Well, good morning again! It's a great day to be in the house of the
Lord, not because of any of us, but because He's good. And
the Holy Spirit of God is here. He has been present, and man,
were you not just moved in the baptism time this morning?
God is— God is so faithful. And, uh, what struck
me earlier whenever I was coming out of the baptism or whatnot
is how often we forget that we can have these supernatural
moments with the Lord every moment of the day. It's not tied to
Sunday mornings when you show up to church. It's when your heart shows up
to the throne when He can move, and He'll do a mighty work, and
He'll show up, and He'll reveal truths about Himself, Lord, that you just—
I mean, extraordinary things that you could never even fathom.
Um, I like to meet them with pen and paper, but sometimes I forget,
uh, because He gives me such wonderful, wonderful truths. It's a
good day to be in the house, Lord. We are in the middle of the
Lenten season, as I mentioned before, and I do pray that you are
participating with us, uh, on the journey. We've asked you
to do 3 things for us. We abide in the Word. I'm asking that
you take up a regiment of reading the Word daily.
We also are posting a daily devotional for you guys on social media
and on our church app for you to, to, for you to watch, 2-3 minutes,
uh, just a reminder to zone— to kind of focus
you in. And so, uh, that would be the first place in abide. In, in
arise, we look at what we are doing with regard to
rising up within ourself, what God's doing within us. And so we are
fasting bread as a church. Now, if you haven't started fasting bread, guess
what? You can start tomorrow. Why tomorrow? Because today's a celebration
day. And so I plan on eating some bread today, I'll tell you that much.
Uh, but tomorrow, if you will, if you will refrain from eating bread,
not only, not only does it center us and remind us, it makes us think,
hey, I'm not— I'm I'm choosing not to eat bread so I'm
reminded of Jesus. I'm reminded of the things He's doing inside me. But when
we do that together, can you imagine what happens when a group of
500 people purpose themselves, uh, committed to the
Lord? He does some supernatural, extraordinary things. And then the third thing is that
we asked you in our advance is that, that you were to write 40 names,
and that you were to contact intentionally the people,
uh, on your list. Shari and I are still trying to get in that regimen.
We've done it every day, but we realize that some of you go to bed
before 10 o'clock, and, uh, you know, when we're calling, but we did leave a
voicemail. And, uh, uh, but, uh, we're still working out. But
man, what a, what a wonderful habit to really try to shape and
refine, that we as a family want to pray for somebody every
day. And, uh, and so, uh, that's been a joy of our past
week, and we plan to continue that. So abide, arise, and advance. I pray that
you are participating as we lean in closer, and we're real
intentional during the Lenten season, leaning in toward, toward
Easter. Well, last time I was up here, I laid a foundation
for you guys, uh, as we were leaning into abide for
John 15. We talked about the principle of making room.
We talked about being planted and being rooted, not,
not uprooting. We talked about the power of the Holy Spirit, the
necessity of the Holy Spirit. Do you know that you need the Holy Spirit in
your life? You need the Holy Spirit in your life. And then also we
talked about the Word, the Word of God, and all of this was a
setup. All of these ingredients were a setup to get us gets us to the
place where we are in John 15, at the top of John 15, where
Jesus is addressing His disciples. Now, I want to give you some
context here on John 15, uh, and, and, and where
Jesus is, because I help— I believe that it will help us
understand not only the setup that happened here that we walked
through, but also where we're going today. In the context
of John 15, Jesus is about to go to the cross.
In the context of John 15, Jesus is 24 hours before
going to the cross. He is in the upper room with His disciples.
Peter has already been told that he's going to deny Christ. Judas is
already on the pathway for denying Him— for, I'm sorry, for betraying Him.
The disciples are about to lose one of their very best
friends, their very best friend, Jesus, and they don't even know what's
coming before them. The context of John
15 where Jesus is speaking in his first line, he says
this, he says, "I am the true vine and my Father is
the gardener." This was Jesus starting— this wasn't
a random teaching. This was Jesus starting down the
pathway of saying there's something, there's a shift that's about to
happen here. And he says, "I am the true vine and my Father
is the gardener." Now, I don't know about you, but I have a propensity to
read scripture always thinking of myself. How is this affecting me?
These two statements have nothing to do with you. They have everything
to do with you, but they have nothing to do with you. He says, "I
am the true vine." That's Jesus. "And my Father is the gardener."
We're talking about Father God. Kevin is not in these statements.
Are you with me? I'm not in these statements. It has everything to do with
me, but has— but these statements have nothing to do with me. These statements are
Jesus is the vine and the Father is the gardener. And the
reason I emphasize that is sometimes we get mixed up who is
God and who is man. Sometimes we get mixed up
our placement in this, in this submission,
uh, relationship that we have, uh, to the Lord. And so,
um, Jesus is about to speak to his disciples and to
us about pruning, knowing that he himself
is about to be cut down. Now Jesus is not
being theoretical here. He's not
being theoretical here. He is actually about to go and
walk out what he has been saying all along, and the
disciples are going to have a firsthand experience with him.
Jesus is preparing them because they are going to experience
a loss, and in that he gives them one
primary instruction. And today in our
lives, he gives us one primary—
this, uh, instruction. In the midst of pain, in the midst of sorrow,
in the midst of instability, which that was a moment of
instability, everything is about to unravel here, he gives
one instruction and that instruction is remain.
That instruction is to stay, is to abide,
and we're going to unpackage that, uh, we're, we're unpackaging that
all, all year, but we're going to unpack that a little bit more today as
we lean in further. This passage is
ultimately about stability in an
unstable environment. This passage primarily is
about stability in an unstable environment. Now,
here's the deal. If you are new to the faith, I'm going to say some
things today that's going to rock your world, I believe. If
you are not new to the faith, but you have not graduated
from milk to meat, you're going to have some trouble with some things I'm
going to say today too, okay? So I'm just prepping you that
today is not a goosebump sermon. Are you
with me? Today is a step on your toes message
that I am growing from, that I am learning from, and I pray that
we are able to learn from too. Do you know that God is a
multifaceted God? Do you believe that He's a
multifaceted God? See, we like to— we like to tie
ourselves to messages that don't challenge us to grow
or do anything with our lives. We like to
tie ourselves to, to, to watching clips on
YouTube or reels or other speakers who give us these
feel-good messages. "Oh, that's real good for them.
That's real good if they would grab ahold of that." But I believe that
this message is not only for everybody in the room, but I also believe
that God wants to expose to us a part
of His character, a part of who He is that we are not
very familiar with. We're actually very familiar with it because we have to feel it,
but we're not familiar with attaching Him, uh,
to it. God is good because he's good. God is not
good because you say he's good. God is a king— he's
a king not because you say he's a king. He's a king because
he's a king. Let's get that straight right away. Does that sound good? All right,
so that is kind of a setup for where we're going today, and it is
okay to wrestle when you hear new truths. You don't have to walk
out of here completely settled, and that's why I talked to— if you— if it's
a hard pill to swallow, go and swallow the pill and work it out.
With fear and trembling. Rise today. We're gonna read the scripture together. We're gonna
read it with some gusto today. You're gonna prove to me that you came in
awake and ready to grow. Here we go. Let's
read together. I am the true vine, and my Father
is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that
bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit
he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
You are already clean because of the word I have spoken
to you. Remain in me as I also remain
in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself;
it must remain in the vine. Neither can you
bear fruit unless you remain in me. I
am the vine, you are the branches. If you remain
in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
Apart from me you can do nothing. Let's say that again.
Apart from me you can do nothing. Father, I thank you for
your word that it brings life. I pray that our hearts would be open and
pliable today to it, in Jesus' name, amen. So we're gonna look at this
in 3 sections because there's 3 section— there's 3, uh,
specific things that, uh, Jesus is talking about. We're gonna look at the vine,
we're gonna look at the branches, and we're gonna look at the gardener. We're gonna
look at the vine, the branches, and the
gardener. So here's what we're gonna start with, and for those of you who
tune me out after the first few sentences, or you're thinking of lunch, and you're
like, "Man, I'm ready to get out of here," okay, if you don't get anything
else out of this message, this is what I want you to get today. This.
It is, "You are not the vine, he is."
You are not the vine, he is. In other
words, you are not the source of your life, He is.
You are also not the source of others' lives.
You are not the source of somebody else's life. So many times when
we think we get a little revelation from the Lord, we get a nice little
word from the Lord, we feel like it's our— it's our job, it's
our responsibility to go on a crusade and make sure every person
on the planet knows that this is the truth, and this is what you're supposed
to know, and this is what you're supposed to believe. You are not somebody else's
source. It is our job, it is our job to point people
to the truth, and in pointing them to the truth, we are ultimately
pointing them to Jesus. We are pointing them to Jesus. Guys,
if you're ever counseling with a pastor, you're talking to somebody,
and they are guiding you, instructing you, when you walk away from that conversation,
you need to ask yourself this question: Was I pointed more to their ideas and
their opinions, or am I been pointed to Christ? If you're pointed to
Christ, that always should cause you to go lean in deeper to the Word of
God, not think more about the ideas of the person who gave
you the give you the information, it should not want— it should not make you
want to necessarily draw closer to the person giving you the information. It should make
you want to draw closer to God. In the Word of God is the truth
of life. He is your source.
He is your source. And we all at equal
disposition— that's how it is—
I can't say the word today. Words are hard today. We equally
can get the Word, okay? That's what I'm trying to say. We equally have the
Word, okay? Um, we all have access to the Word,
alright? Jesus says this, He says, "I am the vine." He is the
source. Branches do not manufacture
life. He is the source of
life. We do not produce life. He's the one who
did it. I could— I'd like to take responsibility for my cute baby
sitting over here on the front row. God Almighty,
the God of the universe, is why I have a baby over there. He, He
is the one who really produces, produces
life. We do not manufacture life. We are branches. We
receive it. This is what Proverbs 3 says: Trust in the Lord with
all your heart and do what? Lean on your own
understanding. We're supposed to trust in the Lord. It says in 2
Corinthians, my grace is sufficient to you, for my power
is made perfect in weakness.
And so So if He is the vine and He is the source,
then when we come upon weak moments, we draw our
strength from the source. And that's where we derive our
strength. You know what? God can do some really mighty things with
weak people. He can do some really mighty
things with those who do not believe they have it all together.
He has an extraordinary ability to use those who do not feel
like they are the one. We have a propensity toward
independence. Everything in our life points
to you being independent. Do it yourself. You've got this.
You don't need anybody. You can do this. You're strong enough on
your own. Learn how to do this on your own. Take the next step by
yourself. You don't need any help. You don't need anybody else's gift.
You just do this independently. That is the world's
anthem in the, in the world we live. It is Go ahead,
become independent, stand up tall, do it on your
own. Might I suggest to you today that you
live in a kingdom that is dependent-centric
on a king? There is no
independence in the kingdom of God. You are
dependent on the king, dependent
on the source of, of life. Last night,
our Knights— uh, LCA Knights won a state championship.
And in winning that state championship, we had some
really great players on, on the court, but can I tell you,
they did not win the game by themselves. It was
a team effort. There was dependence on
other people on the team, and in the kingdom, you
are not independent. You are dependent on a king, and
this goes against everything in the context of this world we live in.
So you wonder why we are warring with our flesh all the time. You are
told on one hand to be independent, but you belong to a kingdom that
relies on dependence. I believe that we have the most incredible babies
on the planet here at Springhouse, and we have some fantastic mothers
as well. My baby, Eliana, is
completely dependent on Shari. Abigail
is completely dependent on Dana. If Abigail's
gonna eat, she needs Dana. If,
if, if, if Eliana's gonna sleep, Shari's gotta prepare a bed. If
Josie's going to— Josie's gonna be cleaned up, she's relying on her
mama. Is that true? Yes, these babies are completely
dependent, and in a very similar fashion, we need
to be relying on the Lord for our sustenance,
for our rest, for our cleaning up, for everything. We
draw from Him and His We, we become
dependent on Him because He has what we
need. You were created to be dependent, and
here's the thing. If Jesus is the true vine, everything
else is a false source. If Jesus is the
true vine, everything else is a
false— is a false source. Here's the thing, success can look like the
vine. Influence can masquerade
like the vine. Approval can masquerade
around as your vine, as your source. Your marriage can look like your
vine. Your children can
masquerade as your vine. Your ministry can masquerade
as your, as your vine. All of these things that you're drawing from can
masquerade as your source, but here's the thing. If what gives you
identity can be taken from you, it was never from the true
vine. If what gives you identity can be
taken from you, It was never the true— the true
vine. Your identity is not in what you do.
Your identity is found in Christ Jesus.
Now, God Almighty, the one who breathes stars,
listen to me, will allow you to be
severed from that which is here
that gives you identity So that you will be
reminded of whose you are and to whom you
belong. What, God would take that
away from me?
God would— God would— God would yank that out of my— No! God put it
there! God put it there!
God can put it there and He can take it away.
He can put it there and He can take it
away. And he can take it away. And guys, I believe that this is the
crux of why Israel fell. Remember the
setup? We talked about Israel.
Israel was exiled into Babylon
because of their unfaithfulness to a faithful God.
And we live in a world today where we have to answer the question if
we're going to succumb to the cultural pressures of this world, or are we going
to be rooted into the kingdom to which we belong? Hello. And so
here's the deal. When we look at scripture, and I'm going to read quite a
bit to you today, but I want us to understand this parallel here of
this multifaceted God we serve. Over in Isaiah chapter 5,
it says this. The— well, first, if I say that
John 15 is not the only place that the vine is mentioned, a vineyard is
mentioned. Okay, so let's listen to this. I will sing for the one I
love a song about his vineyard. My
loved one had, one had a vineyard on a fertile
hillside. He dug it up and cleared it out of stones
and planted it with the choicest of vines. He built
a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded
only bad fruit. Now you dwellers in Jerusalem,
the people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. '"What more
could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?'" This is
God talking to Israel. Israel has yielded bad fruit, and he's
saying, "What more could have I done here? When I look for the
good grapes, why did it only yield bad? Now I will tell you what
I'm going to do in my vineyard." This is God Almighty speaking. Are you ready
to listen to this? "I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed.
I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it
a wasteland neither pruned nor cultivated, and briars and thorns will
grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it." on it. The
vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation Israel, and the people of
Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice
but saw bloodshed, for righteousness but heard cries
of distress. Over in Jeremiah
chapter 2, verse 21, it says this: I had planted you like
a choise vine of sound and reliable stock. How
then did you turn against me into a corrupt wild
vine. Understand that he is—
we are talking about God's people Israel.
It was the expectation of God that
Israel would bear fruit. They did not
bear fruit, and so God Almighty allowed permission
for the Israelites to be exiled away
from their land. To have to serve
foreign gods. So after the exile came, this is
what it said. The Lord— this is in 2 Chronicles. The
Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his
messengers again and again because he had pity on his people
and on his dwelling place. He still has pity on us today.
But they mocked God's messengers. Remember I talked about those,
those messengers? Jeremiah,— that came and spoke to the
people, and they said, "No, you're not, you're not really a voice from the
Lord. We're gonna listen to these false prophets that are gonna get— say that we're
gonna get out of this." And they said, "But there was no remedy. He
brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with
the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men, or young women,
or the elderly, or the infirm. God
gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar." He
carried them to Babylon, all the articles from the temple of God, both
large and small, and the treasures of the Lord's temple, and the treasures of
the king and his officials. In other words, they were exiled and all
their stuff was given away too. He carried into
exile— listen to this— to Babylon the remnant. Would you
say the word remnant? [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Hold on to that word, I'm coming back to
it. He carried into exile the remnant
who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to
him who— his successors and his successors until the kingdom of
Persia came to power. The land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all
the time in its desolation it rested until 70
years were completed. Listen to this, in fulfillment of
the word the Lord spoke by Jeremiah. Do you know that
the Lord your God will always He will always fulfill
His Word. His Word will always come
to pass. Now, let's back up to
remnant. This is what took place. Gonna give you very
elementary level. Here we go. Israel sinned. They turned their back
on God, and God said, "Okay, since you've done that, there's gonna be punishment
and wrath." He, he allowed for a majority of the
Israelites to be murdered and
massacred. Yahweh. God, loving, holy,
wonderful, powerful God allowed
for his people to
be murdered and massacred, except
for a remnant.
Why is this important? God did
not— listen to me— he did not wipe out
his entire people. When
God prunes, he never takes everything
away. He always leaves just a
little bit. God allowed
those things to happen and the remnant to
remain because he could see something in the future
that they could not see. And in your
life, when you are going through pain, and tribulation,
and trial, and God is cutting things back from
you, He leaves just a little bit because when you
prune, you prune back just all the way just to the back
part. You leave just a little bit because it's gonna become
fruitful later. Are you following me? It's going to
become fruitful
later. So the exile was
a national pruning. When you
prune a vine, there's always a little, a
little left. When Israel
failed, they needed someone to succeed. Who do you
think that was, that was going to succeed? Who was
it? It was Jesus. Jesus is in the upper
room speaking to His disciples saying this,
"I am the true
vine." You could not succeed back here, Israel.
You were not able to bear fruit. You were not able
to obey. You were not able to be faithful. But
Jesus says, "I'm able to be faithful. I'm able to
be fruitful." "and I will succeed where you
failed." He says, "I am the true vine." We needed the
true vine. We needed the source. We needed Jesus
to come and do what he did,
and therefore Jesus is making very
clarifying statements here by saying, "I, Jesus, am
the true vine." You no longer are the vine. I am the true
vine. My Father— The gardener. And guess what that leaves
you as? Branches. It
leaves you as branches. So this tells
us where we fail, He
succeeds. Colossians says, "He's before all things, and in Him,"
what? "All things hold together." In Romans
it says, "If—" Boy, y'all made that
small, and I got glasses on. "If the root is
holy," —so are the branches. Guys, if the root is
holy, so are the branches. That tells me I'm holy. Why am I holy? Because
I'm holy? I'm holy because
I'm connected to the— I'm connected to the vine. He's holy. You do
not support the root, but the root supports
you. For I'm convinced that neither death or life, angels, demons,
present, future, powers, height, depth, anything else in creation will be able
to— what? That separate us from the love of
the Lord Jesus Christ. All of these things are intact
because he is the source. The branch does not hold the vine,
the vine holds the branch. That tells me that your grip on God does
not sustain you, it is his grip on you that causes you
to have life forevermore. His grip on you causes
you to have life forevermore. He is your security. So let's talk
about the branches. Branches. Shari and I were talking
the other day, and we came upon this— or she came upon this Greek word,
and it is, uh, a tender flexible shoot. This
tells me that branches are supposed to be tender
and flexible. You are supposed to be tender,
and you are supposed to be flexible. And if you're anything
like me, I like to be rigid and hard, and I get
snapped anytime that happens. We're supposed to be
tender. We're supposed to be
flexible. Tender branches
bend. Immaturity in the Lord says, "God,
you have not met my expectations, and so I'm going
to take it upon myself to do the work," so that then
I become rigid and hard and He can't do anything. Mature faith is able
to bend. It's able to be— Flexible. Now, here's where I'm going
to start saying a few things that you're not going to like. Remember when COVID
arrived on the scene? Who remembers COVID? Glorious
moment. When COVID arrived on scene, Shari and I were in Florida on a
beach. And I'm not saying this to pat myself on the shoulder. I'm really— it's
going to sound kind of haughty, but I'm only saying this because of the work
of the Holy Spirit in my life. When COVID arrived on the scene, I
was unshaken. I was
unshaken. I was unmoved. I was unwavered in my belief in
Jesus Christ. And when we had to react
to things, most of the time I was not reacting to COVID, I
was reacting to the people who were freaking out around
me. And the only thing I knew how to do is to get into the
Word and to go, "This is what the Word says about this." When
9/11 happened, I was unmoved and unshaken. Not
because I'm anything great or big, because
God was unmoved and unshaken. When Charlie Kirk
was assassinated, I was unmoved and
unshaken because God is unmoved and unshaken.
Guys, you're plugged into the source no matter what
the circumstances of this planet become. So
who you are should not waver and change based on
everything that's floating on around you. But what happens is, is when
life tragedies happen, circumstances in the world, we
take up arms and go into our corner, and we pull on the little bit
of truth we think we know, and then we say, "I'm right, you're wrong, and
you better get on board with
me." We're supposed to be connected to the truth. We're supposed to be connected to
the source. Now let me hone this in a little bit more. Some of you
have gone through tragedy just in the last year. You've lost a loved
one. You're unable to
conceive. You've had a severed
relationship. You've had a death. You've had sickness. You have lost an
income. And you're going through these trials
and situations, and what we have
a propensity to do is go, "God, in the middle of what's
going on, what's going on? This good God
could not ever allow me to suffer and go through
X, Y, and Z." X, Y, and Z. Now let me be clear, in all
of those aforementioned, uh, circumstances, in all
the circumstances you're going, I'm not suggesting to you that God's will is
everything that's going on in your life, because a lot of times it is our
bad choices and our broken nature that lead us to those things.
But what I can tell you is that God is sovereign in every single
one of those places. God knows how to take ashy situations
and makes them beautiful. And here's what we don't like, and I've got to admit
to myself, If I can believe God
for reconciliation, then I have to also be able to believe God that
he's severing the relationship. If I can believe God for the
healing, then I also have to believe he's a God who allows the symptoms
to continue. I have to believe that God is—
listen, when Job says— when, when Satan comes and says, "Let me metz with
Job," God says, "Yes." God didn't abandon Job, he just allowed
it to happen. You are going
to go through places in your life that it does not
feel good. You're going to go through places
where you are going to, to, to suffer. And here's the
thing, what we are instructed to do is to
remain. Remain in him. Draw from the source. Now here's the thing
I want us to understand, a fruitful life does not mean a busy
life. It does not mean a busy life. It's not birth— John 15 is not
birthed by activity. It's birthed by just being there. So let's go through
some of the indicators of a fruitful life in the kingdom,
and if you can relate to any of these, I want you to stand
up, okay? If you can relate to even one, I want you to stand up.
Somebody stood up before I even put anything on the board. Okay, here we go.
Fruitful life in the kingdom. Are you ready? Indicators of fruitful life.
Losing something you loved,
being misunderstood,
being overlooked. We're talking about fruitful life in
the kingdom, okay? Saying no to good
opportunities, margin being forced upon you,
ego or pride being confronted or
illuminated, a timeline being delayed, having
to wait longer than you wanted
to. Letting go of something or someone you thought— that should say
thought— was permanent. Being asked
to trust without
explanation. Recognition going elsewhere. Look
around the room. Springhouse, we
have a fruitful church. We have
a fruitful
church. If you are living your life in the kingdom
of God, you are going to experience
times of loss, times of hurt, times of pain,
and your God has not abandoned you in
it. He is with you right in the middle of it.
Here's the thing, pruning is rarely predictable, but it is
always timely. I wish I could predict what my timing was. I wish
I could say, "Hey, Jess, I'm gonna be away in April for about 3 weeks
'cause God's planning on pruning me during that season." No, God doesn't ask
my permission, Barbie, how? He doesn't ask my permission to prune me. He shows up
by my doorsteps with the scissors and says, "Here we go," and I gotta be
ready. And guess what else? This is how our loving God does it. He says,
"I'm gonna prune you, and I want you to show up to that stage, and
you better preach. I'm gonna prune you, and you better show up to work with
joy." You better show up with your wife and be faithful. You better show up
for your kids in the midst of the pruning. In the
midst— don't— no, he doesn't give margin for me to go lick my wounds.
He calls me to be faithful because here's the thing. When I'm in that moment
and I've got wounds, then where must I draw my
strength? I have to draw from him, and if I'm not drawing it
from him, sometimes he will choose a season of pruning for Kevin because,
Kevin, I think you're doing a little bit too much in your own strength. You're
giving yourself a little bit too much of a pat on the back. You're getting
a little bit too much recognition, because here's the thing, Kevin, at the end of
the day it's all about you looking like my Son Jesus, not like Kevin
O'Day. Pruning is rarely predictable, but it's
always timely. Can't schedule it, the gardener
does. But we also— we glory in our suffering because we know that
suffering produces— say that, suffering suffering produces. And it
lists what it produces there. It says this, it says, therefore we do
not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are
being renewed day by day. Why? For our light and
momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that
outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,
but what is, what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is what? It's eternal.
And lastly, consider it— we love James, don't we? Consider it
pure joy. Next time you're going through a trial and tribulation and somebody says, "How
you doing?" I would say, "I am, I am abundantly joyful
today. I'm just, I am, I am on cloud nine. I am exercising
the biggest amount of joy." Consider it pure joy. That's what Josh
said in the pool. This is why the message literally was in the
baptism, the entire thing.
Joshua's up there. Joshua Kuruman, he was up there. He's literally saying,
"Rejoice!" He said, "The heart is a muscle that must be torn down
before it comes back stronger." You understand that you're gonna have to be
torn down before you come back stronger? It's a part
of the deal, but here's the gl— glorious thing about it. You haven't
been abandoned and left alone. He's with
you. So it brings us to the gardener. The gardener
is more committed to the harvest than the
appearance. See, we like the way things look.
Genesis 50, Joseph thrown in the
pit, pushed down, enslaved. You intended
to harm me, but what? God intended it for
good. What are you talking about? When was
the last time you had to go through some type of trial, tribulation, something
you didn't like, and you said, "God's gonna be glorified in
this. God's gonna be glorified in
this." Romans 8:28, we love the first part of this verse. It says, "And we
know that in—" what? "All things God's works for the good of those
who love him, who have been called according to his his purpose. But we don't
attach the second verse to it that says, for those to God foreknow, he
also predestined to what? Be conformed to the image of his
Son. Yes, he works all things out for the good so that you look
like his Son. Would you please stand if you look
like Jesus Christ holistically today? We would like to applaud
you. On your feet, you— congrats. No, we don't
look like his
Son. You are sitting next to somebody who is
broken. You are sitting next to someone who God
is pruning so that they can yield greater
fruit. I believe that he always sees fruit that you cannot
see. He always sees fruit that you cannot
see. And so the cross is the ultimate fulfillment of
this, the picture of this. God the Father— I started with
this— he says, I am the true vine, Jesus, and the Father is
the gardener. So we look at this verse in Philippians, it says this: And being
found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming—
what?— obedient to death, even death on a cross.
That was Jesus being cut down. But
it was because the Father knew that if he was obedient to
death, all this other stuff was going to follow. What was it? He's exalted to
the highest place. Jesus is given the name above every
name, that every knee should bow and every tongue confess and acknowledge
he's king. Guys, this did not happen prior to the cross.
It happened after the resurrection. All of those things
happened after the resurrection. It was the fruit— that the
Father saw. And I'm telling you today, Sam, if you're walking through a
trial and circumstance— Doug, if you're walking through something
that's hard— don't abandon your faith or your
God. Continue to remain and understand that
he is right there with you, and trust
that there's going to be abundant fruit on the
other side. Remain in him. Because pruning only
happens to living
branches. I find that comforting. If I'm being pruned and cut,
it means I'm living in Jesus Christ. If I'm going through
a hard season, I'm living in Jesus
Christ. I'm living connected to
the source. And so today, if you are in a
place where You're feeling cut, you're feeling
bruised and battered, you're
feeling abandoned. I want to encourage you today to
be tender and flexible because the God of
the universe knows what he is doing. He knows what
he's doing even when you don't understand it. Do you know, I don't see anywhere—
Fred, I don't see anywhere in scripture where it says my understanding
is a prerequisite for God's move in my life. I never saw
that written anywhere. That means that because he's God, he can do whatever he chooses
to do, whether I understand why he's doing it or what he's doing or what
he's up to. But here's the cool
thing: I get to benefit from it all. I
get to benefit from the cut. I get to benefit from the hurt.
I get to benefit from the pain. Not like the world tells me I'm gonna
benefit, benefit, but I get the benefit in a way that I may
not understand right now. You
have gone through some hard things, and guess what? You don't think there's
gonna be another COVID, another 9/11, another assassination? You don't think that's
gonna happen? It's probably gonna happen at some point before you go see
Jesus, okay? But when those things happen in your life, or when
those intimate things happen in your life, Take
up a stance that says, "I am connected to
the source. I am going to remain
because I trust God." Do you trust God today,
friends? Stand
with me. I know that this was not
a cushy message, and I'll tell you, part of it—
I would, I would be remiss as your pastor to not
present to you the totality of the truth. You know, sometimes we
just see what's glaring in front of us and we grab it. Kind of like
the other day, the Sheelys gave us a gift and there was a package
of cookies, and I went in there and all I saw was cookies. And so
I went and I grabbed the package real fast because I saw
cookies. But upon further investigation, these
are lactation
cookie bites. These are not meant
for me. You could be grabbing something that's not meant
for you because you're grabbing something without knowing
the whole picture. Don't move without
knowing where God is. Stay connected. Remain
in him. Amen. We're gonna worship together with those who are gonna
minister. I'm so sorry I'm running behind today. Would you guys come down? I
do feel like, as, as was in the
first gathering, if you're in a place today— if you're in
a place today where you have said, "I don't
understand why God is doing what He's doing." If you're in
a place today where you— maybe you're in the middle of it, or maybe
it's something that's already happened. I've had the
greatest relationships in my life happen overnight. And I've had him take away
the greatest relationships in my life overnight. Maybe you're
in a situation right now and he's just doing something
and you don't understand. Well, your prerequisite is not
understanding, but come and agree with somebody that you know where the source is, and
you can ask God, give me the strength to walk through
this pruning, this season, this thing that you're doing in my
life. And then in addition to that, There are people that just flat out have
needs in this place. You've come in with a burden, you've come in with something
heavy, and if we're going to talk about the vine being the source, come to
the source and get some relief, get some answers, give it
to Him, surrender to Him as you're
being connected to the vine. Let's worship together.