He is Vine - We are the Branches part 2

Well, go ahead and take your Bible and turn with me to John chapter 15. John chapter 15 should be a familiar place for you in your own personal scriptures. We'll be back in our study through John. We took a break, two week break. First of all, we took a break during homecoming. If you remember, we were in the book of Jude in our homecoming message. We looked at the message that I called, "Where are the Contending Christians?" If you've not gotten that message, I encourage you to listen to that message. I believe that it's a challenge for you, for me, for all of us.

And then last week, Brother Keith filled the pulpit while we were out as our family. We were on a little vacation time. Brother Keith preached from the book of Exodus called Spirit-filled Leadership in the Church. Now, the last time we were in John was back in October, October the 8th. And I said it before I say it again. We really dipped our toe in the pool of this analogy here in chapter 15. Now, I want to remind you of what an analogy is. Webster defines an analogy as a comparison of two things based on their being alike in some ways. And Jesus is teaching here using an analogy. Now, this type of teaching should be no surprise to us.

We've learned that Jesus teaches and taught in many, many different ways. Many times, He taught in a very straightforward manner. If we go back to chapter 14, as Jesus is teaching on the Holy Spirit, He's just teaching on a plain and in a straightforward manner. At times, Jesus taught in parables. Matthew chapter 13 has an extensive amount of teaching using parables. And then here in chapter 15, Jesus is using an analogy. This is comparing two things based on them being alike. Now, what are those two things in the analogy? Jesus is using the vineyard and agricultural illustration, and He is using our relationship to Christ.

Those two things that are similar in many ways. Now, I want to take some time, and I want to review a little of what we learned at the beginning of the chapter. Now, there are two reasons why I want to review. First of all, it's been three weeks since we covered verses 1 and 2, and then we skipped down to verse 6. And then second, if we do not have these verses, verses 1 and 2, and what is taught here firmly in our minds, we will not get all that the Lord wants to give us in the analogy. So I want to call your attention to what we learned in the last message. Remember we learned what I call the main characters of the analogy.

This is right out of verses 1 and 2. We saw there in verse 1 that Jesus was the true vine, and then we saw that the Father is the vine dresser or the gardener, and then we see the branches. So those are the main characters. Jesus is the true vine. He says, "I am." That's the seventh of the "I am" statements. He is elevating himself the deity God, and then he is saying, "I am the true vine." Israel had rejected God. They had been unfaithful to God. And then Jesus comes as a fulfillment of everything in the Old Covenant and the Old Testament, and he was the true vine. And then the Father himself is the vine dresser.

The Holman Christian Standard translates this word, and I like it, "vignard keeper." And the picture here is of a vine grower who cares for the vineyard. And then the branches, they are those who follow Christ. And in the vineyard, the branches are attached to the vine, and here we see that there are two types of branches. We learn that they are those who are not truly attached to the vine. They are cut off. They are burned. They are judged. And then those who are truly attached to the vine, those are the ones who are truly saved. So those are the main characters there in the analogy. And then we also learn the activity of the analogy.

We saw this in verse 2 and in verse 6. It's the Father, the vine dresser, who cuts those branches off and he burns those branches, those who are not truly attached to Christ. Now remember the context. We have Jesus and the disciples. Judas, traitor Judas, had gone out from among them, and they were shaken to the very core of their being because one of the most trusted one of their number had left them. But the Father cuts those who are not truly attached to Christ and burns them and judges them. And then the Father prunes. The Father cleans. The Father does not work to those who are truly attached to Christ.

And this is a picture here of pruning and cleansing and purifying to make the truly converted more fruitful. Now what do we see just out of these two verses? We see that it is informative, understanding the main characters. It is illustrative. And the vineyard is like our relationship to Christ. The vineyard was a very familiar teaching tool in their day. And the vineyard was a very important part of their economy. And then we see this illustration of how God the Father works in the different peoples who are following Christ. And it is important to see that those who are truly attached to Christ are cleansed and made more fruitful.

And those who are false followers, they are cut off and they are judged. Now that gets us ready to continue into the analogy. This analogy in Chapter 15. Now this will be a part two. I will give you the title of the message and the main truths that we're going to explore. I want to go ahead and warn you there are quite a few major truths that we will cover. But don't fret. Some of these are rather short. But you see how we will divide the verses. It's very simple. Verses three on down to verse eight we have, I call it, I'm calling it, He is the vine and we are the branches, part two. So you see how we'll divide the verses.

The disciples, they are clean in verse three. And then there's the commandment there in the analogy. Verse four, the productivity, verse five, the judgment in verse six, the promise in verse seven and the glory in verse eight. Now we encourage you to take notes, challenge you to develop that discipline and habit. We want you to take the time during the week and study the notes and fully learn all that the Lord wants to reveal to us. Let's go together to the scriptures. I'm going to go back and read verse one and we will go all the way down to verse eight even though we're only dividing verses three through eight.

Chapter fifteen verse one, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it or cleans it that it may be more fruitful. Here's where we'll start this morning, verse three. You are already clean because of the word which 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. 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.

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. If you abide in me, in my words, abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you. My this is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Well you see how we're going to divide these verses. Let's look at our first major truth out of verse three and that is the disciples are clean. What does he say here in verse three? You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Now here we are reminded of Jesus' audience.

Jesus is speaking to the 11 remaining disciples. Trader Judas has already abandoned Jesus and soon he will betray Jesus. He was a false follower. He was a branch that was not truly connected to the vine. But we need to see what Jesus is doing here in the 11. Simply Jesus is encouraging the remaining disciples. He is encouraging them by reminding them that they were already clean. They were already in the vine. They were true followers of Christ. Now I want you to notice the active agent in their conversion. Go back to the verse. You are already clean. You are already converted. You are already in me. Why?

Because of the word which I spoke to you. It was the word that was the active agent in bringing their conversion about. Jesus states that it was the word that did this work in them. This is taught all throughout the New Testament. The active agent of the word of God in men and women's lives and especially in conversion. I will give you two examples. Hebrews 4.12.

The writer of Hebrews says, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the faults and intentions of the heart." See it's the word of God that cuts a man to the very core of their being. We see this in Romans 10.14. Paul says, "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?" Paul's talking about the lost, the unconverted. And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? Now what is preached? It is the word of God.

So right here out of this one verse, what do we see here? Jesus encourages them by reminding them that they are clean. Remember the context. They would have been shaken to the core of their being because Judas was out of their midst and pronounced as a traitor. And he is encouraging them that they are true followers. They have been truly converted. Now what might we learn out of verse 3? I think for you and me, for us as a church, it is a reminder to trust in the word of God. Trust in the word of God and not gimmicks and not plans, not man's efforts.

It is the word of God empowered by the spirit of God that brings a man, brings a woman, that brings a young person to the place of being truly converted of God. We live in a sad day, especially in our South Mississippi Bible Belt where many churches have reverted to gimmicks and plans and programs to try to seemingly bring people into the kingdom. Listen, only the spirit of God, using the word of God, can bring someone to the place of conversion. That is exactly what Jesus says to the disciples. You were clean because of the word I spoke in you. And for us as a church, it is a challenge to always depend on the word. Trust in the word.

Trust in the work of God using His word. Now let's move on to our second major truth. In our outline, let's notice the commandment. The commandment in this analogy, verse 4, "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." Now after the encouragement in verse 3, Jesus begins to teach His disciples from the analogy. If I could use this language, it's like verse 1 and 2 is the setup in the analogy. And then verse 4 begins the teaching in the analogy.

Now again, I've said this before, remember the disciples would have been very familiar with the example of the vineyard. Now just out of this one verse, I want to make three observations out of verse 4. First I want you to notice this mutual abiding. Notice this mutual abiding in the beginning of verse 4. He says, "Abide in me and I in you." Here Jesus is pushing the disciples past, assuming that this happens unconsciously. He is urging them to make sure that they abide in Him and to make sure that He, thus Christ, is abiding in them.

Now I use lots of study materials and one of the resources I use is an old Bible commentator named Leon Morris and he emphasizes this abiding from two sides. And he paraphrases the verse and it is very original to what's being communicated. And listen to his paraphrase. "Abide in me and see that I abide in you." In the end of this verse it seems that Jesus is saying that their abiding in Him was not enough. They had to know that He, Christ, was abiding in them as well. That is why I use the word mutual. This abiding has two sides. With that said, go back to the verse. "Abide in me as I abide in you." You see both sides, this mutual abiding.

The second observation is the fruitfulness of the branch. The fruitfulness of the branch. Right there in the middle of verse 4. "As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine." Here in the middle of the verse, this is the agricultural illustration. We can easily read over this, but what is being said? Simply the branch cannot bear fruit separated from the vine. Now we might not be familiar with the vineyard, but we're familiar with fruit trees. In my yard I have pear trees and a fig tree that looks pretty shabby these days. I even have a crabapple tree.

But you know I could go out there and I could cut off a limb from the crabapple tree or a pear tree and I can lay it in my yard and come springtime it will never bear fruit because it is detached. And so that needs to be seen. Jesus is saying that fruitfulness of the branch is from being connected to the vine. Now let's notice our third observation. The fruitfulness of the disciples. Verse 4 or the last part of verse 4. "Neither can you unless you abide in me." Jesus, just as the branch must be in the vine to produce fruit, Jesus is saying that his disciples must abide in him to produce fruit.

So what are we seeing here just out of this verse? Jesus is commanding them, yes it's a command, he is commanding them to abide in him and to make sure, make sure that he is abiding in them. He emphatically states that this mutual abiding is the only way they can be fruitful. And I repeat that. This is the only way they can be fruitful. This mutual abiding. Now I want to move on to the third major truth out of verse 5. I want us to see the productivity. The productivity. Look at verse 5. "I am the vine and 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." Here Jesus is continuing to teach the disciples from the analogy. Just like verse 4 he is teaching. And this pertains to their lives and their walk with him. Now three observations I want to make out of this verse. First Jesus states his position. Go back to the beginning of verse 5. "I am the vine." Here Jesus states his position in the analogy exactly like he did in verse 1. But here he is bold in his language. The pronouns here if you look back at the verse "I and you" they are in the emphatic meaning he is using strong language. Now question.

Why would Jesus speak like this? Why is he emphasizing what he is emphasizing? He is emphasizing his place and their place. He is emphasizing proper order. Go back to the verse. "I am the vine and you are the branches." See it is about order and position. Then the second observation. Jesus calls them the fruitfulness. The second part of verse 5. "He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit." Again Jesus speaks of this mutual abiding that was at the beginning of verse 4 and now it is in the middle of verse 5. "He then states that through this mutual abiding comes true and much fruit." This is a continuing growing fruitfulness.

Now this echoes what John the Baptist preached. Remember when he is really lambasting those religious leaders for their hypocritical lifestyle? What does he say in Matthew 3.8? He says bear fruit keeping with repentance. I like how the New International Version reads. It says produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And that is what Jesus is saying. He is calling them the fruitfulness. And then the third observation. Jesus states their helplessness. Go back to verse 5. "I am the true vine or the vine. You are the branches. You who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit." And here is where the fruitfulness or helplessness comes in.

"For apart from me, you can do nothing." Here Jesus makes an emphatic statement that they are helpless to produce Christian fruit apart from him. Morris goes on to say in isolation from him, no spiritual achievement is possible. So what do we see out of verse 5? Jesus is teaching them that he is the vine and outside of abiding in him, they have no hope of producing Christian fruit. Alone, they are helpless and they are fruitless. Now I want to pause here and I want to make application out of these two verses, verse 4 and verse 5. They really go together. This is part of that teaching in the analogy.

Here verse 4, the commandment and then in verse 5, the productivity. But I want to make application out of these verses, this commandment and the productivity. First of all, you and I need to see that our Christian walk must be about a mutual abiding. It's not enough for us to abide in Christ. We must know that Christ is abiding in us. See it is a two way walk, a two way relationship. That might be far into some of you. Maybe you've never even heard anything of this nature. But that's what Jesus is saying. It's not enough for you to abide in me. I must be abiding in you. Now let me help you with this.

If we're not careful, we can read our Bibles. We can spend time in prayer. We can go through our Bible study. We can be faithful to our church attendance. We can be faithful to our quiet time. If we're not careful, we can do all of those things that tell us we're abiding in Him. But as we are doing those things, we can be apathetic. We can be disobedient. We can be holding on to sin. We can be grieving the Spirit of God that is within us. Therefore, He is not abiding in us. You see? You really need to think about that. Listen, this is relational, this thing called walking with Christ. It is a two-way relationship.

And we can grieve the Spirit. We can grievously hurt the Spirit in our life. We've come to understand who the Spirit is and what the Spirit does in our life. We can come to church Sunday morning. We can come Sunday night. We can take our notes. We can witness in the community. We can refrain from sinful behavior. And our hearts can be a mile away from Christ. It's a mutual abiding that we must have in our life. And it requires us to be sensitive to the person of the Spirit in us. And let me tell you, if we give our flesh an inch, we will be miles away from Christ. Why? Because we are horribly sinful.

Now the second thing I want to touch on in application here, again, still applying verse four and five, and that is fruit. Inevitably the question comes up, what is fruit? Now the Scripture defines fruit as personal spiritual qualities. I will give you a list. This is an incomplete list. As a matter of fact, I ran across this list in some of John MacArthur's material, but I altered it and changed it. So it's just a hodgepodge of his and mine. But let me go through this list, this Christian fruit. First of all, the fruit of the Spirit is listed in the New Testament in Galatians. Now get this, the fruit of the abiding Spirit of God within us.

Listen to Galatians 5, excuse me, 22 and 23. What the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. Verse 23, gentleness, self-control, against these things there is no law. So what is Paul saying? The fruit of the Spirit is not what you do. The fruit of the Spirit is what emanates out of your life, and that emanates out of your life because the Spirit of God is ruling within you. That's true Christian character. Also spiritual fruit is seen as praise, continual praise being given to God. Hebrews 13, 5. Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

That is the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. What is the writer of Hebrews saying? When Christ is ruling within our lives, Christ will continuously come out of our mouth. Why? Because it is a fruit. Then another fruit that comes out of our life is a sacrificial love in meeting the needs of others. I searched in the Scriptures for one particular example, and I didn't come up with a verse, I came up with a name. Just study the life of the Apostle Paul. His whole life was nothing more than a sacrifice for others.

Every corner that He turned, every avenue that He walked down, He was sacrificing to meet the needs of others, and that is a fruit that comes out of our life when we are abiding in Christ that we will sacrifice our lives for others. Another fruit is the sacrificial love that we will have for the brothers and sisters. We learned this in John 13. Back in verse 34, 35. What does Jesus say? "A new commandment I give you that you love one another just as I have loved you." See if we stop short there, we've got it. What does He say? "A new commandment I give you that you love one another." Stop there and we can puff out our chests. We got this.

But it gets difficult when Jesus says, "Just as I have loved you." How did Christ love us? He gave all for you. He gave all for us. He gave His life for the church. And look, fruit of an abiding life in Christ is that we will sacrifice for brothers and sisters. Another fruit is holy and righteous behavior. Ephesians 5, verses 8 through 10. "For at one time you were in darkness." Here's Paul saying, "You're lost outside of Christ, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light." Verse 9, "For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true." What is He saying?

"The fruit of abiding in Christ is a life that produces that which is good and right and true." And try to discern, verse 10, what is pleasing to the Lord. That is a fruit. And then the last one in the list is a fruit of abiding in Christ is spiritual converts. Ultimately, we should be impacting others for Christ. Now, notice in this list, I did not give a list of dos and don'ts. You need to do this. You can't do that. What is this? This is relational. This is coming out of the heart. What is fruit in abiding in Christ that then emanates out of our heart must be true Christian character. Now, I want to go a little further with this.

I want to talk to you about some pitfalls. I want to talk to you about some misconceptions. I'm going to pick on Brother Keith and I first. True Christian fruit in our life is not a larger church. True Christian fruit in our life is not a smaller church. Brother Keith and I walk and live and dwell in the life of being a minister of the gospel. We know lots of minister friends. One of the pitfalls that ministers can fall into is, yes, if I'm successful in godly, I'll have a bigger church or maybe a smaller church. It's not a Christian fruit. A Christian fruit is not a more popular ministry. A Christian fruit is not preaching the word.

A Christian fruit is not leading in song and in truth. And listen, we have to be on guard about thinking that accomplishment and success in ministry is Christian fruit. Truthfully, we can do these things and all along not be abiding in Christ. Ministers do it all the time. You know, I thought about it like this too. If you go to my house and you go in my office, first of all, I would have to excuse myself for how it looks. It's a rather large mess. There's a rhyme to the reason. My life can tell you I know just about where everything is in my office. You go sit in my office on the floor. There's a book by C.H. Spurgeon.

It's called Lectures to my Students. On my table is the book by E.M. Bounds on Prayer. They're missionary biographies. They're study materials. On my table, there's the commentary by A.W. Pink that I use regularly. Not only is it good theologically, but it's good devotionally. Did you know I can read all those books and study those books faithfully and still not be abiding in Christ? You see where I'm going, church? We can do all of these things. And listen, fruit is not external religion. Fruit is not external righteousness. Fruit is not outward success in religion. Fruit is not outward behavior.

And look, be on guard against rules and external standards because we can mimic Christian fruit externally. It is a true Christian character. True fruit comes out of the heart. What is Jesus saying? You abide in me and you make sure I abide in you. And look, if you are not abiding in me and I'm not abiding in you, you will not produce Christian fruit. Now let's continue. I want us to notice our fourth main truth, major truth, and this will get a little faster. Like I said earlier, some of these are shorter than others. Our fourth major truth, the judgment in the analogy. Go back to verse 6.

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. Now some of you might say we covered verse 6 in the first message. That's true. We learned that every branch that does not bear fruit is taken away from by the Father, verse 2. And ultimately they're thrown away and burned and we see that in verse 6. These are those false followers of Christ. Again, remember the context, Judas was a false follower. These are not Christians who lose their salvation, but those who seem to be in Christ but were not.

These people seem saved in man's eyes, but turn out to be false followers. Now why do I bring this verse back up? Why am I repetitive? We must see this verse after all that we have learned in verses 3 through 5. This puts it in a very black and white manner. There is a big difference between verses 4 and 5 and verse 6. So what do we see here? People who do not produce fruit, people who do not abide in Christ are ultimately cut off and burned. They are judged. Now quickly an application. I cannot repeat this enough. This is not losing your salvation.

Those who are weaker theologically or do not have proper theological training can cite this saying that you can lose your salvation and that is not the case. But let me give you another extreme. This is not sinless perfection either. True Christians can have periods in their lives where they lapse into fruitlessness. Listen, look all through the New Testament. Two examples. What about the Corinthian Christians? That church was very sick to the very core and many of them were fruitless. What about the Galatian Christians? The Galatians had fallen prey to legalism and going back to keeping the old covenant. And what does Paul say to them?

You have gone back. They are fruitless. So the judgment in the analogy. And then our fifth major truth, the promise in the analogy. Look at verse 7 with me. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you. Here Jesus in verse 7, he is continuing to teach his disciples but he moves on. He moves on from abiding and fruitfulness to prayer. Here Jesus gives a promise to answer their prayer only under certain conditions. Notice these two conditions. First if and that word if is capitalized in my notes. If they abide in him, go back to the verse, verse 7, if you abide in me.

Here is this familiar abiding in him from verses 1 through 7, the new American that I am preaching from. It uses this word abide four times. Abide is the key. John MacArthur calls this a permanent union with him. Those who are unbelievers do not have the security of answered prayers and Christians who are not abiding, they do not have the comfort of answered prayers. But the first condition of answered prayer is abiding. Now the second condition is if his words abide in them. Go back to verse 7, if you abide in me and my words in you. Now these words spoken of here, these are the words of Jesus and his teaching.

John MacArthur says the promise of answered prayer comes only to those whose lives are controlled by the specific commands of God. Now what do we see in verse 7? Jesus gives a wonderful promise. This is wonderful. He states that those believers who abide in him and abide in his words have the promise of answered prayer. Now a question here. How does this teaching relate to chapter 14 verse 14? Back in chapter 14 verse 14 Jesus says if you ask me anything in my name I will do it.

Finally what we have here is if one is abiding in Christ and his words are abiding in them then the believer will be praying according to his will and his plan and that is done in his name. It all fits together. Now an application. What must we see here? It is important for us to see the word of God. It is central here. The word is necessary in conversion and the word of God is necessary in forming our prayer life. Our prayer life can't come from our feelings. Our prayer life can't come out of our emotions. If it does you know what we'll do? I mean we'll hang up our hat and we'll quit or we'll pray selfishly all day long.

Our prayer life must be fashioned by abiding in him and abiding in his word. From abiding in us and illuminating and taking his word and applying it in our life. You see how the word of God is central? It is central to conversion. It is central to forming us to enable us to pray according to his will. And then our sixth major truth, our last major truth is the glory of God or the glory in the analogy. Look at verse 8. "By this is my father glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." Here we come to what I call the motivation behind this abiding, behind this fruitfulness and that is the glory of God.

Now notice the beginning of the verse reads "By this." That's in our modern translations. The King James reads here in. Now this language speaks of looking back and looking forward. Jesus is saying to the disciples, looking back, "If you abide in me and I in you, you will be fruitful." Now looking forward, Jesus is saying to the disciples, "And your lives will bring glory to the Father." You see, that's pivotal. And this applies to us as well. The only way God gets glory out of our lives as true Christians is being fruitful. It is abiding.

When we're abiding in him and he is in us, then fruit emanates, comes out of our life, therefore he gets glory. And this only comes out of this mutual abiding and abiding in his word. So at the end of it all is the glory of God. And then notice it is slightly evangelistic, is it not? "And by this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples." People are watching. Now as I move away from this message, it's a two-part message. He is the vine, we are the branches. Verses 1 on down to verse 8, they go together.

Only one message that we've divided because of time, "I thought about how I might conclude this teaching and help drive it on home to our hearts and minds and our lives." I'll give you a good example and it might help you. It's helped me as I've meditated and prayed over these verses. I spoke earlier about my office and my home. Many of you have been in my home, you know that our home is kind of L-shaped, it's a little deeper than you think. You go all the way back to the back of our house and our bedroom, my office is off to the side. But if you go outside of my office, thereby one of the windows, there are four blueberry bushes.

Now, I'm sad to say I bought those blueberry bushes quite some time ago and I don't know, I just never seem to have put them in the ground. There are four that are dead and there are two that are barely hanging on. Now contrast that with a friend of mine. I've got a friend of mine back home, he lives in Ellisville. We've been friends for quite some years. His name is Rocky Purvis. My friend Rocky has on South 29 Highway going outside of Ellisville a 17-acre blueberry farm. Now, his blueberries and my blueberries are the bushes are quite a bit different. His blueberry bushes are in the ground as they should be.

I mean, he's got state of the art irrigation, fertilization. I never forget being over there one day and looking at his place. I mean, he doesn't go out and throw out the fertilizer. It's part of the irrigation system. He knows just when to prune those blueberries. He knows just what herbicides to use. He knows everything that he needs to do to do what he can do to get maximum fruitfulness out of his blueberry farm. Now what am I trying to illustrate? It's sad to say, but it's true. There are some here that you're just like those dead blueberry bushes at my home. You're drying up. You're not connected to the vine.

You're not in the ground and you're not under the care of the husbandman, the vine dresser. And let me show you how this works. The longer you're under the word of God, the longer you're under the teaching of the word of God, the longer the word of God is put into your life, you get more brittle and more dry and less fruitful. And you're being exposed more and more for who you are. Maybe not to others, but in your heart and in your mind. But then there's some of you. You're like those two blueberry bushes in my home. You're not as fruitful as you need to be. I mean, I'll be honest with you. The blueberry bushes are barely hanging on.

Some of you are just hanging on. You're converted. You're in the vine. But see, there are circumstances in your life. There's apathy or disobedience. You're letting things in your life force you to be unfruitful. You're just not fruitful. The word of God is not where it should be in your life. Your church attendance isn't where you should be. Listen, you are just not as fruitful. And you need to allow God the Father to come into your life. Now earlier we learned what the Father does to us who are in the vine. He cleans and He prunes and He puts the knife to our life. Why? To make us fruitful. And now what He did to those disciples?

He put the knife to their life. He cut them and He pruned them and He changed them. Why? To make them more fruitful. And some of you need to allow God the Father to bring you to a place and it might hurt you. There are times in my life when God has put the knife to my life and I did not like it. It was uncomfortable and in the end result it made me fruitful. Now I can put you in my car or my truck and I can drive you to Ellisville and we can go out south, Highway 29. And when my friend Rocky prunes those blueberry bushes, He puts the knife to them. But in the springtime when all of that work has been done, they are more fruitful.

Christ wants us to be fruitful. Let the knife come to our life. Be under the Word. Look to the vine and look to the Father and say, "Lord, not only do I want to abide in you, I want you to abide in me." You see, what's the title of the message? He is the vine and we are the branches. God's desire is that all of us be more and more and more fruitful for His glory.