The Walk: How do we live victoriously
Notes
Transcript
Over the last many weeks we have identified the enemy. We have looked at his tactics. Last week we looked at what is known as the armor of God. All of this is good and necessary but if you do not understand today’s sermon, than it will not be effective in your life.
So if we have been granted the Victory in Christ, How do we live this victory out in our every day life. Again the victory has been given to us so then it would make sense that all that we need to walk in victory has also been provided.
So today we are going to look at the secret of walking in victory.
The secret is this..… We must learn to abide in Christ.
Two weeks ago, while I was at the Pastor’s retreat. During one of our round tables the facilitator asked us this Question: Why were we created?
Of course the standard answers are, To bring glory to God, To have a relationship with God. Which is all part of it. We should bring glory to God, We should have a dynamic relationship with God.
But What if I told you that there is another aspect the the purpose of God creating us that changes the way we look at God and radically changes the way we rest in Him?
I would like to purpose to you this morning what I was reminded of just this past week.
The Big Ideas is this.
God is love and love requires an external object of expression. Understanding this truth is our greatest weapon against the enemy. We were created, yes, to have a realtionship with God but ultimately to be loved by Him. With this idea in mind
Let’s look at...
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.
9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love.
10 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.
11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
The first thing I want us to notice this morning is the word “remain” some translations us the word “abide”. This word, appears 11 times in this short passage of Scripture.
Remain - To Stay in that place.
I. Recognize the work of the Father. (Vs 1-2)
I. Recognize the work of the Father. (Vs 1-2)
Since Israel was an agrarian society the imagery Jesus was using would have been familiar to all of his listeners. The work of a pruner was so important that it was generally a 3 year process to learn this skill.
In this passage Jesus makes two profound statements. The first is that He is the true vine. (all life comes from him) and his Father is the gardener or pruner.
I want you to notice something here. The Gardener prunes both non-fruitful and fruitful branches alike.
This is a concept that is hard for the believer to recognize. We understand that God prunes the dead branches that much makes sense to us. But what about, the branches that are producing fruit?
Does God ,at times, remove the good things in lives, the growing things, to make room for the better? The answer is yes.
Have you ever in your christian life tired to do good only to have it abruptly end. It seems like you were trying so hard to good things for the Lord and all of the sudden God allowed something to take place the stopped the good work you were doing?
I know many times in my life I have had this very thing take place. I then begin to question God. God what are you doing , I was doing this work for you? This is painful.
In fact pruning is painful to the plant. If the wrong branches are cut off at the wrong time than the plant can die. But this is when we must trust that the gardener’s trained hand knows exactly what is best for the vine and when he snaps that vine off, it will hurt for a moment but the result will be greater fruit.
So then what do we do when Pain removes what is seemingly good in our lives?
We trust, We rest, we abide, we remain in the true vine.
II. We Remain in the True Vine
II. We Remain in the True Vine
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.
Notice with me the encouragement to “remain” takes place directly after the work of pruning begins. It’s almost as if the God of the universe knew that at times the pruning would seem so painful that we would be tempted to do what comes natural to every living creature that God created on this earth, that is to avoid pain.
In fact, pain and suffering is often exactly what the enemy uses to discourage us from doing God’s will. But in a real sense we see that God is always steps ahead of whatever the enemy is doing.
The pain that is brought to us God uses in us to produce not just fruit but much fruit.
So even when it is painful, even when it seems like things in your life were going so well and then the Lord allowed it to come to a screeching halt, recognize the fathers care in your life.
The greatest judgment God could bring to a believer would be to let him alone, let him have his own way. Because God loves us, He “prunes” us and encourages us to bear more fruit for His glory. If the branches could speak, they would confess that the pruning process hurts; but they would also rejoice that they will be able to produce more and better fruit.
Your Heavenly Father is never nearer to you than when He is pruning you. Sometimes He cuts away the dead wood that might cause trouble; but often He cuts off the living tissue that is robbing you of spiritual vigor. Pruning does not simply mean spiritual surgery that removes what is bad. It can also mean cutting away the good and the better so that we might enjoy the best. Yes, pruning hurts, but it also helps. We may not enjoy it, but we need it. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 356.
When the trials or pruning that you are going through seem make you doubt that God cares remember that it is exactly because he cares that you are enduring these things. Honestly this seems so counterintuitive to us doesn’t it?
If I am honest, in my own life, I thought many times. Lord if you could just give me a break, I could accomplish so much more for you in the church and in my life.
But heres the truth about a healthy branch. The more health that is brought to the branch the more pruning it takes to maintain its vigor. In other words, a healthy vine will produce lots of smaller branches as it grows. The healthier it becomes the easier it becomes for the vine to branch out in all sorts of directions. It is only when the growth is cut back does it produce more fruit.
When God starts pruning you in this way two things will happen.
#1 Your Prayers will be answered.
#1 Your Prayers will be answered.
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.
Why? Why does this lead to answered prayer. Because as God cuts away both the good and the bad from our lives, he focuses the plant toward bearing fruit. So he narrows our focus toward bearing fruit. In other words are desires begin to change and so does what we pray for. But I want you to notice that payer is the means by which God’s work is done and fruit continues to grow.
3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
But if our prayers are answered then we know that we praying in God’s will. The more we pray in God’s will the more confidence we have in the one who is pruning us. So that we actually begin to pray for the very things that will cause us to become even more fruitful. Look at the very next verse.
8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.
The second thing that happens to us as a result of God’s pruning is this. Our answered prayer results in assurance of whom we belong too.
#2 We prove to be Jesus Disciples
#2 We prove to be Jesus Disciples
The truth is, is that it is trials that drive God’s disciples to prayer. It is this prayerful spirit in trials that keep us going and bring us into assurance and perseverance.
6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials
7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials,
3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
Jesus knows who his true disciples are but the testing proves it to us and to those that are around us that we remain in the vine.
The fact that our branch does not wither up and die is proof to ourselves and all those looking in that we are attached to the true vine. It is proof that we remain in him and he in us.
Now I told you at the beginning
God is love and love requires an external object of expression. Understanding this truth is our greatest weapon against the enemy.
What does this have to do with spiritual warefare. It has everything to do with it.
Look at the very next verse
9 “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love.
What if all of this was not just about bringing glory to God? As if God needed someone to boss around so he created mankind. But what if all of this had everyting to do with his love.
What if the ultimate purpose of mankind was not simply service but being an object of God’s love.
In this short phrase we see that Jesus makes a remarkable statement here....Jesus loves us with the exact quantity and quality of love that God loves the Son with.....
Let that sink in.....
So right at the end of all of this Jesus drops this bombshell of truth. All of this is about us learning to be loved by God.
For what purpose?
11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
So the fruit that the father is producing in us is what...
the manifest presence of love of the father and complete Joy.
The purpose of mankind is not service but love and Joy in Christ that results in obedience and not rebellion yes.
10 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.
If you are not convinced of this truth yet.
Look at the next few vereses
12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.
13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15 I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.
17 “This is what I command you: Love one another.
Obeying God is proof that you are resting in his love. In this we are no longer called servants but friends.
What is the command that we are to obey? It is the command of Love. We cannot love unless we are loved.
So then what does this have to do with spiritual warfare?
From the very beginning. The enemy’s goal was to separate us from the love of the father.
He wants you to live a life that feels unloved.
In clinical psychology multiple studies show this idea to be true.
When a child does not feel that he has the love and approval of his parents. He/she doesn’t stop loving thier parents they stop loving themselves.
If Satan can make you believe that you are not loved by God in Christ, that you do not have the approval of God through Christ, you won’t necessarily stop loving Him but the guilt of your imperfections will be to much for you to bear. Instead of seeing God as loving you with a perfect love like he loved Christ. Every trial and every struggle will seem like the punishment and the anger of God instead of the loving hand of God doing what is necessary in our lives to love us well.
Church family God is love and he wants you to know his love. He wants you to abide and rest in his love.
If you can get a hold of this truth. If you can remind yourself each morning when you wake up that you are loved by God with the same love as God that Father loves Christ the Son. It will radically change your outlook. It will change what you are tempted by. You will see his commands and not a burden but him loving you well.
You will see your obedience not just as servant views a master but as son or daughter views obeying a loving parent. If you can get ahold of this idea this morning than you you an defeat anything the enemy attacks you with. Rest in His love for you.
I want to leave you with this last quote this morning
Our union with Christ is a living union, so we may bear fruit; a loving union, so that we may enjoy Him; and a lasting union, so that we need not be afraid. Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 355.
this is your greatest weapon against the enemy.
Live your life like you are loved....
13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.
If you are here this morning, and you are in Christ. Meaning that you have turned to him Jesus in faith and repentence. Faith that believes that Jesus lived a perfect life and laid down his life for your sins on the cross and was risen again three days later defeating sin and death. And repentance meaning that you have let go of goinng your own way, forsaken your sin, and have chosen to follow Christ than this passage should give you great joy. You are loved by God and perfected in Christ’s Righteousness. Let your joy be made complete.
or if you are here today and you know in your heart that you are still walking in unbelief and rebellion call out to God today. Turn in faith and repentance to him.
Our God is love and he promises this no matter what you have done in your life.
37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.
You too can finally find rest in God’s perfect love.
