Is the Grass Growing on Your Path?

Introduction: Is the Grass Growing on Your Path?

In one area of Africa where Christianity began to spread, converts were zealous about having daily devotions with the Lord, or having a time of Bible reading and prayer. They would find their own spot within the wild thickets and pour their hearts out to God. After some time, the spots became well-worn paths without grass. Soon, a person’s prayer life was made public by the worn, grass-free paths. If a person began to neglect his devotional life, it would soon be noticed by others due to grass beginning to grow again on the path. Believers would then gently and lovingly remind those in neglect, “The grass grows on your path.”[1]

Let me ask you, “Is the grass growing on your path?”

Jesus taught His disciples and, by extension, He teaches us by comparing the Father, Himself, and true believers to a Gardener, a Vine, and branches, and He does it all around the theme of staying close to Him. Let’s read our text of John 15:1-17.

John 15:1-3—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. (CSB)

Let’s pause here. Earlier in John 13:10, Jesus was washing the disciples’ feet and said, “You are clean, but not all of you.” Then John goes on to say, “For He knew who would betray Him. This is why He said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’” At this time, Judas had already left to betray Jesus, so Jesus is speaking to the remaining 11 faithful disciples, saying that they are clean.

John 15:4-17—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.” 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.” (CSB)

Here’s the context of this teaching. Jesus has just washed His disciples’ feet and has had the somber last supper with His disciples during which he sent Judas on his way to do his dirty deed of betrayal. Jesus is with the 11 remaining disciples, and they’re on their way from the upper room to the Mount of Olives to pray and where He’ll be betrayed. Jesus has possibly stopped at the Temple outside the Holy Place and pointed out to His disciples the pure gold grapevine which was hung outside the curtain. The vine represented Israel as God’s vine which He tended.

In fact, the OT is replete with the image of Israel as God’s vine which is being chastised by the Lord for not bearing fruit or for bearing bad fruit. As the disciples looked upon the golden grapevine on the Temple, Jesus begins teaching them about the vine and branches.

Jesus, the True Vine, always produces good fruit.

John 15:1—“I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener.” (CSB)

Israel was a poor vine, but Jesus tells them that He, an Israelite, is the True Vine which the Father tends. Israel was a failure in fruit-bearing, but Jesus is the True Vine which produces good fruit all the time because He is constantly submissive to the Father.

What kind of branch are you—cut back or cut off?

John 15:2,6—“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…. 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.” (CSB)

There are two kinds of branches—fruitful or fruitless, useful or useless. Which kind are you? The Father is not interested in you staying the same, and if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. The Father wants to make you productive.

He wants you to bear fruit which is probably bearing the fruit of the Spirit in the context of the passage. What is the fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). Why do I think that He’s referring to the fruit of the Spirit? Well, look at verses 11-12.

John 15:11-12—11 “I have told you these things so that My JOY may be in you and your JOY may be complete. 12 This is My command: LOVE one another as I have LOVED you.”

Here are the first two fruit of the Spirit—love and joy. Jesus says that fruitless branches are cut off and burned. So basically, He’s saying that unless the Spirit’s fruit is growing in your life, you’re worthless to the kingdom. Worse yet, you’re an imposter. You have the look of a branch on the outside, but on the inside you’re dead. No life is in you. I’m not talking about a backslidden believer. I think Jesus is referring to someone who’s a nominal Christian, someone who only has an appearance of being a Christian but who is really not. Someone who’s connected on the outside but not connected on the inside.

Eventually, Jesus says that these branches will be cut off because there’s really no life in them. Attending church or reading your Bible doesn’t make you a Christian. Doing things that appear to be good will not make you a true Christian. Judas was connected to Jesus outwardly, but inwardly there was no life in him. He lacked that inner life-giving connection to Jesus.

An unsurrendered life is worthless to God and His kingdom. Jesus said that those worthless lives, like Judas’, in the end, will be thrown into the fires of hell. James said it this way—faith without works is dead. In other words, living faith works. Surrender your life to Jesus today.

Accept His gift of salvation today—not merely to escape the fires of hell but more importantly to have a relationship with Jesus.

But Jesus says that His true disciples are branches which bear fruit, but they’re not perfect branches. Through Jesus’ words, the Father prunes the living branches so that they produce more fruit. The concept is just what Paul said in Philippians 1:6.

Philippians 1:6—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. (CSB)

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will continue working on us who are His true disciples.

Jesus’ true disciples are forgiven but fallen.

We’re believers but broken.

We’re saints but sinful.

We’re found but faulty.

That’s why staying close to Christ is so important for us because we can do nothing eternal on our own. On our own, our good works are filthy rags only fit for the garbage. Believers in Christ need to be worked on, pruned, cleaned up, reoriented, refashioned, and renewed. We need sinful patterns lopped off. We need bad attitudes trimmed off. Those harmful strongholds in your life need to be chopped right off.

Those areas which consume your time and lead to the neglect of your spiritual life—those areas need to be hacked off of you so that new stronger growth can occur. Sometimes even some neutral or good things need to be severed so that better spiritual growth can happen.

Your remaining in Jesus must be your top priority.

John 15:4-5—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. (CSB)

Is the grass growing on your path? I hope that it’s not. Are you meeting regularly and consistently with Jesus? Are you continually dependent upon Him? Are you staying connected to the vine? Are you abiding in Him? Without that connection, all that you do is in your own flesh which makes it not lasting.

Just as a lamp must stay plugged in to produce light when needed, so we must stay plugged in to our power source.

Branches are outgrowths of vines. A branch will not produce fruit by itself because it needs the life of the vine. The only way for a branch to survive is to stay connected to the vine, and the only way to bear fruit is to be connected. The branch has to stay connected on the inside and outside for the vine’s life to flow through the branch. You’re nothing without staying connected to Jesus. God’s not interested in what you can do but what you’ll allow Him to do through you.

So how do we remain in Christ? How do we stay connected to Him throughout the day and week?” We meet with Him on purpose each day in prayer and Bible reading and study, not to check it off a list but to seek Him and learn from Him.

As we read the Scriptures, we’re learning not to merely have knowledge but to follow Jesus. Throughout the day, we pray constantly as needs, temptations, desires, and requests arise, and we seek to obey Jesus—following Him in the midst of life and listening to Him. When we can, we read the Word again. We read Christian writers or listen to sermons or Christian music to keep the connection.

The connection is not just a once-a-week church thing, but it’s also not just a once-a-day devotional thing. It’s a moment-by-moment lifestyle which we pursue not for becoming better but for following more closely to the Savior who gave it all to free us so that we can have this life of connection and dependence.

Now let me say that I fail so much at this moment-by-moment connection with Jesus. I have successes, but so often I get a bad attitude or get distracted by the TV, my phone, and the busyness of life. In these instances, I’m merely revealing to myself where God needs to prune me.

When I say that cross word to my wife or to one of my girls, I’m showing them where I need cleaning up in my life, and when I choose to follow my Savior, these cuts to my character will hurt but help me in fruit-bearing. My staying connected to Jesus helps me and those who are in my world. Without staying connected to the Savior, my life’s works amount to nada. Zero. Absolutely nothing. Only what I do connected to my Lord will last. That’s kingdom work.

Are you feeling dried up spiritually? Maybe you’ve neglected your connection. Is the grass growing on your path? Start walking your path again to meet with Jesus but not merely to meet Him but to follow Him in the ins and outs of life.

Consider the story of Mary and Martha when Jesus went to visit them in Luke 10.

Luke 10:38-42—38 While they were traveling, He entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what He said. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and asked, “Lord, don’t You care that my sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her to give me a hand.” 41 The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.” CSB)

Mary chose to remain with Jesus. However, Martha was distracted by what she thought was more important—serving Jesus.

However, serving Jesus will never be more important than being with Him.

This doesn’t mean that we don’t serve, but we must serve from a place of connection, not in place of our connection.

We get so distracted by all kinds of things including many good things and also good spiritual things. However, fellowshipping with Jesus and following Him out of that relationship must be the priority.

Hot Car Illustration: It was a 99° September day in San Antonio, when a 10-month-old baby girl was accidently locked inside a parked car by her aunt. Frantically, the mother and aunt ran around the car in near hysteria while a neighbor attempted to unlock the car with a clothes hanger. Soon, the infant was turning purple and had foam on her mouth. It had become a life-or-death situation when Fred Arriola, a wrecker driver, arrived on the scene. He grabbed a hammer and smashed the back window of the car to set her free. However, the man later said, “The lady was mad at me because I broke the window. I just thought, What’s more important—the baby or the window?”[2]

Your connection with Jesus is a baby locked up in a hot car on a 99° day. Your connection with Jesus has got to be the priority in your life above every other thing. When it comes to our staying connected to Jesus each day, we’ve got to see it as a life-or-death situation. Where does your staying connected with Jesus fit in your list of priorities? Is the grass growing on your path?

Staying connected leads to bearing fruit, but staying connected is not merely sitting on your can. It’s growing to know the Lord and His voice for the purpose of following Him—obeying Him. It’s like the sheep grow to know the shepherd’s voice. As Henry Blackaby says in his study Experiencing God, it’s about knowing and doing God’s will in the context of a love relationship with Him.

You remain in Jesus and His love by keeping His commands—namely to love Him and one another.

John 15:7-17—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…. 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.” (CSB)

Remaining in Jesus involves having Jesus’ words remain in you. This is not referring to memorization of Jesus’ words, but knowing and doing them. It is obeying Jesus. Remaining in Jesus will always lead to pain—the pain of pruning, but it will lead to more fruit and a life which more resembles the Savior.

Jesus also says that when we’re remaining in Him, doing what He says, we can ask whatever we want and it will be done. This is like the psalmist was saying in Psalm 37.

Psalm 37:4—Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. (CSB)

When we remain in Christ, or delight in Him, our desires become His desires, and our wants in prayer become Jesus’ wants for our pray. Therefore, when we pray according to Jesus’ will, it will be done. Jesus tells us to ask Him for whatever, but it’s in the context of staying connected to Him in love and obedience. Listen to what Jesus said in the previous chapter on this same night.

John 14:23-24—23 Jesus answered, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 The one who doesn’t love Me will not keep My words. The word that you hear is not Mine but is from the Father who sent Me.” (CSB)

Jesus equates loving Him with obeying Him, and equates both of these with remaining in Him. If you want to stay connected to Jesus and grow to bear more and more fruit in your life, that comes by loving Jesus and obeying Him. That love and obedience is cultivated by a personal relationship which is built on trust. The two greatest commands in the Bible are to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.

All of the commands of the Lord can be summed up in these two commands to love God and love others. But you’ll never love God supremely until you place Him as supreme in your life. It all begins by staying connected to the vine. So is the grass growing on your path? I pray that your path and my path will be a well-worn paths void of grass and neglect.

CLOSING: Holding His Hand

When Anne Graham Lotz and her husband, Denny, have attended football games at Denny’s alma mater, the University of North Carolina, thousands of people cram into the parking lots, and she can’t see where she’s going. However, her husband, a head taller at 6′7″, can look over the crowd, so he takes her hand and leads them to their seats. Anne said, “The way I get from the car to my seat is just by holding his hand and following him closely through the crowd.” [3]

I pray that you will hold tightly to Jesus’ hand, staying connected to Him, and follow Him throughout your life as your supreme priority.

[1] PreachingToday.com. (2003). More Perfect Illustrations: For Every Topic and Occasion (p. 265). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

[2] Larson, C. B. (2002). 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (pp. 424–425). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[3] PreachingToday.com. (2002). Perfect Illustrations: For Every Topic and Occasion (p. 62). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.