Yeah. Good afternoon, thank you for being back in your place. If you would stand, we'll get started with our service. Matthew 6, verse 19 says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Brother Logan, would you open us on a word of prayer, please? Men, drum and sing page number 10, near the cross. Jesus, keep me near the cross. O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, ♪ Come and mercy find me ♪ ♪ Where the bright and morning star ♪ ♪ Gently gleams around me ♪ ♪ My glory ever ♪ ♪ Till my raptured soul shall find ♪ ♪ Rest beyond the river ♪ ♪ Near the cross, O Lamb of God ♪ ♪ Where in this shadowed glory ♪ ♪ Is the cross, is the cross ♪ ♪ Be my glory ever ♪ ♪ Till my raptured soul shall find ♪ I'll watch and wait, only trusting ever, till I reach the golden strand just beyond the river. Amen. Drums in page 188, The Love of God. greater power than tongue or hand. Let heavens tell, it rules beyond the highest star and reaches to the highest sky. ♪ Be reconciled and parted from this sin ♪ ♪ O love of God, how rich and pure ♪ ♪ How measureless and strong ♪ ♪ This shall forevermore endure ♪ ♪ The saints and angels sing ♪ ♪ Every time shall pass away ♪ ♪ And earthly foes and kingdoms fall ♪ ♪ And men who here be used to pray ♪ ♪ On God's hand is their mountain's fall ♪ ♪ God's love so sure shall still endure ♪ ♪ On pleasure's edge, pledge for evermore ♪ How rich and pure, how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore endure, the saints' and angels' song. The wind will lift the ocean clear, O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, And maybe see them. The great dogasm that lay between us How high the mountain I could not climb In desperation I turned to heaven And spoke your name into the night Then through the darkness your lovingkindness tore through the shadows of my soul. The work is finished. The end is written. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin. and bear my shame. The cross has spoken, I am forgiven. The King of kings calls me his own. Beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe out of the silence. The roaring lion declared the grave has no claim on me. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence the roaring lion declared, the grave has no claim on me. Jesus, yours is the victory. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Some good, good singers. Good deal. So Wednesday night, I mentioned someone lost a ring. It's probably a girl, so it's not yours, Lalo. But if you lost it, it's right here, and you can come and get it. Wow, I guess I heard Jared speaking. Up they go. Jared's speaking for us today. Come on up, brother. And I appreciate so much Jared and his faithfulness at school and stuff. And usually when I have college kids in and have them preach and stuff, it's like thank you for coming and preaching. You know, we're helping them grow. But he's going up to Chicago. He's going to need some gas money. So we're going to give you a little gas money up there. Galatians chapter number 5 first and put your little hangy mcdowny thing there and then also go to John chapter number 15 Just while you guys are turning there. I want to thank you all for this offering here and or the gift I'm very appreciative of that and just don't thank you for investing in my life, even though I've I've Not been here as much. I still know y'all are praying for me and I always got a home back here. I'd love to come back here and to preach and to just see familiar faces again. I just want to thank you guys for being a faithful church that I can come back to. So, if you're there in John 15, and you can please stand for the reading of God's Word, we're going to read down to verse 11, beginning in verse number 1. It says, I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now 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 can do nothing. 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. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved you me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. And I love, I think about these verses one through nine as just like Jesus putting this case of abiding in me and that you bear fruit. And then verses 10 and 11, it's like side effects may include. I see verses 10 and 11 of that. He says this, if ye keep my commandments, Ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be made full. This afternoon I just want to speak to you guys about abiding in the vine, abiding in Jesus Christ. So let's pray and then we'll get into it. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I just want to thank you for this time we have in your Word. With your people, I just pray that you would use me, help me to be an empty vessel, willing and ready to be filled by you, Lord. Just help this to be a blessing to your people. I love you, Lord, and we pray this all in your name. Amen. Y'all may be seated. The title of this message is not as funny or anything as I'm known to be, but it's just abiding in the vine all the time. Abiding in the vine all the time. This chapter in John, Jesus here is speaking to his disciples and he's about to leave his disciples. He's about to go and get crucified and he's about to go back up into heaven. giving these disciples what they're going to need for when He is gone. This is His teaching them, He's really spending time with them, investing in them so that they can be used when He is gone. And we see a lot of that in chapter 14. I want to do some work in there. We see that Jesus promises another comforter in verses 15 through 17 in chapter 14. He says this, If you love Me and keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter." Another there just means of the same kind. He's giving him another Comforter just like He was, and we know that to be the Holy Spirit today. That He may abide with you forever. even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you we know that to be true if we are saved today and verse number 26 there says but the comforter which is the holy ghost whom the father will send in my name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Another thing I really love about how John writes his gospel is found in verse 29. He says this in chapter 14. And now I have told you before it come to pass that when it is come to pass ye might believe. So Jesus here is telling his disciples, I'm going to send another comforter just like I was. And we know that to be the Holy Ghost. And he says, I'm telling you this now so that when he comes, you might believe in him. Just as you've believed in me and you believe in God, you can believe in the Holy Spirit because he is God. He is just like me. He is another comforter. I love that part of Jesus' teaching, how he's just giving them reasons to believe there. But we see that the disciples, still in chapter 14, had some problems, didn't quite understand this. As you can imagine, I mean, if I was with Jesus, the thought of him leaving would probably be pretty baffling to me. And we see Thomas speak up about it in verse number 5 of chapter 14. He says, Thomas saith unto him, Lord, We know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? But here he gives Jesus his answer. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. So this is very key. This chapter 14 is very key in understanding our passage. We know in John, Jesus gives seven I am statements. I am the way, the truth, and the life. That would be his sixth. And here in our passage, I am the true vine and his seventh, and his last one that he's going to give to his disciples. And we see Jesus teaching his disciples about himself so that they may know what he is about so that they can continue it after he is gone. And here in our passage he presents himself as the true line. Now this wouldn't have been a puzzling thought to the Jews as they would have been very well acquainted with the cultivation of vineyards and grapes there. And they understand that in order for fruit to be produced, a branch must be connected to a vine. This is how it has to be in order for the fruit that they are trying to produce to be produced. So Jesus is using this in a fantastic way to illustrate our relationship, what our relationship to him ought to be. And so he presents himself as the true vine. And I view this as, just as a branch cannot produce fruit without being connected to the vine, we see in chapter 14, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I see him saying, the vine, he is the life. He is the source of life in our lives. There is no life apart from him. He tells us that many times in our passage. He says, for without me, you are nothing. We are dead in our trespasses and sin. Before he came into our lives, before we were saved, we were dead. But He came in our lives and He did a miraculous work and He regenerated us. He quickened us. He made us alive again and now we have life. Not only do we have life then, but we have the ability to continue in life. This is, in our passage, Jesus, there's parts where He says, If you do not bear fruit, the husbandman, God the Father, He's going to purge you. He was going to cut you out. This is not saying you're going to lose your salvation. He is saying you have the ability to access this life through salvation, but you also have the ability to live apart from this life. You have the ability to live on your own power and your own flesh. But he's saying to them, hey, I am the true vine. If you want to continue after I'm gone, you've got to abide in me still. You've got to come to me. The only person that has ever given you life, I'm the only one that's ever going to continue to give you life. And that word abide in our passage here just simply means to dwell in, to continue in, to stay in, continually. That's why the title is Abide in the Vine All the Time. There's never a time where we are supposed to be not abiding in the vine. And this isn't just he doesn't say abide in the vine if you want to he doesn't say that he says abide in the vine It's a command It's a command from Jesus to his disciples and to us now as his church and his people to abide in him and if we're not doing this and then we're obviously sitting against the commandment of God and then if we're failing to tap into Jesus Christ and our source of life, then we're just completely on our own. And Jesus says, you are nothing. You have no life in and of yourself. There's nothing we can do besides produce the works of the flesh, and we'll get into that later. So Jesus is making it very clear right up front, I am the vine. He is the source of life. He has always been the source of life and He will always be the source of life. There's no life outside of Him. But I fear that many times in our lives we try to be the source of life in our own lives. We try to be that vine for ourself. Whereas Jesus tells us very clearly many times in our passage, ye are the branches. I am divine. But many times, as a branch, we think, I can bear fruit without the vine. I can bear fruit all on my own. I am very, very guilty of this coming to church, and maybe even serving in church, with not the presence of God in my life. I'm just doing it all in my own strength. Every Christian knows this. We know the face to put on. We know this words to say, the way to sing, the way to amen, and the way to encourage our pastor. But we can do all of this on our own. And Jesus says, this is nothing. This is nothing without me. And I fear today that we have too many Christians that are living the Christian life lifeless, apart from the vine, apart from their source of life. And so it's very, very, very vital for us to understand that we are the branches. And Jesus has a great purpose in our life. He did not just save us to give us a home in heaven. He saved us so that we may keep his commandments. That's in our passage. He says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. That's why He saved us, to keep His commandments, to fulfill the Great Commission, to go out and reach this lost and dying world, and to live a holy life separated unto Him, just as He has commanded us to do. So there's a greater purpose in us than to just be saved, to just have life then. He wants us to abide and continue in that. And as a branch, We must understand our place to Him in that. We must understand that since Jesus wants to produce this fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, filling out the Great Commission, doing all of this in us, since this is His greater purpose, I must understand my place. And He tells us that we cannot produce fruit without Him. If we are trying to fulfill God's desire for our life, then it's gotta be through Him. We cannot think we can do this on our own. It's very, very clear in our passage here. And Jesus is making it very clear to us that, hey, I have a great purpose for you. I want you to bear fruit. And I want to see this in your life. And I want to change the world through you. I want you to help people. But you've got to do it through me. But as branches, we get the vine mentality in our life that we are the vine. So I can do this all. I've got everything that I need. I mean, in today's Christianity, as Preacher was talking about it this morning, we don't have to worry about much. We don't have much to worry about, especially here. We got nice houses to live in, a ton of luxuries, a ton of things we don't need but just have for our entertainment and our joy. We have comfortable jobs and we can just do life without Jesus Christ. And that's a scary place to be, I tell you. It is a very scary place to be, to try and live the Christian life. without Jesus Christ and I fear that's the big one of the biggest issues in our world today is that we have too many Christians that yeah we love to go to church yeah I love church but it doesn't go much farther than that it doesn't go into our week-to-week lives it doesn't go into our jobs it doesn't go into our communities it doesn't go into our schools and that's why we're seeing so many wicked things happening in this world because too many Christians have just let it let it go have become so content with their life here in America or wherever they are that they don't really need to abide in the vine. I mean, why abide in the vine if I'm doing just good without Him? So as branches, we must understand this commandment from God to abide in Him. He is the life. Another very key part of this portion is the father as the husbandman. The husbandman takes care of the vineyard. The husbandman makes sure that any branch that's not producing fruit is cut off and is cast aside. But he also, the branches that are bearing fruit, he purchased them. He cuts them back so that they may come back and grow more. And this is a very key part in our life, is as we are abiding in Christ, if we are abiding in Him, if we are tapping into Him as our source of life, and we are bearing fruit, then God may put things into our life that may cut us back. It may hurt sometimes, but Jesus is doing this because He has a greater purpose for our life. He says, I want you to bear more fruit in doing this. And I am pleased that God has put those circumstances in my life of purging me so that I can produce more fruit for Him. But so many times Christians do get caught up on this part right here. If we get purged, we think, what are you doing God? Why would you do this? And we run the other way. But just as preacher said this morning, where else are we going to turn back to Him? This is what He desires of us. If He does this, we can take this as a great joy, saying, Lord, thank you for allowing me the privilege to serve you more, to produce more fruit for you. I can use what you've put me through to produce fruit and help other people. This is what Jesus is talking about. But also there's another thing He says. He says, if you are not producing fruit, He will cut you off and you will be taken by men and burned in a fire. If we are not producing fruit, then we are worthless branches. We are just pieces of wood that are just good for bonfires and people cooking hot dogs on you. But no, Jesus has a greater purpose than you cooking some hot dogs. He wants you to be helping people. He wants you to be feeding people other ways, spiritually, not physically. That's a joke, but there's a truth in there. You guys just find it, okay? But this is very key in our understanding that we are responsible not only to abide in Jesus, but to the Father. We are responsible to... What he has told us he will do dependent on our actions. We are responsible to the father as a husband man, and we are responsible for our reaction to whatever the father does to us. So whatever he puts into our life. But a Christian that seeks to abide in the vine is going to be happy that God allows them the privilege to bear more fruit for him. That he is going to allow him to serve him better. Let me try and catch up on my notes here. Here's God's desire for us, that we abide in the vine. And this is a choice that is up to you. It is a choice that is left up to you to abide in the vine, or to live on your own. I've heard it said before, you are as close to God as you want to be. This is all you. This is all your choice. Jesus has given you the command, and you can choose to disobey it, or you can choose to live the best life you've ever lived. I mean, it seems like a no-brainer to me, but our flesh makes it complicated. Our minds and our attitudes, they make it complicated. But as a disciple of Christ, if we know the only way to bear fruit God desires to produce through us is to abide in the Holy Spirit, then we must seek to do that. So go with me to Galatians chapter five. This is why I had you turn there. And we're gonna see what's this fruit that Jesus wants to produce through us as we abide in him. We're gonna start in verse number 22, just two quick verses here. It says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love. Joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law. Sounds like another list of side effects to me. And those are good things. Those are good things that come out of abiding in the vine of Jesus Christ. And this is a very important thing, because without abiding in the vine of Jesus Christ, we will have no fruit. And so if we try to serve God here in our church, and without abiding in him, Then it's worthless. It's nothing. There's a key passage to this. It's 1 Corinthians 13. I'm going to read verses 1 through 3. He says this. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Apart from the vine, we can't produce fruit. And without fruit, we have no love. And without love or this charity, we are nothing. Even if we're doing all these great things on the outside for God, and aren't abiding in Him, and aren't producing the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, We are nothing. We're not doing anything for eternity. The only way to make an impact for eternity is to abide in Jesus Christ and do what He has for you to do through Him. Because through us, it gets marred. It's worthless, as He has told us. It is nothing. Now we may look good to the world, and people may praise us for it, but that's the farthest it goes. If we're not doing it, if we're not allowing Jesus Christ to do it through us, then we're just nothing. Nothing is being done for God. And in our passage in John 15, he says, We're to be about His glorifying and not our own. We're not supposed to be seeking to people to make us feel good and look good. We're supposed to be abiding through Christ so that He is glorified in our lives and in the lives of other people. And if we're not doing this, then there's some other works that we may be able to produce here. And we see that in Galatians 5 again. And these are called the works of the flesh. If we fail to abide in the vine, these are what we are able to produce here. He says this in verse number 19 of Galatians 5. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. I can't get the thought of a commercial out of my mind with prescribing these drugs and these side effects. So if you take the pill of the works of the flesh, you're going to produce all these things. You're going to produce hatred, wickedness, immolations, various idolatry, variants, all these things. But if you abide in the vine and you produce the fruit of the spirit, you have love, joy, peace, gentleness, meekness, kindness, longsuffering, all these things. So it's a no-brainer. Now we may think, oh, I'm not a terrible person. I mean, I don't kill people. I'm not hooked on pornography. I'm not listening to terrible music. I do good things. I'm a good person. But Jesus tells us if we're not doing it through Him, if we're not abiding in Him, we're nothing. And we are more susceptible to be producing these works of the flesh, these terrible, terrible things that are a sin against God. So here we have a danger of not abiding in vine. And we must understand that not abiding in the vine leads us to be susceptible to fulfill our flesh and work in our flesh and be in our own power. But there's many things we put at risk because our decisions don't affect just ourselves. Our decisions impact those closest to us and people we may never have thought that they would have impacted. The price of sin is a sin nobody should ever want to pay. And we must be afraid of that, of what our sin might do to others. And I'm just thinking about my life, the risks that there are involved if I'm not abiding in the vine. There is hopefully a future family God wants me to have with this young lady Abigail right here. If I'm not abiding in the vine, I could mess this up. I could mess this up big time and I could ruin my life. And I could hurt her, I could hurt her family, her church, this church, and I could cause a disgrace to my family's name. If I'm not abiding in the vine, I'm nothing but a sinner. I am nothing but a fleshly sinner. But if I abide in the vine, then I can have a right relationship with the woman God has for me one day. And I can have a great relationship with this church, with my family, and with her family. If I don't abide and abide, then there's a church that is at risk of not having a pastor one day. Because that's what God has called me to do. If I don't abide and abide, there's going to be people that need fed that won't be fed. Because I want in my own flesh. I want my own desires. I want to produce the works of the flesh. Here we have a pastor. If he doesn't abide in the vine, this church doesn't have a pastor that's leading and feeding them as they should. If he is not abiding in the vine, then you guys are hurt. His choice to fulfill his flesh hurts you guys and many other people. As I know, many people love him. But thankfully we have a pastor that I believe abides in the vine. If we don't have a youth pastor here that does not abide in the vine, there's a group of teenagers that are at risk for never experiencing the love of Christ from their youth leader, from their youth pastor. If we don't have people in this church, if we don't have parents that abide in the vine, then our next generation of children are at risk for never knowing the truth. Because their parents live one way at church and another way at their house. They keep some standards at church. Oh, we won't do this at church, but yeah, at the house it's fine. If we don't have parents that lead their children and teach them how to abide in Christ, to follow Jesus, to continue in Jesus Christ, then what are the children gonna do? What your parents do... They're just going to magnify it. They're just going to multiply it in their lives, the children. So we need parents that are abiding in the vine, that are continuing in the Holy Spirit, producing these works of the Spirit, these fruits of the Spirit, so that they may know how to. How else will they learn? Now, granted, there are kids that come from bus ministries, from broken homes, that can learn this by themselves, but how... This is God's plan. God has given you these children, parents, that you may teach them, and that you may be an example to them. You guys have the most contact with them, and they watch you, and they need you to be abiding in the vine, so that we have a next generation of Christians that know, I can't do this on my own, and Christianity must go beyond the church house. There must be... Christianity in my everyday life, every single second of my life. There should never be a time where I'm not abiding in the vine. But there's so many times in our homes, in our lives, that we think it's okay not to. We think, oh, nobody's watching, or I'm just at home with my family, I don't need to keep these standards, or I don't need to be abiding in the vine, nobody's watching, nobody will know this. No, Jesus tells us, abide in the vine, and if you don't, you're nothing. If you don't, there's some risks involved. We have a next generation that's at risk. This is huge. This world is falling to pieces. And we need people that are living today to take hold of this command and abide in the vine and produce the fruits of the Spirit so we can see a change. And we need more generations that are on fire for God, that are not afraid to say, I believe this book and I'm going to live by it. I don't care if I have to delete apps on my phone. I don't care if I don't need to watch the newest movies. These things are wicked. Some of these things these people are coming out with, and we see just the... hatred for truth that this world has. But we need Christians to stand on truth and say, I'm not afraid to obey Jesus Christ or to abide in him. And I'm going to do whatever it takes that I may be a fruitful branch, that I may be connected to that vine so tightly that I'm gaining as much as I can from that vine to produce as much fruit as possible. And if he cuts me back, so be it. I'll just grow even more. I'll just produce more fruit. This is what we need. Today, for believers, there's a risk involved. There's a world out there that may never hear the gospel if we're too afraid to give Jesus our all, to abide in Him completely. There is a world dying and going to hell because Christians only want to abide in Christ on Sundays, because Christians don't want to take the things necessary out of their lives so that they can produce more fruit. For the teens, for our teens, for our young people, for our kids in junior church, for our kids in toddler class, there's a next generation at risk. There's a next generation at risk of never knowing truth because it could die out with them. We gotta be teaching them. We gotta be teaching them, hey, Jesus Christ is divine, and you need to abide in Him. You need to stay with Him every single second of every single day, so you can produce the fruit of the Spirit and not be like this world, but change them to be more like Christ. so that we can see souls saved, so that we can see God's work continued in us. This is absolutely of utmost importance in our lives. If you are saved today, then you have a job to do. You must be bearing fruit. And if you're not, you're glorifying yourself, and you're not glorifying God, and you're sinning against a holy and righteous God, and you're neglecting truth because you just wanted your way. You wanted to be the vine of your life. You say, I have this five-year plan, this 10-year plan, I got this retirement plan I'm working for. And so be it. If God messes that up, I'm not doing what He wants me to do. But God's asking some people to do some change. His disciples left their livelihoods. They got up. They stopped fishing, and they followed Christ. No promise of a retirement plan, no promise of any money whatsoever, no promise of food. They said, this man is true. What he is saying is true, and he has changed my life. So whatever he wants, if he says, follow me, I'm following him wherever he goes. Whatever, whatever God wants, I'ma do it. I'ma do it because He is more important than this world and my desires in this world, my comforts in this world. Mercy help us. There's so many, so many times we think in ourselves, it's all about us. But Jesus tells us if it's all about us, it's worthless. It's nothing. We are to live beyond ourselves and the only way to do that is by abiding in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and producing fruit of the Spirit that's gonna continue past ourselves. We must understand that without Christ, we are nothing. Absolutely nothing. And we're only then able to produce the works of the flesh. So failing to abide in the vine puts us at risk of producing these things. When we are not abiding in the vine, then we're dependent on ourselves. Another thing I see about this passage is abiding in the vine is you bear this fruit, but you're absolutely dependent on Jesus Christ for your life. If you're a branch, there's no way you're gonna produce fruit if you're not connected to that vine. If you just cut off a branch from a vine and you just keep it on your counter at your house, there's not gonna be any grapes that come from it. It's just gonna be a withered up twig. If we do not produce the fruit of the spirit, if we are not connected to the vine, then we're just gonna be withered up Christians worthless, that are worthless and useful for nothing. So we must understand that we must be connected to the vine and be absolutely dependent on Him for our life, for everything we ever needed, for everything that we could just need or use to produce more fruit for Him. This is what He has for us. We are to be absolutely dependent on Him and not ourselves because We have no power of ourselves. Everything we have is from God. Everything we have is a blessing from God. The breath that I take right after this one is because God allowed me to take it. If we start thinking that we're anything, we're messed up. We're way off the spot because that is completely wrong. So it is then of utmost importance that we entirely depend on Jesus Christ as our source of life, for without Him there is no life, and there is no chance of producing the fruit of the Spirit. So what are you going to do with this commandment? What are you going to do with this commandment that Jesus Christ told to his disciples and is telling us now through his word to abide in him? It's up to you. It's your choice, whatever you want. I mean, you can choose to take that pill of the works of the flesh and have idolatry in your life and sin and broken relationships and a broken family and no joy and no happiness and always seeking for that next great high and living for tomorrow because it might be better. Or you can take abiding in Jesus Christ, and having love, and joy, and peace, and blessings, and a life beyond compare, and joy! We don't have to be so downhearted all the time. We can be happy all the time, even in hard times, even if everything seems to be going against us. We can be a bright light to this world, saying, I don't care, I'm dependent on my vine for life, and he's never going to fail me from giving me life. I always will have abundant life in Jesus Christ if I just continue in Him. But it's us that detach us from that vine. We say, I don't want that. The cost is too much. I have to actually be holy. I actually have to go to church. I can't have other things before God. I can't have idols in my life. It's a price way too hard for me to bear. I'm thankful Jesus Christ didn't have this mentality. I'm thankful Jesus said, I'm about my father's business. I'm coming here to seek and to save that which is lost. And I'm thankful that he taught his disciples how to live after he was gone. And so that we may glean from that, so that we may learn, because we've never experienced Jesus in a person as they did. But we can experience him through the Holy Spirit. If you've been saved, you've felt that, and it's amazing, and it's the greatest joy you've ever had. But that joy can continue. It doesn't have to stop there. You can continue to have life. You can continue to produce the fruit of the Spirit, and just be a light to this world, and be a branch that is fruitful as God has a man is to do. And the greatest thing about this is he gets all the glory. We don't get anything from it except for blessings from God and a home in heaven, you know just small things like that, joy, right relationships, love, just the greatest life imaginable here and not only here but after in heaven. I mean we have so much to live for and yet we decide to live for ourselves now because this is more important to us. I mean, I don't really, that God thing, yeah he's cool, I like him on Sundays, but on Mondays let me do my thing. On Mondays don't let my co-workers know I'm a Christian. They may think I'm weird and I might not be able to tell the jokes I want to tell. All these things that It's your choice. But Jesus makes it very, very clear in this passage. He says, abide in me and produce the fruit of the Spirit. But if you don't, you're nothing. You're worthless. You're doing nothing for me. And you're just a waste of time. But thankfully, Jesus restores. Thankfully, Jesus grafted us in at salvation into that vine. And we have that ability to go back, to come back and get our source of life again, so we can produce the fruit of the Spirit. It's never too late. It's never too late. And I'm so very thankful that Jesus Christ provided a way for us to be saved, to have that life, but also for us to be able to continue in that, even though we mess up so many times. So I want to ask you this, if I can find it. It's in the next page. So what is keeping you from abiding in Christ? What is it that's more important to you? What is this fake life, this promise of life that the devil puts in your way? Yeah, this will bring you satisfaction. This will bring you life. What is that that you're chasing after? What is that thing? If you just obtain it, you're going to be happy. You'll finally be happy. You'll finally have life. Everything will finally be right. What is it that is actually keeping you from real life, that is keeping you from fulfilling the desire God has for you and glorifying Him? What is it? It could be anything. It could be a lot of things. And those are idols in our lives, and that's a sin against God. And also, what are you willing to risk for not abiding in the vine? How much is it going to take that starts crumbling around you in your life before you realize, this is all becoming because I haven't been abiding in the vine as I'm supposed to be. I've been producing the worst of the flesh in my life. I've been living a sinful, deceptive life, and it's led to these terrible, terrible things in my life. How much are you willing to risk? If you're not abiding in the vine, everything's at risk. Everything is in danger. Your kids, your family, your job, your house. He can take any of that away from you. And, even worse, His spiritual blessings of love and joy and peace. All these things are at risk. Are you willing to risk these things by not abiding in the vine? Are you willing to put all this at risk just because you want this one thing instead of abiding in the vine? So, the command is simple. Abide in Christ. Abide in the vine. And that's the only way we'll produce the fruit of the Spirit, and it's the only way we will change this world. It's the only way God will be glorified in us. And what are we more to be about than glorifying God? As a church of Jesus Christ, isn't that what we're to be? Not even that, but as a Christian, as a child of God, aren't we supposed to be about glorifying Him? So choose today, and every day, and every second of every day, and every millisecond of every day, never a time where you're not abiding in mine. Choose to abide in Christ, and allow Him to bless you, and allow Him to actually use you to help some people. Allow Him to... See souls saved because of you. Allow him to see lives changed and families restored or lives restored because you were faithful to God. And it's not about you. And if you're thinking right, then you're not going to think, oh, yeah, you're welcome for letting me. I'm helping you. No, you're going to say, hey, I was just like you. And it's only because I'm attached to this vine that I have everything that God's blessed me with. And you can have the same thing. So as a Christian today, as a disciple, if we're not abiding in the vine, we're not a disciple. Jesus says that in our passage. The only way to be a disciple, a follower of God, is to be continuing in Him, to be abiding in Him, to never be apart from Him. So as a Christian, what are you going to do? Are you going to continue in Him, or are you going to continue in your sin? Are you going to continue abiding in Him and actually do what He wants you to do, or are you going to do what you want to do? The choice really is simple, but applying it is hard. And I know that, but with God's grace, we can. And if we get on our knees, if we humble ourselves, and we say, Lord, I want to abide in you today, and we read his word, and we pray to him, and we walk with him, and we share the things he's done in our lives with others, then we can continue in that, and we can have the best life possible. So do you want the side effects of the works of the flesh, or the side effects of the fruit of the Spirit? It seems like a no-brainer, so I just, I hope that this was a blessing to you as it was to me, that we abide in the vine and we produce the fruit and we have life with joy and peace and happiness and a life that glorifies God most of all. So with that said, we'll go ahead and pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I just want to thank you so much for this wonderful passage and your word and how it spoke to my heart, Lord. We're not even, we shouldn't be able to abide in you. There's nothing in us that is pleasing to you apart from you, Lord. And so I just thank you that you've given us this ability to abide in you, to dwell in you, to continue in you from salvation and on, Lord. And I'm just so thankful for everything you've blessed us with. Just help us to be about your business and not our own. Help us to be abiding in you and abiding in the vine instead of our own flesh and our own desires. Lord, I love you. And I pray that you would just bless this church and bless the people. Help them to abide this through their life. And I pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to have an invitation at the time of... Lord spoke to your heart. If you haven't been abiding in the vine as you... You know you're supposed to. Come and change it. Come and fix it. Come and get on your face and say, Lord, I want to continue in you. I can't do anything on my own. So at this time, you can stand and deal with that as well. I hear the Savior say, die straight. is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray. I will be thine all in all. Jesus, play it all, all to Him I owe. Sin and the decrepit stay. ♪ For now then be I Thine ♪ ♪ Thy cow and Thy loaf ♪ ♪ Then change the leper's spots ♪ ♪ And melt the heart of stone ♪ ♪ Jesus made it all ♪ ♪ All to Him I owe ♪ Amen. Good day in the Lord's house today. Thank you for that challenge, Brother Jared. Our life does depend on it, attaching ourselves to the vine. I'm just some points of interest here. Madeleine Frey graduated. She's not here today but we will be recognizing her. A couple weeks. We have a camp meeting following. The service right now when we dismiss we can meet over here real quick just to go over some stuff. We'll be having Brother McCracken with us next Sunday May 26th. I'm excited for that. Pray all that goes well. Youth rally coming up May 31st. Info is there. Obviously camp is a big thing coming up. and then work day, baby shower, and some other stuff there. You guys can just look on the bulletins and put that to your calendar. So we'll go ahead and be dismissed, and then we can meet with all the parents on this side real quick. It'll be a very quick meeting, and then you guys can do your choir practice. Brother Steve Foster, you mind praying for us?