The True Vine & Branches | Sermon 12/17/2023

Apologia Utah

Subscribe

Download

Share

10

00:00

John chapter 15. We're now in chapter 15. We're going to be in verses 1 through 16 today.

00:12

It's amazing to think that we've only got six more chapters after this. We've gone through the bulk now of the

00:20

Gospel according to John. This is going to be wrapped up come April, so only months away.

00:26

It's been a big blessing. I hope it has for you as much as it has been for me. The title of this sermon today, church, is

00:34

The True Vine and Branches. The True Vine and Branches.

00:42

So starting in verse 1 of the Gospel according to John chapter 15, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

00:49

God. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser.

00:56

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit

01:01

He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which

01:07

I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me.

01:19

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

01:28

If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

01:36

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

01:48

Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my

01:57

Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

02:08

This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you.

02:14

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what

02:21

I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends.

02:30

For all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. And you did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the

02:42

Father in my name, he may give to you. And thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent word.

02:50

Let's pray once more as a church body. God, I ask that you would illuminate the scriptures today. Lord, please use me to help teach and edify your people,

03:00

Lord. Be among us now, dear God. We ask, Lord, that you would show us what it means to be the branches.

03:11

Show us what it means that you are the vine. The Father is the vine dresser, Lord. What does this all mean for us?

03:17

How does this all impact us even now? God, show us our utter dependence on you.

03:24

Show us, Lord, how much we need you for all things. I thank you,

03:29

God, for today. Please bless it to the glory of your name. Amen. Church, if you remember,

03:36

I spoke about how when Judas was dismissed from Jesus' and the apostles' presence, the farewell discourse had begun.

03:47

The first segment of these parting words of Jesus to his disciples was in a room in which they were celebrating the

03:55

Passover. Last week, we saw the end of the first conversation in that room as Jesus continued to encourage and instruct these men.

04:08

And at the end, if you recall, he said, Let us go from here.

04:14

Get up. Let us go from here. That's how we ended chapter 14. Some believe at this point it's possible now that they are walking in Jerusalem.

04:25

It's the 11 remaining apostles in Jesus Christ, and it's possible that they're walking at night or something of the sort, evening, and they're walking through the streets of Jerusalem, and that they might even be passing by a grapevine or agriculture in some sense.

04:47

You see, at chapter 17, he will look up to the heavens.

04:54

He'll be outside, and he'll pray what's called the High Priestly Prayer, one of the most famous prayers in the entire

05:00

Bible. And then at that point, they will cross over the ravine of Kidron where he enters a garden.

05:08

And so if they're walking, he said, Get up. Let us go from here. And they're walking, and they're slowly making their way to this point where he's going to get to that garden, where he's going to make these prayers, and then what happens in the garden?

05:23

He gets captured. Right? So it's possible they're outside. They're looking upon some budding grapevines.

05:30

This is the springtime, after all. Winter is over. That was John chapter 10.

05:35

And now at this point, it's the Passover, March, April, thereby, in this moment, bringing this illustration to life.

05:48

So Jesus is going to set up this illustration, and the illustration is going to depict the

05:55

Father's relationship to him and his relationship to the Father. It's going to be also

06:01

Jesus' relationship to his disciples, and finally, in verses 12 through 17, this illustration is going to go over the relationship of the disciples to one another.

06:15

So the Father to the Son, the Son to the Father, the Son to the disciples, and the disciples to one another.

06:22

That's what's happening here. Okay? Jesus is going to do that using a grapevine.

06:29

A grapevine. He is the vine, and what he means here is that he is the roots, he is the thin trunk, and he is the vine that moves laterally across a trellis.

06:44

If you look, if you go to a vineyard, or maybe you've seen here in the valley, people have set up some sort of, they have their own grapes in their backyard.

06:54

The traditional way to do it, the way that vineyards do it is you have the roots, and then coming out of the ground is that trunk, and then the first lateral vine, and that's kind of all one system right there, and that's what

07:07

Jesus is. It literally is a T. It's a T shape coming out of the ground. Okay? If you can imagine that.

07:14

And that whole system, that whole cross, that whole T, is supposed to be

07:19

Jesus. That's who he is. He's the true vine. He's the thing that provides nourishment and water to everything else.

07:28

He's the thing that gives life to the rest of the plant. And the Father is the vine dresser.

07:35

He prunes and tends to the grape plant, and keep this in mind, by the way, this illustration isn't supposed to be about ontology.

07:45

It's not a question of nature or being. Jesus is using this illustration for a specific purpose, so we don't want to go ahead and be like,

07:54

Jesus is a created vine, and then the Father is a vine dresser, which is another word for gardener, which is also a created thing.

08:02

No, that's not what Jesus is seeking to do here. He's not talking about ontology or being or nature of who they are.

08:09

It's simply an illustration. It's parabolic in some sense. Okay? So, with the grapes, like I said, you have the

08:19

T formation, you have the roots coming down, the trunk, and then the lateral part there, which is the main vine, and that is called the cordon.

08:32

It's called the cordon. It's the part that makes up really largely the whole grape plant, the whole grape vine, that T formation.

08:43

And from that main vine, that T, what comes off of that laterally are what's called grape canes.

08:53

They're canes. They're also simply called branches. They just come off that main vine, so you have the

08:58

T, and then these branches come off of that, and they crawl as vines all over the place, and those are branches.

09:07

What comes off of those branches, those lateral branches, of course, are the fruit.

09:14

The grapes come off of those lateral branches. Those are the fruit -bearing parts of the plant.

09:20

And in this illustration, the followers of Christ are branches. They're what comes off of that main

09:26

T, which is Christ. They're attached to the main trunk.

09:33

They're attached to the main vine. They remain there. And this illustration is not just for the 11 apostles, as he will use not just personal you language towards these men, but he also says in this illustration, if anyone, if anyone does not do this or does not abide in me, and then he says, and he who does this or that.

09:56

So there's application. The immediate context is, of course, he's talking to the 11 disciples, but then it comes to all of us.

10:06

This grapevine analogy is for the entire Church of Christ. And what will be brought up very frequently, in fact, 10 times in just the first 11 verses, is the

10:19

Greek word meno. Meno, in our translation, it came up as the word abide.

10:25

It can also mean to remain. And so the image that we see with grapes is that the branches are attached to the main vine.

10:35

They're attached. They're connected. They become one. They remain. They abide. There's no taking what has been made and chosen as a branch off in this case.

10:46

They're attached together, receiving what is necessary to produce grapes from the main vine.

10:55

And that leads me to one of the final important concepts in this illustration, and that is the word fruit.

11:01

Fruit. There is a desire of the vine dresser, the farmer, the gardener, and again, who is that?

11:11

Who's the vine dresser? The Father. There's a desire of the Father for actual fruit.

11:18

You see, no one plants a grapevine so that it would simply produce leaves. I know,

11:24

I've planted a lot of different fruit trees and things like that, and there's nothing worse than having a fruit tree that you're like, can't wait to see what it gives me this year, and it produces nothing.

11:34

And there's such a disappointment to that. And so the vine dresser, the Father, wants actual fruit.

11:42

And so what we'll see is the fruit are synonymous with a few things. Here's what the fruit is according to the text.

11:49

The fruit is whatever you ask the Father in my name, verses 7 and 16.

11:56

The fruit is also love for Christ and love for one another. That's fruit, verses 9, 10, 12, 13, and 17.

12:05

And also the fruit is obedience to Christ, or as he keeps saying, keeping his commandments.

12:12

Verses 10, 14, and 17. So the fruit is doing good works in Christ's name, in the power of the

12:20

Holy Spirit, having an active love for Christ and other Christians and obeying all that he has commanded.

12:27

These are things that he's been saying now for several weeks. These things will show that the main vine is true and producing in good health, that it is prolific, and the main vine energizes its branches to produce quality grapes.

12:45

But now before we dive into each verse, from the outset, I want you to know a few things based off of the text itself.

12:55

The main objective of each group, each character here. The objectives of the vine dresser, who is the

13:04

Father, and the objectives of the vine, who is Christ, and the objective of the branches, who are us and the disciples.

13:13

First, it is the job of the vine dresser to choose the branches that remain connected to the main vine, to cut away those branches whom he did not choose, and then even so, to prune those who remain on the vine.

13:31

Overall, it is the vine dresser's responsibility that the entire plant is healthy and actually produces fruit.

13:41

Second, it is the job of the true vine, that is Christ, to keep the branches alive, to feed them, to give the branches what they need to produce fruit, to hold them up when wind comes and things happen and insects and whatever disease assails them, that they would never break off.

14:01

That's the true vine's responsibility. Third and lastly, it is the job of the branches, the objective of the branches, or the followers of Christ, to be the object or vessel that holds and has grown out of it fruit.

14:20

We are simply to be vessels through which the fruit of Jesus blossoms and comes out, matures out.

14:29

Simply things that hold what God has made and what God has done. The fruit of the

14:37

Father and Son proceed forth from the branches, from the children of God, and considering our context of late, that is only possible by the

14:46

Holy Spirit. In other words, branches can't produce without the vine and the vine dresser.

14:53

That is going to be the theme of what Jesus is saying here today. The branches can't do anything, they can't produce anything without the vine, the true vine and the vine dresser.

15:04

So look out for these main objectives in our text today. You'll see them. Let's go to verse 1. Jesus says,

15:10

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. He is the true vine, the vine of truth, the correct vine, the right vine, the real vine.

15:23

And this saying, along with verse 5, are the last times that Jesus will give his divine formula,

15:29

Ego eimi. And if you've been with us for any amount of time in the Gospel according to John, you know that means something significant.

15:38

I am, Yahweh, ego eimi, the very name of the one true

15:43

God is being said here. And it's in conjunction with the label true vine.

15:49

I am the true vine. He's trying to demonstrate that he is a vine unlike anyone else, any other vine.

15:58

He can actually do what other vines cannot. And that brings into question, though, are there any other vines?

16:08

Are there other vines? And so I had our deacon

16:13

Dusty read Psalm 80, and you might have picked it up a little bit. Psalm 80 said,

16:19

You removed a vine from Egypt. There was a vine in Egypt, and God took it.

16:25

You drove out the nations, and you planted that vine, talking to God. You cleared the ground before the vine, and it took deep root, and that vine filled the land.

16:36

The mountains were covered with the shadow of this vine, and the cedars of God with its boughs.

16:42

It was sending out its branches from sea and to the river. But that vine is breaking down.

16:50

It continues. We saw that. There's things pecking at it. The boar is eating it. It's losing all its fruit.

16:57

Verses 5 and 16 of Psalm 80 said, Even the shoot which your right hand has planted, talking to God, Even the shoot which your right hand planted,

17:07

O God, and the people whom you have strengthened for yourself, it is being burned with fire.

17:15

It is burned with fire. It is cut down. They perish at the rebuke of your countenance. So there was a vine in Egypt, and God took it out and planted it and prepared the ground, and it grew so greatly that its branches touched this side of the world, this side of the world, the river, the sea.

17:36

It was prolific, but soon it started to degrade. It started to wither.

17:41

It started to die. Isaiah chapter 5, verse 1 through 2, it says,

17:47

Let me sing now for my well -beloved a song of my beloved concerning his vineyard. This is

17:53

God's vineyard right here. My well -beloved had a vineyard on a fertile field.

17:58

He dug it all around. He removed all the stones and planted it with the choicest vine.

18:05

And he built a tower in the middle of it, and also he hewed out a wine vat in it.

18:11

Then, this is God, then God expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless ones.

18:21

This word worthless in the Hebrew is indicating something that is only to be thrown into the fire, something that is not good for keeping.

18:31

Refuse. Ezekiel speaks about this vine being fruitful and full of branches, but then they were torn off and the vine was withered and it was consumed.

18:41

Church, this is historic Israel. The people of God, according to the

18:47

Bible, turned from Him. They turned from their vine dresser. They went after other gods, gods which they have not known.

18:54

They worshipped demons. They worshipped Baal, Ashtoreth. They worshipped these false things and not the one true

19:00

God. They never produced fruit of the quality that God desired, but only worthless ones.

19:12

And so if you think about it, Jesus has superseded so many things in the Gospel, according to John. Jesus said,

19:18

I am the temple. He's better than the temple. He said that He's Lord over the feast of tabernacles.

19:25

He is better and Lord over the feast of dedication. He is the light of the world.

19:30

He's the good shepherd. He supersedes the feast of the Passover when

19:35

He called Himself the bread of life. He told us that He's the new Jacob's ladder.

19:41

He is the way to get to heaven. He is the new well that brings living water.

19:47

He's better than Moses. He went into that. He's better than the old

19:54

Israel. He is the new Israel. The true Israel. The true vine has to come so that branches will actually remain because they continue to die off.

20:08

They continue to wither away. We need this vine to come.

20:15

This vine, Jesus Christ, will never be consumed. And because we are attached to Him and we abide in Him, neither will we.

20:24

The old vine was the people alone with Adam as their head.

20:30

But now the true vine is Jesus and the people that abide in Him. And because the

20:37

Father would never cut away His Son, then He will never cut away those who are a part of Him, who abide in Him.

20:45

Never. Never. Because He will never destroy Christ, and Christ can't be destroyed, neither will those true branches.

20:56

They are coordinated together. They are Israel with Christ as the head.

21:03

And so we have a representative now. We are linked with Him. And the fruit will remain too.

21:09

Not to mention this vine is connected divinely to the vinedresser, to the

21:15

Father. And so what Jesus is even doing in this moment in John 15 is

21:21

He is preparing these men for a change, for a fulfillment. The old covenant, the old way, the old

21:31

Israel, the old head, the old Adam. It's all fallen. And He's preparing these men that there's a new covenant that has arrived with Him.

21:43

It will be inaugurated in His death and resurrection. And He is the new head.

21:49

He is the true vine. Old covenant to new covenant. This affects everyone.

21:56

So we have those two introduced, the Son and the Father, the true vine and vinedresser.

22:01

Now the next introduction, go to verse 2. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit,

22:07

He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

22:15

What Jesus is saying is that anyone connected to the Messiah by virtue of Hebrew birthright, by blood, but is not a believer in the

22:27

Messiah is cut off from Him. Jesus is no longer the long -promised

22:33

Jewish Messiah, but He's now the Messiah of the world, of all types of men and women and children, of people of every tongue, tribe, people, and nation.

22:43

He is the cosmic Messiah. He's not the Messiah over a small people group. He is the

22:48

Messiah now over the world that spans generations and time and goes into eternity.

22:54

This is the Messiah. The Father takes away, though the branch is without fruit.

23:02

You see, when fruit trees or grapevines go dormant in the winter, they are deciduous, fruiting plants, and so in the winter they lose their leaves.

23:12

They lose their leaves. They inevitably lose all of them in preparation for new leaves, new growth, new fruit in the spring.

23:21

I saw with my more than a dozen fruit trees at my old house and even with my red and green grapevines that I had, there would be a moment where all the leaves would finally fall off, and there was what's called deadwood, deadwood.

23:40

Because now that all the green foliage is gone, it's time to trim, it's time to prune these grapevines, and you'd have to determine what parts of the grapevine were deadwood.

23:53

Over time, whether by exposure or from disease or whatever, the tree or the vine rejects a branch, and it dies.

24:02

A fruiting plant can get deadwood, and it must be cut off. It must be taken away to make room for the living branches.

24:10

It has to make room for the fruiting branches so that they would produce fruit. You don't keep them together.

24:18

Leaving deadwood stifles the growth of the living, okay? But also, as I grew my grapevines, there were branches coming off that I simply did not want.

24:33

You see, branches were deviating from the shape of the trellis that I had made, and it was my prerogative to go, okay, if you come off at this height and you're not on the grapevine, on the wire, that's going to weigh down the whole plant, and it's going to ruin everything.

24:49

It's going to tear the whole thing down, so I had to cut that. So I even cut living parts, not even just deadwood, from my grapevines.

24:58

Branches that deviated from the shape that I wanted of the overall plant. And so the father, the vine dresser, has the right to leave or cut away or prune whatever he wants.

25:12

And so as an act of judgment, many branches were removed from the vine. That's the reality.

25:18

That's the reality of what was said in the Old Testament. But the amazing thing is that the vine dresser actually leaves and chooses so many to stay on the true vine.

25:33

That's what's amazing. But the ones that remain, it says that the vine dresser prunes them.

25:43

The ones that abide, the ones that remain, the ones that are attached, the father prunes the true branches or the true followers of Christ so that they bear more fruit.

25:55

And this is true in grape production or for any fruit tree. I remember the first time

26:00

I did this, I had just, years ago, I had gotten into planting fruit trees in my backyard, and finally, the peach trees that I had planted from the season prior, for the first time, they dropped all their leaves, and I had looked it up, and I realized, okay,

26:18

I've got to actually prune this thing. Some people leave their apple trees and plum trees and pear trees and peach trees, and you'll see them all over the valley after a good windstorm in the fall or in late summer.

26:35

You'll see branches broken down that are just laden with too much fruit, and often the fruit is small.

26:41

They're close together. They don't grow large. They're not sweet because pruning in the winter wasn't done when things were dormant.

26:50

And so I remember coming to this little peach tree that had done so well.

26:56

I was so proud of it. It really had grown out much. It had so many branches and wood everywhere, and I grabbed my shears, and I started to cut.

27:09

You're supposed to cut the limbs that go the wrong direction. If they're going towards the main trunk, all branches need to go outward instead of inward.

27:18

If they cross over each other, it creates a problem. There's lack of airflow. Airflow is a big deal with growing fruit.

27:27

I had to cut the leading stem. Often from the nursery, a peach tree will be straight up with a leader, and so you actually have to choose an area where there's lateral branches, that are strong lateral branches, and it's scary, and you cut the main leader.

27:45

So it's no longer a point like this, but you have to actually open up a peach tree or an apple tree often or a plum tree, and you have to open up the branches like this, and what that does is that allows sunlight to come in through the center because sunlight is essential for good fruit production as well.

28:05

I pruned off damaged limbs. I pruned off things that would create a hole where disease could incur or pests could get in, and by the time

28:17

I was done, there was a pile of sticks at my feet, and I said, Sarah, I'm all done.

28:23

Come check out the tree, and she's like, you reduced it to nothing. That's a twig coming out of the ground.

28:29

She was so worried. All that growth over the spring, over the summer, and you ruined our peach tree.

28:35

I said, no, we've got to trust the process, and I was kind of saying that with a little bit of faith. I'm like, no, we've got to trust this.

28:41

It's going to be all right. It's going to grow back. It'll grow back better, okay, and the thing is that peach tree came back, and in the spring and summer, it was easily three times larger with much more fruit than before I had trimmed it when

29:01

I had pruned it. It was incredible. I mean, it's like God makes this happen. It's unbelievable, and so I was relieved, of course.

29:11

I was astonished, too, that pruning really plays a part. It really plays a part.

29:18

Trimming something with life makes it better, makes it live better.

29:24

Well, you can probably see where I'm going with this. The same is for the follower of Christ. The same is for us.

29:32

Sanctification is often a pruning process, removing that which limits fruit production in us.

29:41

It is painful. It is absolutely painful sometimes. The pruning can be painful.

29:48

It can be a painful process for us, church, but the vine dresser does it with love. He does it with love.

29:55

He's excited to see the growth that will occur as a result of his pruning. I know once I saw that happen,

30:02

I was excited, too. In the years to come, I would come and prune now this tree, and I'd be excited to see that even though I did this damage, to know how much bigger and larger and how much more fruit it would produce.

30:19

And that happens with us. He knows this is the best for you even though it hurts.

30:28

It's working for good. Somehow in your situation now, even now, what you're going through, you think it might not produce more fruit, but God says it will.

30:40

God says it will. What you're going through right now, you think it might end with you just falling down dead, but God is pruning it and shaping you, and it will produce more.

30:51

Even more. This pain produces. Hebrews 12, verse 10 says,

30:58

Such actions of God are for our good, and that we would share in His holiness.

31:05

And so He prunes off limbs that are going the wrong direction. When God sees things in our lives taking us the wrong way,

31:14

He cuts it away from us. He might just remove it from you because it's taking you away from Him. He might give you the gift of repentance, which means literally to turn around, removing that which takes you the wrong way.

31:28

When God sees things in our lives turning the other way,

31:34

He turns us back. Pruning branches in such a way also that light shines on it for growth.

31:41

You need proper sunshine. And our sunshine and our light is the Word of God.

31:47

It's prayer. It's fellowship. It's the local church. It's the ordinary means of grace that God wants to expose us to for growth.

31:58

While you're here, and we're here together, this is cutting away things in the way. This is exposing you to light.

32:06

This, in this moment, is growing you. This is growing you even now. Fruit comes with these things.

32:14

God patches up wounds. He removes diseased pieces, things that give a foothold for the devil in our lives.

32:20

And remember, the holy vine dresser does this through His Son, the vine.

32:28

And just when you think you could never grow back the same as you were, you come back with more growth, more fruit, more strength, more vitality.

32:36

You're more prolific. It may not always be a bumper crop, but it does what it needs to do, and you produce fruit.

32:48

That's the process of sanctification in a believer. He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.

32:56

And so we are not to despise the pruning of the Father, the vine dresser. Don't despise it, church.

33:04

The vine dresser has a love for the vine, and therefore a love for the branches.

33:10

He takes pride in it. He wants to see us grow. So going back to the apostles in our immediate context, as Jesus says in verse 3, you are already clean because of the word which

33:24

I have spoken to you. Now the word for prune was kathiro, and similarly the word for clean here is katharos.

33:35

In the New Testament it typically means that someone has been cleansed, they've been purified, but here it's even related to the pruning.

33:45

And so he doesn't mean that the apostles have been pruned to the point of full sanctification that he's done with them, but that they are not dead wood.

33:55

They are not going to be removed. They are living wood, living branches chosen by God and are therefore selectively cleansed.

34:05

The words, all the teachings Jesus gave them, took root in them. The words were like a seed that sprang up, producing in them eternal life, which then produces fruit.

34:19

And so the words of Jesus won't do that for those who aren't true branches. They won't receive the nourishment.

34:26

They're not connected to the true vine. Remember he said in chapter 13 that one of them was not clean.

34:36

And what happened right after, he said one of you here is not clean. He was cut away. It was

34:42

Judas Iscariot. He told him go do what you need to do now. He was dismissed. He was told to leave by Jesus and then started at that point the farewell discourse of encouragement and instruction to his branches.

34:59

He was removed. But they have remained. They have a part in Christ.

35:05

They abide with Jesus. In fact, Jesus will now go on to say this very thing. Look at verses 4 and 5.

35:12

Jesus says, Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me.

35:23

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit.

35:28

For apart from me you can do nothing. Verse 5 honestly has been one of my most favorite verses in the entire

35:38

Bible for so many years. It's one of the verses that I gravitated to when the Lord first saved me.

35:45

And it contains in it the final ego -ami -I -am statement. I am the vine.

35:55

He's been the door. He's been the good shepherd. He's been the light of the world, the bread of life. Now he says,

36:01

I am the vine. He is the divine vine. The old vine would bring only death.

36:06

The old vine could not secure eternal life because it too would die itself. The old vine was subject to death, but this vine isn't subject to death.

36:17

This vine can rule over and command over death. This is the vine that never dies.

36:25

He is the holy vine, the God vine. And he says, Abide in me. Remain in me.

36:31

Be connected to me and nothing else. And he says he will abide in us.

36:37

The connection is forever. And abiding in language is really that of all the new covenant promises that accompany

36:45

God's spirit in us. Abiding in Christ and he abiding in us is renewal.

36:51

It's cleansing. It's regeneration. It's all those things that we can't materialize on our own. They come from God.

36:58

They come from the vine. And that's the thing. A branch doesn't produce fruit by itself and then the vine abides with it.

37:09

There's not a branch that's sitting there on the ground and all of a sudden it's able to grow fruit by itself and the vine dresser takes that broken vine and puts it on and then because it sees the good fruit then it desires to be on the vine.

37:25

That's not what it is. It's that the branch proceeds forth from the vine and then it produces fruit in the power of the one that it abides with.

37:36

You see, what I'm trying to say is no fruit can come of you and me apart from Jesus Christ.

37:44

This flies in the face of every religion that says you have to have fruit and works to be good enough to be a branch of Jesus Christ.

37:55

Here, that's false. It says you can only produce any of this because I love you and you abide with me and I've saved you.

38:05

These things are a result of that existing abiding in.

38:13

There's no inorganic growth. There's no separate external accretion. Fruit comes only after the vine feeds and establishes the branches.

38:22

Life streams from the Savior and into the believer. And Jesus confirms a branch cannot bear fruit of itself.

38:32

It must abide in the vine. This is pure dependence. As I said, there are organizations and people out there not connected to the vine of Christ and their external mass may look like fruit, but inside it is rotten.

38:49

It is false. It's fake. It looks like fruit, but it's not sometimes.

38:57

There's nothing worse as a child. I had one side of my family, my grandmother on my mom's side.

39:05

Fancy woman. I mean, they had one of those living rooms that no one actually sat in, you know?

39:11

And there was like a porcelain Dalmatian this tall and it's like, there's the dog. And I mean, she had all these ornate things and a cabinet with all these china and glass.

39:24

It was a beautiful room, but as her grandchildren, we could never go in there. There was also a piano, but I remember there was a bowl with fake fruit.

39:34

And just when you're little enough and ignorant enough, you go right up to that bowl of fake fruit and because hers are fancy, they're porcelain and you grab this fake red apple and it looks really good.

39:46

Somehow it's real looking to my small young eyes. And I just with so much confidence just put my chompers right down on that sucker.

39:56

And oh my goodness, my teeth felt like they were going to shatter, you know? There's nothing like it.

40:02

Fake fruit is so disappointing. And now, you know, they sell it at Ross or Marshall's or something.

40:07

There's fake fruit everywhere and they're plastic and, you know, now they become like chew toys for our babies.

40:13

But fake fruit, you know, what is it good for? I guess it's the aesthetics. It never goes away.

40:20

It never dies. It stays the same shade in some capacity, but it's not true fruit. It is fake fruit.

40:27

It's not fruit from the vine. It's not fruit from the true tree. So, fake fruit is no fruit.

40:39

And God will judge the faux fruit of prosperity gospel proponents. God will judge the

40:45

Christian disguised cults and groups and all the rest who are making things and manufacturing things that look like fruit, but when you bite into them, they're not.

40:57

They would not please the vine dresser. He's going to judge that. But fruit is inevitable if abiding in the true vine.

41:08

And Paul talks about not being able to have true fruit unless you are abiding in Christ and Christ is abiding in you.

41:15

And that comes only by the way of the Holy Spirit. Galatians chapter 5. Look at this.

41:20

Verses 19 through 21. It's in your printout. It says what the fruit of the flesh is.

41:28

Now, the fruit of the flesh are evident. So, these are fruit. These are works. These are external things in some capacity.

41:36

These fruit are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these of which

41:51

I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

41:59

That's false fruit. That's what's inside of the pretty looking thing.

42:05

But what is true fruit? Chapter 5 of Galatians verses 22 through 23.

42:11

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

42:24

Against things there is no such law. And so, we have to ask ourselves, does our fruit have patience or strife?

42:34

Does our fruit have real love or sensuality, immorality, and impurity? Does your fruit have outbursts?

42:42

Or is it self -controlled? Does your fruit have joy in Christ or some sort of false joy or false joy pursuit in drunkenness and carousing?

42:55

You see, Jesus says, we can't do any of these good Spirit -filled things unless we are abiding in Him and Him in us.

43:03

Apart from Him, we can do nothing. You know, when you're a believer, you abide in Christ and He abides in you.

43:12

That is 100 % certain. I think that's a fundamental promise being made here.

43:17

But there is also, what I would say, kind of an application. There's this active, willful abiding in Christ, remaining in Christ in your daily life.

43:29

And part of abiding in Him every day and every moment is not just knowing in our heads that apart from Him we can do nothing, but knowing that that very moment,

43:39

I'm relying on Him, you're relying on Him for all that is in you, all that your being is, all that's happening to you.

43:48

Every breath in your lungs, you're dependent on Christ. And that's abiding in Him, fruit internally, fruit externally.

43:58

Because sometimes we can get up throughout our day and we start our day and we think we're sovereign.

44:04

How do we even hit the deck and start praying? I'm sorry, how do we even get going and leave our houses without first going,

44:14

God, I could die on the way. God, this could happen. God, this could happen. This could happen at work.

44:20

Lord, keep this person safe. You know, we don't want to live in this sort of tense reality, but still, at some point, how do we get to these things in our life without even first hitting the deck and praying to God and going,

44:34

Lord, I need you today. I need you for the breath in my lungs. And we take that for granted. We just move on.

44:41

We just go with things. We think in some capacity we're sovereign. There's this illusion of sovereignty.

44:47

There's this illusion of control. There's an illusion of independence. But you and me, we are utterly dependent on God for every moment, every second.

45:00

We can't forget it. We need nutrients from the true vine. We need to be fed by Him.

45:07

You can't save your family member, but He can. You can't gain the courage to tell your co -worker about the

45:16

Gospel, but He can give it to you. In your power, you can't face another day in the trial or calamity or ailment you're in, but He can give you

45:28

His power. If you're dependent on Him, if you're relying on Him, you can go another day.

45:36

But it's hard to go another day when you're trying to live in your own power, when you're trying to live in your own righteousness.

45:43

But every day, we ought to recognize, Lord, I need You. We've got to remember we abide in the vine.

45:50

He is that tea formation, that vine. We come off of Him. We need Him for everything.

45:59

And think about this. He doesn't say that nothing will ever be done. He said, apart from Me, you can do nothing, which presupposes that Christ can do anything.

46:12

And that's who we're connected to. Oh, I can't do this. I can't do that. I can't do this.

46:19

I can't get through this. I'm never going to get that. I'm never going to be fully provided for.

46:26

I'm never going to have this good thing that God says is good. I'm never going to get through the end of this trial.

46:34

This could never happen. He could never provide this, ever. That's not been the history in my life.

46:40

You should see my track record. God never gives me things like that. And it's like you're thinking about what you can't do.

46:49

And that's fine. He says, think about what you can't do. But don't forget, you ought to think about all that He can do.

46:57

He can do anything. He can do anything for you. That's who we're connected to. And He tells us what happens to those who are not connected to Him.

47:05

Go to verse 6. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up.

47:11

And they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. Again, I remember growing things in Arizona.

47:20

We don't have a home now. We live in a basement, so I'm not putting energy and time into something like that.

47:27

But I remember in Arizona, we planted an apricot tree. And it was within a matter of weeks that that sucker just died.

47:35

It was dead. It was a twig coming out of the ground. And it did not make the 115 degree weather.

47:41

I mean, we even put 40 % shade cloth up. That's how devoted I was to getting these little guys started.

47:48

Give them a little shade from that 118 degree weather in the summer. And this apricot couldn't make it.

47:58

And so, it was just a stick coming out of the ground. And I thought, that's a waste.

48:06

Obviously, I'm not going to keep it there because there's certain distance surrounding the radius of a tree for its growth.

48:13

And if it's just sitting in there, then it's just taking up room. And so, it ought to be removed.

48:19

And so, I'm not trying to be crass or insensitive about what's happening here.

48:25

We pray for all people that they would abide in Christ, that they would be a true branch, but not all do.

48:31

Not all are. And so, dead wood produces no fruit. It serves no purpose to the vine dresser.

48:37

It goes to the fire. Fire is often associated with judgment in the scripture.

48:44

God wants the vine to drop fruit. He wants it to be abundant. He wants that fruit to maybe even reproduce, that eventually a seed might come forth, and more vines would fill the rest of the vineyard, the vineyard of God.

49:01

And this reminds me of a warning from Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7, verse 15 says,

49:10

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

49:17

Hold on to that. I just talked about fake fruit that looks like real fruit on the outside, but on the inside, it's not good.

49:24

And that's what he says here. There are people who are like prophets. They're dressed in sheep's clothing.

49:30

They look like people of God, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. And he says, you'll know them, though, by their fruits.

49:37

You'll know them by actually consuming, by actually seeing what comes out of them. He says, grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?

49:47

So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.

49:53

A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.

49:59

And every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

50:04

So then you will know them by their fruits. He says immediately after that, not everyone who says to me,

50:11

Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of God. That's right in that context. Many will say to me on that day,

50:18

Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name, cast out demons in your name, perform many miracles, and then

50:23

I will declare from them, depart from me. I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness.

50:30

So many people believe they abided in Christ, but their fruit was rotten.

50:36

They will call to him, but he will dismiss them. He will cut them away like he did to Judas. And that in your mind, hopefully not, but it might call in your mind, how is

50:47

God loving then? How is God loving? He is loving because we were all dead wood.

50:53

We were all fruitless vines. We all produced nothing of value to God. We were all powerless to make fruit of ourselves that the vine dresser would approve of.

51:05

We all deserve to be gathered up and bundled and thrown into the fire. That's what

51:10

Scripture says, but we are given something that we would not otherwise be able to obtain.

51:17

That's grace. You're a branch of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not because anything in you, but because of everything in Him.

51:31

In verse 7, Jesus speaks of part of the privilege the apostles have of abiding in Him.

51:38

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

51:44

This is just like the promise he gave at the beginning of chapter 14. We went over that Peter requested something in Jesus' name and it was done as it was

51:55

God's will. Then we saw the seven sons of Sceva requesting to remove a demon in the name of Jesus, but the demon beat them up.

52:05

It was not God's will. Think about it. He says here in verse 7, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, my words abide in you, ask these things in my name.

52:18

And so if you know Christ and you abide in Christ, then you'll know

52:23

His words. You'll seek to learn His words. You'll store His words in your heart.

52:29

And if you know the words of the vine, you'll learn to know His will. You'll learn to know

52:35

His will. You will learn what Christ wishes and what Christ desires is then in turn what a believer should desire.

52:44

And so the mutual indwelling actually does something. This is not unbridled power.

52:52

I've got a formula. I say this in Jesus' name and it will be done. I talked about that.

52:58

God is no genie. What Jesus is trying to communicate is two things here. Number one, a true believer becomes effective in prayer because he or she dwells with Christ.

53:10

You're connected to the true vine. Your prayers are connected right to. You're tapped in. And number two,

53:17

He is communicating that anything they do for the kingdom will have to come from the hand of God.

53:24

He says ask these things. That means they're not in them. They're not in you and me.

53:30

It's that connection of the Savior and the saved together. Apart from Him, we can do nothing.

53:37

That's true of how we were justified. Apart from Him, we can do nothing.

53:43

That's true of how we're sanctified. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. That's how one day you're glorified.

53:48

That's how one day you dwell with Him. It's never going to be in your power. It's never going to be up to you.

53:55

It's all Him. We need Him. Look at verses 8 -11.

54:01

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

54:07

Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my

54:15

Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full.

54:25

So I actually take issue with our translation of verse 8. Verse 8 said,

54:34

So prove to be my disciples. So prove, in so prove to be my disciples is actually in the aorist form, the aorist form of Ginnomai, which is become or come into being.

54:49

That's Ginnomai. And it's past tense here. It's past tense. I think the best way to say this verse, at least the way

54:58

I see it in the Greek, is like this, translated into English. My Father is glorified by this, that you became my disciples.

55:08

It's aorist. It's past tense. My Father is glorified by this, that you became my disciples, and you bear, this is in the active form, much fruit.

55:18

You became my disciples, and now you will bear fruit. Something has happened.

55:24

You've become my disciples, and now you bear fruit. Because I don't think the

55:29

Father is glorified by us proving to other people, hey, I'm a disciple of Jesus.

55:35

Look at what I do. Look at what I do. Let me prove that I'm a disciple of Christ.

55:42

Because He already knows who are disciples of Christ and who is not. Proving seems to me man centered.

55:49

And so I look at that verse in that light. Bearing much fruit to glorify

55:54

God appears like there is an understanding He makes us bear fruit in His name. So, what

56:01

I'm trying to say is, if we're sitting there proving with all our might that I'm a disciple of Christ, look what

56:07

I'm doing, look what I'm doing, that's man centered. That's trying to become, that's the way that the false fruit works.

56:15

We don't have to do that. If you are a true branch, true fruit will flow from you.

56:23

It will come out of you. And so, both are external. You get what I'm saying?

56:28

Both are on the outside. That's true. But one was wrought only on the outside.

56:34

The false fruit was an outside operation only. True fruit from true branches was an inside operation from Jesus and then in the believer and came outward.

56:47

It became fruit. You could tie an orange onto a branch.

56:54

It doesn't make it an orange tree. Right? So, verse 9 shows us the basis by which one is able to abide in Christ.

57:09

It's love. As the Father loved Him, so He loved us. This new intimacy of branches being so very connected to the true vine is set in unfathomable love.

57:23

It's love. Jesus is seen here in this moment as the mediator of the

57:28

Father's love. We are to abide in His love. Remain steadfast in the love of Christ. Love is what will propel you forward in this

57:36

Christian life. Love is the motivation for keeping His commandments. Love is the nutrient that comes from the true vine and causes you to bear fruit.

57:46

Love creates action. Love is the lifeblood of salvation.

57:53

Paul said in Romans 8 that nothing in all creation could separate us from this type of love. In verse 10, we see what is characteristic of a true branch of the true vine.

58:04

They keep His commandments and therefore abide in Christ's love. He doesn't want disobedience and He gives

58:12

His own example of Himself to the Father to illustrate this. The Father is pleased with the

58:18

Son's obedience, the Son's commitment to their sovereign plan and decree. The Father loves

58:24

Him for this. But we talked about this before. The Father's love of the

58:30

Son is not reaction, it's action. It's not because of something that Jesus did that He loves

58:38

Him. It's because He loved Him that Jesus did what He said and therefore love continues.

58:43

And the same thing is with us. That's the example He gives. In fact, we couldn't do any of these things if He did not first love us.

58:57

He has to. But then His love continues and pours out on us.

59:04

He's pleased with fruit. He is pleased with fruit from His branches.

59:12

Verse 11 confirms Jesus spoke these things to them so that their joy would be to the fullest capacity.

59:19

He is pleased with the branches connected to Him. He is eager to see the fruit that comes from them.

59:24

They should be too. These things should bring you and I joy as well. Jesus calls it

59:32

His joy. That His joy would be complete in you. His joy may be in you.

59:38

And that joy of Christ is our possession now. You have a joy that is foreign to you.

59:46

Jesus' joy has been put in you. That is connection.

59:52

That is that mutual indwelling. That mutual abiding. My joy may be in you.

59:58

And that's linked to His obedience. We have Christ's joy in us because His perfect obedience applies to us as well.

01:00:08

The joy of the world is shallow. The joy of the world is incomplete. The joy of the world is not true joy, church.

01:00:19

But the joy of Christ is this love of God towards us from Him and now from us to Him.

01:00:30

It's a mutual love. Well, I told you at the beginning of this illustration we would see the

01:00:38

Father's relationship to the Son and the Son to His followers. And now we're wrapping up verses 12 through 16.

01:00:46

I'm not going to go into as much detail as we have with the previous verses, but we'll close out right here seeing the relationship that ought to be present between Jesus' followers to one another, the branches to the branches.

01:01:02

Jesus says, This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

01:01:13

You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends.

01:01:23

For all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit would remain so that whatever you ask of the

01:01:36

Father in my name He may give to you. And so I have to say apart from the imagery of the verses above the images of the grapevine these verses might make life in Christ seem kind of mechanical that it's merely about doing things but knowing we are connected to Him and He must supply our needs to do any of this, obedience changes the way that we look at these final verses.

01:02:11

Fruitfulness requires dependence on Christ and a vital union with Him.

01:02:19

And so in case we feel wearied by the potential of an insurmountable task of obedience to a

01:02:26

Holy God how could we be obedient to a Holy God? Now things are different.

01:02:31

They are different apart from Him we can do nothing. The vine dresser and the true vine must choose us it says here.

01:02:41

He must choose us. He must keep us. He must tend to us. He must feed us and cause us to produce fruit.

01:02:51

And so just as Jesus has loved us we are to love one another. I went over that quite a bit in John chapter 13 if you remember after Jesus washed their feet

01:03:05

He said so do this to one another and then He finished saying if you are my disciple you will love one another just as I have loved you.

01:03:15

The world will know that you are a disciple of Christ by your love for one another. That's what we saw.

01:03:21

And so I won't go into as much detail again. This is very much the same vein here.

01:03:27

You will love one another. As Christ loved you as the true vine and the vine dresser love you, you will love the other branches.

01:03:38

You will love other believers. He said you ought to. And it will be an indication that you are a true branch.

01:03:45

True branch loves one another. We are called to love one another in this room. And Jesus gives the ultimate example of this.

01:03:59

He says greater love is no one than this than the one who lays down his life for his friends. It's that sacrifice.

01:04:07

It's that denying myself and following after Christ means that I will do things that put other people in preference over myself sometimes.

01:04:22

That I will regard one another as more important than myself according to Philippians chapter two.

01:04:29

It's this sacrifice. Jesus gave the ultimate example of it. Sacrifice.

01:04:35

Laying down your life. That's love. He says. And if you notice here, he says now they're no longer slaves.

01:04:49

They're friends. Same goes for you and me. Slaves simply get told what to do.

01:04:59

The master comes and he approaches his slaves and he just tells them what to do.

01:05:07

Here's the order. Go do it. But we're no longer slaves.

01:05:12

We're friends. And so we get love. We get friendship. We get his sacrifice.

01:05:18

And then here, look at verse fifteen. A slave is simply commanded and knows nothing else.

01:05:26

But just like Abraham and Moses, the only Old Testament men who were called the friends of God.

01:05:34

Moses and Abraham were called the friends of God. And they got access to the mind of God.

01:05:40

They got direct revelation from God. And so, what sort of revelations and teachings and loving words of encouragement did

01:05:51

God give these two men who were called the friends of God, Moses and Abraham?

01:05:59

But we don't have to long for that anymore. You and I don't have to wonder what did

01:06:05

God tell Abraham and Moses, his friends? Because you and I are now friends of God.

01:06:12

The very mind of God has been revealed to us through Jesus Christ, our

01:06:17

Savior. We know all that Jesus has said. We know that Jesus will return.

01:06:24

We know that the dead will be raised. We know that He told us we will dwell with Him forever.

01:06:30

We get to know ahead of time. We get to know how God feels about us now. We get to know how to live this life.

01:06:37

We get to know now who we are in Christ. We get to receive encouragement and loving words and promises that He will never break.

01:06:47

We now know the mind of God. We are friends of God. We are

01:06:54

His. But lest the disciples, or even us, get puffed up.

01:07:01

You and I should be tempted to be puffed up. Yeah, I'm a friend of God. I know the mind of God like Abraham and Moses.

01:07:11

I have His Word and I get the Holy Spirit and in the Holy Spirit I can actually understand it.

01:07:18

I can take it. I can absorb it. I can learn it. I can be transformed by it. Lest that reality puff us up.

01:07:29

Verse 16 Jesus says, but if you think you're anything special I chose you.

01:07:36

I chose the branches. He chose His followers. He said, you did not choose me, but I chose you.

01:07:46

We are recipients. We didn't do something to become the friends of God, but now that He has made us

01:07:52

His friends, He wants us to go and bear fruit. Fruit that sticks. Fruit that remains.

01:07:58

Fruit that lasts. And only election from a mighty

01:08:04

God could bring that kind of fruit. This is His will for us. And the fruit doesn't just sit on a tree.

01:08:11

The grapes don't just remain on the vine. They get mashed. They get used for wine.

01:08:18

For medicine. For many different needs. For consumption. To be a representation of the vine from which they came.

01:08:25

The vine whose grapes are used and consumed is blessed. And the fruits that fall to the ground are pecked by the birds and the wasps and are seen by nobody.

01:08:39

But we are different. We are different. So church,

01:08:44

I know that we've covered a huge amount of text today. This is a lot to absorb. And thank you for bearing with me.

01:08:53

And so let me summarize as we close this evening. Jesus is the true vine.

01:09:00

We are the branches. The Father is the divine vine dresser.

01:09:06

The divine gardener. And I can imagine if Jesus were to use the

01:09:11

Holy Spirit more explicitly in this, He would have said that the

01:09:16

Holy Spirit is the one who delivers all that we need to be fruitful and remain healthy and intact on the true vine of Christ.

01:09:26

But what I've been alluding to all this time and what I want you to see in this is just grace.

01:09:34

Pure grace. Pure grace. He chose you. He makes you and I abide with Him.

01:09:43

He supplies every one of your needs. He prunes us for our good. He loves us.

01:09:49

He made us His friends. He discloses to us His words. He allows us to bear fruit to His glory.

01:09:56

He gives us His example so that we would love one another as He loved us.

01:10:01

He keeps the branches intact. We're never cut away. We're never to be burned up.

01:10:08

What is any of that but grace? What is any of that but you and I get to go along for this incredible ride that He lets us act out and participate in?

01:10:20

It's a gift. And so what I love about this illustration of this grapevine is that we're not simply birds in this illustration that get to rest on the boughs or on the vines or make a nest in the leaves of the vine.

01:10:39

What is quite unbelievable is now we are a part of Him and He's a part of us.

01:10:48

How could we ever be destroyed when Christ can't? How can we ever be destroyed if Christ cannot be?

01:10:59

And that's pure grace. That is pure grace. Apart from Him, we can do nothing.

01:11:09

Hallelujah. He did everything while we did nothing. And that's what we needed.

01:11:17

That's what we needed. Let's pray, church. Lord, thank

01:11:22

You for today. Thank You for Your Word. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for giving us these wonderful words, showing our clear dependence on You.

01:11:36

Showing that being a branch is not something we're entitled to.

01:11:42

It's something that's given. Lord, that the very fruit that comes out of us is something that comes from You.

01:11:50

The fruit is a representation of what You've done in us. And so,

01:11:57

Lord, let our fruit be pure. Let our fruit shout

01:12:04

Your glory. Let our fruit be a representation of the true vine,

01:12:11

Lord Jesus. Let us live in the fruit of the Spirit. Lord, Lord, thank

01:12:17

You for abiding in us and that we abide in You and that this isn't poetry but that this is real language in which

01:12:26

You have connected us to Yourself. What can change our classification as a branch now that we're in You and You make us abide and we bear fruit in Your name.

01:12:42

God, we are Your people and we proclaim with one voice today that apart from You we can do nothing,

01:12:50

Lord. We need You to save us. We need You to grant us repentance. We need

01:12:55

You, Lord, to sanctify us. We need You, Lord, to do what we can't do. Dear God, we proclaim that with one voice.

01:13:03

And God, if there's been anything in us that's been prideful or arrogant or entitled or have thought that we are the ones who have brought this about or we are the ones who have made this,

01:13:15

Lord, God, please let us turn from that. Show us, Lord, who we are by showing us who

01:13:23

You are. We love You, Lord. We thank You for this. We'll produce fruit for You all day long as long as You get the glory and You give us the ability to do so all to Your namesake.

01:13:39

We love You, Lord. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, before we take the