Be Planted

Hi everyone, this is Emma from Encounter Church,

Henley and thanks so much for tuning in to our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast

you can have an encounter with Jesus that will

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Should I stay

or should I go? Mick Jones of the Clash asked

one of life's age -old questions in his 1982

punk rock classic of the same name Should I stay

or should I go? Do I remain or do I leave? It's

a decision that we face constantly Remain with

the job that I've got or leave for a new one

Remain in the house that I'm in Or leave for

a new one. See if you can follow along remain

in the friendships that I'm in I didn't know

if you were going to call back. Remain in the

church that I'm in. Remain in the relationship

that I'm in. We are constantly faced with a barrage

of the question, do I stay? Do I remain? Or do

I leave? Now in the years following Brexit in

2016, in which England eventually opted to leave

the EU, a series of studies have been undertaken

to dissect that decision. Quick footnote. I am

not about to offer an opinion on this matter.

Rob, I see you at the back. I am not about to

offer an opinion on this. I'm just dissecting

some data so everybody slide back in your seat

again. There were two conflicting campaigns during

the Brexit kind of campaigns, if you will. One

was Leave and the other was Remain. The Remain

camp had the tagline of... Britain, stronger

in Europe, which is about the most British kind

of like expression and slogan I think they could

have come up with. Leave chose to use the tagline

of take back control. Take back control feels

strong and empowering. It feels like we have

a plan and we have an action. And in comparison,

remain feels a little bit weak. It feels a little

bit passive, almost like you're not really making

a decision at all. You're just accepting what

is. And these studies have shown that should

the Remain camp have even changed their slogan

ever so slightly to fight to remain, the results

actually could have been different of that vote.

It takes something that is seemingly passive

and makes it proactive. It becomes a choice and

in doing so it changes the perspective of that

choice entirely. Now that different perspective,

that changing something that feels passive and

turning it into an action is exactly what Jesus

is talking about and showing us in today's reading

that's been shared by Sarah. The power that can

come from choosing to remain. Now if you knew

with absolute certainty That you were going to

die in the next 24 hours What would you do? I?

I'd like to think that I would gather those closest

to me for one final meal that I would take that

time as an opportunity to sit and to talk to

them and to ensure that they knew just how much

I love them and just how much that hopefully

I meant to them and Honestly to think and talk

about what are we going to do from here? And

truthfully, that's what Jesus did. There's a

reason the setting for today's teaching is taken

from an event in history, probably the most famous

dinner of all time, called the Last Supper. Jesus

knows what is to come. Within 24 hours of this

meeting, within 24 hours of this dinner, within

24 hours of the text that we've heard today,

Jesus will be arrested and crucified. So Jesus

wants to ensure that His disciples, these people

who have become so close to Him, these people

that know Him best and He knows them best, He

wants to ensure that they know that they are

loved. But He also wants to ensure that they

know how to remain and exist in the truth of

that love in the days and years to come, to ensure

they feel and know that they are still close

to Jesus and He in turn is still close to them.

And Jesus begins that by telling them, I am the

true grapevine and my father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch of mine that does already

be pruned and purified by the message I have

given you. Those who remain in me and I and them

will produce much fruit for apart from me, you

can do nothing. He is clarifying the relationship

between him and his disciples into three key

components. And they are the branches, the vine,

and the gardener, because as direct as Jesus

can be sometimes, oh, this man loved a metaphor,

right? Like he just couldn't get enough of them.

So we will break it down as Jesus did into those

three sections. The first is the branches. Okay.

And in the branches, we're gonna see a picture

in a second of an incredibly that, my friends,

is a healthy looking grapevine. That vision,

that picture, I love a visual metaphor apparently,

so just keep on running with me. That picture

illustrates exactly what it is that Jesus is

speaking about, and exactly what it is that He

wants for all of us. To form part of a healthy,

growing, and expanding grapevine, by becoming

His disciples, that we sit under His teaching,

His autonomy, and His love. Without us, here's

an important thing to note though, without us,

we are the branches. Without us, that grapevine

grows no grapes. Aren't we important? Go team.

So long as we remain right there on the vine,

it is very likely at some point we are going

to produce fruit. Can anyone tell me what happens

to those luscious grapes if you remove the branch

that they're attached to from the vine? We're

not heaps chatty today. We die. That's great.

The grapes will rot away. And in turn, the branch

becomes useless, which is wild, because moments

before that, we were doing great, team. Remember,

we're the branches on the vine. We were producing

grapes, and those grapes were potentially going

to make wine. This is a wonderful thing that

we were doing. And now there is green mush in

the grass, and we're a stick. What changed? Same

branch, same fruit. But it's not the same branch

and it's not the same fruit because once we remove

that branch from the vine, everything changes.

No longer a branch, we're a stick because we

have no source of life and no ability to continue

to produce anything. The vine. I love this. Jesus

paints this beautiful metaphor and then at some

points he's like, but also this. Jesus is the

vine. Those who remain in me and I in them he

says will produce much fruit Now if you listen

to this what I really want to make clear is that

this isn't a command to remain He says those

that choose to those that do those that remain

in me It's a choice Now it's a choice in which

the results are clear if you choose to remain

in me You'll bear some fruit. Do you want to

bear fruit? Remain in me. That's how you're gonna

do it. Wanna be a stick? Feel free. Off you go,

man. Not a choice I would make, but hey, those

are the choices. And then we'll come back to

this little part of that passage there where

he says, remain in me. Why? As I remain in you.

That's kind of the important part of this phrase

here. That's the important part of that line

of text. Because it's a confirmation of a choice

that Jesus has already made to remain within

us. Right? This isn't, if you, then I. Remain

in me because I have already chosen to remain

in you. I'm already there. This is already happening.

It's a recognition of the ecosystem and the infrastructure

required to produce that fruit that we were talking

about before. Because the vine alone cannot produce

fruit. It needs the branches. for the fruit.

There's a beautiful symbiosis in which both parts

benefit, but only when they remain together.

In fact, they must remain together for it to

work at all. And I hear what some of you are

asking. Tex, this is a lot of talk about grapes.

Maybe you weren't asking it. I'll feed you that

one for free, right? What kind of fruit are we

talking about? What kind of fruit? We can't just

keep on talking about fruit and not name it.

So Galatians 5 22 defines spiritual fruits as

character traits like love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

and self -control. Why are these fruits of the

spirit? Because these are the fruits which reflect

God's true nature. These are the fruits that

reflect God's true character. That's why we want

that kind of spiritual fruit. Now these fruits

of the Spirit are then used, if you will, if

you're the kind of person who's like, those are

great, but I need a few more doing words, right?

Like I need to see some action from these fruits

of the Spirit. Those fruits of the Spirit are

then used to fuel us to produce kind of like

physical fruit, if you will. Everything that

we do, every action that we undertake as disciples

under Jesus is fueled by those fruits of the

Spirit. All right, so let's head back to England.

We started with Brexit. Let's go back to England

for a bit of an example of what happens when

we have the fruits of the Spirit within us and

we do something with them. We are slightly early

on that slide but we'll come back to him in a

minute. I should have gone with the, where did

that come from? Thank that one because we're

coming back to my guy in a minute. During COVID

Wow, we're knocking off Brexit and COVID. Let's

go. People love talking about these two things.

Come on. During COVID, reports suggest that the

Christian churches in England provided more than

five million meals per month during COVID. 12

.5 million different people are reported to have

received some form of support during the five

-year period of COVID in England from a local

church. That is awesome. I know sometimes we

hear someone like a Jen kind of yelling those

kind of things out. Do you hear me? 12 .5 million

people, not Christians by the way, this wasn't

people that were necessarily connected to a local

church already. This is 12 and a half million

people who received some kind of support from

a local church. Why? Because... That is an extension

of God's true character and God's true nature

that this church is wanting to put out into a

world that is hurting and needs some healing.

Which brings us to our gardener. The gardener

is God. Again, I love this because Jesus with

his metaphor, but he's like, I'm the vine, God's

the gardener. You're like, got it. We can have

this chat while we're having dinner as long as

we don't have to talk about Brexit and COVID.

So, you can have a healthy vine. that produces

many, many healthy branches. And if those branches

remain on the vine, they'll produce fruit. Like

we've established this. I know I'm doing it within

a church context right now. That's also just

kind of like how plants work. I was gonna be

a teacher, you know, at a school. Now I'm here.

Teaching you guys. Let's go. Let's have some

fun, right? So those branches, if they remain

on that vine, they'll produce fruit. And a vine

that produces amazing fruit brings glory to the

person that tends to that vine. The fruit doesn't

produce fruit for its own sake, right? But what

it will do when you produce good fruit, or excellent

fruit, or Cara hit me with my man from before,

or potentially a whopping great onion, it brings

glory to the person that grew it, right? This

is meme famous Peter Gazebrook. and his gigantic

onion. Right? That onion grew to that size and

in that way, due to Peter and his abilities,

he knew this is a competition gigantic vegetable

grower. He didn't even know that was a thing.

This is what he does. Why? Because he knows how.

That onion does not grow to that size. That onion

does not do what it's doing there just because

you put an onion bulb in the ground. Go on, everybody

go home and chuck one in the ground. Let me know

how you're going six months. This guy knows what

he's doing. But what I love most of all, look

at that smile. Oh, that guy's so proud of that

onion. That's how God looks at you guys, like

you're a beautiful onion. Yeah, is it? Oh, you

guys are like that? Anyway, it's fine, right?

We remain close to the gardener because a branch

doesn't produce good fruit just because it wants

to. Exceptional fruit requires good soil, it

requires good nutrients, healthy branches, a

healthy vine, and a gardener who knows what they're

doing with it. Good gardeners don't leave branches

dragging on the ground. Good gardeners pick up

the branches that are failing. They tie them

to other healthy branches. They provide structural

support. They provide tactical pruning. They

do everything they can to encourage those parts

of the branch that are struggling to regraft

and to repopulate within the vine. Jesus wants

us to mirror the choice that He has already made,

a choice from which we will bear fruit with the

hope that this fruit can and will bless others.

proof of concept of what the combo of gardener,

vine and branch can achieve together. But that

attaching and that remaining is still a choice.

You can choose not to if you want to. Pastor

Zach Meerkriebs puts it like this, to choose

to remain is to choose to submit to a life of

reliance on God. Now for some people I think

sometimes that that feels almost like oppressive.

Having to rely on somebody or something else

can feel a bit heavy. We don't like it when we

don't have control. I need you to hear this.

That kind of reliance isn't a restriction, it's

a release. It's one in which we accept the good

news is we accept that we have the ability you

and me all of us to produce absolutely unbelievable

fruit But we have the freedom to accept that

we cannot produce sunshine We cannot produce

the nutrients in the soil required to produce

that fruit The freedom we have is a release from

needing to do any of that. It's a freedom that

comes in knowing that all we have to do is remain

attached to the vine. Verse 10 tells us, when

you obey my commandments you remain in my love

just as I obey my Father's commandments and remain

in His love. Just so we're clear, Jesus uses

the word remain. times in this passage before

he uses the word obey. Eight times. Because Jesus

wants us to obey in response to a relationship,

not as the formation of that relationship. Now

I'm going to repeat that because I think it bears

repeating, repeating. Jesus wants us to obey

in response to a relationship, not as the formation.

of a relationship and it's through our relationship

as branches on that healthy vine that the beauty

of that really starts to reveal itself that it

really starts to come through because a healthy

vine doesn't stay in one place a healthy vine

doesn't remain as it is a healthy vine grows

it sprouts more branches and it gets bigger do

the branches get pruned sometimes yeah you betcha

But only so that they can grow back stronger

and with better fruit So I want to say If you're

in a season of abundance bless you Amazing But

remain close to the vine But if you're feeling

tired or if you're feeling empty or if you're

feeling like it's been a little while since you've

produced fruit that you can be proud of or any

fruit at all I want you to receive today as a

reminder and an invitation to attach yourself

to the vine because the freedom that we talked

about before of not having that pressure of having

to do everything ourselves is that freedom of

saying, hey, I will attach myself to the vine

and I'm going to let the gardener worry about

producing the fruit. Bange, you can come back

up, please. Because with that in mind, we return

to that question, remain or leave. Because it's

actually pretty simple. It's really simple. It's

the simplicity of that truth in which Jesus is

imploring us. This whole passage breaks down

to, hey, I love you, so I want you to remain

with me. I love you, I want you to stay close

to me, because I'm going to stay close to you.

Because the closer you are to Jesus, the closer

you are to the source of what it is that's giving

you your life to begin with. The closer you are

to the source of all those nutrients that you

need that allows you to produce good fruit. The

closer you are to Jesus, the closer you are to

the vine, the closer you are to the gardener

of your soul, your very soul. And all that gardener

needs in order to be able to tend to you and

take care of you and see you flourish and grow

and thrive is to remain close. in His garden

under His watch. Friends, Jesus came to earth

to get messy in the soil with us. He did not

come and keep His hands clean. When we talk about

those kind of choices to remain and then that

fact that we obey, not out of a formation but

in response to a relationship, Jesus' final command

from God that He obeyed was also the ultimate

act of love that He's asked to take on. Because

Jesus' final act that He obeys, His final commandment

is when He took on the weight of all of our sin

and allowed Himself to be sacrificed on a cross

for our forgiveness. His desire to remain in

us and have us remain in Him is guaranteed through

this act in which He guaranteed that there will

never be a barrier that exists between us and

God ever again. And the best part is that freedom

we talked about is that we're not asked at that

stage, at this very first stage. That's literally

all that's asked of us. Our nourishment, our

joy, and our very salvation are all given to

us, they are not earned. Our spiritual and eternal

health and everlasting life is shored by the

vine that is Jesus, that provides us living water

from here into eternity and connection to a loving

God that is still active today, that is still

tending to us today, so long as we remain in

His garden attached to His vine. But the first

step in that is as simple as it has ever been,

is as true as it has ever been. Again, church,

I know I'm sounding repetitive. I don't care.

Attach yourself to the vine. That's it. That's

the step. That's the choice. So we're about to

step into a time of worship now with this team.

And we're going to follow that up by baptising

a couple of people in the ocean. That's right.

But as we stand and as we sing together, I want

to ask you to really think about it, really pray.

And Tim and Hannah and I will be at the front

here in Jen. And there's just abundance of people

that would love to pray with you or for you.

But I really want you to think about this as

we enter into a time of worship. Is it time to

attach yourself to the vine for the first time?

Or potentially to reattach yourself to the vine

for the thousandth time? You have a choice in

this. You have a say in this. It's very, very

simple. Will you choose to leave or will you

choose to remain? Let's pray. Heavenly Father,

we thank You that You are the great gardener,

that You call us to bear fruit, Father, that

You love us, that You want what is best for us,

that the fruits that You want for us, that the

life that You exude within us and that You'd

bring into us and that You provide us, Father,

You don't want us to keep to ourselves. You want

us to produce fruit for the goodness of others,

Father. To see an example, to see a glimpse of

Your kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

So I pray as we step into this time of worship,

Father, that You will talk to people's hearts.

That You will talk directly to the people in

this room. Allow them to hear your voice again

for the first or the thousandth time. I am merely

a vessel. I am merely a man doing his best. We're

all just people, sons and daughters of yours,

Father, doing our best. So I pray, Father, speak

to us. Holy Spirit, come. Let us know and feel

a touch of you and a sense of your love. Thanks

so much for tuning in to this week's message.

If you felt challenged or need prayer, we'd love

to hear from you on Instagram at encounterhenley.

Or if you're interested in how you can support

this ministry, please go to our website encounteradelaide

.com .au. Thanks again for listening. God bless

you.