In the Name of Jesus

Welcome

Welcome

Welcome to Celebration. We are so glad that you are here. My name is Keith and my wife Maegan and I serve as the Lead Pastors here and we want to thank you for joining us today. If there is anything we can do to serve you and your family, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Context/Background

Let me paint the scene for you. Jesus is about to have His last meal with His disciples. Up to this point, He has been weaving in these “I am” statements to reinforce that He, indeed, was the God of the OT. He is the bread of life, light of the world, the door, the good shepherd, the resurrection, the way-truth-life, and He uses this moment to reinforce His last “I am” statement. He washed His disciples feet, introduces communion, Judas leaves and Jesus takes these final moments to say, He is the way, the truth and the life in . He tells them about the Holy Spirit, then brings them to His final statement.

Scripture(s)

(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.

(Jesus is the Word of God [] and in [] we see Jesus washing His disciples feet. It’s a perfect manifestation of this at work. We literally see the Word cleansing the disciples feet. Feet carry the residue of the past, but the Word can cleanse you, struggle is in your past, but the Word has cleansed you. Let the Word do the work)

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.

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, so 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.

Message Title:

What we see is Jesus preparing His disciples for the next stage of ministry. He knows things are about to escalate and it’s about to get messy. He is telling them, stay in me. Things will get uncomfortable, but stay in me. I want to talk to us on the topic of staying In Christ and the importance of cooperating with grace. In the Name of Jesus.

Illustration

I recall a few years ago, traveling to a foreign country. I heard horror stories about cell phone bills being over $1000 dollars so I was cautious. As I researched, I learned that wifi was readily available everywhere and that I should be more than ok. Just to be safe, my friend purchased a personal hotspot. As long as I was in proximity to him, I had no problems. We were out sightseeing and decided to go our separate ways for the afternoon. He got on the transit and as he road off, I was disconnected from his hotspot. I was now stuck out in the streets, with no wifi, no hotspot and no clue of where I was. I was wandering like the Children of Israel until I finally stumbled upon my hotel. When I got in proximity, I picked up my friends hotspot. Turns out he made it back before me. He was sitting in the lobby. I thought I had it all figured out so I distanced myself from him, only causing me to wander unnecessarily.

Transition

Perhaps there is an aspect of this you can relate to? We approach God in hopes of getting the full download and kind of have the “I got it from here” attitude. Unfortunately, when we do things our way, we shouldn’t be surprised when we get our results. Beautiful sites, but wandering around without a sense of direction. We live our lives on Airplane mode forced to watch reruns, when God wants to do a new thing in our life. ()

Our intensions don’t determine our destination, our direction does.

Distance leads to denial. Distance gave Peter the space to deny.

When we mind the gap, we stay on track.

Jesus being aware of this inevitability, gives us some incite.

Observations

Jesus is the Source:

He says, He is the true vine and staying connected to Him is how we produce fruit. We see throughout scripture this idea of being fruitful. The first instruction given to man is to be fruitful and multiply. With those words God imparted the reproductive ability that we all possess. Please understand that God wants you to be fruitful. He wants you to thrive, not survive. He gives us our drive and dreams. The thing is, we are supposed to draw our inspiration from Him. It’s when we drift and begin to look to other sources that we lose perspective. tells us how the Israelites didn’t have a king and the people did what we right in their sight. When we don’t allow Christ to be the king of every area of our lives, we do what’s right in our own sight, don’t we. informs us that there is a way that SEEMS right, but it leads to destruction.

We start using artificial sources. I took a road trip and bought a phone charger at a discount and it didn’t work. It maintain my energy level, but it couldn’t fill me. These other sources can maintain our current level but they can never fill us. God is a filler, not a maintainer. This is why we are to be FILLED by His Spirit. () We even see with the widow in when she brought her empty containers, God FILLED them. You can bring God your empty hopes and He will fill them with dreams. You can bring God your empty account and He will make your cup runneth over. You can bring God your empty vessel and He will fill you with His Spirit. When God is your source, there is no remorse. God is a filler, not a maintainer

(HCSB) 18 And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions, but be filled by the Spirit: 19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music from your heart to the Lord,

(HCSB) 1 One of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, has died. You know that your servant feared the Lord. Now the creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves.” 2 Elisha asked her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” 3 Then he said, “Go and borrow empty containers from everyone — from all your neighbors. Do not get just a few. 4 Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these containers. Set the full ones to one side.” 5 So she left. After she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing her containers, and she kept pouring. 6 When they were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” But he replied, “There aren’t any more.” Then the oil stopped. 7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go sell the oil and pay your debt; you and your sons can live on the rest.”

Stay Planted:

To abide means to remain, dwell, or stand. It’s a verb, which indicates action. We wouldn’t think the act of standing still as an action. A more contextual definition is, “to remain under”. When looking at the relationship between vine and branches, you actually do see action in play. The vine carries the life-giving sap and nutrients. As the branches grow they become intertwined with the vine they can’t be separated. Kind of like a fish and water, the fish is in the water and the water is in the fish. If anything unhealthy is found, it is pruned off or cut off to ensure optimal health and continued growth. Luke says, in Him we live, move and have our being. Imagine a life so intertwined with God, it is hard to determine where you end and where God begins. Sounds beautiful doesn’t but it doesn’t always feel that way does it? We follow the instructions manual but we still lack stability and there are a ton of extra parts like an Ikea entertainment stand. Before long, we see the lack of results and we think we would be just as good doing it our way...because it’s messy. It’s like your favorite film just got interrupted.

Growing up I was a huge fan of the Transformer franchise. I watched the cartoons. I had the puzzles, the bedroom decor, and action figures. My favorite character by far was Optimus Prime. His voice and leadership was something that I recognized even as an elementary student. You can only imagine my excitement when the franchise collided with modern technology and they brought it to the big screen. As I was watching the movie from home, I set the atmosphere perfectly. The moment of truth arrived. Optimus pulls up and is about to transform then my wife harkens for me and tells me it’s time for dinner. I pause the movie and reluctantly get up and go into the kitchen to enjoy my family meal. Once complete, I rush back downstairs to continue the movie. As I repositioned myself and was about to push play on the remote control, I noticed on the screen the Optimus had begun his transformation but was frozen when I hit the pause button. He wasn’t what he used to be but also wasn’t what he was going to be. He was in the middle. The middle looked messy. However, once I hit the button and let it play out, what once was a twisted mess transformed into the main character. I’m here to encourage someone today, maybe when you look at areas of your life, you see a twisted mess. But the Bible declares, that if God starts something He will finish it. You may think you’re a mess but you’re a transformer in transition. Just let it play out. Having done all to stand, keep standing. Don’t move. Things will change if you remain. (Abram to Abraham; Jacob to Israel)

(HCSB) 3 He is like a tree planted beside streams of water that bears its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

(NKJV) 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

(HCSB) 6 I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

(NKJV) 3 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

Closing

Stay Fruitful. Jesus almost makes the plea 10 times in 10 short verses. Stay in Me. There is another powerful word that is overlooked but is what the entire passage is hinged on, “IF”. The word only appears 3 times, but the impact is exponential. It’s an if-then proposition that is not salvic, but it is reproductive. You will thrive in life when you abide in Christ. Fruitfulness is connected to faithfulness.

When we don’t abide, we strive... tells us of a group of men that invoked the name of Jesus but didn’t have a relationship with Him and didn’t get results. In the name of Jesus is not a Christian enchantment for wishes to be granted. In the name of Jesus isn’t just your words, it’s the posture of your heart gives the power of perspective and it gives our perspective power.

tells us of a group of men that invoked the name of Jesus but didn’t have a relationship with Him and didn’t get results. In the name of Jesus is not a Christian enchantment for wishes to be granted. In the name of Jesus isn’t just your words, it’s the posture of your heart gives the power of perspective.

When you are in the name of Jesus, you see things differently. I recently went to the mall and seen the most hilarious thing ever. I saw this guy walking with his hands up then all of a sudden he hit the ground. I wasn’t sure what was going on but when I got closer I discovered that he was really the virtual reality glasses. It looked so ridiculous. He gave me the goggles to try it out. I kept saying to myself, you are in a game. After getting set up, I was fully immersed. Now that I had the glasses on, it made perfect sense. The stuff I seen blew my mind. There were moments I felt like I was flying. There were moments I had to get low. If a person was looking at me, they would think I have lost my mind. Why are my hands lifted up? Why am I on my knees? If they could see what I saw, they would understand what I do.

When you are In the Name of Jesus, you have a perspective that others may not understand. When we are in Christ, Christ is in us. We are literally in the name of Jesus and the name of Jesus is in us. We are seated in heavenly places and we have a perspective that everyone else can’t see. This is why He says, don’t give up your seat. When you are in the name of Jesus you see hope, love, grace, peace, reconciliation, forgiveness, healing, freedom, restoration, all things new, joy...

When the world see’s...

Death, you see life

Despair, you see hope

Judgement, you see mercy

Sickness, you see healing

Divorce, you see restoration

Brokenness, you see wholeness

Hate, you see love

Doubt, you see faith

Fear, you see courage

Darkness, you see light

Bondage, you see freedom

Greed, you see generosity

Selfish, you see selfless

Convenience, you see calling

I am in the Name of Jesus and the power of Jesus is in me.

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

(HCSB) 6 Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens,

(NLT) 13 A group of Jews was traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation, saying, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!”14 Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. 15 But one time when they tried it, the evil spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?”16 Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered.

Thoughts and scriptures

Jesus died for us so that we can live for him

Je

When we remain in Him, “it” remains under our feet