All right. Hey, good morning everybody. How are y'all doing? Good. Good. My name is Chris
Britton and it's always a pleasure just to be here at the house opening God's
Word with you all. And we're in a series about the book of John and I'm just
gonna continue on the path that we have been heading in and I will be headed in
John chapter 15 this morning. And if you missed any of these, man go check these
out online. Some good stuff. And I hope that my prayer is today as we open up
God's Word in John chapter 15 that you know there'll be a little illustration
Jesus is using some poetic techniques here so I always love that about vines
and branches and all that good stuff and how we can abide in Jesus. Before we get
to it just imagine you know in our day and age imagine that you're with a group
of people that you've done a lot of life with or you're with a group of people
and there's one person or one family that says hey I'm gonna be moving away
and here's my info here's the way that you we can stay connected like what are
ways these days that we can stay connected with people that might maybe
far away. You can go ahead this is a social media what are some specific
things that you could do to stay connected with people like Facebook
FaceTime Instagram. Letters okay the young person says letters I like that
pen pals. Have a little get-together pick up some dates to have it I like that. We
can be strategic these days right it would be a sad occasion where it's like
oh you're gonna be gone however we could be right up in their grills right when
they touch down we could watch their journey on a reel or whatever so there's
some ways where we kind of still can be kind of face to face a little bit and
this wasn't the case here when Jesus in the setting of this that we'll read
today Jesus is sitting with the disciples they have no idea that he's
he's gonna be going away in a sense of the way of crucifixion so as he sit in
with the table of these loved ones and he's having this conversation imagine
position ourselves when we read these scriptures in the context of it I'm
always fascinated by the context of when we read the scriptures it says you and
we're kind of like like yeah he's talking right to me but we weren't we
weren't there at that table so we do have to remember that he's at this table
with the disciples speaking specifically to them when these scriptures are
quoted by Jesus he's saying you like y'all so let that be on our mind as we
go there this morning in John 15
sorry about that technology but we have a tradition at our church where we kind
of give attention to the scriptures as you are able you could stand or get in
the posture where you are just making yourself available to God's Word again
we're in John 15 1 through 8 and we'll read this John 15 1 through 8 I'll be
reading from the ESV 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 does
bear fruit he prunes that it may be more fruit already you are clean because of
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 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 if anyone does not
abide in me he's thrown away like a branch and withers 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 proved to be my disciples let's pray
God we thank you for this morning just opening your word will you please use me
as a vessel to speak your truth speak your word concerning your scriptures
that tell us about abiding in you staying connected in you may we lean
deeper into your understanding Lord that we may implement ways in our lives to
stay connected and lastly may we be encouraged and even made free this
morning so we can experience you in a way that's unique on this new day that
you've given us thank you amen maybe seated
when I look at a room that I'm speaking God's Word to maybe it's a room that has
some people that have walked with God for a while but maybe you still feel
stuck in the same place or maybe it's possible that your life isn't like
completely falling apart but you just may need a spark spiritual jumper cables
to kind of to charge you up to get you back going no matter what place that
you're at what I hope that we find that God's Word today is like the discipline
ourselves to stay connected to stay plugged in to stay abiding in Jesus
hopefully will help us to possibly get rid of some bad habits from living a
basic kind of regular mundane barely like thriving barely active like
spiritual faith and that's my hope today amen amen so the context of John 15 as I
mentioned before this is in Jerusalem during the week of Jesus's crucifixion
and in the previous chapters John 13 and 14 tensions are high and Jesus here is
sharing a symbolic Jesus shared a symbolic foot washing in John 13 he
predicts his betrayal by Judas in John 13 21 through 30 he comforts the disciples
with promises of the Holy Spirit in John 14 John 14 is filled with Jesus's
teaching about love and faith and his upcoming departure and by this time John
15 the disciples are probably filled with mixed emotions at the table like
love fear to me if I'm at the table I'll be like dude I'm kind of confused like
we've been kicking with you for a long time and now you kind of talking like
some doom and gloom type stuff like where you going like what's going on but
this is where Jesus delivers his powerful like metaphor of vines and
branches in the hopes that he would offer comfort and in a way a roadmap for
a thriving life as they can continue to follow him so when we read John 15 we
could think of it as kind of this heartfelt conversation that Jesus has
with the disciples during what's known as the Last Supper it's heavy but Jesus
knows that his arrest his crucifixion are near actually in the book we're only
a couple chapters away from it we're only a couple chapters away and he wants
to prepare his closest followers for what's coming and assure them that they
won't be alone so again imagine the room filled with mixed emotions love fear
confusion the disciples probably devastated by the news of Jesus's coming
departure not totally understanding everything and this is Jesus's attempt
again to comfort them using this metaphor and here's the thing the
metaphor wouldn't have been too bizarre it wouldn't have been too strange for
them because it was common people were very knowledgeable about vines wines
grapes things of that nature as a matter of fact if we turn to the first miracle
what did Jesus do turn the water into wines grapes which attached to vines we
all know that right so it's not something that they would have been like
man what is he talking about right here they would have understood a matter of
fact throughout the Old Testament when you come across someone or something
that's being the vine it was always Israel or the people of God but it was
used negatively in the Old Testament when Israel was the vine it was always
usually accompanied by a declaration that the vine was not bearing fruit
therefore the wrath of God was coming so because of this what would have been
made more of a surprise is that Jesus at the table was referring to himself as
the vine but not only the vine but it's like he's saying like I'm him the young
people know what that means I am him so at the table with having about three
years of ministry together Jesus kind of flips the script and refers to himself
as the true vine again so Jesus is saying I am being something that y'all
couldn't be because I'm able to do something that y'all can't do they
couldn't be fruitful in a way that pleases God by themselves he's rescuing
this narrative of the Old Testament narrative of when you look at the
stories there's kind of a rise and fall and a rise and fall and a rise and fall
and Jesus is rescuing that narrative saying like I got this I'm gonna take
care of this and this is what leads Jesus to talk about this and he starts
off by saying I'm the vine you are the branches I am the true vine I'm the
genuine one I'm the real deal and God the Father was the vine dresser the
gardener and Jesus is the true vine and we them at the table we are the are the
branches and then the conversation leads us talking about this word abiding and
what happens when they don't and when they do and the fascinating thing about
Jesus is often times we forget that the supernatural component the Holy Spirit
and how it indwells believers like Jesus knew this this this metaphor in chapter
15 affirms this the verb for indwelling appears numerous times but now it is
viewed in terms of its results spiritual experiences and how they must lead to
fruit-bearing in the form of a new obedience and love Jesus is saying even
without y'all following me you can still be fruitful like without you being with
me in my presence every day like how they were at this table like what's
gonna happen to me you can still bear fruit my spirit will be with you matter
of fact when we look at the word abide it means to stay to hang out to remain
to loiter what's it called and young people y'all can help me out I could tell
my age here but what are the things called you take your phone out I know
it's a charger but it's like a wireless charger you just put your phone on it
and it just charges that's kind of crazy it's a portable charger y'all know I'm
talking about you can just throw it on there and it's hard yes yeah yeah but
with with the cordless right you just throw it on there and it might turn
green or something like that just to let you know that it's in the right place
like thinking of abiding this power source right and that we're willingly
taking this because we understand and identify the place and where we need to
put this that everybody everybody runs to their chargers all right how many
people in the room you forgot your charger somewhere you hit somebody up
and said like could you look on the wall like that one in the kitchen no no right
over there or can you look under the seat in the car like we all understand
how to get this thing charged up to make sure it's powered correctly so we can do
everything that we need to do and we feel some type of way if we can't get
this charged up as fast as possible we need the power right and Jesus simply
when he's saying abide in me he's saying I want y'all to think about like how y'all
can stay connected to this true power source so you can do all the things that
you need to do that I'm calling you to do but I'm gonna be the one that empowers
you you don't gotta plug into a wall but when you think about this metaphor I
often think about like how am I positioning myself to be powered up by
Christ spirit for some of you maybe it is coming to church or it's I'm gonna
get into a couple more practical ways that we can practice this in our
Christian faith in just a moment before I do I don't want to miss a point where
again I've asked you to imagine yourself as the disciples at the table and how
they would have possibly perceived this message as individuals because when you
think about the group the bunch of disciples that's at the table a lot of
them are in different places when Jesus called them to follow him so they
probably had some different emotions and different ways that they could apply
this to their own lives and their own perspectives and some of it might
resonate with you but here's kind of a breakdown that I thought of of how the
disciples might have received Jesus words in John 15 considering their
backgrounds and their personalities so let's start with Peter remember in a few
chapters Peter is gonna be like cutting somebody's ear off and stuff and later
on he's gonna you know Peter Peter's gonna be like yeah I don't know that guy
and all that stuff Peter the impulsive and passionate Peter hearing this he
might have felt a surge of determination Jesus is called excuse me to abide would
resonate with his desire for loyalty however Peter might also have grappled
with a little self-doubt remembering his recent denial of Jesus John often called
the beloved disciple John likely felt a deep sense of comfort or closeness and
the emphasis on love in John 15 would have resonate resonated with with him
very deeply Matthew who we know is a former tax collector he might have
really appreciated the metaphor of the vine and branches because he who had been
considering an outsider was now included in the source of life Matthew the
outsider the tax collector like you don't even belong here bro why did he
pick you and he's looking like yo like I I'm connected like I can stay connected
to Jesus and the other disciples I'm sorry we can't forget about Judas what
about Judas Chris he knows what he was on at the table possibly consumed by his
betrayal and the burden of his secret Judas's heart was probably heavy the
message of abiding and having answered prayers might have kind of been this
hollow stark contrast on the path that he was choosing at the table and the
others disciples like James Thomas Philip and others would have each had
their own mix of emotions and some might have felt a renewed sense of purpose and
others might have grappled with fear and uncertainty about the future without
Jesus physically being there and wondering how they will move on so what
does this mean for us as we like what about us as we're sitting at these
tables here listening to Jesus's words what does that mean how can we apply
this and and I believe a couple things Jesus is called to remain in him and
bear fruit could resonate with those on a few different levels first of all we
can think about the need for us deepening our connection right all the
disciples had already spent years following Jesus witness and miracles
learning his teachings remaining would mean continuing to prioritize the
connection prioritizing the connection staying close to his words and his
actions it would involve prayer following his teachings and actively
seeking guidance there's a lot in there but I know for me last fall last year
was the last time I was up here like doing a message and last fall there was
a an event in my life that brought up a lot of like old-school hurts and wounds
and stuff like that I remember hitting Greg up just saying like I didn't say
this right I didn't say this exactly but I was really expressing the need for me
to prioritize my priorities right and I was I remember it was very difficult for
me to say like I need to just step away and just chill for a little bit it was
so hard for me to say that because I was just used to like go go go go go you can
do it just go go go like you have the the skills to do this and that and blah
blah blah and it was hard for me when I met with Greg I love his Greg was so
gracious and calm he was like yeah okay and he pointed out something that I had
I hadn't thought of at that time he said you know like you graduated with your
undergrad and we went to the same college and stuff started youth
minutes everything every time ever since you started youth ministry you haven't
really stopped like you graduated you started doing full-time ministry so once
you take some time just to just to live just to be present here with our church
you ain't in trouble right and I was like it's a matter of fact take as much
time as you need you know and we'll see what happens and that's exactly what
happened I kind of repositioned myself started kind of falling in love I said
my prayer was simple right if I can be vulnerable with your mom for me
repositioning myself just meant like falling back in love with some of the
spiritual pathways that I had been connecting with God with before and I'll
leave some of those with you at the end spending time with him in creativity
some of y'all know I like like poetry and all this hip-hop stuff and all that
kind of stuff so I really started connecting with God in another personal
way where I just wasn't like teaching and stuff all the time but I just was
connecting with God with a lot of my art writing poetry where's my boy Dave
Hodges at connected with him as he's working with young adults with
narratives and started teaching some poetry classes and I remember telling
Dave like dang I feel alive again because I'm using these gifts and there
are participants in the community that are young adults we meet here on
Wednesdays and there have been some phenomenal things that have happened
here on Wednesdays what God's doing just and I'm like I felt like God's sidekick
again it's like me and you we connecting and I'm charged up and I was like man
this is great but it took so much time and it took so much of me just searching
and seeking and saying God like what's wrong with me is there something wrong
with me like God just searched me and helped me to reconnect with you in a way
that's just real and I wouldn't be up here standing before you if things
weren't better in that in that way amen so deepening our connection with him the
second thing is continuing his mission the disciples understood that Jesus's
message of love forgiveness and the kingdom of God bearing fruit would
likely have been understood as carrying forward that mission sharing the
teachings demonstrating his love through acts of service and compassion these
will be ways for the disciples to continue to bear fruit and we understand
after Jesus's death and resurrection and when he ascended the disciples did just
that they continued they continue to serve God and to carry forward his
mission and and for us is seeking what is that and a lot of Christian circles
you know we like uses big C word like calling and things like that maybe it's
not that the maybe it's not you trying to search this radical calling but it's
just starting with you in your circle of influence or just you in your heart
alone as we prayed this morning about peace is sometimes it just takes us to
sit in silence for a little bit to think about ourselves and perhaps what is God's
mission for us on a personal level what is that and I always believe you know I
always believe in a church this size where some might say like oh that's small
imagine everyone connected in a thriving way relationship with Christ
continuing their mission and excited about their mission in a personal way
what would that do in our community there's brilliant people in this room
with with hearts that are amazing and if you imagine us all connected to that
thing that we are called to do and what that would mean for not just our our
church community but our community outside of the walls the last thing is
strengthen in their community the disciples we know we're a close-knit
group but facing an uncertain future so remaining in Jesus will strengthen their
bond with each other sharing their faith supporting one another through the
difficulties and working together to spread the message these things would
all be fruits born from their connection to Jesus together our community can be
strengthened when we abide in Christ because what we do for one another is we
offer that grace we offer that truth and love and that's like the pruning and
stuff all right right now there's I kind of asked who's a green thumb because I
need some help you know that was kind of like a personal
question like who said yeah so I walked out of my house a couple weeks ago I
don't know what this is I heard you know some somebody told me you could take a
picture on your iPhone and identifies like I'm am I like years off of knowing
that and stuff that's crazy I was like what you can take a picture on your
iPhone and it can't help you identify the plants and stuff yeah you knew that
okay but it still didn't help me I didn't know that I like identified the
plant but I was just like okay what do I do but we have this thing in front of
our house man it has its own G-man Jumanji ecosystem in it it has mold on
stuff and there's flies and everything's eating one another like it's crazy I'm
happy that they're thriving in that however it's nasty things are moldy and
but here the thing is it grows every year so my say there's growth right
there's growth but there's something in there that needs attention they need
some trimming back there's different strategies I'm sure that y'all can help
me with probably without this but some of y'all will laugh and say like I know
what to do with this you need to cut this back and you need to you know stop
putting this kind of kind of mulch in there or you need some more room is too
crowded or whatever what are the things for us that are too crowded like imagine
again if you will just this simple concept of putting this down what if
there's too much stuff around it's not you can't you can't put the charger
thing under this and then just throw the phone on there and expect it to charge
there's there's something in the way right what needs to be removed moved
around so you can have the best connection possible to thrive somebody
can come over and help me if you want to but but my point is that was an
illustration for me when I walked down I'm like that grows every year so we can
always you know depending on how we want to to phrase growth I can look at and
say it's growing grows every year I grow in my face every year Chris I don't know
what you're talking I'm growing can we clearly identify some of the things that
need attention so it can be healthier growth right healthier growth as I wrap
up I want to give a few ways that you can make this kind of real in your life
there's a leadership conference I went to years ago I heard a leader mentioned
something about spiritual pathways and then I found out kind of their source
and who they had got that from and I went and I looked it up because I
remember as a as a young like Christian leader I remember there's so many books
that was about your leader Christian you got to get up at 5 a.m. you got to do
this you got to spend two hours in your prayer closet and if you ain't reading
five chapters a day and you ain't doing this and this and I used to be when I
was a young adult Christian I was just like dang that's crazy
y'all seen dr. strange where he's just going like this and he's trying to
figure out all these calculations I used to be like this is like this is wild how
can I do all these things and still like eat dinner but practically what do you
do all right and then I heard this and I remember it blew my mind because then I
didn't feel so bad about how God wired me because I love art I love hip-hop and
all that kind of stuff there was no books about that loving God and hip-hop
at the same time like there was no books about stuff like that it was all really
like this is what you got to do you ain't doing it you ain't leading
spiritual pathways man to help revolution like my life so I'm gonna
share some of these with you and it might do the same for you it might do
the same for you but these are some practical ways that maybe you're wired in
a certain way where you connect with God in certain circumstances and things like
that so these are spiritual pathways okay and if you want you can come holler
at me afterwards or we can try to email this out or something like that like I
have it on a whole document but if you want it and you want to kind of look at
that and see where you where you fall if you forget some of these things let me
know we'll make sure that we get it to you so first of all there's something
that was outlined called the creation pathway and these are people that love
being surrounded by God's creation being in a natural environment dramatically
increases their awareness of God they pray they worship best when surrounded by
the beauty of God's creation have you ever known somebody that says like I
just need to go out in the woods I just need to go camping I need to see the
sunset I need to see a waterfall right and maybe you just feel weird like why
do I always have to do this and I just feel like this is so beautiful it's okay
that's probably like your pathway where you connect with God the best I know
somebody that said that he used to work wake up in the morning before work and
go down by sunset or something I just think like why just reach it by well
but for them they needed to see the beauty of the morning and hear the birds
like I think about Ace Van Turer but I'm not built that way that's okay though
but you might be and that's okay there's something called the worship pathway and
it's kind of plain like just like it says there's some people just a good
worship song just helps them to connect with God in a powerful powerful way they
feel closest to God when they're fully engaged in worship through music and the
highlight of their Sunday might not be me it might be that song that was sung
right and you might be feeling bad because it's like I wish there was just
more songs aren't they play songs at the end aren't they play songs after
everything the beauty of music draws them into a deeper communion with God I
like this next one the relational pathway there might be people that where
solitude feels like solitary confinement for them to feel refreshed in their walk
they need to be around people maybe lots of them and they feed off of the energy
of others that is revitalizes their walk with God aka like community tables might
be the highlight of their year because they're around people that they can talk
to maybe even some days you're like I have to be at this table and sit with so
and so because I want to talk their ear off I love being around people and
talking about God maybe you feel bad like man I get around people I just want
to talk about what book they're reading I want to talk about the verse I want to talk about all
this stuff that could be your spiritual pathway as well a couple more the
intellectual pathway these are folks that can't have a morning devotional
without three commentaries open up for them their spiritual walk isn't alive
until their mind is fully engaged like they skip past the fluff and they dive
into the deep stuff into the depths right and those might be people that walk up
to you and ask you these deep questions and you're just like bro what are you
talking about and they look at you like you ain't thinking about this and you're
like nah not really right but the intellectual pathway don't feel bad if
that's you flip them commentaries open find some people that's like that and
get together right the serving pathway there's some people that catch their
spiritual stride or they don't catch it unless they're like serving on a
consistent basis being spiritually refreshed comes when they go out they
roll up their sleeves and they tangibly serve somebody else they'd rather serve
then sit in hours of prayer they'd rather serve than hours of reading they
rather serve then then singing this might look like old once the entertainment
to them and they're just like let's go do something why don't we do more stuff
let's go out and do this stuff last to the contemplative pathway this is what
we normally think about when we think about pathway the Christian alone with a
Bible in a journal they kind of marched to be their own drummer and a spiritual
revitalization comes with heavy doses of just isolation just like let me be alone
with my book in my journal I'm good now I don't need to talk about it I'm cool I
got this book got my journal and I got the lower with me okay lastly the
activist pathway and activists it kind of sounds like the activists are in their
happiest when going at like mock to sometimes servants sometimes leading
just always doing something a comp comp contemplation to them might be the
cruelest form of torture for an activist they feel most spiritually alive when
they're actively doing something for the kingdom I'm sorry last to the creation
pathway that's where I kind of find myself more when I heard somebody talk
about this I was like yes these folks love being surrounded by God's creation
being in a natural environment dramatically increases their awareness
of God and their creativity being creative and the worship pathway well I
think I already said those off my bad my bad but identify your pathway you know
identify what's the some of the best ways for you to connect with the Lord
and don't feel bad about it okay feel like this is cool like this is the way
that me and God could be together and I can get recharged and I can be connected
I don't have to feel bad if I escaped to be alone I don't have to feel bad if I
if I write some rap lyrics about God or write a song or write a poem or if I go
dancing or if I just jog or if I have 50 commentaries out about one verse and I
got to know the Greek and Latin and Hebrew and everything about it if I got
maps in my on my walls about the stuff you don't have to feel bad you're
connecting with God in a way that he wired you my hope and prayer is that we
can just be a church that learns to abide in Christ and be branches that
extend fruit to one another and to our community amen amen let's pray God I
thank you so much for
this time and space to expand your word a little bit Lord to hopefully help us
on a path where we can remain plugged in with you in a real way in a real way
God in a way that shows fruit to one another and outside of our walls Lord in
our homes and our sphere of influence may we be able to identify in our growth
just like that bush outside of my house what are some of the things that may
need attention for us to grow in a more thriving way a more life-giving way
thank you for the illustration Lord and pray God that it will help just to shape
some practical steps that we can make in our lives to be faithful and closer to
you and our spiritual walks in your name we pray and thank you amen