Grow

Manuscript Template

Title:  Grow

Focus Statement:  

Function Statement:  

Tweetable Phrase:  

Main Text:  John 15:1-17

Supporting Text:  1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Hebrews 12:1-2, Galatians 5:22

Redemptive Closure (point to Jesus):  Matthew 13:1-23

Benediction:  Philippians 3:12-14

WELCOME

Good morning!!! My name is Ryan Hanson, and I have the honor of serving here at The Light KC as the lead pastor. I’m so glad you’re here with us.

‌Welcome to those joining us online. We hope you're doing well and hope to see you in person in the coming weeks.

And a special welcome to those joining us for the first time. We’re so glad you chose to be here.

ME/INTRO - Tension

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

1 Corinthians 9:24–27 NIV

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Paul is not advocating that we all take up running, but Paul is pointing out that physical training and spiritual training have a lot in common.

Physical / Spiritual Training require the right

Diet

Exercise

Rest

I learned this the hard way...

I started running in 2016. I was invited to run by my neighbor who was training for a half marathon. At that point in my life I was 35 and had no interest in running.

I had run quite a bit when I was younger. I bought a house at 25 and living by myself had nothing to do. I didn’t want to waste time on the internet or TV, so I didn’t have either. To fill my time, I would run for an hour before work (typically 8 miles) in the morning, and read books at night. I would only run if it was above 40 degrees-F, so I never ran in the winter. In Michigan that meant I took nearly 4 months off each year. I did this until I got married to Andrea at 29.

By 35, I had no interest in running, but Andrea encouraged me to make a friend, so when my neighbor asked me to run with him, I accepted his invitation, but I would only run with him. So, I ran on Saturdays. If you’ve never trained for a half marathon, Saturday is the long run. The recommended training plan has 3-4 more runs during the week to prepare you for the long run and help you recover from the long run. I skipped all those extra runs. On top of that, my neighbor decided we needed to run every Saturday, even in the winter. We ran in snow storms, in temperatures down to -15 degrees-F. It was crazy. And the whole time I was miserable because I was not training correctly. I did the minimum to be part of this running group, but neglected every recommendation for training correctly.

I didn’t change my diet to fuel properly for the extra calories I was burning

I didn’t train correctly, only doing 1 of the 5 recommended weekly runs

I didn’t rest and recover correctly. I never warmed up, stretched, or cooled down.

I just went for it each and every Saturday.

After months of absolute misery, I accepted defeat. I learned that a balance of exercise and rest was needed. I learned that running at the intensities recommended by the training plan actually worked. Taking the weekly easy run easy, helped me not be so sore for the hard run. Running the hard run hard, actually made me faster. Running the long run at a pace where I could hold a conversation made them do-able, and much more enjoyable. And resting and recovering after runs make the next run that much more enjoyable. Running wasn’t horrible when I started training correctly.

But...I still haven’t changed my diet :)

After a while, my friend and I even started setting goals for us to tackle to keep us motivated. Similar to Paul, telling us we should run to win, we would set goals.

45 minutes 10K

4 hour marathon

Complete a Half Iron Man

Complete a Full Iron Man

Complete a 50 mile Ultra Marathon

And for each of these goals we had to train differently. We matured in our running, and needed to adjust our training as we got fitter and the goals changed.

For the most part we reached our goals, but as with anything in life, we failed too.

I set out to run a 100-mile trail run in the mountains of PA. I got nervous because it was so much farther than anything I had done that I didn’t trust the plan, and significantly over trained. I ran the easy runs too hard. I didn’t rest and recover like I should. And 3 months before the race I couldn’t walk. I got my first shin splint. I hobbled everywhere. My bedroom was on the 2nd story of our house and going to bed was quite the ordeal every day. I literally had to crawl up the stairs on my hands and knees.

But...I learned something.

To achieve any goal, having a solid plan is crucial, but following that plan is even more important.

The same is true of for our Spiritual training. Your spiritual life is like a muscle. It has to be trained to grow.

We need the correct

Diet

Exercise

Rest

If we’re going to mature in our faith.

This process of GROWING Spiritually is the big church word Sanctification.

It is the process by which the Holy Spirit makes a person holy and transforms us into the image of Christ

As we’ve said in previous weeks, this is a process. The process of Sanctification starts immediately after you accept Jesus into your life as your Lord and Savior; when you receive the Holy Spirit, but the process of Sanctification is actually called Progressive Sanctification, which just means it is a process that can take your entire life.

But...the process of Sanctification is not one sided. The work is done by the Holy Spirit, but we have a part to play.

As we try to become more Christ-Like, try to live the life of a disciple we’re all called to live, we need a plan, and we need to follow that plan.

WE - Tension

Have you ever set a physical goal that you intentionally trained to achieve?

Have you ever set any spiritual goals?

Do you put the same effort and focus into achieving your spiritual goals as you do you physical goals?

Do you have a plan for your spiritual growth and reaching your spiritual goals?

Because as Christians it should be all of our goals to be Disciples of Christ. And being a disciple is:

Discipleship is the process of slowly giving over pieces of your life to God, allowing the Holy Spirit to shape and mold you into a person with a Christ-Like character.

Discipleship is the process of Progressive Sanctification.

But we don’t just sit around waiting for the Holy Spirit to change us. God partners with us to accomplish His goals. We have a part to play in our Discipleship as well.

We’re in the 3rd week of our series on discipleship.

Attend - learn facts about who Jesus was and what Jesus did (discipleship starts in the HEAD)

Believe - put faith in Jesus as your LORD and savior based on what you know (discipleship moves to the HEART)

Grow - start living out your faith, applying what you learned

Serve - allow God to work through you to serve those hurting around you (discipleship is lived out through your HANDS)

Give - support others doing Kingdom work by giving back to God what He gave you to steward

Invite - offer the life change you’ve experienced to others by inviting them into the community

My prayer for this series, is that each and every one of us hears from the Holy Spirit at least once and chooses to take that next best step toward Christ.

This week, we’re going to talk about STEP 3: GROW

We’re going to talk about. How do we GROW in our relationship with God?

To do that, we’re going to look at a passage where Jesus tells the disciples a MASHAL - a Hebrew word similar to Parable, but Parables have one moral lesson, Mashals have multiple moral lessons. So buckle up!!!

Today we’re going to look the story of The Vine and the Branches.

Where Jesus tells the disciples how they should train to grow their Spiritual life through:

Diet

Exercise

Rest

If you missed the previous messages, please feel free go to our website, TheLightKC.org, to catch up.

As we begin, please turn with me to [John 15: Page 876 (sanctuary Bible)]

We’ll have the scripture on the screen, but if you have a Bible with you, or Bible app on your phone, I’d encourage you to turn to the passage and follow along. There is nothing that replaces having God’s word in your hand.

AND... if you don’t have a Bible, we have Bibles under the seats. If you don’t have a bible and would like one, please come see me after the service and I’ll get you one you can keep.

Let's dive in.

GOD - Text

John 15:1 NIV

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

I want to stop here. Because Jesus is referencing an event from the Old Testament. In Exodus 3 Moses meets God in a burning bush. God calls Moses to go back to Egypt and free the Israelites from slavery. Moses is not immediately on board and comes up with all kinds of excuses, one being “when people ask who send me, what name shall I give.” God responds in Exodus 3:14

Exodus 3:14 NIV

God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”

In the book of John, Jesus makes 7 “I AM” statements

John 6:35 / John 6:47-51 - I am the bread of life

John 8:12 / John 9:4-5 - I am the light of the world

John 10:7-10 - I am the door to life

John 10:11-18 - I am the good shepherd

John 11:21-27 / John 11:41-44 - I am the resurrection and the life

John 14:1-7 - I am the way the truth and the life

John 15:1-11 - I am the true vine

In Jewish Numerology 7 is the number of completion

By saying “I AM” 7 times, Jesus is claiming that He is completely God

“I AM” is four letters in Hebrew “YHWH”.

We pronounce it Yahweh, but it is historically pronounced with breath sounds.

Y - breath out

H - breath in

W - breath out

H - breath in

When God feels far, remember, God is the great I AM, YHWH, God is as close as you next breath

God will never leave you, nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)

DIET

So...after establishing WHO He is, Jesus starts the teaching by focusing on the DIET the disciples need to be consuming if they’re going to grow spiritually.

John 15:1–3 NIV

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

CUT OFF

The first action of the father is a pretty stark warning. God will Cut Off any branch that bears No Fruit.

Remember, we are the branches.

Belief starts in the head with information, but if it doesn’t move to the heart with life change, and the hands with action...we need to question if our belief is genuine.

But… it doesn’t say that God cuts off any branch that bears little fruit, bad fruit, or if the fruit is sparse.

God cuts off the branches that don’t produce any fruit, because they never really believed, and are spiritually dead.

God grieves the CUTTING OFF, just as we should grieve the people in our lives who don’t believe in Jesus and will be eternally separated from us and God.

God wants nothing more than for everyone to Believe in His Son Jesus and be saved.

Do we feel the same?

Do we grieve as God grieves for the spiritually dead?

But...God doesn’t just CUT OFF the branches that don’t produce fruit, God wants to CUT OFF the branches within each of us that are dead, and this is where Jesus talks about our DIET.

What sins are you rationalizing in your life?

Because Sin is an apex predator

Sin hunts for any vulnerable areas in your life and if you don’t remove it quickly, it will kill you

It may seem fun for a while but think of Sin like an exotic animal.

People who have exotic animals (bears, tigers, lions, venomous snakes, comodo dragons, etc) as pets think they’re fun for a while, and watching the videos of these people on YouTube it does look exciting. Who doesn’t want to be hugged by a giant bear?

Until...you see the news story where the owners forgot to feed the animal, or the animal got bored, or the animal “played too rough” and the person was eaten, mauled, or killed.

Let’s be honest, we love justifying sin… I’m sure we’ve all said at one point or another “nobody’s perfect”, “it’s not as bad as _____”, “at least I don’t _____”

We need to stop justifying and be ruthless in our elimination of sin

If there is any sin in your life, you need to allow God to remove it as quickly and completely as you can

You need to submit to God and CUT OFF all sin from your life.

Sin cannot be part of a healthy Spiritual diet.

But what does that look like? Because we can’t just cold-Turkey stop sinning. If you’ve tried, you know it typically doesn’t work.

Back in Jesus’ time grapes vines were actually grown on the ground. When they would get infected by the soil, the farmer would take a stick and lift them up so the sun could get to them and burn the infection off.

In the same way, when we get infected with Sin, we need to allow our Sins to be brough out of the darkness and brough into God’s light. We need to stop hiding our sins, confess or sins to the trusted people in our lives, and start the process of allowing the Holy Spirit to remove the temptations from our lives.

James 5:16 NIV

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

If you don’t have a group of people that you do life with, that you trust enough to confess your sins to, I strongly encourage you to join a small group and start building that community.

We need to do everything we can to CUT all sin from our lives, because sin will grow and eventually lead to your spiritual death.

James 1:15 NIV

Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

PRUNE

But, removing the sin from our Spiritual Diet is not all Jesus says we need to do.

Some of us produce fruit, but don’t produce very good fruit. To fix that, Jesus teaches that God Prunes.

To produce “GOOD” fruit we need to eliminate everything that is not productive. We need to eliminate the distractions from our lives.

I learned this the hard way back when I was 25. I bought a house in a cookie cutter housing development. It was great, BUT… the previous owners planted a pear tree in the front yard. I’m not a huge fan of pears so I did nothing to tend to it. People would ask for the pears when they were ripe, and I was happy to give them away. At the end of the first summer I had multiple 5 gallon bucket loads of pears, but they were all golf ball size. They were tiny, and useless. Everyone was quick to ask if I pruned. I obviously did not. I didn’t care. And I thought, why would I throw half the pears away, that sounds dumb. But if the tree is trying to keep 100 pears alive, all the energy and nutrients get divided among the 100 pears. If I cut half of them off, the same amount of energy and nutrients can go to 50 pears that will grow, develop, and become big enough to be useful.

The same is true in our lives. If we fill our time with distractions, activities that steal time and energy from the areas in our lives that actually have value, we are robbing those valuable areas of the energy and time that they need to produce the results we want.

This week working on this sermon, God has been convicting me pretty hard in this area. I don’t feel like I waste a ton of time, but I can get sucked into YouTube. There are some things I just like to shut the brain off and watch. I enjoy the people that take destroyed cars and rebuild them. It is fun watching someone take a car completely apart, rebuild the engine, fix the suspension, do the body work and get it running again, looking like new. Will I ever do anything to a car beyond change the oil and brake pads...NO. Anything I learn from these videos is completely wasted. It’s just stealing time and energy that I could use to do something more productive.

That being said, is every distraction bad? NO

But, if it gets to the point where you’re spending so much time on you hobby that you have no time to do what God is calling you to do, you have a problem.

So, God cuts off dead branches that produce NO FRUIT, and prunes the living branches so they can produce GOOD FRUIT.

At the same time, we’re called to clean up our Spiritual Diet, CUTTING OFF all sins from our lives, and PRUNING all distractions that get in the way of obeying God’s calling on our lives.

What is the Holy Spirit calling you to CUT OFF or PRUNE from your life?

EXERCISE

At this point in Jesus' story, He shifts to things we need to do to EXERCISE our Spiritual muscles.

Our Spiritual lives are like a muscle. We need to do the work, for it to grow.

Jesus gives three very practical exercises that we can to do GROW / MATURE our Spiritual lives.

John 15:4–8 NIV

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. “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. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

The first exercise Jesus gives us is to REMAIN IN JESUS

We need to spend time with Jesus.

We need to be reading our Bible’s every day, listening to very words of God. Giving God the dedicated time to speak to us. Giving the Holy Spirit time to convict us.

We need to be praying every day. God wants a relationship with us. If reading the bible is God talking to us, God wants us to reciprocate the conversation by talking to Him. Prayer is when we do that. Prayer is when we thank God what He’s done for us, ask for forgiveness for where we’ve messed up, tell God where we’re struggling and where we need help, and ask God specifically for that help (for us and others).

We need to be listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit convicting you through the Sermon’s Preached at Church. My prayer is that God speaks to each and every one of you though the sermons preached here at The Light KC. I pray God speaks through me and others on the stage every week. That the words don’t come from human knowledge, but from God himself. Because as well as I know some of you, God is the only one who truly knows what you need to hear.

John 15:9–11 NIV

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

The second exercise Jesus gives us is to REMAIN IN JESUS’ LOVE.

Many of us don’t need more information, we need divine revelation

We need addictions broken, we need relationships healed, we need souls saved

And we can’t do that by ourselves.

We need a community

We need to regularly attend church and regularly engage in worship

It is only in community that we can see the full extent of God moving in and among us.

We need to remain in the church because that is Jesus’ love

Ephesians 5:25–27 NIV

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

John 15:12–17 NIV

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.

The final exercise Jesus gives us is to LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Again… faith is a muscle, it needs to be exercised.

The dead sea is dead because it has only inputs, no outputs. The water is so salty a 1/2 cup will kill you.

We can’t just consume; we were saved for a purpose.

It’s like a sponge. If you fill a sponge with water and leave it there it will rot and get nasty.

For a sponge to be everything it was meant to be it has to be filled, and squeezed out on the dishes.

We need to be filled the Holy Spirit, learn and GROW in our faith, SO THAT we can be squeezed out, joining God in His mission to seek and save the lost.

We were made to serve and invite others to put their faith in Jesus

We’ll talk more about these in the coming weeks, but if we’re going to be everything God created us to be, we need to look outside ourselves and help others.

I need to pause, and make sure that I’m clear. Whereas Jesus lists some things that we can do to exercise our spiritual muscles and mature our faith, we need to be very careful not to confuse the watering schedule for the fruit.

All we’re doing is watering the plant by doing these things, God is doing all the work. God is causing us to grow, God forms the buds, God turns those buds into flowers, and God turns those flowers into fruit.

We can’t force fruit from our lives.

Galatians 5:22 NIV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Have you ever tried to be more patient, have more peace, be kinder to people?

It doesn’t work. At least it never has for me.

Only by Abiding in God’s word, spending time with God’s people, and resting in God’s presence has there ever been any lasting change in my life. Changes brough about through the work of the Holy Spirit in my life.

Most of the time I’m surprised when I notice what God’s been doing in my life.

I’ll be driving, someone will cut me off and my first thought will be, “I’ve been late and cut someone off before”, instead of reaching for the horn.

I’ll be having a hard conversation with someone and find myself patiently listening, seeking to understand, not jumping to conclusions and growing frustrated.

What watering schedule is God calling you to engage in to GROW your faith?

REST

We can control our DIET.

We can engage in Spiritual EXERCISES.

We also need to REST, to prepare ourselves for what is to come.

Genesis 2:2 NIV

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

Put yourself in Adam’s shoes. He was just created on Day 6.

Adam hasn’t done anything yet.

The day after He was created, I’m sure he was chomping at the bit to get to work.

God already told him he was to

Subdue creation - care for the animals, tend to the plants

Be fruitful and multiply - fill the earth

Adam was probably excited to get started

Yet, the first things God told him to do was to REST.

We don’t rest FROM work, we rest FOR work.

Jesus regularly withdrew from the crowds to rest.

Luke 5:16 NIV

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

We need to do the same.

Rest can take many forms.

Silence

Meditation

Journaling

Prayer

Whatever energizes you, make time for it.

We all need to rest to be ready when God calls us to act next.

YOU - Takeaway

Where are you at right now?

Are you taking an active role in your Spiritual Maturity?

Are you coasting, hoping God will grow Spiritual Fruit within you, but never engaging in a watering schedule?

What’s your spiritual DIET, are you engaging in Spiritual EXERCISES, are you getting energizing REST?

WE / JESUS - Redemptive Close - Call to Action

I want to conclude with a visual I was first shown in Seminary.

A professor asked us, “How do you answer someone who asks you if you’re a Christian?”

He showed this diagram

[Picture: Are you a Christian - 1]

If you’re to the left of the belief line, you have not put your faith in Jesus, and do not have assurance of eternal salvation.

[Picture: Are you a Christian - 2]

Once you put your faith in Jesus you believe and have assurance of your eternal salvation.

[Picture: Are you a Christian - 3]

The issue is, some of us, like the Pharisees we talked about last week, overshoot Christ, forget that God wants a relationship with us, and we go right to legalism, thinking life is all about following rules and being “good enough”

[Picture: Are you a Christian - 4]

But the first step of discipleship is attending, learning about Jesus

[Picture: Are you a Christian - 5]

And as we talked about last week, your life is unchanged based on your faith in Jesus, you have to question if you really believe.

To be a Christian we need to do the work of

managing our diet

exercising our faith

resting in God’s presence

We need to GROW

[Picture: Are you a Christian - 6]

Because if we don’t grow, start to believe that life is about following rules, and forget about our relationship with God, that legalism we fall victim to, can easily lead to DRIFT and we slowly grow farther and farther from Christ.

[Picture: Are you a Christian - 7]

The professor didn’t answer his question of “how we know if we’re a Christian or not”, because there probably isn’t a definitive answer, but if we’re not all GROWING closer and closer to Christ, we need to ask ourselves what we really believe and if we are truly the Christians we claim to be.

Let’s end with a question...

Are you growing?

If not, what next step is God calling you to take (Diet, Exercise, or Rest)?

Resolution Cards - #1 What Next Steps are you taking to deepen your relationship with God?

Response Cards

PRAYER 

Will you join me in prayer...

SONG 

White Bucket

As we enter into our final song, I want to open the steps up front as an altar to anyone who needs God this week. The steps are open for you to pray to the God who is with you, who loves you, you wants to give you His peace.

‌

You may feel a hand on your shoulder as I or one of the elders join you in prayer.

BENEDICTION 

Philippians 3:12–14 NIV

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

This week...

Let’s commit to GROWING spiritually by putting in the work.

Let’s commit to watching our Spiritual Diet; cutting off any sin that entangles, and pruning any distraction that keeps us from following the calling of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Let’s commit to Exercising by

Remaining in Jesus through daily Bible reading, daily prayer, and engaging with the preaching at church

Remaining in Jesus Love by attending church, and engaging in worship

Loving one Another by serving and inviting non-believers to join the community

Let’s commit to resting through prayer, meditation, journaling, or silence, SO THAT we are ready when God calls us to act.

Let’s commit to never thinking that our efforts lead to any real change in our lives.

Let’s acknowledge that all we’re doing is maintaining a watering schedule, and recognize that only God can produce fruit in and through us

Let’s commit to Jesus’ training plan to grow our faith

Quick reminder...

Digging Deeper Bible Study - Wednesday at 6 PM - Programming for all ages

Student Sunday / Chief’s Game / Potluck - Next Week

If you’re new, please stop by our info desk, or see me. We’d love to say “hi” and get you know you a bit better.

I hope you have a great week.

Go in peace.

You are dismissed.

DISCIPLESHIP QUESTIONS (download into APP)

What physical goals have you set for yourself, and how do they compare to your spiritual goals?

How can we actively engage in the process of sanctification in our daily lives?

What specific sins do you feel the Holy Spirit is calling you to cut off from your life?

How do you discern what distractions God is calling you to prune from your life?

How do you plan to maintain a healthy spiritual diet in your life?

What does 'remaining in Jesus' look like for you personally?

In what ways can you be more intentional about remaining in Jesus throughout your day?

What does it mean to you to love others as Jesus loved us, in practical terms?

In what ways can we practically support each other in our spiritual growth?

How can you encourage your friends to engage in their own spiritual growth?