The Vine | Pastor Jeremy Saylor | Sunday Service

How many of you guys love our next gen team?

They do phenomenal.

From kids all the way up through youth, just do an incredible job.

How many of you guys recognize a unusual presence of the Lord in the house this morning?

He's here today.

And I believe that there's gonna be just a wave of his love that's gonna wash over us together this morning.

You can turn there.

Grab your Bible, your iPhone, your iPad, whatever device you may have.

But I want to encourage you today that you're in the right place at the right time.

And the love of Jesus that not only redeemed the world, but has the power to change the world.

This morning.

Like church, his love.

When you know his love and you've experienced his love, everything else fades.

Everything else changes.

When you've felt and experienced the love of God that you can't earn, you can't deserve, you can't work for it.

All you can do is receive it.

When you know that kind of love, it it changes your heart and it changes your life.

And this morning we're gonna we're gonna look at the love of God and how that this was the parting message of Jesus to his disciples at the Last Supper in the upper room.

John chapter 15, starting in verse 1.

John 15 · chapter mention

I'm gonna ask you to stand with me as we honor the reading of God's word together today.

John 15, starting in verse 1, Jesus says, I am, I am, I am the true vine.

I'm 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 that I have spoken to you, verse 4 remain in me as I also remain in you.

Why, Jesus?

Because 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.

And if you remain in me, and I in you, there's no question of what's going to happen.

It's not a chance, it's not a maybe, it's not an if.

You will bear much fruit.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

If you do not remain in me, you're like a branch that is thrown away and withers, and such branches are picked up and thrown in the fire and burned.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you can ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

And this is to my Father's glory that you bear some fruit, that you bear a little fruit, that you bear sparingly fruit.

No, no, no.

What does he say?

How much fruit?

Much fruit showing yourself to be my disciple.

I just gotta pause here.

There's two things Jesus says in the gospel that shows the world that we're his disciples.

Two things.

Number one, it's our love for one another, and number two, it's our fruitfulness.

Showing yourself to be my disciples that you bear a little fruit.

What kind of fruit?

The title of my message this morning is simply this: Be fruitful.

Say that after me this morning.

Be that's so good.

You did so great.

I want you to turn to your neighbor and look at them and say, be fruitful.

Turn to the other neighbor and say, Look at them, be fruitful.

Turn around to the person behind you and say.

Father, we thank you this morning for your word.

Your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path.

It shows us the way to go and how to arrive there safely.

And I pray this morning, we would not just be hearers of your word, but that we would be doers of it, that we would be fruitful for you.

In Jesus' name.

Everybody said, Amen.

You may be seated.

Caleb, thank you.

A while back, I had the opportunity to share my faith with a friend.

It was something that I looked forward to, an invitation that I relished.

And I did my absolute dead level best.

I'm talking about I shared the gospel with him in the most articulate, powerful, faithful way I possibly could.

The way I shared the faith with this friend of mine rivaled the apostle Paul's communication of the gospel to Athens.

It was that good.

I was on fire.

I mean, I shared it with him.

I contextualized it.

I gave him a theological exposition about the gospel.

Somebody say amen.

And at the conclusion of my message, he looked at me and said, All I know is that I prayed a prayer when I was eight years old.

And I'm going to heaven someday.

That's that's all that really matters to me.

That I go to heaven someday.

Doesn't really matter how I live and what I do.

All I know is there was a time decades ago where I prayed a prayer and I invited Jesus into my heart, and it doesn't matter how I live, I know that I'm going to heaven someday.

I recently saw a survey of Americans.

And the majority of Americans and even a lot of Christians say that the point of faith is just so that you go to heaven someday.

Can I tell you, church?

Jesus didn't go through what he went through.

He didn't die the death that we deserved, rise from the grave after kicking the devil's butt in hell.

He didn't go through what he went through so that we might go somewhere someday.

He went through what he went through so that we could bring heaven to earth today.

It's not just about a future experience somewhere at some time, it's about heaven invading earth through the power of the spirit and changing our lives today.

See, that's the point of the gospel.

It's not just about something in the future, it's about our today.

Now he didn't save us just from something, he saved us for something.

And that for something is right here, now, today.

And can I tell you that was the message of Jesus to his disciples in the upper room at the last supper.

The night before he is betrayed, arrested, crucified.

Jesus doesn't give them an escape strategy.

He doesn't say, just hang on and wait until you die.

No, he looks them square in the eye and says, It is for my father's glory that you bear much fruit today.

It's for my father's glory that you bear fruit that lasts for all time.

It's for my father's glory that you be fruitful now and forevermore.

I'm so thankful today, church, that we don't serve a God that that is focused on the future somewhere, sometime, somehow.

We serve a God that wants to invade our present and change us here and now forever.

He let me tell you, we serve a God that rose from the grave to bring the future heaven into our present reality.

Jesus is looking at his disciples in the upper room.

This is his parting shot.

These are his last words.

And he looks at them square in the eye after telling them, I'm getting ready to be betrayed, I'm getting ready to die, and where I'm going, you can't come, but be fruitful.

Right here.

Right now, see, this is what I believe.

Fruitfulness for Jesus is not an expectation.

Excuse me, fruitfulness is an expectation of your faith, not an optional extra.

You're not saved by your fruitfulness, but you are saved for fruitfulness.

Fruitfulness isn't just this addendum that we get to add on to our lives.

It's not just an extra.

No, it is the expectation of our faith.

Jesus said, I have chosen you and I have appointed you to go and bear much fruit.

Fruit that will last.

We're going to say it this morning multiple times, and I want to say it after me this morning.

Say, be fruitful.

We are called, commissioned, commanded to be fruitful in our faith.

It's not church.

All that this is not just about hanging on.

This isn't about just making it by the skin of your teeth.

This isn't fire insurance.

This isn't a ticket out of hell card.

Be fruitful.

Be fruitful.

Be fruitful now, today, and forevermore.

If fruitfulness is the goal, that's what Jesus says it is.

Then there's two questions this morning that I want to process with you.

Number one is this what does fruitfulness look like in the kingdom?

What does fruitfulness look like in the kingdom?

And how do we become fruitful today?

What does fruitfulness look like in the kingdom?

And how do we become fruitful today?

I don't know where David Abston is.

Can you turn the air on?

I'm about to die sweating up here.

Anyone else hot?

I'm hot.

I'm already fired up, ready to go.

Knock it down.

If you get cold, I'm sorry.

Get over it, snuggle up to the person next to you.

Roll tight.

What does fruitfulness look like in the kingdom?

I want to take you back to John chapter 13.

John 13 · chapter mention

Something you need to understand when you read scripture.

I want to encourage you as you read scripture to shift your focus a little bit.

Just away from chapter and verse and more to the story that is being communicated.

Why, Pastor?

Because if we're not careful, we'll miss the forest for the trees.

And John chapter 13 begins the final conversation of Jesus with his disciples in the upper room.

John 13 · chapter mention

This is the Last Supper.

And from John 13 all the way to John 17, it's one continuous story of the conversation that Jesus has with his disciples, his parting words.

He tells them what is getting ready to happen.

He washes their feet.

They take communion together.

He tells them about his betrayal.

Tells them, I'm getting ready to leave.

And then he says this in John 13, 34 and 35.

A new command I give you.

A new command I give you.

Love one another.

This is a new command.

Love one another.

Well, how do we love one another, Jesus?

As I have loved you, in the same fashion, in the same way.

Similarly, as I have loved you, so you must love one another.

If you love one another as I have loved you, if you demonstrate the same kind of love for your brother and your sister that I'm demonstrating for you, verse 35, by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.

By what?

By what?

Our love.

By our the world will know that we are his disciples.

By our what?

By our love for one another.

I've heard this verse, this passage quoted my whole life.

I've quoted it more times than I can count.

But until recently, I did not realize that it was in the context of the Last Supper.

I thought this was in the context of Jesus having uh just a conversation on the roadside with his disciples, or in a contentious disagreement with the Pharisees, or to a question that someone asked him from the master.

No, no, this statement, this new command that Jesus gave to his disciples was in the context in the story of the last supper, his last parting shots.

So the last supper, Jesus gives them this new command, love one another as I have loved you.

So you must love one another.

And if you do this, the world will know the world, not just anybody and not just a few people, but the world.

Everybody will know you by your love for one another.

I think it's important, church, to notice what he doesn't say we will be known by.

He doesn't say we'll be known by our giftedness.

He doesn't say that we'll be known by our intellect or our experience.

He doesn't say that we'll be known by a lot of things that we put a lot of stock in.

He doesn't say that we'll be known by our ability to quote chapter and verse.

He doesn't say that we'll be known by how often we we operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

He doesn't say we will be known by a lot of things.

He boils it down to one thing and says the world's gonna know that your mind for one thing.

It's your love for one another.

Well, how should we love one another the way that I'm loving you?

In the same way.

So continue the story.

So this is the very chapter 13, it's the beginning of the conversation in the Last Supper.

And if you move on forward, you get to chapter 15 in the passage that we just read.

Jesus says, Your call, your commission, the command that I'm putting on you is to be fruitful.

Well, the question that we should ask then is what does fruitfulness look like for Jesus?

How is it described?

How is it exemplified?

How is it demonstrated?

Well, if we continue reading in John 15, he tells us, verse 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Now remain in my love.

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.

I have told you this, so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

My command is this love each other as I have loved you.

Does that sound familiar?

That sounds just like John 13.

So in the beginning of the conversation, Jesus says, A new command, I give you, love one another as I have loved you.

You must love one another, and by this the world will know that you are my disciples.

And then we get to John 15, and he says, Be fruitful, and the world's gonna know that you're mine for your fruitfulness.

Well, then what does that fruitfulness look like?

He says it's his love.

That when we love others as he has loved us, we are demonstrating the chief fruit of the kingdom.

He goes on to say this.

Verse 13 greater love has no one than this.

Then he laid down his life for his friends.

Jump to verse 16.

Listen, you didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you might go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.

So that whatever you ask in my name, the father will give you.

Verse 17, this is my command.

Do what?

The chief fruit of the kingdom of God that demonstrates that we are his to the world could be a thousand different things, but Jesus boils it down to one thing love each other, as I have loved you.

You want to be fruitful in the kingdom?

What does fruitfulness according to the king look like?

It's simply love.

Love is the fruit.

Love is the fruit that we are called to produce in our lives.

Love is the fruit that we're called to express.

Love is the fruit that we're called to demonstrate.

Love is the fruit.

Hey, let me let me give you just a sidebar here.

Do you know that a tree never produces fruit for its own good?

It's only for those who are passing by.

The fruit doesn't benefit the tree.

The fruit are for those who are passing by.

It's for those that can look and see there's something hanging there that can bring nourishment and transformation to our life.

Jesus is telling us how to live a life that nourishes others.

He's telling us what we need to focus on in our life so that the world, as it passes by and is weary and worn out, and it's bruised and it's battered and it's been taken advantage of, that they can see something hanging from our lives that has the power to bring nourishment to theirs.

Love, Jesus says, is the fruit that we're called to demonstrate.

And when we do, the world knows who we are.

Sounds a whole lot like what Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

He says, if you speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, what are you?

You're a clanging gong.

Resounding symbol.

What does that mean, Pastor?

It means that you can operate in gifts of the Holy Spirit, and if you don't have love, you're just annoying.

That's a resounding gong and clanging symbol.

He says you can have faith to move mountains, but if you have not love, it is nothing.

You can discern mysteries and have knowledge beyond comprehension.

But if you you have not love, it doesn't matter.

You can even give your life and become a martyr.

But if you have not love, it means nothing.

The fruit of the kingdom of God that Jesus wants to produce in our lives so the world can know the Father Church is one thing, and it's love.

And not how we love, but how he loves.

In the world, the fruit is performance.

But in the kingdom it's love.

Galatians chapter five, verse six, Paul says, For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.

This is amazing.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Oh, let's try that one more time.

Through what?

Love.

Through love.

And so we're called to express our faith through love.

Paul says, this is the only thing that counts.

You know why I think it's the only thing that counts?

Is because the Bible is clear, it's the kindness of God that leads men to repentance.

It's his kind.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Well, what does that look like?

How do we discern what faith expressing itself as love looks like?

Go back to John 15.

In John 15, verse 13, Jesus says, Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for one's friend.

John 15:13

Jesus is prophesying about what he's getting to do, but he's not just prophesying about what he's getting ready to do.

He's prophesying about the path that he's called us to walk that demonstrates that we are his.

So let me make it as clear and plain as I possibly can.

The chief fruit that proves we are his disciples is a community of love shaped by the cross, which is self-giving, sacrificial, and lay down your life kind of love.

That's what Jesus is calling us to.

And when we live that way, we bear fruit that changes the world.

Story goes that the apostle John, he was the last living apostle to walk and talk with Jesus, lived unto a very, very old age.

He lived to around 90 years of age.

He lived to the very end of the first century.

Being at that age and in that state, it was difficult for him to travel.

It was difficult for him to speak.

All over the churches in Galatia.

And he would go and crowds in huge numbers would gather to hear the last living apostle of Jesus.

They would get to a church and it would be like the Red Sea.

The crowd would part and they would carry him in on a mat and set him down in the front.

And John would gather all the strength that he had, everything with inside of him.

It was a one-sentence message.

And his message was: little children love one another.

He would repeat this one-sentence message to the followers of little children.

One another, the crowds eventually would grow weary with the simplicity of this message and John's unwillingness to dive into discourses and all kinds of different things.

And so they would they would ask him, John, why?

Why?

Why do you say this and nothing else?

Why don't you preach any other message?

And his reply was, because it's the Lord's command.

And if this alone is kept, it is enough.

It is the Lord's command.

And if it is kept, it is enough.

When you've been touched by the love of Jesus.

A love that you can't earn, you can't deserve.

While we were dead in our trespasses and sin, God, who is rich in mercy, demonstrated his love for us in this.

He died that we might live.

Oh, what a love that is, church.

Love that knows no bounds, the apostle, hero of faith, David in Psalms 139.

Says, where, where, where can I go from this love?

If I go to the heights of heaven, it is there.

If I go to the depths of the sea, it is there.

If I if I cross the oceans, it is there.

It doesn't matter where I go, there's a love that has arrested me, that has changed my life.

Oh, don't mistake what I'm saying.

I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I believe in fruitfulness and abundance of different ways, but there's one thing above all others that Jesus has called us to, and it's to love one another as He has loved us, as He gave His life.

I got a question for you this morning.

Is your faith more about fire insurance or fruitfulness?

Is your faith just about doing what you gotta do, checking the boxes so that you don't go to hell?

If that's the focus of your faith, you're missing the point.

The point isn't just not to go to hell, the point is to receive the love of Jesus and allow heaven's glory to fill your life so much that fruit is produced in you that changes the world around you.

That's the point and the purpose of our faith, and that's the message of Jesus.

At the Last Supper with his disciples, his parting shot, his if you don't remember anything else, remember this.

It's your love for one another.

That's the fruit that I'm wanting to produce in your life that the world can't deny.

Love.

Love, love, love, love, love, love, love.

What's that look like?

It means it looks like this.

Forgiving the person that's hurt you.

Sometimes it it looks like staying in the difficult situation because you know there's a fruit in you that somebody else needs.

Sometimes it it looks like not returning evil for evil.

Sometimes Jesus said it looks like welcoming the stranger, offering a cup of water.

Sometimes it looks like feeding the hungry and clothing the naked and welcoming the poor wanderer.

And as a matter of fact, Jesus in Matthew chapter 25 says, what we do for the least of these we do for him.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

It looks like living a life that isn't so focused on what I need that you miss, what he wants to do through you.

It looks like living a sacrificial, self-giving, selfless kind of way.

How often, church, do we measure our relationships on a balanced scale?

As long as I get what I need from the relationship and they get what they need from it, we're good.

But God forbid the scales tilt away from us and we start having to give more than we get.

Love.

How often, church, do we strive for the love of Jesus that he just wants to give us?

Paul said in Galatians 5, he's talking about circumcision circumcision, which is representative of the law.

He says, it doesn't, it doesn't matter.

These check boxes that we create in our lives that we measure our goodness through, and when we feel like we're operating pretty well and we're acting pretty good and we're talking pretty good, we feel pretty self-justified.

The reality of it is our goodness is never good enough.

But yet that's not how we live emotionally and think like if I can just act right and if I can just talk right, and if I can just do right, then I'll be right.

That's a lie from the enemy.

You're only right, as we were singing about just a moment ago, by the blood of Jesus that he shed on Calvary's hill.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died.

Love, he says.

By this, the world will know, and this is the fruit that you'll produce and they'll partake of that proves that you're mine.

I'm gonna go ahead and stop here.

I want to ask the worship team to go ahead and join me on stage this morning.

I have a lot more to preach, but I love you.

Church, I I believe don't misconstrue with what I'm saying.

I believe that we need to consume the word of God.

I believe that we need to pray.

I believe that we need to worship.

I believe that we need to be in community.

I believe that church attendance matters because it's connecting you with both heaven and earth.

I believe in a lot of the things that we do, but can I tell you why we do everything is for one reason, and it's the love of Jesus.

It's not to earn anything, because we can't earn it.

We just have to receive his love.

And I just I want to declare over some of you, I just feel the witness of the Holy Spirit this morning, and the word of the Lord over you, stop striving to earn it and just start receiving it.

Guilt and shame are not of God.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

I candidly, I've I've spent a lot of my life, I think it's partly some of a bit of a holiness upbringing that I had, and then my own issues with perfectionism.

Anybody relate to either one of those things?

Well, you got at least a bunch of liars.

If we're not careful, we can work so hard to earn it that we forfeit it.

What I mean by that is that not that God's work doesn't save us, but we're working so hard to earn it that we forfeit the fruit of it.

You know what's interesting?

I said a moment ago about a tree.

A tree never produces fruit for itself, it's for those that pass by.

Can I tell you what else a tree never has to do?

A tree never has to strive to produce fruit.

It just does it.

As long as it's connected to the water source.

As long as a tree is connected to the stream, to the brook, to the river, as long as a tree stays connected to a water source, it just naturally produces fruit.

Can I tell you this morning?

Stop trying to produce fruit and just stay connected to Jesus.

Just stay connected to him.

Just stay in relationship with him, just remain in him, just love him.

And you know what happens?

All of a sudden, fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit, just fruit that people all around you can partake of that changes the world.

Why?

Not because of your striving, but because of your trusting.

I trust Jesus is enough.

And if I stay connected to Jesus, love, love, love flows.

You stand with me where you are this morning.

I can't tell you how much I love you this morning because of how much I've overlooked in my message.

I'm gonna ask my prayer team to join me to my right and to my left.

Worship team is gonna lead us in a moment here at the end of our service.

And if you're struggling, Jesus, struggling to receive the love of God.

You're struggling to earn it, you're fighting with everything inside of you to produce it, and you're frustrated, and you're weary, and you're angry, and you're upset that it's not what you think it should be.

If that's you this morning, I'm gonna challenge you.

Get out of your seat and come to one of our prayer team members because we want to pray with you today.

And I believe the Bible says that there's power and agreement, and we're gonna break a striving spirit off of your life.

See, that's an attack of the enemy to put something on you to keep you from what God has for you.

And today, the striving spirit has to go.

Today, the striving is broken, and you just receive because he has given everything that you might have life and it abundantly above.

All you can think or ask or imagine according to his power that is within you.

Does that resonate this morning with anybody?

Just stretch your hands towards heaven this morning.

Lord.

I just impart your love.

Oh Jesus! Pour out your love right now.

I break a striving spirit off of your people today.

I break a spirit that would make them think they have to earn it, they've gotta work for it, they've got to deserve it, they've gotta act right all the time to get it.

I rebuke that today, in Jesus' name.

And I release an impartation over you this morning of the love of Jesus, the love of Jesus that knows no bounds and knows no limits.

Oh, love, God, immeasurably more today over your people this morning.

Love, God, I declare and decree your love over every heart and over every mind.

I decree freedom this morning that we may know Him, that we may know you, Jesus, and that your love be cultivated in our lives.

Worship team is going to lead us this morning.

And if you need prayer for anything in your life, I implore you, I beg you today, don't leave here the same way in which you came.

Get out of your seat right now and come to one of our prayer team members because God wants to meet you this morning.

He wants to meet you to bring transformation to your life, to free you, and fill you with his love.