I AM the True Vine

Abiding in Christ

Bible Passage: Jn 15:1–17

Good morning, church. Grab your Bibles and turn with me to John 15.

And welcome to our last week of looking at the 7 I AM statements Jesus makes in the book of John.

And starting next week, we are starting our Christmas series- He Shall Be called.

We are going to spend 5 weeks, including our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service on the 24th at 6pm, examining one of the Greatest Prophecies come true in all of Scripture.

Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And we are going to dive into what it means for us to have a wonderful counselor, mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.

I’m looking forward to it.

We have examined what it means when Jesus said I am the Bread of Life I am the Light of the World I am the Door I am the Good shepherd I am the resurrection and the life I am the Way, the Truth, and the life

And today we look at Jesus telling His disciples “I AM the True Vine.”

This is still part of the Upper Room Discourse- we talked about this last week as Jesus saying I am the Way, the Truth, and the life is part of this discourse.

Remember it starts in John 13- and ends in John 17 when they get to the Garden of Gethsemane.

So, we are smack dab in the middle of Jesus giving His disciples final instructions, final encouragements, final pieces of wisdom, before He goes to the cross.

Jesus and the disciples are actually walking towards the garden at this point. The end of John 14:31

John 14:31 (ESV)

31 Rise, let us go from here.

As they start walking, they walk past acres of vineyards in the light of the Passover moon, I can see Jesus stopping to lift up a length of the vine as He began to reveal the mysteries of spiritual gardening.

And He starts with John 15:1

1 “I am the true vine,

Understand for us to grow, for us to be alive, it all starts with Jesus.

This isn’t just for the Christian but for everyone- we all have things about ourselves we would like to change. We all want to grow, to change.

Some of you made New Years Resolutions back in January-

you had a New Year’s resolution this year to lose 15 lbs, and now you got 30 days left and you’re like, “Well, only 25 more lbs to go!”

Or, you were like, “I resolved this year to get to the gym 3x a week. I’ve done that. Now, I just need to actually go INSIDE of it…”

Most New Year Resolutions are abandoned by February.

My hope and prayer for the upcoming new year for myself, my family, and this church is for Spiritual Growth.

Let us grow deeper in our relationship with Jesus, let us grow in our knowledge off Scripture, let us follower the Bible more and more.

And instead of doing a New Years Resolution- We are going to do 1 Word.

1 Word is where we pray and seek God’s guidance to help us focus in on what he would have us do.

This is something I have been doing for a long time.

God has put on my heart throughout the year- Grow, Identity, Canceled, First, Knowledge, and for this year was Finish.

Now the Word we receive is good but the important part is the verse that comes with the verse.

My verse for 2024- Acts 20:24

Acts 20:24 (ESV)

24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

I didn’t know it at the time but the Lord had some really big plans in 2024 for me and my family.

I didn’t realize finish meant leaving the ministry I was in, and being called into a head pastor-ship role.

Everything about it was a full circle moment.

The seniors that were in our student ministry, were with us from the beginning and all the way to the end. They only ever had one student pastor.

Good, bad, or otherwise.

Then to be here, and to be at the church were I came to know Jesus as Lord and Savior has been incredible.

There is not a better Church in Jacksonville.

They may have bigger programs. But they don’t out relationship this church. I can guarantee that.

You want to know what it means to follow Jesus there are some really good examples in this building.

and can I tell you how excited I am for Tuesday night to get here?

We are launching our Student Ministry on Tuesday and I am pumped for it. It doesn’t matter if 100, 10, or 1 show up.

and we are going to dive into God’s Word and build the next generation of disciples for the glory of God.

Because the church is never but 1 generation away from extinction.

The next generation is the most important generation.

So, please continue to pray for our Student Ministry. Its a ministry btw. it is not a group.

Groups hangout. This is going to be a time of intentional growing in God’s Word. We will have fun and play games and do all the things.

But the one thing that drives everything is God’s Word.

That’s true of this church and it’ll be true of this ministry as well.

So, begin praying for your 1 Word for 2025 and more importantly the verse God puts on your heart.

When the Lord gives you those things- in the coffee room is a cork-board. There will be some cards for you to fill-out and you will put your Word and Verse on that card and put it on the cork-board.

I’d grab two- one for the cork-board and one for you to take home. And it will be there as a reminder for you throughout the year.

And we all need reminding. Its the same thing Christ is doing as He is walking towards the garden. He is reminding His disciples what they need to do.

These verses we are about to read reveal a profound truth about the nature of the Christian life- If you claim to be a Christian the most important thing is to be closely connected to Jesus.

Let us read John 15:1-17 and see what the Lord has in store for us today.

John 15:1–17 (ESV)

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.

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.

7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

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.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.

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.

17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

5 times- abide in me. abide in me. abides in me. abide in me. 2 times- abide in my love.

Its almost like Jesus is trying to make it crystal clear to them what they need to be doing.

Abiding- Staying, Remain.

Stay in me, remain in me.

Why? Because apart from me you can do nothing.

He who can do all things without Christ will end in doing nothing. On Humbling Ourselves Before God, Volume 29, Sermon #1733 -1 Peter 5:6

Charles Spurgeon

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get to the end and find out it will call for nothing.

Which is why it is so important to be connect to the True Vine.

That is our first truth today.

1. True Living Comes From Fruit Bearing for Jesus

John 15:1–6 (ESV)

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.

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.

Jesus, as the True Vine, is central to a believer's spiritual nourishment.

We can only grow spiritually through Christ.

Tim Keller explained that there are two ways we can attempt to grow spiritually.

The first he called “mechanical growth.”

Think of mechanical growth as how you would grow a pile of bricks.

If I had a pile of bricks up here on the stage and wanted to grow the pile, the only way to do that would be to add more bricks.

When my son, Judah, was very young, I walked outside one afternoon and he grabbed a water bottle and started pouring the water in a sandbox.

So I said, “Whatcha doing, big guy? You’re making a mess.”

And he said, “We need more sand, daddy. It’s almost gone now.”

He’d heard mom explain that the reason we watered plants was to make them grow, and he assumed that was how we could make the sand pile grow, too.

But, you understand, for non-living things, the only way to grow them is by mechanically adding to them.

Mechanical growth is how a lot of people attempt to grow spiritually.

They are constantly adding things to their spiritual lives. “Do this over here. Now do this over here. Now back to this. More of this. Oh, you’ve forgotten about this.”

Bible Study. Attendance. Small groups. Tithing. Witnessing. Fasting. Serving. Mission trips. And the result is… exhaustion.

Spiritual fruit comes only from intimacy with Jesus.

Only by knowing him intimately will spiritual fruit grow in you.

There’s an analogy here in how we humans create biological fruit. Think about this for a minute, and I promise to keep this G-rated.

How do a man and woman produce physical fruit?

They come together in a moment of intimacy with each other, and the fruit of that is a child.

It’s God’s little genius thing there. At that moment, they’re not usually thinking about the science or the mechanics of making a child.

Or, at least, they shouldn’t be. No, they get caught up in a moment of loving intimacy, with each other, and the fruit of that is a child.

In the same way, spiritual fruit is produced not by thinking about the mechanics of the fruit.

Many of you, when you think about producing spiritual fruit, you concentrate on the mechanics.

You’re thinking, “love, love, love,” “patience, patience, patience,” “goodness, goodness, goodness,” “SERENITY NOW!” Or whatever.

That’s not the real way to produce spiritual fruit.

Spiritual fruit happens when you get caught up in moments of loving intimacy with Jesus--and the fruit of that is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, mercy and self-control.

Get caught up in loving intimacy with Jesus, and spiritual fruit will come as naturally to you as roses on a rosebush.

Thats what Christ means when He says abide in me. Know me. Stay with me. Remain in me. because apart from me you can do nothing.

And when we do have the spiritual fruit, He is the one who gets the credit.

I think about how on Friday, after Thanksgiving, I started putting up Christmas lights in this cold damp weather.

I got my 10 foot ladder out. I get all the lights out. I get the nativity scene out.

I get all the hooks and things and I untangle all the wires. I check every wire to make sure they are all working. I replace the burnt out bulbs.

I methodically put the lights on the roof.

I fall off the 10 foot ladder at one point. True story. Fall off the ladder, in my reaction I grabbed the gutter. pulled that off the house, landed on my feet because I’m like a cat and rolled.

I immediately get up, check my camera system to see if it caught all of that. It unfortunately did not catch any of it.

I realize I broke the 10 foot ladder and put it by the road.

so I go and I get out the 6ft ladder, fix the gutter and finish putting lights on the roof.

I then put the lights on the tree. I have lights that go around our brick columns; put those up.

I get the nativity set up.

Blair is out shopping with my mother and sister-in-law, and our niece Tegan.

I have 3 strands of lights left to go.

I asked when I first stepped out of the house, if Judah wanted to help me. He said “No, I’m good.”

He popped his head out about an hour into this excursion, and I thought cool; he wants to be a part of this. Nope. He wanted a sweet treat.

And now I got 3 strands of lights left to go and guess who comes outside to help, my mini-me.

We are putting lights on this hook that you put into the ground. Should take 10 minutes tops.

45 minutes later. We finish.

I get inside and Blair comes home not too much longer after that.

She opens up the door and Judah busts out “Me and Daddy did all the Christmas lights, did you see them?”

I’m sorry, do what?

Where were you when I was getting the lights out and untangled?

Where we you when I was looking death in the face clinging to a rain gutter?

Where were you when I was fighting with the lights to get them around the tree?

You know where He was?

In his Father’s House, not worried if His Dad was going to love him or not if He helped Him.

He knows no matter what he does, that His father loves Him.

Its unconditional.

Did I want him to be out there with me? Of course.

Did I think it would have been good for him to be out there with me? Sure

Did I love him any less when He decided to stay the house? Not even a little

Was I delighted and pleased when he made the decision to come outside with me? 100% percent

Was he able to do the task when He came outside? Not really

Was His Dad still proud that he wanted to be doing what his father was doing? Yes, indeed.

and God looks at us just like I was looking at Judah trying to put up those light.

Apart from Him we can do nothing.

Apart from me Judah doesn’t accomplish the 3 strands of lights he put up.

but when we step out on faith to do the work of our Father, He is pleased.

We abide in Him. We stay in Him. We remain in Him.

We don’t do the work of the ministry to receive anything.

We do the work of the ministry because of the amazing grace, love, and mercy we have all received in our lives.

We work from Salvation, not for salvation.

God decided that the way He was going to spread the gospel was through His church. Big C- Church. The universal church.

He could have used any means that He saw fit but He decided to use his disciples. He could have written it in the stars for all to see but He decided to use us.

The Great Commission is of the utmost importance but we have to make sure we are abiding in Christ. We have to make sure we are a branch that can be used for God’s glory to spread God’s message.

A.W. Tozer said the first obligation of the church is to be spiritually worthy to spread the gospel.

You can’t manufacture fruit, because fruit comes from life, and fruit has in it the seeds for more fruit.

As branches in the vine, we can draw upon Christ’s life and bear fruit for His glory.

If we are not bearing fruit, we are not fulfilling our purpose on earth, and this means we are not really living.

A lot of us are alive but we aren’t living.

We are wasting our lives, or just spending them on things that don’t really matter.

I’ve gotten a lot better about it, but I would let 18-22 year old dictate if I was going to have a good day or a bad day based on if they won a football game or not in Gainesville.

Worrying about things that don’t matter , instead of investing time, energy, and effort in things eternal.

Believers have eternal life because they have trusted Jesus, but they may lack the “life to the full” that He came to give us (see John 10:10).

They are spiritually alive but not healthy.

Fruit bearing is the “rent” we pay for the privilege of living and serving God on this earth.

When I get to talking to me, they are always amazed that I am a Bible Teacher, pastoring a church, working on a doctorate, happily married, able to be at Judah’s ballgames, and still have time to get to the gym. And I’m about to pull double duty and work with the Student Ministry.

They always ask, How do you do it?

What do you mean? What else should I be doing?

Out of those things, which of those should I not be doing?

Should I stop teaching Bible, learning more about God, spending time with my wife and son?

Out of all of those things- working out is the least important on that list. And even the Apostle Paul said there was some value to it.

I’m not tooting my own horn here or think I’m doing anything special.

I’m doing the same thing ya’ll should be doing.

Trying to abide in the Lord.

We should all be doing what the Lord calls us to do.

The Lord has called me into these things. I want to do His Will on earth as it is in heaven.

Doing the will of God is not punishment; it is fulfillment and nourishment.

It’s not only our obligation as disciples of Jesus Christ, but it’s also our opportunity as His servants to glorify Him and reach others

According to Ezekiel 15, the branches of a vine are good for only two things: fruit or fuel, bearing or burning.

2. Fruit Bearing Comes From Abiding in Jesus

John 15:7–11 (ESV)

7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

But fruit bearing requires disciplined commitment in time and effort, as well as good soil, sun and rain, and expert cultivation. We are rooted in Christ (Col. 2:7) and in love (Eph. 3:17), so the “soil” is perfect.

The Father is the Vine dresser, and He and the Son work together to enable us to bear fruit, just as the Son and the Father worked together when our Lord was ministering on earth (John 5:19, 36).

Fruitless branches prove they have no living connection with the vine and they must be cut off, and fruitful branches must be pruned so they produce more and better fruit (15:1–2).

Please note that when the vinedressers prune the fruitful branches, they cut away living wood, not dead wood, so the branch will produce better grapes.

The vinedresser must know what wood to cut, how much to cut, and at what angle. It takes about three years for a professional pruner to be trained and approved.

Think about some of the amazing men and women throughout Scripture that God had to prune away- things we would consider good- so they could be more fruitful and glorify the Lord in a greater way.

We have been walking through Genesis on Wednesdays- think about Abraham.

Abraham had to leave his city and family and even offer his son Isaac to the Lord so that he might be fruitful.

You see this same loving process in the lives of Joseph, David, and Peter as well as in the lives of the men and women in church history who accomplished much for God’s glory.

The Greek word meno is used eleven times in John 15, and the ESV translates it as “abide”

Other English versions use “continue,” “dwell,” “remain in union,” and “remain.”

“Abide” is my first choice. The Arndt and Gingrich Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament says that meno means “an inward enduring personal communion,” and that to me is “abiding.”

Our relationship with Christ depends totally on Him, because He always lives to intercede for us (Heb. 7:25); but our communion with Him depends on our faithful relationship to Him as we trust and obey.

Marriage is a good illustration of what is meant by “abiding.”

When the marriage ceremony ends, the official papers have been signed, and the couple has consummated the marriage, a living union has been formed and they are one flesh (Gen. 2:23–24).

But union doesn’t guarantee communion.

Communion is something the couple has to develop and maintain between themselves.

If the new husband and wife don’t pray together; tcommunicate to each other; share their hopes, frustrations, likes and disappointments; love each other; and sacrificially serve each other; their married life will become a routine or a war, and slowly lose its joy.

I don’t think any man and woman stood before God, their friends and families to be in a marriage that is joyless and the only communication is anger, frustration, and fighting.

Relationship is the foundation; communion is building on the foundation, and this demands mutual affection, attention, sacrifice, and service.

The fact that I am in relationship/ in union with Jesus Christ and a member of His body should motivate me to want to fellowship with Him and enjoy communion through worship, prayer, meditation on the Word, and service to others.

John 15:15 (ESV)

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.

The word translated “friends” means “friends at court, friends of the king.” What a privileged position!

Do we meet the Lord daily and commune with Him?

During the day, do we thank Him for His help and blessing? Even the small blessings are blessings.

Every good and perfect gift is from the Father.

Do we trust Him to assist us in our work?

Do we confess our sins immediately and keep the relationship healthy?

Do we involve Jesus in the decisions we make and in the relationships and tasks that confront us?

This is what it means to have communion with Christ, to abide in Him.

What are some of the evidences that we are abiding in Christ?

The fact that we are bearing fruit is one of them.

Although we don’t always know the extent of the harvest, we see that our fruit lasts.

On Thanksgiving, We want out to eat to a really nice restaurant with Blair’s Family. When we were going to leave, a young man ran up to us and gave me a big hug.

I taught at Atlantic Coast for 1 year. Just 1 and I hated it.

But in that year- I was the Head Wrestling Coach at AC. I had this kid on the wrestling team. He was 113 pounds.

Parts were divorced and it was nasty divorce. and this kid was bad. B-A-D bad.

My assistant coach was this really nice young guy. Loved the Lord.

And we would pray with the team, we would talk with them about the Lord.

Tried to encourage them to cling to good and abhor what is evil.

and this young man- he wasn’t much of a wrestler. He never won a match but he kept trying and trying.

He came up to me as we were leaving. He’s about 6’2, chiseled, and is now a Fireman for the City of Jacksonville.

And He told me how much of an impact I made on him.

The Scottish preacher George Morrison wrote, “The Lord rarely allows His servants to see all the good they are doing.”

Praise God for letting me see him and getting the opportunity to hear that.

Another piece of evidence that we are bearing fruit is that the Father prunes us and cuts away good things that are hindering us from enjoying the better and the best.

Because we are only branches, we repeatedly feel our weakness and look to the Lord for strength and help.

John 15:7 promises that we will have our prayers answered.

As we abide in Christ, we experience God’s love (vv. 9, 12–13) and joy (v. 11), as well as the hatred and opposition of the world (vv. 18–19).

We may not detect it, but as we abide in Christ, others will see us becoming more like the Lord Jesus Christ.

The evidence of true salvation in Jesus and relationship with Jesus is fruit bearing.

Judas was called by Christ, lived with Him as He went from place to place, and acted as a converted man, but Judas was not attached by faith to Jesus the vine (John 6:60–71).

Consequently, he was cut off and thrown away.

1 John 2:19 (ESV)

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Neither health nor age should hinder us from abiding in Christ and bearing fruit for His glory.

2 Corinthians 4:16 (ESV)

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

As we have seen in Genesis, Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 when they had their heir, the son of the covenant.

God can use us, we only have to be willing.

So- Fruit Bearing Comes From Abiding in Jesus

3. Obeying Jesus Comes From Loving Jesus

Jn 15:12-17

From playing baseball to flying a jet plane, every discipline in life has laws that must be obeyed if we want to succeed.

I recall a bit of poetry a chemistry professor used to quote to his first-year classes:

O shed a tear for Jimmy Brown, for Jimmy is no more. For what he thought was H2O was H2SO4.1

If you want to succeed as a physician or a pharmacist, you must learn the properties of the various elements that make up the composition of medicine and take care that you combine only the elements that are friendly with each other.

If you don’t, you may end up joining Jimmy Brown.

Aspirin and arsenic both start with the letter A, but they have different properties.

A jet pilot dare not violate the basic principles of aeronautics nor a winning athlete the official training rules and his coach’s orders.

By obeying the fundamental laws that science has discovered or that governments have enacted, we have achieved a better standard of living and a generally safe environment.

When we respect these laws, we are able to use the power and freedom that always follow obedience.

But there are also laws that govern our moral and spiritual lives, and if we ignore or disobey them, we will suffer and perhaps make others suffer.

Jesus said,

John 15:10 (ESV)

10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

Jesus always did what pleased His Father (8:29), and if we want to abide in Him, we must follow His example.

All of nature obeys the laws that God built into the universe, but when we interfere with those laws, serious consequences can occur.

It’s a basic rule of the Christian life that faith and obedience open the doors to God’s blessing.

According to Romans 14:23 “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”

No matter how good we may feel about doing something, unless faith in God’s Word supports our decision, what we do will only cause trouble.

Insert whatever you want- if it goes against God’s Word it does not lead to life.

Abraham thought he could save his life by going to Egypt, and there he almost lost his wife and his own life (Gen. 12:10–20).

Moses thought that killing a man would help deliver the Jews from Egypt, but it only led to his exile in Midian for forty years (Ex. 2:11–25).

Samson thought he could fight the Lord’s battles by day and enjoy the pleasures of sin by night; but God thought differently, and the strong man only crippled himself and his ministry.

Disobedience to His commands interrupts our communion with Christ, and we lose the power to do His will.

When that happens, we must instantly confess our sins to the Lord (1 John 1:9) and let the Lord cleanse and heal us.

To attempt to live for Christ without walking with Christ in the Spirit is futile.

Remember what He said: “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

This applies not only to our service for Christ but also to the everyday tasks of life.

Nothing goes right when our hearts are wrong.

Jonah was so sure things were going fine that he went down into the ship and went sound asleep (Jonah 1), but then he began to reap the consequences of his rebellion.

The false peace and false confidence that follow willful disobedience don’t last long.

Obeying comes from Loving and 4th and final truth- Loving comes from Knowing.

4. Loving Jesus Comes from Knowing Jesus Better

In the 1800s, The Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon shared how a simple worker could love Christ immensely by knowing Him personally. He described a humble shoemaker who, through prayer and studying Scripture, developed a deep relationship with Christ. It was this knowledge that transformed his daily work into an act of worship. By knowing Jesus intimately, the shoemaker expressed profound love in everything—from the strength of the leather to the joy in his craftsmanship, reflecting a heart aligned with his Savior.

The Christian life begins with our knowing and trusting Jesus. Jesus said to His Father,

John 17:3 (ESV)

3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

But as we

2 Peter 3:18 (ESV)

18 grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

we come to love Him more and more.

In the difficult days of life as well as the delightful days, we find ourselves learning more about Him, worshipping Him, thanking Him, and obeying Him.

All of us are acquainted with church people who know more about popular athletes and entertainers than they do about Jesus, whom they would affirm is their own Savior.

Isn’t that crazy?

If we believe that there is only one true vine. Shouldn’t we want to know as much as possible about him?

Trevor Lawrence isn’t going to save your soul. He can’t even will his team to a winning record right now.

Tom Cruise might be the best actor on the planet but unless He confesses with His mouth and believe in His heart that Jesus Christ is Lord than He is going to die and go to Hell.

We must spend more time on the things that matter.

We must learn more about Him, because the better we know Him, the more we will love Him.

Every doctrine in the Bible has Jesus Christ at the very heart. Every aspect of the Christian life involves Jesus, whether it’s victory over sin, praying, giving, or witnessing.

One reason why some believers can’t witness effectively with more loving fervor is that they are not growing in their knowledge of the Son of God.

The beautiful thing about growing in our knowledge of the Lord is that the Holy Spirit takes that knowledge and uses it to make us more like Jesus.

The goal of our salvation is likeness to Christ, not just knowledge of the Bible.

The Father has ordained that we should “be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29), and the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to accomplish this glorious miracle (2 Cor. 3:18).

And I’m wrapping this up.

“Am I becoming more and more like Jesus?” is the major question we must ask ourselves as we examine our own lives before the Lord.

And if not, why?

We can sit around all day talking about how much we love Jesus but if we look and act like the World we are killing our ability to witness to others.

If non-believers ask basic questions about scripture and we can’t give them any type of answer- wouldn’t they wonder why you even love Jesus to begin with. You don’t seem to know much about him.

Think about it- Loving must be joined to knowing, for the better we know Christ, the more we will love Him. The more others will notice Christ in me.

To put it another way, the better we know Jesus, the more we will love Him.

The more we love Him, the more we will obey Him, and the more we obey Him, the more we will abide in Him.

The more we abide in Him, the more fruit we will bear; and the more fruit we bear, the more we will experience life overflowing.

It’s somewhat of a spiritual chain reaction, and it begins with our decision to spend quality time with our Lord each day.

and we reflect that love to those around us.

And we all have loved ones that need to hear the gospel or reconnect to the Lord. And God has intentionally placed us there to be His messenger.

Let us go to the Lord in prayer.