Abide in Christ (2)

Sermon Style Sheet

Write that down in your formation Journal

Illustration

Sermon Text

Sermon Text: Scripture

Call to Worship

psalm 146:1-2

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Passage:

Formation Journal Page Number: 3:08-3:59 6:15- 7:04

John 15:1–8 CSB

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

Opening Illustration:

Directions in Nicaragua

Knowing the true road is important but so is knowing the true vine. Let’s jump into it.

You don’t just need the map - you need the true map - the real road.

The true map shows us the true road; The true vine gives us true life.

time

Getting into the Sermon

time

John 15:1 CSB

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

The first thing we need to see is that Christ is not just the vine but he is the true vine.

False vines are the things we use to get security, identity and meaning apart from Christ.

What are some things that use to try to find our connection? Sometimes its our emotions, money, politics, we have other standards that we use to try to find meaning and worth.

John 15:2–3 CSB

2 Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Judas vs the disciples

generally we think about two types of people who come to church: seekers who don’t know what they believe, christians who want to grow and serve and

But there is a third: I call cosmetic christians. They aren’t real christians, they are people who use act like christians in service to their false vines. Usually, they want to get security, identity and meaning from being a good person.

A Cosmetic Christian uses Christ as a costume rather than a source of life.

They leave the church and say everyone is just a hypocrite.

But whether you are here because you as a seeker or as a cosmetic christian, the offer is still the same.

Now he also talks about prunning. That’s the idea that God will shape your life

Pruning for a christian means that God will reshape your life for maximum fruit production.

What does this mean - well- it’s talking about everything Christ has talked to them about. He is talking about his whole life. We are made clean through Jesus.

The gospel

And then he goes on to say this

John 15:4–6 CSB

4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

Here’s is the most important part, the central idea, Christ is the vine and we are it’s branches.

All of time we can read that or hear that and think it means affiliation. I am connected to Christ through my affiliation with him the same way that I am connected to sports team or a club. I see someone with a dallas cowboys hat and I immediate think - I like that guy - we are together. Or when I went to the LOTR showing, these are my people. That’s what we can think it means.

But that’s not what it means -

Remaining in Christ is a spiritual union not an affiliation. Branches don’t affiliate with the vine, they are connected to it, they get their life from it, they are dead without it.

Now here is what we need to understand, for the christian, our spiritual union with Christ is real and permanent but our experience of that in our relationship with God can grow as we grow in our faith.

And God does give us tools that he uses to help us grow in that experience - we call them means of grace

The means of grace are how God keeps us abiding with Christ.

On Sunday - praying together, hearing the word preached, participating in the sacraments.

The life of the christian is the one who is connected to Christ.

That you are living out that spiritual connection between you and Christ. Living life through the spirit,

The Christian should live all of life through the spirit - and the main mechanism for that, the main way we live that out, is through the regular practice of quiet times.

we also practice some of them on a daily basis- prayer and bible reading.

Christians have long set aside regular time for prayer and Scripture. As Bibles became more widely available, personal Bible reading became part of daily Christian life. Today, we often call this a quiet time—a simple, intentional time during the day to feed our souls through God’s Word and prayer.

A quiet time is an intentional time during the day where you feed your soul with Bible reading and prayer.

A weird thing has happened in the christian world - a push against legalism.

Legalism - that I am going to earn my salvation OR earn God’s affection

This is why I push that so hard. We need to be fed.

But wats really happening is that their soul becomes weak and sickly.

Feel like tiny tim

It’s not a chore to make you feel guilty it’s food to make you feel alive

Most of your spiritual problems will go away just by having daily quiet times

Feelings of loneliness go down by 30%

Anger issues drop 32%

Bitterness drops 40%

alocoholism drops 57%

Pornography use drops 61%

Sex outside marriage 68%

Sharing your faith increases 200%

Discipling others increases 230%

feeling spiritual stagnet drops 60%

It doesn’t cure everything. There is more to the spiritual life, you need christian friends, you need to be in church, you need to participate with the sacraments, you need decent if not good theology.

Why does this work - because you need to remain in Christ!

I know it’s not easy - but sometimes it isn’t easy to find time to eat.

30X30 Prayer challenge - we have resources, and we are getting more.

Live all of life through prayer, fed by God’s word, united to Christ through His Spirit.

Its vitality

What happens is that the spirit connects with us in a unique way, filling our imagination with spiritual posbilities, forming the way that we think, giving us real joy and peace.

Remain in Christ!

Listen to what happens if we do:

John 15:7 CSB

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

This can be a difficult passage because it feels like a big promise. Ask whatever you want and I’ll give it to you. It’s a pretty big blank check.

I’ve heard some people try to limit this offer to being only spiritual things - ask for spiritual things and whatever you want I’ll give it to you.

We should see life through the lens of prayer stories rather than prayer requests. In a prayer story, we see our prayers as a process of participating in God’s plan as he shapes our hearts.

Here’s why that matters - God really does work in our life. The Holy Spirit will work in your heart. It actually happens. So when you are living your life through prayer, when you abiding in Christ, living as a branch connected to the vine, he can make this promise because He is actively shaping you.

And what happens a lot of time, is that you will start a prayer story, taking an issue to God and the in a few weeks or a few months, you find that your desires change. You don’t want the things you used to.

Prayer stories - prayer journies

You start to change in your desires and then you are seeing that you get the answers to your prayers. It’s a pretty fulfilling thing!

That’s part of the excitement of living your life through prayer, of living as a branch connected to the true vine.

He ends it with this.

John 15:8 CSB

8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

One of the most powerful motivations of a person’s life, is to have the approval of his or her father, to make their father proud of them. Really what this means is that it gives our earthly father glory- that’s essentially what it means.

Some people have demanding fathers who are never happy. Or maybe you didn’t even know him. Maybe you are like me with a great dad, who is proud of you even when you don’t do much - I think it’s because I look like him - but here is what our heavinly father does

God the Father, as the gardener, gives us the power through the Spirit and our union with the Son, to bear fruit that gives Him glory.

Look, we’ve got dreams as Mercy Hill. We want to be a discipleship factory, connect with immigrants, help with special needs families, plant churches and send missionaries.

We also want to see marriages restored, people growing in victory over their sins, we want to see people coming to faith in Christ. We want to be a part of God’s work of pushing back the darkness.

That’s bearing fruit. That’s what it means. And so, if we want to see that fruit we have to be connected to the vine, together.

Live all of life through prayer, fed by God’s word, united to Christ through His Spirit, together

Lord’s Supper:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD makes his face shine upon you and be gracious to you:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.