your portion to carry or it’s un-needed.

Shared weight - (Story of sharing weight while backpacking.) You are not called to carry all the weight of the world. What weight are you called to carry and what are you not? Share the weight.

Un-needed weight. Western Evangelical consumeristic Christianity has created fat churches more focuses on preference and comfort than His presence and commission. We are need to go on diet and lean up for the call of God.

C. The Shears - Prune up - Hebrews 12:11 (NIV) - “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

a. Discipline does not always mean you are in trouble. Think of a disciplined athlete who is constantly training.

b. The root word for discipline is disciple. A true disciple is always wiling to have things cut away to learn and grow more into the likeness of Jesus.

c. How are your pruned? Jesus states in these verses that the disciples or branches have already been cleaned up because of the word He has spoken to them.

Hebrews 4:12–13 (NIV) - “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” - Can you give an account of your life now and let the word prune you for future growth.

d. Last season’s fruit will not sustain you in the next. I often think about all the good things God has done in my past. I think that is a healthy exercise but sooner or later you have to move from what He has done to what is He doing.

f. Let the Father prune you. It’s time for fresh fruit.

III. Conclusion - The Shaking

A. Hebrews 12:26–27 (NIV) - “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”  The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.”

B. Throughout the course of the bible story the sound of God coming has made his people run and hide. From the sound of God coming in the garden, to Mt Sinai, to the sound He is making now in the earth.

C. Don’t run from the sound of Jesus coming. Let his voice resound out and shake off both the natural and supernatural that’s shakable, that’s not eternal in and around you. I believe this is a season of pruning, axing, and shaking because of what is ahead. We have to cut off sin and extra weight and prune the old fruit for fresh fruit that God wants to bring forth.

Tired of carrying the extra weight and burden of sin, trust Jesus this morning to cut it up or cut it off.