Mission Vineyard Church Sermon 1/4/26

You're great. You're great.

>> Good morning, Mission Vineyard. If

you'll find your seats,

my name is Kate and it's a joy to

welcome you to church this morning.

Happy New Year.

Thank you. Whether you're worshiping

here with us at the DM or you're online

with us, we hope that you feel welcomed

into our church family this morning.

We're just we're so glad that you're

here. If you are a new uh visitor to

Mission Vineyard, please be sure that

you grab one of these great bags on your

way out. They're on the back table, the

welcome table. And in this bag is

information about our church. Um

information about the vineyard movement

that you can learn more about. There's

also a connect card that we'd ask you'd

fill out, please. Um you can fill out a

paper copy here and leave it in the

offering baskets on the table in the

back. You can also fill it out online at

connect.missionyard.org.

Just some basic information. Um, if

you're willing to share your name, your

email address, your physical mailing

address, we'd love to add you to our

weekly church email so you know

everything happening in the life of the

church throughout the week. Um, if you'd

like to add your physical mailing

address, our pastor will send you just a

note of appreciation in the mail, which

can be exciting. There's also a prayer

request on the back. It's super

exciting. Um,

um, we would love to pray for you as a

church. We pray weekly. there's a group

of intercessory prayer warriors and we

would love to pray over you whether you

have a request to praise um you can put

your name it can be anonymous anyone is

welcome to do that we we would love to

be able to pray for you so please take

that and drop it in the baskets um also

um in um on the back table is

information about our um sermon series

for January and February and then some

exciting events happening guest speakers

coming in and visitors so we encourage

you to get connected um with some of the

new groups that are happening some of

our trainings and then also you can be

aware of special guests who are coming

to visit us over the next couple months.

Um and with that I would like to ask

those who are passing the offering

baskets if you would come forward if we

have those.

I'm going to pray over our giving and

our tithes and our offerings and um we

believe at Mission Vineyard that giving

is an overflow of what God has already

given to us and it's an act of worship.

And so we serve a powerful and a

generous God and we're just so thankful.

So Lord Jesus, um would you continue to

move in our hearts this morning? Would

you meet us here today, Lord? We know

you're here. So meet us, Lord Jesus. I

pray for every gift that's given, Lord,

that be given in your name and your

glory. Bless every heart of um who's

here this morning, Jesus. multiply our

gifts um and our offerings to you Lord

that your kingdom would be powerful

based on our own generosity and humility

in Jesus name. Amen.

Happy New Year Mission Vineyard.

>> I'm so grateful to be with you. Uh

there's um somebody is joining the

church this morning. I was told uh at

University Hospital right now. They are

coming into the world. Um so some of you

have been praying for Robert and Haley

Scott. Aurora is on the way as we speak.

So uh thank you for praying. Everybody

is healthy so far and we can continue to

pray Lord Jesus that you protect Haley

and Aurora and uh God that Aurora would

be born perfectly and that there'd be no

complications and that you'd uh help

everybody be at peace. Bless them this

morning and we ask in Jesus name. Amen.

It's funny when we were visiting last

night, Robert was like so proud. He's

like WE'RE ADDING TO THE CHURCH. Like I

guess that's that's that's a way I mean

h have babies. That's the Bible. It's

great. Good. Good for you. That's

wonderful. It's one we're excited. We

are. It's wonderful. Uh happy new year.

This is a great great time to recognize

all that God has done and all that God

is doing. It's a you know uh a friend of

mine, he's a comedian. He he does a

horrible horrible sketch.

I'm horrible as he's hilarious. He's

always been hilarious. That's why he's

professional right now. But he does a

sketch um and uh about how uh we are so

susceptible to recognizing that the new

year is special. It's, you know, JANUARY

1ST, HAPPY NEW YEAR. And he goes, you

know, yesterday was a year ago, too.

Like January 34, every year is happy new

year. So why is it that we, you know,

every day is happy new year? See, he's

that's why he's the comedian and I'm in

front of you right now. But um, no,

why do we recognize this? Well, in every

season of life and in every single

culture, there are moments that we take

and we recognize what has happened, what

is going on. I recog I I I found out

yesterday that the full moon was special

for some reason. It was a wolf moon. I

guess I and I didn't hear any howling. I

was grateful for that. Uh but every

there's there are systems in creation

even that God sets to help us recognize

what's going on. And so in this new

year, what would it look like for us to

begin aresh? Well, a couple of things I

feel like God is telling us for our

church that uh I think helpful uh for us

all to to realize is I believe that this

is a year of overflow for our church. It

is a year of overflow for our church.

Now, before you say, "Oh my goodness,

this church is going to be one of those

that says, you know, if you only give

more, God will give you more." No, no.

God does the overflow.

We rest in him. God does the overflow.

And I believe that this year is a year

of overflow for our church. I don't know

what that means,

but I know that it's a year of overflow

for our church. And I wonder what it

looks like to lean into that, to lean in

expectancy, in faith for that, and to do

practices that help us engage with that

overflow. And so, we're beginning the

year with a sermon series called

Connected for Purpose. connected for

purpose. One of the main scriptures

we're going to be engaging in for a

whole two months. I hope you won't get

sick of John 15. We are going to take

two months on it

to learn about what it means to abide

with Jesus.

To learn what happens when we abide with

Jesus to learn what comes from Jesus

when we are settled, connected and

attached with Jesus.

Uh, my goal, and if you want to, you can

make it your goal, I'm not putting this

on anybody, is to memorize John 15

in the next minute, no, over the next

two months. What would it look like? I

don't know if you've ever had a goal of

memorizing scripture in your life. Uh,

right now, there's another scripture I'm

trying to memorize, but uh, John 15.

What would it look like to memorize John

15 over the next two months? I'm adding

things to your New Year's resolutions.

I'm sorry, but here we go. So connected

to purpose.

What would it mean to be connected to

Jesus? I'm going to read the scripture,

pray, and engage what Jesus may want to

talk to us about this morning. This is

John 15. We're going to deal with the

first three verses this morning. Jesus

says, I am the true grape vine.

I am the true grape vine. Jesus says,

"And my father," God is the gardener.

He the father cuts off every branch of

mine, Jesus's branches. He cuts off

every branch of Jesus that doesn't

produce fruit.

This doesn't sound very encouraging for

the new year. He cuts off every branch

that doesn't produce fruit. And he

prunes the branches that do bear fruit

so they will produce even more fruit.

You have already been pruned and

purified by the message I have given

you.

Lord Jesus, thank you that we have also

already have been pruned and purified

because we have your word with us. Your

living word, Jesus, your written word,

your spoken word. You speak to us, Lord.

Your presence. We thank you so much,

God, that we are being pruned. We have

been pruned, and that you will continue

to prune us.

Thank you, Lord.

If you don't remember anything else from

today, I would love for you to remember

that we are branches. We are not the

vine.

We are branches. We are not the vine.

Church, say branches.

>> Say vine.

>> Vine.

>> Tell your neighbor you are not

>> the vine.

You are a branch.

>> If you just said that to your spouse,

you may have to reconcile later.

Not the most romantic thing to say, but

you're in church, so it's all weird.

Don't worry about it.

Throughout history, God's people have

always been challenged with this tension

of wanting to become the vine. We want

to be the center. We want to be the one

that has the source of thing, that is in

control, that is being the resourcer,

that is the one providing for

everything. For some reason, the the

temptation that we've always had since

the beginning of time has been, well,

you can be the vine, too.

Everybody can be their own vines.

Embrace your vineess.

We're just vines within vines

in parallel universes of vines.

But no, church, we're not vines

according to the scripture. We are

branches. And you can take this

horiculture

analogy out as far as you want to.

There's oaks in the scripture that talk

about God planting oaks by rivers and

and all kinds of ways that God wants us

to be seen as ones that are resourced by

him and not by ourselves.

Resourced by him and not by ourselves.

And throughout history, and I'm sorry to

say, even the ones that were chosen by

God to be the ones representing God's

kingdom

have struggled with this. And so, we're

going to look at the Old Testament,

maybe scripture that you haven't seen

before in the book of First Kings. You

may have heard of Saul and David.

There's a great cartoon and movie out

about David and Saul right now. And he

flings a rock and hits Goliath. Anybody

ever heard of David and Goliath? And

David has a son. His name is Solomon.

And God fulfills so much through

Solomon. You would have thought

everything was going TO BE GREAT.

SOLOMON GETS THE TEMPLE. EVERYTHING IS

wonderful for Israel. And even Solomon

couldn't handle

being a branch.

He set himself up as the vine. And what

happens is the most distorted

family dynamic that we could ever

witness. Sometimes we think, hey, you

know, we look to the scripture for how

to be a family and run a family. And

that's true. But it's because the

examples in the scriptures of those so

as close to God as you could be are

sometimes the most frail.

And what happens is the son of Solomon

begins ruling in a way that's

destructive and selfish.

And so in first kings we find this

dynamic going on. and uh to Rayaboam

son of Solomon first kings 12:4 someone

1 Kings 12:4

says to him hey your father Solomon was

a hard ma hard master they said lighten

the harsh labor demands and heavy taxes

that your father imposed on us then we

will be your loyal subjects it was as if

the slavery that e that Israel was taken

out of from Egypt was reput to them by

the Israeli leaders themselves

All of the sudden, they had become their

own oppressors.

The older counselors replied, "If you're

going to be a servant to these people

today and give them a favorable answer,

they will always be your loyal

subjects." Look at this introduction.

These wise people, and I'm so thankful

for our sages in our church that tell

me, "John, not wise."

And I go, "Thank you."

Similarly, what's happening with Rabbam

is this introduction saying, "Hey, if

you would be a servant king,

these people will serve you,

which you would think would be

wonderful, wise kingly wisdom that you

would take into your kingdom." And it's

actually what Jesus fulfills later. But

in this case, Rayob says, "Uh, I'm going

to ask some young people what they

think." And the young people says, 'This

is what you should tell those

complainers who want a lighter burden.

My little FINGER IS THICKER THAN MY

FATHER'S WAIST. YES, MY FATHER LAID

HEAVY BURDENS ON YOU, but I'm going to

make you THEM EVEN HEAVIER. MY FATHER

BEATS YOU WITH WHIPS, BUT I'M GOING TO

BEAT YOU WITH SCORPIONS.

What kind of wisdom of the king is this?

What kind of mess of rulership?

It's not logical. I mean, even today,

thank God. And I I think it is because

Jesus is in the world. Each one of us

have heard the word servant leadership

before. In each one of our manage

management meetings or HR emails or some

sort of training, we've heard the word

servant leadership. And it's because we

see here that when we make ourselves the

center, even as leaders,

we discount our true identity as

branches of the kingdom of God.

And so instead of being willing to serve

the world, knowing that serving means

being resourced by the King of Kings, we

instead become the vine and oppressing

in fear.

And so, who knows where this is coming

from? It could be um father wounds that

Rayom is dealing with. It could be it

looks like he wants to be favorable in

front of the young people. Nobody's ever

dealt with that today.

That's that was sarcasm.

But you see what happens? There are

challenges and fears that even the king

of the kingdom that is to represent God

is struggling with. So if you've ever

struggled with making a decision out of

fear instead of faith, you're not alone.

So at this point, let me introduce to

you what's going on here. I've got some

things here. Does anybody know what this

is called?

a trellis, said the man who I am

babysitting his plants for, and I think

they're pretty much dead. I'm so sorry,

Chris. It's going to be okay.

>> Yeah. Yeah. But Chris knows what a

trellis is cuz he takes care of plants.

He does. And Ashley does, too. I'm sure

this is a trellis. And as Jesus

introduces to us, him being the vine and

we are the branches. If you've studied

anything about vineyards and not the

church, but actual like grapes and

growing and if you've ever grown

anything on a vine, it needs or is

helped by a trellis of a certain form.

Anybody smarter than me about this? I

would agree. I need some affirmation.

No, nobody's smarter than me. Okay,

we're in. We need to have a gardening

class or something. And so, we're

introducing two trelluses right now. One

is a trellis of faith and one is a

trellis

of fear.

Jesus

is the vine. And the beautiful stories

in the scriptures of how God introduces

what happens with the vine that was

intended to be Israel.

Israel was always supposed to be the

place where the people of the world

would be resourced by the grace of God.

But instead, over and over and over

again, it was as if they couldn't handle

the grace themselves. And so instead of

giving grace to the world in fear, they

oppressed their neighbors. And then God

said, "Fine, I'm going to take the walls

away from the vine."

Over and over again, God says through

prophets, I'm taking the protection away

so that fire and animals and mold can

get in and destroy it. because God wants

his fruit to be of a certain nature.

And so sometimes we operate by a trellis

for the branches of fear.

And that can look all kinds of different

ways, but sometimes

in God's grace, we operate beautifully

on a trellis of faith.

And the activity looks very different

one way or the other. We're seeing

already Rayoboam operating on a trellis

of fear and whipping people with

scorpions. I've never heard of such

creativity.

But he's not over yet. There's a whole

division now that's happening. There's a

civil war developing. And Rayoboam wants

to go destroy anybody that hasn't joined

him. And so he arrives at Jerusalem,

mobilizes the men of Judah, 180,000

troops, 180,000 troops, 180,000 troops

to fight against the men of Israel, to

restore the kingdom to himself. But God

said to a prophet, a man of God, say to

Roaboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah,

to all the people of Judah and Benjamin,

stop it.

Stop it. This is what the Lord says.

Don't fight against your relatives, the

Israelites. Go back home, for what has

happened is my doing. They obeyed the

message of the Lord and went home as the

Lord commanded. Thank God there was a

prophet involved that said, "Stop it."

Because otherwise, Rayoboam's struggling

with jealousy. He's struggling with

control issues. He's struggling with all

kinds of bad fruit from a trellis of

fear. Do you hear me?

And thankfully, a prophet goes, "Don't

do it. Don't do it." God speaks through

the prophets. And then the third thing

that happens, Jeroboam, the king of the

other part of the civil war, says,

"Unless I'm careful, the kingdom will

return to the dynasty of David to

Rayoboam's rule. When these people go to

Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the

temple of the Lord under Rayoboam's

rule, they'll give again their

allegiance to King Rayoboam of Judah.

They will kill me." Can you imagine this

king? If they go and worship God,

they'll kill me. Think about the

jealousy and the mess involved in this m

I mean is this a trellus of fear or

faith

and so in fear look what he does and

again it's as if we've not learned from

history so on the advice of his

counselors the king made two gold calves

he made idols for the people to worship

in their own country and said it's too

much trouble to worship in Jerusalem you

don't need to go down there

don't worry worry about them, Dad. Don't

worry about the temple. These are the

gods who brought you from Egypt. He lies

to them.

And he says, "These golden calves are

just as good as the temple in Jerusalem

and just as good as its God."

And so in fear, again, the trellus of

fear that grew up in Jeroboam, all of a

sudden in this civil war, he says, "Ah,

I'm afraid they're not going to like me.

I'm afraid they're going to kill me." uh

let me give them a false god to worship.

And can you imagine what that might look

like in our context today?

The replacements that we put instead of

taking time to worship God as he wants.

Oh, this is just as good. This is just

as good. Everyone hearing knows as Jesus

is saying, "I am the vine.

My father is the gardener." He cuts off

every branch of mine that doesn't

produce fruit. He prunes the branches

that do produce fruit. He will produce

even more. You've already been pruned

and purified by the message I've given

you. Everybody hearing Jesus has this

imagery in mind. He Everybody hearing

Jesus knows that Israel has always been

God's vine. And so when Jesus says, "I

am the vine,"

there's a replacement going on that's

bringing a lot of tension. It is saying

man cannot do this on its own. God must

come and do the work himself.

This is the basic surrender that we must

enter into from the original temptation

of the garden of Eden which is you can

do it on your own.

Just set up a couple of golden calfs.

Just

control people more harshly. You can do

it on your own. Just go to war. Fight

them. Just do it on your own. And

instead Jesus says, "I am the vine.

You are the branches.

Surrender.

Surrender. You don't have to do this on

your own. Surrender.

You can be a branch. Let me be the vine.

Let me be the one that holds the power

of the kingdom. So you don't ever have

to feel like you have to control

anybody, manipulate anybody, fear that

you're not liked. You don't have to

worry about that anymore. You don't have

to go to war with anybody, hold grudges

against anybody. Just receive me. Just

be connected with me. Jesus says, "I'm

the true vine. I'm the true vine. I'm

the true vine." We get to live in two

different realities, folks. We can live

in the false vine of fear with a trellis

that leads to all kinds of abuse.

Or we can live in the true vine of Jesus

with a trellis that leads to life. It

leads to life. The fruit of the fear

trellis. It makes us the center and

leads to resentment and worry and

control and arrogance and burnout and

isolation and comparison and scarcity

and despair.

I just want to kick this trellis down.

I'm thankful I have men in my life that

I I I I submit to and I say, "Hey, these

kind of things are coming up in me and

they in prayer, they knock these

trelluses down as they there's this part

of me that sometimes tries to build

them." No, God wants us to live in the

fruit of the faith trellis that makes

Jesus and his word the center.

And when we do, watch what happens in

Galatians 5. It talks about love and

joy. And if you haven't memorized

another scripture, here's another one to

memorize. Galatians 5. The kids will

have learned it. They will learn it.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self-control.

But even more than that, I don't think

that the scripture could list out all

the fruit that the spirit bring in our

lives.

But the fruit of the trellis that makes

Jesus and his words are the center comes

with transformation. True

transformation. not add on another

routine to fix another problem.

True transformation that God wants to do

in us by his spirit. It also comes with

rest.

Take a deep breath.

Not too closely to your neighbor. It'll

be weird.

Rest.

Not burn out. Rest.

When we are pruned by the truth of

Jesus, when we let him articulate what

gives us life, we get rest.

We get gratitude. Now, gratitude you can

make up all day, but man, there are

sometimes I don't want to make up

gratitude in my life. Today, I'm

grateful for I'm tired.

But when we live, when we abide in

Jesus,

we get rest, we get gratitude, we get

community. Would you look around for a

moment? Each person at each table today

is looking for this trellis to be the

center of their lives. You are not

alone.

And by the spirit of God, we get to rest

in the gifts that he gives when we abide

in him. When we abide alone

as the center of ourselves,

we get competition.

Friends, I don't want to compete with

anybody in this world as long as I have

Jesus. Do you hear me? I don't need to

because there's nothing the world can

give me. I don't need to be alone. I

don't need to be the vine. I get to be

the branch. The lifegiving branch. Hope,

courage, humility, wisdom, GENEROSITY,

CONFIDENCE, and even more.

Even more when we stay connected to

Jesus, the fruit just happens.

And the reason why we don't stay

connected is sometimes our will,

sometimes it's sin, sometimes it's the

devil. So know that if you're fighting

in being controlling and manipulative in

the world and holding grudges, it's not

just a human cause. It is also spiritual

warfare that you take time and we take

time and that you're here in this room

together to abide with Jesus. This is

spiritual warfare

to live in faith instead of living in

fear.

I was talking with another pastor this

week and I'll end the sermon here

and he he just out of the side of his

mouth he was talking about pastor

burnout and all this kind of thing. He's

writing about it just a genius of a man

and he said this and I just caught it

and I said wait I need to write this

down. He said we industrialize our lives

every time we replace ourselves at the

center instead of Jesus.

We industrialize

our lives every time we put ourselves at

the center instead of Jesus. Why?

Because the center just wants to

reproduce to show. Do you know that

vines and the branches of vines are not

meant to show a lot of foliage. They're

not meant to grow a lot of leaves.

But let me tell you friends, one of the

things I struggle with the most is being

one that's showing a lot of success.

What the foliage of the vine actually

does is it keeps the sun away from the

fruit.

We're meant to invest in Jesus, not

focus on our own success. Invest in

Jesus so that the fruit will come. And

we can't do this without God's help. We

can't do this without God's help. And so

this year, I'm going to encourage you

into a practice. You don't have sermon

sheets this morning, but you have

phones. I'm going to welcome you to get

them out and get the photo app ready.

So, or whatever you use to scan a uh QR

code.

Another uh Latin way to say trellis

is rule.

And so, every time you see a trellis, I

want you to think of the the word rule.

And not rule like

your parents make rules for you or the

world makes rules for you. No, the rule

that we're talking about is a way of

receiving the grace of God, a way of

abiding with the true vine.

That's what we're into. That's what we

want. That's what we are pursuing. And

so, if you go to this QR code, and if

you're intimidated by it, I it's

understandable. This QR and what I've

sent you is actually meant for leaders.

But you know, there's a lot of leaders

in this room and your leaders in your

workplaces and your leaders all over the

place, leaders in your homes.

I'd encourage you to take some time to

look at what it might look like to

functionally abide with Jesus this year

by answering some questions and saying,

"What does it look like for me to have a

trellis in my life? A trellis of faith,

a trellis where I abide with Jesus." If

you're not QR code friendly, we'll send

it out in in the church email this week

so you can have it. We have sent it out

before. It is associated with uh the the

work that we do with emotionally healthy

spirituality, a group out of New York uh

that we're partnering with more and

more. And uh when you stay for the

party, there are some prizes associated

with that as well. Well, Steve, I wonder

as we go into a time of ministry, the

prayer team has come together and

co-discerned what God might be doing.

would you help us uh be led into

ministry this morning?