Well, amen. What a joy it is to see men serve the Lord. Amen? And blesses my heart. Beautiful music tonight and today and what a great day in the house of the Lord. Turn your Bibles and sort of a place we want to sort of go to and then we're going to move to another passage. Turn your Bibles to begin with Colossians chapter number two. We want to revisit our theme verse and sort of use that as a jumping off point where I believe the Lord would have us to go. Colossians chapter number 2 and somehow or another I'm in 1 Corinthians and that's not going to help us out at all. There we go. Colossians chapter number 2 and find if you would please verse number 7. Throughout this year, we wanted to be a rooted church. And how important it is that we root ourselves in the things of God. The idea of being rooted has the idea of being fixed, firmly planted, strong, established. All of those things are bound up in the idea of this matter of being rooted. And notice the Bible said in Colossians 2, 7, Rooted and built up in Him. and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. And we want to be a rooted church. Each of us ought to desire and strive to be a rooted Christian. in an uprooted world, the world, the flesh, the devil, doing everything it can to uproot your life. Satan wants to uproot your life spiritually. He wants to wash you out, so to speak. He wants to uproot your family, uproot your marriage, A lot of times it's not a fatal swoop, so to speak, as the wind blows and the tree falls. No, there was already issues to begin with. That tree didn't just fall because of the high wind many times. There's also usually root problems with that tree. It may not be firmly rooted. There may be disease issues in that tree. It's not healthy. It's not well. And so often, if we're not attending to our own spiritual needs, we'll become diseased spiritually. Not where we ought to be with God. Things in our life that ought not be there. And when that happens, it opens the door to be uprooted spiritually. And to become what I think I mentioned a number of months ago when we began this theme of being rooted, of being a tumbleweed Christian, sort of blown here and blown there, no stability, just no root whatsoever. And I found that if we're going to be successful in our Christian life, then we must be rooted in Him as believers. Rooted and built up in Him. And the Lord led me to a passage that I believe we want to finish up the year with and to focus on because I believe you're going to find that this idea of rooted life and abiding life go together. I believe you're going to find that. Let's go to John 15 in our Bibles, a very familiar passage of Scripture. We know this to be the Lord's teaching on the parable of the vine and the branches. It's the night of His crucifixion. They're making their way from the upper room to the garden of Gethsemane. They pass through the Kidron Valley. They're on the slopes of the Mount of Olives and they go through the vineyards. As they do so, He begins to teach them about this matter of being rooted. And I'm convinced that a rooted life is an abiding life. And John 15 is the most intensive chapter in the Bible on how to be a rooted Christian, how to live successfully the Christian life. And the heart of the passage is that of fruit and fruit-bearing. Because if you're a rooted Christian, you will be a fruitful Christian. Notice what he says, John 15 verse number 1. He said, I am the true vine. Hey, there are many counterfeits. People are trying to root themselves in a lot of things. Sometimes it's stuff. Sometimes it's religion. Sometimes it's pleasure. It can be any number of things that people try to root their lives in to find some kind of satisfaction, something to fill the emptiness of their life, Something to fill the void within them. And Jesus said all of those are false vines. They're not going to establish you. They're not going to strengthen you. They're not going to bring fruit and stability in your life. He said, I am the true, the genuine vine. I'm not a counterfeit. And my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, he prunes it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Then he says in verse 3, Now at this moment ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, ye, or you, he's talking to them plural, ye can do nothing. Then he says, if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. Vine wood is useless except for two things, and that is fruitfulness or fuel. That's it. They either bring forth fruit or it burns. That's it. It's worthless any other way. And then he says in verse 7, If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. I want to talk to you just a few weeks on the abiding life. I believe it's imperative that we understand if I'm going to be a rooted Christian, I must be an abiding Christian. I must abide in Him. To abide in Him is to be rooted in Him. It's the same thought. It's the same idea. It's the same spiritual truth in our lives that brings forth fruit in our lives to the glory of God. It strengthens us, and then it makes us fruitful for Him. Let's pray, and then let's dive into our passage tonight. Lord, we love You. We thank You for Your people that have gathered. Lord, I was blessed tonight. Lord, I felt more normal in the house of God today, tonight, than I have in many, many weeks and months. Lord, seeing Your people here and gathered in a full house, and Lord, just being able to come together as the people of God to worship You, to love You, to fellowship together, Lord, to draw strength from one another as well as from You, our Lord, and Lord, the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, I am so thankful for that. Lord, I know that Your Word will not return void, but it will accomplish that that You send it out to do. I pray, Lord, that You'll accomplish Your will through Your Word tonight in our lives. Lord, we want to be a rooted people. We want to be rooted in Christ, rooted in Your church, rooted in Your Word. Lord, we want to be an abiding people, that we might be a fruitful people. And I pray, Lord, You'll teach us truth tonight that we will hear and we will obey, that we'll respond to, that we might bring glory and honor and praise to You who deserves all glory, honor, and praise. And we thank You for it in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, when you come to this passage, you find the thrust of the passage is that of bearing fruit. The word fruit is used seven times in our text. And success in the Christian life is measured in fruitfulness. An abiding Christian will be a fruitful Christian. And every Christian has the potential to bear fruit for God. The question is, are we living up to the potential of fruit bearing in our lives? You're going to find a progression in these verses. He's going to talk about fruit in verse number 2. He said, every branch that beareth fruit. And then He's going to move from there to more fruit, latter part of it. Look at latter part of verse 2. He purgeth or pruneth it. that it may bring forth more fruit. So you go to fruit to more fruit. Then look down in verse number 5, you have much fruit. Look at the middle part of it. And the same bringeth forth much fruit. Did you see that? Fruit, more fruit, much fruit. And then all the way down in verse number 16, You have fruit that remains. Notice what he says. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Now that has nothing to do with salvation. God's not saying, I've chosen some to be saved and some not to be saved. This passage has nothing to do with how a person becomes a Christian. It has everything to do with how we live after we're Christians. It's about fruit, not salvation. And he says, I've appointed you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. That is lasting fruit. Fruit that remains. Fruit has in it the seeds for more fruit. If you plant an apple tree, it's going to grow, and then eventually it's going to blossom, bloom, bring forth apples, and inside that apple fruit is a core, and inside that core are seeds, that if you plant those seeds, another apple tree is going to come up, and there's more fruit. And so, you see a multiplication of fruit. enables us to go from the fruit, more fruit, much fruit, and remaining or lasting fruit. The Lord in Matthew put it this way, He said, But he that receiveth seed into the good ground, is he that heareth the word, understandeth it, which also beareth fruit, there's our phrase, and bringeth forth some an hundred, some sixty, some thirty. And listen, right now you may be a thirty-fold fruit-bearing Christian, God wants you to be a sixty-fold. You may be a sixty-fold fruit-bearing Christian, God wants you to be a hundred-fold. He wants us to be continually progressing in our lives of fruit-bearing for Him. And that's the heart of the parable of the vine and the branches. And here's the secret of being an abiding Christian, a fruit-bearing Christian, a Christian who's living out their potential, a rooted Christian if you would, because the vinewood must be rooted in the vine for it to bring forth fruit, and that is the abiding life. Note with me quickly, if I could please, the components of the parable. The components of the parable. You have the vine in verse number 1, and that's the Lord Jesus. He said, I'm the true vine. And then He said, My Father is the husbandman, that's the caretaker. The Father is a heavenly caretaker of the vine and the fruitfulness of that vine. And then branches are believers. Look down in verse number 5. He said, I am the vine. He's talking to His disciples, to you and me tonight. Ye are the branches. The Lord is the vine. We are the branches. And the branch in a vine has but one purpose. You say, preacher, what is that? One reason to exist. You say, preacher, what is that? And that is to bear fruit. God desires that you and I are rooted in Him, we're abiding in Him, and that our lives are fruitful for Him. I believe we can say, our theme, rooted, that a rooted Christian is a fruitful Christian. And that's what God desires for us. Look again at verse number 4. Here's our key. Abide in me, and I in you. as the branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me." He's going to say in the latter part of verse 5, without me, ye can do nothing. Not something, not some things. He said, without me, spiritually speaking, you can do nothing. We need the Lord. If I want to be fruitful, I need the Lord. I need to be rooted in Him. I need to be abiding in Him. Therefore, my life would bring forth fruit for His glory. Now, my grandfather and I, before he went to heaven and before I moved here to become your pastor, we shared orchards together. Our properties met there in Lenore. We had apple trees, peach trees. We had grape vines. pear trees, we had different kinds of fruit-bearing trees, and it was enough just to feed, you know, to share and feed family and feed animals and enjoy. It's something that he and I enjoyed doing together. And as you would walk through where our little grapevines were and our little orchard, let me tell you what I never heard. As I walked through there, I never heard the trees in this orchard going, tried to strain and pop. Oh, there's a grape. Pop. Oh, there's an apple. You never saw that. You never heard them groaning. You never heard them straining. You never heard them sighing. You never heard them trying. There was never any agonizing groans. You wouldn't see any sweat popping out on the branches as they struggled and strained to bear fruit. Instead, you would discover that fruit-bearing is the natural result of the branch of that tree or that grapevine abiding, being connected to and abiding in the root system of that particular plant. And here's what the Lord's telling us, that He as the vine possesses all that is necessary for the productivity of our lives. The secret of fruit-bearing is not struggling, it is not straining, it is not sighing, It is not trying. Dear Christian, the secret of fruit bearing and being rooted in your life spiritually is abiding. That's it. Abiding. Notice, if you would please, that our vine is the great I Am. Did you notice that? I Am. That is the divine name that goes all the way back to Moses in the Old Testament when he was going to deliver the nation of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. And you remember, Moses says to the Lord in the bush, and he said, when I go and tell them that You sent me, what is Your name? And He said, You tell them, I Am that I Am has sent me. That is the name of the self-existent Creator God of the universe. He is the great I Am. He's not the I Was God. He is not the I Will Be God. He is the right now I Am God who is self-existing and never changing. Isn't that a blessing? And the Lord Jesus who is the great I Am in human flesh makes this statement, I Am the vine and I want you as the branches to abide in May. As a matter of fact, you're going to find that He is the source of our spiritual fruit of all that is necessary for us to live successful Christian lives. Now, I want to just quickly talk about this word abide. The word abide is used 12 times in John 15. 120 times in New Testament. It is found more times in the writings of the Apostle John than any other apostle or disciple. You'll find it in the Gospel of John, 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John. This word abide, it means to remain in. It means to dwell with. It has the idea of continue. Let me give you some examples of that. In John 1 verses 38 and 39, the disciples, Andrew and John, met the Lord for the very first time on the shores of the Jordan River, the preaching of John the Baptist, and they came to the Lord. As a matter of fact, John the Baptist is preaching, Behold, the Lamb of God... Jesus is walking by. He said, Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Friend, listen, can I tell you today, no one and nothing can take away your sins but Jesus Christ. He alone. He alone can forgive sin. He alone is God who can forgive our sin and desires to forgive our sin and have a relationship with you. And that day, Andrew and John placed their faith in Jesus, and the Bible said that they went to the Lord and asked Him where He lived, and they went to His house where He was living, and the Bible said they abode with Him. That day. That means they remained in His presence. They remained with Him and continued on with Him throughout the remainder of that day. There was a tax collector by the name of Zacchaeus. You remember him in the book of Luke? And he was a hated man and a little short guy, like me, a little vertically challenged. And the Lord was coming through in a crowd and he wanted to see Jesus. He had heard so much about Him. So he climbs a sycamore tree. He's in the sycamore tree. And he's hanging out over the road and he's waiting for Jesus to pass by. And I bet he about fell out of the tree when the Lord stops, walks over the tree, and he looks up eyeball to eyeball to Zacchaeus. And he says to Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus, come down from the tree. I'm going to abide at your house today. And that day Zacchaeus not only received Jesus into his home, he received Him into his heart. We know that because of the change that took place in his life. Can I remind us that when Jesus comes into the life, change comes to the life. Isn't that true? He changes us. And He said, I'm going to abide at your house today. So He went home and He spent the day with Zacchaeus. It's used in I Peter 3.7 of husbands dwelling with their wives, dwelling according to knowledge. John 14.17 of the Holy Spirit, abiding or indwelling the heart of a Christian. Here it is the Christian abiding in Christ. Now let me give you the principles of the abiding life, and we're going to work our way through this probably the next several Sunday nights. First thing I want you to understand, get this, it is a relational life. It is a relational life. Can I say the difference between biblical Christianity and all other religions is there is a living relationship with the Savior. We are in Him and He is in us. It is a living relationship. It's not getting a religion. It is not practicing a religion. It's entering into a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. It is very relational. Look at verse number 2. He said, every branch in Me. Would you underline those two words in your Bible if you haven't already? In Me. Do you know that no other religion claims that? No other. No other. I've traveled the world over. No other world religion claims to be in their God. If you'll notice, Jesus says that every Christian, every true believer that have placed their faith in Him is in Him. It is relational. There's a living relationship. In order for a branch to bear fruit, he must first be connected to the vine. And in order for a Christian to bear fruit, they must be, or a person, let's put it that way, because if they're not in Christ, they're not a Christian. Are we clear about that? I didn't get religion when I was 17 years old. I got saved. My sins were forgiven. I entered into a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. I've never been the same since. I'm not a perfect man, but thank God I'm a forgiven man. Isn't that a wonderful thing? And so he's talking about a relationship. How do you get connected? Well, that's by being born again, by being saved, by putting your personal faith in Jesus Christ who took your sins and my sins to the cross. There he paid the penalty, the debt that you owe and I owe to the God of heaven. He paid for it in full. He died. He was buried. Three days later, He rose again from the dead. Thank God there's an empty tomb in Jerusalem. Hallelujah. And friend, we have a living Savior today. And we're working tonight, and we have entered in the moment you believe on Him and receive Him. You're not receiving a religion. You're receiving a person. That person is Jesus Christ by faith, and at that moment, I enter into Him and He enters into me. My sins are forgiven. My name's written in heaven. Listen, can I just stop and say, there's nothing like knowing your sins are gone. And it's not what we do. It's what He's already done. And the moment we trust Him, we're brought into a living union with Him. That's what John 15 is all about. This living union has already taken place in the lives of the disciples. They're already in Him. They're already connected. Alright? And they're brought into this wholly joined together and intimately and vitally connected to Him. Andrew Murray in his book The Vine, I highly recommend that book, said this about the little word in, that little preposition in. There is no deeper word in Scripture, he writes. We are in Christ. Christ is in us. Our life taken up into His. His life received into ours. It is a divine reality that words cannot express. We are in Him and He is in us. Dear Christian, listen to me. You want to be a rooted Christian. You want to live your life strong, stable, fruit bearing. You don't want to be uprooted by the world around you. Then you must learn to abide in the relationship that you have been given in Jesus Christ. It is a relational thing. I am to abide in Him. He abides in me. He already abides in me. And I am to abide in Him. I am to live the abiding life. When I do that, I am rooting myself in the things of God. Now, I appreciate you bearing with me tonight. I already run my voice preaching three times already today. So tonight, you just get the leftover of my voice on Sunday nights and I apologize for that. But anyway, so it's a relational life. Listen, can you imagine this? I don't think we understand this sometimes or grasp it to the fullest extent that God lives in me. I live in God. There is a relationship here. It is relational. The closest experience of that is marriage. Where two people say, I do, God makes us one. and my wife and I enter into a union together, and it's a living union together on this earth that is only parted by death, and we have that relationship together, and I'm in her, she's in me, we belong to one another, and yet you can't even fully fathom and understand and enter into all of that, but here's what I've learned, two people that are courting, sense the separateness of their lives to the moment they enter into biblical marriage and they say, I do. And that moment there is a oneness, there is a bondness in both saved and unsaved. It's more true, more real in the lives of the saved than any other because we understand the spiritual aspect of marriage. But God has created marriage where two people become one. Friend, listen to me. Salvation. Two living persons. Jesus Christ and the Christian become one. I'm in Him. He's in me. That's it. It's relational. I don't know how else to explain it. Words fail me. But oh my! A living union with the Lord. But not only is it a relational life, I want you to notice secondly, it is a responsible life. Here's what I want you to understand about the word abide. It is not a noun. It's a verb. That means it implies action. I am in Him, but God says, the Lord says, I'm to abide in Him. That involves effort on my part. That involves responsibility on my part. That word, remember, abide, means to remain in. Alright, so it means to remain in fellowship with the Lord. It suggests intimacy. It suggests oneness. It suggests a closeness of relationship. Please, please, allow me to quote Murray again. in his book Absolute Surrender, a second book I highly recommend. He said it is a life of absolute dependence, deep restfulness, much fruitfulness, close communion, and absolute surrender. To abide in Christ is to have a close personal relationship with Him. He's not talking about the abiding life is not salvation. I already had that. That's how I got connected. Alright? You're connected to the vine through salvation. I remain in fellowship with the vine. Closeness, oneness, intimacy. By abiding in that relationship that I've been given, remaining in fellowship with the Lord. C.I. Scofield put it this way. He said, to abide in Christ is, on the one hand, to have no known sin, unjudged and unconfessed. That means if I'm going to abide in the Lord, I need to short account with God. I need to deal with my sin as a Christian. You cannot be a rooted Christian. You cannot be an abiding Christian and allow sin to remain unjudged and unconfessed in our lives. What do you mean by unjudged, preacher? By realizing that we need to see our sin as God sees it, judge it the way He judges it, call it what He calls it, and then confess it to Him as sin. It's not just a mistake. It's not just a little mess up. I sinned against the God of heaven, and the Bible said if I confess my sins, He's faithful and just to forgive me of my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Scofield went on to say, "...no interest into that which Christ is not brought." Do you realize that the Lord is to be a part of every area of our lives? "...no life which He cannot share." That's why, young people, you listen to your pastor. I want you to listen carefully. When you, as a young Christian lady or young man, and anyone for that matter, may not be young, but you enter into a marital relationship, or you enter into friendships, or you enter into different areas where you go into different endeavors in life. God said, be careful that you're not unequally yoked. Listen, young person, when you marry, you marry in the Lord. Both people being Christians. Therefore, you can bring the Lord into that relationship. It's different when you enter into marriage and a person gets saved and the other one doesn't. It's a whole different ball game or different scenarios. But that is the ideal of Scripture. That you're young. You're at a point where you are getting ready to embark in life. Ensure! That individual knows the Lord as you do and loves the Lord as you do. That you share interests spiritually together so that you can enter into and bring the Lord into that relationship. And on the other hand, the abiding one takes all burdens to Him. Aren't you glad we can take everything to Jesus? draws all wisdom, I think I preached about that this morning, life and strength from Him. It is not unceasing consciousness of these things and of Him, but that nothing is allowed in the life which separates from Him. Therefore, to abide in Christ is to develop a growing intimacy, closeness, oneness with the Lord Jesus Christ, and to live in light of that relationship. Abide in Me. and I in you. It is a mutual matter. Notice what the Bible says in verse 4. Abide in me and I in you. As I abide in fellowship with the Lord Jesus, He abides in fellowship with me. As I grow close to the Lord, He draws close to me. James 4, 8. Draw nigh to God and He will Draw nigh to You. The burden in this matter of abiding is upon You. He's the vine. It is the responsibility of the branch to abide, to be closely connected to, to live in the oneness, the reality of the oneness and the relationship that we have with the Savior. You say, well, preacher, how do I do that? Well, I'm glad you asked that because that's in our text. First of all, how about abiding in His Word? Look at verse 7. Would you look there for the part of verse 7? He said, if you abide in Me and My words abide in you. Christian, I know that there are times that we start talking about Bible reading and this, that, and the other, and Christians are like, I've heard that before. Oh, that's old hat. Why does a preacher continually harp on me about reading the Bible? Because it is crucial to the abiding life. You cannot be a rooted Christian and not spend time and His Word not abide in you. I'm not talking about just reading the Word. I'm talking about His Word in me. That I'm getting it into me. What I mean by that is I'm not just learning it, I'm living it. Living the Word is as the Word's abiding in me. They're directing my path, my steps. And listen, the Word can't abide in you if you don't spend time in it. But then the second part is prayer. Do you sense the communion here? The closeness of communion? Look at the latter part of verse 7. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, there's Bible reading and getting the Word in our heart, ye shall ask, now we have prayer, what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples." Isn't that amazing? So fruit bearing and abiding is connected to my time in the Word, but yet not just in the Word, but the Word in me and speaking with my Father through prayer. Christian, you cannot neglect your Bible and neglect prayer and expect to be a rooted Christian. As we end this year, every year, we get close to the new year. Every year. And we have these things called resolutions. We all have them. We call them start-overs, don't we? I mean, we wipe the slate, we get rid of all that, and we're going to start fresh. And it has all kinds of stuff on it. One of the things usually is, I'm going to read my Bible more faithfully this year. I'm going to pray more faithfully this year. I'm not going to ask you to lift your hand, but probably no doubt many, many, many Christians in this room, that was an endeavor that you had at the beginning of 2021 as you wanted to root yourself in Him. I'm going to ask you a question right now. How are you doing? How are you doing? Because you can't be rooted. Strong, stable, strengthened, fixed, immovable, firmly planted. If His words are not abiding in you, and you're not spending time talking to Him. I commune with my wife. We all know that people in their marriages, that one of the root causes of divorce in America is lack of communication. Husbands and wives just simply not communicating. They're not on the same page. If you don't communicate in marriage, do you know what happens? Somewhere along the line you have two strangers living under the same roof. That's why, really and truthfully, many times divorce comes not in the early years of marriage, but the later years of marriage. The kids are gone. The nest is empty. And you have two strangers who don't know each other, living under the same roof, and they don't even know how to interact together. No communication. You grow apart. There's no closeness. There's no oneness. There's no intimacy. One of the things I like to do when I'm counseling couples is I tell husbands to have a notebook, like a Lori notebook or whatever. You know, you learn those things about your wife. Take her to eat somewhere. Spend time with her. Pull out your notebook. Ask questions if that's what you need to do. I don't care if you just ask her why school buses are yalla. Learn to communicate and talk. It's how easy to talk when you're courting. How difficult to talk in the hustle and bustle of life. And you must learn to communicate. Now let me translate that over into your spiritual life. You can't be rooted in your marriage if you're not communicating in your marriage. And you can't be rooted in the Lord if you're not communicating with Him. and Him communicating to you. Oh, He doesn't speak to us audibly. We know that. He speaks to us through His words. My words abide in you. That's what He says. So I've learned two things tonight very quickly. I've learned two thoughts. Are you ready? I've learned if I'm going to be a rooted Christian, if I'm going to abide in Him, two things must be true in my life. Number one, it's a relational thing. It's relational. I must be living in the reality of the relationship that God has given to me when I trusted His Son as my Savior. He made me alive spiritually. He brought me into a living union with Him. I'm in Him. He's in me. It is a living relationship with the God of heaven. It is real. It is viable. And it's something that you can enter into on a regular daily basis. Here's what the Lord said, come to you. He comes to us in the person of the Holy Spirit who indwells our hearts and we commune and fellowship with Him. So it's relational and it's responsible. You will not abide by accident. You abide intentionally. And I'm just going to ask you a question and then I'm going to close the message. Are you an abiding Christian? Does your life reflect an abiding relationship? Are you living in the reality of what you experienced when you trusted Him as Savior? Because if not, you're on the verge of being an uprooted Christian somewhere down the road in your life. God wants you to be rooted. And if you're going to be rooted, you have to learn to abide. How important that is. Let's bow our heads in prayer.