Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Christ Church Sermon, December 28, 2025

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Thank you for listening.

Good morning.

Today's scripture is John 15 verses 1-8.

John 15:1–8

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. If you do not remain in me,

you are like a branch that is thrown

away and withers. Such branches are

picked up, thrown into the fire, and

burned.

If you remain in me and my words remain

in you, ask whatever you wish, and it

will be done for you. This is to my

father's glory that you bear much fruit,

showing yourselves to be my disciples.

hear what the spirit is saying to the

church. Thanks be to God.

>> Thank you, Aaron. Well, good morning.

Happy Sunday. I'm Pastor Pat. I'm your

congregational care pastor, and today

I'm up here to lift all of you up in the

word. Um,

Lord,

let the words of my mouth and the

meditation of my heart be pleasing to

you. Empty all of me and fill me with

all of you. Amen.

Well, it's the Sunday after Christmas.

Doesn't it seem like that was like a

week ago?

The house is quiet for some. Even the

crackle of the fireplace is gone. But I

think it was too warm to have a fire.

The stockings hang empty now on the

mantle. The pile of gifts under the tree

is gone. Bags of wrapping paper have

already been moved to the curb. Friends

and relatives have all gone back to

their homes.

Even the good china has been cleaned and

packed away.

The world was different just a week ago.

It was temporarily transformed.

The magical dust of Christmas sprinkled

on humanity for such a brief time,

reminding us of what is worth having and

what is important.

For a brief time, just for a brief time,

Jesus was everywhere.

He was in the eyes of a mother welcoming

home family.

In the prayers of many at the table,

in the crowds of shoppers looking for

that one really good deal,

in the songs sung by children.

He was in every merry Christmas, every

well-wish uttered, and every candle lit.

But by the end of this week, the magic

will be gone. It will fade. Life will

become normal again. Generosity will

leave, taking kindness, respect, and

love with it. Life will become normal

again.

But what is normal?

Bear with me here. I usually don't do

trash talk, but hopefully no one in this

church does trash talk, but we're going

to do trash talk today. As in the words

reduce, reuse, and recycle.

But today's environmental language

reduce, reuse, and recycle parallels

biblical principles.

What from this past year would you

reduce or get rid of? What wasn't

producing fruit?

Maybe the amount of time scrolling,

the stresses that produce anxiety,

or habits that drain life.

Instead of any of that, choose

simplicity.

Choose trust.

What from this past year,

2025,

could be reused?

A commitment to not throw away what God

can still use.

God reuses our lessons, our experiences,

even our suffering.

What from 2025

could be recycled, made into something

different or new?

Let's recycle our sins, our brokenness,

and failures.

God reshapes them into wisdom, humility,

and compassion.

Today's scripture that Aaron read talks

about reducing, reusing and recycling.

It is the seventh and final I am

statement as recorded by John. One of

the most well-known metaphors, the vine

and the branches.

John 15 is about abiding, fruitfulness,

pruning and stewardship that God

entrusts us with.

We see Jesus as the true vine and God as

the gardener. I am the true vine and my

father is the gardener. Any gardeners

here?

Okay. Oh, I see one. Thank you. I see

one. Holy cow, people.

So, if you don't know, a gardener is

patient, creative, and resilient.

God is patient, creative, and resilient

with us.

If you don't know, a gardener works hard

to protect what they have created. God

works hard to protect what he created.

Us.

Gardening requires intentional care,

cutting back, preserving, and restoring.

We all require that same intentional

care.

John 15:2,

John 15:2

he cuts off every branch that does not

bear fruit.

The gardener uses pruning to cut away

branches that are not in the vine.

They're not part of the true vine. They

are barren, eventually cut off and

destroyed. Did you ever go out and look

at one of your plants and like there's

things growing up in it that you weren't

supposed to be there? That's what we're

talking about. They're not part of the

true vine.

Pruning though is not a punishment.

God uses pruning to remove what does not

produce growth. That could look like

busyness. It could look like excessive

worry, distractions. All that is using

time but has not added anything to our

spiritual growth.

We allow others to clutter our times

with their schedules, their concerns,

even their joys.

How can we reduce the busyiness and the

anxiety to make more room for abiding in

him?

How can more be added if nothing is

taken away? We only have 24 hours in a

day.

I've witnessed families that have

suffered because family time was being

reduced by work time. It can happen very

easily. working more, taking on more

jobs, filling your schedule with

opportunities to make more money, all in

order to keep up with the Joneses.

Let's not reduce the time spent with

family.

Instead, sit down, have a meal with

them. Children are like sponges. They

would love to soak up some time with

you. As you drive them to yet another

activity, ask them about their day.

Check in with your spouse. Do they need

more of you?

Life is busy. Don't get lost in the

busyiness.

Believe that God will and God does

provide.

Living excessively

might be producing

more fruit, but it comes at a cost.

Family is so important.

God's not asking you to sacrifice them

at that expense. When we reduce

distraction, clutter, unrealistic

dreams, we become better disciples.

Reducing is an act of trust, letting God

cut away what is in the way of

fruitfulness.

But God doesn't just cut away what is

bad. A good gardener, one back there,

will also cut away parts of the branch

that are still connected.

This is being done to produce stronger,

healthier branches.

And God will do the same with each of

us. Maybe you enjoy spending a weekend

binge watching the Stranger Things.

That not necessarily is a bad thing, but

God could take that away, which would

give you more time to be with him or

with your family. What is God calling

you to let go of to reduce? Simpler

lives often bear deeper fruit. God's

intent for our lives is to progress from

baroness to fruitfulness and from

fruitfulness to spiritual abundance.

John 15:4 and5 it says remain in me

John 15:4

bear much fruit.

God reuses ordinary people us our gifts

our testimonies experiences and lessons.

He will continually draw life and value

from what we might have discarded.

It could look like taking our prayer

life from one that just utters up a

quick prayer in an emergency. Lord God,

help

to a prayer life that includes morning

prayer and afternoon devotion

and an evening prayer.

When I taught the grow faith class on

beginner's prayer, the room was full.

They wanted to know how could they take

their prayers to the next level. How

could they continue to pray when the

emergency was over? They wanted to know

how could they continue to pray when

they weren't getting any answers.

God will reuse what is already there and

reshape it into what is needed. By the

way, the grow faith classes are going to

start again in January. I heard that the

class on prayer was pretty good. And the

instructor, oh my gosh, the instructor,

woo,

she was pretty phenomenal.

a volunteer that ha helped at vacation

bible school realized that she had a

god-given given gift of working with

children. God can take that and bless it

into new ministries like child care or

youth ministries.

Someone that volunteered at our amen to

action day now uses more of her time to

help with missions.

God will continue to reuse your gifts to

grow his kingdom.

We have a retired men's group here. So,

anyone that's not part of that, listen

up. They are reusing their skills, their

gifts, their talents here every Tuesday

morning, fixing, maintaining, building,

and painting whatever is needed. They

come in, they have devotions,

they eat donuts.

and they get to work. Okay, retired men

that aren't part of that group, they eat

donuts.

God does not discard them because they

have retired. God continues to reuse

them for his glory. Don't discard

yourselves because of age or weakness.

Look, they're still using me.

Stay connected to Christ through prayer,

fellowship, and obedience. He will

continue to reuse you.

John 15:5 says, "Apart from me, you can

John 15:5

do nothing."

In John 15, remaining in Christ is a

kind of spiritual recycling.

Recycling as we know it would turn

plastic water bottles that we throw away

into a bench that people would sit on

and enjoy. Those same water bottles that

you toss into the recycle bin every day

might be the fibers used in your

sweater. It's the fuzz on a tennis ball.

And if you go camping with Kelly, it

could be the insulation in your sleeping

bag.

Remember that.

So, what does recycling look like in us?

You may have heard the name Chuck

Coulson.

He was founder of the prison fellowship.

Chuck didn't embark on a career in

prison ministry.

It was quite the opposite. He was part

of the presidential campaign for Richard

Nixon and later appointed as Nixon's

White House counsel and hatchet man.

It was a career of hard ball politics.

Chucklesson voluntarily plead guilty to

obstruction of justice for his part in

the Watergate scandal. He was sentenced

to prison. He wrote in his memoir, "I

found myself increasingly drawn to the

idea that God had put me there for a

purpose and that I should do something

for those that I left behind."

God used his brokenness and recycled it

into something totally different.

Chuck emerged from prison with a new

mission,

mobilizing the Christian church for

ministry with the incarcerated.

The mission has impacted hundreds of

thousands of incarcerated people and

their families.

Prison Fellowship is now the nation's

largest Christian nonprofit, equipping

the church to serve these individuals.

You see, Chuck Olson, one of the most

influential evangel

evangelic evangelical

leaders. The words are in there. You

remember I'm one of the older, you know,

like it takes

leaders devoting his life to ministry

with the incarnate incarcerated and

sharing the gospel's message of love and

hope to millions.

His story is a testimony to God's mercy

and grace. God can take our sins, our

brokenness,

and our failures and reshape, recycle

them into new life.

For a biblical context, I give you the

woman at the well.

She was an outcast,

five husbands, living with another man.

She could only come out in the heat of

the day

to draw water because she was shunned by

the other women in her town due to the

many marriages and unconventional life.

This was where she met Jesus at the

well.

He speaks to her in love surprisingly

because Jews and Samaritans didn't

associate.

Jesus asks her for a drink of water and

then offers her living water. He reveals

to her that he knows her past,

allowing her

and showing her that he understands her

struggles

and others offers acceptance, not

condemnation.

She recognizes Jesus as the Messiah. She

drops her water pot and runs back to her

village, telling everyone, "Come, come

and see a man who told me everything

that I ever did."

Many Samaritans came out because of her

testimony.

They listened to Jesus and believed in

him, recognizing him as the savior of

the world. This woman becomes a powerful

witness to her village. She was

transformed. She was recycled from an

outcast to the first female evangelist.

There's that word again. Remember,

abiding in Christ is spiritual

recycling. Nothing is wasted. Everything

is redeemed.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:4,

2 Corinthians 1:4

"God comforts all of us in our troubles

so that we can comfort those in any

trouble with the same comfort that we

received from Christ."

This verse is saying that God will come

alongside us when we go through hard

times. And before you know it, he brings

someone else who is going through hard

times so that we can be there for that

person just as God was there for us.

So that we can be the light in their

darkness.

John 15 teaches that fruitfulness comes

from abiding in Christ. When we live as

fruitful disciples, we reduce what

hinders our growth. We reuse what God

gives resources for his ongoing kingdom

impact. And we recycle our brokenness

through Christ's redeeming power.

We are days away from our journey into

the new year.

The words from Jeremiah 29:11.

Jeremiah 29:11

I know what I have planned for you, says

the Lord. I have plans to prosper you,

not to harm you. I have plans to give

you a future filled with hope.

Does God have areas in you that need to

be reduced and not carried forward?

What worked in 2025 that God can reuse

in 2026?

Is there any part of the past year that

God could recycle into something new?

This is not a New Year's resolution.

This is a revolution.

Talk with God. Ask him to open up your

eyes to see what path he has put out

there for you to see what you can reuse,

what needs to be reduced, or what might

be recycled.

When we live as faithful disciples, we

reduce what hinders our growth. We reuse

our God-given resources for kingdom

impact. And we recycle our brokenness

through Christ's redeeming power.

What is God calling you to do?

What can you change that would bring you

closer to God?

Are you truly abiding in the vine,

allowing the gardener to shape your

life?

These are all questions that you can

carry forward into the new year. Take a

look and see if you have areas in your

life where any one of those three trash

talk could apply

and do it because I believe in you. and

the one that really matters. God

believes in you. Let's pray.

Lord, we come before you and ask that in

your pruning we surrender to what you

will have us do. We ask that you take us

and reuse us and reduce in us and

recycle in us for your glory, for your

kingdom.

All of this, Lord, in your name.

>> Amen.