STAYING Connected or Requirements for a Fruitful Life

John 15: 1-8

The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of God will stand forever. I want to talk for a minute about “STAYING CONNECTED” I AM is THE TRUE VINE!!! This is the last of the seven great “I am” statements in the Gospel according to John .. It is not clear from the narrative where Jesus was when he gave this teaching......

I wonder what and where did this event take place or on what occasion could this have been. Could it have been they had finished the supper and the may have walked outside near the Kedron Valley and vines were hanging with there branches or they could have remembered the golden vines that embossed the face of Jerusalem’s temple. Or they smelled the burning of vines after the harvest in the fields near Gethsemane. I think it’s a more concrete reason than that.

Israel has always been pictured as the vine. The symbol for the nation of Isreal was a vine. Israel was God’s choice vine on which he lavished care and attention . He longed for fruit, but the vine (Israel) became degenerate and produced rotten fruit. Therefore Jesus, as “the true Vine,” fulfills what God had intended for Israel. The Father is the Gardener who cultivates and protects the Vine. The vine with which these disciples would have been familiar was Israel, described in some detail in

Psalm 80: 8-10,There the psalmist prayed, “Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself.

There is a parable about a vine about a vineyard where a vine was planted and it grew and it was fruitful and then ‘’ IT LOST IT’S PURPOSE” according to Jeremiah .... in Jeremiah 2:21 “Yet I planted you a choice vine, A completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before Me Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine? The vine dresser took down the hedge and let weeds grow in it because the vine was not living up to it’s purpose. Therefore God sent Jesus to be the TRUE VINE!! Jesus used the word ‘true’ (alēthinos) several times to denote what is true or genuine (4:23: ‘true worshippers’, 6:32: ‘true bread’, 15:1: ‘true vine’, 17:3: ‘the true God’). He used it on this occasion to indicate that, as the true vine, he produced what the nation Israel failed to produce: fruit for which the gardener (the Father) was looking. Israel was the vine in the Old Testament and the prophets were the husbandmen. The vine dressers who came to take care of the vine THEY KILLED THE VINE DRESSORS, they got rid of their prophets, they got rid of the HUSBANDMEN!!! so Jesus says NOW I AM THE VINE AND my FATHER is the HUSBAND MAN. Israel was the vine, the prophets use to be the vine dressers BUT NOW I AM THE VINE and MY FATHER IS THE VINE DRESSER. Every branch that’s BEARING NOT FRUIT, HE TAKES IT AWAY, every branch that is BEARING FRUIT, HE PRUNES IT, HE CUTS IT, HE BRUISES IT, HE WOUNDS IT, HE SLICES IT that it might bring forth more fruit. This IS THE matter of “STAYING CONNECTED”!!!!!! Sometimes you may be connected to a football team, a basketball team, a PART OF THE EASTERN STAR or of the FRATERNITY OR A SORORITY.......that’s ALL WELL & GOOD, but they can’t give you THE TRUE VINE!!!! Sometimes people try to fine the VINE IN EVERYTHING & in EVERYBODY BUT GOD. If you are going to be connected to the true vine, it’s about a RELATIONSHIP. Three types of believers are named or inferred in this first part of the chapter: those who bear no fruit, those who bear some fruit and, later in verse 5, those who bear much fruit. The fruit-bearing branches, it would appear from the text of this verse, represent true believers. In verses 1-8 six times HE SAYS IN ME, ABIDE IN ME if you ARE CONNECTED if you are IN ME. How does one get to be in Jesus Christ. The new birth must be for every one of us because you CANNOT BE CONNECTED TO THE VINE as a BRANCH if you HAVEN’T BEEN BORN AGAIN!!!!! I don’t think that I’ve got everybody’s attention.......Let’s look at it this way TO BE IN CHURCH DOES NOT MEAN TO BE IN JESUS. TO BE IN A RELIGION DOES NOT MEAN TO BE IN JESUS. In order TO BE IN JESUS YOU HAVE TO BE BORN AGAIN because that is of the flesh is flesh, but that which is of the SPIRIT is SPIRIT. YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!!! Are their one or two more people who agree with me. There is no connectivity to the vine without the new birth there is NO REGENERATION without the new birth. You can be connected to New St. James Missionary Baptist Church but that does not connect you to Jesus Christ.

You can be connected to the Apostolic or the Presbyterian, the Pentecostal or any other RELIGION............THAT DOES NOT CONNECT YOU TO JESUS CHRIST.

Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He cuts off. The phrase “in Me” does not mean the same thing as Paul’s words “in Christ.” Here it is part of the metaphor of the Vine and seems to mean, “every person who professes to be My disciple (a ‘branch’) is not necessarily a true follower.” A branch that bears no fruit is obviously dead. Pruning is the most important operation for maintaining the fruitfulness of the vine. A completely fruitless branch is not worthy of its place in the vine and has to be removed, whereas weak branches can be strengthened by being pruned. Among the disciples Judas was removed while the others had to undergo ‘pruning’ experiences before producing fruit after Pentecost. Since Jesus spoke of his word as the means of pruning, he could speak as if the disciples were already pruned (3), although the process was clearly far from complete. I am the TRUE VINE MY FATHER IS THE HUSBANDMAN. By Jesus being the vine... we now are the branches and as branches we CANNOT PRODUCE FRUIT, unless we are connected in relationship to the vine. In order for me to proclaim this message clearly I gathered some information from one of my coworkers whose over the HORTICULTURE department at school (Is the science of plants). A vine or tree that is engrafted with a branch has something to say about relationship, an example: if you were to take a peach branch and graft it to a apple tree, it will grow but it won’t produce fruit.........because the peach branch and the apple tree are from different genus species. But if you connect a peach branch to a plum tree, the tree will grow plums and the branch will grow peaches because they have the same nature!!!!! They are from the same genealogical family, they have the same kind of ROOT TISSUE even though it’s a peach branch on a plum tree it will bear PEACHES WHILE THE TREE BEARS PLUMS BECAUSE they have the same tissue orientation. Be patient with me for just a little while........I’m coming back around. As a branch we must be CONNECTED TO THE VINE IF WE ARE GOING TO BEAR FRUIT!!! BECAUSE IF WE ARE NOT CONNECTED TO THE VINE... BY THE WORD, WE WILL GROW BUT WE WON’T BEAR ANY FRUIT. AND SADLY many of us are in the church connected to the vine but not BEARING FRUIT because we don’t have the nature of THE VINE. We are religious but act like that we are not saved. We are CHURCHY but UNREEDEAMED. If you are going to bear fruit you’ve got to be connected to the vine WITH THE SAME NATURE. As a sinner I am possessed of a sin nature, so ALL THAT I KNOW HOW TO DO OUTSIDE OF CHRIST IS SIN. But once I get saved HE imbues me with a divine nature that I don’t have to sin if I don’t want to!!!! I willingly sin, I willingly DISOBEY GOD!! But I’ve got a divine nature now that can keep me from sin. That’s why I have to keep coming to church for forgiveness, chiming in for the different bible study that the pastor gives every week, that’s why I have to keep coming to Sunday School, That’s why I must keep reading God’s word!!!! That’s why I have to keep asking God to cleanse me with HIS WORD BECAUSE when I go outside my nature I do things that don’t please the VINE!!!!!! CAN I TALK TO SOME REAL FOLK IN HERE!!!! SOME OF YOU ALL MAY BE LOOKING AT ME KINDA STRANGE.......Let’s take a look in the text it’s right here: NOW YE ARE CLEAN THROUGH THE WORD WHICH I HAVE SPOKEN UNTO YOU AND THE ONLY WAY TO STAY CLEAN IS TO ABIDE IN ME!!!! & LET MY WORD ABIDE IN YOU!!!! It’s about a relationship, It’s about a relationship. YOU MUST BE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD before you can enjoy the things of God before you can be partakers of the spiritual nature. Before you can enjoy fellowship with the FATHER you’ve got to be in relationship with him because it’s hard to enjoy FELLOWSHIP with somebody that you don’t know. The older that I get in age the deeper my relationship because there are some things that I need in my 50’s that I didn’t need in my 20’s I wish I could get some noise here. The reason is that I didn’t have sense enough in my 20’s like I have in my 50’s. I NEED THE LORD TO WALK WITH ME, I NEED TO DEEPEN MY RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM. Because the older I get the more forgetful I get, so I need HIM to remind me that I can’t make it by myself. Is there any body here in my crowd who can testify what I am saying. To these folk here who are younger here than us... That day is approaching when you will not be able to see far in the distance that you once did, they will have to tell you more than one time before you can hear it. You will go into a room and forgot what you went in there for. That’s time, that’s circumstance and you Can BLEACH IT YOU CAN DYE IT, YOU CAN TUCK IT IN!! BUT TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCE WILL BRING ABOUT A CHANGE. Have I got a witness here. But when the hour comes when I can’t walk fast as I use to walk........I NEED THE LORD. I need the Holy Spirit to Hold me up, to encourage me to strengthen me when I’m weak; BUT YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE A RELATIONSHIP. What keeps you steady and balanced in LIFE is a strong relationship. The psalmist says

1  Blessed is the man

That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor standeth in the way of sinners,

Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2  But his delight is in the law of the LORD;

And in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3  And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,

That bringeth forth his fruit in his season;

His leaf also shall not wither;

And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

That’s about relationship. When they try to knock you down, you still prosper, when they try to pull the rug up under your feet, you still prosper, when they lying on you, when they talking bad about you, when they try to uncover some secret about you, you still prosper. Because IF YOU ABIDE IN HIM & HIS WORD ABIDE IN YOU, God will Protect you!!! Is there Anybody Here, I said is there Anybody here know you should have been uncovered, you should have been found out by now but God’s got a HEDGE AROUND YOU. In the book of Job satan tried to get at Job and God said since you have nothing to do, have you considered my servant Job, do I have a bible reader? Satan said I thought about it two or three times but you’ve got a hedge around him, you are protecting him, you are shielding him from something. And listen when you stay in relationship with the LORD, HE will protect you, He’ll shield you from your enemy, he’ll protect you from the devil he’ll provide for you in your hour of need, but you GOT TO ABIDE IN HIM. You cannot be fruitful outside relationship. A vine has one purpose and that purpose is to bear fruit. If you notice the vine itself does not bear fruit, it delegates fruit bearing to the branches. STAY WITH ME NOW. The vine does not produce fruit it produces an energizing life giving SAP that goes out to the branches and the branches bear fruit from the SAP energized from the vine. The vine itself is not fruit producing it just gives the energy yo the branches and the branches produce fruit. When we look at this passage it starts with NO FRUIT THEN IT GOES TO FRUIT THEN IT GOES TO MORE FRUIT AND BY THE TIME IT GETS TO VERSE 8 IT’S MUCH FRUIT. (SAY THAT PART TWICE) That much fruit comes from the branches being pruned, being cut, being worked on, being cut down because the vinedresser have got to cut it down to keep it from becoming top heavy. And God may be working on you today to keep you from becoming top heavy, because you’ll start bragging about a fruit that you didn’t produce, so God’s got to send you through the Pruning Process to MAKE TEARS COME TO YOUR EYES, TO HURT YOU IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR TO HUMBLE YOU SO YOU WON’T GET TOP HEAVY. Here is what makes me shout about the pruning process!!!.... that’s what’s called a pruning nice. It bleeds the tree it slices the branches but THANK GOD that’s in the hands of a skilled Vine dresser. If you are connected to the vine and God has to prune you......shout because the knife is in God’s hand. Are you glad that the knife is not in some of your friends hand, your co-workers hand, any of your exes hand, some people in your family. Because they want to see you cry they want to see you down they want to remind you of your past!!!! But Thank God , God knows when to stop the process. He Knows how much you can bare. He knows when to stop the pruning process. When you know who you are and whose you are you don’t give people an opportunity to define you. When you have a relationship with the Lord and He starts the pruning process.... Folk may start laughing at you and talking bad about you because you’re not suppose to be where you are but you don’t know;..... God could be doing some things in your life to help you to produce more fruit. ( I’M ABOUT TO CLOSE!!!) You can’t sing AMAZING GRACE UNTIL YOU’VE REALLY BEEN FORGIVEN, YOU REALLY CAN’T SING ABOUT GOD’S GOODNESS UNLESS YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH SOMETHING, YOU CAN’T TESTIFY ABOUT GOD’S MERCY UNTIL GOD HAS HAD MERCY ON YOU. God will prune you, God will cut you so you can bear more fruit, CAN I GET A WITNESS......YOU’LL HAVE MORE POWER IN PRAYER, YOU’LL HAVE MORE POWER IN YOUR DELIVERY OF SONG, YOU’LL HAVE MORE POWER IN THE MUSIC MINISTRY, YOU’LL HAVE MORE POWER IN YOUR TEACHING, MORE POWER IN YOUR PREACHING MORE POWER IN YOUR SCRIPTURE READING, because you’ve been through some experiences with God. I wish that I had one or two more witnesses who knows that God knows how to prune you, God knows how to break you down, God knows how to make you depend on him!!! Trust in The Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path. If the Lord has opened doors for you help me magnify Him, If you are a better person because the Lord pruned you help me glorify Him.

Doxology: God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.