Pruned to Grow

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,

Isaiah 5 · chapter mention

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

Jeremiah 2:21

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

Romans 8:28

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.