Morning, welcome back from Spring Break. I know many of you were at the beach, in the mountains. You were on a staycation, you worked. Let's see. I did, do any of y'all have gardens? Anybody put your garden out yet? So I was all right. I was talking to my sister. Is she in here this hour? I don't even know, Pam. Some of y'all know. Oh, she's right here. Okay. So it's good to see she, I think she and Ronnie put their garden out. And I just wanted to give you a public shout out. Say how proud I am of you for carrying on the Godfrey legacy with farming and gardens. Because this began, I know you haven't embraced being an Appalachian American yet, like I have, which also known as the hillbilly. But I have done our genealogy back to like 1790.
Thomas and Anna came in from South Carolina, crossed over the North Georgia Mountains and settled right on the North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia line. And so we have a rich, rich heritage of actually farmers and gardeners, which we helped daddy <laugh> his garden. So which reminds me of when Becky and I first got married, so she had one more quarter left at Georgia to finish out her degree. So we rented a house for the summer over in Tucker in the Tucker area. This family went away for the summer. And so we rented, rented the house from 'em, and they said, Hey, we've already planted a garden there for you. So, you know, y'all just enjoy. And it's like, fantastic. That's gonna be awesome. And I was gonna show Becky, what a, you know, about this heritage I have being from the country and everything. So first experience was, you know, especially ladies, if when you were newlyweds, your husband had these favorite dishes that he wanted you to fix, just like he'd grown up with.
And you Yeah, I know. That's a good laugh, isn't it? So after enduring, and now Becky's in here last hour. Okay, so after enduring the fried green tomatoes, which Becky had never eaten nor cooked they were a half inch thick and very crunchy, but I said nothing about 'em at the time. I've waited 43 years to do that. My next endeavor was to get fried squash, nothing like fried squash out of the garden. So I told Beck it was time to harvest those big old squash. When we cut into 'em, we found they were the biggest old rotten cucumbers we had ever cut into. And that was the day I lost faith from Becky in being a world class gardener. So at least be Pam carries on the tradition. I couldn't tell a cucumber from a squash can when I eat it.
So we're gonna look at a great gardener today, the master gardener in John chapter 15. So turn with me over into John chapter 15, if you would. We have had a great time studying the Gospel of John. And I tell you, we have one of the greatest teaching pastors with Matt Petty man. He is just, he is great. Every week he digs into the word brings just the freshness every week. And we have so much enjoyed this study. And so today we're gonna jump into John chapter 15. Now, let me set the stage for you. Okay. actually it's so apropos that today is Palm Sunday. We have observed the Lord's Supper. Even the songs that Carrie has selected have all been just on point, because here we were in John 15, this is Thursday evening before Jesus was crucified on Friday. So Jesus is gathered together with the disciples in Jerusalem in what we call the upper room.
And very heavy, heavy teaching, personal teaching. Jesus really just disclosing what's gonna take place with those guys and them kind of trying to come to grips with it. They had the Passover meal, which was the last supper we call it, which we've observed last week. Pastor Brian did a great job talking about the washing of the disciples feet. And so after they observed the last supper, the scriptures say they sang a hymn and went out. And what they did was and if you haven't been with us on the Holy Land trip, you need to, when we start those back up you don't need to wait until you got one foot in the grave, go. Now, while it really enriches your Bible study, 'cause you see, of course, Jerusalem is on a hill. They were trapped. They were going over to the Mount of Olives, which is just on a hill adjacent to Jerusalem, just across the Kidron Valley.
And it was about a mile in total. And you got the, the amount of olives still there today, these ancient olive trees. It's amazing. So the Garden of the Gethsemane was on the lower part of that. So we actually go in there and to have devotional, just a powerful, powerful time to spend time there. So they're taking this walk, this pensive attitude, man, the disciples, they were trying to process everything that Jesus was sharing with them. So going in their head, they're thinking, wow, three years put everything that we had into this, turned our back on who we were. We have realized that the transforming power of Jesus, we have seen these miracles. We have been involved with taking this ministry out and seeing others transformed through the power of Christ. And now he's gonna leave us. And so here we are and, and looking at each other, it's like, well, I mean between this all without Jesus, what are we and this fruit that he has started in our lives, is it gonna continue this, this fruit of, of all these people?
And they look back and remember coming into Jerusalem and seeing these crowds where the palm branches and they're thinking, are they gonna all go away? This movement that has begun with the good news, the gospel, the Messiah is here. What's gonna take place with that? And so, Jesus, in the Kidron Valley, there's, there's vineyards down there. You've got the brook kidron brook, and it's kind of a, a rich area. He stops and he, and he teaches them very private moment. He, he stops at one of the, the grapevines, I imagine. He, he puts his his hand on it and he uses it like he often did with illustration to teach him Very powerful, powerful lesson. Same one he wants to teach us today, which is, guys, listen, I mean, I may not be with you physically here on earth but you've gotta stay attached with me.
You've got to abide in me. And then he pointed out something very important, which was like, you know, my father, the one that I've gotten up before any of y'all get up in the morning and I go out, I spend time in prayer with him. I've told you that there's not a word that comes outta my mouth that didn't come from him. I've told you that If you've seen me, you've seen the father. Guys, I want you to know that as you stay attached to me, even though I'm not here physically, my father has his hands on you. And he's guiding this. He's guiding the fruit that is in you. He's guiding the fruit of redemption that has been brought about by me coming as the sacrifice for sins. And so he starts into this passage, and let's look at it together in John 15, one through eight.
He says, I'm the true vine. The true vine. Now, they had always referred to Israel as the vine. He's standing there actually you can see the eastern side of the temple from, from the Kidron Valley and the Mount of Olives. And, and it had vines on it. They were so familiar with grape vines. So vineyards were, were a staple. They knew what they were. He looks down and he says, I'm the true vine. And he said, my father, he is the vine dresser or the gardener. He's the one that watches out after all the vines. And he says, he cuts away every branch in me that bears no fruit. May have been referring to Judas there we will talk further as to what he's talking about. But he says, while every branch that does bear fruit, what does he do? He prunes them.
So they'll even be more fruitful. And he tells the disciples, listen, you're already clean because of the word I've spoken to you, but you've got to remain in me. You've got to abide in me. He uses this same word 11 times, this same word. This is an important word. Otherwise, he wouldn't have taught disciples, he wouldn't want us to be studying it today, 2000 years later, he says, remain in me in verse four, as I also remain in you. So no branch can bear fruit by itself. Guys, I want you to know that you're right. You can do nothing when I'm gone. If you don't remain in me, you're not gonna get anything done. There's not gonna be no fruit. You have to remain in me. You gotta remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. Verse five, I am the vine, you're the branches.
If you remain in me and I and you, you'll bear much fruit apart from me. You can do nothing. If you do not remain in me. You're like that branch that's just thrown away, it withers. They're picked up, thrown into the fire burned. But if you do remain in me and my words remain in you, he had already told him they're gonna be getting the Holy Spirit who will remind him of everything that he said. So he said, if you remain in me, my words remain in you. You're gonna have a rich prayer life. Ask whatever you wish, because it'll be in me according to my will, and it will be done for you. And this will be to my father's glory that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be my disciples. Let's pray. Father, thank you for recording this conversation that you had while here on earth with the disciples the night before you were crucified.
May we take this to heart. May our hearts have fertile soil for your Holy Spirit to speak to us because we know somewhere in this passage we find ourselves and you want us to respond so that you can continue to do this work of bringing about much fruit through us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So this is the last I am, we've studied six. This is the seventh. I am the last one that Jesus uses. And in this we're really gonna focus in on the work of the Father, the gardener that he shows us here. And we're gonna look at five things. The first thing we wanna look at is that our Father, the gardener, he holds every branch in his hands. He tends to every branch, he holds them in his hands. No, he begins this with saying that I'm the true vine.
My father is the gardener, and he, he cuts off or he takes away every branch in me that bears no fruit. Now, there's a couple of ways that theologians have looked at this. One is that he is addressing those who said they were disciples, followers of Jesus, but they really weren't. Billy Graham said that there's a multitude of people in our church pews today that do not have a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. That it is one of the greatest mission fields that exists today. And you'd say, how can that be? How can that be? Well, it's because how many of y'all grew up in the South? I mean, you know, everybody was Christians, you went to church 'cause everybody else did it. Your mother and dad, they dragged you to church. And so you knew that Easter, you knew Christmas, you knew Jesus, God's son.
You know, John three 16, perhaps by heart. But that knowledge has never gone from your head into your heart. There's never been true repentance. And so what happened is that Jesus spoke about this very sharply. 'cause He said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter into the kingdom of heaven. He says that on the day of judgment, when there are folks that come up and they're gonna say, but, but Lord, I went to church. I tried to keep the 10 Commandments. You know, I know what John three 16 is. And it's like, I never knew you. It's like, how can that be? Well, and how can we know if we fall into that? You know, all of us at one point have questioned our salvation. And that's not the point of this is to question. However, we are told to work out our salvation.
So the first thing you have to do is look at your own fruit. Now, what is fruit? Well, fruit number one is the transformation of your own life. If Jesus comes into your life in the form of the Holy Spirit, you become a brand new creation. Two Corinthians five 17. All things become new. You become a new creation. And now as you live in the power of the spirit, as you abide with Christ, you experience the fruit that comes about from that life. Galatians 5 22 23 talks about the fruit of the spirit, not necessarily the plural fruits, because as a believer growing, you will grow in each one of those fruit. Okay? So you will see in your life greater evidence of love. All of a sudden you have the ability to love unlovable people joy, when times are bad peace that transcends all understanding. I can't stop because I gotta memorize.
I can't remember the next love, joy, peace, patience. It's not about going and buying a book at the bookstore on how to have more patience, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Faithful. I know I reverse two of them. Thank you. That means, you know, scriptures, way to go, guys. Good going. But are those evident in your life or are you just trying harder to have those? Now what happens is as you abide, you're not trying harder. You're abiding, you're surrendering. You're allowing God to live life through you. Jesus already said you can't do it by yourself. He tells you that right now. Now in my own walk with the Lord, 10 years after I accepted Christ, I was still on the bandwagon of doing these things that Christians do and not doing these things that Christians don't do. And it is frustrating as all get out.
And nobody ever told me that living the Christian life is impossible. I wish they had told me that, but it is impossible. Amen. It is impossible. You cannot do it. He was telling the disciples, he's telling us today you cannot do it. That's why when you place your, your faith in him and your trust in him, and the Holy Spirit comes and lives within your life, now you have the very power that resurrected Jesus from the grave. In John 14, in John 16, the neighboring chapters, Jesus talks a lot about the Holy Spirit. What you find in this teaching passage is the triune God, father, son, and Holy Spirit. And you'll find that each has a role that is absolutely necessary in our Christian walk. Alright, so he's wanting us to know now. So the question is, can you, so if you look at the Greek word for cutaway or remove it also that Greek word also means to lift up.
And as they've studied the ancient practices of these gardeners, they see where they're walking along. And their goal is that every branch produces fruit. They find branch just laying there in the dirt. He goes, he picks it up, he cleans it, he cuts away any unhealthy part of it, and he lifts it up so that it will get more light so that it won't rot in the dampness so that it gets more air and that it begins producing fruit. So we see two different views of this particular passage. But the, here, here, one of the main things I've seen is if, if person has genuine redemption story where they are truly a believer but have been distanced from God, then listen, guys, it's gonna be the most miserable person in the world because a person who has never had Christ truly come in and save them, they are walking out their nature of being a sinner.
They don't have spirit of God living in them. If someone places their their faith into Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live within them. Now, if they try to walk in a way that's not according to the Lord, they're gonna be miserable because the spirit of God lives in them and they are not walking according to their nature. Yes, sir. And so you can believe, do you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your life? That's so important for us. So we see that He, he holds every branch in his hand regardless of, of where they are. We know that sometimes we talk about good works and we get hung up on fruits, good works and so forth. Ephesians 2, 8, 9, we probably quote that more than anything else by saying that salvation comes by faith. Okay? If you go ahead, it's by grace, you've been saved through faith.
It's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. But we don't. Look at verse 10, look at verse 10 with me. For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do what? Good works. So you're not saved by good works, but you are saved for good works. That brings glory to God. If you are trying to do good works in your own flesh, number one, you're not gonna be able to. Number two, God's not have have any part of that. You're getting the glory. There's no glory for God. It's all the work of your flesh. So the message this morning is for us to learn that you cannot do it unless you are abiding in Christ under the father's loving care. Now, the second point, this is a hard point guys, as if that one wasn't hard enough, but there's a picture of the gardener holding pruning shears.
Now, I don't know who in here, expert on a pruning, I'm not like one of my favorite things used to be was to prune the crate myrtle that the builder put there. Finally, I've cut, I've uprooted that it's gone. I read every book on, on, on doing that thing, and I'm known as the, the crate murderer because y'all, you know, you, you may have tried it. So you know, you've got the little spoke wave where you go in and you pull and you know each little one. Then there's the, like, <inaudible> just saw through that whole sucker, and then it just looks like a naked tree trunk standing there. I don't know. And, and I got thinking, why do I even have that out in my yard? That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen. And that's what people are seeing when they see my house. I have to wait until the dead of the summer for it to grow back out to do that. But you know what, in vineyards, the gardeners, they'll cut away as much as 80% of last year's new growth in order to be able to increase the fruit. I've got azalea bushes right now that are beautiful in my yard that when they were pruned, I didn't think they were gonna come back to life. So needless to say, I don't understand pruning, but God does.
And he, and if you look in verse two, it says, every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear what? More fruit. So that means even if as a believer you have fruit in your life, then God takes the pruning shears and he applies the shears with love. He applies the shears with love. This is, it's, it's not a a punishment, it's a preparation in your life. It's not a punishment, it's a preparation in your life. He knows that there are areas of your life that are dragging you down. There are areas of your life that are keeping your focus and your heart's affections away from him, which is where life is found. And you have these other areas that are pulling you from that. And he wants to distance you from them. He wants to do this laser surgery where he takes those things that are unhealthy to your life and to get you to surrender those to him.
One John one, nine, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanses from all unrighteousness, that Greek word confess. It, it, it doesn't mean ask for forgiveness. It means if you come into agreement with God, that those things don't belong in your life and he's faithful and he'll help you move forward with them. Now, does it hurt? There is hurt, but you know what? It's good hurt. God's doing away with the stuff that needs to be done away with in your life. Okay? It's like the copper company back home where our dad and granddads worked and everything. There's a refinement process that the ore body goes through to be able to refine and to take out the, the metals. It's like when, when they asked Michelangelo, they said, Hey, how did you create the statue of David outta that chunk of marble?
And he said, I didn't really, I just chipped away everything that wasn't David. Wow. 'cause he warned wanted to reveal death. That's what God is about in our lives. Can you imagine what your life would be if you truly surrendered abided and allowed him to cut away all that junk in your life that messes with you? Wow. That's what he sees and it's his love. And when he does that, he promises to walk with you every step of the way when you're in a pruning season. And I put some notes in your in your sermon notes as to how to know if you're in a pruning season. Listen, he, he, he, he knows that you are striving and he just wants you to stop and abide in him because he knows number three, he knows that he is the one to nourish you through the connection that you have with the vine, with the branch.
In verses four and five, Jesus said, abide in me, remain in me, and I in you as the branch can't bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. You can't either, unless you abide in me. I'm the vine, you're the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he, it is that bears much fruit apart from me. You can do nothing because he knows that there's this reciprocal agreement. You abide in me and I abide in you. This isn't just holding on to God, it's also God holding on to you. The gardener will not let go. So if you were to abide, how do you know if you're abiding or not? Well, I've listed out in your notes, and quickly on the screen, I'm gonna run through some ways to know if you're in a season where you are not abiding, okay, first, how's your prayer life doing?
Is it rare? Is it routine? Is it dry? How's your fruit? If you do a fruit check on your own fruit? Do you see evidences of love, joy, peace, the other fruit actually increasing? Or you struggling with those? Do you find that you doing life in your own strength, trying harder rather than depending on the Lord? How about your joy and gratitude meter? Do you have a grateful heart? Is it easy for you to have gratefulness in thanksgiving? Do you have joy in the middle of adverse situations or do you find it easier to be critical? Judgmental?
What about your ability to get in the word? Do you look at the Bible outside of like Sunday morning? Do you wait on somebody else to, to feed you? Or you finding ways to get into the word by yourself? What about getting together with Christian community, with other believers who can come alongside you? Who can prop you up? Hebrews says, don't don't forsake the assembly together of your selves because you need encouragement until the day draws near. We need that community of believers. One of the greatest strengths of our church are Sunday morning life groups. If you're not in one, you're missing a key part of the Christian community that God wants you to be a part of so that you can have a greater life, a greater way of a, of, of abiding, of in those pruning areas that you find folks who are praying with you, meeting with you, having coffee with you.
Where's your peace? Do you have the peace that passes all understanding? What about when the Holy Spirit does, does tug at your heart? Are you quick to respond? Are you quick to go and just get on your knees before him? Or is it like, you know, I got enough going on in my life, I don't need something else to try to work on right now? How about you? Part of your, your prayer life? Are you more apt when you do have prayer life, which is in the car on the way to work to say, bless this, bless me, bless my kids, bless, bless my wife and, and bless this situation at work and, and give me more cells and get rid of my boss, and blah, blah, blah. Or do you come before him like the psalmist David did and said, oh God, search me and try me.
See if there are ways in me that that need to be removed, that need to be cut away so that I can be wholly focused on you so that the fruit that is abiding is to your glory. Not to my glory, but to your glory. So are you abiding? And don't see this? Listen, friends, if you don't see this in your life, it's not too late. Jesus is offering an invitation to come abide in me. He's not asking you to try harder. He's asking you to stay closer to him. That's what he's doing. Listen, the gardener isn't looking to get rid of you. He's looking to reconnect you. Remember his, his message is not about fear, it's about fruit. It's not about earning God's love. There's nothing you can do that will make him love you more. And nothing that you can do that will make him love you less. It's about experiencing God's love from him to you and then from you flowing out. It is an invitation for you to experience life in ways that you've not experienced before. Don't you want that?
This is a great week to begin getting into the word, to begin getting into prayer time. I've given you in your sermon notes, I'll shoot it out on social media. There's also a QR on on the screen here. It's a great Holy Week devotional in the Bible app. It's some rich stuff that you just need to get alone. Say aside your time, your devotions, your heart to the Lord. Spend time with him. Should I have my time with Lord in the morning or or at night? Yes. Yes, absolutely. I wouldn't wanna start my day without him if I wait till the very end of the day. But I wouldn't wanna deprive myself at the end of the day of looking back and seeing how he worked in the course of the day. And I don't wanna deprive myself of walking with him in the course of the day when things are bad, when things are good to offer him thanksgiving.
When things are bad to say, God, I'm dependent upon you. I can't handle this. Only you can handle that. Because we've gotta remember that he develops lasting fruit in our lives. Lasting fruit. In verse eight says, by this, my father's glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. We are the salt and the light to make a difference in this world because our lives should be radically different if we are abiding and exhibiting the fruit that God brings about. So he doesn't call us to spiritual survival. He draws us to spiritual abundance that's found in him. And then the last point is that he promises to stay with us every season of life, regardless of what you're going through. And believe me, my family in these last few years, it hadn't been a walk in the park for us. We've gone through multiple things as you know, whether that's cancer, heart attacks, heart surgery, car accidents, I mean deaths, you name it.
And we want through that. And the thing we can be assured in John 1516, he reminds him, listen, you didn't choose me. I chose you and I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide when you feel abandoned or forgotten. Remember, he chose you. He planted you. He tends to you and he will never let you go. There was an old vineyard and it had been a harsh winter and everybody had written it off. They thought all the vines were dead. And there were this old seasoned vine dresser and they couldn't figure out why he kept messing with it. And he said, listen, you stopped trusting the pruning. He said, I've seen too many springs that follow too many winters to give up on what looks to be dead to an untrained eye.