John 15:1-11 "I Am The True Vine"

Um, if you have a Bible with you, please open it to John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

We are continuing with our series in John.

We are in verses 1 through 11.

That is John 15, 1 through 11.

The text is on the screen.

If you didn't bring your Bible, I do recommend bringing a Bible.

It's a good idea.

Um, no, really, we we have something called page memory.

We remember books better than we remember a free-floating screen.

Um, so it is helpful in remembering the text and really getting into it.

Um, so there's an old saying, you know, don't bury the headline, meaning like in a newspaper story or whatever.

The details can be very interesting that you that you kind of get lost in them and you lose the main point.

Well, this text is a don't bury the headline text.

There's a lot of questions that are gonna come up from this text.

I'm not gonna cover the entire thing.

We're gonna look at the the main point of it.

So if you have curiosity questions, I'm always happy to answer those.

Just know ahead of time that we won't be getting to all of them.

Hear the word of God from John chapter 15, verses 1 through 11.

John 15:1–11

I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Already you are plain because of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

If any one does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.

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

By this my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandment and abide in his love.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Please pray with me.

Jesus, as we as we look at your word this morning, as we hear your teaching to your disciples, I pray that we would be discipled by it.

That that this word would take up residence in our heart and bear the fruit that you want it to bear in our lives.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Can we live in such a way that it bears no consequences?

That it bears no fruit.

There's an old book by Oscar Wilde called Picture of Dorian Gray.

And some of you have read it or heard about it.

But uh Picture of Dorian Gray, the the titular character finds a way to be free from consequences.

Dorian is a young, wealthy, and very handsome gentleman.

And a friend of his paints a picture, you know, for which the book is named.

And in the picture, it's this perfect like perfect uh likeness of him.

And when Dorian sees it, you know, everyone's marveling at this thing.

It's like, look how awesome you look in this, Dorian.

And Dorian feels downcast.

And he looks at the picture and he says, Yes, it's perfect.

But this picture is gonna stay young and beautiful forever, and I am gonna grow old and hideous.

If only it was the other way around.

That this picture would get old and hideous, and I would stay young and beautiful forever.

And he says, I would give my soul for that.

And, you know, he speaks it rashly, but uh sometime later he rejects his fiancee in a very cruel way.

She was an actor who had an off-night, and he said, I thought I was marrying a great artist.

You suck, I'm out of here.

And when he went home that night, he noticed in his in his picture there was a definite sneer of cruelty on the face.

And Dorian says, My wish came true.

I can do whatever it is I want, I could live however I want, and it's not gonna affect me one bit.

I'm gonna stay this gorgeous and untroubled looking forever, and the portrait is gonna, it's gonna bear all the marks of it.

And so he plunges into this life of cruelty and immorality for years and years, and I'm not gonna ruin the book for you because you all want to read it now because it's so cool.

But it doesn't work out.

In the end, there is no way to live a life that bears no fruit.

He was not free, in fact.

Look, the the way that we live, the things, the places where, to use the language of the text where we abide, you know, the things that we let capture our attention, our time, the things we dwell on, the things we give ourselves to, the things we let ourselves fall in love with, they bear fruit.

And and there's no way for it not to.

Look, the choices we make, the way that we spend our time, it's bearing fruit even right now.

And I've seen some lives where the fruit of that life is bitterness, and I've seen some lives where the fruit of that life is poison.

They just walk through life ventilating toxicity everywhere they go.

That's a fruit.

For some lives, they're frittered away, and the fruit of it is just useless.

And for some, it's good fruit, but it's it's wasted.

Where can we abide so that our lives will not bear bitter or useless fruit, but but lasting and life-giving fruit, which I think is something we'd all want.

If not, I guess this sermon is not for you.

Well, Jesus is not being coy about this.

He says, abide in him.

So it's to abide in Christ.

Where do we see that in the text?

Well, he starts out with this this big uh um word picture of viticulture, right?

Growing vines.

And he says, I, in verse one, I am the true vine, my father is the vine dresser.

And look at how many times he says, abide.

In verse four, abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

Verse six, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch of withers.

Verse seven, if you abide in me and my words abide in you.

Verse nine, as the Father has loved me, so I have, so have I loved you.

Abide in my love.

Verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

What do you think Jesus wants his disciples to do?

Abide in him.

Not a secret.

Not doesn't take many exegetical moves to get there, does it?

He is absolutely clobbering us with it.

But the why?

Why is it that Jesus commands us to abide in him?

It's because only in Christ do we bear kingdom fruit.

Only in Christ do we bear kingdom fruit.

When we look at verse 4, he says, Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

And so the way it worked, right?

Like you'd have a vine and then you'd have the branches that shoot out from it, and those are the fruit-bearing parts of the plant.

He's saying, He is the one that that that that the branch is dependent on.

You cannot, a branch cannot bear fruit if it is not connected to the vine, correct?

We all get that, even though we ain't farmers.

So, what does it mean for us to be fruitful?

What does this mean to bear fruit?

Well, it's kind of a it's a catch-all.

It's the sum total of you, the life that you live, the choices you make, the things that you give yourself to, what is the outcome?

So, for instance, character.

What is the fruit that's born in character by where we abide?

There's a lot of talk these days about becoming the best version of yourself.

Right?

This is something that people are really into, and it usually has something to do with their abs.

But, you know, um, guys, this is you're gonna have to indulge me here.

There was, when I was in my teens, I saw the most random, like there used to be these movies that would come out and they were like three comedy sketches, right?

Like Kentucky Fried Movie for anyone who knows what the heck that is, right?

They're not good, but there was one I had seen that had stuck with me that I had the vaguest memory of.

I went like a bounty hunter after this thing.

All I remember was there was this song by Don McLean called Growing Myself.

It's like Growing Myself, as it's playing over like the it's 1980.

I found out what it was.

It's National Lampoons Goes to the Movies.

Don't watch it, it's terrible.

It was the internet said that it was both a commercial and critical failure, which is why it's not well remembered, but I remember it.

And and so this this guy is like you hear the song Growing Myself, and he's going around his 80s house and he's packing it in a big bag, like several bags.

But he's not packing it with his stuff, he's packing it with like dresses and feminine toiletries and stuff like that.

And when his wife comes in, he says, Honey, I need you to leave me.

And she says, What?

I don't want to leave you, I'm perfectly happy.

He's like, Oh, I'm perfectly happy too.

But the thing is, I need to grow, I need to become a better version of myself.

How could I really become me if I'm with you?

And and you need to grow too.

How could you become you if you're with me?

She says, Well, what about the kids?

He's like, that'll be fine.

And so he kicks out his wife, and right, like throughout this thing, he's he's kicking out his kids too.

He's like, you need to grow, beyond your own.

He's like your eight-year-olds and stuff.

And the of course, the irony of it is we watch this guy mature in reverse because he's not connecting.

I mean, also, it's ridiculous, it's a terrible movie, but the point being is a lot of the times, our best version of ourselves, we're not asking, and what does this do to my character?

This this obsessing on myself, what actual effect is it having?

You know, this this idea that I need to be free.

What by freedom meaning we're uncommitted to anything?

What does that do to one's character?

To live my best life, I've got to be free to have all my options open.

What does that do to a person?

What kind of character does it form?

Like looks maxers, I think we're all aware, that's not forming character.

They're hitting themselves in the face with a hammer.

I'm not sure what that does to one's character.

It's not good.

There was a uh a piece a couple of years ago in The Atlantic by a woman named Honor Jones, who's a staff writer, it's called How I Demolished My Life, and she did literally the growing myself thing.

She's like, I was in a happy marriage, but I felt my husband stood between me and the world, so she like leaves her kids and her husband to be free, because to be her best self, she has to be unencumbered.

What does that do to one's character?

What is what is like, hey, I'm gonna live from like I work because I have to, but I'm gonna live from vacation to vacation from to vacation.

That's really what I'm gonna invest myself in.

That sounds fun.

What does it do to one's character?

I'm gonna just maximize my wealth accumulation.

I'm gonna be like Scrooge McDuck and just roll around in it.

What great.

What does that do to one's character?

Well, you know, I'm I I do my job, but you know, what I really live for, what I'm really invested in is just five to six hours of digital entertainment a day.

That's my best life.

Or I'm work hard, play hard, you know?

Okay, I mean there's nothing wrong with work, there's nothing wrong with plays, nothing wrong with making money, all of those things.

But when that becomes where we abide, when that becomes our version of our best life, what effect is it having on our character?

And here's why it matters.

Here's why character matters.

There's a number of reasons.

If you have insufficient character, if you have an underdeveloped character, you will enjoy none of the hard-earned fruits of your labor.

If you have underdeveloped character, all of the vacations in the world and the pleasure in the world and the entertainment, these things will not fulfill.

They turn to dust in your hands.

I have known people with millions and millions of dollars.

They're totally beautiful, they're miserable.

And I've known people without two coins to rub together who are joyful and at peace.

What's the difference?

It's not their stuff, it's not their vacations, it's not their jobs, it's not their looks, it's their character.

If you don't have character, all of the all of the winning in life isn't gonna do you any good.

Only in Christ will our character bear kingdom fruit.

What we see in verse five is that relationship with Christ forms Christ's character in us.

Look at verse five.

It says, I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing.

This is an inherent part of this metaphor that Jesus is using.

That that the fruit that is produced by the branch comes directly from the vine.

It's in keeping with the character of the vine.

And if we are in relationship with Christ, right, this is actually one of the main themes of the New Testament that a lot of people don't realize.

The center of Christian spirituality, the center of Christian formation is not some new discipleship program that someone just thought of, right?

Like no one's got it right till the 21st century in California.

That's not it.

It's union with Christ.

It's that we are united spiritually and in covenant with Jesus Himself, and as we are, as we abide in Him, His character is formed in us.

You know, the interesting thing is that as I've I've been doing research for my dissertation, this is something that's borne out by the research.

That the way we are formed is in a deep reciprocal relationship.

This is how our personalities are actually formed, for good or for ill.

So that's why this whole idea of I need to be free to be me, nonsense, pure nonsense, ridiculous nonsense.

For you to be you, you've got to be in deep relationship, you've got to be a committed relationship.

You've got to weigh yourself down with the weight of other people.

Why?

Because that's the only way your character reaches maturity.

And if you want your character to bear kingdom fruit, there is only one way, and that is to abide in Christ.

But something else about that that forms character abiding in Christ is our trials.

Right?

He tells us that the father is the vine dresser in verse 1.

In verse 2, he says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

Now, the ex the the textual example here is Judas, of course, right?

Because you're thinking it's you.

It's not.

It's Judas.

Right?

It's the okay.

Every branch, that was some of you.

Not all of you, but it is some of you.

Every branch that he that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

Now, the way pruning, we all know what pruning is, but in viticulture, uh, you know, the vine dresser would come along.

If there were twigs on a fruitful branch that weren't bearing fruit, they would snap them off.

This is not a pleasant picture of what whatever's happening to you.

Pruning is not meant to be, right?

It's it's depicting a trial.

It's saying that trials produce greater fruitfulness.

A lot of the time we're like, trials, God is against me.

No, you're having trials because you're fruitful, and God is making you more fruitful through that trial, even if it's unpleasant.

This this completely transforms how we experience a trial, doesn't it?

Because it either means God is against you, God has forgotten you, or God doesn't care.

Or it could be that what's actually happening is your character is bearing kingdom fruit and God is working in you.

I don't know that there's a way to grow spiritually when you're comfortable.

I've never seen it.

I've only seen it when we bear trials, difficulty, challenge, discomfort.

That is when our faith actually grows.

We need to abide in Christ because only in Christ will our character bear kingdom fruit, and character is absolutely essential.

If you want contentment, it's not by getting more stuff, it's by you being transformed.

If you want to be peaceful in the midst of the world falling apart, well, there's one way.

It's for your character to bear kingdom fruit.

And the only way we can do that is abiding in Christ.

But there's more to fruit in our lives than our character, right?

We have to ask, you know, the hours that we spend, our endeavors, our efforts.

What about that fruit?

I don't know if you guys uh know what a sand mandala is.

I have a picture of one for you.

But a sand mandala is part of a Tibetan Buddhist ritual.

And what what these Tibetan monks do is they sit down and they make these intricate, beautiful, like that's a work of art, do we agree?

That's pretty amazing.

You know what it's made out of?

Grains of sand.

We're talking about these guys have to undergo training for it.

You have to get good at it.

And they're doing it like if you see them do it, they've got these little vials of colored sand, and they are just sometimes they're taking a tweezer and they're taking a grain at a time.

It is the most painstaking, meticulous thing.

It takes them all day for weeks and weeks and weeks.

And as soon as it reaches completion, you know what they do?

They blow it away.

They just throw it right in the trash.

Because their point is, this is what human endeavor is.

You try, you give yourself to it, all of your efforts, it means zero.

The average American is gonna spend one third of their waking hours in life at work or at school.

One third of your whole time you're awake.

Work or school.

And for some of some of us, that's more.

That's that's around a hundred thousand hours in a lifetime.

Have you ever wondered what fruit our endeavors are gonna bear?

And that's to say nothing of other things like mowing or whatever else.

Like we are constantly exerting ourselves and giving effort, aren't we?

Like, how how many, how many actual hours do you get of repose?

Not too many.

We are exerting effort throughout our entire lives.

What do we have to show for it?

Now, we all need our financial needs met, and a job is terrific for that, and a career is terrific for that.

That's a blessing.

But kind of what does the output of your life add up to?

All of your endeavors, what what do you have to show for it?

Have you ever noticed that the people we remember the most, like from the ancient world, they're the worst ones.

You ever notice that?

You know, Alexander the Great, he was terrible.

And so, like, we're not gonna be remembered.

You know, the things that we build, the things that we do, where is it?

Where's all your work?

Where did it go?

I mean, assuming you're not all architects or something like that, even then, we have a fondness for knocking down buildings in this country.

And and you know, the thing is, is like a lot of us, we're the lucky ones who have jobs that we like going to, we like doing them.

Uh some of its high status or or good pay.

Like, but the thing is, is even some of the most successful people I know, career wise, they have mixed feelings of like, yeah, right, and some of you guys are like, maybe I should quit what I do right now and write the great American novel or something like that.

Sam, you can do that.

Um, but that's to say nothing of people who have low status jobs.

Which is most people, or you know, like the number one job in world history and and on planet earth today is dollar a day farmer.

What about them?

What happens to our endeavors?

Are we all building sand mandalas with our lives?

Like we try so hard, like you've gone through training and all this, and it's all for nothing.

Well, only in Christ do our endeavors bear kingdom fruit.

Only in Christ do our endeavors bear kingdom fruit.

We see this in verse 7.

He says, If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, it will be done for you.

This is giving us a picture of how our endeavors, when we abide in Christ, become joined up with his.

Now, some people can read this in a health and wealthy kind of wealthy kind of way, of like, well, if I just ask, he'll do it.

No, there's two conditions.

Abide in me, meaning stay close to me, dwell on me.

And the second one is my word abides in you, meaning that we're so shaped by relationship that our purposes and his purposes become one.

And when you ask, when these conditions are met and you ask, you're doing his work.

And and the very image of the vine and branches, what does it depict?

Think about this.

If you guys are the branches, which part bears the fruit?

Not the vine, right?

It is the branches.

That is what Jesus is saying, isn't it?

And when we look throughout church history, when we look throughout the Bible, that is how the kingdom has borne fruit.

It is not God doing things directly, it is God doing things through his people.

Now, I want to point something out that I hope is obvious.

The book of John is not written to a bunch of apostles.

It is written by an apostle, but it's not written to a bunch of like clergy or whatever.

It's written to your average shopkeeper, mom, farber, right?

The people who are hearing this text.

Following me?

So it is not some super Christians who bear fruit for the kingdom with their endeavors.

It is not the people who are just in professional full-time ministry who bear fruit for the kingdom.

It is the ordinary Christian.

It is the person who shows up to the office or takes care of their kids or shows up wherever.

The way that we live our ordinary lives is how we bear kingdom fruit.

Now, our careers, like when we talk about what we do for work, this is an important question.

Because we're always like, well, how does my job, how do how is it part of God's endeavors, what God is doing in the world?

Quick guideline, we don't always know, but if you're doing things that were part of the original intent of creation, you make things, you build things, uh, you garden.

That was definitely part of human beings.

That was uh Winston Churchill quote, man's natural occupation is war and gardening.

I don't think he was right.

Uh if you create, if you learn, if you teach, if you invent, right, if you do things that help human beings flourish, that is kingdom work in and of itself.

Or if you're part of redemption, those who are in law or in medicine, or if you're a therapist or what have you, right?

There's all kinds of ways that we are helping to push back the fall.

Now, sometimes you'll say, oh, every job is kingdom work.

I don't think so.

If you're like, I sell bullets to cartels, not kingdom work.

Not neither creation nor redemption, okay?

If you're ever interested, I'm always I always offer this.

If you want to talk about how your work lines up with your endeavors are lining up with kingdom work, I'm happy to go eat croissants and drink coffee with you, and and we can talk about it.

Um But you know, the the idea here is that it's the ordinary life, not the extraordinary Christian life.

It is the regular, abiding in Christ, just showing up with loving people, raising your kids, demonstrating compassion, sharing the gospel, inviting people into your life.

Right?

The ordinary is how kingdom fruit is born in our endeavors.

It's not a San Mandala.

It's lasting, it's life-giving.

But also there's something, there's a concept, it's not in, it's not quite endeavors, but kind of like like fruit being the sum total of you.

You ever think about this?

There's an old movie uh starring Gwyneth Paltrow called Sliding Doors.

Anybody see this?

This is early 2000s.

Are you are you thumbs down in Gwyneth Paltrow?

Oh, just the emotion of sliding doors, yeah.

Okay, so so for those of you who haven't seen it, some strong feelings I was not expecting about that movie coming from Jess.

But the movie Sliding Doors, that so uh Gwyneth, she she pretends to have an English accent in this, and um she uh she works for like a marketing firm, and the the movie starts with her getting fired.

And so she's she heads home and she's she's you know going through the London underground trying to catch her train.

And she she's running and rushing, and someone like gets in her way, and the doors slide closed, and she misses the train.

And then the the film rewinds, and she's running, and no one gets in her way, and she barely squeaks in the sliding doors.

And the rest of the movie it follows the those the Gwyneth that made it on the train and the Gwyneth that didn't.

And they are completely different outcomes.

In one, she has an insufferable English boyfriend and no job, and in the other, she's she's with this great heartthrobbing guy, and everything works out.

So the outcomes are completely different based on the sliding doors, the sliding door moment, right?

One you couldn't even call that a mistake.

Like missing a train is not a lack of wisdom or anything like that.

It's not a wrong turn, it's just an accident, and her life outcome is completely different from one to the other.

Now, on the internet, that was that I saw this movie described as a romantic comedy.

I think of it more as a bone-chilly horror movie because first of all, her haircut, second of all, her accent.

No.

Now strong feelings from me.

Um but do you ever worry that you missed it?

You know, like that sliding door moment.

And something stupid.

Right?

Like, like not even something in your control.

Like, if only I had worn blue pants one Thursday, I could be hanging with Taylor Swift in Mallorca right now.

You know?

But I missed that.

I could have been a contender, I could have been a somebody, if just this one little thing broke a little differently.

I could have been wealthier, I could have been happier, I could have been more satisfied or more fulfilled if only I didn't, or only if I did.

So for a lot of us, we we worry that our own lack of wisdom or mistakes or just missing it, or just some happenstance thing, means that we missed out on a far better outcome in our lives.

Is that true?

When we worry about that, is that true that our lives really do come down, like the outcome of our lives comes down to these sliding door moments, either from wisdom or accident.

Is there any reason for us to be confident in the outcome of our lives?

Well, what Jesus says here is that abiding in him, there will be outcomes.

First of all, that the outcome will be God's glory.

Verse 8, he says, By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

So follow the train.

Abide in Jesus, bear fruit.

What's the result?

God's glory.

Did you know that God's glory is something you can make a contribution to?

That's cool.

Just by living out your faith, the outcome of your life is adding to God's glory.

You are glorifying God.

That is an outcome of your life abiding in Christ.

But also, look at what Jesus says in verse 11.

He says, These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be fold.

That the outcome of abiding in Christ is joy.

When we abide in Christ, the outcome of our lives is not up to sliding doors.

We are promised that it will bear kingdom fruit.

Look, when you're young, kind of your your whole all your possibilities are ahead of you.

And you're like, that'll be cool.

You know, it'll be great.

Whatever the outcome, I'm gonna figure it out.

Me and Taylor in Majorca, it's happening.

And Travis now.

And as you get older, you know, your possibilities, your future possibilities, they they become your your lived realities.

There's not the I could do this, it's the I'm doing this.

And then a little longer, and they become memories that you're looking back on.

When you get to your final years, which will happen for all of us, what is the outcome of your life gonna be?

Is there a way that you can live now that is gonna make you confident of that outcome?

So that when you reach, you know, the final summation or analysis or whatever, are you gonna be obsessing that you wasted it?

That the fruit of your life was useless, or that it's bitter, or even looking around and seeing that it was poison.

If we abide in Christ, the outcome of your life is gonna be God's glory, it's gonna be your joy.

I was uh comparing notes with a friend, a saint who uh is is uh quite experienced, that is the nice way to say that.

And I said, hey, in your experience, when you've seen your friends getting to the ends of their lives and then, you know, passing away, the the ones who really walk with Jesus, how would you describe their kind of final stage?

And I did not prompt him with this, I did not tell him I was preaching this text.

You know what he said?

Invariably, joy.

Can't say that for look maxing, can you?

Can't say that for vacation to vacation to vacation, can you?

Vacations are nice, I'm not dissing them.

But it is no replacement for where we abide, and where we are to abide is in Christ.

Because only in abiding in Christ is our character gonna bear kingdom fruit, our endeavors gonna bear kingdom fruit, and our outcome is gonna bear kingdom fruit.

Your life is already bearing fruit.

Your character is always already being shaped by where you abide, your endeavors, and the rest of it.

The question is, what's it gonna produce?

Are we gonna be intentional about it?

If we want to be intentional about it, we have to abide in Christ.

And what does abide mean?

Well, it means to remain dependent.

It's not talking about being some superstar Green Beret Kung Fu Christian.

I don't know if Green Berets do Kung Fu, I'm sure they can.

So think about it like this.

I don't scuba because I'm claustrophobic, but I know how it works.

When you first can anybody scuba here?

Alright, Sam.

Alright.

When you scuba, when you just start, you need scuba gear, correct?

Okay.

What about when you become intermediate?

Do you no longer need scuba gear?

You still need scuba gear, don't you?

What about when you become very advanced?

Can you get rid of the scuba gear after you graduate from scuba gear?

No.

What about if you're the greatest scuba person of all time?

Scubist.

You're the goat scubaist.

Do you do you no longer need it at some point?

No.

Right?

From beginning to end, you're reliant on it.

That's the idea here is that in our spiritual maturity, we never outgrow Christ.

The entirety of maturing spiritually is leaning into our dependence on Christ.

Abide in him.

It's recognizing our inability to produce kingdom fruit.

We can't do it.

We lean into our dependence on Christ.

It isn't secret knowledge.

It isn't some brand new discipleship program.

It is just remaining united with Christ.

It is abiding in him as an ordinary follower.

Whether there's doubt, whether there's discouragement, whatever the new spiritual fads are, we abide in Christ.

Because only in Christ will we produce kingdom fruit.

Please pray with me.

Jesus, we thank you that you provide us a life-giving path.

A path that does not end in futility but joy.

A path that does not end with meaninglessness of all of our efforts, but one in which we can look forward to our endeavors showing up in the kingdom.

That we can look forward to in us that is more like you.

God, I pray that you would meet us here.

That we would abide with you in Jesus' name.