Sunday, June 8
2025-06-08
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLsr2f7u8bE

Amen.

We are glad to be here this morning. We're going to begin with a word of prayer. Father in heaven, I just thank you for allowing us to be here. I thank you for allowing us to come. I just ask that you would give us strength, that you would give us peace, that you would give us hope as we consider what it means to follow you and what it means to abide in you and what it means to bear fruit, that you would help us to hold fast to you and see your goodness. Be with us as we worship. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to start by reading from the 91st Psalm, and so we're going to stand and we're all going to read the first verses together, and then I will finish up with the last couple verses, the promise of this, and then we will sing on that day.

So if you would read with me. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust." This is God's Word. And the Psalm ends like this, "Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him, and I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him with long life. I will satisfy him and show him my salvation." And so the Psalm ends with this statement of dwelling and abiding in the shelter of God and ends with God's promise for care and protection and deliverance. So we're going to start by singing on that day.

I believe in Christ, risen from the dead. He now reigns victorious. His kingdom knows no end. Through his resurrection, death has lost its hope. I know on that final day our eyes as Jesus grows. On that day, we will see you shining brighter than the sun. On that day, we will love you as we lift our voices warm. Till that day, we will praise you for your never-ending grace. And we will keep on singing on that glorious day. What a blessed hope. Though now tired and warm, we will spend eternity around our sacred thorns. Though we grieve our losses, we will keep on singing on that glorious day. For we know our crown of glory is beyond the grave. On that day, we will see you shining brighter than the sun. On that day, we will know you as we lift our voices. One, till that day, we will praise you. For you never will be.

Never ending grace. We will keep on singing. On that glorious day. Hallelujah, one day it will be. For at home, we will sing. For at home with you, my joy is going to be. As I run into your arms open wide, I will sing. My Father who is waiting for me. Hallelujah, one day it will be. For at home with you, my joy is going to be. For at home with you, my joy is going to be. As I run into your arms open wide, I will sing. My Father who is waiting for me. My Father who is waiting for me. All that day, we will see you. Shining brighter than the sun. On that day, we will know you. As we lift our voices one. Till that day, we will praise you. For your never-ending grace. And we will keep on singing. On that glorious day. On that day, we will see you. Shining brighter than the sun.

On that day, we will know you. As we lift our voices one. Till that day, we will praise you. For your never-ending grace. And we will keep on singing. On that glorious day. And we will keep on singing. On that glorious day. And we will keep on singing. On that glorious day. Let's pray.

We are never enough. Then you came along and put me back together. And every desire is now satisfied. Here in your love. Oh, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you. There's nothing. Better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. My failures and flaws, Lord, you've seen them all, and you still call me friend. Because the God of the mountain is the God of the valley. And there's not a place your mercy and grace won't find me again. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. You turn morning to dancing. You give beauty for ashes. You turn shame into glory. You're the only one who can. You turn graves into gardens. You turn bones into armies. You turn seas into highways. You're the only one who can.

You're the only one who can. You're the only one who can. There's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. You turn graves into gardens. You turn bones into armies. You turn seas into highways. You're the only one who can. You're the only one who can. You're the only one who can.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and glory. Turn your eyes to the hillside, Where justice and mercy embrace. There the Son of God gave His life for us, And our measures of grace. Jesus, to You we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our prize. We adore You, behold You, our Savior ever true. Jesus, we lift our eyes to You. The glory is gone, Fear of death is gone, For we carry His life in a place. Jesus, to You we lift our eyes. Jesus, our glory and our praise. We hold You, our Savior ever true. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. Turn your eyes to the heavens. Our King will return for His own.

Every knee will bow, every tongue will shout, O glory to Jesus alone. Jesus, to You we lift our rise. Jesus, our glory and our Christ. I adore You, behold You. I'll stay there but true. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to You.

We come to the part of the service where we turn our eyes to Jesus, sometimes in repentance, for those places where we have taken our eyes off of Him, sometimes in hope and in our tears and in our joys. In a few moments, we will be in John, the 15th chapter, where Jesus speaks about the true vine, and He begins like this, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser." And in verse 5, "I am the vine, and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing." And we probably don't think much about vines, except I think in my experience, mainly as a nuisance, as poison ivy, vines grow up the side of the church, and we have to tear them down.

We don't think a lot about vines. Probably most of us don't have a lot of experience with vineyards and with growing grapes. But biblically, this is a powerful, wonderful picture, the picture of the vine and the one who cares for the vine and the fruit that grows. And in part, it's a powerful picture because grape vines aren't like tomato plants, right? Where you can plant one and, you know, a few months later you have nice ripe red tomatoes for your BLT, and you can enjoy those tomatoes. Because vines, and grape vines in particular, require maintenance. They require a place to put down roots. And so when you find Israel and the picture of the vine is a picture of stability and of blessing and of God's good gift. And in fact, throughout the Old Testament, it's a common symbol of Israel.

So much so that in 150 years before Jesus, the Maccabeans ascribed it on their coins to represent their nation. Herod, as he rebuilds the temple, restores the temple in Jerusalem, has a vine of gold hung around the entrance to the holy place. And as Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper, he does so with the fruit of the vine. And so in this powerful picture and in this moment where we come to this meal with Jesus, this Passover meal filled with redemption and with hope, filled with the promises and the salvation of God, we also come to the fact that Jesus is a vine to which we abide. Let's pray. Father in heaven, be with us this morning as we partake, as we eat this bread, as we drink this fruit of the vine. May we hold fast to the true vine, that we would not seek our nourishment elsewhere,

that we would not run after other things, but that you would restore our souls, that you would restore our strength, that you would restore our hope, and that you would restore our focus on you. I ask that you bless this bread and this cup. May we proclaim your son until he comes again. And Jesus takes the bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Do this in remembrance of me." Let's remember Jesus. And in our remembrance, we also proclaim the goodness of the gospel and the goodness of Jesus until he comes again.

At this point, our plan was originally to dismiss the kids outside to help Mr. Jerome get ready for VBS, but we are going to dismiss them downstairs at this point. So, if the kiddos want to follow Mr. Jerome, and while they're heading out and in that direction, we'll get -- do you need a stand, Dave? No, I mean the -- I mean a stand like this. Yeah. Also, Penelope has stolen all the tissues. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Amen. Amen.

We were talking, Jerome and I on Wednesday, about how a lot of VBS is going to be adapting to circumstances, and so one of our plans was, this morning, to get some practice for some of the VBS things with the kids, and then we looked at the weather radar, and everything was kind of falling apart, so maybe God's given us a little practice for next week. Let's go ahead and pray, and then we're going to go to John, the 15th chapter. Father in heaven, I ask that you would be with us this morning as we open your way of understanding. May you give us hope. May you give us purpose. As we consider what it means to be a follower of you, what it means to be a disciple, that you would help us to abide in you, to love one another, and that you would help us to bear fruit.

We just thank you for the good news of the Gospel. Help us see it clearly this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I always thought as a kid that I was a pretty good listener, right? You didn't have to tell me things in general more than one time. It turns out, however, that is not a genetic trait. That passes on to your children, and so sometimes you'll tell them things three or four times, and they will say, "Dad, you've told us this before," and I'm always tempted to say, "Well, if you listen the first time, we wouldn't have to tell you a second, a third, a fourth, or a fifth." And one of the things we learn is that sometimes we have to hear things a lot before it sinks in. In fact, in terms of, like, church research has shown, people have to hear things, like, between seven and nine times

as they finally internal them and remember them. So there's two things I want you to look for that are repeated sort of over and over and over again. One of them is the word "abide," and the other is the word "fruit," or the idea of "bearing fruit." And I don't know if you're a highlight in your Bible. If not, we have sermon notes. I would encourage you, maybe as you're reading through this, on those note papers just to kind of circle or highlight or mark those places where you hear those, just so you can sort of see them repeated. Now, I think the words are going to be a little small on the screen because it's a big chunk of Scripture and it didn't break right when we were making the slides, but I'm going to go ahead and read it if you want to follow along on your handouts.

Jesus says this, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because the word that I have spoken to you abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, it is he who bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If you abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and if the branches are gathered and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. So two Sundays ago we talked a little bit about what it means to abide in Jesus. And we are in the Gospel of John back a few chapters and Jesus talks about abiding in his word and in doing so what Jesus was doing was sort of drawing a line in the sand between those who were sort of the happy good time followers of Jesus and those who were committed to truly following him. There were people who were following out of interest or curiosity or because the crowds followed or because Jesus came with bread. And then there were those who were willing to follow Jesus in all things. And so Jesus says the difference between a disciple and somebody who is not a disciple is simply this, disciples stay. They abide, they dwell, they continue, they remain and they endure.

And in this, we see that Jesus here comes back to that same picture of abiding, of staying, of dwelling, of enduring, of building your life. But he also adds to it this idea of bearing fruit. And so what we want to talk about this morning is that picture, especially in verse 8, "By this is my Father glory, and so I will prove to be my disciples." And the simple picture is that disciples of Jesus are people who bear fruit in their life. And so the question I think that we need to ask as we begin is just simply this: What does it mean to be a fruitful disciple? Or what does it mean to be fruitful disciples? And I think we can probably agree that the word fruit got mentioned a lot in this text.

And before we can sort of unpack how that happens and where it happens and the source of that, we need to talk about what this fruit is. What does it mean to bear fruit? Now this is not a new subject for God's people. It's not a new subject for Jesus. Let me just take you through a couple places in the New Testament. In Matthew 3:7, John the baptizer sees many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to be baptized and he says to them, "You brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath that is to come." That's not exactly a welcoming message as you show up to hear the word of God proclaimed in the middle of the desert. And then John says this, "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." And repentance has to do with how we think, how we feel, and what we do.

And so repentance is a change of mind and a change of heart that leads to a change of action. And what John is saying here is that part of the fruit of the Christian life is that we have transformed actions. Authentic transformation in our thinking and in our feeling and in our action. Jesus says this in Luke chapter 6, "For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its fruit, figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. But the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of the evil treasure produces evil. For out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks." And Jesus here speaking about how our heart influences things, specifically our words.

I remember as a kid every time I would insult my siblings, and I would say something along the lines of, "Well, I was just joking." This would get quoted to me a lot, right? Mom would say, "Well, out of the heart the mouth speaks," right? I would try to diffuse what I had just said, and she says, "Well, what's your heart?" And now I get to do it to the great annoyance of my children. When they say something, I get to say, "Well, Jesus said out of the heart the mouth speaks." And part of the fruit is the visible actions and our words as they portray to others. Paul says this in Galatians chapter 5, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and against such things there is no law."

And in Philippians, he says this, "It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with all knowledge and discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and the praise of God." And what you see is that the picture of fruit that Jesus speaks in and is spoken of throughout the New Testament is this transformed way of living that God's people demonstrate for God's glory, being transformed by God and strengthened by God. That there is a noticeable transformation in God's people. There's a difference in the center of their being. And so John, in John 15:5, as he records Jesus' words, he records them like this: "I am the vine, and you are the branches.

Whoever abides in not me, I in him. It is he that bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing." And so the picture is that there is a vine, a central vine, and from it are branches that bear fruit that are the same type as the vine. And in the simplest way of thinking about what it means to be fruitful disciples, it means that our character, and our desires, and our thinking, and our feeling, and direction in which we are going, resembles Jesus more and more. Now there is here, I think, an important distinction that we need to be aware of. You see, there is a difference between what I would call religious fruit and gospel fruit. And religious fruit is this. It just simply says, "I am saved by my fruit." That if I do this, or if I do that, if I keep all of these rules, then God has to save me.

And the idea of religious fruit is doing good so that we can somehow put God into our debt and say, "Sort of to God, I helped you, now you have to help me. Now contrast that to gospel fruit that says, I am saved, not by my fruit, but to produce the fruit." Not by, but for. As Paul says in Ephesians, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is a gift from God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before your hand, so that we might walk in them." And what you find is that gospel fruit comes naturally. Now I don't mean by saying that easily, right? Because trees oftentimes don't bear fruit easily. Sometimes they need to be pruned, they need to be fertilized, the soil needs to be cared for. Sometimes when they're young, they have to be supported. And it's not always an easy process, but it is one that comes naturally as the

tree matures. And here's the problem we face this morning as Christians. If we're a disciple, if we abide in Jesus, if we love, if we bear fruit, what happens when bearing fruit is not the reality of our life? What happens and what do we do when we look at the fruit we are called to bear and we see that it's just simply not happening? And so to help us sort of understand the problem of fruitlessness, I want to go to the Gospel of Luke. And we're going to shift a little bit from vines to fig trees, but the point at the center, I think, is the same when it comes to bearing fruit. And Jesus is going to tell this parable. And he told this parable, "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and he found none.

Dresser, look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?" And he answered, "Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good, but if not, we can cut it down." Now I want you to notice, in the context of bearing fruit, the one that the vineyard owner is upset with is the one that is in his own vineyard. It's not in his neighbor's vineyard. It's not over the fence. It is in his vineyard. And he's upset because for three years, this fig tree has not borne any fruit. Now I want you to understand, this is not just simply a freshly planted fig tree that hasn't matured to the point where it bears fruit, but in its fruit bearing years, for the last three years, there has been no fruit whatsoever. The tree is now taking up space and resource.

And what Jesus is talking about in this parable is God's people who aren't bearing fruit, right? He's not talking about the pagans. He's not talking about that dude who lives down the street from you or your crazy cousin. There are some of God's people who don't bear fruit. And so what I want to do is talk to you just for a minute about those situations, maybe where we struggle to bear fruit and then see what Jesus has to say about it. Right? There are some who have never borne any fruit. They've never been fruitful. And the picture here, I think, is that there are some who are immature in their faith and their walk with Christ. In fact, it's fairly recognized that it takes, especially in Virginia, if you're going to grow grapes on a grapevine, it takes three years, right? It tails. But there comes a point where that vine has to grow, that vine matures,

and that vine begins to produce fruit. And the same is true in the life of God's people, that there will be times, especially when we're younger and we're immature in our faith, where fruit may not be happening as much as it should be, and the result is we're not bearing fruit. In some cases, it happens because we simply need to grow up. We need to be serious about what it is we are doing. Some have stopped bearing fruit because they're discouraged and frustrated. I don't know if you've ever gotten discouraged where you're just ready to give up. We were mowing the yard yesterday, and so Rachel had mowed part of it, and we had borrowed a friend's lawn mower, and so we were getting ready to return it to him, and so we ran it out of gas so that we put it in the back of the car. We're not having gas spilling everywhere. And I went to get our mower and realized that the front bearings on the wheels were

kind of frozen, and so you can push it, but the wheels don't turn, and I was like, "I'm not doing this." So I went and filled up our friend's mower with gas that I'll mow with this, and then we'll take him back to it, and if gas dumps in the car, it dumps in the car. So I dumped the gas in, and I realized, because it's been run all the way empty, right, I have to prime it with a little priming bulb. And without looking at it, without thinking about it, I kind of do like you do with a chainsaw or a weed eater, where you've got to push it like five to ten times before you start it. At the point where, like, gas starts running out of the air filter, I kind of realize I'm in trouble, right? I've maybe flooded the engine. And so I go to pull it, and it coughs, and it doesn't start, and so I was like, "Okay, we'll let it sit for a minute." I go around and wait for ten minutes and pull the handle on the mower again, nothing else.

So I was like, "Well, let's prime it a couple times." And it coughs, and it kind of starts. And, like, 20 minutes later, I'm, like, back behind the church so the neighbors don't see how ridiculous I am, and, like, I'm pulling with this arm and pushing the mower away, with this, just trying to get this thing to start. I'm like, "One more pull, and then I'm sorry, I'm just gonna buy 'em a new mower, 'cause this one's gonna be on fire." And I just simply give up, right? All of us, at points in life, have felt like that. That everything we do is not making a difference. It's not changing. That we're not growing, and we're tired, and we're frustrating, and we say, "You know what? Let's throw it all away, and we'll figure something else out."

Some people have stopped bearing fruit, because they're discouraged and frustrated. You got a biblical picture of what this looks like? Take a look at Moses in Numbers chapter 11. We're not gonna go there and read the whole thing, because it'll just make you more frustrated, but Moses in Numbers chapter 11 is dealing with a bunch of people who are super whiny, where nothing is ever good enough. And so God sends down judgment, and kind of ignoring the judgment. Well, they complain about the judgment. The judgment stops, and then they begin to complain about their food. They complain about the lack of variety. They lie about what they had in Egypt. It was like, "Well, in Egypt, we had cucumbers, and mint, and spices." And it's like, "No, in Egypt you were slaves, and you ate what you were given." And you get to this point where Moses says in Numbers chapter 11:11,

"Why have you dealt ill with your servant?" He said, "Well, what has God done to Moses?" Here's what he said to Moses. "Why have I not found favor in your sight that you lay the burden of this people on me?" And then in 14 and 15, "I am not able to carry all this people alone. The burden is too heavy for me. If you treat me like this, kill me at once if I find favor in your sight that I may not see my wretchedness." And Moses just says, "I'm so frustrated. I'm so done. I quit. Kill me and take me home." And what God does to the frustrated and tired and ready to quit Moses is in the very next verses, he appoints 70 people to help him taking some of that burden off the shoulders of Moses.

And what he does to Moses and what he does to us is stop trying to do this in your own strength. That's the whole point of the vine and the branches and being abiding and being anchored in that vine and nourished by the vine. Sometimes we stop bearing fruit because we're impatient and frustrated. I'm done waiting. It's taking too long. Galatians says this, "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up." James 5 says this, "Therefore, brothers, be patient until the coming of the Lord." See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth. Being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains, you also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

And some have stopped bearing fruit because they're simply resting on the fruit they've borne in the past. I don't need to plant a garden this year because I grew great tomatoes last year. The church at Sardis, Jesus says, "I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your work complete in the sight of God. Remember then what you received and heard and keep it and repent." So regardless of why fruit isn't in our life, whether it's our need for maturity, maybe it's our frustration or struggle, maybe it's our impatience, maybe it's resting on what we've done in the past. We need to see that this is a problem. In fact, Jesus is very clear.

The continued result of unfruitfulness is this, that if it should bear fruit next year, well and good. But if not, cut it down. And you might hear those words and say, "Those are some difficult words." And the purpose of those words is to wake us up, much like the blaring of an alarm clock, to shake us out of our slumber, to shake us out of our complacency and our discouragement and our immaturity. Jesus is saying something to us. And what I love about this parable in Luke 13 is that there is hope. For the fruitless. Listen to this. And he answered him, "Sir, let it alone this year, until also I dig around it and put on manure, then if you should bear fruit next year, well and good. But if not, you can cut it down." The two characters in this parable,

both the owner of the vineyard and the vine dresser, the one who works and maintains the vines, give us a picture on one hand of God's justice and on the other hand of God's grace. And God's justice calls for the tree and the vine to be cut down. And does the tree deserve it? And the answer is yes. It hasn't borne any fruit. But God's grace calls for more time. And these aren't contradicting each other. But if grace is rejected, then justice will come. And I want you to see from these verses in Luke 13, some of you may have the wrong picture of God. That God is sort of walking around with an axe and a clipboard. That's not the parable the picture this parable paints. God's hope and God's heart is not to throw into the fire.

It's to work on you and to give you more time and to transform you. And it shows us judgment so that we can see that this is serious. But it also shows us grace that our hearts may be pulled toward God. You see, we deserve to be cut down, but God instead invests time and effort into the broken and the fruitless. And it goes against everything that we have in our world. Because if in our world something breaks or wears out, we throw it away. And here we are, broken and fruitless, and Jesus says, "I'm going to work on you." And there is so much hope, even in the darkness and the strength of these words. So let's try to ask this question just very briefly this morning. How can we bear fruit? Now this is not just for those who are not bearing fruit.

This has to be for those of us who are fruitful now. And maybe you want to avoid discouragement, you want to avoid pride, you want to avoid impatient. Let me give you just a couple things from both of these texts here in Luke and in John to help us seek to bear fruit. The first one is this: Where is your strength? Now this is really important, because for a short time, if we're really determined, we can bear some fruit. I remember this probably, Ben, it was before I married Rachel, before I actually was even dating Rachel, there was a deal online where you could get like a miniature lemon tree, a miniature orange tree, and a miniature lime tree. And these little trees came, and I unboxed them, and I watered them, and I had them in my little pots.

And I was like, "These are great. I'm going to have little lemons, little limes, and little oranges." And guess what? They bloomed and immediately began to bear fruit. And I was like, "This is great!" Everybody said like two to three years, and mine are bearing fruit now. And guess what happened? The fruit that happened in that first year killed the trees. It sucked all the nutrients in all the life. They weren't ready to bear fruit yet. They didn't have the strength. And the same is true for God's people, that if we are trying to bear fruit in our own strength, we might be able to make some temporary progress. We might be able to change some habits to grow in some ways, but at the end it kills us because we are not strong enough. And the question here is where is our strength?

Look at what Jesus says, "Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Your strength for fruit has to come from the power of God." Secondly, we have to nourish our roots, right? You can't bear fruit if you have no nourishment. And imagine if our spiritual diet or if our physical diet mirrored our spiritual diet. It's interesting because in John 15, Jesus talks about two things. He says in verse 7, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you."

And what you find here, and there's so much happening in this verse, we could spend a whole lot of time here, just simply this. Notice the two things that Jesus says, that if you abide in me and in my words, right? The words that Jesus has said, what he has taught, the reality of who he is as the word made flesh. If you know that, but also in prayer. The words of Jesus must fill us up so deeply that obedience to him isn't like a checklist. It's natural, and that prayer comes and naturally aligns our will with God like the Lord's Prayer. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We also see that pruning is required for growth. See that in John 15, chapter 2. If you've ever had to prune trees, what you find is that there are branches that will spring up,

and they will take the energy from the plant. And if you do not cut them, your fruit yields will be decreased, because all the energy is growing these extra branches, not growing fruit. And it is even more true for vines. Because the grapevine that Jesus is talking about only bears fruit on stems that are a year old. And so every year you have to come in and cut those vines back, and new stems have to grow from that main trunk in order to bear fruit. And here's the thing: pruning is not easy. And what we find is that God is continually pruning us. Those things that must be removed from our life, and if you tie it back to the source of our nourishment, in the words of Jesus, Hebrews says that the Word of God is living and active,

sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing both the joints into the marrow. The picture is that it cuts out in our defense, but it cuts inward in its pruning of our sin and brokenness. And in Luke 13:8, we find that sometimes you have to put down manure. Luke 13:8 says this, "Sir," he answered it, "Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure." Now, there's a couple perspectives on manure. One is that it's terrible and it's disgusting, and we don't want it anywhere near us. I remember riding with my Grandma Nelson one time, and they had just, we lived in a big dairy farm area, and they had just spread all the liquid slurry on the fields, like, right next to our house. It was great. And we're driving down the road, and I was complaining about it to Grandma, and she's like, "Well, your Grandpa always said that smells like money."

And it was like, "Oh, well, I mean, like looking back then, I was like, that's dumb and I don't want to smell it anymore." But looking back, right, if you have manure, it means you have cows, right? And cows equal return on investment. They provide a living for your family. And so there's two ways we can look at this fertilization that occurs. One is it can be terrible. Number two, it can be an opportunity for growth. And so some of us in life, and probably most of us, will have times where we are in these situations where we're being fertilized by God's goodness, and the question is, will we treat it as something that is terrible, or will we see how God is working to change our life? One of my favorite preachers, Charles Spurgeon, in fact, last week is the anniversary of his last sermon

at the New Park Street Tabernacle in London. He died at the age of 57. He'd been in ministry for 38 years. His wife was never in good health, and at age 33, she became an invalid, and for more than two decades, almost three decades, she never heard her husband preach. Spurgeon was constantly sick himself. Approximately two-thirds of the last 22 years of his ministry, he was spent out of the tabernacle, either suffering, convalescing, or taking precautions against the return of illness. He fought with depression. He was preaching in a very big theater once when he was 22 years old. Somebody called out fire in the crowded theater, and the panic that ensued ended up killing seven people, and Spurgeon felt that he was personally responsible for that. One of his biographers said, "Perhaps never a soul went so near the burning furnace of insanity, yet came away unharmed."

And so Spurgeon, who dies early, struggles with his health and the health of his family, struggles with his heart, with his emotions. He'll say this, "I am afraid that all the grace that I have got of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours might lie almost on a penny. But the good that I have received from my sorrows and my pains and the griefs is altogether incalculable. Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house." And Spurgeon, in these moments, looks at what God is doing and sees how God is moving. And he says, "Even in the midst of this struggle and this hurt and this disappointment and this loss, that God is at work to help me bear fruit." I want you to see this morning the Gospel. That God loves broken trees. That God cares for the broken trees.

And the cost to bring these trees into the vine is the life of His Son. The fruit of the disciple ultimately is reflecting God's glory. God's glory to transform and to change. God's glory to take your brokenness to heal, and to help, and to strengthen, and to teach you. But also, God's power, so like those moments where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are about to go into the fiery furnace. And they say to the king, and the king says, "May your God save you." They say, "Well, our God can save us, and he will save us, but even if he doesn't, we will not worship the idol that you have set up." You see, that's glorifying God in the fruit of following him. Not just when things are easy, but when things are difficult. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this time we have together. We thank you for your word. May you help it to move deeply into our hearts. We thank you for Jesus and for grace. In your son's name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand and we're going to sing, "By the grace of God." Is it not in there? Welcome in. I rest my soul on Jesus. When the mountains shake, I put my trust in Jesus the moment I awake. And when my soul is lost at sea, He will be my rock. My vision be in Christ alone. This grace is all we've got. His love is like the mighty ocean. His love for me will never stop. Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me through it all by the grace of God. So I, upon His shoulders, safely brought this far. Helper of my helpless soul, the King of broken hearts.

His love is like the mighty ocean. His love for me will never stop. Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me through it all by the grace of God. When breath grows still and night draws near, I will not be afraid. I know the plans He has for me don't finish at my grave. His love is like the mighty ocean. His love for me will never stop. Oh, His arms are strong enough to carry me through it all by the grace of God. We are here with us this morning. VBS is coming up a week from tomorrow. This Wednesday night, instead of Bible study, we're going to continue our VBS work and prep time. That'll be around six o'clock, or if you want to come earlier, you're welcome to come and help with that. We're going to go ahead and have a word of prayer.

Let's read from 1 John 2, and we'll sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for being with us and taking care of us and helping us with the strength that we need. We ask that you watch over us, be with our VBS that's coming up. We just ask that we would be able to share the gospel with this neighborhood and with the children, that they would be able to see your goodness and your care for them. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. John writes this in 1 John 2. "And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from Him in shame in His coming. If you know this, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him." Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.