Oct 10

Written by: jyankey
10/10/2011 11:06 AM 

Abide in Me

John 15.1-17 (MSG)

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Pastor Allison Yankey

 

Series Starter:

    Today, we are introducing a 3-week series focusing on the 5 membership vows that we each commit to as we become members of this church. We commit to contributing our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness. As we look at the whole of Scripture, we get an understanding that the well-rounded Christian is truly contributing in these 5 ways. It is very difficult to be successful at living a life wholly devoted to God without these areas. This morning, we will be focusing specifically on prayers and presence and what an impact that contribution can have on the life of the individual. In the next two weeks, Pastors Ted and Kaye will be focusing on the gifts, service, and witness, and leading us to understand how contributing in those areas can benefit not only the individual but the church as well. So let us open our hearts and minds to God this morning as we begin with prayer.

 

[prayer]

 

Have you ever felt disconnected? Sure, we've got a million and one ways to connect with one another whether as simple as mailing a card to a friend or as technologically complex as updating your Facebook status. And certainly with the passing of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, we are momentarily more attuned to the great leaps and advances that have been made in technology over the last 20 years. But with all these ways to be plugged in and connected to one another, are we truly feeling connected?

 

Loneliness has often been described as "the painful awareness that we lack meaningful contact with others." It isn't that we don't feel like we have friends or acquaintances but rather that we feel like we don't mean anything to other people. When you are truly invested in another individual, you take the time to express your interest, spend time with them, and seek to grow that relationship. As your friendship grows, you begin to see the fruit of that relationship – shared or new interests, joy, connectedness to another individual.

 

It is precisely that meaningful contact with others that we are discussing this morning, and particularly, it is that meaningful contact with God. This morning's passage is from the book of John, chapter 15, verses 1- 17. At this point in John, Jesus has several teachings on various topics, but most of them are teachings to the disciples about how to carry on once He has died and how to stay connected to one another and to Him. This particular passage illustrates what a correct relationship with God should look like and what one can expect to see as a result of such a healthy relationship.

 

As the chapter opens in verse 1, Jesus says, "I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer." Straightaway, Jesus wants to lay the groundwork for who is really in charge. The main connection point, the One whom we are dealing with and connected to is Christ, while God the Father is calling the shots. He then follows to let us know that we aren't just connected to Him to have a traveling buddy, but instead, He expects that by being connected to Him we will produce fruit. And even more so, He warns that if you are producing fruit, you will probably experience some pruning in your life so that you can produce even greater, more abundant fruit.

 

Now, many of you may be thinking, as I generally do, that you know little to nothing about gardening, or you may be struggling to connect the dots to how pruning and yielding fruit relate to the Christian journey. So, let's take a moment and break down what exactly is meant by producing fruit and being pruned.

 

First, Jesus talks about branches that produce grapes, or fruit. What this means is that there is some sort of positive result based on the relationship you have with Him. Just as a healthy tree produces leaves and perhaps flowers, so a healthy relationship should produce a positive result such as joy, trust, care, and concern. We'll talk much more next week about what producing fruit looks like with regards to our relationship with God.

 

Secondly, Jesus talks about being pruned. When you look at nature, there are very few things that are created that are pure just on their own. For instance, gold doesn't naturally just become pure gold. It must first be heated, skimmed, and refined. Then, it becomes the beautiful gold product that we recognize it to be. So too with our Christian journey. We cannot expect to simply wake up, choose to follow Christ, and then expect to behave and respond exactly as we are called. It takes time, and it takes refining. So, God gives us situations that help to refine us, to purify us, to mold and shape us into who He desires us to be so that we can produce more of what He desires and less of our own creation.

 

So we jump to verse 4, which helps us identify how to get to where God is calling us. Jesus simply says, "Live in Me. Make your home in Me just as I do in you." He is calling us to be connected to Him in such a way as to create a meaningful relationship. He says, "In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me." Consider this. The vine is the main support system of the plant. It provides nutrients and all the essentials to the branches which then, under the right circumstances and proper care, will produce fruit. However, if I choose to remove the branch from the vine, what is left to provide it with the essentials and nutrients? It cannot survive on its own, and it especially cannot produce any fruit.

 

So, if we know this to be true about nature, why do we not apply it to our own lives, particularly our spiritual lives? If we remove ourselves from the source of that which is supplying our essentials, our daily bread, our breath, our life, our very being, how do we expect to thrive, let alone survive?

 

I see a few reasons to explain this. First, we don't believe that God is truly the source of that which is supplying our essentials. A.W. Tozer says that what we believe about God is essentially the most important thing about our faith journey. If we believe God to be strong, true, and able to supply all our needs, we will be willing and able to rely on Him. If, instead, we believe Him to simply be a figment of our imagination or simply an exulted version of a historical figure, then we will never be able to move past that thought into a place where we fully rely on Him.

 

Second, we believe that God is the source, but we believe that we have enough control and strength to do it on our own. One of the fascinating results of our technological era is our belief that we have full control over our lives. Technology has allowed us to do so much more in so much less time, and it has given us the illusion of control. This gives us less reason to need to rely on others for support or guidance, and unfortunately, that includes God. So at this belief stage, we believe that God is able to provide all, but we'd like to try to do it ourselves first.     

 

Third, we are simply too lazy and consumed with our own lives and activities to take the time to be truly connected to God through the avenues He so readily provides. Let's face it. We are a busy people. We are no longer slaves to nature, meaning that our work days are not defined by what we can get done from sun up to sun down, nor do we adhere to taking a Sabbath, at least not very often. We want the best for our families, financially and experientially, even if that means sacrificing our time with God. So when we look at our calendars and decide it is time to cut something from our schedules, unfortunately the first thing to go is Sunday morning worship, Wednesday night activities, or our morning devotions.

 

And yet, I believe that this is precisely the wrong way to go about things. You see, God wants to be collaborators with us in His work here on earth. Verse 5: "When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant." You see, He doesn't expect to do everything or to be the only one connected to us. He gave us His Son as an example of how to live, and He gave us His Holy Spirit so that we would always have Him with us. Not so that we could sit back and watch God do all the work but so that we could be the hands and feet of Jesus.

 

He wants us to be connected with Him. To abide in Him. To take refuge in Him. To rest in Him. Why? Because He loves us so deeply, so completely, so extravagantly. Jesus walked this earth to show us what loving the Father truly looks like, and it's written so beautifully here in verses 9 and 10 in the Message: "I've loved you the way the Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done – kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in His love." I love the imagery that Peterson has created here, the idea that Jesus is at home in the Father's love and that we too are to make ourselves at home.

 

Have you ever heard of the phrase "refrigerator rights"? Basically, it describes relationships between people based on comfort level. If someone is truly at home in someone else's house, they feel comfortable enough to get something out of a cabinet or refrigerator without having to really wait or ask permission. They feel at home. You know the feeling, right? There are some houses of friends where you are very careful to attend to where you sit, how you speak, what you eat, almost to the point where you don't quite feel like yourself. You feel very much like a guest, if not an intruder, in this person's home. And other friends you worry much less about what you say, where and how you sit, how you look, whether you grab your own drink, and it all feels much less formal – more at home and comfortable. So too with our relationship with God. He wants us to be so comfortable with His love that we naturally gravitate toward Him as our honest, true selves, not feeling the need to hide anything.

 

I believe what most often keeps us from fulfilling that which God has truly called us to is our willingness to spend time making ourselves at home in His love, our willingness to be in the waiting and to simply abide, or rest, in God. We have gotten so used to being human doings that we forget that God really called us to be human beings. We feel like we must be defined by our accomplishments, that we are judged by what we do, so we find it hard that we serve a God who calls us to just be. And then, when we finally get to the point where we are truly at home in God's love, and being who He desires us to be, then the fruit will be a natural result of that intimate and organic relationship that has already been formed.

 

God desires us to be full of joy, found in verse 11. This doesn't mean we have to be happy all the time, but we must learn to be content in Him. He wants us to find peace and joy in Him and in His love. So, how do we learn to simply abide in God? To rest in Him? I believe we start with our first two membership vows. Prayers and Presence.

 

First, we must begin a connection with God through the vehicle of prayer. Just like speaking to a friend, God wants us to come before Him, comfortably and naturally, so that we can have a conversation with Him. We don't always have to speak. Sometimes we just need to sit in awe of who He is and what He has done. But if we are not first and foremost connecting with God through prayer, then we might as well be like the unattached branch that is receiving no nutrients or essentials.

 

Second, we have to show up. We have to be present. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, it is possible to be a Christian on your own, but it is extremely difficult. We show up on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights and all throughout the week at our various functions in order to connect first to God and second to others. This is so vitally important to the growth and vitality of our Christian journeys because we need to be able to strengthen one another in our faith. Some days, you may need to lean on others, to get their advice and wisdom, to see how they have been walking the journey. But other days, you may be the person someone else needs to lean on. How unfortunate if you weren't there to give them that support. We have to be willing to show up. God shows up each and every moment, and He makes Himself constantly and consistently available to us. Why not take advantage of that?

 

Now, there is no sense in getting all flustered and trying to change the entire pattern of your life overnight. Instead, start small and change your definition of success. Some of us start with expectations that are way too high and we get frustrated when we can't make it all the way through to our goals. We certainly need to realize that we can and will accomplish great things through God, but not all things have to be great and grand. We have to be willing to start somewhere. Start by praying each morning before you get out of bed. Or change just one habit – instead of watching the morning news, read a passage of Scripture. Or begin to write verses on your mirror to focus on while you get ready in the morning. Or perhaps you recognize that you are not present enough. Start by coming one additional Sunday or Wednesday a month. Look for a new study that sounds interesting to you and get involved. Or simply begin to truly evaluate the eternal significance of the decisions you make on how you spend your time.

 

And second, recognize the season of your life. Branches don't simply sprout one day and produce fruit the next. They have to have time to strengthen and grow before they are ready to produce. So too with our Christian journey. And sometimes, we have to strengthen and grow in the middle of our journey. Not just at the beginning. We are constantly growing and changing and being pruned for the glory of God. So we must always consider, is this a time when I need to spend some time being strengthened in my relationship with God or am I ready to produce more abundant fruit?

 

And finally, we have to simply learn to pause. To listen. To rest. I am giving you permission to take a few extra moments today to simply listen to God. Pause the game on your DVR for an extra 15 minutes, take time to pray before your noon or evening meal, take time to talk to your family about what God has been doing in your life. Whatever it is that works for you, take time to allow God to abide in you, and you in Him.

 

 

[Abide with Me: UMH #700 vs.1-3]