The Vine and the Gardener

Welcome

Well, good morning Lifepoint! Greetings from Maxwell Air Force Base in balmy Montgomery, Alabama!

The Lawn - Shortcuts

Courtney and bought our first home in the summer of 2020. Up until this point, we had only lived in apartment buildings around Chicago - our kids had only lived in apartments…and aside from home-ownership being a big milestone in and of itself, the thing I was really excited about was this patch of land in the front and back called a lawn.

It was maybe 15 by 30 feet…but it was mine!

For some reason, the previous owns thought it would be a good idea to put an above ground pool in the back yard - which, sure, could have been used for maybe three months out of the year - but was otherwise a complete waste of space!

So, in the Fall of that year, with the help of a few friends, I tore down the pool, ripped up the pavement, and brought in new dirt and laid sod.

It was beautiful and I loved that yard.

But, having spent the previous 14 living in dorms and apartments, I wasn’t really current on all I needed to do to take care of my lawn.

I wasn’t consistently mowing. Really banking on the rain for watering. Didn’t have the time to weed.

By early summer, the grass brittle, patchy, and getting over-run with weeds.

Now, you gotta understand, I had a lot going on at time time. Young kids - super busy work schedule - [EXPAND] and so the thought of taking even an hour out of my week to do some of the ongoing work honestly never made it very high on the priority list!

And that’s when I remembered fertilizer.

You know, the stuff that was supposed to keep the lawn healthy - revive the patchy, brittle, parts, and kill the weeds in one fell swoop! This was exactly the kind of shortcut I needed!

So I jumped over to Home Depot, got a bunch of it, thinking, if a little is good, then A LOT is probably great.

Didn’t read any instructions - because I was pretty sure it was self-explanatory (it’s not) - laid a bunch down - and within 3 days, the lawn was brown.

And if you’ve been around he for a bit, you know I’ve shared part of this story before…you might even be thinking, “Dan, come on. Enough about the lawn.”

But you see, the reason this story is so cemented in my memory is because at the same time all this was going down with my lawn - I was actually walking through the same process in my inner world…with my soul.

Spiritually, I was not in a great place…just kind of going through the motions - and even as a pastor - I found myself feeling like I had way to much going on to devote to my own relationship with God. I had sermons to write, classes to teach, meetings to lead, people to help…and just that kept me going, usually from 6:00 am to 9:00 or 10:00 almost every day…and if I wasn’t “working,” I was always thinking about work.

I was pastor who felt like was watching my own relationship with Jesus shrivel up.

Which of course made me feel like a hypocrite. I was profoundly aware of how messed up that was! Teaching every week, but in the background, really having no idea how actually put in the practice what I was sharing.

But with the sheer amount of everything going on in my life, I just wanted a short-cut. Something easy I could do to fix the problem.

And on the same week my grass died, I set up a meeting with my leadership team at the church and said, “I can’t do this any more - I’m done.”

PAUSE

Why am I telling you any of this?

I wonder if you’ve ever been there. I wonder if you’ve ever been a season where it feels like spiritually, you are just going through the motions - but nothing really seems to be working.

Or maybe you’re on the other side of that season, and if your soul was a lawn, it would look like mine - brown, patchy, shriveled. You might not say it’s dead, but you certainly wouldn’t call it healthy.

And I think the question, deep down is, is this it? Is this all the Christian life and following Jesus has to offer? Just this vague feeling of ‘Meh.’

The New Testament seems to promise a WHOLE LOT more than that! Jesus talks about life that is truly life…life to FULL…but how many of us would say we have that?

If our spiritual lives are like a lawn, I think we would hope for something lush and full…the Green Pastures of Psalm 23…

But what if we’ve missed something? What if there is something about the lifestyle of Jesus…His ways…His habits…that we’re meant, not just to read about…but to practice ourselves?

Friends, this is how we’re going to spend the next 9 weeks in our series called “Practicing: The Art of Becoming More Like Jesus.”

And the goal each week is for us to look at one of the practices from Jesus’ life that we can adopt in our own lives. We’ll explore:

Scripture Meditation

Prayer

Fasting

Sabbath Rest

Community

Service

Generosity and

Worship

And I know that feels like a lot to cover. It is! But my hope is that we are going to do this in away that actually stirs within you both a desire for these practices AND a practical framework to build these in to your rhythms of life!

But before we get to any of those, today, we’re going to focus in on the why behind any of these practices. So if you have a bible with you, meet in the Gospel of John. Chapter 15.

John 15.

I’ll read part of this passage, pray and then we’ll get started.

John 15:1–4 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.

PRAY

Abide in the Vine

Alright, let’s get started.

Now, we’ll be coming back to this passage often in the series as we talk about our spiritual lives and the practices of Jesus. John 15 probably gives us the best framework for that we can keep coming back to and part of that is because of the metaphor Jesus is using: of essentially gardening.

And I’ll say - as a city kid, none of this made much sense to me (before I killed my lawn).

But for today, I want to share just a few observations that I think will help us really makes sense of what Jesus is trying to get across to us.

We are supposed to grow

Here’s the first one: In following Jesus we are supposed to grow.

Look again at v 1.

John 15:1 ESV

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

Jesus lays out the roles here: The Father is the gardener…He is the vine.

Jump down to the beginning of v. 5. His followers are the branches coming out of the vine.

John 15:5 ESV

5 I am the vine; you are the branches.

Think about it this way…the goal for any garden is growth.

And right away, I think this calls us out of the pattern that sometimes Christianity has in our broader culture - that it is just a religious system…or a way of organizing your beliefs about wold around you. And while that’s certainly apart of it, Jesus actually envisions our relationship with him as something much more organic and living.

And you might be thinking, “Dan, yeah…obviously…”

But you see, it’s not that obvious!

It’s like what we talked about earlier - when we have a spiritually dry season - or whatever language you might use to talk about - when something feels off…when you feel empty…stuck…going through the motions…it feels crushing not just because you’re there…but because it doesn’t feel like there’s any real hope of change...and fear is, “is this it?” Is what following Jesus is?

But you see, built right in to this gardening metaphor is the answer: No!

It’s the promise that the stagnation you feel is not the way it’s supposed to be. That there is more…that there is something on the other side.

In following Him, Jesus intends for all of us to grow. He is the vine - and we are the branches OF that vine!

The first observation is the Jesus’ intention is that we grow.

The command is to abide

Now, Jesus actually get’s more specific about this growth. Look with me at v. 2

John 15:2 ESV

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.

And we’ll get into more detail on this through the series, but he says two things about the branches - there are those that bear fruit and those that don’t. The ones that bear fruit, are pruned…trimmed…so that they continue to grow…and the ones that don’t produce fruit are cut down from the vine they are useless.

And looking at the passage, what you’d want to be is the branch that bears fruit! The healthy branch.

In other words, you want your spiritual life to look like what I wanted my lawn to look like! Lush and green…growing…blooming…

And if Jesus would say to us, “I want you to grow…” in light of v. 2, we’d expect him to say, “I want you to grow and bear fruit.”

But this is where things get interesting. He doesn’t say that.

Look with me at v. 4.

John 15:4 ESV

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.

This is the second observation: Jesus command is not bear fruit…his command is abide.

Abiding

It’s an interesting word. In the original language of the New Testament, Greek, its the word μένω which means to remain or stay put…

And actually, I think we need to sit here for a moment to recognize just out jarring this “abiding” is in our current cultural moment. Because today, we place a high value on what we do…what we produce…what we’re involved and how much we’ve got going on - this is why for most of us ‘busyness’ is at the same time an addiction we’re trying to break and a badge of honor we refuse to take off!

And this shows up right in the modern church - we like having things going on - we like getting out - serving - making an impact in the community - it’s the stuff we cast vision around - it’s often what we give to - and celebrate on Sunday’s here!

To borrow Jesus’ words, we are very interested in bearing fruit.

Why?

Well, because that’s the part that fits our vision of the life that Jesus really seems to offer! That’s the goal!

But…isn’t that same way I thought about my lawn?

I wanted the lush green, weed-free grass…the blooming flowers…but I didn’t want much of the in-between stuff that ate into my time.

I wanted the bear fruit. I didn’t want the slow and ongoing work of abiding.

But Jesus flips this on it’s head…His command is not to bear fruit. It’s to abide.

How do we abide?

The question then is how do we do THAT? How do we abide?

You know it’s interesting…in this whole gardening metaphor, the one image that doesn’t really fit is the would abide.

I told you already, in the original language, it means to remain or stay put…and it’s generally used to talk about close relationships with others. It’s a word that describes friendship more than farming.

But I think this is precisely Jesus point - because abiding in the vine…abiding in Him is describing our relationship with him!

Now, let me be clear here…when we talk about our relationship with Jesus, there are two parts…like there are in any relationship we have…there’s the initial moment when we become friends…but there is also the ongoing work of friendship.

With my lawn…there was the moment in time when the sod was laid…I had a new yard, right…but then there is the ongoing care.

In the same way, our relationship with Jesus starts at a moment in time, when we receive the free gift of grace…believing in Him…His death and resurrection…moving from Spiritual Death to Spiritual Life…moment in time.

But there also the ongoing relationship…THIS is the abiding part we’re talking about - not earning a relationship, but growing in the relationship!

And this takes intentionality.

Rule of Life

It’s interesting, hiding in the background of this metaphor of a garden…is an element his original audiance would have pick up on right away. Something we probably miss.

He’s describing a vineyard - and the language he uses lets us know he’s specifically talking about a grape vineyard. And all the elements are still there…the Father is the gardener…Jesus is the Vine…we are the branches…but what everyone in that day also knew is that a vineyard is not just wild going vines and branches…they were attached to a trellis…or what was sometimes called a regula.

It was a structure the farmer used to bring intentionality to how the vine would grow — the trellis supports the vine…allowing it to grow in healthy ways…and maximize the fruit from the branches!

Interestingly enough, picking up on this - the earliest followers of Jesus started to talk about having what they called a “Regula” or a Rule of Life.

I like how one author put it:

"Most people have a plan for their money (a budget), a plan for their time (a schedule), and all sorts of plans for their education, career, retirement, family, kid’s soccer team, gym routine, and so on. But very few have a plan to be with Jesus and thoughtfully apprentice under him in such a way that over time they become the people who naturally do and say the kinds of things Jesus said and did."

This is a Rule of Life…the practices and habits we pursue to organize our days in such a way that we are abiding in the vine.

It’s looking at the overall practices we see in the Life of Jesus - in the Lifestyle of Jesus, seeking to mimic him!

Author and Philospher, Dallas Willard says that in building Rule of Life, we are:

“Living as he lived in the entirety of his life—adopting his overall life-style. Following “in his steps” cannot be equated with behaving as he did when he was “on the spot.” To live as Christ lived is to live as he did all his life."

For centuries, Followers of Jesus have sought to abide in the vine, but taking on the practices of Jesus - the very things that we are exploring over the next 8 weeks…mimicking his practice of being in the Scriptures, His practice of prayer…of fasting, serving, community, generosity, hospitality and worship!

And a Rule of Life is the tool we use to intentionally build these practices into our lives.

Now, what I don’t want you to hear is that starting today, you need to try and build in all of these things each week.

No!

You can’t do that - and over the course of this series, we’re going to talk about a wholistic approach to building a Rule of Life. We’ll get there.

Today, what I want for you is take an honest look at your life - I want you to picture your inner world…how does it look? You don’t have to tell me…you don’t have to tell anyone…but at least be honest with yourself…

If it’s supposed to be a garden, is it lush and green? Is more like my lawn was, patchy, brittle, and filled with weeds? Maybe yours looks dead? Or, maybe it’s somewhere in between.

You know I’ll never forget the day after I killed my lawn. We had a little balcony and I was standing there with Courtney with my head in my hands…but it wasn’t because of my lawn…it was because at that moment…I recognized the lawn…this garden…was a picture of my inner world…I could see the impact of chasing fruit and destruction in its wake.

But I also remember, on that same balcony…an older and far wiser pastor sitting with me to say, “It won’t be like this forever.”

That I wasn’t done…it was time to remain…time to stay put…time to abide.

And over the course of the next 4 years, I began to learn the slow and unglamorous, refreshing, and rejuvenating work of abiding in the vine - of seeking his practices and his habits in my life. And I’m not telling you any of this as a guru who figured out the secret sauce, I say this a struggling branch who, because of Jesus, is coming back to life.

I want you to hear today, Jesus desire is for us all to grow…but his command is not that we go and bear fruit.

He command is that slow down…and commit to the ongoing, subtle, sometime tedious, work of remaining with him…staying put with him…His command is to abide.

John 15:5 ESV

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.

Let’s Pray.