Abiding in God: The Path to Spiritual Growth

The truth is, and Chris said it a minute ago as he was partaking and leading worship, God never promised that things were going to be perfect all the time. He did promise he would be with us. That's one of the final things that Jesus said on earth. And lo, I will be with you even to the end of days. And so we have a promise from God to never leave us or to never forsake us. [00:01:23] (27 seconds)  #GodsUnfailingPresence

See, as we read this, there's something we got to understand and it's this. We must recognize the roles. We must recognize the roles. You know, every single company has an organizational chart. If you're in a big company, it might be a big organizational chart, but every company has an organizational chart, whether it be written or implied, and these charts change sometimes. New person in charge, restructures, new thing, and things get moved around. In the kingdom of God, here's the org chart. Are you ready? God's the vine dresser. Jesus is the vine. We're the branches. That doesn't change. [00:05:24] (38 seconds)  #KingdomRolesUnchanged

We as branches produce the fruit, but we only bear fruit if we remain connected to the vine. We only bear fruit if we remain connected to the vine. See, we can go right now and find a tree that's got some fruit on it, and we can cut off the branch. And for a little while, it'll look like it's still good. But the minute that there is a cut, it begins to die out because there is no longer sap that is going through it to go into the branch, and the fruit production stops. [00:07:47] (44 seconds)  #ConnectedToTheVine

Jesus said this, apart from me, you can do nothing. Nothing. Nothing. But many of us, we tend to disconnect from God and the vine because we don't see what we expected to see or because we didn't like the pruning that was taking place. [00:10:58] (34 seconds)  #NothingWithoutChrist

We are so obsessed with the production of fruit and we measure our production of fruit against other people's production of fruit that if we see that there's a piece of us that was pruned off, we immediately get upset instead of realizing that the vine dresser is trying to allow for us to produce better quality fruit and even more fruit. [00:13:04] (25 seconds)  #TrustTheVineDresser

We bear fruit based on our connection to the vine and the pruning we endure. Based on our connection to the vine and the pruning we endure. Picture this for a second. If it was a cartoon, you would see a vine dresser come and cut a piece of a tree to prune it. And the tree might say, oh, that hurt. And if you ever break off a piece of a tree, you'll see sap. You'll see something that comes out of it. And pruning sometimes does hurt. But we've got to trust the vine dresser. We've got to trust that he is the expert. That he is the specialist. That he knows exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it. So that we can produce the fruit we're called to produce. [00:17:05] (49 seconds)  #EndurePruningStayConnected

You want to walk in deeper joy? Spend more time with God. Give him your intentional time. Start your day with him. Don't give him the leftovers. Start your day with him. Give him your best. Give him of you. And I will tell you this, the time you spend with God isn't wasted. It will always produce fruit. [00:19:49] (34 seconds)  #AllowGodToWork

And sometimes you and I, because we don't like the pruning, we choose to walk away. We choose to not abide in him. And I challenge you, abide, remain, stay connected to the vine. In the moments of good, stay connected to the vine. Because Jesus said, he that doesn't bear fruit, my father cuts off. But he that bears fruit, he prunes, that he may produce more fruit. [00:25:21] (41 seconds)  #StayInTheVine

It's like having a gym membership and getting upset and canceling it when you never went to the gym. you never prayed, never worship, never spent time in the word, never congregate, never attend small group, never plug in with people, never become vulnerable to allow someone to mentor and work with you. God, I tried. No, we didn't. we got the membership and we never went because we chose not to abide. [00:29:07] (42 seconds)

``God is so cool because he just moves differently in each service. I felt in my spirit during this service that the thought, the inclination of this is the last chance I'm giving you, God, and we're done. But God says to you today, son, daughter, I haven't given up on you. Choose to abide. You're going to see the production of fruit. Choose to abide. [00:35:26] (38 seconds)