You need to have the peace of God in your life. This is so important. And you need this when you're abiding in this world, when things are going in chaos, when you don't have a job, you know, when, you know, aerosol cans are falling on your feet and, you know, iced tea glass shattering all over you, right? You need to have a peace that is not depending on the world or your circumstances. You need to have the peace of God.
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These eight verses are a key for your life in Christ. You miss these, and it's very difficult to continue in your Christian life. These eight verses are so powerful and so packed because we need to understand if you're not abiding in Jesus Christ, you can't do anything. This is our key for living a Christian life, one that is abundant.
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It's kind of like Jesus is showing that his whole life here was that I want you to nourish and feed on me and my life. I want you to be understanding of that. And so as we begin looking at the wine, he wants us to understand that.
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We as branches in Christ look somewhat like the Savior. We were created in his image. We have that identity. But Jesus says, I want you to conform to my image. Romans 29a says, whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be formed to the image of his Son. This is important because we forget that just because we have a relationship in God, he wants us to be like his Son. He wants us to look more and more like Jesus every day.
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You become what you worship. You become what you worship. You become what takes all of your time. So that's why when we worship God, we can become like Him. But when our efforts are focused somewhere else, then we become like that. It's very simple to understand.
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So Jesus comes and says, listen, don't pattern yourself after the world or pattern yourself after the law and commandments and traditions, but pattern yourself after me. I am the true vine.
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We need someone to come alongside of us, help us, remember the treasure of the Trinity, the Spirit is our helper, the Father is at work in us, and that Christ is our pattern. We need the vine dresser. Now that word in Greek simply means one who works the earth. That's it. We call them farmers. Our heavenly Father is a farmer to you and I, because he wants to not only, he's created you. He not only gives you growth and causes your growth, but he's also looking for some fruit.
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This is his goal. When it's all said and done, everything that we have, career, family, everything, will not be there. It will be taken away. And what's going to be in front of us is what did we do with Jesus? Were we becoming more like him? This is what the Father is desiring to do.
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I've got the relationship. I'm going to heaven. I've got eternal life. But we don't talk to him. We don't have fellowship with him.
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A good definition is, abiding is having an intimate fellowship with Jesus. You have to be clean because of the word spoken to you. What's he talking about there? You, but if you want to be in the vine of Christ, you can't be a dirty branch. Does that make sense? You have to have been cleansed. You have to have been made right and then placed into the vine. That's why Jesus says, you have been made clean. That's why you can abide in me.
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Don't call yourself unclean when God's made you clean. You are righteous and that's the only reason why you're in the vine you can put into the vine he's attached you in first John it says that my little children I I want you to know that you are forgiven of your sins that's the first thing that people need to know because they struggle with whether they what they've done it can be forgiven and then they don't forgive themselves listen if God makes you clean don't call yourself unclean he's the one who has put you into the vine this is so important because it affects your fellowship.
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God wants you to abide in him this is so important John 15 4 through 5 says abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine you neither can you unless you abide in me. I'm the vine, you're the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.
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Jesus has bought us with his blood. He's not just living in your house. He owns your house. He is the one who has the title deed to your house. And yet we treat him like he's just a visitor to stay. Only a part. But he wants us to allow him to live in us. We need to do that.
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You know, we have been given a new nature. And that new nature, 2 Corinthians 5, he's a new creation. Old things have passed away. I hear this with so many people. God is not working with your old nature. He's not renovating. He's not repainting. He's not putting wallpaper up. He's not changing the lights. He's not giving you a paint job on your old nature. He was glorified in God's eyes when his son died. It is slated for the wrecking ball. I'm not working with your old nature anymore. I'm going to give you a new nature.
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Now it is possible to be a branch in Christ and bear no fruit. No fruit. That would be the first one. Letter A. Right? John 15 .2 says Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. We actually can be in a relationship with Jesus, but yet be disconnected in fellowship.
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The reason why I'm saying this is that we all have put our trust in.in Christ, and we are all in the vine. What Jesus wants us to do is to grow, abide with him, so that we can produce these fruits, that we can do these good works.
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What's hindering you from abiding in Christ? What is sucking the life out of you from growing and producing fruit? What's keeping you back? You've got to look at what you're doing in abiding in Christ. Am I allowing him? Am I feeding on him?
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There must be a full concentration of the thoughts and affections on Christ, a complete surrender to him, allowing him to work through us, a constant looking to him for grace.
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The love of God is the backbone of all that fruit. And joy and peace, long -suffering, kindness, goodness, all of that comes from love. If you don't have the Father's love, you're not going to have self -control. If you don't have the Father's love, you're not going to be patient. If you don't have the Father's love, you're not going to have peace or joy. You understand? Everything has to come from that backbone. It all comes out from that.
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What comes out of your mouth is the next thing. See, if it's in your heart, it's going to come out of your mouth. So it would be praise. You're so thankful for what God has done in you and in giving you this character that you have praise. This is our sign of any external fruit. What we say about God and respond in thanksgiving from our hearts of gratitude.
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The disconnect in that circle is abide in me. You disconnect that, and you will not go and tell. You may even stop...Yeah, we're bearing fruit, but he wants more fruit. And if you want more fruit...you would prune so that your plants would get more blossoms and more fruit.
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The fruit that you bear is not made for you to consume. It's for others. Think about it. The fruit that you bear, the good works they do, is not for you, but it's for others. So that they may partake. And the more fruit we bear and we see others consume, they themselves can begin to be like Christ too.
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If you're not growing in your Christian life it's because you're not abiding in him it's nothing about getting to church all the time it's about abiding living in Jesus spending time with him his word treasuring his word keeping his word because you love him and then seeing yourself transformed by his word and becoming more like him.
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