Untitled Sermon (2)

It seems that over the past 10-15 years that a really popular thing to do is to buy a fixer upper property. Well, I never really thought that I would really want to do this, but in 2013, my husband and I bought a fixer upper farm. The property had an old farm house still standing and so we began a long process of remodeling that house and adding a few other cabins and now almost 10 years later. After we added all the structures, we planted a vineyard. This has been a dream of my husbands for about 10-12 years, and really it stills seems kind of crazy to me that we own a 7-acre vineyard. Alfie is really the vine expert. I just think its pretty and so as my husband would talk about what he was learning as he studied how to care for the vines and as I would walk through the vineyard and just kind of “play” at tending the vines, the Lord began to open my eyes and give to me an amazing revelation about how the life cycle of the vine represents our relationship with the Father.

Read John 15: 1-11

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.

THE MEANING OF ABIDE

The word abide is used in this passage 9 times. I used to tell my students, “when I use the same word repeatedly in a short period of time, you should take that as a big hint that it is important (and probably going to be on the test)”. Don’t worry, we won’t be taking a test tonight, but we should understand that this word abide is very important. In the Hebrew language, this word is yashab- meaning to dwell, to sit in. In the English language, we get our word abode, which is another word for a dwelling ( a place where we put down roots, not just the physical building that we live in, but our home).

In Spanish, it means permanecer- to continue with (almost as if married).

All of these meanings share a common idea of an active commitment.

CONTEXT OF THIS VERSE

• When Jesus says this, He is speaking to the disciples only. They are in the Upper Room, and it is only hours before Jesus will be crucified. He knows what awaits Him, and this will be the last time that they will ever share a meal together. Imagine the urgency of Jesus in this moment. He wants to make sure that his disciples really understand this. My two oldest just went back to school and a part of me was ready for the rhythm of our new foursome to return, but over the weekend, I felt really sad because I realized that when they leave home, they don’t ever really abide with us again. They are in many ways just sojourners or visitors, checking in with us and staying for a while, but their minds and experiences are divided and often elsewhere. It then struck me that this is what we often do with our Christian life. We sojourn or visit with God, periodically through our week, but we don’t abide with Him. Our minds and experiences are focused elsewhere. We are Christians, but we don’t really abide with Christ. It is in that same context that Jesus is speaking to His closest friends, His “family”, and what is the most important thing He has to tell them? Abide in Me, dwell with Me, stay connected to Me.

ABIDE MINISTRY MISSION

This is the heart and the mission of Abide Ministry. Providing biblical teaching so that they can remain in His presence and power.

Three Tools

Abide Devotional Blog

Abide Devotional Podcast

Lessons from the Vine Series

3- 60 minutes sessions

The Growing Season

The Dormant Season

The Harvest Season

IT IS ONLY THROUGH THE DAILY

NOURISHMENT OF THE WORD, THAT WE CAN TRULY ABIDE WITH CHRIST. WHEN WE DO, OUR LIVES BEGIN TO BEAR THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT.

I INVITE YOU TO JOIN ME ON MY JOURNEY AS GOD CONTINUES TO REVEAL HIS TRUTH. MY HOPE IS THAT YOUR SOUL IS NOURISHED AND YOUR LIFE IN AND FOR CHRIST FLOURISHES!