Life in the Vine
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Intro
Intro
Responcability.
Re - Render, give.
Spencer - The one backing you.
Responsibility is to give back to the one who is backing you.
We all have major responcabilites because we all have major spongers.
My wife is a major Sponcer in my life.
What she does for me and my family is priceless. So as her husband I have a duty to render back to her.
My daughter is a Sponcer in my life. As a father I have to duty to render towards her.
This church is a huge Sponcer in my life - I have a duty to render to each of you.
Yes, even the government is a Sponcer to my life and I have duties to render back to them.
To be irresponsible is to the all that others do for you for absolute granted. It is the highest form of narcissism.
As Christians we have a huge responsibility.
God has back us in the most indescribable way.
He saved us.
He forgave us.
He loved us.
He filled us.
He sanctified us.
He blesses us.
The list goes on.
The christian duty is to, in light of all Good has done, to render back to God a blessing of appreciation.
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 bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Branches—We Must Abide.
Branches—We Must Abide.
The cultivation of vineyards was important to the life and economy of Israel. A golden vine adorned Herod’s temple.
When our Lord used this image, He was not introducing something new; it was familiar to every Jew.
There are four elements in this allegory that we must understand to benefit from His teaching.
The vine.
The vine.
There are actually a few different vines found in Scripture.
The past vine was the nation of Israel.
In an act of wonderful grace, God “transplanted” Israel into Canaan and gave the nation every possible benefit.
4 “What more was there to do for My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected it to produce good grapes did it produce worthless ones?
If ever a nation had everything it needed to succeed, it was Israel.
But the vine produced wild grapes!
Instead of practicing justice, it practiced oppression; instead of producing righteousness, it produced unrighteousness and cries of distress from the victims.
The present Vine is our Lord Jesus Christ, and, of course, the vine includes the branches.
He is the “true Vine,” that is, “the original of which all other vines are a copy.”
The branches.
The branches.
Of itself, a branch is weak and useless.
It is good for either bearing or burning, but not for building. The branch cannot produce its own life; it must draw that life from the vine.
It is our communion with Christ through the Spirit that makes possible the bearing of the fruit.
The sooner we as believers discover that we are but branches, the better we will relate to the Lord; for we will know our own weakness and confess our need for His strength.
A few years ago Kim and I went to Cape town and one of the tours we did what of various wine estates.
The one was very interesting, we got to walk in the vineyards and they had a powerful illustration.
They had 2 vineyards next to each other.
Both the vines were of an identical species.
Both received the exact same sun, the exact same water and were in the exact same soil.
However, the one had few grapes, and the grapes were small.
On tasting the skin was tough and the grapes bitter.
The other vie has huge bunches of grapes everywhere. The grapes were sweet and delicious.
Why were these vines producing such different grapes when they were identical?
The vinedresser.
The vinedresser.
The vinedresser is in charge of caring for the vines, and Jesus said that this is the work of His Father.
It is He who “purges” or prunes the branches so they will produce more fruit.
Many Christians pray that God will make them more fruitful, but they do not enjoy the pruning process that follows!
The vinedresser prunes the branches in two ways:
He cuts away dead wood that can breed disease and insects.
And he cuts away living tissue so that the life of the vine will not be so dissipated that the quality of the crop will be jeopardized.
In fact, the vinedresser will even cut away whole bunches of grapes so that the rest of the crop will be of higher quality.
God wants both quantity and quality.
This pruning process is the most important part of the whole enterprise, and the people who do it must be carefully trained or they can destroy an entire crop.
Some vineyards invest two or three years in training the “pruners” so they know where to cut, how much to cut, and even at what angle to make the cut.
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.
How does the Father prune us?
How does the Father prune us?
Sometimes He simply uses the Word to convict and cleanse us.
Sometimes He must chasten us (Heb. 12:1–11).
At the time, it hurts when He removes something precious from us; but as the “spiritual crop” is produced, we see that the Father knew what He was doing.
The more we abide in Christ, the more fruit we bear; and the more fruit we bear, the more the Father has to prune us so that the quality keeps up with the quantity.
Left to itself, the branch might produce many clusters, but they will be inferior in quality.
God is glorified by a bigger crop that is also a better crop.
The key word is abide.
The key word is abide.
It is used eleven times in John 15:1–11
What does it mean to “abide”?
It means to keep in fellowship with Christ so that His life can work in and through us to produce fruit.
This certainly involves the Word of God and the confession of sin so that nothing hinders our communion with Him.
3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
It also involves obeying Him because we love Him.
9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
How can we tell when we are “abiding in Christ”? Is there a special feeling? No, but there are special evidences that appear and they are unmistakably clear.
For one thing, when you are abiding in Christ, you produce fruit (John 15:2). What that “fruit” is, we will discuss later.
Also, you experience the Father’s “pruning” so that you will bear more fruit (John 15:2).
The believer who is abiding in Christ has his prayers answered (John 15:7) and experiences a deepening love for Christ and for other believers (John 15:9, 12–13).
He also experiences joy (John 15:11).
This abiding relationship is natural to the branch and the vine, but it must be cultivated in the Christian life.
It is not automatic.
Abiding in Christ demands worship, meditation on God’s Word, prayer, sacrifice, and service—but what a joyful experience it is!
Once you have begun to cultivate this deeper communion with Christ, you have no desire to return to the shallow life of the careless Christian.
The fruit.
The fruit.
Several different kinds of spiritual fruit are named in the Bible.
We bear fruit when we win others to Christ .
13 I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.
We are a part of the harvest.
35 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.
36 “Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
37 “For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’
38 “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
As we grow in holiness and obedience, we are bearing fruit.
22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
Paul considered Christian giving to be fruit from a dedicated life.
28 Therefore, when I have finished this, and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I will go on by way of you to Spain.
“The fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22–23) is the kind of Christian character that glorifies God and makes Christ real to others.
Even our good works, our service, grow out of our abiding life.
10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
The praise that comes from our hearts and lips is actually fruit to the glory of God.
15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
A true branch, united with the vine, will always bear fruit.
If there is no fruit, the branch is worthless and it is cast away and burned.
Just as an unfruitful branch is useless, so an unfruitful believer is useless; and both must be dealt with. It is a tragic thing for a once-fruitful believer to backslide and lose his privilege of fellowship and service.
If you are not bearing fruit there is only 2 reasons:
1: You are not abiding in Christ
2: You rebel whenever the Father prunes you.