Just stay right here with me. Stay right here with me.

You know why we're standing? You know why we're standing? Because Jesus is still changing lives. That's why we're standing.

You know why we're standing? Because I just saw a dad lead a whole family into the waters of baptism. That's why we're standing.

We're standing because we saw boys and girls emphatically and energetically, when they were asked, "Are you following Jesus in baptism today?" They didn't say, "Mm, yeah." They said, "Yes. Yes."

We're standing today, right now, in this moment, to say yes to Jesus. We're saying yes, that He loves us. Yes, that He knows us. And yes, that we want to celebrate as we watch lives be changed.

Did you know this week—I just want to, I just want to—this is a pastor brag. Can I do this? Is this okay? I just wanted to say this.

You know, this week in the offices of our staff members, Paula Reynolds led a lady to Christ in her office on Monday. Adam Cox, as he was having a celebration meeting with another child, led that child—just for the sake of clarity of the gospel—led that child to faith in Jesus.

Isn't that good? We know of others this week that are coming to faith.

Some of you, you're here today. You're here this morning because somebody said, "Hey, something's going on at my church called Prestonwood. And I want you to come be a part of what God's doing. It's this crazy place where people love Jesus and the Spirit of God is moving. And it's so nuts that when God does something amazing, we stand and celebrate. And I want you to come be a part of what God's doing and cheer."

So one more time, can you celebrate what Jesus is doing in the lives of people today?

All right, now you can sit down. Now you can sit down.

Hey, my name is Jonathan. I'm our pastor here at the North Campus. And we're so glad if you're visiting with us today, either in the room, or maybe you're connecting with us somewhere around the world online.

You know, every Sunday in the life of Prestonwood and our ministries here, we know that we have folks that are connecting with us, watching our services, participating with us. And so if that's you, I want to say a special word of welcome to you.

I hope that you've got your Bible and your heart ready because we're going to meet with Jesus today. You've already seen the celebration that's happening in the life of this church.

And so online family, we're so glad that you are a part of today. And here in the room, if you're a guest with us, maybe you're visiting with us. I was shaking hands in the back and I just met several new people today. Folks that came with friends. And so glad that you're here.

I just want you to know that we've been praying for you. So you don't know my name. That's okay. We've been praying for you. We've been praying that today would be a special day. Today would be a day maybe for the first time ever that you would come to know this Jesus that we just stood in honor of and He'd come into your life and change you from the inside out and make you a new person.

That's what this church, so Prestonwood, is all about. It's just a big family of people whose lives have been turned upside down because of the goodness and the grace of Jesus. Amen. Church. That's who we are.

So if you're a guest today, I want to say a special word of welcome. So glad that you are here today.

Now, if you are a guest with us, especially for the first time, I want you to do something for me. Sometime during this service, if you'll take out your device, text the word CONNECT to the number 55125.

And when you do, I don't know about you, but this guy called spam has been blowing my phone up every day, 10 times a day. I don't know if you struggle with that at all, but hey, that's not what we're hoping to do. We don't want to bother you or harass you.

What we do want to do, though, is help you get connected into this local body called Prestonwood. And so if you've got questions or just ways that you want to learn more about what we're doing, text the word CONNECT.

If you're a guest today, do that for me. That's your gift back to us. Let us know that you were here. When all that information comes up on your screen, tap into that, fill all that out for us. It'll kick it back to our team so we can be praying for you.

And on your way out of our service today, I really encourage you to go by Guest Central. Did you see the new Guest Central out there, by the way? It's looking pretty good.

And so we want to have a place and a space where folks, especially that are new to our church, can be welcomed and encouraged. So go out to Guest Central today.

If you're visiting with us, we'd love to share a book with you that our senior pastor, Dr. Jack Graham, has written. We want to put that in your hands today if you're a guest with us and bless you on your way out.

And if you have questions about our church, we want to answer those as well to help you feel a part and at home at this place called Prestonwood here at our North Campus.

And so ushers, I want to invite you to come forward at this time. We're going to move into a time of giving. This is a part of our worship.

So when we give, as I've said this to you many times now, every week, we take a moment in our service to come back and just worship through giving, to let the Lord know out of an abundance of gratitude our desire to be generous, to advance the Lord's work through the ministry of our church.

And you do that, Prestonwood, so well. I want to say thank you for your faithfulness week in and week out through your tithes and your offering. Your obedience in that way as a church allows us to do all that we do.

And along with that today, this Sunday, it's time change Sunday, by the way. We got that hour back for you. You're welcome. So hopefully that you put that to good work this morning. You should be awake and alive and ready to worship.

You know, this morning, we're also going to be announcing our world mission offering emphasis.

Now, if you're a little bit new to our church, here's what this is, what we do.

Every year, along with the regular tithes and offerings of you, God's people, all of us as faithful members giving together for the weekly ministry needs of our church, above and beyond that, we have partnerships and missionaries and ministry organizations.

And as a Southern Baptist church, we partner with those organizations, our International Mission Board, and so many other important strategic mission groups that we support as a church all over the world.

And here in the United States through our Prestonwood network church planters.

So during this season, this holiday season, really, we make an effort and a commitment as a church to give over and above to support the work of God all over the world.

You know, today, church, you know, today we have brothers and sisters in Nigeria that woke up this morning under very threat of life to speak the name of Jesus.

You know that we have friends, brothers and sisters in Jesus all over the world who it may cost them dearly to stand up for the name of Jesus.

You might say, why do we, why do we take time to give? We're already tithing and giving. Why, why give above? Why give above and beyond?

Because the message of the gospel is worth it. Amen. And we want the whole world to know.

So when you give today, just know along with your regular tithe and offering, as you give over and above, I want to challenge you to step into an extra measure of giving to support the work of God all over the world through our church.

As every one of those dollars goes from this place to that work to see people come to faith in Jesus.

So as we prepare to give, let's prepare our hearts. Let's pray right now in the quietness of this moment with your heads bowed, your eyes closed, our hearts are ready.

Lord Jesus, we're coming to you. We're calling out to you and we're asking you, Father, that you continue to meet with us as we worship you.

We've already lifted up your name high, Jesus, the highest we can lift it, higher and higher.

Jesus, we want to celebrate and worship what you've done in our lives, who you are now, Lord, as we give.

Father, we want our hearts to be stirred to greater obedience, to give out of an overflow of gratitude. A generous and cheerful heart to give back is just a picture of what you've given to us, that you might take it, Lord, and use it, multiply it in the way that only you can to great effect around the world.

And now, Jesus, as we prepare our hearts in just a moment to come to your word, make us ready.

Lord, we want to abide with you today as you abide with us.

So, Jesus, as we sing, as we give, and as we learn together, we ask that you be present in this place.

Move us to you. Move us to greater obedience in our lives and be glorified by our services today.

We ask it in your name, Jesus. Amen.

Open your Bibles to the Gospel of John chapter 15. John chapter 15.

Jesus is our living hope today. He's alive. And we come to worship Him.

Church, thank you for your worship today, for your joy and your celebration. The spirit of your worship is so encouraging.

And it's good to be in the house of the Lord today. Amen. It's good to be in the house of the Lord today.

I heard somebody in the back say it. I was like, I'm going to agree with you. It's good to be in the house of the Lord.

We do. We have a living hope. We serve a living Savior. He's alive. And that's the life that we want to live. It's the life we're called to live in Christ.

We're in a series of messages called the Christ-centered life. We're working through the Gospel of John in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Chapters 13 all the way through chapter 16.

And we're learning what it means for Jesus to live, for Jesus to be at the center of our lives, and for us to be planted in His love, to live the life that He has called us to live—the Christ-centered life.

Well, every year, and it's been happening now for decades, it's a movement that started probably about 60, 70 years ago called the self-help movement.

And I did a little research. It turns out every year—this surprised me—over 15,000 new self-help books come out every year.

I don't know how we have that many ideas to help ourselves. 15,000.

I looked up some of the titles of this year's bestsellers in the self-help category. You'll find these in most bookstores for sure.

One title is this: Who Better Than You? The Art of Healthy Arrogance and Dreaming Big.

Now there's a Jesus title for you.

Crush Your Money Goals. It's probably good. A lot of us feel crushed by money.

How to Change What's Not Working. It's the testimony of every parent raising teenagers. Who can bear witness? We're going to get there.

Secrets of Adulthood. Interesting.

This one grabbed my eye: How to Be Enough.

Now the world is full, really on a never-ending search to learn the secret to living a meaningful life, a purposeful life.

And my guess is, next year there will be 15,000 more titles similar to those as the search continues.

I'd love to save all of us some time and some money. I'd love for you to save your time on having to search for the purpose and meaning of life.

We came here to tell you this morning that Jesus is the meaning of life. He is the one that can give you purpose and hope and meaning in your life.

He's the answer for all that you're searching for.

Knowing Him as Savior and Lord gives us, gives you, gives me our purpose.

And the life that He calls us to live, the Bible tells us, and we're going to learn this morning in John 15, should be a fruitful life—a fruit-bearing life.

So we're going to call the message today The Vine Life.

What does it mean to be an abider? An energized, enthusiastic abider. A fruit in Jesus.

We're going to come to the text today and we're going to see Jesus teaching us how we can abide.

Beginning in John chapter 15, verse 1.

Here's what Jesus says:

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away.

And every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit.

And already you're clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

So abide in me and I in you.

And as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me."

Look at verse 5:

"I am the vine, and you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me you can do nothing."

Divine life.

What does it mean to be abiding in Jesus?

Jesus uses that word abide.

Some of you may be reading a Bible translation where the word remain appears. It's the same word.

In the original language of the Scripture, in the Greek language, it's the word meno.

Not the word mino, not m-i-n-o, but m-e-n-o.

It's a really important word.

In fact, it's so important to Jesus that He will use it ten times between verses 1 and 11 of John's Gospel in chapter 15.

Ten times.

So just a good rule of thumb if you're new to reading the Bible: any time Jesus repeats it more than once, you should pay—pay attention.

Ten times Jesus says abide.

The word abide there means remain or stay or lodge.

It's a hospitality term. It means come stay with me.

You are invited into a good place.

Jesus, the true vine, is inviting you to come and abide with Him.

And when you do, when I do, we will bear much fruit.

It's the growth guarantee of the Christian life.

That if you abide with Jesus, your life will bear the fruit that only He can produce.

So how do we do this? How do we abide?

Jesus says for us to do it that many times. He must mean it. It must be serious.

So how can we abide together? What does it mean to be an abider?

Well, abiders do, I think today, three things that we see in this important passage.

Here's the first one:

An abider, if we're going to abide, abiders desire the blessing of connection—the blessing of connection.

I said this in the first service.

I really appreciate for you as a church here in North Campus just the way that every Sunday, I'm so proud of you.

I see so many Bibles out, pages turning, notes and pens moving.

It's really important.

If you're new to following Jesus, one of the reasons why you see your neighbor probably doing that today, we bring a copy of God's Word with us to the service.

We open it up.

Because that's what we believe here at our church.

But also because we want to learn and grow beyond Sunday morning.

And so my prayer and hope is that you are taking notes today and that you're thinking about what we're learning together here and in our life groups so you can grow and bear fruit as a good abider this week.

That ought to be our desire every day.

As an abider in Jesus, as one who is remaining in Jesus, as He remains with us, I ought to desire a connection with Jesus every day.

More and more.

To be with Him. To be like Him. To know Him.

Why?

Well, Jesus says because He's the true vine.

Look at verse one.

Jesus says, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser."

It's an identity term.

Seven times in the Gospel of John, Jesus will use this "I am" language.

"I am the door. I am the gate. I am the bread of life. I'm the way, the truth, the life. And I am the true vine."

And I'm really glad He says it this way because He doesn't just call Himself one of them.

"I am the vine."

He says, "I am the true vine."

The word true there means genuine.

It means more than rare.

One of a kind and unmatched.

That's what it means.

You go to a local auction anytime and you'll find people that are betting on the wildest things you could possibly imagine.

Things that they have decided are rare and genuine and valuable.

Let me just give you some examples.

Folks will auction off cars.

I saw a 1962 Ferrari GT. It was auctioned the other day for tens of thousands of dollars.

People will auction to buy coins, rare coins, stamps.

Somebody bought an $80,000 stamp a few years ago.

That's an expensive letter.

J.K. Rowling's chair that she sat in, to you Harry Potter people out there, tens of thousands of dollars her chair sold for.

I'm not making this up.

Justin Timberlake had a piece of half-eaten French toast.

Somebody bought it at auction.

I have questions for that person, a lot of questions.

Lady Gaga's plastic nails fell off at a concert.

Somebody auctioned them. They bought them.

The last violin played on the Titanic sold for over a million dollars.

Even a lock of Elvis Presley's hair.

Somebody had Elvis Presley's hair in a jar.

I want to talk to that person too.

And it sold.

You ready for this?

In 2002, Elvis's hair sold at auction for $115,000.

It's amazing.

The value that we will place on things that we think are rare or genuine.

But here's what's truly priceless.

Here's what's immeasurable in value.

You would never get to a high enough number at an auction to value this truth:

That the only way to be alive is to be alive in Christ.

There's no greater truth that any of us could ever know.

Why?

Because Jesus says, "I'm the real thing. I'm the genuine article. I am the true vine."

That's how He can make the claim later in verse 4:

"Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me."

Verse 5:

"I'm the vine. You're the branch. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. But without me, apart from me, you can do nothing."

Now that's a bold claim for Jesus to make unless it's true.

And if it's true, some very important things become true for us as abiders.

I'm living this right now in this moment as I stand before you.

Do you understand that there is no way for me to faithfully preach to you as your pastor apart from the power of God?

Unless I have the truth of God's Word and the power of the Holy Spirit behind me, lifting me up and literally coming from my mouth, I am just giving you a really helpful talk.

This is just an okay speech.

But listen to me.

With Jesus abiding with Him right now, what we have for you today is not a self-help talk.

It's a message for how you can know you are alive now and forever.

How you can become a branch on the vine.

Well, that's something altogether different.

But apart from Jesus, it's useless.

Husbands and wives, apart from Jesus, your marriage might be occasionally okay.

When the money's good and the job is working and the kids are fine and everything.

This describes about four minutes of our marriages, by the way, those things I just said.

As long as the conditions of our marriage are fine, we're good.

But apart from Jesus, that's all your marriage will ever be is fine.

The moment the circumstances and the conditions change, the moment somebody makes a mistake or stumbles, the moment things don't go your way or don't go right, all of a sudden things aren't good.

Jesus says, "Apart from me, you can do nothing."

But if you abide in me because I'm the true vine, then you can have a marriage that soars filled with fruit.

We can raise our kids to be really helpful rule followers.

We can teach them the do's and don'ts of life.

Many of us were raised with a religious bent to know what I should do and what I shouldn't do.

But listen, if Jesus is the true vine, and He is, and apart from Him, I can't really do anything of any good, and I can't.

But if I abide with Him, if I desire to be connected with Jesus as He is the vine, I can be His branch when He accepts me by His grace and places me and roots me and plants me in His life and His love.

Then listen, with Jesus abiding in Jesus, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Listen, I ought to desire as an abider to be connected with Jesus because He's the only way to live.

And when I'm on the vine, Jesus says you will bear fruit.

And that with Him, all things are possible.

Now let me be clear, this is not you and I making a deal with Jesus.

This is far bigger than some might have said in another generation, making my peace with God.

This is far greater than that.

This isn't you agreeing with Jesus and Jesus agreeing with you and you coming to terms on how it's going to be.

Jesus, I'll do my part, you do your part.

And when the chips fall down on that moment before eternity, I'll be good with you and you'll be good with me.

Look at me, that's not salvation.

Salvation is where I understand that I am a sinner in need of grace, that Jesus went to the cross, took my sin, died, rose again.

That song we just sang.

And then when your body started to breathe and coming out of that grave, that's the resurrection we were singing about.

And because of the resurrection power of Jesus, if I receive that message, that gift of grace by faith, I become alive.

I'm alive in Christ.

Not what I can do because apart from Him, I can't do anything.

And that would certainly mean, by the way, friend, you can't possibly save yourself from the penalty and the cost of your sin.

But when you abide in Jesus, Jesus says, "I abide in you."

I want to be an abiding Christian.

How about you?

I want to be connected with Jesus, following Him faithfully, letting His fruit pour out of my life as I engage and stay connected with Him.

It's kind of like a friend of mine that I was in high school with in Virginia.

Some of you know my story.

I'm a pastor's kid.

So when people ask me where I'm from, I just say America because I lived everywhere.

And going into high school, I was living in Virginia at the time in Norfolk.

And in seventh and eighth grade, I became friends with a guy named Aaron.

And this was the early 90s.

This was the 20th century.

Okay.

And so Nirvana was huge and all that grunge movement was huge.

And Aaron was one of those guys.

He wore flannels to school every day.

I don't think he washed them for like a year.

And he was just that guy.

Now, I got to be really honest with you.

I said this in the last hour because a lot of our students sit in that service and I wanted them to hear this.

I wish I could tell you that 13, 14-year-old Jonathan was just an over-the-top witness in Aaron's life.

I wish that I could tell you that, man, I was just like every day sharing Jesus with Aaron.

Truth of the matter is, I was saved.

I loved Jesus.

I was starting to work out a call to ministry.

But I was a little bit stuck in the do's and don'ts of Christianity.

And I missed the opportunity to share my faith with Aaron in a bold way.

But here's the good news of the gospel: God can use anybody, anywhere, anytime, anyplace to bring people to faith.

And that summer when I went off to church camp like a good church kid, and we love church camp.

And I went off and served at Vacation Bible School and we love Vacation Bible School.

Aaron went off somewhere and heard the gospel.

I don't know.

He went to a camp somewhere and he met Jesus.

And I'm telling you, when Aaron and I got back to Great Bridge High School that fall in Norfolk, Virginia, that dude was on fire for Jesus.

Homeboy showed up at the hallways of his high school with a Bible in his hand, asking me when was the last time I shared Jesus.

That guy, because he knew I went to church, he wouldn't stop asking me questions about the Bible.

What about this story? Where is that? And how do we know this is true?

Guy was abiding in Jesus at such a level of joy that he couldn't get enough of Jesus.

And boy, I had to have a moment of repentance in my life because I thought, you know, it's been a little while since I've been that excited to be connected to Jesus.

How about you?

Has it been a while since you've lived with that kind of joy?

As an abider, are you desiring the connection with Jesus every day? Excited and enthusiastic?

Paul says in Philippians 3:10, "I want to know Christ."

That was Aaron.

Aaron woke up every day saying, "I want to know more about Jesus. I want to be with Him. I want to learn from Him. I want to grow in Him."

See, that's what happens for us as believers.

The longer that we desire to be connected with Jesus and abide with Him, here's what happens:

He begins to bear more fruit in your life and your life begins to look and talk and walk and taste like Jesus.

I love how one theologian put it one time.

He said, you know, the character of our fruit will match the nature of the vine.

That's true.

See, when you're planted in Jesus, when you're a branch on His vine, you don't set the terms.

He does.

And as you are abiding with Him, remaining, staying, learning, loving, joyfully waking up every morning before I swipe any social media or check any email or read any text or even check the weather or even make sure that my phone synced up on daylight savings time.

Before all of that, I wake up in the morning and I want to say, "Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. And I get another day to abide with You."

That's the Christian life.

That's the vine life.

I remember living in the vine.

I remember living in Florida.

I told you I was a pastor's kid.

We lived everywhere.

So before Virginia, it was Florida.

I remember living in Florida.

We had—and you Floridians out there that have come here to Texas, you can appreciate this—we had an orange tree in our backyard.

Pretty cool.

And so we never bought orange juice at the store because I remember regularly we would go out and I would pick those oranges off the tree and then my dad would squeeze it.

We'd drink freshly squeezed orange juice most days of the week.

It was awesome.

You know, not once, not one time did I ever walk out to that orange tree expecting to find apples.

I knew every time I would go to that tree, I was going to pick a ripe, delicious orange.

Why?

Because the fruit matched the tree.

The fruit matched the nature of the vine.

As followers of Jesus, that should be true of us.

Jesus says, "I want you to desire more and more to abide with me, to connect with me so that I will bear my fruit out of your life."

But there's another thing that we need to understand about abiders.

If we're going to be a faithful abider, we need to desire the correction of Jesus.

Look back to the scripture in John chapter 15.

We need to desire the blessing of correction.

Jesus says in verse 2, "Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away.

And every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit."

As an abider in Jesus, you ought to welcome the correction, the pruning power of our God.

I know when you look at me, the first thing that comes to your mind is, "Boy, that guy is a prolific farmer."

I know that.

I understand.

That was a joke, guys.

I know that's not true for me.

But I do love a little bit of yard work here and there.

And I do.

I'm just in preparing for today thinking about that word prune.

I did a little research, talked to some friends of mine that are really passionate about this space.

You know, I found out pruning is actually a really big deal if you're going to have a healthy garden.

Many of you understand this.

In fact, I brought some tools with me that I use every once in a while.

Don't be scared.

They're sharp.

I don't want to hang on to them.

These are some pruning shears that I use.

And when I use these, I use them because even though the blooms on the flowers and the plants are beautiful, sometimes as time goes on, you know this, they just begin to wilt.

And so we need to clip them off so that new fruit will grow.

That's the picture that Jesus is giving here.

He's saying the job of the Father, His heavenly handiwork, His ability as the master gardener, He knows exactly what and how to prune from the seed.

He knows exactly how to do it.

He knows the way it should be pruned from us so that we will bear more fruit.

And this is a great promise of God in our lives.

The fact that He wants to help us grow more by taking away, removing the things that would stunt our growth.

The word prune there in verse 2 literally means to clean or cleanse or purify.

And all of us can probably admit that there are a few things in our lives as we seek to abide or cleanse less or more that need to be pruned.

I can think of a few.

I think one of the things that God does for us is that He prunes what needs to grow.

So He encourages us to do more of the good thing.

This is consistency.

Look what Jesus says later.

He'll say, "Let my words abide in you."

Verse 7:

"If you abide in me and my words abide in you..."

I should have a desire if I'm going to be faithfully abiding in Jesus every day, I should have a desire for His word.

But often what happens, there's a song out there right now.

There's dust on our Bibles, brand new iPhones.

It's true.

Some of us, myself included, we are often too occasional and too casual with the access to God's word.

We forget this morning right around the world, friends.

There are brothers and sisters in Nigeria that are waking up and if they proclaim the truth of this book, they might lose their lives.

Do you know that?

We have brothers and sisters in Asia and South America and many parts—I would, I think, I believe there's persecution in parts of our nation.

We've got friends and missionaries and church planters who know if they stand on the word of God, if they speak the truth of Jesus, if they declare the name of Jesus, it's going to cost them.

Far be it from us, brothers and sisters, look right at me.

Friends, far be it from us if we have the feast of the word of God available to us every day and we walk by it and catch it.

Friends, far be it from us if we have the feast of the word of God available to us every day and catch it.

Ignore it.

An abider in Jesus wants to grow in their consistency with the word.

"Let your words abide in me," Jesus.

So why don't we let the Father do this for us this week?

Why don't we let Him prune some of that inconsistency and be more committed to our time in the word daily?

See what it says and put it to work.

Jesus says in verse 7, "Ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you."

He's talking about our prayers.

It's one of the ways that we can do that.

God could prune us in the focus of our prayers.

We said a little bit about this last week in our message here where Jesus says, "Ask anything in my name and it will be given to you."

But remember, that's not Jesus being a celestial Santa Claus.

It's not a spiritual blank check.

You just say it because you want it and you get it.

That's not the context of what Jesus is saying here.

Jesus is saying, "I want you to abide. I want you to remain. I want to prune you, shape you, trim you so you can grow.

I want to focus your prayers more intentionally around my kingdom advancing."

There ought to be a burden in my heart to do the will of God.

So much so that as I abide, my prayers begin to change.

And rather than only asking for things from God, I'm praying to be used by Him to great effect.

A little bit of pruning around our prayer life.

Some things God prunes because they need to grow in our lives.

But you know, I brought the big boys today for something else.

I brought these guys.

Because sometimes God not only needs to prune what needs to grow.

Listen to me.

Sometimes God needs to prune what needs to go.

And there are some things in our lives that the Lord needs to take and He needs to trim out of our lives.

Look at verse 8.

Jesus says, "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.

And so prove to be my disciples."

Can I say something to every one of us that sometime or another, I think we struggle.

I think we struggle.

I think we struggle.

I think we struggle.

I think we struggle.

I think we struggle.

I think we struggle.

I think we struggle.

I think we struggle.

I struggle with this.

Every Christian struggles with this.

It's an addiction to approval.

Here's what it looks like.

It means I'm overly focused on making other people happy.

I'm prioritizing their perception of me.

I'm overvaluing their opinion of my worth until the only way that I have any self-worth is if other people are constantly fueling and validating my worth.

And the moment they don't, I crater.

Our anxiety, so much of our fear, it's centered on the idea that I don't want to let anybody down.

I don't want to miss somebody else's expectations.

Dads, fathers in the room.

Man, I got to earn enough.

I got to be enough.

I got to do enough.

Then my wife will love me more.

My kids will respect me more.

You do this in the workplace.

You say, "Man, if I'll just please that boss and I'll just hustle harder and work longer and do whatever I got to do, maybe cut some corners if I have to.

But as long as I have the approval of those people, I'll be good."

We even do it in the spiritual context in church.

Man, I got to figure out a way to make all these people happy.

And so when I show up to serve, I'm really only doing it because I am just super guilty if I don't.

It is an addiction to approval.

And God says, "I'm coming to prune that out of your life."

Why?

Because Galatians 1:10 says this:

"For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God?

Am I trying to please man?

Well, if I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."

Jesus says, "My abiding bears fruit.

And that's the evidence that I'm His disciple."

At the end of the day, as you abide with Jesus, your only standard that you are called to meet is the standard of God's holiness.

And the good news of the gospel is that He has accomplished that standard for you when He covered you by His blood.

So you don't have to live under the addiction of approving everybody else.

You can just live as an abiding follower of Jesus, seeking to please the Lord.

That's your call.

Some of us were crippled by comparison.

It's not just approval, man.

I am constantly struggling to compare myself to everybody's social media for all the fascinating things it can do, the way we use it to advance the gospel.

It has some redemptive means, but friends, I'm telling you, parents, listen to me, guard your kids in this space.

You be guarded in this space.

Be vigilant.

There's so many things that you can do in this space.

There's so many things that you can do in this space.

There's so much opportunity out there today in our world to compare ourselves to some unknown, mythical, unattainable standard.

I got news for you.

The multi-million follower influencer that you just hang on their every word is never probably going to come worship with you in this church.

Probably.

Probably.

They probably don't know your name or your story.

But yet we are absolutely obsessed with what they have to say.

We are crippled by the fact that we have so much opportunity out there today in our world to compare ourselves to somebody else.

We are crippled by the comparison game.

And the enemy loves to trap us there and keep us there.

Because if I can be convinced that I've got to be perfect all the time, don't miss this.

Students, young adults, I got to be convinced that I've got to look like I have it all together all the time.

I can't ever fail.

I can't ever make a mistake.

I can't ever stumble.

I have to be absolutely perfect.

That's what the world expects of me.

And if I'm not perfect, it'll mean that all this falls apart.

And that's the good news.

You don't have to be perfect.

You're not and you never will be.

But a perfect God loves you beyond all that.

And you can live in Him today.

And for some of us as abiders, we just need the Lord to just cut those things loose and release us and prune us and correct that part of our lives, shape us and mold us and trim us so we will grow more.

The reason you trim is so that the light can be invited.

So there's room to grow.

You can literally breathe out from under the expectations of the world and the false expectations that Jesus never called us to.

And you can blossom and bloom with the fruit that God has for your life.

So we abide by desiring the correction of Jesus.

But here's the third thing.

We abide with a desire for the blessing of cooperation.

And as we close this message, let me say it to you simply this way.

In the beginning of this passage, beginning in verse 9, Jesus says this:

"As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.

Abide in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.

And just as I've kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love, these things I've spoken to you that your joy, my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full."

Jesus ends this encouragement to us about being an abider with obedience and joy.

What is the fruit of faithfulness?

What is the fruit of a faithful follower of Jesus?

Obedience and joy.

How do I know that I'm bearing good fruit in my life that pleases the Lord living on the vine?

Obedience and joy.

Nothing should give us greater joy as followers of Jesus than to obey what He says to do.

So to make this as practical for us as I can, what is the obedience for you this week?

As you desire to cooperate with God, as you desire to deal with Jesus's mission as an abider.

Well, church family, this is about your personal witness.

Sometime this week, you're going to have the chance to share the gospel with somebody.

Will you do it?

Or will you rely on an association with Jesus?

Somebody else will share.

I'll invite.

You know what?

I'll invite Him to church.

Pastor Jonathan will do a public invitation.

He'll share the gospel.

And you know what?

That's what I'll do.

I want you to invite people to church.

We are going to share the gospel.

We already have this morning.

We are going to invite you in just a moment to respond by faith.

But listen to me.

I am not the only evangelical.

I am not the only evangelist.

I am not the only evangelist.

I am not the only evangelist.

I am not the only evangelist in this church.

You with me?

Every one of us as a follower of Jesus is called to share the good news.

It's part of the fruit that you can bear this week.

It's your witness.

It's your service.

Listen, some of the good fruit that you can bear as you cooperate with God's mission is to serve in His church.

Right now, some of us, we love Jesus and we love Prestonwood and we're here and you're worshiping and I love you.

And I'm glad to see our rooms week in and week out are growing with more and more people coming and attending and making decisions and being baptized.

I praise God for all of it.

But listen, your only responsibility as a member of this church is not just to sit in this service.

Everybody look right at me.

There's more for you in this church.

There's greater works.

We talked about this last week that God's been calling us to do in the days ahead.

And friends, with the realities of our city and our community and the brokenness and the lostness and the things that people are going through, do you think it's any accident that God has strategically positioned our church here specifically at the North Campus for this time with massive growth in our city?

Do you think we're here by accident?

Somebody help me.

Do you?

I don't think we are.

I believe that God is positioning us and planting us on purpose for us to be able to receive people, to introduce them to Jesus.

And that means that we're going to need as a disciple-making church, more and more of us serving the Lord in all kinds of different ways.

And you know, it's this too.

Fruit can look like this.

As an abider, seeking to cooperate with the mission of God in our lives, here's what it might look like this week.

On your way out of this service in just a moment, we're going to pray.

And then we're going to dismiss after a time of invitation.

Some of you are here today and you realize, you know what, that vine life you're talking about, that's not my life.

Well, your life can change in just a moment.

And we leave from this room.

You're going to walk by our Operation Christmas Child table.

It's big, it's red, you cannot miss it.

And you know, I don't know about you, but I think a fruit-bearing abider wouldn't just take one box.

I think they might take about 12.

I think a fruit-bearing abider would say, you know what, every box that I pack for the glory of God, that little box full of those things, those acts of kindness, that box filled with the grace and the love of Jesus, it's going to touch the life of the kids somewhere around the world.

They're going to know the love of Jesus.

That's an act of service of kindness that you can do.

That's fruit, abider.

That's real fruit.

We've got a ministry right here in our city called Grace Bridge.

I was talking to Carter Morris over the weekend and Grace Bridge is one of our wonderful partners.

Talk about our world mission offering and Grace Bridge right now, because of the context of the moment that's going on around the country, there's an increased need for food.

And so Grace Bridge is stepping up.

I'm so thankful for that ministry as their position here in our community to serve and love people.

And maybe this week you need to come alongside and serve in that ministry.

Stop by, find out what you can do, go to their website.

I'm just giving you examples of ways that you can engage as an abiding Christian in Jesus.

Why?

Because Matthew 7:20 puts it this way.

Jesus says, "They will know you are my disciples by your church attendance."

No.

By your Bible memory?

No.

By all the money you give?

No.

They will know you as my disciple by your fruit.

So when I come, it's because of fruit.

When I give, it's because of fruit.

When I serve, it's because of fruit.

Because I want to and I want to abide with Him.

Church family, that's the vine life.

And as branches in Jesus today, this is what we're called to do and who we're called to be.

Would you bow your heads with me?

All across this room, we're going to take just a few more moments.

Here's what I'm going to ask.

Just out of an abundance of the sensitivity of this moment, unless it's an absolute emergency, do something for me.

Stay right here.

Remain with us if you can.

Christians, I want to invite you right now to begin praying over this moment.

We'll be done in just a second.

But before we go, we want to give people an opportunity to respond by faith.

So if you're here today, and as Christians are praying all over this room, when we stand and sing in just a moment, we're going to stay with you.

We're not going to be moving around.

We're not going to be leaving.

We're going to hang in right here.

And church, we're going to ask the Lord right now, if there's somebody in this room, somebody connecting with us online, somebody that needs to know for sure that they're living on the vine today.

That they know Jesus as Savior and Lord.

I can't think of a more important moment on your Sunday and mine than for us to stand here together and to receive someone who would come down an aisle of commitment and say, "Today, I want to get saved. I want to follow Jesus. I've never done that before. I know I need Him. Today's my day."

Somebody that would be here today and a family I talked with in the first service say, "You know what? We've prayed about it. We've thought about it. We want to plant our life in this church. We want to join, become members today."

Somebody come down an aisle of commitment today.

Be like that dad that came to church.

Be like that dad that came to church.

Be like that dad that came to the waters of baptism a moment ago, leading his whole family.

There's a dad, a mom, a family today that would say, "You know what? That's us. That needs to become our story."

Some of us are here today and we just need somebody who will stand with us for just a few minutes and pray.

Some of us, we are walking through it.

We are going through it.

You are experiencing struggle.

You are dealing with a number of things coming this week.

You don't really know for sure.

I want you to remember this morning that with Jesus, you can get through anything.

And apart from Him, you can do nothing.

Don't walk alone today.

Come follow Jesus.

Let Him come and change your life and make you a new person.

So Father, right now, in just a moment, we're going to stand.

And as we do, we're going to sing, staying right here in this room, asking You, Jesus, to move in whatever way You want to do, however You want to work.

God, this is Your time.

We love You.

We give it to You in Jesus' name.

We pray. Amen.

Would you stand with me?

If God's moving in your life, you come.

Amen.

Church family, can we celebrate these that have come forward this morning?

Let them know you love them.

You may be here in the room or connected with us online.

As we go in just a moment, you may be saying, "You know, I didn't come forward, but I got a lot of questions. I need somebody to talk to me."

Here's what we're gonna do.

As ministers, myself included, we're gonna stay right here at the end of this service and we're gonna stay right here at the front.

If you've got questions, you want to talk with somebody, you need somebody to pray with you.

Last hour, we had several come for prayer just to talk about what's going on in their lives.

We'll pray with you.

We'll stand here with you.

We'll stay for as long as we need to stay while God moves in your life.

If you need to go out these doors on the way into the atrium, into Guest Central, and you want to talk with somebody, somebody on our team about what it means to follow Jesus, if you're trusting Him for the first time, we're gonna give you a Bible.

We're gonna put it in your hand today to help you grow as His word abides in you.

I hope you won't leave the building today.

You're online, text the word JESUS.

No kidding.

Text the word JESUS to 55125.

You can do that here in the room.

Say, "I don't want to talk to anybody, but I got questions."

We'll talk to you.

Listen, we're not gonna let anything go.

We're gonna remove every barrier until you have an opportunity to come to Jesus.

Amen, church?

We're not gonna get in the way of the gospel getting into your life.

And so whatever we got, that's what we're gonna do.

That's who we are as a church.

We're gonna do it so you can follow Jesus.

Now, don't forget this Wednesday, family, don't miss this.

This Wednesday night, 6:30 in this room, I want to invite us to come for a night of prayer.

It's our Wednesday worship.

We do it once a month on a Wednesday.

I hope you'll come for first Wednesday.

Come pray with us.

We're gonna pray for the city.

We're gonna pray for a spirit of evangelism and for fire to come out of this place and for us to share the hope of the good news of Jesus around our city.

So come pray with us this Wednesday.

And then ladies, don't forget, our Digging In Women's Conference is November 15th.

It's gonna be an incredible Saturday right here in this room.

You need to be here.

Bring somebody with you as we learn to abide together, church.

Let's go out together today, passionate to bear His fruit for His glory.

Amen?

I love you, church.

Have a great Sunday.

You're dismissed.