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I'm thinking today of John 15, 2, in this verse, among others in this area of the Bible,

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Jesus is preparing his disciples for a time when he will no longer physically be with

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them.

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And he says this, he says, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

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And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

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Obviously, this is sort of a vineyard analogy going on here, and pruning means cutting away

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the dead stuff, the dysfunctional stuff.

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And so if we restated this verse with the words Jesus and God the Father in there, it

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would say every branch that is in Jesus that does not bear fruit, God the Father takes

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away.

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And every branch that bears fruit, God the Father prunes it so that it may bear more

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fruit.

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Basically, it's this, get in, bear fruit, get pruned, bear more fruit.

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He adds us, he prunes us, he adds the increase.

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And it strikes me that this is about what he does more than anything else.

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Praise God.

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He adds us, he prunes us, he adds the increase.

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Now you may be going through some really difficult stuff right now, and I get that.

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It's terrible.

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We do some of the things I've seen people go through that I've gone through in my life,

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my family's gone through whatever.

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Pretty bad stuff.

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But please allow that it may be some of the pruning that God is using to make you even

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more productive for him in the future.

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You'll be able to encourage someone who's going through the same kinds of things that

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you went through in the past because you stuck with Jesus throughout.

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And if you die, I forbid, you'll be in heaven with Jesus.

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But if you don't die, you'll still be able to be here and you can bear more fruit.

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Praise God.

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He's at work.

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He prunes us, he prunes us, he adds the increase.