Jesus Is: The True Vine | Part 6

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, good morning, Awakening Church.

Great to be with you.

If we don't know each other yet, my name's Ryan.

Thrilled to have you here.

Join us today.

How great was it to see that yellow thing in the sky yesterday?

That was unbelievable.

And what happened today?

I woke up like, oh my goodness.

I was like ready for uh sun again.

Good grief.

Hey, would you do me a favor?

Um, would you take this?

Uh this is actually a grapevine right here.

You may not know it.

It's not just a twig, it's a grapevine.

We're in a series.

Uh, we're going through the I am statements of Jesus, and today I am the vine.

Um, this is not a grapevine, this is a um a potato vine.

I don't know what that means.

Um, but grape vines are not in um, they they don't have any greenery on them.

So, Evita, our amazing uh Vince design, she got all this.

Can we thank her for all the work she's been doing on this series?

Here's what I want you to do with this.

I want you to hold it with me the entire sermon.

Okay?

We'll talk about it in a little bit, but I just want you to hold it.

I just want you to hold it with me uh for the entire uh sermon together.

Okay.

Um we have an obsession in our culture with new.

We want new information, we want something that's kind of next along those lines.

And today I just simply want to remind you of something old.

I just want to take a moment, we're gonna teach actually one of my life passages, John 15.

And I like how Samuel Johnson once said, it said, People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.

And I just want to remind you of some really simple, profound things as we head into our Easter week, and I think out of it, I think out of it, God's gonna meet you significantly in our time together.

Um let me ask you this.

What is the most important thing that you do?

Like, can you think through, like if you just had to distill it down to one thing, like what is that one thing?

Like, what's the most important thing that you do?

Like, well, I'm a parent, well, I work, I have these, I get all that.

I I understand you have lots of hats, but but what's the one thing?

What's the most important thing that you do?

You figured it out, you have it, yeah?

Okay.

Um, Robbie and I, we uh have started coaching together.

Robbie's a volleyball player, I grew up playing volleyball as well.

Uh, we're coaching some junior high boys volleyball.

Yeah, hello, this is amazing.

Uh now, now here's what's interesting is the huddle before the game, we're not trying to teach them anything new.

We don't get in, okay, boys, so we have a whole new game plan, right?

We don't, you know, here's a new strategy.

Let me teach you.

What do you do in the huddle before the game?

You remind them of what's most important.

That's exactly what every coach does.

Here's what's most important, here's what we've been talking about, here's what you need to know to be able to win the game, to be able to succeed.

Jesus had a huddle.

On the night he was betrayed, the Passover mill had already been eaten, the time in the upper room with his disciples.

Judas had gone to off to betray Jesus, and and most likely at this point in the evening, Jesus is walking with the eleven down the Kidron Valley, moonlight, Mediterranean night there as they're walking through, most likely, probably a family local vineyard on the way to the uh Mount of Olives, to this place called the Garden of Gethsemane, which literally means oil press.

Along the way, Jesus recognizes he has just a couple hours.

Just a couple hours.

He knows what's about to happen.

He has just a couple hours with his disciples to press upon them, to huddle together, to tell them what is most important.

And here's what he said to them.

He said, 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'll be even more fruitful.

You're already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Now remain in me, as I also remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

If you do not remain in me, you're like a branch that is thrown away and withers.

Such branches are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it'll be done for you.

This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Jesus had known his hour had come, and a couple hours from this moment, he would be arrested, unjustly tried, flogged, beaten, stripped naked, and in less than twenty-four hours he would be hanging on a cross.

And he had this moment to share with this eleven before all hell breaks loose, a huddle, to say what is most important.

And so on our time together, I just want to remind you of three things.

I think many of you probably already know them, but I want to remind you of three things about what Jesus would say, this is most important.

The first thing is that Jesus is the true vine.

Jesus is the true vine.

He says, I am not a vine, a nice vine, a vine that, hey, hello, this is a good thing.

I am the true vine.

Now, Israel, well, part of Israel's identity, they like to know themselves as the great golden vine.

It goes all the way back, Psalm 80 says, You transplanted a vine from Egypt and drove out the nations and planted it.

You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land.

Again in Isaiah, the vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in.

Israel's identity was they were the vine of God.

In fact, during the Maccabean Revolt, they printed their own money with the vine on it.

Jesus, like I said, he's most likely walking along down the Kidron Valley, probably in a vineyard, just having this conversation, talking about being the vine, and behind him is the cityscape of Jerusalem.

And the city of Jerusalem is built up on a mount, and at the center of it is the temple itself, at the highest point.

And at the top of the temple is a great golden vine, literally gold plated, as large as a man that is glistening in the moonlight.

And Jesus says, I know that you think the nation of Israel and all these other things, that's the true vine, or what it is.

He says, No, no, I am.

I have showed up.

I am the true vine.

See, aren't there so many things in our lives that are begging for us, calling us, saying, no, no, no, this is the true vine.

Stay connected to me.

If you connect to this, you'll have life.

If you connect to this, I like how Jesus said it.

You remember, we've talked about this throughout the series.

When he says that declaration, I am, it's not just like a nice saying.

He's connecting with God's covenant Yahweh, I am name.

I'm the author of life, and fundamentally I am offering you life.

And there is no other life outside of me.

You can search for it, you can run for it, you can look for all these different areas, but fundamentally I am life.

A Greek word for um never mind.

There's no Greek word on this one.

Scratch that.

Next next next point.

True, this idea of true means genuine, real, authentic.

As opposed to false or counterfeit.

Here's the interesting part is we take good things and make them ultimate ultimate things, thinking somehow they'll actually become the source of life.

Your job, your career, your family, even ministry.

The perfect person is others' approval.

And friends, I just want to remind you of something that I think you many of you already knew or already know.

Jesus alone is the true vine.

You can search everywhere else, you can look, you can run, you can try it all, and ultimately you'll come up empty.

Come to Him, seek Him.

So let me ask you what are you looking to bring fulfillment?

What are you looking to bring satisfaction?

Jesus says, I am the true vine.

Then he goes on to say this: that God is the father gardener.

God is the father gardener, and my father is the gardener.

My father is the ventner.

I love this because it's not just anyone who's the ventner, anyone who's just going along and caring for this, but it is your perfect heavenly father who loves you, who delights in you, who longs for your very best.

He says, I'm the one who's coming alongside to care and to cultivate in your life.

I wanted you to notice what the father gardener does.

The father gardener does two things.

He positions us first.

He positions us.

He says, He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit.

Here's our Greek word.

And I don't like to pick on translations too much, but uh on this one, this is the Greek word Iroh.

And many times throughout uh it's translated in the New Testament, it literally is to lift up or to take up, uh, that the Son of Man must be lifted up.

That's that Greek word, Iroh, here.

And in the context, in the ancient day um viticulture was very similar to our present day.

They would trellis the vines, and what would happen was you would have this branch that would be hanging down low that might have gotten covered with dust or dirt and it wasn't thriving.

Well, that branch has the potential for all this fruit-bearing.

They wouldn't cut it away right away.

In fact, what a ventner would do, a gardener would come down and would wash the vine and lift it up into the sun, put it on that trellis for it to thrive.

And the father gardener says, I want to position you to flourish.

And I know you feel trampled down, and I know you feel dirty, and he's going, like, I want to actually take you and wash you and cleanse you and lift you up into the light.

He positions us.

He positions you.

In fact, that's some of your story of even how you ended up at awakening and your journey of the drawing of God, and you're like, I just woke up and I just needed to go to church.

I didn't know what where to go, and I Googled it and or yelped it, and you're like, Well, you yelp churches?

Yeah, you do yelp churches, because what else do you do when you're new to town?

And I showed up, and all of a sudden I was positioned in a community of care.

I was positioned under the word of God, I was positioned into this incredible small group, and he positions you.

I was just thinking about my small group this last week.

It was like so good for my soul.

Like we just have this incredible group, and I love it.

And I don't know about you, but as we've been going through this, the icebreakers have been so good.

We like spend way too much time on the icebreakers and laugh a lot uh through that.

But to be with a community that cares for one another, that's praying for one another, that's opening God's word, that when we're going through a hard time, like we have, you know, a Discord chat thing where we're going through like he positions you for flourishing and moves you into the light.

And then this is the harder one.

He prunes you.

He prunes you.

Well, every branch in me that does bear fruit, he what?

It's bearing fruit.

Think about this.

Every branch in me that does bear fruit, he what?

I just said it.

Come on, gang.

Every branch that does bear fruit, he what?

Prunes! So you're being fruitful, and he's gonna prune you.

And some of you are complaining about it.

And the father gardener says it's for your best, so that you'll be even more fruitful.

Well, it hurts, it does.

It's cutting back, it's it's it's taking some areas that you're like, oh, I really like that.

And he's like, No, I'm gonna cut that out for a season because I actually want to help you grow in this way.

You know, you prune for a few different reasons.

One, you prune because of overgrowth.

In fact, those who prune, especially like a tree or something like this, and we have all this overgrowth.

Overgrowth means that you're the plant is fundamentally trying to like sustain the growth, and it can't produce the fruit that's necessary.

And so you get really weak, lame fruit, but you have a lot going on.

Does it sound like a little bit of people in Silicon Valley?

Got a lot going on, but we haven't produced a whole lot of fruit.

We gotta cut back, we live these busy lives.

In fact, uh, as they prune, they want to actually begin to match the top um kind of branches to the root system down below, so that you have the roots that are gonna sustain the pruning.

And then you prune disease.

Things that uh have grown up that have a little bit of disease that that left to itself will eventually take over the whole plant and will kill it or cripple it.

Where we allow the disease of thoughts into our mind, of patterns of thinking, we allow the disease of words that come out of our mouth, the way that we pattern and live our lives with people, and he says, I wanna prune those things out of your life.

And then the other areas, dead areas, areas that are dead.

Um, over COVID, I got into master class.

Have you seen those?

Those master class, like the Steph Curry things, right?

This means yes, this means no.

I can't tell if you know.

Yeah, okay.

I love the Steph Curry one, it's awesome.

Uh, there is one on there uh called the Gangster Gardener, and I like I really do love the garden, so I I got into this one.

Uh it's this guy named Ron Finley, he's from South Central LA.

He was a fashion designer, and in his area neighborhood, he noticed that there was just this in this urban kind of food desert, like bringing in this beautiful garden, bringing in this nourishment and incredible things.

And so he just has become known as this gangster gardener.

And by the way, if you're if you look it up, don't watch it with your kids, there's lots of cussing on it.

It's really good, but I just wanted to give you that heads up uh there because some of you are like, oh, Ryan said it, and then like, oh my gosh, he dropped that.

Um just a heads up.

But he made this comment about pruning.

He said, the reason that you prune that which is dead and you have to cut it off is the plant notes that this area is dead and it's sending disproportionate resources to try to bring back the dead part to life at the detriment of the plant as a whole.

And so until you cut off that which is dead, the plant will not thrive.

And for some, you just need to hear this.

There are dead areas in your life that you've been clinging on to that God wants to cut out that you need to let go of because it's not allowing you to thrive.

And there's habitual sin that we let in to our life.

Patterns.

You know.

And you know, as we're talking about it, it just is one of those things of like you don't ever think, hey, I'm gonna go out and have an affair.

What you think is, you know, life's really hard at home.

Shh, my wife's not being very nice, or my husband's not being very nice, or this isn't the way I envisioned it, and we're just having a nice conversation, and and then you know what?

Oh, you just really get me and understand me.

It wouldn't ever go that far.

That's the reason you keep taking steps that direction because you don't ever believe you would cross that line, and you're like, no, it's not that big of a deal.

And then one day you wake up and you shipwreck your entire family.

Friends, I just gotta tell you, for some, you have to cut out a relationship in your life.

There's a pruning there, and you've been going down a path, and I don't know what it is, but you've been going down that path, and it's dead.

And it will shipwreck your life.

The father gardener, he positions us, and then he prunes us.

Now, here's what we must remember about the father.

You have a perfect heavenly father.

Think about this.

Who is intimately involved in your life, whose love compels him to do whatever is necessary for your flourishing.

As you experience the pruning of God, some of the painful cut of back, maybe it's the stepping aside in some seasons of that were once flourishing.

He's like, you have a perfect heavenly father who's intimately involved in your life, whose love compels him to do whatever is necessary for your flourishing, which does mean at times cutting back and cutting out.

Jesus is the true vine.

God is the Father Gardener.

Our part.

Our part.

Your part, my part is to abide.

Is to abide.

Did you notice that?

I read several verses, six to be exact or eight to be exact.

How many times remain, abide, repeated?

Jesus knows he's just got a couple hours.

What do I want to make sure I tell you?

All hell is about to break loose, the shepherd's gonna be struck down, his disciples are gonna scatter the next 72 hours.

It looks like the movement has fundamentally died, and what is he gonna tell them?

Abide.

Remain.

Remain in me.

As I also remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself.

This disconnected just looks like this a twig.

Connected to the vine.

He says, remain.

Remain, abide.

The Greek word remain is menno.

It's a verb, it's in the present active, meaning that this is something that you're currently doing.

This isn't like, hey, I made this decision once.

It's an action that you say, okay, I wake up today and I'm going to remain in you.

As I go about my driving, oh, what does that look like to remain in Jesus?

Oh boy, that may change some of my hand gestures and honking.

Okay.

As I get to work, as I engage with my family, as I engage with my friends, as I go out, what does it look like to remain, to continue a certain state, a condition or activity, to stay with and to abide?

You've been holding this twig for about 20 minutes right now.

And that's just the picture I want you to have.

Because I'm just gonna stay connected.

I'm just gonna hold on.

It's just been in my hand, and at times I've kind of forgotten it, but as I move my hand, I remembered I'm holding on.

I just remembered.

Oh, that's right.

Oh, that's right, he's right there.

I've just been holding on to you.

I've just been keeping you with me in everything I'm doing.

In fact, I want you to take this grape vine and just begin to take it with you to remind yourself, remain.

Well, what is abiding?

Abiding is to be daily present and attentive to Jesus.

To be daily present and attentive to Jesus.

Okay, God, I'm gonna be attentive to you today.

I am the true vine, you're the author of life, authoring me life.

You probably have a lot to tell me about my day.

I want to be attentive to you.

And then Jesus would say it this way: if you love me, you'll obey my commands.

And so abiding is deeply connected to obeying Jesus' words.

I think we have a lot of people who believe Jesus but don't obey Jesus.

Let me say that again.

We believe Jesus and we want to celebrate Easter Sunday, but we don't obey Jesus and what he says in our daily lives.

Now, here's the thing.

Jesus said, if you love me, you'll obey my commands.

And I just want to reverse that for us for a second.

If we understood his love for us, if you could understand that he understood that what was about to come before him, that he was going to be brutally executed because of love.

Love compelled him to the cross for you and for me.

If you understood the depths of his love for you, you would go, absolutely.

How could I not?

I know you have your very best for me.

Abiding.

It's just to be daily present.

And then going, okay, Jesus, what do you have for me?

What do I need to do?

How do I respond?

See, there's a spiritual axiom.

Connectedness determines fruitfulness.

Fruitfulness?

Connectedness.

Just being connected.

Like we want to be fruitful in our lives.

Many of you are high achievers.

Determinedness doesn't determine fruitfulness.

Connectedness does.

Even grit, we celebrate grit, and that's the good.

Doesn't determine fruitfulness.

Connectedness.

Jesus would say, What is the most important thing that you do?

I don't know how you answered that.

Jesus' answer is abide.

What is fruit?

Fruit is the plant, what a plant produces on the outside that other people can see and benefit from.

It's the visible evidence of the inner working power.

It's what other people come and experience.

See, that's what we need a bunch of fruit-filled followers of Jesus.

And that doesn't happen by trying harder, it happens by abiding and remaining, staying connected to Jesus.

It's as simple and as difficult as that.

I miss one every single time.

That's why I was doing that.

I always miss one.

Like, don't you want to be around someone who's loving and joy-filled and patient and gentle and kind and self-control and is faithful?

Like, don't you want to be a person who's love-filled and gentle and peace and oh like absolutely.

And imagine if we were a group of people so deeply connected to Jesus, and he says the fruit of that will spill out, and other people experience that.

Joy, peace, and all of our fruitfulness.

So let me just ask you, are you deeply connected to Jesus?

No shame, no, like I walked in here, like honestly, feeling like this twig, Ryan.

I walked in feeling dry, I walked in feeling disconnected.

And I would say that's where a lot of us are, right?

We're just we run hard, we're trying to somehow like figure out, and but if we're honest, we're dry, we're weary, we feel a lot like this, and we do feel disconnected.

There's this picture that I love.

Um Bernard of Clairvaux gave it um a long time ago, and it's the difference between a river and a reservoir.

If I can give you one more picture.

And the point he was making is in life we often operate like a river.

And a river, whatever comes in, immediately goes out.

And we get information, even moments like that, what's happening now, it's like, how do I take it in and just use it?

And how do I bring this in to get on with my life?

And he said, What we need to be is more of reservoirs.

See, the difference between a river and a reservoir, river, whatever goes in, immediately gushes out.

A reservoir, it only begins to give out of the overflow.

Once it fills up, then it begins to pour forth.

See what I want and what we need in the invitation of Jesus is to be reservoirs.

Where instead of rushing on to the next, we sit with our Savior, we're connected, and it actually you'll experience the fruit-filled life that way.

That joy and that peace and that patience, and other people will experience you that way.

Where you just wait on him, or you're just present with him, where you recognize Jesus' words to his disciples all the way back then are the same words who say to us, What's the most important thing that you do?

And I do.

Stay connected to him.

Everything else flows from that, friends.

Everything else flows from that.

We get so worried about our work and our kids and all this.

Like if you stayed so connected to him, I just gotta tell you, everything else flows from that.

So hold on to him.

We're gonna close our time, just giving you space to be connected.

We're gonna partake in communion and remember Jesus.

And I just want you to wrestle and be with him, to sit there and just go, okay, okay, Jesus, you are the true vine.

Where have I been like looking or searching for other things to bring life?

God, you're the father gardener.

What are the areas that you're working and moving in my life?

And in this moment, I want to be present to you.

The Apostle Paul summarized what happened on this very night when Jesus gave this final teaching to his disciples over the Passover mill.

And he said, writes this: He says, For I receive from the Lord what I also pass on to you.

The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.

Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

And I just want to give you a moment just simply to be.

Be with your Savior.

Abide.

And whenever you're ready, the band is going to be leading us in a song.

You can get up and partake in the elements.

People are just going to be speaking Jesus' words over.

This is my body.

Do this in remembrance of me.

And you can come forward or in the back.

We have gluten-free at all stations, and we practice an open table, which means if you're a follower of Jesus, you're welcome to partake in the elements with us.

But would you abide?

Would you remain?

Would you sit with your Savior?

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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